Once upon a time some years ago, probably nine or so, I sat in my institute class like a good girl and listened to the lesson. Our instructor presented to us the picture of Christ at the door.
"What sorts of symbolic things do you see here?"
"There's no doorknob!" one particularly astute student said as if he, or anyone else in the room, had never seen the fucking picture before let alone was ever involved in a discussion about it. A million times over.
"That's right, what do you think that means?"
Blahblahblah. I raised my hand. "Christ is wearing red, symbolic of power."
His face sobered. "Now let's be careful with that, Lisa."
Truth. My mother hates red and hates to see me wearing it. During my senior year of high school, we were getting a dress for the homecoming dance and it was black, and I said that I wanted red accessories, and her face went all panicky like, ZOMG my daughter wants to dress like a hooker!
ReplyDeleteI love red. I have a ton of red clothing and some awesome red shoes. It looks great on me. Viva roja!
Or did your teacher mean that red is for COMMIE power?
ReplyDeleteThis was a while ago before all this commie speak. My initial thought was that he believed red = satan.
ReplyDeleteMeh.
He was still wearing red in the picture, and where I come from as a big English and literature girl, colors like red aren't chosen at random. Perhaps it shouldn't have been me to be chastised for pointing out FACT but the painter for not picking, say, purple to denote royalty.
and by fact I mean the fact that Christ was wearing red.
ReplyDeleteNow that I am thinking about it, seems like there are a good few specifically LDS images of Christ in red--I can think of two more, I think, besides the one you're describing.
ReplyDeleteI chiefly associate red with sexual power and passion in general, but of course Satan is the obvious one. Red IS a really odd color for Christ to be depicted wearing...perhaps the artists were thinking along the lines of "blood of the Lamb"?
I thought Christ wearing red represented him spilling his blood for our sins. Although it is a color of power, which is why Catholic cardinals wear red (and priests wear black, another power color).
ReplyDeleteBut still, "let's be careful with that?" What is this, Hill Street Blues? What he meant was, "let's not go outside the lesson manual, Lisa."
Reminds me of the time in SS we were asked, "Why would Lot move to Sodom?" I said, "he lived in a desert, and cities were usually built were the water was." Yeah, that was the wrong answer, too.
I hadn't thought of the red = spilt blood thing.
ReplyDeletelol, i love your answer. awesome. and yeah, that's precisely what he meant.
Your institute teacher's response is puzzling to me. Be careful of what? Making an excellent and astute observation? I always associated Christ dressed in red with scriptural prophecy -- that I now can't remember for the life of me and don't give enough of a shit to go downstairs, find my old quad, and look it up.
ReplyDeleteOn a sort of related note, why do Mormons wear aprons in the temple? To be like Lucifer? I never really got that.
I'm pretty sure when the soldiers mocked Jesus they put a scarlet military cloak on him. It's like him embracing his humiliation, as if it's his destiny. Maybe. I'm just throwing it out there wishing I was in that class to throw it at the teacher.
ReplyDeleteLoved the post...perfect punchline ^_^ (Nothing else to add).
ReplyDelete