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Mennonite Jesus: A Publishers Perspective
24x18, 2002, oil on canvas. Available for Purchase
Contracted in the mid-80's by a Mennonite publishing company to illustrate Sunday School material, I was unsettled by a request in regard to the depiction of Jesus. Requiring illustrations of him with short hair and no mustache was not for historical accuracy, but rather because the editorial staff regarded the mustache as a military symbol since Napoleon had required his solders to wear mustaches. This Mennonite publisher is certainly not alone in altering the historical Christ or scripture for the sake of clarifying some philosophical arguments. Images of the dark Nazarene as a milky-white Florentine prevail today. The setting of this painting is a Stonehenge of hay bales. The composition gives voice to the verse "the stones will cry out." The black flamed candles suggest that God's mystical presence prevails, even when the Son of God is caricatured.
