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Apr. 14th, 2006 08:06 pmOkay, so, Easter is my favorite church season. Not only is it the meat of my belief, but it's a great story. Even if it isn't your belief, you have to admit that it's a pretty intense story.
Now, last year I posted my series of hymn lyrics and scripture at times corresponding to the event. I dno't know why I did it, honestly, I felt like I needed to share. And last year I left the chuch on Good Friday in tears. Not because of a moving service, but because we had gotten a new pastor and his adjustments to the service I had known practically forever made a mockery of the sentiment to me. There is a time and a place for acting. A Good Friday Tenebrae service is not it. That is not the place to do a dramatic reading like it's high school speech.
That said, there was a new adjustment to the church that I hadn't seen yet. We have jumped into the 21st century with a projector and screen. I'll be frank and say that it bothers me. Since we're a country with a 97% literacy rate or whatever, there's no need for audio visuals. It's ridiculous. We aren't all illiterate peasants listening to our local priest do the service in latin. Admittedly, the Middle Ages gave us some pretty great religious art, so I'm not complaining, but quite simply: this isn't convenience, it's laziness. It bothers me, but not enough that I'm absolutely outraged. Not to mention it's almost a certainty that if you have audio visual, something is going to go wrong.
Anyway, so there was audio visual with the reading tonight. It started with the Last Supper and Gethsemane - now I'll be the first to admit I don't know everything but since I've been an active Christian for the last six years of my life, I'd like to think that I know something and last I heard, that's what last night was about. Well we get to the part where Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, and the picture in the slideshow pops up and - I kid you not - this is the slashiest picture that I've ever seen. It's not the demure kiss on the cheek that you usually see, Judas has his arms around Jesus and quite honestly, Jesus looks like he'd like the soldiers and disciples to go away so that he can have a moment with Judas.
Next, we have a picture of a rooster on a picturesque, dusk landscape. For those of you not savvy in Judeo-Christianity, this is for Peter, who denied Christ three times before the rooster crowed. Now, this in itself is not funny, but I kid you not, it looked like a cheesy postcard that you buy in Cracker Barrel.
But the crowning glory of the slideshow is this: we come to the point where we are having the release of the criminal related to us - the mob chose to have a murderer released and bayed for Jesus' blood and to have him crucified. There were a couple different pictures for this one, but the final one and the one that was kept on the longest was a screencap from Monty Python and the Life of Brian. My brother and I couldn't look at each other for fear of bursting out laughing. If it wasn't a screencap, then I have to say that the man in the front and center of the crowd bore more than a passing resemblence to Eric Idle.
My religion is so unintentionally funny sometimes.
Now, last year I posted my series of hymn lyrics and scripture at times corresponding to the event. I dno't know why I did it, honestly, I felt like I needed to share. And last year I left the chuch on Good Friday in tears. Not because of a moving service, but because we had gotten a new pastor and his adjustments to the service I had known practically forever made a mockery of the sentiment to me. There is a time and a place for acting. A Good Friday Tenebrae service is not it. That is not the place to do a dramatic reading like it's high school speech.
That said, there was a new adjustment to the church that I hadn't seen yet. We have jumped into the 21st century with a projector and screen. I'll be frank and say that it bothers me. Since we're a country with a 97% literacy rate or whatever, there's no need for audio visuals. It's ridiculous. We aren't all illiterate peasants listening to our local priest do the service in latin. Admittedly, the Middle Ages gave us some pretty great religious art, so I'm not complaining, but quite simply: this isn't convenience, it's laziness. It bothers me, but not enough that I'm absolutely outraged. Not to mention it's almost a certainty that if you have audio visual, something is going to go wrong.
Anyway, so there was audio visual with the reading tonight. It started with the Last Supper and Gethsemane - now I'll be the first to admit I don't know everything but since I've been an active Christian for the last six years of my life, I'd like to think that I know something and last I heard, that's what last night was about. Well we get to the part where Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, and the picture in the slideshow pops up and - I kid you not - this is the slashiest picture that I've ever seen. It's not the demure kiss on the cheek that you usually see, Judas has his arms around Jesus and quite honestly, Jesus looks like he'd like the soldiers and disciples to go away so that he can have a moment with Judas.
Next, we have a picture of a rooster on a picturesque, dusk landscape. For those of you not savvy in Judeo-Christianity, this is for Peter, who denied Christ three times before the rooster crowed. Now, this in itself is not funny, but I kid you not, it looked like a cheesy postcard that you buy in Cracker Barrel.
But the crowning glory of the slideshow is this: we come to the point where we are having the release of the criminal related to us - the mob chose to have a murderer released and bayed for Jesus' blood and to have him crucified. There were a couple different pictures for this one, but the final one and the one that was kept on the longest was a screencap from Monty Python and the Life of Brian. My brother and I couldn't look at each other for fear of bursting out laughing. If it wasn't a screencap, then I have to say that the man in the front and center of the crowd bore more than a passing resemblence to Eric Idle.
My religion is so unintentionally funny sometimes.