here<\/a>. He\u2019s right. Jesus in the sixties and seventies became a limp-wristed hippie peace and love type of guy. It reminds us that too often we re-make Jesus in our own image.<\/p>\nI guess because I was brought up in a fundamentalist church with preachers who knew how to \u2018shoot the gospel gun\u2019 and call sinners to repentance and preached about the wickedness of \u201cthem long haired hippie types with their tight blue jeans and rock and roll music\u201d that I was never really attracted to the Jesus of Godspell <\/i>and Jesus Christ Superstar.<\/i>\u00a0I always saw Jesus as a loner\u2013a prophetic, even vengeful character a bit like some of Clint Eastwood\u2019s characters\u2013maybe the preacher in Paler Rider. \u00a0<\/i>He was the squinty eyed Jesus\u2013eyeing up his enemies and dispatching them with a well chosen pithy comment. \u201cLet the dead bury their dead\u201d or \u201cRender unto Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s and unto God what is God\u2019s\u201d are sharp and edgy.<\/p>\n
Maybe what we need is more stern preaching in this soft and effeminate age. This Sunday\u2019s reading from Ezekiel reminds the preacher that he must call the sinner to repentance. Now we don\u2019t like this very much because it makes people feel uncomfortable and uneasy. We\u2019re told it makes them feel guilty. So what\u2019s the big \u2018victim\u2019 thing about feeling guilty? If you\u2019ve done wrong you should feel guilty. Guilt is like pain. If you put your hand in the fire it burns. Then you pull your hand out. Same with guilt. You do wrong. Guilt makes you feel bad. You stop doing wrong.<\/p>\n
Saying that you shouldn\u2019t feel guilty or that guilt is bad is like saying that the burning sensation in your hand when you put it in the fire is wrong. How crazy is that? So guilt\u2013although it causes us pain\u2013is good for us. It keeps us in check. Increasingly in our society, however, there is no preaching about sin and punishment\u2013not only because it makes people feel uncomfortable, but because many preachers don\u2019t really believe in punishment for sin anyway. God, like Jesus, has become the cotton candy God. All sweetness and fluff but no real content. However, how is anyone supposed to be aware of sin unless the preacher points out that it is a sin? There is a residual awareness of sin in our lives due to generations of a Christian society, but that is fading fast, and if the preacher doesn\u2019t speak about sin he\u2019s as negligent as the doctor who refuses to tell a patient that they have cancer because he\u2019s too cowardly to or because he think the patient might \u2018be traumatized.\u2019<\/p>\n
No, the doctor calls the patient in and says, \u201cYou\u2019ve got cancer. We have to operate. Brace yourself.\u201d Likewise with the cure of souls. We call the patient in and say, \u201cYou\u2019re suffering from the cancer we call sin. Doctor Jesus needs to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other reason preachers don\u2019t mention sin and punishment is because they are all too aware of the sin in their own lives. So maybe the remedy is for more priests to live austere lives of asceticism and self denial. Maybe we should not be so concerned for our material well being, our comfortable lifestyle and our retirement plans. Maybe we should live life on the edge more\u2013be more prophetic and cut through all the comfortable, sentimental middle class Am-Church crap. That would give us the authority to preach about sin a bit more and maybe save some souls and help renew the church.<\/p>\n
Just sayin\u2019<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jesus as a girly man is what Mgr. Charles Pope writes about here. He\u2019s right. Jesus in the sixties and seventies became a limp-wristed hippie peace and love type of guy. It reminds us that too often we re-make Jesus in our own image. I guess because I was brought up in a fundamentalist church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Clint Eastwood and Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jesus as a girly man is what Mgr. Charles Pope writes about here. He's right. Jesus in the sixties and seventies became a limp-wristed hippie peace and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/09\/clint-eastwood-and-jesus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clint Eastwood and Jesus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jesus as a girly man is what Mgr. Charles Pope writes about here. He's right. 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