by Tad Lindley
Some of you are sitting out there doing your best Mount Rushmore imitation.
-Reverend Jeff Arnold
Over a fourteen year period beginning in 1927, artist Gutzon Borglum transformed the face of Mount Rushmore. Assisted by 400 men with dynamite, two million tons of rock was blasted off of the mountain. Money ran out in 1941, and the project was abandoned.
Mount Rushmore now bears the faces of four American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The faces are approximately sixty feet tall. Today they are the centerpiece of the National Park Service’s Mount Rushmore National Memorial, receiving as many as two million visitors per year.
I have never been to Mount Rushmore. I have no desire to ever go there. I would much rather see the beauty of God’s creation than man’s imitation. Nevertheless, many people apparently love Mount Rushmore.
Invasion of the Mount Rushmore impersonators
Undoubtedly you have heard of Elvis Presley. Perhaps you have even seen Elvis impersonators. They attempt to perfectly imitate the hair, sideburns, and clothing of Mr. Presley. Many are skilled at singing Elvis’s songs and perform in public. Through careful study of his movies they have even adopted Elvis’s movements and mannerisms. There are so many Elvis impersonators, that they have conventions where many of these men join together to celebrate their idol, Elvis.
There is another group of imitators that is far more numerous than the Elvis crowd: the Mount Rushmore impersonators. Careful study of the faces locked in granite has produced near perfect impersonations. The eyebrows never rising, the slack jaw locked in position, the glazed over wax-museum look, and the complete freezing of the neck muscles. Elvis impersonators often have annual conventions in central locations like Las Vegas. The Mount Rushmore impersonators often meet on a weekly basis.
Mount Rushmore impersonators come out of closet
Even your neighbor might be a closet Mount Rushmore impersonator. In their daily living, they appear to be quite normal. They laugh, sing, raise their eyebrows, make facial expressions, and even shout at times. At the basketball games they jump up and down. They give high fives in the bingo parlor. They laugh and cry when they’re watching movies. At the store they greet people with strong handshakes and joyful laughter. On a weekly basis, though, they come out of the closet. Like the Elvis imitator taking off his jeans and work shirt and putting on his sequined suit, the Mount Rushmore impersonator shakes off all form of expression, and slips into silent stone mode. Las Vegas and Graceland are meccas for Elvis impersonators. Churches are the preferred gathering place of Mount Rushmore impersonators.
I recently attended a church service in another state. The preaching was outstanding. It was straight out of the Bible. Circumstances required me to sit in the back. I tried “Amen”-ing the preacher, but it clearly was distracting some of the folks in front of me, so I kept quiet. My heart went out to the preacher. Here he was pouring out the word of God with precision, and almost the entire congregation had slipped into Mount Rushmore mode. No nods, no “Amen”s, when the music stopped and the preaching started the crowd was transformed into a sea of stone.
Pharisees want people hold back their praise
When Jesus was entering Jerusalem for the Passover in which he would become the lamb slain for all humanity, people were laying their clothing on the road. They cut palm branches and laid them before the Lord on his donkey. They were shouting and praising him. This upset the Pharisees. This type of shouting and praising did not fit into the tight rein they wanted to have over the Jewish people.
They asked Jesus to tell the people to quiet down. Jesus answered and said unto them, “I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:40) The Pharisees wanted the people to do their best Mount Rushmore imitation, but Jesus told them, “If these people freeze like stone, the very rocks on the ground will get up and worship me.”
When Mount Rushmore sings
Mount Rushmore wants to sing. I realize that right now the mountain is locked into stony silence, but beneath all of it, the rocks want to exalt the Lord God that made them. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the Lord… (Psalm 98:7-9). Isaiah explains this in chapter 55: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (v. 12). When Jesus comes again, all of creation will praise him. Out of the motionless mouths carved into Mount Rushmore will come a declaration of how great God is. Don’t let a stone take your place!
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
