The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum My Avatar

This thread addresses William's objection to my Avatar to the point of protesting that it violates the board's rules and calling it "sin". Please referrence the "Infestation of Contemporary Worship" thread. When I get off topic, I'm told to start a new thread. When I reminded William of this, he kept on pursuing his off topic remarks. Since it's only prudent that the governing directives apply to William as they do to me I'm sure this was merely an oversight and the rules truly are administered in a wholesale manner. In the interest of adhering to the rules of this distinguished forum, I will publish my response in a new thread:

William,

I'm sorry you don't like my avatar, but calling it sin is quite a stretch and I don't quite understand how it violates the board rules but, thus far, has escaped the notice of the Highway moderators. Perhaps you're misapplying the 2nd Commandment that states:

"Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image."

Considering that at God's behest, several graven images were made including gold plad cheribum and a bronze serpent and that these items were even used in aid of worship. No, they didn't become objects of worship, unless you count the serpent that was later worshipped then destroyed. Somehow the Israelites fully understood what God meant.

The key phrase is "unto thyself" which is to create graven objects and worship them as gods. This statue of the Blessed Virgin with the crucified Christ is a depiction of the prophesy concerning Mary: "And a sword shall pierce through your soul too." (Lk 2:35) The statue is certainly not an object of worship, and it's beyond silly to call it "sin."

There is some room for divergence within threads, but your comment to William that he should start another thread if he wished to pursue the issue further was in line.


Myself, I hadn't paid much attention to it except to note that it was a religious statue. I now see that it is in fact a picture of a pietà statue, with Mary and the dead body of Christ.


The images in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple) were in fact mostly decorative symbolism, representing the heavenly court. They did not represent God, nor were they presented as depictions of any being that should be worshipped or prayed to, nor were they objects of religious devotion. (Quite unlike the statues of saints one finds in so many Catholic churches, in front of which there are frequently side altars, kneeling benches, and places to burn votive candles.)


The traditional Reformed understanding of the Second Commandment is that God prohibits any depiction of Himself in any of the three Persons of the Trinity.

Now, whether we should ask you to change your user image, I am not sure. I do not recall this issue coming up before.

Mr Moderator <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

That is not the body of Christ it is perhaps <span style="background-color:#FFFF00">the body of Mel Gibson</span>

And your opininion that it is a traditional reformed understanding not to make graven images is only half right. The other half is it violate's the second commandment. Our fathers were sure and died over issues like this Kyle.





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William,

Of course it's not actually the body of Christ, but that is the intended depiction. There is no need to chide me about what our Reformed fathers believed. I believe as they do, William. But I had two other concerns: one was to be courteous to our guest, and the other was not to take action without having any precedent that I'm aware of as far as user images go.

You will notice now that the user image has been removed.

Pilgrim,

Thank you for working with me on a solution to the avatar. For everyone to know, the man in the picture is a depiction of St. Francis doing what he is most famous for, loving God's creatures. I will accompany this avatar with his famous prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Amen.