The Jesus painting in the courthouse lobby

When I first heard that the ACLU wanted to take down a picture of Jesus from a courthouse lobby in Louisiana, this Jesus picture flashed in mind and I thought, "Maybe it's a good thing if it's removed." But then I saw this story with a shot of the Jesus painting and I realized that it was an icon of Christ. It does have religious significance for some but for others it's actually art from the Middle Ages and so has both historic and artistic significance.

Can't we have art on the walls of our courts? Why must we remove all vestiges of our Western heritage from our shared public space? Are those who are offended by art the ones who rule what we do in our society? How we decorate our government buildings? The word "Philistine" comes to mind.

I thought that the quote from the mayor about the ACLU was pretty insightful:

The American Civil Liberties Union sued Judge Jim Lamz of Slidell, La., earlier this month for refusing to take down a portrait of Jesus Christ above the words "To know peace, obey these laws" displayed in a courthouse lobby. The judge says he believes the picture is legal, and the mayor of the city — the mayor and the town are also named in the lawsuit — called the ACLU "America's Taliban."

And it looks like they might be using an art defense:

"The clear secular purpose for this thing was to decorate the walls," Johnson said. "This is not some sort of ulterior motive to advance Christianity."

BTW, if you think that I'm posting this because I support paintings/icons of Jesus on courthouse walls, you couldn't be further from the truth and demonstrate that you don't get the "Reformed" part of the title of our blog (for help understanding, go here).

Tags: ACLU, icon

Happy Birthday, John Calvin!

John Calvin would have been 498 today!

Check out Dr. Jim West's open letter to John Calvin (though I so disagree with him that Calvin would have been thrilled with Barth).

Updated: Sorry it took so long to fix the link.

Blogger's “I Saw Fred Thompson at a Church of Christ" Challenge

Are you guys getting the feeling that this is going to be a long and tedious primary season? Here we go again. Is he or isn't he? That's the big question this year:

Thompson does list his religious affiliation as “Church of Christ (Stone-Campbell)” but I haven’t been able to find any information regarding Thompson’s actual membership in a local congregation.

In our tradition, that’s called “being out of fellowship” or a “lapsed member”.

He's challenging his readers to prove that Thompson actually attends church:

* Fred Thompson teaching a Bible class
* Fred Thompson presiding at the Lord’s Table
* Fred Thompson leading singing (if it was 728b and you can prove it, I’ll give you $100)
* Fred Thompson driving the JOY bus
* Mr. & Mrs. Fred Thompson (above) serving as greeters
* Mr. & Mrs. Fred Thompson preparing a nice chicken casserole for a Sunday pot-luck

(via)

So, are we doing this for the other candidates as well? Are we going to verify that Giuliani has been attending Mass? (Can he still take Mass communion?) Does Romney attend church regularly? How about McCain? Maybe they should ask the candidates the next time they debate since I'll need to know before I cast my ballot in January (or June, if they don't have the votes to change it).

WWCS (what would Calvin say) about this situation?

Here it is necessary to state in a brief manner the nature of the office of magistracy, as described in the word of God, and wherein it consists. If the Scripture did not teach that this office extends to both tables of the law, we might learn it from heathen writers; for not one of them has treated of the office of magistrates, of legislation, and civil government, without beginning with religion and Divine worship. And thus they have all confessed that no government can be happily constituted, unless its first object be the promotion of piety, and that all laws are preposterous which neglect the claims of God, and merely provide for the interests of men.

Calvin lived in a time before the age of skeptism. I wonder what he would say today about a post-Christian country and a pluralistic society.

(New readers may wonder, why quote Calvin? It's required.)

Updated to correct a really stupid error. I am curious if Giuliani is able to take communion or is that considered private and I shouldn't be asking?

What do you think of this summary of Calvin's theology?

Even if you are doing it for kids, it sort of loses something in the translation :-)

Calvin is so much richer than this, it really does a disservice to his teachings.