Further Light and Knowledge

Even though I grew up Mormon I never questioned this commandment - "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."

Mormons - and Christians in general - have a *lot* of likenesses made. Statues, paintings, etc. The commandment doesn't appear to talk about *just* graven images - it clearly says "graven image *OR* any likeness".

Just a few months ago we went with some friends to the Visitor Center at the SLC temple with the massive likeness of Christ and downstairs there were tons of paintings, statues.

My MIL collects Mormon-themed statues.

Why do Christians and Mormons tend to ignore this commandment?

I think it applies only to "other" gods? Maybe?

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He never said it would be worth it; He only said it would be easy.

Probably their biggest response is that they don't *worship* that statue or those paintings. Yes, they worship a man that looks an awful lot like their image that is in giant statue form. But as far as I know, people don't congregate by the *statue* to worship the actual piece of stone, so therefore it isn't the same thing.

Aside from crosses in mainstream Christianity, I don't see many Christians having much other kitschy stuff up as much as Mormons do.

Go into a typical Mormon home and you'll see the Proclamation, a picture of the First Presidency, probably at least one miniature Christus statue or some other mormony statue. (Mother praying/ father playing with kids) And you'll see a temple picture somewhere in their house. Hell, I still have one of those in our house that is a painting that was a wedding gift. I think TBM dh would go ballistic if I took it down though. It's the last remaining mormon thing up in the house and he seems rather attached to it.

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What other people think about me is none of my business.

I dunno. I've seen tons of kitschy stuff in Catholic homes. And evangelicals too - some of that stuff is every bit as kitschy - maybe even more so - as mormons.

In support of my theory, I present the following evidence:

Evangelicals gave us Thomas Kinkead.

I rest my case.

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The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less. ~ Arthur Miller

Yeah, I'm curious about why all Christians have no issue with this. The Catholics not only have images, they also unashamedly worship little statues. I was going to post on Facebook about it but wimped out. I don't need that on my wall.

I don't buy the 'but we don't worship it' line because the commandment clearly says "no likenesses of anything'. Not 'don't worship them', but *don't have them*. The graven images refers to statues you worship, but the other just refers to any statues.

Or am I missing something that's lost in translation due to historical context?

Yes, I agree. There shouldn't be a giant Christus in Salt Lake (that thing is a little too big for that room don't you think?), no sunstones, moonstones, moroni's or any of that. The steeples are about the only thing that are ok.

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He never said it would be worth it; He only said it would be easy.

the big jesus statue in slc is just ego bullshit

btw, if you go to google images, and type in "the big jesus statue in slc is just ego bullshit" you will see the statue we are talking about, it is on the first row of images 6th from the left

https://www.google.ca/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=895&q=the+big+jesus+statue+in+slc+is+just+ego+bullshit&oq=the+big+jesus+statue+in+slc+is+just+ego+bullshit&gs_l=img.12...2317.2317.0.3470.1.1.0.0.0.0.47.47.1.1.0...0.0...1ac.7M5UuW0h3lY

this image search clearly proves my point [snark]

I agree. You won't see kitschy stuff in my family's home, but my family is just mormon, not TBMormon. The same difference applies to catholics vs. TBCatholics, and evangelicals vs. TBEvangelicals.

I went on my mission to France, and one time we drove through Lourdes, where Bernadette supposedly saw the Virgin Mary. Oh my, talk about kitsch! They've built a whole industry around that visitation, selling everything from cheap plastic statues of Mary to bottles shaped like Mary for you to gather healing water from the spring to take home with you. Not to mention lodging and feeding all the tourists.

In the city where I live there are plenty of Christian bookstores that are virtually indistinguishable from Deseret Book (apart from the complete absence of LDS books, obviously). A scary thought!

There's a whole subfield of material culture in religion. The kitschiness really isn't an issue for me (kitsch is in the eye of the beholder), but rather the kinds of objects that people make/purchase/own/display and the meaning of those objects.

Judaism is far more strict about representational art than Christianity is, but go into a judaica store and you'll see that Judaism has all kinds of objects—from ritual objects necessary to practice judaism to jewish identity markers, toys, decorations, wall art, etc.

Islam is easily the strictest of the three, but islam also has objects. Often a family's qur'an is a very expensive beautiful object, a point of pride for the family. Like judaism, there's also all kinds of faithful household decoration and art, but it's text-based instead of represetnational. All three have aural objects (e.g., CDs or music, ritual, chanting, etc.), but Islam I think is the most likely to have recordings because recitation is so central to the whole notion of Islam (true in Judaism as well, but more intense in Islam).

All of this to say that all religions have a material culture that goes with them, and the meanings of those objects are tied up in the current, communal practice. Because it's simply a part of religious practice across cultures, it just doesn't bother me personally. It's just culture.

per the commandment itself, it has to do with how they commandments are divided up in the text. Christians group the graven image and worship commandments together, so that the commandment is against worshipping objects. Jews view them as two separate commandments. Meh. Who cares? It's just stupid religion.

Don't invent a god to replace the one we have clearly invented

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All views expressed by jahedgpeth are the sole property of jahedgpeth inc. and subject to change by edit without notice.