Art4God

This is the title and description of the piece from the artist's website.

BROKEN DOLLS

The free will to love and protect
is the same free will that is obsessed with abuse.

God gives this free will as a divine opportunity
to act God-like as we were commanded to do.

But within the very definition of free will is the ability for the gut wrenching self-centered nature to defile and choke the still small voice of kindness.

Innocence betrayed.
Hope destroyed.
Hearts crushed and numbed ever wondering, "Where is God?
Why has this happened and why won't God stop it?"

The anguish that God experiences while His children are abused is the cumulative experience of all the abused children since the beginning of time compressed into one eternal moment.

This painting is dedicated to the millions of men and women who have suffered.

I remember the "Jesus on a grilled cheese sandwich" story from a few years back. It got a lot of press and the sandwich sold to someone in Las Vegas for around $10,000. But less known is that the woman who grilled the sandwich offered the "holy skillet" it was grilled in on E-bay and got over $6,000 for it. I guess that just proves the statement attributed to P T Barnum that there is a sucker born every minute.

So much for the historical (biblical?) correctness! Jesus seems to have lost his water walking sandals.

Bad art, its not just for atheists anymore!

The term pedophile should no longer be allowed on this site as it is very hurtful to a class of people with an illness who can't help themselves. Most don't even understand that they are, in deed, sick and injuring both them selves and others.

The proper term that should be employed is "minor-attracted". This is much less hate filled and will help remove the social stigma from the most unfortunate individuals.

Surely we here at WU would not want to be slathered with the UnPC brush whilst suggesting creatively alternative ways to help these unfortunates along their paths of enlightenment.

Jesus was a JEW!! So why the Goyisha punim in all this guys "art"? :lol:

You don't mean you want Jesus to look like a Muslim do you?

No not a muslim. Maybe Mel Brooks or Jackie Mason!
BTW expat i thought of you while eating a gyro and spanikopitas at our local greek festival! :cheese:

The only place I've found good gyro's is in the US! The laws here have prohibited the makings of the classic style. So, for the past 30 years I've had to get mine when I get back to the F state.

Now, spanikopita and tyropitpa can be had in the Expat household lovingly made by my live in maid, housekeeper, and bed warmer.

OK, I have a problem here. I am not getting any of what is being claimed here against the song or the artist from the lyrics. The song is just a simple praise and worship number like most of the praise and worship songs sung in Christian churches. The lyrics are quoted in their entirety below.

Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Jesus, I will never let you go
Youve taken me from the miry clay
You've set my feet upon the Rock, and now I know

I love you, I need you,
Though my world may fall, Ill never let you go
My Saviour, my closest friend,
I will worship you until the very end

The roots of this song come from Psalm #40.

1-I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

2-He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

The next thing that needs to be understood is the meaning of the three different types of love defined by the words "AGAPE", "PHILEO", and "EROS" in the Greek language as used in biblical times.

Here is a LINK to a webpage with more complete explanations than I can give in this space.

But in brief...

AGAPE LOVE is the unconditional love that is usually attributed to Jesus when he says that he loves us sinners in spite of our sinful nature. This type of love has no sexual or familial meanings. It is this type of love that is described in the song.

PHILIO LOVE is the type of love called brotherly love. The city of Philadelphia (the city of brotherly love) has it's name derived from this type of love. And again, there is no sexual content to this type of love.

And finally...

EROS LOVE is the love that exists between a man and a woman. The sexual content of this type of love is obvious and necessary to a sound marriage relationship. But more than that; so are the other two types as well.

There is one other type of love I am only going to mention to make the reference complete and it is...

STORGE is the fourth type and I have never seen it used in the bible. Below is a definition of it from THIS WEB SITE

Another kind of love needed in a marriage is Storge. Storge is a physical show of affection that results from a pure motive. It may be a hug, a kiss, or another expression of genuine affection. Because males are different than females, the wife usually needs this kind of love more from her husband. It is important for the husband to set aside his need of companionship and meet his wife's main need, which is affection.

With that said I would like to remind you that hate speech is hate speech no matter who it is directed against.

And finally, a direct quote of the words of Jesus from the book of Matthew chapter 18 verse 6 in the English Standard Version ((c)2001)

English Standard Version (©2001)
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Doesn't sound like something a pedophile would say to me.

There goes that "P" word again!!! I've spoken to on this subject and how derogatory it is. Please, please use the more proper term "minor-attracted".

Thank you,
The PC Po-po

@Frank h

Q - How do you know if you are a dyslexic agnostic insomniac?

A - You lay awake all night wondering if there really is a doG.

Now to the important part. Yes, context, both historical and biblical, is important. This is where most who misinterpret the bible go wrong. The painting, and the biblical metaphors it represents, are based on the biblical principle that we are all "brides of Christ" whose church is represented as the groom.

You see, many of the lessons in the bible are based on metaphorical stories. It is very difficult to understand the bible without studying the context in which it is written. First of all much of what is said above is taken from a bible translation from the original Hebrew, Aramaic (old testament) and Greek (new testament) into some form of English.

But there are nuances in the meaning of the original Greek text in the new testament that are hard to translate directly into English. That is one of the reasons that there are so many different translations of the bible. They are an effort to clarify the true meanings of the original old and new testaments. When I studied comparative theology briefly I found that it was essential to have an exhaustive concordance with Hebrew and Greek dictionary included on hand.

The painting in question is a representation of two metaphorical principles of the bible. The first is the more obvious and is the idea that we are to become "brides of Christ" as represented by his church. There is more to the bride metaphor and you could easily Google search it for your enlightenment. The second is the protection Jesus provides for the children.

If all this is studied in depth and in context there is nothing strange about it at all. It is all about AGAPE love as described in my previous comment. In this instance there is no PHILIO or EROS love involved.

Then you've got the bit about a batch of drunken old farts sitting around a room arguing about which texts should be included in the Bible and which shouldn't.

It's a nice read but but it needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

I do take it with a grain of salt. There are 66 books in the bible (more in the Catholic bible) by 40 authors. But there are more than that in the body of works known as either the apocrypha or the pseudepigrapha. And the decision as to which to include in the bible was made by a bunch of men. And men are not infallible.

The new testament was written mostly by men who were contemporaries of Jesus so I don't have much problem with them.

But when you get to the old testament the only books traditionally believed to have been given to man (Moses) by God directly are the first five books. They are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and are collectively known as the Torah, the Pentateuch, The books of Moses, or the books of the law.

One book I do have a problem with is the book of Ezekiel. It reads more like an alien close encounter. In fact a NASA engineer wrote a book about it titled "The Spaceships of Ezekiel". In the book he described an atmospheric lander of NASA design that looks pretty much like the description of the fiery chariot in Ezekiel.

It is also a lot more civil discussion than the last time we got into it over religion on this site. For that I thank you.

And while you are right about the perception of the work by the general public it was really aimed more at practicing Christians who would have no trouble understanding it. I doubt that anyone else would be tempted to buy a copy. Especially when you look at the price tag.

But then perception is reality to the perceiver. It is only through the gaining of new knowledge that false perceptions can be overcome.

Granted, we tend to "europeanize" the image of Christ in the Western world. And the image in the painting in question, and most of his other pieces as well, carries this idea a little over the top, but I still say that a real Christian who is well versed in the bible would have no problem with it.

But still, looking at the picture from your point of view, I can also see what you are saying. I guess it would creep out some people. And I would challenge anyone to find a picture in modern western art that depicts Jesus as he would have really looked in his own day.

Let me make a statement and then explain it below...

I have said in the past that we all, every individual one of us, worship a different God.

The reason I say that is that no matter who you worship whether it be Allah, Buddha, Christ or any of the myriad of other Gods; we all have a slightly different take on what we believe about him.

That is the reason bible study is so important to a Christian. It lets us learn who He really is instead of who we think He is.


BTW - You were only one number away from really creeping me out with the captcha text.

One of my favorite episodes of the John Belushi samurai character was the Samurai Tailor. Unfortunately I cannot find a video of it on the web. If anyone knows where nit can be seen please provide a link.

When I saw that this shop is in Gatlinburg, about 40 miles from Knoxville, I fell out of my chair laughing. Gatlinburg is the tacky tourist trap capital of the nation. :exclaim: