Christ paintings documentary preserves story of national fight

Not all stories of the glories of Christmas are set in Bethlehem. It seems there’s a pretty interesting one that took place here in Ottawa, and its telling is open to all.

The documentary by George “Skip” Hupp and associates chronicling the tale of the Life of Christ paintings displayed in Washington Square each Christmas will be shown at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum, 1100 Canal St.

The cost of the viewing is $7, which will go to the museum’s new building fund.

Hupp, who during the legal battle over the paintings was first the attorney for the Ottawa Jaycees and later the Ottawa Freedom Association, said that filming for the documentary first started in 2009 by Dan Hennesent, one of the workers putting up the panels.

He soon came to realize that many people who were involved on either side of the original fight over whether the paintings symbolized the freedom of speech or the freedom of religion were getting on in years or had died and felt that the documentary would be a tribute to their effort.

“I realized we’re all getting older – I’m 72, Lloyd Chapman is in his 70s, others are in their 60s, and many others I tried to contact had died,” Hupp said. “So we decided that if we want to preserve this story, we’ve got to do a documentary on it.

“I’d always wanted to do one, and my hobby is videography … and we had a lot of video. Dan had a lot from what he did, and there was so much from all the publicity surrounding the fight. Every time the paintings went up or down, a Chicago TV station was there filming … so there was so much quality video for this, and we had permission to use it. I talked to Dan, and we decided to do it.”

The documentary tells the story of how the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Retail Association commissioned 16 paintings depicting the life of Jesus Christ to put some faith and religious spirit into the city’s enormously successful holiday economy, and the battle to keep those paintings a part of the city’s Christmas.

Jim Fitzgerald and Xenny Mitchell’s idea led to Harold Riner, who is associated with the Art Institute in Chicago, being commissioned. It took him eight weeks commuting from Chicago and working in the basement of the Roxy Theater to complete the 4-foot-by-7-foot pieces, and they quickly became an Ottawa tradition.

Although they were absent for a time in the late 1970s, they later returned to their popular status.

However, it was in 1986 that Richard Rohrer filed a lawsuit saying that he, as an atheist, was offended by the panels, that the city allowing the Ottawa Jaycees to put them up showed government support of religion, and that they should be taken down.

That suit touched off a national debate regarding free speech, freedom of religion and what municipalities were and were not allowed to do, and eventually involved the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Legal Foundation and the 700 Club national television show, among many others organizations.

In 1989, a U.S. District Court ordered the panels to be taken down. An appeal was lost by a 2-1 vote, at which time the Jaycees bowed out. However, James Keely, Lloyd Chapman and Kirk Hawthorne formed the Ottawa Freedom Association, which took possession of the paintings, and the case advanced with it as a client.

A rare “en banc” hearing before all 11 federal Appellate Court judges was secured, and the appeal was unanimously overturned in January 1992.

That Christmas, the paintings went back up at Washington Square, where they have been a holiday staple ever since. Only now, their story is available in documentary form as well.

“The entire thing is an incredible story,” Hupp said. “We identified five goals that we had to have happen to have this come about and, remarkably, every one of them happened. … The last painting taken down and later the last one put up was one of Jesus praying. That’s what people needed to do to get these paintings back, and it came to pass – through the power of prayer.”