02 April 2007

Who's Going to Eat Chocolate Jesus?

Chocolate Jesus?! Yummmmmm!

My priorities must be all screwed up because people are arguing left-and-right about the appropriateness of the recently unveiled chocolate sculpture of Jesus, and I'm just wondering who's going to eat it! Have I no sense of decency??? Apparently not. I just love chocolate. I really don't care what it looks like!

So now we have another bugaboo on our hands just in time for Easter! One conservative commentator recently wrote that the liberal bias of the visual media has been exposed once again. How? Well, the networks refused to show those cartoons that placed Muhammad in a bad light out of respect for Muslims. But they had no problems showing Chocolate Jesus. Ergo, the media apparently has no respect for Christians.

I, for one, don't expect the media to respect Christians because to me it's insane to expect the media to respect anything. Sometimes they do, but I guess I don't need to have a talking head give credence to my faith when it appears to be under attack or parodied. It's like the whole "War on Christmas" controversy. The only people who really believe that there's a war being fought are those who are afflicted by a Don Quixote complex.

Honestly, the sculpture didn't bother me, and I don't feel slighted in the least. I can understand why some Christians would feel dissed. The media has trained them very well. What appears to be an attack on Jesus is really an attack on them. And they're right! Christians, conservative and liberal, have demonstrably been some the most boorish and rigid people in this country, and it's being dished back to them. In my way of thinking, if a chocolate sculpture of Jesus raises your ire, your problems are deeper than just media bias.

Expecting to be respected by anyone, including the media, is just plain nuts. After the barbs and bombs have been tossed from entrenchment to entrenchment, what will remain are bruised and bloodied people who fought an ideological war, a media that laughs and moves on to the next sensational story that will successfully expose the deep and wide barriers that we silly humans have constructed, and a Chocolate Jesus.

What should we do then? Be an agent of peace, ignore the ire-raising antics of the media, and eat some chocolate. Happy Easter!

2 comments:

Chris said...

Here's the thing that amazes me most about the situation: When Jesus was crucified, he probably was nude. So what's the problem? I think it's possible that realism might be getting in the way of their romanticization of the Savior. I know I've had to alter my thinking several times.

Doug Hoag said...

Absolutely! We've managed to clean Jesus up so much because we're so afraid of experiencing the full effect of his suffering due to our Victorian sexual mores. I think it's truthful to say that Jesus actually had a penis!