Hollywood Jesus

Happy New Year everybody!

We've been on a short holiday with the family and spent the last days of 2004 in a large holiday house in Orvelte - I guess one of the most beautiful historic villages in the Netherlands! We even had some snow for a couple of days – which made this village with all its authentic farms, stables and barns truly ‘picture perfect’. I will post some impressions and pics later on.

It was sort of a mixed blessing to enjoy this lovely vacation, while seeing these horrible images on TV from the tsunami disaster in Asia. The contrast couldn’t have been bigger! Of course I’ve prayed for the victims. The scale of this disaster is too enormous to comprehend. It also makes you wonder why such things happen – there seems to be no explanation. It just shows again that our world is filled with suffering and pain and that we all desperately need to be released from it. In the meantime I can’t help myself asking: GOD WHY?

Let’s all pray and give generously to do our part and send some relieve to the survivors!

And now for something completely different, as John Cleese would say.

Yesterday I received one of these hoax email petitions – this time about a movie depicting Jesus and His disciples as gay men. I feel embarrassed that so many of my Christian friends are eager to spread this kind of nonsense. It tells you something about their prejudices and fears, I guess. If you ask me: What Would Jesus Do? I guess I would say: He wouldn’t pay any attention to such messages (let alone forward them ‘to all His friends’) but would look after an Aids victim instead.

It seems that nobody bothers to check these bogus messages – they just copy their entire address book and start harassing everybody – all the while thinking they are doing a good thing for humankind. It is just a matter of time. I’m sure they will all be flooded by spam mails trying to sell them cheap Viagra and other offers you can’t refuse. And of course they will all wonder: HOW ON EARTH DID THEY GET MY EMAIL ADDRESS?

Let’s do something positive with this experience… My tip of the week is: visit Jesus in Hollywood every now and then. Do not fear, my fellow Christians (or all you freethinkers, atheists and sceptics out there!), this is NOT a site that is trying to make fun of frightened Christian soldiers. On the contrary, David Bruce is a brother in Christ who’s aim it is to review pop culture from a spiritual point of view. (Good to know that there are still some Christians trying to follow their Master’s instructions to be salt and light in this tasteless, dark world…). I have heard about his site before, but – just because of the chain letter email thing – I came across it again.

Of course the article about U2’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (what was wrong with the short & catchy album titles like Boy and War?) immediately caught my attention. But if you are not into U2, you might enjoy reading about other modern day icons, movies, literature and contemporary culture in general. Have a look at this page if you want to find out about the connection between Hollywood and the cross of Christ.
Are you interested in this topic of Christian spirituality and contemporary culture? If this is the case, you might also enjoy a visit to Christiancounterculture (if English is your mother tongue) and this site if you are one of the happy few i.e. people who are able to read Dutch. Note: this Garfunkel name is not referring to 50% of the illustrious duo – the only connection being ART...