Amazing

[pecunium]

I have just been informed of the, "Precious Moments Cathedral".

Let that sink in for a moment. Precious moments are a sort of cross between, Hello Kitty, the "Love" dolls and Happy Bible Stories. As a "cathedral".

We are told it's, America's Sistine Chapel

The mind reels.

Sam used his beautiful and innocent Precious Moments messengers to bring well known and loved stories from the Bible to life in dozens of murals – all hand-painted by Sam himself. From the story of creation to the promise of the resurrection, the Chapel tour guide takes guests through the many stories of God’s love for us.

The art on the east side of the Chapel depicts the Bible’s Old Testament stories; while New Testament stories are shown on the west side. The mural “Hallelujah Square” celebrates the lives of real children whose lives ended too soon, but whose stories continue to bring a message of love, hope and peace. All of the murals combine to cover nearly 5,000 square feet – truly a breathtaking sight.

For those who can't bear to miss the wonder which it is feel free to examine the pictures here

For those who don't want to sift their way through the whole set: The Ceiling

One of the walls

The Last Judgement?

Comments

[elorie.livejournal.com]

I once had a job working for someone who had a contract with the family that owns Precious Moments. They were every bit as awful as one might imagine them to be.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

OMG. The cute, it burns.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Blame your ex-wife. I had to spread the pain around.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

She has much to answer for.

[iclysdale.livejournal.com]

And they didn't actually stop. Man, there's no way that I could have passed that up.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I was merely told they now knew of it. Text has narrow bandwidth.

It's free, mayhap they did.

[iclysdale.livejournal.com]

No, I know they didn't go, because I told them I was so unbelievably jealous at them getting to see it, and then they told me they didn't after all.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes, so I found out. They fed me some sort of sob story about not wanting to be ejected for making a scene.

[iclysdale.livejournal.com]

See, I think I would consider it a crowning moment of my life to be ejected from the Precious Moments Cathedral.

Then again, as has been often pointed out, there is fortunately only one of me.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

1) Y'all can stop GETTING ALONG SO WELL NOW.

2) It was pissing down rain.

3) Frankly, I'd rather Roger the Miniature Donkey.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Going into the chapel would have saved you from the rain.

[iclysdale.livejournal.com]

Rogering miniature donkeys is wrong. I'm just saying.

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

Not a lot of non-white folks in his vision of the Bible and the world, are there?

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Nope.

As a fan of remorselessly twee art, all I have to say is this:

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

(http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg87/watermelontail/?action=view&current=sc004d55ca.jpg)

(http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg87/watermelontail/?action=view&current=sc004d55ca04.jpg)

Re: As a fan of remorselessly twee art, all I have to say is this:

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I like those. They are simple.

What they aren't is painfully affected.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

This is ultimate proof of the non-existence of any god. Were there a divinity, it would cause the earth to swallow this saccharinity up.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

It's in Carthage, Missouri, really close to the Kansas border. I guess it would not be a good thing to hope for a tornado to take this monstrosity out.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

And in case you didn't notice, it's the centerpiece of a theme park.

Also, yeah, not so much with the diversity -- but that doesn't surprise me, given his target audience.

[thette.livejournal.com]

There's a token brown and a token black angel in all of the heavenly group scenes, and two Native Americans in Pocahontas gear in the Last Judgement scene.

(I tried saying something sarcastic from their perspective about whiny POC who never are happy, but I couldn't get it to come out of my white mouth in a way that wouldn't sound as if I really meant it to a reader who didn't know me.)

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

I've got a yellow mouth, I'll do it:

"Gawd, you PoC, there ARE a black and brown angel in the cathedral, you know! It's not like we ignored your existance entirely!"

[youraugustine.livejournal.com]

– truly a breathtaking sight.

I cannot disagree.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

The browser on the backup computer I'm (perforce) using for a while loads only a black rectangle for the major photos in the URLs provided, but.... would I be far wrong in predicting that if they did load, the result would be an at-most-mildly-interesting hybrid between Folk Art and chintzy greeting-cards?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The chintzy yes... the folk art, not so much. Precious Moments are Big Business. Think the Care Bear Bible, and you aren't too far off the mark.

[kestrels-nest.livejournal.com]

My eyes! My Eyes!

The mind truly boggles. There has got to be a snarky filk song in this.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Ewwwww...

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

You really should mention this on Making Light.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I thought of it, I shall.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

This would drive the Care Bears to senseless violence.

[glaucon.livejournal.com]

my girlfriend is close friends with the model for timmy angel (http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1509128930056845759zShuQE). he is the son of the founder and creator of Precious Moments, and is a pretty hardcore leftist and a total nut in the best of ways.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Then there is some good in it.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

OMG. And not in a good way.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

That's the most disturbing thing I've seen in months.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

We are told it's, America's Sistine Chapel

My inner artist gave a silent scream of horror on reading those words.

[cmdrsuzdal.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh dear.

[lorebubeck.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God.

That is just so wrong on so many levels.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I'm not up to the challenge of finding words for that fount of horror.

Julia, except I'm pretty sure that people who like it think God darns people to heck.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Here, maybe this will help just a little.

Thorncrown Chapel, in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. (That's the virtual panoramic tour; here are some still photos.) The architect was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and was inspired by Sainte-Chapel in Paris.