Tuesday, December 20, 2011

How Sweet It Is to Be Mocked by You

Pat Robertson is right.

My fingers still hurt from typing that, but it's true.  At least in this very specific instance.

Last weekend, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch where Jesus comes to visit Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, the highlights of which were Jesus asking the Broncos QB to tone down his public displays of faith a notch and telling the rest of the Broncos that, if he's going to keep helping them win, they need to stop playing terrible football for the first three quarters of the game. 

So the sketch was pretty sacrilegious concerning Christ and pretty rough on His sheep Tim Tebow.  And that made televangelist (and cuckoo-bananas false prophet)  Pat Robertson mad.  While discussing this sketch on whatever "Christian" channel he's on, Robertson had this to say:

If this had been a Muslim country and they had done that, and had Muhammad doing that stuff, you would have found bombs being thrown off!

Now, aside from "bombs being thrown off" not making any prepositional sense, Pat Robertson is right.  Islam does not take kindly to mockery, especially concerning its chief prophet Mohammed.  And had SNL done a skit mocking the Koran, the prophet and/or Muslims the way they mocked Christianity, I'm sure that somewhere in the world, you would have found some bombs being thrown off in some form or another.  So it's not as though SNL's lack of Islam-mocking sketches is born from a genuine appreciation of the religion.  I sincerely doubt that the head writers at 30 Rock haven't asked Jason Sudeikis to dress up as Allah's prophet because they genuinely respect the beliefs of 1.6 billion Muslims throughout the world.  Rather, any respect they give to Islam is born out of fear of violent retaliation, the same fear that caused Comedy Central to wimp out of showing a depiction of Mohammed in a South Park episode a number of years ago.

And while respect born from fear may be an acceptable thing if you're Tiberius Caesar, it's not worth squat if you're a pope or a prophet or a Presbyterian.  So, as Christians, the fact that we're not given the same respect as Muslims shouldn't make us angry.  Instead, that should make us happy, very happy.  Because that means that people view the Church precisely the way Christ said they'd view her-as something lowly and meek, something that can be mocked with impunity. It means that people expect us to do exactly what Jesus told us to do when they strike us-to turn the other cheek.  

And as someone who very frequently fails to act in a Christ-like manner, it's pretty comforting to see that, somehow, the world still expects me to be exactly who Christ says I am.   It's a great reminder that neither my sins nor SNL sketches can stop Jesus from being Lord of His Church.

8 comments:

Tamara said...

Great post! Also a great reminder to take joy in the fact that we are not of this world and they know it.

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DentM42 said...

Great post! As you observe, Christ said it would be like this.

At the same time, however, out of sincere love and concern for those who would mock Christ in this way, how ought we (the Church) rightly confront the culture with the seriousness of their folly?

Joe Krohn said...

I thought it was hilarious...but I am a bit of a mixed bag as I sort out my thoughts on the subject...I think if anyone made an emotional connection either positively or negatively...they might need to ponder more as I am...objectivity I believe will bring it into focus...

Propter Christum said...

Sure, it was hilarious. But it was blasphemous. I remember Hans talking one time about how a girl broke his heart, and we laughed because the way he said it sounded funny. But it was still wrong to laugh at his heart-break (obviously, this was long time ago). Just because something strikes a nerve of laughter because of its cleverness in the discipline called comedy does not make it not blasphemous. I remember someone saying that family guy wasn't even funny in his disgust that they mock Jesus. But whether or not it is funny does not determine its blasphemy. I could definitely see why anyone would laugh at it. It was comedy. But this only shows us all the more that we can't avoid it. We can only pray, "Lord have mercy" when the world's clever blasphemy tickles our sinful flesh's humor.

Joe Krohn said...

In a sense the skit is blasphemous. But you have to separate yourself from the skit. The Jesus portrayed was the hip Jesus that the apostate Jesus freak church gave us...Doobie Brothers 'Jesus is Just Alright With Me' comes to mind. But the character is also the Mormon Jesus who declares that the Mormons have it all correct and then flashes what seems to be a peace sign, but in reality is the Mason symbol for five; an inverted pyramid. And we know that there are Freemason symbols marking the LDS church. What was so ironic is the Jesus that is painted in the skit, is a Jesus that certain religions have invented. And what does this 'Jesus' do? He tells Tim (who in my opinion overtly professes his beliefs to the point that it seems contrived...the NFL is entertainment after all) that he and his team need to be more active in winning their games...kind of sounds like a veiled barb at works righteousness and decision theology to me...and 'Jesus' chides them for this.

Whoever wrote the skit knows something about religion. And then Robertson, an ecumenical pagan who promotes divorce if your spouse is terminal, comes to Tebow's rescue. Please. Good, God fearing Christians are being played. While Pastor Fiene's take is commendable, I think getting all in a wad over what happens in the media is pointless. My half cent...

Anonymous said...

Hi Pastor Fiene,

This is a late comment for the post where you addressed the young man with 2 mommies.

I didn't comment then, but when I ran into a post about trolls on another blog. Well... I had to pass it on to you and hope you get a bang out it:

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/On-the-malignancy-of-trolls

A most merry and blessed Christmas to you and yours,

Susan

Anonymous said...

Dear Pastor Fiene,

If readers of your blog are allowed to make requests, may I make one? Would you consider putting your Lutheran Satire skills to work in disseminating the LCMS CGM crowd? I recently saw this promo to recruit churches and pastors for their movement. It's fairly disconcerting and even distressing for a laywoman like myself. http://vimeo.com/29484996

Thank you for your consideration,
Susan