A Sad Portrait

I watched a documentary recently, that showed little children in Nigeria that were being victimized by their religious leaders--and deemed as witches--all for power and greed. These so called religious clergy, who claimed to be Christians, terrorized families by telling them their children were possessed, and extracting money from them by claiming to exorcise their evil spirits. Hundreds of innocent children were maimed and abandoned in the streets, because their parents were told they brought bad luck and evil to their family and must be punished. I thought how the Savior must feel, seeing these little ones that he loves so dearly being maimed and discarded by their parents; and the pain in turn that their parents must endure feeling the loss of their children--all in the name of religion. True Christianity is based on love and compassion--as Jesus is our example. He taught us to love and serve one another, and that we must become as little children to enter into His kingdom. There are those in Nigeria that are trying to help these children and provide a home, food and medical help for them.

For this reason, I painted this picture of Jesus with these little children. The child on Jesus' lap represents "Abuse"--for all the children that have suffered physical or sexual abuse. The child near Jesus' robe represents "Poverty and Ignorance" --for all the little children that have suffered hunger, disease, and homelessness because of poverty and ignorance. The quote from the bible that comes to mind, is the one from St Matthew 18:6--it reads; "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." The writing under the painting simply says, "If you've done it unto these my children, then you've done it unto Me." I hope that in some small way this might help those true Christian men and women that are fighting to stop this inhumanity, and providing a home for these children. All the proceeds from the sale of this print will go to their organization, " Stepping Stones Nigeria."