Mormon leaders condemned for photoshopping a 1650s painting to cover Mary's cleavage

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

The Church of the Latter-day Saint (LDS) have been condemned for photoshopping a 17th Century painting of the Virgin Mary to make her clothing more modest.

LDS released 18 nativity scene images for its members to download for the holiday season, including an edited image of Italian painter Carlo Maratta's 1650s painting The Holy Night painting, which has since been taken off the site.

In Maratta's original artwork, Mary can be seen flanked by three angels while she held her newborn close to her chest, which the painter included a tiny bit of cleavage.

However, the classic artwork was modified before being released to the church's members, drawing her neckline up higher and eliminated the angels surrounding her.





https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11588083/Mormon-Church-condemned-photoshopping-painting-Virgin-Mary-cover-bust-shoulders.html


The European sector of the church also blurred Jesus' genitals in Domenico Ghirlandaio's nativity scene (pictured) this year during their Christmas concert




In 2011, it also altered Carl Bloch's The Resurrection by removing the angels' wings and covering the females' shoulders





https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11588083/Mormon-Church-condemned-photoshopping-painting-Virgin-Mary-cover-bust-shoulders.html

[Shermann]

1. I don't believe I've ever heard "Jesus' genitals" being discussed before

Now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak, I have many questions.

Like, why does he even need genitals? Or any organs for that matter?

[Croney]

2. They say he drank and ate stuff, so he'd need to pee and poop.

Holy fertilizer!

[Shermann]

3. That whole man being made in God's image thing baffles me

God is the agent that supposedly created the Cosmos. The diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light years, so he'd presumably have a form conducive with zipping around in it. What in the world would he need with feet? Or hands? Or a cock and balls? Or any anatomical features whatsoever??

[Croney]

6. We aren't supposed to ask those questions!

My personal favorite rabbit hole is the search for answers to these: If I'm going to see my loved ones in heaven, what if I didn't really like them, do I still have to see them? What if I want to see Elvis but he isn't interested? Am I going to see them as dried-up old dead people or 20-year-olds or 50-year-olds?

Nobody ever has answers. 😒

[Shermann]

9. Hell is problematic too

What is the point of torturing souls if they aren't ever given a second chance? Also, an "eternity" seems excessive. Wouldn't there be a diminishing return after, say, 100 years of torment?

It seems like a lot of trouble; it would probably be better to just zap them into non-existence. Studies have shown that the deterrence effect from severe punishments is limited.

[Croney]

13. Google suggests 117 billion of our species have existed on Earth.

They must be packed into Heaven and Hell like sardines. I'm not going to either place. I'll push up daisies in a field... so much nicer to imagine.

[msfiddlestix]

32. ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ n/t

[Maraya1969]

14. Yea and what if you were married a few times and some of them were married a few

times, do you all just get together as a group? And whose kids are included - just biological kids or step kids and then those step kids also have another parent.

omg It could go on forever!!!

[Croney]

17. It's scary! Who gets to make these decisions?

People are just nuts.

[ret5hd]

4. Seeing as he was born perfect, was he born...

circumcised?

[FreeState]

26. He was Jewish

so yes probably.

[panader0]

36. Born a eunuch according to the Mormons.

[Hekate]

7. Ah, perhaps I can help you here. Because he was a son (i.e. male) and Jewish (ipso facto) ...

Last edited Sun Jan 1, 2023, 06:33 AM - Edit history (1)

… he had to be circumcised in accordance with Jewish law. That ritual was done on the eighth day after his birth, at which time he was also named.

The Catholic Church celebrated the day as the Feast of the Circumcision until 1960. Not sure why they stopped, but it is now one of Mary’s feast days.

Anyway, if no male genitalia, then no circumcision of the foreskin.

In addition, Jesus was supposed to be fully God and fully Man, so he needed those bits.

Finally, artists in the Renaissance were not shy about depicting the human body, especially infant males and Mary the Mother of Jesus in the act of nursing her baby boy. Every part of that act was considered sacred — her breasts that nourished her son, her milk, all of it.

The fact that the artists chose pretty girls as models was just a bonus.

Hekate, your friendly local mythologist

[FakeNoose]

12. It's the Feast of the Epiphany - the Catholic Church celebrates it on Jan. 6th

As I recall (hazy though my memory is) the Circumcision and Epiphany got rolled into one. When I was growing up in the 1950's and 60's it used to be a holy day of obligation, meaning attendance at Mass on that day is required. I'm not sure if they still do that though. I'm not much of a Catholic any more.

[drmeow]

15. I thought Epiphany

was when the three wise men finally got there?

[FakeNoose]

21. By the time the Magi got there he was already circumcized

Jesus was 2 or 3 years old when they showed up. Maybe that's why the Church changed the name.
I don't know, I haven't been keeping up with this stuff.

[Maraya1969]

16. What is supposed to be so spiritual about circumcision? I watched on on Youtube and

frankly it looked awful and barbaric.

[Hekate]

22. When your tribe decrees it & it's a mark of manhood & membership in the tribe

That makes it the physical ritual embodiment of the spiritual link between god and person and tribe.

https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/doyle_circumcision.pdf
Ritual male circumcision is known to have been practised by South Sea Islanders, Australian Aborigines, Sumatrans, Incas, Aztecs, Mayans and Ancient Egyptians. Today it is still practised by Jews, Muslims and many tribes in East and Southern Africa

[CTyankee]

35. When my son was born I asked my husband because my ob asked me if our baby son should be

circumsized, because he would do it right after he was born. I asked my husband and he said yes (he was circumsized at birth). In those days, I never thought of it as a political issue, which it became shortly after.

[msfiddlestix]

33. ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ n/t

[vlyons]

10. So if he was born of a virgin,

where did he get his male chromosomes?

[Hekate]

23. Mary was a "young woman" before she was mistranslated to a "virgin mother." In any case, chromosomes

Last edited Sun Jan 1, 2023, 06:58 AM - Edit history (1)

… are neither here nor there in mythological stories. Just as a woman might dream of a white elephant piercing her side and rendering her pregnant, resulting in her giving birth 9 months later in a grove in Lumbini.

[Bucky]

29. It might have been a male white elephant. They have Y chromosomes

And even if it was a female elephant, there's no reason why she couldn't have had human semen on her tusk. And indeed, it would have been the jism of a truly brave and capable man

[Permanut]

5. Yeah, but Mary's head is only partly covered..

They should have fixed that as well.

[dalton99a]

8. We know Mormons hate sex

[Bucky]

30. He sure looks happy

[panader0]

37. I would be absolutely miserable with four wives.

[LeftInTX]

11. They also made her flat chested. Did not know they had leotards back then!

[Maraya1969]

18. You're right, she is flat chested and she also looks like a very young girl. The original

looks like a woman. It's sad also because the lighting in the first picture is beautiful.

[Hekate]

28. You're right: the lighting in the original is sublime, & the infant appears to be the source ...

…of the radiance.

In flattening and concealing the breasts, the Mormons who prudishly bowdlerized these beautiful paintings also removed the visual reference to the motherly nourishment provided by the young woman who had just given physical birth to the infant.

I really don’t get it.

[getagrip_already]

19. Where did the cherubs go?

And what did the Mormons do to them? I don't even want to think of the horrors........

[Takket]

20. i cannot even begin to describe how offensive this is

it is like changing the ending of a book or a stanza in a poem someone else made. you do not change or alter an artists vision. if you don't like the female body you are perfectly free to make your own painting of it completely covered, but don't alter someone else's work. completely immoral and unethical

[catbyte]

24. I didn't realize that Mormons had a thing against angels..

What's the deal with that?

[FreeState]

25. Angela don't have bodies (or wings)

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/gs/angels?lang=eng

Angels who are spirits have not yet obtained a body of flesh and bone, or they are spirits who have once had a mortal body and are awaiting resurrection.

—-

It’s also odd that they made an outfit for Mary that would cover her garments. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_garment

[frogmarch]

27. "Angels in the Bible Were

Mind-Melting Horror Beasts"



https://www.cracked.com/article_28289_reminder-angels-in-bible-were-mind-melting-horror-beasts.html

snip:

In fact, ancient writers seem to have become locked in a bit of an arms race over how weird they could make their angels. The Apocalypse Of Zephaniah describes angels with leopard faces, boar tusks, long hair and eyes "mixed with blood," who could easily alternate their angelic duties with playing bass in Gwar. In the Testament Of Abraham, Abe bumps into the angel of death, who sports 14 faces, making those lame cherubs look like mere Batman villains. To make things even better, each of the angel's 14 faces is so terrifying that 7,000 people drop dead just from standing nearby. Unfortunately, the Abraham author wasn't nearly as creative as the Zephaniah guy, so about half the faces are just him listing different kinds of snakes, which obviously pales next to the sun crocodiles.

[dembotoz]

31. so the church cut off his wee wee....and i thought the cross thing was bad.....

Does porn hub in utah have a fetish section for religious paintings?

[Joinfortmill]

34. These men are crazy & afraid they can't control themselves