In this 2007 file photo, Bert Baker, an amateur artist, had recently finished a 7-foot-tall sculpture of Christ at Red Bank Baptist Church. Credit: Gerry Melendez/The State Newspaper, Columbia, SC
Posted on 05/30/2018 4:56:29 PM PDT by marshmallow
In this 2007 file photo, Bert Baker, an amateur artist, had recently finished a 7-foot-tall sculpture of Christ at Red Bank Baptist Church. Credit: Gerry Melendez/The State Newspaper, Columbia, SC
Charleston, S.C., May 30, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Jesus is being evicted from a South Carolina church, and he must be out by the end of the month.
Red Bank Baptist Church in Lexington, about 120 miles northeast of Charleston, has voted to remove a statue of Christ and its accompanying reliefs after 11 years, because they are believed to be too “Catholic in nature”.
The white, hand-carved statue in question shows Christ with his outstretched and stepping out of the wall, while the reliefs depict images from Christ's life, death and resurrection.
Red Bank Baptist Church leaders sent a letter to the artist, Bert Baker Jr., earlier this month, informing him that the congregation had voted to remove the statue because it was being perceived as a Catholic icon and was causing confusion among churchgoers.
“We understand that this is not a Catholic icon, however, people perceive it in these terms. As a result, it is bringing into question the theology and core values of Red Bank Baptist Church," church leaders Jeff Wright and Mike Dennis said in the letter.
Baker, a former member of the church’s congregation himself, was commissioned to make the statue for Red Bank in 2007.
In a response letter, Baker told the church leaders that he wanted the Christ statue to appear to be stepping out in a symbol of the Lord’s commission, and that the other images in the reliefs were based on basic facts about Christ's life which can be found in the Bible.
“Under each arm the reliefs depict scriptural and historical events that we as Christians........
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
After 11 years my theory is that they are too embarrassed to admit it is kind of grotesque and crude looking so they are using this Catholic excuse. The funniest and saddest thing is that it probably winds up being inflicted on some Catholic church, right?
Freegards
Nonsense.
Lexington is NW of Charleston.
150 mi NE of Charleston is around Bald Head Island NC.
And in those passages, usually the cherubum and seraphim are the primary ones referenced, no one is bowing before them or praying to them or relying upon them for salvation as seen in Roman Catholicism and their idols of Mary.
Even the bronze serpent was destroyed because the people began to worship the thing (2 Kings 18:4).
Is coinage banned? (I'm being silly.)
But --- hmm, "graven" --- is there a difference whether a statue is literally carved in stone or wood, shaped and molded from clay or wax or some other soft modeling material, bronze-cast, porcelain-cast, plaster-cast? What if it's welded?
For that matter, what if it's made of pixels?
Interestingly, I don't know of any Christian group that objects to statuary in cemeteries.
But I could be wrong. What do I know?
The important thing is that "things" are not God or "gods" to us, and that in all things, may God be glorified. .
And how many baptists did that before the offending statue? What a fraud.
“This is why Scripture says do NOT make any graven image.”
Like that of ol’ Geo. Washington on the dollar?
I have no idea.
However, I do know Roman Catholics do exactly the things I posted...and more.
Serious question -— perhaps I misunderstood you -— you don’t pray to Jesus?
They could have his head resting on a platter...
You’re a Mormon?
The church had the statue for 11 years. It wasn’t the statue’s presence. It was that it looked to Catholic.
It's NOT hatred! It's love! Read your Bible, it's in there. Don't make graven images of God. It's Christianity 101. Stop worshiping Mary. Stop worshiping the Apostles and other men. Worship only God. This is basic to God's word and Catholics insist they worship God as they pray "Hail Mary's 20 times.
It seem so basic and simple to us, but RCC's don't seem to get it. Pagans worship idols. Christians worship only God. If you have a statue on the dash of your car or in your front yard, or in your back yard garden, or if you have ever stopped on the side of the road in Chile, or if you go to church and there is artwork of all stripes on the walls, then you are worshiping idols. If you go against God's direct commandment, you DO NOT love God. Jesus said, "If you love Me, DO my commandments. He also said, "My sheep hear My voice". God's Word is His voice.
There is some sort of deafness I have seen on RCC's my whole life where they refuse to see or hear what God has told them. We DO NOT hate you, but when we quote clearly what God's Word says, you say we are attacking you or the church. The people in Waco were called a cult because they followed a man. Could you not admit that the same could be said of the RCC and the pope? Your teachings are far from the teaching of the Bible and Jesus, yet you believe you are doing the right thing because someone tells you it's right. That is religion, not a relationship with God.
There are at least 50 verses that can be found in 20 minutes that contradict everyday practices in the RCC. God even mentions what will happen to you in Revelation and it ain't pretty. Many if not most of your practices come from pagans in Rome at the time, ergo, "The Roman Catholic Church". The churches started by the Apostles of Jesus were in Jewish Synagogues until Constantine started the RCC in Rome. Pagans had carved idols. That is where statues in church came from. A pagan needed something to bow down to as they were used to doing in pagan temples. Dump the statues of unknown figures and quit worshiping them.
Because we respond to beautiful things, solemn things, meaningful things, I suppose. We are incarnate beings.
I personally don't care much for Hummel figurines or religious "kitsch" in general. But to some people, they are meaningful, and I respect that. Really, I do. I don't mock them.
I pray to Jesus all the time...don’t understand why you would suggest Christians don’t do this. Have
NEVER heard that one.
Plus one
You don’t have to be personal friar
Baptists don’t do graven imagery well
Nothing new there
Well, here you go:
a carved idol or representation of a god used as an object of worship.
We, as Baptists(me) or Catholics (not me) do not worship the carvings, engravings or statuary.
They are symbols or reminders of our faith and that is all.
The same with statuary , carvings , paintings, etc.
They are reminders of passages of the bible.
Pfft!!!! LOL!!!
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