Hopeful Monsters

I was watching a documentary* about the outcry in the UK (for supposed ‘blasphemy’) against the broadcasting of Jerry Springer the Opera (FYI there was a Thread about this opera show here).

They interviewed a BBC Radio producer who had resigned in protest.

When explaining why he resigned, he said that the show “made light of Christ and of his wounds�. He was almost tearful and said he felt really upset recalling the show. He said something like:

“I feel upset talking about it even now. They made fun of his wounds and yet he died for us … he DIED for all of us.�

I’ve seen this kind of thing many times – this tearful response about ‘Jesus’ and it strikes me as odd.

How many people in 2005 would become tearful about the men and women: supply staffers, soldiers, officers, intelligence agents, resistance fighters etc who DID die for us – for example, in the two World Wars?

Here were people who REALLY died, suffered, were mutilated, disfigured, disabled, some of whom (women as well) were tortured or died while still prisoners of war. Their sacrifice and suffering was actually REAL. It actually happened. And it had a genuine outcome and consequence.

Why do people feel more connected to the cultural fantasy of ‘Jesus Christ Who is Lord™’ than real incidents from life?

My view is that it is because it is a fantasy. As an act of the imagination, an intangible cultural artefact, it is not tainted by reality and so it is considerably more powerful. The imagined Jesus, the fantasised Christ, is a compelling myth that is utilised to tap into something so very deep it is more fundamental than emotions (which are defined and have form).

For some, 'The Christ on the Cross™' is a culturally potent man-made symbol of altruistic sacrifice and of suffering – this aspect of Christianity is merely a fabricated construct employed by people to:

- understand their own suffering
- come to terms with their own suffering
- justify suffering by the person(s) experiencing it
- justify suffering by the person(s) inflicting it

'The Christ' is a sort of combined brother/father figure that encapsulates vulnerability, sacrifice and suffering and stirs all the amorphous feelings people might have for someone who would do this for them. But being a fantasy, this is a pure form, and it has precedence over feelings for real people who were all these things.

Can someone explain why Christians react more readily and deeply to this fetishised, fantasised, ‘Harry Potter’ version of vulnerability, sacrifice and suffering than to real-life examples?

Any other thoughts or comments?

_

* Holy Offensive

Queen of Swords

I'm sorry, was there any verse in the bible which went, "Yea, verily, all the people of the earth shall feel the same way as thou dost about thy religion, and even if they be vile enough to differ in opinion from thou, they shalt shut the hell up lest they maketh thou weep?"

It goes both ways. If there are Chick tracts which depict all non-True-Christians as evil and hopeless people, then there'll probably be material which offends in the opposite direction.

The last time I cried was when I watched the film Veronica Guerin. Now there's someone who was a real figure to admire (even though she didn't get raised from the dead three days later).

A very interesting take on the matter. I'll have to think about this some more.

Shven

Because those in charge(TM) are very good at manipulating our emotions, for whatever reason.

For example, we're all so terribly distraught over that big wave that killed 160,000 people, but nowhere near as bothered about the 8 million that died of starvation last year.

Compassion is chock full of double standards.

Shven

Dharma

Well that's a lie. If you read the Bible, Jesus did not die for "all of us" but rather he states quite clearly, that if he wanted, he had angels that were protecting him and that he could finish them all off if he wanted to, however, he will DIE TO FULFILL THE PROPHECY...in other words, he only died to fulfill the prophecy of the coming of the Jewish messiah who was to have been persecuted and killed according to old testament records...You can check it out in the bible, right after the last supper episode...

sharon45

Did you seriously mean to write this?You can check it out in the bible that jesus died because he wanted to, for himself. There is no OT prophecy of a persecuted and killed messiah. It surely isn't from out of Isaiah 53, because for anyone following closely, this servant is clearly Israel.

jmem

I saw so much of this in the online community of women I used to visit around the time The Passion movie came out. It was really sickening, these women would go in groups to watch that movie and come back to the boards going on and on and ON about how they cried as they staggered out of the theatre, how they were still crying over how much Jesus suffered, how much he sacrificed.

The impression I got from them was that they reacted so deeply to it because they took it so absolutely personally. "Jesus endured that for me. He loves me so very much." It makes them feel all warm and fuzzy and special to believe that the man-god they idolize cares that deeply for them.

Forgot to add: I saw it referred to on some atheist site as "emotional masturbation", that certainly is a good description of what I saw on that message board.

Dharma

Jesus obviously read the old testament and was doing everything in his power to try to fulfill the prophecy of the Messiah...I certainly think he was quite knowledgable about scriptures:


Matthew 26:
53: Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

Jesus chose to die, yes.

54: But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"
55: At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.
56: But all this has taken place, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.

Jesus died to fulfill the prophecy and NOT for the sins of man.

sharon45

I despise jesus, but still his tortured misguided death breaks me up as well. I don't like to see anyone brought to such circumstances.
Yes, you and around two billion others, sad that he actually reveals otherwise.

Isn't it convenient for the NT that jesus has a selective memory.

Hopeful Monsters

Excellent contibution jmem - see how the women returning from the cinema fits in with a fetishistic fantasy explanation; how it is a sort of emotional, endorphin generating brain loop?

The utter narcissism of the "He did it for ME".

Yes - the warm, fuzzy, endorphin feeding frenzy is indeed what it is all about.

So many people are trapped by & within this Obsessive Compulsive Disordered fantasy-fetish for their whole lives. It's the tribute they pay to an aspect of human-culture, much like devoted Trekkies, Star Wars junkies, war-painted Football fans etc. Only this is far more harmful.

Heh heh heh :thumbs:

Space Chef

The thread title made me think of "People Who Died" by Jim Carroll:

Teddy sniffing glue he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
...
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died
...
Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein...

http://www.catholicboy.com/catholicb...ics.asp#people