An Obsessed Narrow View...

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:lol:

Hilarious. I have to think this is a joke and that there isn't anybody quite that stupid out there, but then again, it's humans we're talking about.

If you'll excuse me now I have to go count my hundred dollar bills.
 
I have no problem with it. :shrug: But I know, I'm narrow-minded and stupid...

Actually, you seem to be criticizing (and, as usual, employing name-calling) art because you happen to disagree with the subject matter. And you're calling others narrow-minded?
 
Actually, you seem to be criticizing (and, as usual, employing name-calling) art because you happen to disagree with the subject matter. And you're calling others narrow-minded?

Actually I don't think BVS was actually critiquing art here at all (more the message).

But if you'd like a critique of the actual piece itself well then I'm willing to call it atrociously bad and almost entirely without artistic merit. That's entirely separate from the stupidity of the explanations that come along with the painting.
 
I particularly like the token black guy! :happy:
 
I have no problem with it. :shrug: But I know, I'm narrow-minded and stupid...

Actually, you seem to be criticizing (and, as usual, employing name-calling) art because you happen to disagree with the subject matter. And you're calling others narrow-minded?

Which part did you like the best? The fact that Jesus was holding the Constitution?:huh:

Was it the overall stereotypes?

Was it the Xenophobia of the "immigrant"?

Was it that higher education = liberal godless?

Can you show me how this is an informed person making these ridiculous generalizations? Do you think Jesus would be endorsing an earthly government?

Of course Jesus is white, but I'm really shocked they gave him such a liberal haircut.
 
i thought the presentation on the website itself was pretty interesting.

but, i especially wonder what thomas jefferson and thomas paine would think of this piece. my favorite part is how satan is huddled behind the modern "liberal" figures.
 
that painting would have been greatly improved by the inclusion of 'buddy Jesus'. You know the one, it was doing the rounds in 2003-4.

Winking and pointing.
 
I would have preferred a painting of Jesus holding a football and a six pack of beer, standing in front of a waving American flag.
 
I don't know there could be someting to this painting.

In an unrelated incident a man by the name of Ned Doughtery had a near death experience at The Viet Nam wall in Wash DC.

An angel appeared to him and told him of the wretched state our nation is in right now, which correlates with a lot of this artist's thoughts.

The 2 men have never met.

Here's his account of the visitation of the angel:

Archangel Michael's Message

Some time after his near-death experience, Ned visited the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. While standing in front of a friend's name on the wall, Ned had another near-death experience involving the Archangel Michael. The following is the experience as he describes it:

"I stood again in front of the slab of granite bearing my friend's name. I thought back to the night of July 2, when I left my body in the ambulance and floated free to be greeted by Dan. That evening had been the start of a long and difficult path of spiritual discovery that was still only just beginning. It was no coincidence that I had been drawn back to this wall on this particular night. As I reached out to touch my friend's name on the wall, a shock of energy went through my body. I felt my body falling to the ground. I was now free of that body and floating above it.

"I was enveloped in an intense light. I was in the presence of a great spiritual being. A booming voice filled the air; it was the most powerful voice I had ever heard. It was the voice of the Archangel Michael. I recognized that he was conveying a message of importance:

Your forefathers created one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. These were men of high ideals, spiritually guided and inspired to create a nation and a civilization to be admired and respected, to set an example for the rest of the world. In exercising their free will under God's guidance and direction, they created a Constitution and a Bill of Rights for every man, woman, and child to live in freedom in the pursuit of happiness. Yet these high-minded and spiritual men were soon replaced by others who, in the exercise of their free will, chose to put their egos before God and to joust with God's plan.

You became a nation of spoilers, man against man, brother against brother, government against citizens, and the chosen nation became a warrior with and against other nations. You have become a nation of criminals and murderers. You murder in wars. You murder the innocent. You murder your children. Your leaders create laws to justify the murders, to attempt to make wrongs right, to rewrite morals and ethics to support your own earthbound greed and desires.

You have become a nation further and further from the spirit and the influence of God. You have created sciences and philosophies to support activities that only recognize earthbound realities that not only refuse to recognize the spiritual nature of man himself, but refuse to recognize even the existence of God.

You have taken God and his works of prayer and meditation out of your government, out of your institutions, out of your schools. You have done everything you can to deny his existence, and you find yourselves in a world filled with wars, hatred, starvation, and death, and you do not understand why the rest of the world does not follow your shining example.

You are a nation at war with itself, filled with hatred, prejudice, crime, drugs, and murder. Yet when the few of you who do look to God ask him why all these things are allowed to happen, you do not hear his answer.

You are members of the human race, universally created by God and given free will individually by divine right, and you would not wish to have it any other way. Yet every little act of free will that man has exercised from the beginning of time that was not in accordance with God's plan, multiplied in its impact and its negativity on the future of man. Every simple act of aggression multiplied into acts of world war. Every simple act of greed multiplied into worldwide human suffering and starvation. Every act of destruction of God's environment on Earth multiplied into destructive forces of nature - earthquakes, floods, pestilence, nuclear destruction and nuclear waste. Every act of violence escalated into acts of murder and the extermination of ethnic people for their appearance or beliefs.

Yet, God created a nation of high ideals for you to survive other empires and civilizations that crumbled into oblivion, for their leaders placed themselves as men above God, and now those empires and civilizations are but piles of dust or buried under the waters. You sit on the edge of the new millennium, poised for the future of humankind, and you are headed, like all great civilizations of the past, to be reduced to piles of dust, to be covered over by the waters.

Yet, God comes to you again, to appeal to you as a people, to appeal to you as a nation, to appeal to your leaders. His army of angels is visiting upon you with a life force of energy, a spiritual energy radiated by the Creator to all humankind. Many of you feel the vibrancy of his energy and his divine presence. He is communicating with you spiritually, telling you to raise yourselves to the level of spiritual transformation that is necessary for those of you who hear him to spread his message and his energy, to recognize that he is coming.

Guided by prayer and meditation, all men, women, and children may answer his call, but it must be soon. Time is running out! The angels are coming! Do you hear them? Are you listening?

Are you listening?

As the Archangel Michael's message ended in a haunting echo, I began to float gently back down into my body. Several people were standing over it as it lay sprawled on the sidewalk at the base of the wall. Further away, I could see a team of EMTs with a gurney rushing toward my body.
 
It's amazing that two men who have never met were able to produce the same stories that saturate conservative Christianity.
 
Why did the discussion just turn to trauma induced hallucination?



PrayerAtValleyForge.jpg


Do you think George Washington also had a hallucination?:


A Vision of George Washington ~

"The Birth, the progress and the destiny of the United States"


The father of our country, George Washington, was a man of prayer. Many of us have read of how he went to the thicket many times to pray during the winter his army was at Valley Forge. However, little publicity has been give to the vision and prophecy he received at that time.

The account of this vision was given in 1859 by an old soldier. He gave it to a writer, Wesley Bradshaw, who published it. In the vision God revealed to George Washington that three great perils would come upon the republic. He was given to know that America was going through the first peril at that time. The old soldier who told the story of the vision said the nation would soon see the account verified by the second peril descending upon the land.

We give the account here as printed in the U.S. war veterans paper The National Tribune, in December 1880. The National Tribune became, "The Stars and Stripes", and this article was later reprinted in that publication.



I do not know whether it is owing to the anxiety of my mind, or what, but this afternoon, as I was sitting at this table engaging in preparing a dispatch, something in the apartment seemed to disturb me. Looking up, I beheld standing opposite to me a singularly beautiful being. So astonished was I, for I had given strict orders not to be disturbed that it was some moments before I found language to inquire the cause of the visit. A second, a third, and even a fourth time did I repeat my question, but received no answer from my mysterious visitor except a slight raising of the eyes.

By this time I felt strange sensations spreading through me. I would have risen but the riveted gaze of the being before me rendered volition impossible. I tried once more to speak, but my tongue became useless, as if paralyzed. A new influence, mysterious, potent, irresistible, took possession of me. All I could do was to gaze steadily, vacantly at my unknown visitor.

Gradually the surrounding atmosphere seemed to fill with sensations, and grew luminous. Everything about me seemed to rarefy, the mysterious visitor also becoming more airy and yet more distinct to my sight than before. I began to feel as one dying, or rather to experience the sensations I sometimes imagine accompanying death. I did not think, I did not reason, I did not move. All were alike impossible. I was only conscious of gazing fixedly, vacantly on my companion.

Presently I heard a voice say,

"Son of the Republic, look and learn,"

while at the same time my visitor extended an arm eastward. I now beheld a heavy white vapor at some distance rising fold upon fold. This gradually dissipated, and I looked upon the strange scene. Before me lay, out in one vast plain all the countries of the world -- Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. I saw rolling and tossing between Europe and America lay billows of the Atlantic, and between Asia and America lay the Pacific.

"Son of the Republic", said the same mysterious voice as before,

"Look and learn."

At that moment I beheld a dark shadowy being, like an angel, standing, or rather floating in mid-air, between Europe and America. Dipping water out of the ocean in the hollow of each hand, he sprinkled some upon America with his right hand, while with his left he cast some over Europe. Immediately a cloud arose from these countries and joined in mid-ocean. For awhile it remained stationary, and then it moved slowly westward, until it enveloped America in its murky folds. Sharp flashed of lightning gleamed through at intervals, and I heard the smothered groans and cries of the American People.

A second time the angel dipped water from the ocean and sprinkled it out as before. The dark cloud drew back to the ocean, in whose heaving billows it sank from view.

A third time I heard the mysterious voice saying,

"Son of the Republic, look and learn."

I cast my eyes upon America and beheld villages and town and cities spring up one right after another until the whole land from the Atlantic to the Pacific was dotted with them. Again, I heard the mysterious voice say,

"Son of the Republic, the end of the century cometh, look and learn."

And this time a dark shadowy angel turned his face southward. From Africa I saw an ill omened spectra approach our land. It flitted slowly and heavily over every town and city of the latter. The inhabitants presently set themselves in battle array against each other. As I continued look I saw a bright angel on whose brow was traced the word 'Union.' He was bearing the American flag. He placed the flag between the divided nation and said,

"Remember, ye are brethren. "

Instantly the inhabitants, casting down their weapons became friends once more, and united around the National Standard.

Again I heard a mysterious voice saying,

"Son of the Republic, look and learn."

At this the dark, shadowy angel placed a trumpet to his mouth, and blew three distinct blasts; and taking water from the ocean, he sprinkled it upon Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Then my eyes beheld a fearful scene. From each of these continents arose thick black clouds that were soon joined into one. And throughout this mass there gleamed a dark red light by which I saw hordes of armed men. These men, moving with the cloud marched by land and sailed by sea to America, which country was enveloped in the volume of the cloud. And I dimly saw these vast armies devastate the whole country and burn the villages, towns and cities, which I had seen spring up.

As my ears listened to the thundering of the cannon, clashing of swords, and the shouts and cries of millions in mortal combat, I again heard the mysterious voice saying,

"Son of the Republic, look and learn."

When the voice had ceased, the dark shadowy angel placed his trumpet once more to his mouth, and blew a long and fearful blast. Instantly a light, as of a thousand suns shone down from above me, and pierced and broke into fragments of the dark cloud, which enveloped America. At the same moment the angel upon whose head still shown the word 'Union,' and who bore our national flag in one hand and a sword in the other, descended from the heavens attended by legions of white spirits. These immediately joined the inhabitants of America, who I perceived were well-nigh over come, but who immediately taking courage again, closed up their broken ranks, and renewed battle.

Again amid the fearful voice of the conflict I heard the mysterious voice say,

"Son of the Republic, look and learn."

As the voice ceased, the shadowy angel for the last time dipped the water from the ocean and sprinkled it upon America. Instantly the dark clouds rolled back, together with the armies it had brought, leaving the inhabitants of the land victorious.

Then once more I beheld the villages, towns and cities springing up where I had seem them before, while the bright angel, planting the azure standard cried with a loud voice:

"While the stars remain, and the heavens send down dew upon the earth, so long shall the Union last."

And taking from his brow the crown, which blazoned the word 'Union,' he placed it down upon the standard while the people, kneeling down said, 'Amen.'

The scene instantly began to fade and dissolve, and I at last saw nothing but the rising, curling vapor, I at first beheld. This also disappeared, and I found myself once more gazing upon the mysterious visitor who, in the same voice I heard before said,

"Son of the Republic, what you have seen is thus interpreted: Three great perils will come upon the Republic. The most fearful for her is the third. But the whole world united shall not prevail against her. Let every child of the Republic learn to live for his God, his land and Union."

With these words the vision vanished, and I started from my seat and felt that I had seen a vision wherein had been showed me the birth, progress, and destiny of the United States."

George Washington's Prayer Journal
 
I have no problem with it. :shrug: But I know, I'm narrow-minded and stupid...

Actually, you seem to be criticizing (and, as usual, employing name-calling) art because you happen to disagree with the subject matter. And you're calling others narrow-minded?

I think it's a good painting - I quite liked it.
 
You have been duped
Claim: George Washington told of an angel who revealed a prophetic vision of America to him at Valley Forge.

Status: False.

Origins: "Washington's Vision," the narrative in which an

elderly gentleman named Anthony Sherman supposedly disclosed (many years after the fact) that George Washington once spoke of an angel who had revealed a prophetic vision of America to him at Valley Forge, is a work of fiction. It is the product of Charles W. Alexander (1836-1927), a Philadelphia journalist who in 1865 began publication of The Soldier's Casket, a periodical for Union veterans of the Civil War. Writing under the pseudonym "Wesley Bradshaw," Alexander authored several "vision" or "dream" pieces featuring historic American figures, including George Washington, George McClellan, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. Grant, which were advertised for sale in the pages of The Soldier's Casket, with the separation between Alexander and the pseudonymous Bradshaw allowing the former to unashamedly laud the latter. (Although an officer named Anthony Sherman did serve in the Continental Army, he wasn't with Washington's forces at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78, and it's likely mere coincidence that Alexander chose that appellation for the name of his fictitious narrator.)

The tale of Washington's praying "to God in secret for aid and comfort" during the darkest days of the American Revolution and being visited by an angel who revealed to him a vision of the United States victorious gained renewed currency in 2001 among Americans in need of booster shots of patriotism after the events of September 11. In its expression of the theme that America can never be conquered by external enemies, but can only be brought down through the failings of its own citizens, this piece is reminiscent of thoughts delivered for real by a revered American historical figure: Abraham Lincoln's address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, on 27 January 1838:

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? — Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the Ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! — All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
http://www.snopes.com/language/document/vision.asp?print=y
 
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