O Holy Fright
Relaxing with a cup of coffee on Christmas morning, I began to read the Cape Cod Times. Flipping through, I was shocked when I came face to face with Hobby Lobby's full-page Christmas advertisement. It was stunning, and, after some examination, very disturbing.
The painting depicts a cherubic, blonde, white Jesus-baby playing with three long, sharp, metal spikes on the floor. The only light in the room shines blindingly through one window as if God himself were floating right outside. It falls upon the innocent child and illuminates his form, creating a distinct, long shadow falling behind him: not his true silhouette but the symbol of the cross. His white father (the mortal one) is expressionless, holding a hammer poised to strike something on his workbench. The object cannot be seen, but the hammer is held at exactly the same angle as the crown of the child’s head. Just below, a lovely cursive script declares "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World." John 1:24
Think about it: Lamb of God, sacrificial lamb, blood of the lamb, like a lamb to the slaughter; the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac; the three spikes, the cross, the hammer, the sharp angles of light and shadow, the dark room earthen room like a tomb. That’s some seriously messed-up messaging with the implied threat of future violence, since we all know the story and what happened a few chapters later.
I have studied art, communications, advertising, psychology, and theology throughout my life. As such, I believe that this ad for Hobby Lobby was designed to be deeply provocative, veiled by the benign aesthetic appeal of the artwork. The subliminal element is strong: fear, death of innocents, domination, capital punishment, subservience, guilt, blind faith, certain doom. It has right wing extremism written all over it, like stigmata and crucifix porn for fundamentalists.
If that’s what these folks mean by keeping the Christ in Christmas, I think he’s being held hostage. And tell me, how exactly was he said to have paid for our sins? Not a very festive and uplifting image for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, is it? If anything, it feels more like a solemn warning.
On that note, the last image that came to me was, akin to a crucifix, the silhouette of gallows. I couldn’t get it out of my mind from that day when public gallows were erected to punish a sinner, a traitor, a heretic; gallows erected by a right wing, God-fearing mob intent on violence in word and deed; those very gallows erected on January 6th, 2021 right outside our own House of Representatives, where public servants were then homicidally hunted down the hallways for the crime of not serving the malignant false idol of Donald Trump.
No one was lynched that day, but many were killed, broken, and traumatized for the rest of their lives. Trump wanted this. He planned these evil deeds. And based on what I have learned of Christ’s teachings, of Christ as a role model, I can’t think of any man who is more the polar opposite of Christ than Donald Trump. He is our modern-day Herod with the moral-compass of Caligula. Therefore, it is ironic that Hobby Lobby has been one of his biggest supporters, publicly and financially, despite his devotion to malice, treachery, and manifesting the seven deadly sins.
I believe Jesus Christ himself would be mortified. As someone who was raised as a Roman Catholic (now UU) and shares his name, I know I am. Please join me in boycotting Hobby Lobby.