Disabled Kids Walk With Jesus, Lefty Journos With Satan
| Tue Oct. 6, 2009 3:22 PM PDT
(UPDATE: Looks like McNaughton's site is down from excessive traffic. But check out this parody version. And, as a commenter below points out, there's also a haiku contest to be had regarding the painting.)
For as little as $130, fellow Americans, you can take home a canvas reproduction of this beauty of a painting depicting your country's noble roots. "One Nation Under God" is a new piece by artist Jon McNaughton of Utah, who says he got his inspiration from a vision he received during the 2008 elections.
Front and center, the painting features Jesus Christ, creator of the heavens and earth and bearer of the US Constitution. (A few online wags have already compared the likeness to that of Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn.) At his feet on his right you have the good guys—the farmer, the Christian minister, the US Marine, the handicapped child, the black college student, the schoolteacher who vaguely resembles Sarah Palin. You also have the young white man who represents the rising generation.
On the other side—Jesus' left side—is another set of characters, including a professor holding a copy of Darwin's Origin of the Species, a politician, a lawyer counting his money, a liberal news reporter, and a Supreme Court Justice weeping over Roe v. Wade. Oh, and who could forget Satan lurking in the shadows.
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No matter what your political or religious leanings, you have to admit the details and symbolism here are impressive and painstaking. My favorite part is that the website lets you explore the painting with your mouse and get detailed explanations of each element. If you're wondering why, for instance, the immigrant has his hand in the air, McNaughton explains: "I wanted him to have a look of shock when he realizes where the source of America's greatness comes from as he sees Christ holding the Constitution."
It is also worth noting that if you look very closely, there are minorities in the background! Yes, in the upper left, you have Sequoyah, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Black Union Soldier. American Soldier is also black, as is College Student, and then of course there is Immigrant, who appears to be of Asian descent. Enjoy.
Tip of my colonial-styled hat to Andrew Sullivan for this excellent find. And if you've just figured out what you're going to get your entire family for Christmas (not the holidays, you heard me—CHRISTMAS), well then, you're very welcome.
Comments
Why is the civilian who got
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Oct. 6, 2009 8:11 PM PDT.
Why is the civilian who got blown up in the first shuttle explosion in this picture? Didn't the last time Man tried to ascend into Heaven, without dying first, end up with an unfinished building and everyone speaking different languages?
quote: "Didn't the last time
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 2:50 PM PDT.
quote: "Didn't the last time Man tried to ascend into Heaven, without dying first, end up with an unfinished building and everyone speaking different languages?"
You talking about the International Space Station?
365 Haiku about this painting
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Oct. 6, 2009 9:12 PM PDT.
In case you were wondering how many mocking haiku can be written about a single painting, it's at least 365: http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/09/29/come-ye-poets-of-the-bloggernacle/
The thread is still open if anyone has more contributions.
Alegorical Kitch
Submitted by Craig Vale (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 5:32 AM PDT.
I wouldn't get too exercised by this "art" The left had Mapplethorpe the right has this guy.
Don't like it , don't look. Didn't mean to sound like ma !
The painting
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 6:36 AM PDT.
Another painting showing Jesus looking just like the midievel paintings depicting one artist's rendition of the Saviour. He looks anything, but Jewish, which was what he was.
As for God and the Constitution: The founding fathers definately wanted religion kept out of the government. Read about them.
The preamble says, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It does not say that the religious right shall force their brand of religion on the masses.
God was not put into the Pledge of Allegiance until the 1950's.
Actually, almost all
Submitted by matt (not verified) on Tue Oct. 13, 2009 9:07 PM PDT.
Actually, almost all artistic representations are copies, whether or not the artist knows it, of something called "Icon Not-Made-by-Hands". You can find a copy (made with hands) in almost every Orthodox Christian Church. See this site for more info: http://orthodoxwiki.org/Image_Not-made-by-hands
Jesus was black not white.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 6:55 AM PDT.
Jesus was black not white.
Dialog russian american
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This is 'merica!!!1one In
Submitted by Mike Bunger (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 7:02 AM PDT.
This is 'merica!!!1one
In the picture, I found a few black people (two of them historical characters) and no Latinos. Also, I spotted a middle easterner and an asian.
Often, it seems, when presented with a religious idealogue's vision of 'merica there sure seems to be a lot of white people.
A True American Idol
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 9:53 AM PDT.
True American Idol
This painting is nothing more than religious propaganda meant not to promote civic unity but rather, to arouse within some individuals resentment and hatred for educators, the press, jurists, or any other group deemed immoral. God forbid that we witness yet again that which overtook more sensible men, when before our young country became a great nation, women and men were burned and murdered as witches by religious fanatics, whom using the Bible, justified such diabolical acts. They too were sick with the fever of nationalism and sought to purge from their mist, all those they deemed evil. Long live the Constitution… that beautiful, secular, democratic document that allows artist to paint blasphemous religious propaganda and protects the rest of us from religious fanatics.
Don't forget to check out
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 1:03 PM PDT.
Don't forget to check out his "starlight cafe". Now doesn't that look familiar?
LMAO
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 4:41 PM PDT.
This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time!
Congrats to the painter for coming up with something so absurd!
...Not that it's nice to make fun of the religious right for believing the whole "Christian nation" misconception.
"you have to admit the
Submitted by Matt (not verified) on Thu Oct. 8, 2009 8:25 AM PDT.
"you have to admit the details and symbolism here are impressive and painstaking"
The details sure, but there is very little symbolism here. Instead nearly everything is literal - a lawyer counting his money, Jesus holding the constitution, etc.
Anything that is not literal and appears to be symbolic, I have to conclude is most likely a coinsidence.
If you read the interview
Submitted by todd on Sun Oct. 11, 2009 12:09 PM PDT.
If you read the interview page at his site he notes he is a big fan of Skousen's Five Thousand Year Leap.
The role of religion
Submitted by Zenerx (not verified) on Thu Oct. 22, 2009 6:26 PM PDT.
Last summer, when George W. Bush was still in office, one third of Americans thought that religion played too big a role in U.S. politics, compared to 25 percent who said it had too little influence. The numbers have switched in the new Obama era. Now, 26 percent think religion is too influential, compared to 31 percent who say faith doesn't carry enough weight in the political system scalp medprofit lance zoft breast gum surviving infidelity.
wrong document in the Lord Jesus' hand
Submitted by gospelmidi on Sun Dec. 27, 2009 12:24 PM PST.
Seems to me that if the Lord Jesus held a document in His hand, it would be the everlasting gospel - Jesus the Messiah died for our sins and arose from the dead. Or the scroll could be the Lamb's Book of Life, the list of those who were saved by the blood (death) of the Lamb. Or that document might be "the little book" - the New Testament.
But to put the U.S. Constitution on a level approaching the Holy Spirit's divine writ is a bit off.
I like it!!
Submitted by Tonya Jolley (not verified) on Wed Jan. 13, 2010 8:13 AM PST.
I like the painting. Jesus Christ is the founder of this world and the reason that our forefathers came to this land....for freedom of religion. Through the constitution we are given our freedoms. You do not have to believe that they were inspired by God, but I do. Through this great document, you have been given the right to have freedom of speech, which many of you have used to mock this painting. You have also been given the freedom to be offended at every little thing that people say or do. I am sick of hearing how offended everyone is about everything. Perhaps if people would spend less time looking for things to be offended about they might have more time being a productive and useful member of this great country. Perhaps if people quit looking for racial problems, there would be less racial problems. We create our own difficulties in this life, and you will generally find what you are looking for. I choose, with my freedoms through the constitution, to look for the good in things and in people. An artist decides to paint a portrait that expresses HIS feelings on a subject, and because it doesn't have enough of one race, or because it has a religious theme that does not support YOUR theories, you mock him and his superior talent. He has the same rights as you do to express himself freely. You do not have to like the painting, you do not have to purchase the painting. As for the writer of this article, you seem to have a problem with the media being depicted on the wrong side of Jesus....well, some take the truth to be hard.
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