You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Exodus 20:4

Students at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. were shocked recently when a painting appeared outside the law school’s chapel depicting George Floyd as Jesus. 

Iconic imagery: George Floyd as Jesus

The painting, titled “Mama” and created by the artist Kelly Latimore, depicts Mary, the mother of Jesus, portrayed as a black woman, holding up a dying Floyd. The image of Mary supporting a dying Jesus is iconic in Christian art, most notably Michelangelo Buonarroti‘s sculpture, “La Pieta” created in 1499.

NEW: Paintings depicting George Floyd as Jesus Christ hang in both The Catholic University of America’s campus ministry office and its law school, students say.

“It is just another symptom of the liberalization and secularization of our campus.” https://t.co/EkJtP229tw

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) November 22, 2021

An identical painting also hangs in the campus ministry office, The Daily Signal first reported. Copies of the painting were displayed during the Black Lives Matters protests that followed Floyd’s murder last year. The paintings were hung on display at the university in March as part of Black History Month.

When asked if the painting depicts Floyd or Jesus, the artist answered enigmatically, “Yes.” Latimore’s spokesperson also demurred, saying that the painting depicted “a mother with her son of color who was unjustly murdered by the state.” 

The school’s Vice President of Communications responded to Fox News’s request for comment saying, “The icon ‘Mama’ is a pieta depicting Mary and her Son, Jesus Christ. The letters in the halo are Ὁ ὬΝ, which is shorthand in Greek for ‘I Am.’ The letters are used in icons only in connection with Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

The statement continued, “There are those who would like to see George Floyd as the male figure in the icon. That is not how we read it. The image represents to our community a good-faith attempt to include religious imagery on campus that reflects the universality of the Catholic Church.”

An online petition was begun by the Catholic University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom to protest the paintings and demand they be removed:

As students at the Catholic University of America, we believe that it is extremely grave that our university, the official university of the Catholic Church in North America, would cast another in the image of our Lord in this way, particularly for political purposes. No political or social cause ever justifies depicting another in the place of Jesus Christ. 

The pictures at the Catholic university are a symptom of the Catholic church’s vocal support of Black Lives Matter, most notably by Pope Francis in his book, “Let Us Dream”. While lauding the protests (many of which turned violent), the pontiff decried the movement’s practice of defacing and tearing down statues. 

George Floyd has been appropriated as a ‘religious’ symbol by many causes, most notably (and most enthusiastically) by the “Palestinians”. And the relationship was mutual as the BLM movement turned decidedly anti-Israel. One graffiti mural of Floyd appeared overnight on the anti-terrorism wall that separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Other images propagated by the pro-”Palestinian” cause depicted Floyd as an ethnic Arab.

From the creator of- “Jesus was a Palestinian” soon in theaters across the word- “George Floyd was a Palestinian too”…
a cartoon spread by former minister in PA. Rewriting history while it happens. pic.twitter.com/KBqOFD57Mz

— Jonathan Elkhoury- جوناثان الخوري (@Jonathan_Elk) June 3, 2020

Saeb Erekat, a prominent ‘Palestinian’ politician, tapped into this mutual culture of suffering in a tweet connecting the BLM hashtag #ICantBreathe to the shooting of a Palestinian by the Israeli police.

Today ,,Israeli Occupation Forces in East #Jerusalem assassinated Iyad Khayri, 32 a disabled Palestinian. Acrime that will be met with impunity unless the world stops treating Israel as a state above the law &@IntlCrimCourt fulfills its mandate #ICantBreath #PalestineWillBeFree

— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) May 30, 2020

This propensity for appropriation by the “Palestinians” takes on religious meaning as well, who, like the people who transformed Jesus into George Floyd, transformed Jesus into a Palestinian terrorist/martyr. This began as a talking point adopted by Yasser Arafat from his adviser Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian, who is generally credited with creating the talking point of Jesus’ Palestinian identity when she said in an interview to the Washington Jewish Week on February 22, 2001, that “Jesus was a Palestinian.” This lie based on an absurd anachronism has been adopted by US politicians and even the State Church of Norway.