A member of the Harrison County school board said if police recover the stolen portrait of Jesus that has hung outside the Bridgeport High School principal’s office for nearly 40 years, it would be put back in its place.
“I can assure the ACLU that when we recover it, it will go back up,” said Michael L. Queen. “Or there will be maybe a picture similar to it that will go back up.”The ACLU and another civil rights group on June 28 jointly sued the school board on First Amendment grounds to have the portrait taken down.
The heist came just a day after a federal judge in Clarksburg set a trial date for Feb. 26, 2007, in the case against the Warner Sallman “Head of Christ” print, which the school board voted Tuesday to fight with about $150,000 in donated cash.
Before 4 a.m. Thursday, a suspect broke a window to a technology lab in the back of the school and headed straight for the portrait. The suspect covered his face when near security cameras and made off with the picture, school officials said. The suspect apparently didn’t disturb or steal anything else.
Heh. Indeed.
This theft actually tells you a lot about the area I am from- the person who stole it was probably just sick of both sides of this debate and the all the out of town reporters.
Bruce Moomaw
At least he didn’t draw horns on it.
Bruce Moomaw
Also, come to think of it, compare the overall national reaction to this event in this country to the screaming paranoid hysteria we would have seen in a Moslem country had it been a picture of Mohammed (and had pictures of Mohammed been allowed in Moslem culture).
HyperIon
aka “the Gentile Jesus”
…preferred by Southern Baptists everywhere
Kimmitt
I cannot possibly think of a better way for a school to spend $150k, donated or no.
Ancient Purple
When I was in grad school in the mid 90s, my university had a Warner Sallman art show.
By the end of the first three or four “works” of art, I was simply ready to leave. Awful, awful art.
The only thing missing was a cityscape of Stockholm in the background of each painting.
Jack McGuigan
Maybe the painting (actually a reproduction) was stolen by the Art Department of the high school as part of its ecucational and aesthetic responsibility.
Hyperion
AP! (sorry no formatting buttons)
you said:
When I was in grad school in the mid 90s, my university had a Warner Sallman art show.
bible college?
Ancient Purple
Dear God, no. (Pun intended.)
The Divinity School on campus.
It was specifically put up to show bad art for what it was.
The Other Steve
Wow, am I ever glad I don’t live in that town.
I thought it was bad enough when the religious whackadoodles here forced the school to not consider Halloween a holiday for kids.
Zifnab
Technically, I don’t see anything wrong with it. The technique is certainly nothing modern – its not Art Deco or anything. And this was done in the southern US during the 40s. Not surpring that he should make a go at immitating the more traditional renaissance style of artwork.
It’s not mind blowing, but its not bad per say.
chopper
i’d sneak in and put up in the empty spot a portrait of jesus as a black man. see where that goes.
nyrev
Well, obviously Bridgeport High’s got all the new football uniforms they need. New books are overrated. American History was all downhill after the Ford Administration anyway.
Aaron Adams
As a native of Pass Christian, Harrison County, MS., all I can say is: Heh! Indeed.
Punchy
They had a picture of some Mexican guy in the office and the ACLU sued?
The ACLU hates immigrants, apparently.
ThymeZone
Sorry, I missed the meeting. Was it a portrait of Jesus H. Christ?
SeesThroughIt
I think it was a picture of his loser brother, Jesus Billy Christ.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
He turned wine into vinegar, He walked upon the waterbed, and He sighed for your sins. (While chiding you for them.) What’s not to like, really?