Jesus Christ Superstar
Watched the 2000 version of Jesus Christ Superstar on the weekend.
I'd always been told (by Christians) that this production was blasphemous, but no-one would ever explain why.
I think I understand why now, but I'm not sure that I agree.
Jesus is portrayed as being very human, rather than hovering one foot above the ground. He gets scared. He finds it hard to lead his followers. He wonders if he really is just a very naughty boy. I'm not surprised that a lot of Christians find this offensive, but I'm not sure it's necessarily blasphemous.
I think the display of affection between Jesus and Mary Magdalene (and his other followers) would also make a lot of Christians uncomfortable. I realise that there isn't any scriptural evidence for a romantic relationship between Jesus and Mary, but I'm not sure why this is so offensive. I think the director is suggesting that it might be one reason why Jesus' disciples were angry Mary Magdalene when she annointed Jesus, washed his feet with her hair, et cetera. (John 12:1-11) (Please tell me if this is incoherrent and I'll rewrite it.)
Lastly, when the production first went to America, a lot of conventional churches were concerned about the Jesus People (aka Jesus Movement, Jesus Freaks), a movement of hippies who wanted to follow the teaching's of Jesus. So they would've been pretty upset to hear about a play where Jesus and his disciples are portrayed as hippies.
Also, Alt Tab noticed that one of Jesus' followers is also on Queer as Folk, and I think there has been a Zoo TV influence.
6 comments:
I haven't seen it yet, but have always wanted to, so now I'll get off mty arse and check it out.
I reckon Christians need to get over themselves and stop being offended by stuff. If somebody is blasphemous, God will sort it out with them, and in the meantime at least they've got an opinion on spiritual stuff and would be up for a conversation.
Yeah, that is a good point. Had a discussion at Gush recently about whether anyone benefits from feeling offended.
This page explains why some Christians think Superstar is blasphemous. I don't find it very convincing.
I just asked Schultzy why we're so appalled at the idea of Jesus having a romantic relationship. He reminded me that its b/c women are inherently evil, [since Eve caused the fall of humankind, and plunged man into sin] and women cause men to sin. Jesus never sinned and thats b/c he DIDN'T have a relationship with a woman.
I have been grossly mis-represented.
I have also been grossly misrepresented on another occassion. We have something in common!
It's a while since I wrote this post. I think I now understand better what they where trying to do with Mary Magdalene's character. It seems like she's trying to work out how to understand this Jesus bloke and how she should relate to him. Many of the characters in the production struggle with this, and I think the director made it like this to encourage the audience to ask the same questions themselves.
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