I know! Why is Jesus wearing the coat of arms of Gondor?

Augh!!!!! Last April, my wife and I went with my daughter to D.C. for her class trip. When I was there, I saw all kinds of references about God, but not one reference to Jesus Christ. In fact, I also saw many pagan stutues around all the major visiting sights. During our tour of the Rotunda, I saw Lady Liberty with an eagle on her right and a serpent wrapped around a tree on her left. I had to ask, what does the serpent wrapped around the tree represent? The tour guide replied, wisdom. My jaw dropped to the floor and I began to pray to myself the Our Father! Granted, our Constitution is based of many Christian values, but it doesn’t mean all the signers of the Constitution were christians. Most were in fact Masons who used the Christian ethic as a moral code for our government. Those who know anything about religous Masonic beliefs know what I’m talking about. In conclusion, we are a nation of christians living in a Masonic nation.

MM

Oh, that’s nothing. I’ve actually been to lcms Services on fourth of July weekends where readings from the “fathers” replaced some of the readings from the Holy Scriptures. By “fathers” I don’t mean “Church Fathers.” I mean founding fathers. And patriotic music and songs are sung, too. At one of these I attended, while I pasted a smile on my face and held my fire, it was my six year old son who turned to me and said: “Daddy, this isn’t funny.” Out of the mouths of babes…

Yet another good reason to not jettison tradition….or rather, exchange one tradition for another.

I love the fact that Jesus wears the “Tree of Gondor” on his chest.

Maybe I missed something, but I don’t see Christ in any of the founding documents of the USA. The reference to a “god” in the Declaration of Independence so generic in nature, that a Jew, Muslim, or Mormon could agree with that definition.

It’s a form of idolatry that the painter places the US Constitution on the same level as Holy Scripture. In addition, the painter quotes both Franklin and Jefferson both whom rejected Christ as part of the Triune God.

What is most comical about the picture is that Jesus is presented as Divine and none of the people standing there believed that was Divine, in that they were Deists!

He has Thomas “Payne” [sic] up there? What a weird conglomeration of Deists and Unitarians. And why does the professor have to be stuck next to Mr. Hollywood and Mrs. Liberal Media?
Bethany Kilcrease

I went to the page. It gets even better. John Adams is standing up front. When I was in Boston this summer I visited his tomb in the basement of a Unitarian Church that he gave the land to build (he was a Unitarian, and hence also did not believe in Jesus as the author of his salvation)! Benjamin Franklin presence is also amusing. While in Paris he his fornication with the women of the upper classes was legendary (one of the reasons Adams detested working with him, that and he was lazy).

When I first looked at the portion of the painting posted on your blog site, I thought the man at the bottom right was a Lutheran pastor in a black Geneva gown covering his face in a moment of extreme incredulity. I clicked through to see the story behind the painting and became even more amazed as I realized the absurdity that actually lay behind this painting. This guy doesn’t get it at all. Has he never read Jefferson? Has he never read the other founding fathers? Has he never read the Scripture, for that matter…and read for content, rather than just reading to get through it in a year?

“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie” is the first thing that came to my mind.

Thank you for sharing this post. “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” This painting is a good reminder for us to make sure we are preaching clear law and clear gospel to both the lost and to those who have heard it all their lives. Lord have mercy on us all.

Have you seen the “American Patriot’s Bible” that’s now available at Christian bookstores? My first thought when I saw it was “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I rank this painting on the same (awful) level.

The individual is Mormon who created this painting. This partially explains his bad theology.

LOL I’m crying. This is hilarious. I must have missed the requirement about worshiping Satan when you go from teaching high school to being a professor. Is there a class you have to take?

Kudos to the artist for the Asian man cowering on the left. I think that all Asians must be afraid of this painting.

Steve, you’re correct. Jesus holds the constitution because according to Mormon theology the constitution is divinely inspired like the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

WOW…Wow. This “art” is misguided in so many ways. It represents just as much of a revisionist view of American history as any liberal has ever come up with. It does the cause of Christ absolutely no good to confuse it with such blind patriotism. And I thought Thomas Kinkade paintings were bad…

When was the US constitution canonized? Jesus is pointing people to the constitution? Some of the sentiments the artist emphasizes I can appreciate (pro-life, freedom, Lordship of Christ) but this is truly a confusing conglomeration and puts Jesus to U.S. national service rather than calling people to repent and turn to the savior. This would seem to line up more with the idea of the conquering messiah establishing his kingdom, rather than Jesus suffering and dying for the forgiveness of sin.

Thanks, Steve, for pointing out that the artist is of the Mormon persuasion. That does explain quite a bit. It also explains why the style looks so familiar. I think I’ve seen lots of this guy’s work on the LDS website. Even for a Mormon, though, this is pretty crazy stuff. I mean, I know they are kind of experts in revisionist history, but c’mon…Thomas Paine as an example of a Christian founding father? That’s pretty far off base.

I find it odd that Jesus is pointing to the U.S. Constitution, as if to imply divine inspiration or approval.

Is this going to be released as a Dan Brown novel?

Wow – note the college student holding a copy of The 5,000 Year Leap. Going along with Steve Newell’s point – The 5,000 Year Leap is a book that’s been brought out of the backwoods of Mormon thought to a mainstream audience.

(This Mormon strain of patriotism is… well… it’s really bizarre.)

I cant’ help thinking that the artist thinks he’s being quite clever, and is imitating the style of brilliant artists like Cranach, who did the remarkable altarpiece painting shown here on Cyberspace.com. The big difference between McNaughton and Cranach is this: you can’t simply put a bunch of famous people and some symbolism into a painting, and twist theology and history to mold them to your “artistic vision.” Well, you CAN, but you probably shouldn’t. The Cranach painting points toward the Gospel and truth, while the McNaughton painting points toward a warped blending of patriotism and religious fervor.

Yes, once you understand that the artist is a Mormon it all makes more sense. It’s still offensive, but you understand better why everything is so wrong. I’m just surprised that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young didn’t make it into the painting (maybe the artist knew that would turn off Christian conservatives?).

@Rev. Ray Salemink

I’m not a scholar on these points, but I did read something recently (another good reference) about The 5,000 Year Leap and how it reflects a Mormon view of Scripture, including their Doctrine and Covenants. In “DoC 101″

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/101/80-101#80

And for this purpose have I [the Lord] established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.

The painting looks like a pretty good interpretation of that bit of Mormon doctrine to me.

Maybe I just need glasses. At first glance, I thought I saw down in the bottom right corner the emperor from Star Wars lurking behind Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The X-Files. Then after reading about it, the painting was still just as weird as I’d first imagined.

Yeah, I thought “Mormon” right away. There is something uniquely Mormon that comes through in all their depictions of Christ. I can’t describe what it is, but I find it unnerving.

It reminds me of some of the over the top stuff you hear from Glenn Beck, a Mormon, these days. He says the constitution is “inspired.”

On second thought, it is interesting to consider the painting in view of the strong Masonic background of the founding fathers. It seems to fit, although it could be even more syncretistic.

Wow! Lord have mercy!

Wow. Using the Mormon painting’s error to dump on the Christianity of the founding fathers? After looking at many of the personal writings and recorded statements of the majority (with a few exceptions) of the founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence and it’s offspring the US Constitution, I find their participation in Masonry to be more social status/business related, albeit sin, rather than hardcore belief. Many of their attendance at Masonic meetings was low and eventually seems to be abandoned in later life. Same with some later presidents. Sort of wandering like a prodigal. Much like some church members since then and today engaging in drunkeness, drug abuse, fornication, adultery, pornography, using congregational membership primarily for business advancement, participating in pogroms and genocide, etc. They aren’t necessarily no longer Christians as there is confession and forgiveness of sins. There is the visible and invisible church and God knows who is who.

Well, what can I say? The ironies are all over the place, but the most ironic of all is the painting of Satan on the far right next to the Hollywood guy. According to the Christian Bible, Satan is the greatest deceiver of all time. He comes as “an angel of light”. Deception is powerful only as it is – correct – deceptive. This evil looking devil guy is straight out of a Hollywood B movie.

Sadly, the real victims are the poor souls who believe that the Creator of the Universe loves the idols of symbolic American (or any other nation’s) patriotism.

I have no problem with Christ upholding the Constitution. I like the painting.
I definitely don’t uphold what has been done to The Constitution over the last 200 years, though.