I've said little, since its release, about Gibson's The Passion. I was excited about its prospect--a film about Jesus in dead languages. And while I'm certainly amused at the South Park take on the issue, I wanted to run a different aspect by people.
I just picked four advertisements out of the daily snail mail. These are not, of course all the advertisements, but I don't think you care how much money I can save on GutterMax®.
• Casey and Wendy Treat, in support of two Christian Faith Centers sent an oversized postcard, addressed "Resident," featuring a familiarly-stylized use of the word passion: "His Passion Gave Life." It is an invitation to the Easter services. ("Outstanding children's church - sunrise service excluded; exciting junior high services; a passionate musical presentation from the creative arts ministry . . . .")
• Canyon Hills Community Church also has Easter on its mind (it's the common theme); Pastor Steve Walker will share an inspiring teaching on the Resurrection - "What if it's true"? Or so says the oversized postcard addressed to "Resident."
• Canyon Creek Church (I live near a canyon?!) sends yet another oversized postcard, this, "To our neighbors at ...." The front shows a stylized cross on a dark crimson band over a background consisting of two palms of the hand superimposed transparently over a sun-flaring cloudy background. While not invoking Easter except to list the service dates, CCC offers, "The Day After the Passion."
• Lastly, the Monroe Seventh-day Adventist Church offers a more commonsense advert, a cheaply-printed flyer folded over, addressed, and stamped. They're announcing The Sun Has Risen, a "musical drama about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the historic and Biblical sequel to 'The Passion of the Christ.'
I'm going to begin not with the detail I've left out. That's actually a separate issue. But this is crass. One in four churches advertising for Easter today can actually avoid attempting to exploit Gibson's movie. Is Christianity really reduced to nothing more than an ongoing, self-recycling pop-culture fad?
And I recongnize that the movie isn't the only thing. The Resurrection itself doesn't carry as much punch these days, and it took until I was in Catholic school to get much discussion of "the passion." Perhaps the Catholics have always discussed it, but it's only in the face of skepticism that I feel the issue was ever addressed seriously (or semi-seriously, or intended-to-be-seriously, as some might have it) by those who attempted to instruct and indoctrinate me into Christianity.
But I didn't get this last year. It was the same old Resurrection and sacrifice and new hope bit.
Now it's passion, passion, passion.
The fact that I left out? The SDA flyer was addressed to my partner and her ex-husband. Which is a longer story than needs recounting, but I'm wondering why her parents have a church up here harassing her about that.
So much for the spirit of Easter. Market appeal holds three-quarters of the represented sample ("The Day After the Passion" is fair); and that's more than enough to define the propriety of war. Is it enough to suggest--and, possibly, in a more extended and complete examination, define--the nature of Christianity?
I just picked four advertisements out of the daily snail mail. These are not, of course all the advertisements, but I don't think you care how much money I can save on GutterMax®.
• Casey and Wendy Treat, in support of two Christian Faith Centers sent an oversized postcard, addressed "Resident," featuring a familiarly-stylized use of the word passion: "His Passion Gave Life." It is an invitation to the Easter services. ("Outstanding children's church - sunrise service excluded; exciting junior high services; a passionate musical presentation from the creative arts ministry . . . .")
• Canyon Hills Community Church also has Easter on its mind (it's the common theme); Pastor Steve Walker will share an inspiring teaching on the Resurrection - "What if it's true"? Or so says the oversized postcard addressed to "Resident."
• Canyon Creek Church (I live near a canyon?!) sends yet another oversized postcard, this, "To our neighbors at ...." The front shows a stylized cross on a dark crimson band over a background consisting of two palms of the hand superimposed transparently over a sun-flaring cloudy background. While not invoking Easter except to list the service dates, CCC offers, "The Day After the Passion."
• Lastly, the Monroe Seventh-day Adventist Church offers a more commonsense advert, a cheaply-printed flyer folded over, addressed, and stamped. They're announcing The Sun Has Risen, a "musical drama about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the historic and Biblical sequel to 'The Passion of the Christ.'
I'm going to begin not with the detail I've left out. That's actually a separate issue. But this is crass. One in four churches advertising for Easter today can actually avoid attempting to exploit Gibson's movie. Is Christianity really reduced to nothing more than an ongoing, self-recycling pop-culture fad?
And I recongnize that the movie isn't the only thing. The Resurrection itself doesn't carry as much punch these days, and it took until I was in Catholic school to get much discussion of "the passion." Perhaps the Catholics have always discussed it, but it's only in the face of skepticism that I feel the issue was ever addressed seriously (or semi-seriously, or intended-to-be-seriously, as some might have it) by those who attempted to instruct and indoctrinate me into Christianity.
But I didn't get this last year. It was the same old Resurrection and sacrifice and new hope bit.
Now it's passion, passion, passion.
The fact that I left out? The SDA flyer was addressed to my partner and her ex-husband. Which is a longer story than needs recounting, but I'm wondering why her parents have a church up here harassing her about that.
So much for the spirit of Easter. Market appeal holds three-quarters of the represented sample ("The Day After the Passion" is fair); and that's more than enough to define the propriety of war. Is it enough to suggest--and, possibly, in a more extended and complete examination, define--the nature of Christianity?
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