Keep The Ten Commandments

Crazed Christianity - just the way I like it. Both postings insist you to follow the Ten Commandments and listen to Christ Radio at 53AM.

Best line: "Teenages and people in Hell are suffering terrible."

There wasn't an intact posting of this one so I had to capture it in halves.

Best line: "A face of a woman was on a bats face on a front page news."

Found on Broadway above Union Square.

Tony Alamo Christian Ministries

I remember Tony Alamo. I first read one of his crazy newsletters when I was a kid in Los Angeles. If that's a picture of Tony, it must be an old one.

Handed to me in Union Square.

The Campaign Against Scientology

Someone has it in for Scientology. Through the websites whyweprotest.net and xenu.net , and now fliers, the enemies of Tom Cruise are waging an info war on the house that L. Ron Hubbard built. I found all three of these around Union Square in a week.

I don't know. Which 70s sitcom were you on?

The people who vehemently oppose cults are often as fanatical as the cults themselves. If everyone ignores Scientology, it will go away.

The Message: Procession

This is a recollection of a Catholic parade on Aruba with some scientific words mixed in. At the bottom it says , "Un message: No Peace...No Justice! God Bless Papa "

Art or insanity? Te inclusion of words that are both highlighted and double underlined point to the latter.

Found in Union Square.

God's Security Guard

A profound faith in God will make a man do many things - quit drinking, settle down with a good woman, or paint his camper all crazy.

This sort of divinely inspired art is a genre unto itself. Back in the old days, like during the Renaissance and before, the top artists of the western world created religious art almost exclusively. Now it's left to the self-taught.

Jesus was a carpenter, not an artist, so it's no surprise that His work is lacking in draftsmanship and rendering technique.

Rob, our west coast correspondent, found this in Los Angeles so there has to be a connection to show biz. That's one thing unique to L.A., everyone is assessed by their proximity to celebrity.

Kalindi's World Message

This is the cover of a CD I found on Avenue A. Copies had been left on random horizontal surfaces to be picked up.

According to the Gourasana website, "Kalindi was given the destiny by Gourasana to be a spiritual Master for the world and the Voice of God, to speak for Him, to bring His teachings, His guidance, His love, His energy, and the exquisite truth that the world has been crying for."

This is Gourasana, The Golden One. Gourasana is an incarnation of God in the body of a guy named David Swanson. He looks like some dude who thinks he's found a way to make a lot money and bang a lot of chicks with something called Miracle of Love^®, a vaguely Eastern religion.

Sounds like complete horse shit®

What Money Can Buy

Found in the subway. This is the sermon, preserving the emphasis:

WHAT MONEY CAN BUY
Money Will Buy
A bed BUT NOT sleep.
Books BUT NOT brains.
Food BUT NOT appetite.
Finery BUT NOT beauty.
A House BUT NOT a home.
Medicine BUT NOT health.
Luxuries BUT NOT culture.
Amusement BUT NOT happiness.
A crucifix BUT NOT a Savior.
A church pew BUT NOT heaven.

The rest is an appeal to let Jesus be your savior.

Seeing how many churches in NYC are being converted into luxury condos, it looks like Jesus is literally losing ground to dead presidents.

On 12th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues. You can see already how the remains of the church will be completely overwhelmed by the building behind it.

The Christian Scientists will remain on the bottom floor but the upper floors will be residences.

On West 4th Street between 6th Avenue and Washington Square Park. God just can't afford to live in this neighborhood anymore.

Leviticus - Part 8

Two pieces by Leviticus found on Park Avenue South just north of Union Square. The uniting theme is the use of crayons.

The first one I found is a portrait on a page torn from a sketchbook.

The second is a page from a coloring book of Bible stories. The story concerns Joseph bringing his family back to Egypt.

The skull superimposed over Joseph's face and genital -like shapes over the bodies of both figures suggest a sex-death motif while the riot of color is an allusion to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

CSI:New York

This is another Jews for Jesus flyer trying to be relevant, this time by borrowing interest from the popular CSI television series.

The premise is "What do you think Mac Taylor and his CSI colleagues would have done if they had to investigate the Death of Y'shua (the Jewish way to say Jesus)? Who would they pin the murder on?"

Then it goes on to work in every character from the show as they review the facts of the case as described in the Bible.



The biggest flaw in hypothetical situation is that the NYPD would have no reason to investigate this case. No murder was committed. It would be like looking into someone who was sentenced to death in Iran. Their legal system doesn't work like ours does, and we may disapprove of it, but it's out of our jurisdiction.


The flyer concludes with "the evidence points to all of us being guilty, since anyone who ever sinned put put Y'shua on the cross."

Uh...no. No New York judge would ever convict someone for a murder committed two thousand years before he was born. At least I hope not. I don't want to take the fall for what happened to Saint Bartholomew.

La Passio

I spent a week in Barcelona and brought back a few street posters. This image of Jesus Christ Superhero was all over the city.

Christ must be the most recognizable religious figure in the world. Really, I wouldn't know Mohammed if I ran into him on the 6 train. Buddha is up there too, but Christ's look is more standardized. Good brand building, Christianity!

Peace Be With You

I noticed this, thinking that it was going to be some sort of religious curiosity. It is, but not the kind I imagined. "Peace Be With You" is the title of a novel that the flyer promises is "so controversial and provocative that many bookstores are afraid to carry it!!" I followed the flyer's directions to RaimondoSalomone.com and read the synopsis. The only thing that makes it "controversial and provocative" is that one of the characters in the sordid tale is a priest. Really I think that the reason that "many bookstores are afraid to carry it" is that they don't think that they can move many copies of a novel by an unknow author.

HELL

I found this chunk of fire and brimstone on the sidewalk in The first part of the text explains how the Bible condemns homosexuality and the second part claims that by giving yourself over to Christ you will be saved and no longer gay.

This is exactly the wrong way to win people over. It's like if Revlon ran an ad that had UGLY as the headline (with Unattractive and You extending from the U and Y) with copy citing Revlon corporate literature that specifically forbids not wearing makeup as not only unsightly but also morally bereft. After setting up the problem, the solution would be a face full of Revlon products that would transform you into Halle Berry no matter how ghastly you look at the moment.

Onward Christian Taliban

I found this, and others like it scattered below 14th St, stuck to lamp poles and parking meters.

I like the phrase "gay Armageddon". It sounds like the name of a hardcore band. There's already a grindcore band called Anal Holocaust.

Project Light

Christians don't post many flyers in NYC and I had to go to Long Island City to find this one. This event is giving away lots of free stuff - Bibles, clothing, hotdogs, popcorn, sodas, fruit juices, cold water, and "lots of personal items for your home."

If you read the Bible, you'll see that Jesus used to provide snacks and refreshments to his followers, like loaves, fishes and wine. He probably handed out some personal items for the home too, but that never made it into the gospel.