The Statue of Liberty — with a theocratic twist

July 6, 2006

This is disturbing on so many levels.
statue

As the congregation of the World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church looked on and its pastor, Apostle Alton R. Williams, presided, a brown shroud much like a burqa was pulled away to reveal a giant statue of the Lady, but with the Ten Commandments under one arm and “Jehovah” inscribed on her crown.

And in place of a torch, she held aloft a large gold cross, as if to ward off the pawnshops, the car dealerships and the discount furniture outlets at the busy corner of Kirby Parkway and Winchester that is her home. A single tear graced her cheek.

It was not clear if she was crying because of her new home, her new identity as a symbol of religion or, as the pastor said, America’s increasing godlessness.

The monument, called the “Statue of Liberation Through Christ,” appears to be quite a sight. As shameless idolatry goes, the 72-foot-tall statue appears to have reached new heights. Or depths, depending on one’s perspective.

I’ve seen plenty of patriotic symbols appropriated for religious use, but the World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church definitely deserves credit for pushing the envelope — of taste, patriotism, and theocratic tendencies.

Asked whether the $260,000 used to erect the statue could have been put to better use, Williams explained, “I personally feel that the answer for the poor is Jesus Christ.”

And as for the statue’s true purpose?

The statue, inspired by a Memphis church that has three giant crosses, strikes him as “a creative means of just really letting people know that God is the foundation of our nation,” he said. […]

“I decree the spirit of conviction on this intersection,” Mr. Williams boomed from a podium decorated with red, white and blue bunting. “This statue proves that Jesus Christ is Lord over America, he is Lord over Tennessee, he is Lord over Memphis.”

If the Taliban didn’t destroy anything it perceived as graven images, I’m sure it’d be very proud.

“Statue of Liberation Through Christ”

Can’t we just call it “Mary?”

  • I DEMAND an anti-Statue of Liberty Desecration amendment to the US Constitution! Americans fought and died for that great symbol of American freedom and to see the visage of lady liberty belittled like that sickens me.

    What does the inscription say? Where is this abomination? Couldn’t they figure out a way to work in a gun? Maybe slung over her shoulder?

    Jackasses!

  • Remind me again why Lincoln is considered such a ‘hero’ for fighting a Civil War to keep the South with the rest of the nation? Wouldn’t it be soooo much nicer around here these days if the North had ‘lost’?

  • He doesn’t believe much in Jesus does he? Otherwise he wouldn’t have made that remark about people.

  • I’m with Merlallen here. They should have spent the quarter million on the poor. It’s what Jesus would have Done.

    These people are so unimaginative that they have to steel from a Frenchman?

    And if there is anything that going to sicken Americans more about Evangelicals it is their ‘Lording’ it over people.

    I fear there will be many vandelisms.

    Why don’t they just call it the Statue of Liberation through Submission. It can become an icon of the Sadomasochists. They’ll go there to pray in their leather and pony girl gear 😉

    Show us a picture of that, CB!

  • Of course, good ole southern reasoning:
    “This statue proves that Jesus Christ is Lord over America, he is Lord over Tennessee, he is Lord over Memphis.”

    So Mr Williams if I build a giant cock a foot taller then your statue, will that prove that my cock is Lord over the entire gallaxy ?? It is by the way.

  • That cross that Lady Liberty carries is just four little sticks away from being a swastika.
    I think Sinclair Lewis said,” If Nazism come to america it will be with a cross and a flag”.

  • I don’t know, I find it funny. More kitschy-funny than the sophisiticated-funny of renditions done by an artist of Lady Liberty as a harried Bloomies shopper. We have to lighten up and laugh at the rubes.

    But, I’ll be the first to stop laughing when Bush and Frist try to make it our national symbol and put it in all public buildings. I think that’s what’s beind the queasy horror of this thing. The rubes and rube wanna-get-votes are also running the country.

  • Based on the actions in Memphis, I think it would be justifiable to see a rather large group of “Wiccan Ladies” dancing in the street—all dressed as Lady Liberty, and wearing their plate-sized pentacles. This should be done in the form of a parade—in the middle of the street—right outside this “so-called church”—every blasted Sunday Morning. They could apply the statue as evidence that God is really a woman, thus a Goddess. So much for Xian patriarchy!

    How long until the next heavy thunderstorm rolls through Memphis? That piteous substitute for the Flame of Liberty looks like a tempting snack for a lightning-bolt….

  • Reminds me of a recent Colbert bit where he basically said talking about Jesus = good, doing what Jesus wanted = bad.

    The French should demand we return the Statue of Liberty after seeing this abomination. It has lost it’s meaning.

  • This trend is reflected in two other news items that are equally frightening, each in its own way. In one, bigots have hounded and threatened a Jewish family in Delaware that bought suit against a public school district for aggressively promoting Christianity. See this link for all the sordid details:
    http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06b/indianriver.html

    The second involves two reports on the CNN website last week about Selmer, Tennessee (a town 80 miles east of Memphis not-so-coincidentally enough) where a preacher’s wife is accused of killing her husband. In both stories, the reporter describes Selmer as a “God-fearing community of 4500 [souls].” As I wrote in a diary posted at Daily Kos:

    “Since when did church attendance or religious observance become the traditional media’s principal criteria for describing a city or town? Is CNN now going to refer to Manhattan as an island of sinners, heretics, or idolators? And what makes this reporter qualified to judge a population’s moral rectitude in the first place? This “God” the Selmerites(?) are so fearful of–who, in fact, is it? Jesus? Allah? Vishnu? Or someone who’s just a figment of their imaginations?”

    To find out what a “God-fearing” town is actually like, check out the rest of the diary at:
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/4/105619/2068

  • As repulsive as I find this (and like Steve, I think this looks like a tempting lightning target), its very repulsiveness is quite useful.

    There are many things extremists do that the mainstream does not find terribly threatening or even annoying. But the sheer ugliness of this Frankenstinian creature makes those who would do something so tacky a group to be avoided for fear of guilt by association.

    Sad statement though it is, my observation is that being theocratic, dogmatic, preachy, or just rude really dont hurt you much in this country. Be tacky, however, and just watch people avoid you like the plague. (exeptions made for the rich and blonde.)

  • “I personally feel that the answer for the poor is Jesus Christ.”

    That’s true, unless we start doing something about the Minimum Wage, about the colossal economic disparities in this country, about protecting American jobs. There’s an old southern hymn (what we used to call shit-kicker music) about our goal in life being a grave on the green hillside. Pie in the Sky Bye-and-bye is about all they’ve got to hope for.

    That statue makes a mockery of the Statue of Liberty (think Tos. Jefferson). It also makes a mockery of Jesus (a golden cross?). I must admit my first reaction to seeing it was to laugh.

    As to feeling badly about the cost and what would Jesus have done with the money, think about the cost of producing a bad movie or an episode of a bad (which is to say, any) TeeVee show or what we spend on cosmetics and car racing and poor excuses for beer. All in all, its pretty inexpensive entertainment.

  • “I personally feel that the answer for the poor is Jesus Christ.”

    That’s awesome. He flat-out lays out his policy on the table. “Fuck the poor, let Jesus deal with them. We’re not into the whole “charity” thing. They’ll be taken care of in the next life, so we don’t have to feel guilty about shoveling more shit their way in this life.”

  • I’m surprised that no one pointed out to them that the green color of the real statue is TARNISH. They deliberately created a tarnished religious statue. Talk about ironic 😉

  • That sotry out of Delaware reported on post #13 is absolutely incredible. The only thing that makes me unsurprised is it happens in the traitor region of Delaware, the part that had to be occupied by the military during the Civil War.

  • Gleen Greenwald’s post today covers this Delaware thing, and another move by StopTheACLU.org to publish the names and addresses of plaintiffs who “use the ACLU” to bring suits under the establishment clause against official promotion of “Christerism” (which is what Fundamentalist “Christianity” should be called, since it has nothing to do with actual Christianity). This is seriously scary stuff.

  • In Ghostbusters Two, Doctor Venkman wonders if the Statue of Liberty is wearing underwear (“She’s French, you know.”). I wonder if you could get the goat of one of these Jesus freaks by asking the same question?

  • more people need to now GOD’s name. Through time they have taken it out of the bible. How else do you make a relationship with someone. First, you know thier name.
    Many religious communities spend thousands and sometimes millions on building there church, certainly they don’t need all the expensive gold trim, maybe a more humble building.Maybe they can step it down a bit and give the extra money to charaties too. Have any of you stepped in to a Kingdom Hall, thier buildings are simple, there are no special trim, etc. just a simple place for worship. Jehovah draws close to you by your faith and loyalty to him, not by the amount of money you put in to your churches wall coverings and furniture.

  • “more people need to [k]now GOD’s name.” – robin

    That’s an interesting observation, Robin, as in certain religions at certain times, it has been considered blaspheme to even say God’s name, including ‘Jehovah’.

    And Jehovah is not actually his name, it’s just the name of the three letters beginning the three syllables of his name. In English we’d just put down JHV. So really, you don’t know his name.

    I agree with you that a modest white-siding church is probably more appropriate than a cathedral as a house of worship.

  • There is no end to the whakiness of the religious impulse. Isn’t there some dogma or doctrine about “stewardship”? What about ‘carved images”? Render unto Ceasar the things that are Ceasar’s . . . ? I am personally ofended by the grossness of the image and sometimes it is just plain embarrasing to be an American and also a Christian. If Jesus understood separation of church and state I don’t understand why these people don’t.

  • From the Delaware link:

    “The complaint recounts a raucous crowd that applauded the board’s opening prayer and then, when sixth-grader Alexander Dobrich stood up to read a statement, yelled at him “take your yarmulke off!” His statement, read by Samantha, confided “I feel bad when kids in my class call me Jew boy.”

    This is really dangerous, people. You know this kind of sentiment has been growing in the past decade. I believe that it will continue to grow. We need to fight or redirect its energies.

  • Re #23:

    It’s precisely because God’s name was kept a secret that we think it’s JHVH. All the vowels were lost. It’s impossible to know God’s name now.

  • kali, here’s the quote from Sinclair Lewis…”When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”

  • Speaking as both a Christian and an American, I find this absolutely abominable.

    I say we take up a donation to put a statue on the opposite corner. It will be the image of Lady Liberty crucified on the cross.

  • I almost hate to add this so late in a thread, because this just struck me as the most Orwellian piece of right-wing religious agit-prop I’ve ever seen – a much more subtle and dangerous version of the freakazoidism on display in the photo CB provided. According to his article, supporting the eradication of of poverty through support of the UN’s Millenium Development Goals is placing the UN above GOd, and is therefore anti-Christian:

    http://www.ird-renew.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=fvKVLfMVIsG&b=399595&ct=2654935

    (sorry – too late and i’m too tired to mess with embedding the link).

  • Hmmm, no Liberal or atheist fussed when the Fed paid for a crucifix dipped in urine or a Madonna with breasts made out of dung. Shucks, that was just artistic expression. That is all this is as well. At least they paid for it. Personally, I would not have created this statute but it is their right to do so and to display it. After all, that is what liberty is about.

    This country was founded as a Christian nation, like it or not. This is the artistic expression of the country falling from those roots. People have used Washington to sell cars, bank accounts, etc as well as many other Presidential and American symbols for less than pristine or historic purposes.

    By the way, Abe was not a hero. Most of his legacy and sayings are myths made up afterward. Check out the EP, he only freed the slaves in an area he had no control over but said nothing about the ones within his control. Grant owned slaves after the war and NJ had a three phase emancipation. He also tossed the Constitution aside whenever he felt like it. More like today’s Democrats than a Republican. Guess he was a RINO. Also, I heard more slurs about more people groups and religions up North then I have ever heard down here. Northern righteousness and virtue is a myth as well. They are humans like the rest of the race and they have their prejudices.

    I would wager that if someone had created a piece that showed Lady Liberty and Lady Justice in a Lesbian sex act very few of the folks upset about this statute would have said a word negatively. Shoot it would have appeared on the cover of Time and the front page of the NY Times as a bold and wonderful expression of peace and love in the universe.

    I fear the radical Right far less than the Radical Left and the ambivalent Middle. The far Left is Communist and the Middle is apathetic. That combination is far more dangerous. The apathetic Middle is how Hitler and Stalin made it to power. I doubt that a Hitler could rise up in this country but there is a Stalin lurking in the Leftist camp and the apathetic will elect him/her one day. On that day, both Jew and Christian will have to fear and flee, but to where? This is the only place left that isn’t COMPLETELY AntiSemitic and AntiChristian.

    If I must choose between a Blue State Commie and a Red State Evangelist I will take the Evangelist any day. The Evangelist only wants to save my soul from Hell whereas the Communist wants to create a suburb of Hell here maybe to help prepare themselves for the real thing.

    I’ve been up North but as I see insanity rising in those states and the Left Coast, I have to say, “God save the South” for that is almost the only place in the country He is still fairly welcome.

    Even Grant may have moved South if he were here today. If ghosts did walk he would taken up resident with Lee by now and apologized since his tomb in NY is not well cared for and it isn’t safe to visit it after dark..

  • i don’t understand how a sign of Christ crosses with the statue of liberty and i am talking as a catholic child and i am very strong about my faith.

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