Intentionally or not, the writers of this screenplay portrayed the sinful downside of popular, image-driven piety as well as has ever been done. While saying grace, the narcissistic and vapid Ricky reveals that he prefers an oddly specific (8 pounds, 6 ounces!) version of Jesus—the pudgy, non-threatening, cute baby version common to the seasonal piety of greeting cards, Precious Moments figurines, and—yes—nativity scenes. But we don’t need a personalized Jesus, mentally assembled and false. 

No one (as far as we know) advocates that Presbyterian and Reformed elders conduct special November and December home visits to determine whether members are displaying manger scenes with all the characters of the Nativity present and accounted for. What might be reasonable though is for elders to inventory their own church buildings and worship spaces and rightly order them by removing images of the Second Person of the Trinity.

How might these elders have come to the conviction that images of any Person of the Godhead do not belong in their churches? A plain reading of the Second Commandment might suffice. Or maybe one of the expositions of that commandment found in the Westminster Standards:

Q 109. What sins are forbidden in the second commandment?

A. The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever; all worshiping of it, or God in it or by it; the making of any representation of feigned deities, and all worship of them, or service belonging to them; all superstitious devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any other pretense whatsoever; simony; sacrilege; all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath appointed.

Now, let us allow that many Presbyterian Church in America elders have (by way of “Good Faith Subscription”1) unsubscribed to portions of the Standards, the one quoted above being among the most (un)popular in this respect. Nevertheless, (allowable personal reservations aside) the constitution of the church remains and ought to guide the practice of every elder, session, and congregation, at least in their public worship and public representations.

Apart from the letter of the Scripture and the Standards there are theological and practical, commonsense considerations concerning images that every elder ought to take seriously. Theologically, whole-Christ Christology argues against images. If we would not have Jesus portrayed on a cross in our church buildings (as on a Romanist crucifix), why would we have him as a plastic or porcelain statue in a crib? He is truly God and truly man—no image can portray him truthfully. He is now seated in heaven in a glorified body; his present and eternal likeness has not yet been revealed to us.

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