'Too Catholic' Jesus finds new home after cast out of Baptist church in Lexington
Jesus will have a new home.
Pastor Jeff Wright of Red Bank Baptist Church says the Jesus statue on the front of the church is being donated to another church.
"We are working with a local church that wants to take it," Wright says. "They will remove it when they decide to. But I don’t know when that might be."
The statue has lived on Red Bank Baptist's facade for 11 years, since a women's Sunday school class voted to have the art commissioned. The class was part of the process of that allowed the sculpture to be removed.
Some concerns persist about how the statue is attached to the Red Bank church. If it's attached by an adhesive, the sculpture may crumble when it's removed, according to Wright.
But Wright said the church won't change its mind about having the statue removed. The removal was approved by church leadership, those who originally commissioned the art, and the congregation, which voted 131 to 40 to take it down.
‘This is not a social justice issue," Wright says. "It’s a church governance issue. It has nothing to do with the community. We’re not being unjust to anyone. ... We just want to be able to worship the way our doctrine asks and let others worship the way their doctrine asks.”
The pending removal became public after a letter from Wright to the statue's artist was posted on social media. The letter told the artist, Bert Baker, about the church's intent to take down the statue and informed Baker he could get the statue if he'd like.
The pastor's letter said "the art is causing some confusion in the community," going on to say that people view the Jesus statue as Catholic.
"As a result, it is bringing into question the theology and core values of Red Bank Baptist Church," Wright's letter said.
The artist responded that the Red Bank community was never confused about the denomination of Red Bank Baptist Church and that the pastor's letter also singled out the Catholic church, wrongly presenting the denomination as "deficient in theology and lacking in Christian core values."
Baker said he didn't want the statue destroyed.
"I'm not interested in stirring the pot, but people not liking it because it looked too Catholic is crazy, man," Baker told The State.
Wright says he's comfortable with the removal decision.
"The Jesus I serve is not on the front of the building. He lives in my heart," Wright says.
This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 3:02 PM with the headline "'Too Catholic' Jesus finds new home after cast out of Baptist church in Lexington."