Controversey In Vancouver

Sunday afternoon as we drove to our hotel on the bus from the airport, we passed Harbour Green Park, which sits overlooks Coal Harbour. In the park sits a large sculpture of a church, but, as you can see in the photo below, it's standing on it's head, so to speak. Angie and I found it amusing given that we are in Vancouver for a church-related conference. To me, it symbolized what we sometimes need to do with our churches in order to have new life.


One of the speakers at the conference even had a picture of the sculpture in the opening slide of her presentation. Her daughter had found it on a web site about Vancouver, and Jeunee thought it was a good image to use. She didn't know that the sculpture is only a block from our hotel.

Here's another view:

This morning The Globe and Mail carried a story on page 3. At the top of page 3. It seems that the City of Vancouver will be removing the sculpture from the park because some Christians have called it "blasphemous," and some local residents have complained that it interferes with their view of Coal Harbour. The Vancouver Park Board voted unanimously to remove it from the park.

In the article I also learned the title of the sculpture: Device to Root Out Evil. Look at the pictures again. Does the sculpture bring to mind another fairly common object? Think about the position of the steeple. That's what hit me this afternoon when I was looking at the pictures I took. It looks like a power drill. I'm sure there are all sorts of other things that can be seen in it, but that's what I saw this afternoon.

If nothing else, the sculpture has sparked conversation. And isn't that one of the things art is supposed to do?

Peace,
Jeffri