It seems the above picture is going around a lot. Most people assume a Evangelcial influence. AS soon as saw it I saw it I figured it to have a Mormon influence and theological bent. Get Religion has the interesting background on it here. The comments are interesting too.
Oh My goodness there is a Glen Beck connection. This Southern Baptist has a interesting post on this painting here. This part struck me
Not only does this painting propagate Jesus for conservative politics, but Mormonism as well. Conservative, Mormon Glenn Beck has written the foreword to the 30 year anniversary edition of Skousen’s book. This edition has its own web page 5000YearLeap.net showing Beck’s endorsement as well as a promotion of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. These U.S. documents are mentioned because some think the Glenn Beck might be positioning himself to save the Constitution via the White Horse Prophecy.
Speaking of prophecies, Skousen was no stranger to them as noted in Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck’s life by Alexander Zaitchik who shows how Skousen influenced Beck.
As Beck knows, to focus solely on “The 5,000 Year Leap” is to sell the author short. When he died in 2006 at the age of 92, Skousen had authored more than a dozen books and pamphlets on the Red Menace, New World Order conspiracy, Christian child rearing, and Mormon end-times prophecy. It is a body of work that does much to explain Glenn Beck’s bizarre conspiratorial mash-up of recent months, which decries a new darkness at noon and finds strange symbols carefully coded in the retired lobby art of Rockefeller Center. It also suggests that the modern base of the Republican Party is headed to a very strange place.
Let say I am not sure I agree with his lost comment on the Republican base. Beck is much more of a Libertarian
James - I saw a local news story about this painting just a couple weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do not listen to Glenn Beck and am not inclined to believe the statements attributed to Joseph Smith as part of the White Horse Prophecy since they were written down many years later, the United States Constitution holds a special significance for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
However, Joseph Smith's prophecy concerning the Constitution to Hang by a Thread is foreboding to say the least, regardless of political persuasion. Consequently, the Book of Mormon group called the Gadianton Robbers seems to have many modern parallels.
I hope that helps put into context some of the quote mentioned above.