As I was driving to and from the wedding in MI last weekend, I passed this ginormous church with an even more ginormous statue out front:
I was not a particular fan of this statue. I'm still trying to figure out why - maybe it's my latent frustration and/or weakness in not being able to understand the motive or purpose for this, or judging the stewardship of their resources as poor or unwise. And maybe I need to get over that. Or maybe it's just because it reminded me of this statue:
Somehow, imagining Christ as a buried giant in mid scream is a bit disconcerting... and yet I believe there are more similarities here than we realize, if we just think of Christ at a different point in his life... but obviously the former statue is much more appealing to the masses, since after all, Christianity and religion is meant to comfort and not confront...
by love.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
weird associations.
Posted by Kristi at 8:23 AM
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3 comments:
Kristi,
I remember almost wrecking my car when I first saw that monstrosity (sorry offended parties, I calls it as I sees it). It's not the ginormity per se that is monstrous, it's what is conveyed about Jesus and its setting. Compare the statue of Christ the Redeemer that stands atop Corcovado Mountain in Rio. The ginormity of that statue harmonizes with its setting. Its place in the visual field of the ordinary city dweller does not assault you. You have to go out of your way and trek up the mountain to get the imposing figure it commands when you are near it. Solid Rock's Big J, on the other hand, is deliberately positioned nearby to overwhelm the visual field of passersby. To me, there's something very un-Jesus-like about that.
Have you seen the big corrugated metal crosses on I-75 in Tennessee (one is at exit 141 in Caryville, the other is in Loudon County)? The guy who built them said: "You know the Bible tells us to stir up their spirit. Well there's no other way you can do it except something big, you know."
Cue Peter Gabriel...
Good thoughts, Joel... and now I realize I need to clarify something in my original post. I was being sarcastic about the fact that Christianity is meant to comfort and not confront... IOW, Christ SHOULD confront us... but confront us internally, in our inner beings. (The statue also *seems* to be more of a comforting statue, expressing rest or perhaps victory... but for someone who does not know the risen Christ, this seems a bit meaningless... victory in what?? Christ bloody and in agony is less appealing or comforting...)
The statue is also an external confrontation that does, if you ask me, lack taste/tact/etc. It is a statue, not a sculpture, and not particularly artful. As an external confrontation that seems to be geared toward "shock value", it annoys me, and I imagine would annoy non Christians as well... Perhaps someone somewhere would be "stirred up" internally... but I imagine other things, like the Scriptures or agape love, would do a much better job in that confrontation.
I get what you're saying. It confronts your eyeballs, not your heart. I think there's something to that.
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