Thoughts on the Laughing Jesus Exhibit

A new exhibit featuring portraits of Jesus is making the rounds and getting press in a few blogs I read. The reason this particular exhibit is getting attention is because the portraits are of a laughing Jesus. In each portrait, Christ is smiling or laughing or just looking anything but disgruntled. The website for the exhibit explains that the idea came from two Australian Christians who traveled around the world and “they found many pictures of Jesus showed him as a miserable, negative individual whilst their own reading of the Gospel suggested he was no such thing.” And so the Laughing Jesus project was born.

Around 60 portraits were painted by artists all over the world who live in poverty-stricken countries. I like the idea, but as I was looking over the portraits (each one is available for download, by the way), many questions and thoughts came to mind. It’s interesting to see how different cultures portray Christ. I think a lot of postmodern Christians like to make snarky remarks about the fact that Jesus was not a white man, with the underlying belief that only arrogant and ignorant white people would ever presume to portray Jesus to look like them. Yet, I look at these portraits and find that many of the artists painted Jesus to look like someone from their own village or town or demographic. One artist actually did paint himself, which is taking it too far (in my opinion), but the point still stands. We like to picture Christ as we are. We take the qualities we like about Jesus and focus on those. The author of one of the blogs that linked to the exhibit pointed out that everyone loves Jesus. He’s a great guy and everyone can find something to identify them with Him. Of course, that obviously doesn’t mean they follow His teachings. And just because someone likes Jesus, doesn’t mean they understand Him. But I digress.

This also reminded me of something I was thinking about a couple weeks ago. For book club we read a ridiculously awful book, The Shack by William P. Young. Not only is it full of dangerous and shaky theology, but the writing was elementary. Although the book as a whole was not very good, one aspect struck me with its truth. In The Shack, the main character (Mack) “meets” God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in a shack and spends the weekend with them. Mack quickly realizes that he is much more comfortable around Jesus than he is around God. And to Mack, the Holy Spirit is the oddball or just a mostly unknown entity—almost like the third wheel that no one fully understands. But this rings true for me. If I’m honest, I’ve always pictured Christ as my friend and God as the stricter father of my friend. These portraits reminded me of this incorrect notion I have. I can picture Jesus laughing and fishing with friends and lovingly caring for friends who are mourning. But it’s easy to see God as the disciplinarian. The bad cop in the good cop/bad cop scenario. Which is crap. They are the one and same. All three are separate but one. Our God is a God of love, even when we don’t understand Him. A hateful or unloving God would not have sent His son.

Although it is good to be reminded of Christ’s love and good humor, I think we should also remember that He is the same man who drove out the moneychangers and those who were buying and selling in the temple. Yes, He is a loving Savior and God, but He is also righteous. Just liking His personality and agreeing with His “love one another” teaching means nothing unless you put your faith in Him.

Now, after all this rambling, go check out the exhibit’s site and the actual portraits and tell me what you think. Some things to ponder:
-Many Americans would see some of the depictions as silly or too feminine. What does that say about our culture or the culture of the artist?
-Despite the flaws of some of the paintings or historical inaccuracies, do they glorify God? Let’s assume the best and say these are believers who are using their God-given talents and showing Christ to the best of their ability, so would these please God?
-What would your painting look like? How do you picture God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit? A white man with a trimmed beard? A lion named Aslan? A corporate executive sitting behind his desk, dictating the affairs of the world?

On Why I Dislike Wal-Mart

I have several reasons why I dislike Wal-Mart. Here are a few:

1. It's too jam-packed full of merchandise. It's in the middle of aisles and covers ever inch possible of the ridiculously large stores.
2. The employees often (I'm sure not always) have no clue where merchandise is located (perhaps because there is so much merchandise).
3. The customers in Wal-Mart seem bent on being completely rude. They know they're in your way, in the middle of the aisle and that you need to get by. But they don't move. This isn't Wal-Mart's fault, it's just annoying.
4. They shut down smaller stores and become a monopoly.
5. Find more reasons at Wal-Mart Watch.

Those are just a few of the things I don't like. Add the following news to that list:

Wal-Mart Prevails in Case to Recover Health Costs
Deborah Shank stocked the shelves in a Wal-Mart until she was in a car accident with a tractor trailer that left her with brain damage and unable to walk. Her family sued the tractor trailer company and won $700,000. After paying all their legal fees, they had roughly $410,000 left over to pay for her medical expenses to take care of her for the rest of her life.

That's when Wal-Mart came in and decided to sue Shank and recover the $470,000 that her health insurance paid for medical expenses after the accident.

This is totally legal. It's call subrogation.

Okay, so it's legal. Big deal. Wal-Mart is the largest non-government employer in the U.S. I think, I think, they can live without that $470,000 that helped pay for a woman's medical expenses after a horrible traffic accident that left her without the ability to walk.

The good news is that after bloggers across the world, news shows and more berated Wal-Mart for their unfeeling and greedy lawsuit, they finally backed off. They won the case and all the appeals (although the Supreme Court declined to see the case), so they could have gotten away with it. But given the fact that Wal-Mart already has more than their fair share of PR problems, they decided to grow a friggin' conscience and not take the money. Or at least do what anyone with half a semester of Public Relations 101 could have told them would be the smart thing to do.

On March Madness

The NCAA has rules about showing clips or highlights from games until all the games from that day are finished. Or something like that. So a local news station in North Carolina improvised...using dolls and action figures. This is why I love living in North Carolina. Watch some highlights of the Duke and Belmont game:

On Knowing When You're Ready for Children

Setting: The living room, watching TV; a State Farm insurance ad is on
Characters: Roommates Meredith and Tiffany

The State Farm commercial shows different people at different stages of their life, some young, some old and some in between. One shot shows a father in his son's nursery.

Meredith: Aww...look at that dad with his son. Precious little...

Pause.

Tiffany: What do you think it says that I noticed the rug and the lamp, but not the baby?

Meredith: I don't know. What do you think it says that I noticed the man but not the baby.

Tiffany: We're not ready to have children.

End Scene

On Atheism

I won't even try to delve into the topic of atheism. At least not now. But I just read this great article on evangelical atheists and how their beliefs and views mirror the same religious views they rail against. It's interesting because, from what I can tell, the author is not a Christian and is quite possibly an atheist as well.

Some highlights:

"Zealous atheism renews some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam. Just as much as these religions, it is a project of universal conversion. Evangelical atheists never doubt that human life can be transformed if everyone accepts their view of things, and they are certain that one way of living - their own, suitably embellished - is right for everybody."

"The problem with the secular narrative is not that it assumes progress is inevitable... It is the belief that the sort of advance that has been achieved in science can be reproduced in ethics and politics. In fact, while scientific knowledge increases cumulatively, nothing of the kind happens in society. Slavery was abolished in much of the world during the 19th century, but it returned on a vast scale in nazism and communism, and still exists today...Knowledge grows, but human beings remain much the same."

Read the full article here: "The atheist delusion" By John N. Gray

On Tibet

Several years ago I watched Seven Years in Tibet and my interest in the welfare of Tibet was piqued. I did some research and the more I read, the more infuriated I became with the Chinese government and the world's lack of intervention.

This week on the 49th anniversary of China's overtaking Tibet, many monks and nuns have taken part in protests against the Chinese government. You can see some of the news stories below:

Tibet in Turmoil as Riots Grip Capital
Tibet: A Tinderbox of Tensions
Tibet poses dilemma for Beijing

The whole situation is disconcerting and ridiculous, but the fact that this was done almost 50 years ago and China is allowed to continually treat Tibetans (and their own citizens and other regions they control) with such contempt and put little to no value on human life.

And then there is the lack of attention that the world gives to this crisis (although more attention is being paid to this story. I can't help but think it's because of the Olympics this summer.). Whenever I try to think of a way to explain how the U.S. (and other countries) treat China, all I can think of is Dr. House. As in, the television show.

For those who haven't seen the show, Dr. House (more commonly called House) is a brilliant doctor who can figure out what is wrong with his patients even though their ailment is completely bizarre. They'll take most of the show trying to figure out what is wrong with the patient and doing all these tests, then the patient almost dies but just before they kick the bucket, House has an epiphany and figures out that there's a toothpick in the kid's intestine and that's why he's dying.

Sounds simple enough, right? Except House is a jerk. A very, very big jerk. Notice my prowess with the adjectives to describe just how much of a jerk he is: very, very big. He's mean to everyone, especially the patients. He's addicted to painkillers and did I mention he's mean? But since he's brilliant, everybody puts up with him. Sort of like China. Except instead of being brilliant, China has cheap labor and lots of people to perform this cheap labor. So we let them get away with murdering their own citizens and being very, very big jerks.

I understand there is a lot more to this issue, but the fact remains that they treat their own citizens, and the citizens of the countries they take over, brutally. They oppress people and we let them get away with it because we like to buy cheap electronics and Elmo dolls. And there are dozens of other countries with horrible governments and with riots and thousands who die from violence. Tibet is merely the tip of a massive iceberg. But we do business with China. Our companies move their manufacturing to China. And we turn a blind eye to the atrocities that go on in this country.

My hope is that all of this unrest will wake the world up. Perhaps the summer Olympics will open up doors for change as others speak out against China.

Free Tibet
International Campaign for Tibet

On the World's Most Perfect Marriage Proposal

With footnotes:


1: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (from the book)
2: Persuasion by Jane Austen (from the book)
3: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (from the movie)
4: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (from the movie)
5: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (from the book)
6: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (from the book, but this version of the movie is amazing)

I don't think any normal female expects a proposal like this. But it was fun to put together some of the best lines from some of literatures greatest books (or the movies made from them).

Also, I'm not sure why the photo is yellow. It's supposed to be blue.

Any favorite movie quotes (romantic or not-so-romantic)? I also like the speech that Harry makes to Sally at the end of When Harry Met Sally.