Monday, July 23, 2007

Super Hero?

The last post was about celebrity and a comment from Paul reminded me of something I have been reluctant to talk about. He commented that very often we treat Jesus as a celebrity. Often we declare our love and devotion on bumper stickers or through the latest ‘Christian music’ lyrics where the celebration is set to song.

Between you and me the bumper stickers that declare “I Love Jesus” are especially insulting to me. As I said, I have been reluctant to discuss the subject in a public venue because it floats perilously close to being judgmental. But I also consider myself a spiritual individual and although not a scholar, I am well read in the Christian faith and I am intimately familiar with the New Testament and its gospel. In that way I think my opinion matters.

When we ride about with bumper stickers that declare ‘I love Jesus’, do we make a soft pathway for celebrating the person of Jesus, rather than engaging in the seriously hard work of incorporating the teachings and divine message of Jesus into our lives? Have we reduced the realities of Jesus’ life and teachings to the same level of celebrity worship that seems rampant in our culture? Did Jesus bring his message to help us develop our soul, or did he preach in order to become famous and celebrated?

I believe to be celebrated is a natural development for those that take their existence and life skills to a new level, and in that respect no quarrel can be raised with being celebrated for the correct reasons. I also believe Jesus and the message he carried from the Creator are intended to be instructions for developing our soul. The celebration of Jesus as a celebrity to be sung about and placed on bumper stickers without the hard work of processing and developing the message inside ourselves is the equivalent of a vehicle with faulty GPS moving farther and farther from its intended destination.

I didn’t have to look very far on the Internet to find bumper stickers with outrageous slogans. And naturally I found a plethora of bumper stickers and slogans that attempt to couple Jesus or Christianity with an individuals business or service. I find that especially offensive. How offensive is this?
I also found a sticker depicting Jesus as a super hero, a form of reducing the Christian message to the form of, oh say, Spiderman?

9 comments:

Rick said...

Back among the blogging? I won't comment on religion, but I do have a Spider-man tattoo. I don't think he's found Jesus, though. In fact, I'm not even sure he knew He was missing.

Seven said...

Hey Leonard Leonard,
I been busy dude. I tried to comment on your corporate speak post but I kept getting timed out!

kathi said...

My problem with Christian bumper stickers are when the drivers behave as poor examples of the faith they're professing.

It's normal for people to want to show or share something they love most. I wear a locket with the pictures of my boys, people drink from mugs with the picture of their favorite dog breed on it. But faith...it's personal. I'd rather one advertise their faith by the example they set rather than mini billboards on their cars. I've seen too many cars with Jesus stickers on them never allow someone to cut in front of them, or they honk and gesture rudely. I wrote a piece for the Indianapolis Star once called "You Can't Judge A Christian By Their Bumper Sticker"...I should look it up.

Monogram Queen said...

I think Jesus would have been embarassed by all this notoriety.

Seven said...

Kathi,
I think we are on a common page of thought here.

Cakes,
Excellent point. I agree with you.

Nature Girl said...

Hello, I wandered in from somewhere, I'm not really sure where and then after reading several of your very thought provoking posts, it occured to me I'd been here for quite some time and it might appear rude if I don't say Hi. I know sometimes people take a peek at their sitemeter and then say "holy crap! That girl was here forever and didn't even leave a comment!" and then they get all worried that I'm some sort of stalker, so I just wanted to assure you that I'm not, but I do find your writing to be thought provoking.
Stacie

Seven said...

Hi Stacie,
Thanks for coming and staying a while. You are always welcome here and your contributions and thoughts are valued.
I used to check my stats when I started but never do now, still I'm glad you popped in, please come back.
BTW: Cool castle pics!

Enemy of the Republic said...

As usual, Jesus gets some poor representation down here.

Alastair said...

My own distaste for Jesus bumper stickers lead me to designing this.