Is a Lego Koran Next?

Photo: Brendan Powell Smith

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While tea partiers, Muslims, and the feds fret over the “Ground Zero Mosque,” one artist has built a religious monument of an entirely different sort.

The world may have been created in six days, but it’s taken Brendan Powell Smith more than eight years and $15,000 to create The Brick Testament, a painstaking reconstruction of 4,500 biblical scenes made entirely from Legos.

Below is his version of Genesis 38:9-10, in which Onan sleeps with his brother’s wife, tries not to impregnate her, and learns the hard way that Yahweh exacts a significant penalty for early withdrawal:

Photos by Brendan Powell Smith

(For more birth control methods and trivia over the years, check out our “Masters of the Uterus” timeline here.)

 

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You've watched it happen in real time: corporate media cutting staff, killing stories, and bending to power. The giants of American media have owners to protect, and the truth pays the price.

None of it should surprise us. The problem with American journalism has always been that we entrusted this vital public service to for-profit companies whose allegiance could shift with the political winds and the bottom line.

That is why Mother Jones is independent from billionaires, corporations, and any other deep-pockets owner—and has been since we were founded 50 years ago. We’re only answering to our readers. To you.

We’re funded by our readers too. This week, we have a generous $50,000 match for all donations, meaning that your donation—and your impact—will be doubled. Gifts from readers like you help keep us fiercely independent and telling the truth about those in power.

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