White Jesus

There are very few "celebrity pastors" that I follow and respect. One of the exceptions to this is Judah Smith. Judah is the lead pastor of a mega church in Seattle Washington. He recently wrote a book called Jesus is ____. The purpose of this book is to tell the story of Jesus and who He is.

In promoting the book he put billboards around the city that simply said Jesus is _____. Leaving a blank on the billboard left the door open for people to vandalize and fill in the blank. As you can see from the picture, someone wrote 'middle eastern' in this spot.

Seeing this picture on Instagram got me thinking how rarely people in this culture view Jesus as a middle eastern man. I don't know the exact history of how Jesus became white but I'm sure it has to do with the church trying to make an image of Jesus that people can relate to in this culture.

I feel like this goes beyond simply making Jesus white, it also involves making Jesus into someone we can manipulate into something we are more comfortable with. People are guilty of doing this all the time. I'm sure we have all heard someone say "my Jesus would never". This is something people inside the church are guilty of doing. However, people outside the church are guilty of this as well. Often it takes a different appearance. Proof of this is t-Shirts that say "Jesus is my homeboy". This sort of this makes Jesus into the guy who lets things slide, making it easier to live a life of sin.

When Jesus was alive He was not interested in catering to people's expectations of Him. He spoke the truth wherever He went and I believe that's what we need to do wherever we go. All of this needs to be coupled with love.

Here are the rules...

One of my first blogs on the topic of Jesus was based upon a video from Vintage 21. As a reminder, these videos are in a series that spoke about the misconceptions about Jesus and different ways the chuch miscommunicates who He actually is. I would love to show you another video in this series, this one speaking specifically about how culture, and especailly people in the church view Him as someone who has many rules and regulations.

In this hilarious video which is a satire on Chrisian legalism, Jesus is giving the rules for the first Christian meeting. Such important rules such as wearing t-shirts with Jesus' face on them and only luahging in the church if it is about how dumb the devil is, and my persnal favourite, you must have a stylish beard like His. After all these rules have been stated a man bursts into the meeting angry because he can't go to heaven. He even grew out his beard! Jesus stated that because he went to a football game he can't go to heaven.

Why I feel like this video is so impactful is that so often we think that Jesus has a ton of rules and that He is trying to take everything in life that we enjoy and say that it is evil or bad. I think this is a reason why many people keep their distance from Christianity or shy away from going deeper in their walk with Him. There may be things in their life that they enjoy doing but they have fear they will have to give them up.

It is true that the sinful things we do need to be excluded from our life because they are things that are harmful to both ourselves and our relationship with Christ. The problem with this mentality is that people think that they have to clean themselves up before they can be accepted by Jesus. I would argue that people outside the church think this way because often they need to clean themselves up before they can be accepted by Christians.

Do you know how much this must break the heart of Jesus? He died because we could not live up to the standard the law set, and now we are putting the burden of obligation and rules on others. I think it is time we all started showing people the kind of radical grace we have been given. Once this has taken place I would argue that the dirt in peoples lives would start to be washed away.

How is my Driving?

You know what could possibly be my least favourite "Christian" thing I see is? The Jesus fish on the car! Man does it boil my blood! I have no problem with representing Jesus wherever I go, but not while I am driving. I just see it as too much of a risk. You know what happens? Johnny Christian is driving along in his Honda, sporting a shiny Jesus fish on his rear bumper and bam! He goes through a stop sign or cuts someone off. As they drive away everyone shaking their head at his driving now has a great view of the religion Johnny supports.



I know I might be being a little overexaggerated in this but I do find it annoying that Christians try to represent Jesus while they drive like a maniac. I by no means drive like a saint, hence the reason I don't have a Jesus fish on my car. I don't want people getting mad at me while I drive and then see I'm a Christian. I feel as though that could be a shot at all Christians.

This is all to raise a point. The Jesus fish is a silly example of how people represent Jesus in public. In many of our workplaces, people know we are Christian's, the same goes for in our families. Our actions, like it or not are a reflection on our relationship with Jesus. When we drive stupid, or cut cormers at work we could actually be turning off people from Jesus.

I know that no one can be perfect. That's not what I am saying we need to be. All I am trying to communicate is that we need to be more vigelent and aware of how we reprent Christ. I truly believe our strong work ethic at our workplace could reveal something about Jesus that could draw someone closer to Him. This is a challenge to me, just as much as it is for anyone else.

Post-Post Modern Jesus

I love the show Community. It has to be one of, if not my most favourite shows on TV. One of the most interesting episodes of the show, a character named Abed decides to do a documentary or film about Jesus. Now Abed, a Muslim, who also happens to have Asperger's, reads the entire new Testament. From his readings he finds out that there is so much more to Jesus. From Abed's TV viewing growing up, he thought that Jesus was just about doing cool things like walking on water and telling people not to have abortions.

With his new found inspiration and view of Jesus as "ET, Marty Mcfly and Edward Scissor Hands combined"Abed conceives the brilliant idea of making a movie about Jesus. Shirley, the other character in the scene, a Christian, is horrified by his idea.

The reason I found this scene so interesting is what it communicates about Jesus. In a way it is a play on Jesus' portrayal in Television and the media. It communicates that often Jesus is misrepresented and misunderstood. In an attempt to make a movie about Jesus Abed eventually misrepresents Jesus even more.

I also feel like this scene depicts a view of the modern Christian. Shirley is initially loves the idea of Abed making a Jesus movie because she wants to show the cool side of Jesus and make his relevant. but once she finds out his idea is horrified by it. Christian's are often fixated on re-branding Jesus, attempting to make Him more relevant for people today.

I actually appreciated the end result in this episode. Instead of making fun of Jesus for comedic affect, they just showed someone who was confused about who He was. I enjoy shows like this because they can spark serious conversations and real dialogue. As Christian's we cannot be afraid like Shirley was when someone is confused about who Jesus is. I know it is often a big fear for us. I think we need to stop being afraid of that and actually embrace the conversation and discovery. Jesus will reveal who He truly is to those who seek after Him. We need to stop scaring people away because we get offended.    

My heart breaks

I am taking a bit of a detour from my usual humorous posts about misleading depictions of Jesus to discuss something that I viewed this week that absolutely broke my heart. I heard on the radio today that a 90 year old former Catholic priest admitted to the molestation of several boys back in the 50's and 60's. He is currently serving time in jail for another conviction of the same nature. Later on today I read an article about another Catholic Cardinal who is apologizing for sexual conduct.

I know this is not a new issue, this is something that has been widely publicized for a number of years now. There is endless amounts of jokes told about Catholic priests and their sexual failures. When hearing these reports today I had a different perspective then I usually do. I wondered what this does to the image of Jesus. The church are Christ's representatives on this earth and many men have abused the trust that comes with the position and hurt people in unimaginable ways. That mistrust that exists for the church impacts people coming to Christ. It could also give people the impression that Jesus tolerates that kind of behaviour.

Evangelicals have in some ways participated in the criticizing of the Catholic Church and deemed it a purely Catholic issue. I don't want to speculate but I'm sure evangelical ministers have been guilty of the same offences. Sadly, being a member of clergy does not exempt you from having dark issues in life. Another reason evangelicals cannot simply ignore this issue is that many people make no distinction between Catholic and Evangelical. So when people hear of a Catholic Priest abusing a child they lose trust in all forms of Christianity and even Jesus Himself.

Now that we have ourselves in this big mess, how do we get out of it? Another unfortunate truth that as long as people are in the church there will be people making mistakes and people will be hurt. This does not mean we cannot take measures to help prevent this from happening. Over the past number of years many churches have began to implement a program called Plan to Protect. This program makes churches make policies and practices on the interaction of adults and children in ministry at the church. It is meant to help protect both the child and the adult.

The next obvious thing is prayer. In many ways the church is sick and in need to healing from Jesus. As Scripture promises, if we humble ourselves and pray Jesus will heal us. This healing also needs to take place for those hurt by the church. The prayer is that Jesus would reveal who He really is through us.

Jesus Walks?

Can you believe that almost 10 years ago, Kayne West released the song Jesus Walks? This post is not exclusively about this song, but rather the use of the name of Jesus in Hollywood. I suppose the relatively recent news about Kayne and Kim's pregnancy got me thinking about how often celebrities use the name of Jesus in their own personal promotion. For example, the song Jesus Walks speaks about how Jesus is a part of Kayne West's life and goes with him wherever he goes. But if you look at the life of Kayne, is he really representing Jesus where he goes.

This is not to pick on Kayne West, because if I am truly honest with myself I would admit that I don't properly represent Christ wherever I go. If we truly proclaim Jesus as Lord, are we portraying Jesus for who He actually is? At the same time, not only are we supposed to represent Jesus where we go, if Jesus truly does walk with us, it would change who you are.

So, what does the song Jesus Walks and other celebrities proclaiming to love Jesus say about Jesus Himself? I think the most dangerous thing is that Jesus is someone handy to have in your corner as a character reference. Another, equally dangerous thing this says is that Jesus has no power to change a life. Again, this is equally true for celebrities and non-celebrities alike, they are just more viewable to everyone.

The next obvious question is, how do we redeem this? Is there any part of celebrities thanking Jesus in award acceptance speeches but living a life far from Him that can be used as an olive branch? There is something exciting about a viewable, influential person accepting Jesus and transforming their lives. Although Kayne West's life appears to be far away from Jesus, he could come to live a sold out life for Jesus and bring many others with him due to his influence.  

Anything to Sell a Product

What is Christianity to those who are not Christian? Some view Christianity as a crutch, something weak people lean on to make themselves feel better. At the same time, some view Christianity as a marketing ploy or a way of pushing an agenda. Many people view Christianity as a method people use to advance a certain point of view, morality or even to make money.

The sad part is, there is some truth to this. Over the centuries, people have done a lot of things in the name of Jesus and Christianity, do I even need to comment about the Crusades? So many things have wrongly been associate with Jesus to justify them or make money.

In this video, one in which I found offence to the first time I watched, we see Jesus branding beer as his own. The reality is, Christians brand things all the time and associate them with Jesus. If you go into a Christian bookstore you are bound to find Christian mints that have Bible verses on them. I suppose the reason this video stood out to me is that very reason. Is marketing beer with Jesus' name on it any worse than marketing His name on mints? Or how about late night evangelists selling prayer hankies, guaranteed to make you feel something special?

How do Christians now regain the trust of others around them? We are not simply trying to push our our agenda and make money off of our subculture. The only way is to put aside our pocketbooks and focus on representing the true Jesus.