in my book, the guy who wrote 'big lie' on the famous stain is admirable

[mopaul]

victor gonzales, the man who took a shoe polish applicator and wrote 'big lie' over the infamous underpass stain in chicago, has a lot of guts.

[Taxloss]

1. A lot of guts, certainly, and he deserves

credit for attempting to puncture some absurd mob hysteria, but hero? I don't think so.

This idolatry grinds down faiths - the strongest feelings against it will be from within the church.

[mopaul]

2. ok

i changed hero to admirable

[Taxloss]

5. Gosh, mopaul, you didn't have to do that!

I was just putting my $0.02.

"Hero" is such an overused word though, especially by the Reich Wing.

[mopaul]

6. i agree

hero should be reserved for real heroes. sports figures and rock stars and george bush are not heroes.

[Maddy McCall]

3. Did you see the interview with him? He said he did it because the Bible

says that Christians are to have no graven images, no other gods before God.

He is obviously a Christian, so his reason for doing it makes sense.

[mopaul]

4. a good latino christian at that

i dont' see him as a zealot anyway

[Bridget Burke]

19. A good Fundamentalist Protestant....

Even after Fundies stop believing in God, they keep on hating Catholics.

[Inland]

7. Finally, you find a religious fervor you approve of!

The people who admire the stain for religious reasons are probably dangerous, whearas the guy who practices a little self help vandalism because his religious beliefs demand it has a lot of guts! Why the sudden conversion? Because this religious guy annoyed other believers, which is good enough for you.

[Mika]

8. He vandalized a salt stain on a highway wall?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Inland]

9. Um....yeah. But maybe its your kind of vandalism, so you don't mind.

I'm pretty surprised to see somebody get a laugh out of the concept of writing on public walls is vandalism.

But maybe it's simply that you know it is vandalism, but it isn't your wall, your highway, or your people standing in devotion, so it might be the type of vandalism that doesn't bother you so much.

Whatever.

[mopaul]

14. no conversion here

i see a stain.

[Inland]

20. You see the good in religious zeal

as long as it is directed against other religious people.

The old, enemy of my enemy bit has you admiring the religious zeal of the iconoclast. Say, mind keeping your sectarian disputes out of our faces?

[mopaul]

21. please put me on ignore

as you have in real life

[Inland]

23. Just pointing out how funny it is, you gettin all admiring about religion

as long as it leads to intramural squabbling. It's probably symptomatic of a lack of a principled approach, but like you imply, it's hardly worth the time to figure out.

[Bridget Burke]

22. Even Born Again Atheists can't shake off their upbringing...

This state of things gives a fearful significance to the second commandment, and shows how wisely, and with what decision Moses met the reigning evil of his times through the earth when he thus enacted, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation."

This law not only cut down the tree of idolatry, but also extirpated its root among the Jews. This is a point on which there can be no dispute; the only question then, is, was there any loophole left for its introduction to the Christian dispensation? This question, too, we presume, can only be answered in one way.

The point, therefore, to be determined, is, has idolatry found its way into any portion of the Christian Church, so called? and if so, is it the Church of Rome? The reply of the Protestants, is "Yes, she is guilty!" Such, and so grave is the charge we have to bring against the Popedom.

www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=imageworship

Images must be destroyed: Whether great works of art or chance images that resonate with the more simple among the faithful. (Although the Surrealists did quite a bit of work with "chance" images.)

Grim, joyless & sad result of a Sectarian upbringing.

[Inland]

25. They don't want the belief, but they want the fighting.

Funny that.

[bvar22]

10. I still can't figure out why....

...staring at that picture made me horney.

[markus]

13. As in, a little higher and over to your left?

n/t

[kliljedahl]

11. I hadn't heard about

the "desecration" of the Virgin Mary Vagina, got a link?


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. here's a link

Police: Man defaced Virgin Mary image


Friday, May 6, 2005 Posted: 12:14 PM EDT (1614 GMT)
The words 'big lie' are scrawled across the stain that some believe is an image of the Virgin Mary.

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- A man was arrested for allegedly scrawling the words "big lie" over a stain on an expressway underpass that some believed was an image of the Virgin Mary.

Authorities then painted over the stain because it had been defaced, police spokesman David Banks said Friday.

Authorities charged Victor Gonzalez, 37, of Chicago, Illinois, with criminal damage to state property, a misdemeanor. Witnesses had seen him painting the image, Banks said. A telephone listing for Gonzalez could not immediately be found.

A steady stream of the faithful and the curious, many carrying flowers and candles, had flocked to the emergency turnoff area under the Kennedy Expressway since last month. On Friday, some people gathered at the site and expressed sorrow.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/06/underpass.virgin.ap/

[Stinky The Clown]

12. I read your post too quickly .... I read "underpass" as "underpants"

Add the word "stain" and I was wonderin' where you were going with this one ...... whew!

[sweetheart]

15. similarly

I had visions of the big stain on the blue dress, and how a shoe
polish applicator would rather cover the whole dress to say "big lie".

And how was that heroic? :-) Between the lines of the author's
intent are so many nuances of other stains and other lies.

[DistressedAmerican]

16. Should have just taken a bucket of water and a brush. It WAS Just Salt!

Not vandalism, Clean-up! The city wasn't doing its job. He's just a concerned citizen...

[dbt]

17. Citizen mopaul, it is my Civic Duty to admonish you once again:

You are SO going to Hell! They are building an Express Elevator in your honor.

:rofl:

[mopaul]

18. head first, in a handbasket

the real rockers are all in hell, that's the place for me.

[BiggJawn]

24. Why haven't the 2 who "restored" the "Image" been arrested?

That brown paint they removed was State Property, too, wasn't it?

Must be as my daughter explains it "Dad, this is CHICAGO. All the Cops take the day off to march in the Paddy's Day parade. They're all Catholic. Go Figure..."

"Our Lady of the Underpass"...

[CBGLuthier]

27. He was a jerk

Mind you, I don't think he should be charged with vandalism since everyone else was writing on the wall. but..

Exactly what purpose did he serve by doing what he did?

Who exactly did it hurt and in what way did it hurt for some people io believe in it?

Can you rationaly explain to me how it hurts society for some people to get comfort from a silly appariton.

The guy was an asshole.

Not a hero by any stretch of the imagination