Time for another collection of pictures I took while harvesting the town signs of Delaware County. A good collection of this collection was actually taken in Dubuque County. It starts with finishing up the pictures of the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Petersburg, but also includes pictures of the Saint Boniface Catholic Church in New Vienna. Both are absolutely beautiful churches. The church in New Vienna, definitely has a strong German influence to it as one could guess based on the fact it is in a town called New Vienna.

New Vienna

There are two things I take from this set of pictures.

One. I love the fact that many Catholic Churches are unlocked and vagabonds like me can go inside and photograph them. Personally, I think that is the way that all churches should be. I’m not naive. I know one of the reasons these churches can do that is that their worship space is one building and their office space is a different building. It doesn’t change how I feel though.

Two. I’m infatuated with the black Jesus sculpture. I’ve never seen one in a church in Iowa. At least not that I recall. I can only remember seeing the white Jesus sculpture that looks absolutely nothing like Jesus looked like.

It reminds me of that line from that LeCrae song:

And I love God
I love Jesus, the one out of Nazareth
Not the European with the ultra perm and them soft eyes and them thin lips

Now let’s face it, this sculpture still has that ultra perm and them thin lips, but it is a step in the right direction.

Remember most of the artistic depictions we see of Jesus aren’t based on what Jesus looked like. More than anything they are based on depictions of Greek and Roman gods. Particularly Zeus.

Either way, it is interesting to see.

There is still one more collection of images from my trip to Delaware County to share.