April 15, 2006
NO WORD YET ON WHETHER MARY SINGS "THE SONG"
Day that Jesus came to the Arndale Centre (Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian, April 15th, 2006)
Manchester 9pm, Friday April 14 2006. Jesus Christ is about to tuck into his last supper, at a fish and chip van close to the cathedral and M&S. "Take, eat. This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me," he says, before offering his disciples some chips. "This is my blood, it will be shared among many for the forgiveness of sins." He hands round his drink before launching into song. We've been here before, of course. Bach, Handel, and Andrew Lloyd Webber have been playing Jesus the Musical for years. Actually it all goes back to the 8th century when the story of the Passion was first chanted. By the 1200s different singers were playing different characters and it had become drama.But this is different. Never before has the music of so many blasphemers, adulterers, Judases, sodomites, narcissists, drunkards, pill poppers, and ne'er-do-wells been compiled to celebrate the passing and second coming of Jesus.
It could only happen in Manchester, home of the Guardian, the Peterloo massacre, and a disproportionate number of great pop stars from the past half-century. Here the Passion is being re-enacted not in church but in Albert Square (forget EastEnders, this is the real Albert Square).
The chosen music is usually the soundtrack to student bedsit miserablism - Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart (surely the most desperate song ever written), the Smiths' Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (probably the second most desperate song ever written) and New Order's Blue Monday (very possibly the third most desperate song ever written). To top things off, the actor cum hardman Keith Allen is the narrator.[...]
Jesus knew he was going to be betrayed, and that the end was nigh. "He's a marked man, his time has come," Allen said. "He's the son of God for heaven's sake, he knows his words are revolutionary, they're rocking the boats, challenging the vested interests." This is a very contemporary Passion. Jesus is booted into a Transit van by the riot police. He emerges at Calvary, badly beaten in an orange suit. The Guantánamo analogy is obvious - but I'm not sure it works.
The Bishop of Manchester, the right reverend Nigel McCulloch says: "Manchester Passion has a sincerity and an ability to shock and connect that is not far removed from how it must have been on the first Good Friday."[...]
The crowd - more straggling passersby than disciples at the dress rehearsal - are impressed. Nayam, Meene and Linda, two Hindus and a non-practising Christian, admit they don't know much about the Passion. "I'm guessing it's Jesus who dies," Linda says.
Yup, we’re a model for those Muslims, all right.
... and people wonder why so many people, myself included, have given up on organized religion.
Posted by: erp at April 15, 2006 10:04 AMSeems like all the music is from Manchester bands, so I don't they'd go in for Ms. Flack.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at April 15, 2006 11:33 AMDear Peter: The model that the Muslims I hope would want to follow is in fact us. Instead of killing the people putting on this tasteless play, or a mob calling for their heads, the majority of citizens in the Judeo-Christian liberal democracies are saddened by such insults to our religion and we even pray for these people, so that they may understand what they are doing. What we do not do is call for their blood or make death threats against their wives and children. This is the present issue we are facing and that Mark Steyn has written so eloquently about in recent months.
"Lamb of God" ... not Tiger of God ...
Have you ever seen a lamb slaughtered (as opposed to its fellow resident on the farm, the pig)? The latter does not go quietly, without protest. Blood-curdling shrieks fill the air and the pig has to be well-restrained. But the lamb, without uttering a sound, or resisting in the least, simply allows its throat to be cut. Jesus chose his animal metaphor most carefully.
When we see our religion blasphemed, we are inwardly concerned for the souls of the blasphemers; we pray for them. But we do use violence to stop them (writing letters to one's congressman repsectively protesting the use of our tax dollars to fund a "Piss Christ" is not violence.)
This then is the new issue at stake in defending the West from a religion that does not seem to respect a certain sovereignty and that would, we suspect, happily override the institutions our Founding Fathers designed and left in place, laws and traditions and freedoms that we fought wars against tyranny to defend, and replace these with Shaia and a fear of the sword ...
The issue you are speaking of (the existence of the malicious public mocking of religions) is not a new one: that there are tasteless, unhappy people who would go out of their way to insult the adherents of religion? Yes there are and always have been and always will be. Surely you've seen examples all your life. What you have not seen before is an astonishingly selective self-censorship on the part of media sprouting from fear of being assasinated. No blood spilled over Piss Christ. Just a little ink, my brother.
Posted by: Simon at April 15, 2006 2:35 PMSimon:
I take your point, but I really didn't see this post as dealing with mockery or blasphemy or the cartoon controversies. There is really no evidence these people are other than completely sincere. It's more about the muddle-headed, fatuous approach to faith in large parts of the West cheered on by some of our muddle-headed fatuous religious leaders. I was really just trying to poke fun at our confident belief we have a more sophisticated and mature approach than some others.
Posted by: Peter B at April 15, 2006 6:29 PMConsidering I've just come from a Pentecostal service, what's the big deal?
They're out amongst the people, instead of the people coming to them.
Posted by: Sandy P at April 15, 2006 9:42 PM