Taking Jesus Back

After Bush won the last election, and many of the people I know and associate with were stunned (to put it mildly) that the people actually DID that, a friend of mind made a quote I've never forgotten.

"They won the election by hijacking Jesus!"

As we all know now, that is EXACTLY what they did. The Republicans successfully outcampaigned the Democrats by portraying themselves as "God's people", and the other side was a bunch of liberal gay loving, science creating pagans who were going to all be reponsible for bringing on the next Armageddon. And Bush won.

I was as despondent as anybody....HOWEVER, two years ago on the Grammies I noticed a change: There was some form of "power to the people" or spiritual sense to almost every performance. The highlights were Green Day's performance of Amercian Idiot, which doesn't even beat around the bush on what it has to say, Kanye West's performance which was combined with the Staple Singers and a gospel choir and was intense, to say the least....Most of the performances had something to do with spirituality, hope or in some form Jesus...And I'm of the opinion that the Grammys are not really a "red state" crowd....That's when I noticed a change.

In my little 2 cent opinion, I think that the Religious Right zealots made it so "uncool" to be associated with Faith of any sort that the liberal people have all been "in the closet" from a Faith standpoint for several years. Everybody needs something to believe in, especially these days, but what are you going to do when the number one religion in the United States has somehow become associated with a war most people don't want, and a cabinet most Americans are ashamed of? Thus, the sudden popularity of New Age thinking and more importantly, people ADMITTING they believe that way. Virtually EVERYBODY believes in a higher power of some sort; even a friend of mine who proclaimed herself an Athiest feared "bad karma". I don't want to break it to her, but Karma is a result of a Higher Power making judgement calls....she's not an athiest, but shhhhhh....:-)

My last post was about the series Lost...there are a lot of spiritual messages in there, and a blaring message I'm getting is "instinct over education" works best..."Instinct" in my opinion, is another word for Faith. The show has a huge message, actually MANY of them, and it's wildly popular...I just finished slogging thru the Season 1 DVD set of Battlestar Gallactica. Boy, is that different from the old version I must say...Right away I pegged that the Cylons had obviously been programmed by the Bush cabinet to believe what they were doing is right, the rest of the world are sinners, and there is only one way things are and that is the Cylon way. They had even successfully programmed themselves so that if the body vessel they were in died, the programming would radio wave itself to another recepticle. They'd created "Eternal Life". Initially, the Battlestar Gallactica human survivors were scoffing at the whole angle of higher power and faith...BUT, as the series progressed, a belief set amongst the humans began to surface as well. Towards the end of the season an entire "Biblical story" had been created that was loosely based on the Old Testament, and the crew of Gallactica are following their quest to fulfill an ancient prophecy and find the planet known as Earth. The Gallactica folks are going to survive with "help from God". And the show is wildly popular...

I LOVE that!!! Maybe a lot of it is subconciously, but the new thinkers vs. the old thinkers is becoming a more even battle. It's not that we don't believe in God, it's that we are disgusted with how God's word has been contorted and twisted to serve other's financial and political gains. Most of the decent people I know want nothing to do with that....however, those same people have also realized they are unwilling to give up their belief set in the name of disassociation and are fighting back via the best media: Art. Jesus was hi-jacked, but we've put on the black leotards and the face paint and we've sneaked in and hustled him out of jail in the middle of the night! That's the most hopeful thing EVER!

U2 has been doing this for YEARS...open spirituality despite whether it was cool to express it or not is something they've been masters of. On the Vertigo Tour they sold out EVERY arena they played in minutes...not days, minutes. EVERYWHERE. Name another band in the world that can do that? There isn't one. When The Stones come to PDX, tickets are available for several weeks; when McCartney came, tickets were available for several days...U2 sold out in 10 minutes or less. Why can they do that? The feeling. The U2 fans who have gone to dozens of shows and will go to several performances every tour know exactly what I'm talking about: The feeling. At a U2 show there is a spirituality and a commeraderie amongst the fans that is unlike anything else I've ever felt. Despite what is going on in the world at the time, at a U2 concert you are allowed to feel whatever you'd like without feeling guilty for the pleasure for a couple of hours. THAT is their draw; all the fans out there know exactly what I'm talking about, the folks who have yet to go think I'm dilluded. That's okay. As I mentioned above, there are now a LOT of ways to exercise your belief set through the Arts these days...And that speaks a much brighter picture for the outlook of the world if you ask me.

The message Jesus gave was great, "Do unto others, love each other, turn the other cheek". He was the original hippy, without the tie dye and the joint...And what he had to say WAS good. To quote The Edge, "I'm cool with Jesus Christ....it's a lot of Christians I have a problem with". Amen brother, Amen....