Baptist church to remove statue of Christ for being ‘too Catholic

  • Thread starter Thread starter EvangelistVictor
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Here in Pittsburgh, one of the local Greek Catholic churches had statue of Jesus in their church yard for at least 20 years, and it was supposedly removed for being “too Latin”.

I don’t see this as being that much more different. If, in the current opinion of the leaders and faithful of this church, this statue doesn’t reflect their culture, I can’t argue with them. They know it better than I do.

I don’t know art “quality” at all, but if this is a quality piece, I’m sure it will find another home.
 
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
I dont want baptists to be like catholics. I want them to change and become catholics. : P
 
My spouse is a Pastor, it’s amazing the silly things that congregations obsess over and waste time and money on. So far the ones that come to mind are what kind of mower that should be bought and a contract to fix the parking lot.
 
I’m actually surprised they allowed it to begin with. As a former Baptist, we were always told we shouldn’t try to depict Jesus/God, even in pictures. My church was 150 years old and no artwork was anywhere to be found. Yet, for children, our Sunday School lessons and papers had illustrations of Jesus, and children’s Bibles with a cover of the little children coming to Jesus was okay. The artwork of Sallman was often in our children’s Sunday School rooms. Now, I find it rather confusing.
 
Years ago the ladies at our Legion of Mary found a statue of OBM at our church. It was not a very pretty picture of how we invisioned her to be. One of the ladies said,“it must have bee made by a Baptist.” So funny but you had to have been there. We all got a laugh!
 
PJH_74 said:
My spouse is a Pastor, it’s amazing the silly things that congregations obsess over and waste time and money on. So far the ones that come to mind are what kind of mower that should be bought and a contract to fix the parking lot.
Click to expand...
Baptist parishes have been known to schism themselves for less . . .

My (Baptist) Protestant Theology professor noted one day that there are some Baptist groups that can’t even hold a finance meeting without fighting over theology, sometimes to the point of such splits . . .

hawk
 
They are misguided but a part of me kinda respects those people. There are many liberals in the Church who water down the Faith in the name of ecumenism.
 
Between ‘they’re getting it wrong but they care’ and ‘indifference’, I prefer wrong-but-caring.
 
As a Catholic from South Carolina, I am sorry to say I am not suprised. There are many protestants who embrace Catholics as brothers and sisters in the state, like the artist, but there are others who have been raised with outright hatred towards Catholics. When I moved to SC, the city’s primary Baptist Church’s minister would deliver a sermon at least once a month just on how the Catholic Church is pure evil. It has gotten better as a whole, but some of the prejudices still linger.
 
Last edited:
One Baptist chapel I’ve been to hasn’t even got a cross on the front wall as it would distract the people from the faith. The walls were painted white. There was a very simple speaker pulpet, pews or chairs and nothing else.
 
I think they want something that’s more realistic and not stylized. They saw it as a primitive style and that fits their bias about Catholicism. Maybe that’s my bias about them too, I don’t know.
 
Last edited:
As a former Baptist, I’m shocked it was ever put up in the first place. Baptists are so skitish about religious art and icons that most of them don’t even have a large cross up in the sanctuary (for Baptists, the entire inside of the church is called the sanctuary).

The Church (Not parish. Baptists are independent from each other.) I grew up in has a small cross on the pulpit and some small crosses incorporated into the light fixtures. Apart from that, there was only a large scripture on the wall.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
for Baptists, the entire inside of the church is called the sanctuary
Click to expand...
Not just baptists, but I think this is true for for most non-catholics as well as the general usage of the word “sanctuary”. The media reported a small fire in a Catholic church “sanctuary” a few years ago here in Pittsburgh, and that’s not where it originated at all.
 
II think it has something to do with the idea that Jesus is everywhere. It’s attached to the scripture “where two or three are gathered…”. I know the call to worship at my former church was “Jesus is in His sanctuary; let everyone be silent before him”. I’m honestly not sure. Baptist theology is a bit mailable in my experience.

I’m not sure if this is true for all Protestants. Lutherans, Methodists and the Anglican communion might see things differently. Baptists are of a more Congregationalist bent.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top