And Then It Hit Me

I start every Tuesday morning at 6:30am. I normally do not stop working on one thing or another until about 9:30 that night. It tends to be a very long day. And at the center of that extended day is a class called, "Postmodern Thought," which is technically an English class but primarily deals with philosophy and culture studies. This class meets in the basement of one of Portland State's older buildings. There is no cell phone service and no windows. Every week, our lanky old professor plays movies or clips of television shows to point to an aspect of postmodernism. Needless to say, there are some days where it is too hard to keep my eyes open.

But yesterday we watched a very interesting clip that made my brain and eyes open a little bit.

It was a debate that was filmed in the 1980s between the makers of the Monty Python film, The Life of Brian, and some Christian clergymen/teachers. The Christian clergymen were older and the Monty Python guys were younger. The debate was essentially focused on the very concept of the MP film. Was this film worth while? It is good? Will it last? Is it blasphemy?

During the debate, one of the old Christian men said, "You've taken the most sacred life any human has lived and made a joke of it. That is unthinkable and blasphemous to the most essential thing we know of."

But there is a problem here, and it gets to the heart of postmodernism. When I heard him say this I realized that this man was not defending Jesus, nor was he even defending his faith in Christ. What he was defending was the image and picture we have created of Christ. He was defending our sign or symbol for Jesus and not Jesus himself. If he really knew Christ, I think he would realize that he doesn't need defending.

The image we have made of Christ (long haired and bearded white man in a gentle, white robe) has been defended since its inception. So people began to (and still do now) care more about Christ's representation than the real, living, Christ himself.

AND THEN it hit me that what I'm really talking about is fundamentalism.

See, postmodern thought has everything to do with signs or symbols. The postmodernist loves to take a sign we have ascribed meaning to, and put it in a context totally separate from the signs original place. They will play with the sign and look for a reaction from the audience. Postmodernists test the limits of our cultural signs.

"South Park" is the best example of this. Jesus lives in the town South Park, speaks simple English, and occasionally does things far outside of the Christ we read about in the Bible, have seen in movies, etc. This upsets many Christians.

But why does it upset Christians? And why did that old man get so upset with Monty Python? These postmodern artists, filmmakers, and writers are not really using Jesus, because Jesus is not a white man in a robe, but rather they're using the symbol and sign we have used for Jesus and putting it in a different context to see the audience react.

Therefore, when Christians and the old man defend Jesus, they're really practicing fundamentalism, as they are not defending Christ and the essence of the gospel, but they're really defending the sign we have used for Jesus.

Fundamentalism appeared in full force right when postmodern thought made its first steps. Where there is postmodernism, there is fundamentalism.

So then, since I am a Christian minister, I'll end with a question for you to think about if you claim to know God: Are you defending Christ (as if he needed it) or are you defending the image we have made for Christ? God does not need you to protect him. He didn't ask you to be a defendant for his reputation, he asked you to be a witness to his reality. Jesus is not a local rabbi with good carpentry skills. That's who he was while he was with us on this earth. And sadly, that's a lot of who people think he is.

Now, on the contrary, He's King of the earth. He is supreme, with all authority on heaven and earth. The thing he desires for you to do, is to get others off of the image and in to the essence.