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Jesus Homeless Statue

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michijo

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The case of the woman who calls the police on a state of homeless jesus throws much light on conservative white America. That a blonde blue eyed woman had to call the police on a vagrant and found it a solid statue of her own messiah and was offended continues to show how isolated Christian America is. You see at once the total priorities of the Christian religion for white Americans. Be blond, be rich, and dont be a vagrant. Dont sleep on benches, and always drive nice cars.

'Homeless Jesus' Sculpture Continues To Divide Wealthy Community In North Carolina

997008b0-9f3b-11e3-a91e-810a293a8bab_swannack.jpg
 
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michijo said:
The case of the woman who calls the police on a state of homeless jesus throws much light on conservative white America. That a blonde blue eyed woman had to call the police on a vagrant and found it a solid statue of her own messiah and was offended continues to show how isolated Christian America is.

'Homeless Jesus' Sculpture Continues To Divide Wealthy Community In North Carolina

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Some people do call the police when they see someone like that hoping the police will get them help, not just hoping that the police arrest them. I find it an interesting piece. I would gladly have it in my front yard.
 
" The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved they are Jesus in disguise."

Mother Teresa
 
sangha said:
" The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved they are Jesus in disguise."

Mother Teresa
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34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
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https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25:31-46
 
Declan said:
Some people do call the police when they see someone like that hoping the police will get them help, not just hoping that the police arrest them. I find it an interesting piece. I would gladly have it in my front yard.
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They are misguided. Police offer one alternative to sleeping in public like this. Either the bum walks or he goes to jail. If he walks, the police give a warning not to do it again. If caught again, jail. They do not give help. If she wanted to help, she should have called an ambulance or a hospital.

Police at work on homeless, cutting up their tents while wearing blue nitrile medical grade gloves.

 
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michijo said:
The case of the woman who calls the police on a state of homeless jesus throws much light on conservative white America. That a blonde blue eyed woman had to call the police on a vagrant and found it a solid statue of her own messiah and was offended continues to show how isolated Christian America is. You see at once the total priorities of the Christian religion for white Americans. Be blond, be rich, and dont be a vagrant. Dont sleep on benches, and always drive nice cars.
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The $22,000 the statue cost might have been better spent. Just a thought. I can't help it I'm a "bean counter".
 
michijo said:
They are misguided. Police offer one alternative to sleeping in public like this. Either the bum walks or he goes to jail. If he walks, the police give a warning not to do it again. If caught again, jail. They do not give help. If she wanted to help, she should have called an ambulance or a hospital.

Police at work on homeless, cutting up their tents while wearing blue nitrile medical grade gloves.
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Anecdotes cut both way. A simple google search shows you are wrong. In addition, calling a hospital won't do crap for a homeless person. If they are laying on a bench in front of the ER bleeding to death, the hospital will tell you to call 911 instead of coming out to save them.


 
michijo said:
The case of the woman who calls the police on a state of homeless jesus throws much light on conservative white America. That a blonde blue eyed woman had to call the police on a vagrant and found it a solid statue of her own messiah and was offended continues to show how isolated Christian America is. You see at once the total priorities of the Christian religion for white Americans. Be blond, be rich, and dont be a vagrant. Dont sleep on benches, and always drive nice cars.

'Homeless Jesus' Sculpture Continues To Divide Wealthy Community In North Carolina

View attachment 67176295
Click to expand...

that woman sucks but you don't get to lump in other people with her based on race and religion
 
michijo said:
The case of the woman who calls the police on a state of homeless jesus throws much light on conservative white America. That a blonde blue eyed woman had to call the police on a vagrant and found it a solid statue of her own messiah and was offended continues to show how isolated Christian America is. You see at once the total priorities of the Christian religion for white Americans. Be blond, be rich, and dont be a vagrant. Dont sleep on benches, and always drive nice cars.

'Homeless Jesus' Sculpture Continues To Divide Wealthy Community In North Carolina

View attachment 67176295
Click to expand...

Ever been to Davidson? I have, many times, they used to have a great ice cream joint on the main drag, don't know if it's still there or not. I even attended St. Alban's on more than one occasion. I also attended an AMiA church there at one time before I moved away.

Davidson is a small town with a private college populated by the kind of rich left wing snobs I expect to see posting anti-Christian threads on this forum, not "conservative white Americans" as you put it in such racist terms.
 
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Hari Seldon said:
The $22,000 the statue cost might have been better spent. Just a thought. I can't help it I'm a "bean counter".
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“Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” - Judas Iscariot
 
michijo said:
The case of the woman who calls the police on a state of homeless jesus throws much light on conservative white America. That a blonde blue eyed woman had to call the police on a vagrant and found it a solid statue of her own messiah and was offended continues to show how isolated Christian America is. You see at once the total priorities of the Christian religion for white Americans. Be blond, be rich, and dont be a vagrant. Dont sleep on benches, and always drive nice cars.

'Homeless Jesus' Sculpture Continues To Divide Wealthy Community In North Carolina

View attachment 67176295
Click to expand...

The case of one woman mistaking a sculpture for a real vagrant and calling the police isn't an indication of anything--it's just one woman, one who needs prayers because even if she's going to church, she isn't getting the message. Others are, as evidenced by what parishioners and the rector have said.
 
ecofarm said:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25:31-46
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Far from my favorite, Matthew is just so rich in applicable quotations.

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
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In keeping with the theme, played out across the gospels of "the least" we have to look also at the recurring use of "little ones", which shows that its not just children He's talking about, but any who cannot fend for themselves.

The American right is wrong in its interpretation of the Bible, the most telling stories for them should be the Good Samaritan and what he had in his heart along with the story of the woman at the well and what's happening there, especially the words "Now go, and tell them I have come"

Imagine that, a woman the first preacher.
 
it's just me said:
Ever been to Davidson? I have, many times, they used to have a great ice cream joint on the main drag, don't know if it's still there or not. I even attended St. Alban's on more than one occasion. I also attended an AMiA church there at one time before I moved away.

Davidson is a small town with a private college populated by the kind of rich left wing snobs I expect to see posting anti-Christian threads on this forum, not "conservative white Americans" as you put it in such racist terms.
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I have never been to this place Davidson. I tend not to hang around with rich white people regardless of them being leftists or rightists. I dont really care for their society. I actually live in a housing project type area with a lot of African Americans in my building and in the environs.

In fact, I am growing more and more tired of this land USA. I have been looking at both Venezuela and Boliva as possible places to immigrate to, with Boliva being the most attractive due to its elevation. Me far away:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucre
 
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Hari Seldon said:
The $22,000 the statue cost might have been better spent. Just a thought. I can't help it I'm a "bean counter".
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Well, the article says it was entirely paid for by one person. Presumably, this is someone with a lot of money on their hands. So for all we know, they have given as much or more to charities.

And besides that, art is something we are driven to do and that all of us need. That statue probably has, or will, affect some people. It may inspire them to use whatever amount of resources they have to help people.

The value of art cannot be accurately ascertained by what it cost to make, or what it garners on the market. The value of art is inextricably tied to the web of inspiration that spreads from it, and all the deeds it causes over the course of its existence.

It would be a cold world indeed with no art and no inspiration -- if everything were fully "practical." In the absence of inspiration, no great deed ever gets done.

Art changes people. Maybe it even changed that cloistered woman who called the cops -- who knows. I think we do ourselves a disservice by dismissing the role of our inspiration, our feelings, and our thoughts, in what kind of place the world is to live in. We degrade the value of art and artists in favor of things that are "practical." But without inspiration, there's no guiding light for what sorts of practical things we should make. Things that better humanity, things that worsen it, or things that are useless and just make a quick buck, continuing to contribute to our blind consumerism, which has never made a single person in all the world actually happy or influential, nor bettered their life. And I would argue that is what is truly a waste of time and money.

It took me a long time to get over the fact that I'm not "practical." But every once in a while I get an email telling me that I changed someone. It's worth it.

I think Miss Palmer put it best, in her own silly way. A terrible song that's really worth listening to. I walk around strumming it when I'm miserable, and it sort of fixes my life for reasons I can't quite explain.

Imagine there's no music, imagine there are no songs
Imagine that John Lennon wasn't shot in front of his apartment
Now imagine if John Lennon had composed "imagine" for the ukulele
Maybe people would have truly got the message

You may think my approach is simple-minded and naïve
Like if you want to change the world then why not quit and feed the hungry
But people for millennia have needed music to survive
And that is why I promised John that I will not feel guilty
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Ukelele Anthem, Amanda Palmer
 
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michijo said:
I have never been to this place Davidson. I tend not to hang around with rich white people regardless of them being leftists or rightists. I dont really care for their society. I actually live in a housing project type area with a lot of African Americans in my building and in the environs.

In fact, I am growing more and more tired of this land USA. I have been looking at both Venezuela and Boliva as possible places to immigrate to, with Boliva being the most attractive due to its elevation. Me far away:

Sucre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...

I don't care for their society, either, but I don't judge them by that or by their race.
 
It reminds me of something strange I just read of a possible reason the gypsies came to the west, that the poor in Persia could not enjoy music,

e Sasanian king Bahrām V Gōr (q.v.) learned towards the end of his reign (421-39) that the poor could not afford to enjoy music, and he asked the king of India to send him “ten thousand luris, men and women, lute playing experts” (l. 2558). When the luris arrived, Bahrām gave each one an ox and an ass and an ass-load of wheat so that they could live on agriculture and play music gratuitously for the poor. But the luris ate the ox and the wheat and came back a year later with their cheeks hollowed with hunger. The king was angered with their having wasted what he had given them, ordered them to pack up their bags on their asses and go wandering around the world.
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GYPSY i. Gypsies of Persia ? Encyclopaedia Iranica

The idea that at one time there was no internet or stereo and people were so dulled by life that a ruler felt compelled to bring them music.
 
it's just me said:
I don't care for their society, either, but I don't judge them by that or by their race.
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Maybe you do. I didnt accuse you of judging them by their race. Why defend yourself? I dont particularly judge them by the race, but was only pointing out, these people are in their own isolated world from which their religion is not merely an elite religion but something provincial to themselves. It is their own fantasy, so how can they go around the world trying to missionarize people. Actually, to Americanize people off in Romania or wherever with Baptist churches, when their own religion is not anymore universal than a woman calling a cop on a hoemeless?

It was just a critique of America's strange isolationist religion and its attempts at universiality.
 
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michijo said:
The case of the woman who calls the police on a state of homeless jesus throws much light on conservative white America. That a blonde blue eyed woman had to call the police on a vagrant and found it a solid statue of her own messiah and was offended continues to show how isolated Christian America is. You see at once the total priorities of the Christian religion for white Americans. Be blond, be rich, and dont be a vagrant. Dont sleep on benches, and always drive nice cars.

'Homeless Jesus' Sculpture Continues To Divide Wealthy Community In North Carolina

View attachment 67176295
Click to expand...




You saw that ONE person called police about a vagrant; from this you generalize about an entire religious group.


Interesting. Do we actually even know if the woman is Christian?
 
Goshin said:
You saw that ONE person called police about a vagrant; from this you generalize about an entire religious group.


Interesting. Do we actually even know if the woman is Christian?
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Yes, I read in another article a complaint by her that she didnt like Jesus being portrayed as a vagrant. I'll have to find that article. here it is:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/homeless-jesus-statue_n_4875892.html

Cindy Castano Swannack called the police the first time she drove by the realistic bronze statue, explaining to NBC Charlotte, "I was concerned for the safety of the neighborhood." She protested, "Jesus is not a vagrant, Jesus is not a helpless person who needs our help."
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The woman is named Cindy Castano Swannack, the blond. Another:

http://www.agnostic-library.com/ma/tag/cindy-castano-swannack/
 
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michijo said:
I have never been to this place Davidson. I tend not to hang around with rich white people regardless of them being leftists or rightists. I dont really care for their society. I actually live in a housing project type area with a lot of African Americans in my building and in the environs.

In fact, I am growing more and more tired of this land USA. I have been looking at both Venezuela and Boliva as possible places to immigrate to, with Boliva being the most attractive due to its elevation. Me far away:

Sucre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...




You're not going to be happy wherever you go, at least not for long.


To explain why, the following story:


A farmer was working his field when a wagon came down the road. On it was a young couple and what was clearly all their belongings. They stopped to talk for a moment about the town up ahead. "What is it like?" they asked. "Are the people friendly?"
"What were things like in the town you came from?" the farmer asked.
"Oh," they said, "it was wonderful. Everyone was so nice, and we had so many friends... we never would have left except the sawmill shut down and Joe needed another place to work."
The farmer smiled. "You'll love the town ahead then, and I'm sure you'll have many friends and be very happy."

The family was pleased by this prognostication, and drove on.

After a while another wagon came by, with another young couple aboard with all their possessions.

They asked the farmer the same question about the town ahead, and he asked them the same question about the town they'd left.
"It was awful," they said, "everyone was selfish and stupid and greedy and snobbish, we had no friends and were very unhappy."

"Well," the farmer said, "I'm afraid you'll probably find it no different in the town ahead."

Grimly, the unhappy young couple drove on... towards the same town as the happy young couple had driven towards but an hour earlier.



Wherever you go, there you are. Most of the time it is YOU who brings the seeds of happiness and success or depression and destruction along with you.


Looking on the dark side seems a natural with you, so I doubt you're going to find happiness in this world, regardless of where you seek it, until you change that about yourself.
 
Damn Christians...
 
We never know why things occur. We can pretend we do, but really the best we can do is guess and assume. It is fortunate that the artist created the sculpture. If art doesn't evoke emotions how would it be art? What better place for it to be displayed than outside an Episcopal church in a wealthy, white community in the South? Perhaps if Ms. Swannack had not called the police and had not expressed her views, whether we agree with them or not, we wouldn't be having this discussion. I see none of it as bad.

It is my opinion that what it is all about is people starving in the land of plenty and the "Yeah, but..." qualifications we want to use as an excuse to absolve ourselves of guilt for doing nothing or to attempt to exert our religious or moral or governmental control over those who have no voice at all and no power whatsoever.

This week will be Thanksgiving and soon it will be Christmas. There are times when the universe, or God if you like, throws things right in our faces. As I see it, and though I work at being aware, often times I don't see it, none of this is about the statue, or the Episcopal priest or Davidson or Swannack or any of that.

For once I got the message, rare indeed for me, but I don't want to squander the opportunity. Before this time next week I will take direct action to help at least one person have enough to eat.
 
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