Stained glass

A vestige of AMC's existence as a Baptist hospital is the chapel, along with its stained glass windows. This one is my favorite because of its creedal elements: a mystical or tailsmanic belief in the Bible qua "holy object." As you can see various white people in robes are scattered around this apparition on a rock - it is a close encounter of the third kind. What we encounter in this image is not Jesus but the Book. Jesus is just a part of the Book. The Book has all the answers; and when you follow the Book you can pick and choose - you're not limited to Jesus and his example. For instance you could say that certain dietary regulations are in force for belonging to the community of faith. Or that no one can work on Sunday. Now someone might say, "aren't you being hard on Baptists?" and I respond that I grew up among these people. My understanding was that the Bible was superior. Sure there might be a picture of Jesus (all blue eyed and day-glo anglo) praying in the garden or gazing at you. But the chief message was "if you don't do what the Bible says, you're going to hell." Jesus shed his blood and was better than all the rest of us: so if we didn't buck up, he'd tell on us for sure.
What is without argument is that the message of this window privileges the Bible. There is no mention of Jesus. And who is the Bible addressed to? White people, who speak English - the lingua franca of God's approval.
Now one oddity is that none of the people in this window are looking at the same thing. It may be that the artist used stock figures from other scenes - kind of like if a person used clip art to make a nativity. The woman on the left, who reminds me of the actress Hope Davis, is looking directly at us - which is a good strong device to bring the viewer into the picture; but then the old guy on the right is looking ambiguously at the beam of light. Also Hope is pointing at the youth in the middle, who is looking somewhere over our left shoulder.
I think the woman in the wimple on the right is looking at the Bible. It's almost as if these people had gathered around a rock and a Bible had thumped down to earth between them. I do have to say that the rock it has landed on is well done. (Years ago, someone asked me how I paint rocks, and I said that if the rock is small enough I pick it up with my hand and paint it on a table, letting the top dry completely before painting the bottom)
What is this picture saying? We were standing in line for a gladiatorial tourney and this book, with a title page in the middle, landed on this rock, trailing golden light behind it. For all the theatricality of the entrance of The Bible, I can't get over how unimpressed, how unmoved the people are witnessing it. They're just standing stupidly around, not really relating to each other, almost oblivious to what's happened (a giant book has landed from the heavens onto this rock! Doesn't that freak you out!? Why do you look like you can't wait for this to be over?) - which may be the message of the window: this is the Church.