STRAW SAVIOR
Since it stopped being funny 25 years ago, give or take a decade, I don’t watch Saturday Night Live any more so I didn’t see this. But a while back, SNL apparently spoofed Quentin Tarantino’s latest gore-fest, Django Unchained, with a sketch called “Djesus Uncrossed” in which Our Savior was portrayed as vengeful, ultra-violent and bloodthirsty.
The wrong people (Bill Donahue) complained, of course. And it really does no good to say once again, “You douchebags don’t have the courage to put Mohammed in that role, do you?” Because Christians don’t behead people who insult Christ in that way.
But here’s where we are. Quite a few alleged Christians actually thought that there was something kind of…admirable in that bit. Kurt Wiesner:
But I have been pleasantly surprised at how many thoughtful reactions there have been as well. More than one blogger has suggested that the video reveals how misguided many people are who preach a Jesus whose return will be about violence (and credit to Kurt Willems for consolidating them, even as I quote different sections).
How do you do that if you have any intellectual integrity at all? If you’re a liberal, you neither understand nor respect the traditionalist Christian viewpoint, be it Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox. So you have to invent a Jesus who doesn’t exist, never has and never will. Then you automatically assume that this cartoon Christ of yours is how conservative Christians really see Him.
David Flowers.
I believe that SNL’s portrayal of a “kick ass” Jesus is representative of the bad theology and sloppy biblical hermeneutics that’s so often prevalent among believers who have shaped for themselves an American gun-slinging Jesus—a Jesus that is unlike the Christ revealed in the Gospels.
Heath Bradley.
Christ is declared to be the conqueror over all forces of evil, hence the graphic imagery of violence. Yet, the way he actually “conquers” is through the non-retaliatory, sacrificial love put on display on the cross. This is crucially important to keep in mind, because many people take this imagery at face value and conclude that the second coming of Jesus will be much different than the first coming.
David R. Henson.
We’ve been trying to uncross Jesus for decades in this country, long before SNL got their pens into him.
We have tried to arm him with our military-industrial complex, drape him with our xenophobia, outfit him with our weapons, and adorn him with our nationalism. We’ve turned the cross into a flagpole for the Stars and Stripes. We have no need for Tarantino to reimagine the story of Jesus into a fantasy of violent revenge. We’ve done it for him. We’ve already uncrossed him, transforming him from a servant into a triumphalist who holds the causes and interests of our country on his back rather than brutal execution.
The SNL sketch reveals the paucity of American popular theology with its camouflage and flag-draped Bibles that segregate the story of God for American patriots only. It pulls back the curtain and shows us just how twisted our Jesus really is: We want a Savior like the one SNL offers. We want the Son of God to kick some ass and take some names. Specifically, our enemies’ names. And maybe the names of a few godless Democrats. Definitely the Muslims.
But satire reveals truths that are hard to hear. That triumphalist Savior many of us worship? He more resembles the sword and gun-toting DJesus who brings righteous vengeance than the prophetic vagabond foot-washer Jesus who preaches liberation and love of neighbor in the Gospels. The Savior we have created in our own violent images seems more like a character of a Tarantino film than the one at the heart of God’s story of eternal love.
Whatever, dumbass.
This is why I don’t put a whole lot of stock in when Christian leaders, however important their offices may once have been, start idly tossing around words like “reconciliation.” Because it is literally impossible to “reconcile” with someone who thinks you are the Devil.
The wrong people (Bill Donahue) complained, of course. And it really does no good to say once again, “You douchebags don’t have the courage to put Mohammed in that role, do you?” Because Christians don’t behead people who insult Christ in that way.
But here’s where we are. Quite a few alleged Christians actually thought that there was something kind of…admirable in that bit. Kurt Wiesner:
But I have been pleasantly surprised at how many thoughtful reactions there have been as well. More than one blogger has suggested that the video reveals how misguided many people are who preach a Jesus whose return will be about violence (and credit to Kurt Willems for consolidating them, even as I quote different sections).
How do you do that if you have any intellectual integrity at all? If you’re a liberal, you neither understand nor respect the traditionalist Christian viewpoint, be it Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox. So you have to invent a Jesus who doesn’t exist, never has and never will. Then you automatically assume that this cartoon Christ of yours is how conservative Christians really see Him.
David Flowers.
I believe that SNL’s portrayal of a “kick ass” Jesus is representative of the bad theology and sloppy biblical hermeneutics that’s so often prevalent among believers who have shaped for themselves an American gun-slinging Jesus—a Jesus that is unlike the Christ revealed in the Gospels.
Heath Bradley.
Christ is declared to be the conqueror over all forces of evil, hence the graphic imagery of violence. Yet, the way he actually “conquers” is through the non-retaliatory, sacrificial love put on display on the cross. This is crucially important to keep in mind, because many people take this imagery at face value and conclude that the second coming of Jesus will be much different than the first coming.
David R. Henson.
We’ve been trying to uncross Jesus for decades in this country, long before SNL got their pens into him.
We have tried to arm him with our military-industrial complex, drape him with our xenophobia, outfit him with our weapons, and adorn him with our nationalism. We’ve turned the cross into a flagpole for the Stars and Stripes. We have no need for Tarantino to reimagine the story of Jesus into a fantasy of violent revenge. We’ve done it for him. We’ve already uncrossed him, transforming him from a servant into a triumphalist who holds the causes and interests of our country on his back rather than brutal execution.
The SNL sketch reveals the paucity of American popular theology with its camouflage and flag-draped Bibles that segregate the story of God for American patriots only. It pulls back the curtain and shows us just how twisted our Jesus really is: We want a Savior like the one SNL offers. We want the Son of God to kick some ass and take some names. Specifically, our enemies’ names. And maybe the names of a few godless Democrats. Definitely the Muslims.
But satire reveals truths that are hard to hear. That triumphalist Savior many of us worship? He more resembles the sword and gun-toting DJesus who brings righteous vengeance than the prophetic vagabond foot-washer Jesus who preaches liberation and love of neighbor in the Gospels. The Savior we have created in our own violent images seems more like a character of a Tarantino film than the one at the heart of God’s story of eternal love.
Whatever, dumbass.
This is why I don’t put a whole lot of stock in when Christian leaders, however important their offices may once have been, start idly tossing around words like “reconciliation.” Because it is literally impossible to “reconcile” with someone who thinks you are the Devil.
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