Peripatetics: The Art of Walking

Thursday, July 21, 2005

I read this is in this month's Relevant Magazine in an article entitled "O Jesus, Who Art Thou?" by Jason Boyett:

"Jesus Christ is about the most accessible personality we North Americans have ever come across. He's an action figure and pious pretty-boy, a dashboard bobblehead and the Savior of the world. He's beloved by Billy Graham and Britney Spears. He's celebrated by Jews and Muslims, Buddhists and Mormons, Klansmen and Black Panthers, gays and straights. He's our homeboy. We have T-shirts to prove it.

Religious scholar Stephen Prothero, in his book American Jesus, described the Son of God as one of the most popular icons the United States has ever known. Thanks to our democratic, do-it-yourself religious culture, 'everyone is free to understand Jesus in his or her own way,' Prothero wrote. 'And Americans have exercised that freedom with wild abandon.'"

So for today, what do you make of this? Have we spent so much time making Jesus "accessible" that we've taken away an understanding of Who He really Is? I mean, how can Billy Graham and Britney Spears be talking about the same person? Has our "wild abandon" hurt us in more ways that we know, or is the author off base somehow?

Brent 4:33 AM

Comments:

I definently agree with the author. Jesus Christ has become more of a "fad" then anything else. We, as Americans, are now more concerned with having t-shirts and bracelets with Jesus on them, than having an actual, personal relationship with Him. We have, consequently lost the art of fearing him, by reducing him to something, or someone rather, that is near the same social level as political heroes and movie stars. It kinda sucks.
i have no clue if that makes sense...

posted by

bAiLeY : 6:34 AM