In November of 2017, the Museum of the Bible opened in Washington DC. For those that have been to visit it, they say it is an extremely interesting place to visit. It is certainly a far more scholarly attempt than the epic failure of The Ark Experience in Kentucky that draws in people from various COG splinter groups in the Eastern part of the country.
A reader here sent me the following photographs of a display in the museum. Low and behold it has a display featuring the work Basil Wolverton. Thankfully it is not the Bible Story that the Worldwide Church of God published, but a book designed by Monte Wolverton as a tribute to his father. It is a vast collection of Basil Wolverton's illustrations that were published by the Worldwide Church of God and other sources over the decades.
At least they did not have it open to the drowning people clawing at the ark.
ReplyDeleteWCG's (Now PCG's) Bible Story books were borderline psychological child abuse. How many were traumatized by the drowning people clawing at the ark or waiting to get picked off by birds of prey? What about the horrific pictures used to illustrate Revelation? Fear needed to be ingrained in church kids early on in order to keep them in line. The problem is, most of the kids that grew up with that crap are no longer part of any of the COG cults now.
ReplyDeleteStop repeat stupidity like this. You are belittling real abuse. One of my parents read me those books and beat the crap out of me and my siblings. "Bordeline abuse" my ass.
DeleteAbuse takes on more forms than just physical. The Church did abuse it's members whether you're willing to admit it or not.
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ReplyDeleteI wonder how many people know Mad magazine in the COGs and that WCG’s featured artist drew for Mad magazine as well.
ReplyDeleteThere were many drawings in the bible story books that were for mature audiences only, but the goal of hwa was to scare his sheeple into obedience. That was his business practice. Have you looked at his illustrations in the spokeman's club manual? Gross, mostly.
ReplyDeleteFFS
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I liked to trace the "beam in your eye" drawing.
I really enjoyed the art work as a kid.
Some 10 years ago I saw a book on pop art and Monte at Changi airport on my way to New York. Had to board and amazon was still a start up I didn't trust.
nck
Mad magazine should be used for Sermon Content!
ReplyDeleteThis Sabbath's Topic...
"What , Me Worry?"
The Book of Revelation and many portions of the Bible border on child abuse. Dad taking his son of promise up a mountain after lying to him and wanting to slit his throat and burn the remains comes to mind. That was God's psychopath test and Abe passed
ReplyDeleteIt once was true that the followers of Herbert W. Armstrong were schooled to avoid "the world's" collection of Bible ephemera. R/WCG was to be the sole source of all things Bible, probably because the authority structure recognized that there was a high likelihood of members leaving if they became aware of additional sets of facts. For sincere, and serious church members, the correct path for incoming knowledge was that it was to be filtered through, and corrected by what was presented by Herbert W. Armstrong.
ReplyDeleteThere were a handful of what I call "vortexes" (because they had an incredible amount of creative energy surrounding them) who were members of the Armstrong COG. Certainly, Basil Wolverton was very prominent on that shortlist. I know that many members, including myself, were very proud to have these people amongst us. Although they were not church members, Jason Bonham could duplicate the incredible drumming of his father, Led Zeppelin's John Bonham. In a similar fashion, Monte is very capable of duplicating his father Basil's work, and creating new characters in the same style. Anyone who regularly reads "Wolvertoons" immediately realizes that this kind of talent runs in the genes. There was a time when "The Bible Story" might have been frowned upon by mainstream Christians, but in the post "Left Behind" era, it has come in alignment with other end times ministries, and therefore definitely has its place in a Bible museum. Monte is quite right in preserving his father's legacy, as certainly other artists, such as Robert Crumb and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth borrowed much from Basil's secular work from the '40s. I'd have to guess that Basil's work occasionally appears at Comicon.
Still, I could never understand, as a young WCG boy, why it was OK for Basil to write for MAD Magazine, but not OK for me to openly read it. One of the bad things that happened in my childhood was that one time when my brother got sick and tired of all the abuse and ran away from home, he took our secret collection of MADs with him. They were all confiscated and destroyed by my parents after the police brought my brother home. Still, I was thankful that he didn't add my cigarettes and beer to his escape pack!
BB
Dennis, your comment about the story of Abraham and Isaac is pertinent to an anthology I am composing, with the working title "Fables of the Gods." The pattern is to summarize a story that includes a god or gods from one ancient tradition or another. Then I follow it with a moral like those attached to Aesop's fables.
ReplyDeleteHere's the moral for this story: "Not being human themselves, the gods see no reason to follow basic rules of human decency when they play a practical joke. Deal with it."
Your emphasis on Abraham's culpability is equally justifiable. In fact, way more so, if we're talking psychology instead of theology.