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Harry Anderson Painting Imitated for Deadpool Film Poster — and More News Shorts

2018-12-14-news

In this week’s news round-up, a painting by Adventist artist Harry Anderson is imitated in Deadpool film poster and sparks online petition, Longview SDA is closing its food distribution center, two Oregon Adventist schools collect donations for Paradise students, Cayman Academy students reach community through music, and an LLU study shows marijuana use by kidney donors poses no risk to donors or recipients.

Harry Anderson Painting Imitated for Deadpool Film Poster. The latest incarnation of the Deadpool film franchise has sparked a holy war of sorts because the movie poster for the action flick appears to have at least borrowed heavily from a famous depiction of Jesus. The poster for Once Upon a Deadpool, which opened recently, appears similar to a painting titled “The Second Coming” by Seventh-day Adventist artist Harry Anderson. The original work features Jesus returning to Earth, surrounded by angels blowing trumpets. The movie poster has the masked Deadpool accompanied by characters from the film, some playing musical instruments, along with a small dog. The tagline reads: “Yule Believe in Miracles.” Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which commissioned Anderson’s work in the 1960s, are now calling for the removal of the poster in a petition on Change.org. The petition explains: “In the original painting Jesus Christ is at the center surrounded by angels. In the poster, Deadpool replaces Jesus Christ. Deadpool is positioned exactly as Jesus Christ was and is wearing a white robe. It is unknown if the picture was used to intentionally mock the Church of Jesus Christ, but it is clear it was copied from the original picture. This is a form a religious discrimination. We ask that the picture be not used or posted in any manner. That they find another poster to represent their movie.” The vast majority of comments under the petition did not like the “Deadpool” version. Not all comments were negative, however. From WND, “‘Deadpool’ ignites holy war over famous Jesus painting.”

Longview SDA Closing Its Community Center’s Food Distribution. Joe and Judy Nesbit are preparing for their Seventh-day Adventist Community Center’s last food distribution day December 31. The Longview, Washington, couple cannot find anyone to replace their volunteer effort. It is a problem nonprofits here and across the nation are facing: They are finding it hard to replace the corps of aging volunteers who make their work possible. The Nesbits, both in their early 70s, are retiring from the leadership position to focus on their medical needs. After searching for two years, their church was unable to find replacements, so it is withdrawing from the FISH of Cowlitz County food program. “It feels bad that [the church] couldn’t keep going because there is such a need,” Judy Nesbit said.

Kathy Bates, operations director at Lower Columbia CAP, said service clubs and agencies across Cowlitz County and the United States are seeing a similar trend.

“Volunteers are the lifeblood of almost all of us, and they are indeed getting harder to find,” Bates said. The rate of U.S. adults who volunteer decreased from 26.8 percent in 2011 to 24.9 percent in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 2015 survey (the most recent data available from the agency) found people 65 years old and older were more likely to volunteer than other age groups. Bates said many older volunteers are “aging out” with no others lining up to take their places. The Seventh-day Adventist food bank’s 12-person crew was mostly people in their 80s, Nesbit said. The next generation hasn’t shown the same “compulsion and interest” in volunteering, she said. From TDN.com, “Volunteer shortage pushes Longview church to end food program.”

Two Oregon Adventist Schools collecting Instruments and Money for Paradise Adventist Academy Students. Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist School and Rogue Valley Adventist Academy are collecting instruments and money to help Paradise Adventist Academy students who lost their homes, including their favorite musical instruments and choir/band clothing. Newswatch 12, in Medford, Oregon, is picking up instruments from people in the community wanting to donate. Ed Whetstone from Central Point donated his trombone. He says it has been about 10 years since he last played. “Basically [I’ve been] stumbling over this instrument, wondering what to do with it, and when I saw the story, I just decided I would gift it to them.” From KDRV.com, “Rogue Valley Adventist Academy collecting instruments for Paradise students.”

Cayman Academy Elementary Students’ Holiday Performances Reach Community. Cayman Academy school is bringing the magic of Christmas to the Cayman community as part of its Christian outreach ministry. More than 70 students from grades 3, 4, and 5 brightened spirits at the CTMH Doctors Hospital as they sang songs “Soon and Very Soon,” “Lift Up the Trumpet,” and “He Made the Way” in the hospital’s garden. The school encourages students to go beyond just learning about mathematics, English, and other subjects and engage in ministry work, said Theodecia Sonlin-Sanderson, the school’s music teacher. Usually for the Christmas program, they all gather at a church where students perform various songs. This year, they decided to take the program into the community because community outreach has been their focus for the year. Principal O’Neil Duncan said the children were really excited about the performances. One of the main things the school wanted to do this year was to live out their mission, he said.

“We wanted to live it out loud to let people known that Jesus is important in our lives, and we felt it was an opportunity for us to go into the community and let others know about the love of Jesus and what he has done for us,” the principal said. The students also visited The Pines Retirement Home, Bayshore Mall Wednesday, and the Cayman Islands Hospital. From Cayman Compass, “Academy students spread Christmas joy.”

LLU Study Shows Marijuana Use by Kidney Donors Poses No Risk to Donors or Recipients. Marijuana use by live donors has no effect on kidney transplant outcomes for donors or recipients, a Loma Linda University study finds. National Kidney Registry recommendations exclude substance abusers from donating kidneys, and transplant centers may refuse live donors with a history of marijuana use. Until this study, however, there had been no evidence about how marijuana use may affect transplant outcomes. For the study, researchers reviewed kidney transplants from live donors performed between January 2000 and May 2016 at one U.S. transplant center. Of 294 donors, 31 were marijuana users. Of 230 recipients, 27 used marijuana. There were no differences in outcomes among donors or recipients related to the donors' use of marijuana, according to the study published recently in the Clinical Kidney Journal. “A significant shortage in available potential kidney donors exists. Our goal with this study was to start a conversation on this topic and to encourage other centers to study this important question,” lead author Duane Baldwin, a urologist at Loma Linda University Health, said in a journal news release. “It is our hope that considering marijuana-using donors could ultimately save lives,” he added. In the United States, nearly 100,000 patients are on the list for kidney transplants, with wait times of 3 to 10 years. Some do not survive long enough on dialysis to receive a transplant. From U.S. News & World Report, “Donated Kidneys From Pot Users Seem Safe: Study.”

 

Pam Dietrich taught English at Loma Linda Academy for 26 years and served there eight more years as the 7-12 librarian. She lives in Yucaipa, California.

Image credits: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints / Fox / SpectrumMagazine.org

 

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