In June of 2006, Bridgeport, West Virginia made national news when “the Jesus picture” was stolen from Bridgeport High School. Just days before, a lawsuit had been brought through the American Civil Liberties Union/Americans United for Separation of Church and State to remove the portrait, which hung for more than three decades in the BHS hallway just outside the principal’s office.

 

According to Bridgeport Police Detective Gary Weaver, the picture was never recovered and though several locals were questioned and fingerprinted about the theft – which was caught on school surveillance cameras – the person responsible was never identified.

 

“We actually have comparable prints and are just waiting to get a match somewhere,” Weaver said.

 

It was about a month after the picture disappeared, said former Harrison County School Board President Mike Queen, when the ACLU withdrew the lawsuit, but there’s an interesting backstory about the events which happened between the time it was filed and the time it was withdrawn.

 

That story, like so many I share here on Connect-Bridgeport, reflects the support of this community.

 

The lawsuit came about after Harold Sklar petitioned the Board of Education to remove the picture - a print of Warner Sallman's "Head of Christ" - because he said it violated the separation of church and state. The board of ed’s vote resulted in a tie, so the picture stayed and the lawsuit was brought.

 

“During that time is when Jay Sekulow, who is now President (Donald) Trump’s attorney, represented a group formed to keep the portrait up,” Queen said. “We decided that even if the picture had to come down, we would go down with a fight.”

 

The board needed to raise $150,000 to retain Sekulow to fight the suit and majority vote was needed to proceed.

 

Board member Jim Reaser said if the board could raise the $150,000 in six weeks, he would join Queen and board member Doug Gray – both who were in favor of keeping the portrait up and following through with necessary actions to make that happen.

 

Through the efforts of many, that goal was accomplished. In fact, Queen said, when the total was tallied, there was $151 thousand and some odd dollars.

 

“Mr. Reaser had tears in his eyes and said this is a sign,” Queen said.

 

Money had arrived from all over the country.

 

“Dolly Parton donated money and (BHS graduate Mayf Nutter and his classmates – class of 1956 who were having their 50^th BHS reunion – raised money,” Queen said. “We also received a check for some specific amount - $8 thousand, some odd dollars and cents – from an older lady. She said her husband had passed away a few years earlier, leaving the account, and she never knew what to do with it. She said she had decided to close it out – that he would have wanted her to donate it to this.”

 

Queen said there are many incredible stories and that the youth of Meadowbrook Church of Christ were also valiant in their efforts to raise funds.

 

It was the historical value of the portrait we thought was going to be the case,” Queen said.

 

The picture originally belonged to the school’s first guidance counselor, Arnold Henthorne, who was also a preacher and owned a Christian book store in Adamston. The portrait hung in his office at BHS. When Mr. Henthorne either retired or transferred, he left the portrait in the office, which was next occupied by Hugh Gainer, who was actually a BHS student during the early- to mid-1960s -during Henthorne’s stint as counselor.

 

“I took the picture down and placed it in my big outer room,” said Gainer, who began at BHS in 1976. “Then, close to the beginning of the school year, we had some vandalism in the school. The picture to the right of the office door was damaged.”

 

That picture was of Mr. Jay, who had served as BHS principal for a short time. 

 

When the damaged picture was taken down, there was a discovery made.

 

“When the hall had been painted, the painters never took the picture down. They just painted around it,” Gainer said. “So, we had to replace it with something.”

 

Just before the morning bell rang for school, someone – either Gainer, Assistant Principal Bill Montgomery or Principal Bill Moore – put the Jesus picture in its place.

 

“It was a perfect fit and covered the non-painted area,” Gainer said.

 

There were no complaints and no negative comments for 12 or 13 years, he said.

 

“One day, an Army recruiter said something about whether we had had any concern or been asked to take the picture down,” Gainer said. “I said there was never any question or concern.”