Picture This

I’m Roman Catholic, born and raised. I went to a Catholic grade school and what is essentially a Catholic High School, and I had religion class every single year. I learned all the prayers, read almost all the stories in the Bible, studied all the dogmas, and went to church every Sunday for eighteen years. However, there has always been an aspect of my faith that has bothered me. My faith is focused upon icons, images, and words. There is not a single church that I know of that does not have statues, crosses, pictures (whether they be small paintings, murals, stained-glass windows, or metal creations), and other visual representations of events and people. I had always wondered why this fact is true, but now it occurs to me: my religion (and I’m sure many other religions) is heavily based upon images. Look at the facts: Religious textbooks used in schools contain various illustrations. Many people are buying or already own picture bibles. It’s commonplace to find the Stations of the Cross being acted out by people and illustrated in books rather than just read aloud. People even find it hard to pray without holding a rosary in their hands or staring at a statue or painting.

Whether religious leaders will admit it or not, these habits have culminated in a startling and unnerving reality: Christians have fallen in love with images and icons within their faith, not with saints, God, and other holy figures. Children are coerced to pray to the saints and God, and they are thrown in front of statues, the rosary, and pictures of holy people However, they are innocently praising and admiring the statues and the physical representations themselves, not Jesus, God, etc. These kids grow up not knowing any better and come to replace the actual people with the statues they correspond to. Therefore, Christians are being nurtured to love the image of Jesus hanging on the cross and to be in awe of it, yet they forget, without even realizing it, to respect the meaning behind the statue. There is no need to have stained-glass windows and statues in a church; people are not there to be look at magnificent art. Hopefully, they are in church to be in God’s presence, to speak and listen to Him. Save the art for a museum. Moreover, when people hear the name Jesus, they automatically associate it with the image of a white man with flowing brown/blonde hair. If they were not preoccupied with the picture of Christ, they would instead be thinking of his life, sacrifices, and teachings. Sadly, the beauty of religious art is serving to pull people away from the essence of religion.

Going further with this, even words have become a problem in Christianity. People memorize prayers, bible stories, the Beatitudes, and the Ten Commandments, but then they go outside and steal or commit adultery. People have fallen in love with words as much as they have with images. Reciting prayers or going to Mass has become a mindless and monotonous chore. The words are there, but the meaning is not. Christians read the bible intently, thinking that doing so is some devout feat, but they might as well be reading People Magazine if they’re not going to put those words into actions. You can buy the picture bible or the one with only words; it’s your choice. If you do not use the bible, or any religious item, for what it is meant (teaching lessons that should be followed) you’re only wasting your own time. So the present state of a majority of Christianity appears as follows: people are content with staring at statues, pictures, words, and pieces of wood glued together to form a cross, ignoring the profound meaning behind them.

On a side (and much lighter) note, it is amazing how the human mind works at one in the morning.