Jesus Christ with a thousand face

Jesus Christ with a thousand face
December 1, 2004

‘People do all evil things willingly and cheerfully when they do it with the religious conviction.’ Pascal

For many Christians worldwide, Jesus Christ is an embodiment of their values that manifests where they stand in their political, social, cultural and other arenas, and the Christian debate about Jesus Christ has special importance for all of us here in the United States and around the earth, even if you are not a Christian but a Muslim, Buddhist, agnostic, or atheist.
Since the head of Superpower State publicly announced that he consults with his God before executing his overall policies, domestic or foreign, our lives are directly influenced by the prevailing image of his Jesus Christ, whether it is a vindictive warrior god or a benevolent messiah.

Christians for thousands years were never agreed upon who Jesus Christ really was…they even could not agree with what his skin color was…for Caucasians Jesus was depicted as a blondie, fair-skinned and blue-eyed chap, for Black Africans he was a dark-skinned, flat-nosed and muscular bozo, and for Asians he would be more affable for them to see him a round-faced, high-cheek-boned, and yellow-skinned ‘yangbannish’ gentleman, even though he surely looks like a brown-colored Palestinian Arab or Oriental Jew.

However, there is just one exception: Korean Christians are somewhat exceptionally in accord with the image of Caucasian Jesus figure, considering that they are eager to surgically change their facial and bodily figure more closely emulate Caucasian styles of big-nose, round-deep eyes, chiseled-out cheekbones, and dyed blond hair, and on the other hand, they are the renowned creators of Korean messiah as we have witnessed numerous epiphanies of Messiahs like Rev. Sun Myong Moon, et al.

There are also billions of non-believers on earth who mind their own business and live a life in the quiet and peaceful ambience, who see Jesus Christ one of such religious persons as Buddha, Mahatma Ghandi, or Dalai Lama, and some take Jesus nothing more a cult leader roaming in the rugged hill of cow-town Galilee in the first century than Sun Myong Moon is a tribal chief in the modern day Christianity.
It is safe to say that the non-believers are treated as the religious underclass that were denied the public service of help and assistance by the deity-sanctioned Government due exclusively to their non-believer stance even though they are the same taxpayers as Christians.

Even among the many sects of Christian Community, whether it is Catholic, Baptists, Methodist, Pentecostal, Protestant, or England Church, there is no consensus about the spiritual image of their God, Jesus Christ…. Some believe in Jesus as a supernatural son of God in human form, offering immortality to everyone who repents, while others emphasize His righteousness clothed in a warrior armor-plate who massacres evil-doers and brings down the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in an Apocalyptic way.

Recently, some of highly acclaimed Christian theologians look at their faith anew rather in a fashion of the allegorical, spiritual, mythical approach to the Bible and to Christian faith than a literalistic, popularized, and historical approach to the sublime truth.
They think that early Christian church had made a fatal and fateful error by turning the Christian drama and myth into a form of history in which Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a flesh and blood person, becomes a God of Holy Father, Son, and Spirit.

And when these various image of Jesuses enters into the living arenas of human society, a Jesus metamorphoses into a thousand face, sometimes creating a good rapport with your neighbor or oftentimes wreak havoc on others.
For example, if you image Jesus a greatest example of perfect love for others, you never intend to harm others in whatever situation that has rarely existed in human history.
But you willingly do any evil things to harm others, when you portrayed him a warrior God like Yahweh in the Old Testament, as we have been experiencing in its entirety of our life.

Therefore, when the political ideology intersects with a warrior image of Jesus Christ, as in the evangelical fundamentalism in the Bible belt of the USA, that has helped to elect the political leader, it is not difficult to see a striking reflections of the evangelical agendas that the Government aggressively imposes it on all spectrums of the society, domestic or foreign.

Often combined their apocalypticism with deomonization in a way that promotes hatred and violence against an other, the evangelical fundamentalists employ their Endtimes scenarios drawn from the Book of Revelations justifying hostility toward the Islamic world in general and sanctioning the heinous crimes of the Israeli government toward Palestinian Arabs in particular.

When God goes to war like in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq, chances are you see the image of Jesus Christ in a lens through which the vindictive, rapacious and violent God of the Old Testament (Numbers 31:17-18) thunders to their Israelites ordering to kill all men, women, and children of Midianites, not because they are wicked or evil-spirited people but are what they are.
A loving, caring, and concerned God of Jesus Christ disappears in a fog of patriotic and gung-ho marches toward the holocaust of all human species.

The following story is a good manifestation of a Jesus Christ with a thousand face.

The News delivered by Agence France Presse in Iraq just before the US Marine stormed the Sunni City of Fallujah, destroying the entire city and hospitals with massive bombing campaign and massacring hundreds of innocent Iraqi civilians in the name of bringing in “democracy” to that city.

Holy War: Evangelical Marines Prepare to Battle Barbarians

NEAR FALLUJAH - With US forces massing outside Fallujah, 35 marines swayed to Christian rock music and asked Jesus Christ to protect them in what could be the biggest battle since American troops invaded Iraq last year.

Men with buzzcuts and clad in their camouflage waved their hands in the air, M-16 assault rifles beside them, and chanted heavy metal-flavored lyrics in praise of Christ late on Friday in a yellow-brick chapel.
They counted among thousands of troops surrounding the city of Fallujah, seeking solace as they awaited Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision on whether or not to invade Fallujah.

"You are the sovereign. Your name is holy. You are the pure spotless lamb," a female voice cried out on the loudspeakers as the marines clapped their hands and closed their eyes, reflecting on what lay ahead for them.
The US military, with many soldiers coming from the conservative American south and Midwest, has deep Christian roots.

Comforting

In times that fighting looms, many soldiers draw on their evangelical or born-again heritage to help them face the battle.
"It's always comforting. Church attendance is always up before the big push," said first sergeant Miles Thatford.
"Sometimes, all you've got is God."
Between the service's electric guitar religious tunes, marines stepped up on the chapel's small stage and recited a verse of scripture, meant to fortify them for war.

One spoke of their Old Testament hero, a shepherd who would become Israel's king, battling the Philistines 3 000 years ago.
"Thus David prevailed over the Philistines," the marine said, reading from scripture, and the marines shouted back "Hoorah, King David," using their signature grunt of approval.

The marines drew parallels from the verse with their present situation, where they perceive themselves as warriors fighting barbaric men opposed to all that is good in the world.
"Victory belongs to the Lord," another young marine read.
Their chaplain, named Horne, told the worshippers they were stationed outside Fallujah to bring the Iraqis "freedom from oppression, rape, torture and murder ... We ask you God to bless us in that effort."

Holy oil

The marines then lined up and their chaplain blessed them with holy oil to protect them.
"God's people would be anointed with oil," the chaplain said, as he lightly dabbed oil on the marines' foreheads.
The crowd then followed him outside their small auditorium for a baptism of about a half-dozen marines who had just found Christ.

The young men lined up and at least three of them stripped down to their shorts.
The three laid down in a rubber dinghy filled with water and the chaplain's assistant, navy corpsman Richard Vaughn, plunged their heads beneath the surface.

Smiling, Vaughn baptized them "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."
Dripping wet, corporal Keith Arguelles beamed after his baptism.
"I just wanted to make sure I did this before I headed into the fight," he said on the military base not far from the city of Fallujah.

By Agence France Presse

Do you want willingly and cheerfully to share the same oil that the US Marines anointed to their body and the same image of Jesus Christ that was portrayed by them with you during your entire life?
Do you claim the Jesus of US Marines a Christ of yours?
Your answer tells the world who you are and what you are, and it doesn’t matter how Jesus Christ looks like, Caucasian, Afro, Mongolian, or Eskimos.

By Pepe Sojourner
December 1, 2004

Jae MJ Lee wrote in reply


Well, until I'm given access to this website, here it goes. I admire Richard, because he always approaches with love and kindness as Christ our Lord would. I'm not quite there yet. Wow, what a post. Insightful, incredible dynamic thoughts and ideas that are tied together extremely cohesively, a plethora of point of views, well researched, intellectual yet easy to understand for the common man, just plain well thought out. A tremendous essay. Almost thesis like. This piece would certainly garner top grades at any fine educational institution. Lesson learned. Abosolutely nothing. I find no value whatsoever in secular philosophy, which depends the fallable human being to create perfect hope and love for the world. Secular philosophy may tickle and scintillate my brain, but in the end, and after 15 minutes of reading this, it amounted to same thing once again, just plain psychobabble. I wonder if you have read the Bible. I assume you haven't. Because my Jesus I read in the Bible has but one face. Read it to understand for yourself. The Jesus spoken about in the philosophies of the world, does have a thousand faces. God has given you the free will, and placed you in a country, where you can ponder the kind of philosophies you do, instead of worrying where to get your next meal, how to put life back together after a tsunami, how to survive during a 100 year civil war, how to avoid rampant disease. God has given us so many blessings, day after day, that we have taken it for granted, and now demand even more. When the simple things we need and should be grateful for is right under our noses. Well, keeping true to myself, this response is wordy. Let me end this way. Pepe, I thank you for posting your message however. It's that kind of philosophy that encourages me to go back to the Bible and pray. I struggle daily, to keep myself from becoming like the Pharisees and high priests of Jesus time, being proud of having the wisdom of the world. Instead, your essay is pushing me to go back to my Lord Jesus, and just meditate on two simple things, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. Thank you.

Richard Kim wrote in reply>you know Pepe, i was going to write a response pointing out all the ways you have misrepresented Christ but in the end i think Christ himself would want you to know one thing... >>HE loves you and wants you to come to know, HE who is the Christ... then perhaps you too will agree that Jesus Christ has only one true face...>>God bless,>richard


Pepe’s reply
January 20 2005

To Richard Kim:

Please tell me specifically, “what I have misrepresented Christ” in my article?

Secondly, you have said: “ Jesus Christ has only one true face”…which face does your true Jesus have?

The face of a cultist Jewish rabbi that roamed around the hill of Jerusalem with his armed band of twelve disciples and advocated his people to resist the oppressive power of the Roman Empire?
The one with which the Christian Crusaders thousand year ago accompanied committing the massacre of Jews, Muslims, and Infidels?
The one with which Christopher Columbus and later Spanish Franciscan Friars and European Christians brought in the New World where they engaged in genocidal campaign to exterminate the aboriginal natives from the face of the earth?
Or the one that the US Marines had carried with them to the destruction of Fallujah in Iraq?

In the thick history of mankind’s inhumanity, which face of Jesus did those Christians carry in the mind and soul that fueled genocide against Muslims, Africans, Indians, Jews, Gypsies and other religious, racial, and ethnic groups?
What are these Christians who continue such wholesale slaughter still today?
Are they the Christian fascists, the dangerous fanatics who aim to make the US a religious dictatorship and to force this upon the world in the imperial form of the “New Rome”?

I am positive that you would never say all of above descriptions on Jesus is not the face of “your Jesus”, but a loving, caring, and amiable chap who would save us all mortals from sin we inherited from our birth on this wicked world.
As one’s freedom fighter is another’s terrorist, do you think Jesus could be a universal god to the benefit of everyone’s taste on earth?

As someone said, “You are with us or against us”, couldn’t I be your friend if I do not agree with “your” Jesus Christ?
Who has the final authority to define the one and only and true Jesus Christ? The church, Pope, the Emperor or the President of USA?
Have you noticed that Rev. Sun Myung Moon recites and monopolizes the word “true” with true father, true mother, and true family in every gathering around the world, implying that his god is true one?

Are you convinced that “your” Jesus should be the one for every mortals on earth assume a universal “true Jesus”?
Or where could I find a “true Jesus”? At Church? An Evangelical gathering of Billy Graham? The Christian missionary works at the Infidel world?
Or in my personal and spiritual communion with God?

To Jae MJ Lee

First of all, I refuse to entangle with your ad hominem attack on my article, because I have experienced many times with such pompous replies in other forums that resulted in nasty argument of character assassination.
Instead of engaging in serious debate, many respondents tend to become agitated, annoyed, combative, and abusive in their replies, as you avoided to discuss the core of my article and pre-judged your assumption as an infallible reality.
In the future conversation, I will try not to engage with you in the personal way but in a modality of the public debate.

However, in replying with my “psycho-babble”, you babbled about the Bible, Pharisee, and High Priest in brief.
On the assumption that “I have not read the Bible”, I would like to place some questions to you.
1. Do you believe all the narratives of the Bible an inerrant and infallible word of God?
2. Do you read the Bible in “literal sense”?
3. How do you think of Jesus, a Jewish rabbi or a one of triune Christian Gods?

I appreciate if you give me your high opinion.

Thanks

Pepe Sojourner
January 20 2005

PS. I will be back for a reply with Frank later


Hmm...Pepe, I think there needs to be a more lucid distinction of the term "Christian." Like you have mentioned, many varying groups have different images of Jesus, but in my mind and others on this board who are in concordance with reformed theology, there is only one image of Jesus. He was and is the Son of the Father who came to atone for the sins of those whom were gracefully chosen. In addition, there seems to be a conspicuous political agenda on your part by calling the Bible Belt people “Christian Fundamentalists.” What exactly does this mean? Is this adjective tantamount to abortion clinic bombers or people that believe the literal truth of the bible? Because if it is the former, I am not a fundamentalist. However, if it is the latter, I am proudly a fundamentalist.