I couldn't quite believe my eyes when my eyes fell on an advertisement put out by the Deseret Book Club, a publishing company belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, encouraging members to buy their latest statue of the current Mormon prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, and decorate their offices and homes with it. But, yes, that's exactly what they were advocating (see image to right).
The Roman Catholics are the best known in Christendom for their love of statues, mostly of the Virgin Mary, which are revered and adored in a most idolatrous fashion. The Stalinists and Maoist communists also loved statues - Russia, Eastern Europe and China were once littered with the statues of Lenin, Marxs, Engels, Stalin, and Mao - and today North Korean is filled with the icons of the "Dear Leader", Mr. Kim. Can we expect to see an emerging statue trend in Mormonism in their cult of the personality? With every LDS temple bearing a statue of the nephilim angel Moroni (unlike Christian buildings which carry the cross of Christ) and the portraiture of Joseph Smith already endemic in their literature and art, it is, I suppose, only a natural unfolding of the idolatrous nephilim spirit to see the rise of statutary amongst the Mormons. It would not surprise me to see in the future a whole range of statues available including early LDS leaders and the current LDS apostles and First Presidency.
When I placed this picture on the Answering Mormonism Bulletin Board and challenged the Mormons there to explain this trend I was met with (predictable) silence. What could they say? I did, however, get a generous reply when I asked the Board to tell me what they thought GBH was holding in his hand. Almost everyone agreed it was a banana. Perhaps someone who has been foolish enough to buy this statue can at least resolve that mystery for us!