Jesus, the Piggy Bank

This week a washed up British pop star said Jesus was gay, and within 15 minutes the news had gone around the globe three times. I'm not going to name this pop star, because I won't play his game. 'Sir Liberace' will do, since the career track is similar.

Now on one level, I'm certain Sir Liberace meant it as a sincere compliment. By the way, did I mention that knighthoods must be really easy to come by these days? They're probably being given away in charity raffles now. But lest I digress; the main reason Sir Liberace said that drivel was for publicity... and it worked! It worked on media outlets with no real interest in Christ, and excelled with pro-Christ media.

And that's the way it works. Insult Jesus and the non-believer media will print it cause controversy sells. Believer media will print it to rally the troops, and that sells. There's a lot of money to be made insulting Jesus! Christopher Hitchen's "God is not good" was on NYT best seller list for quite a while for instance.

There's a trusty stereotype of the TV preacher raking in millions while living a debauched lifestyle and mocking the faithful he fleeces. Christians should be held to higher standards, but do we think often enough about how non-believers exploit Jesus for profit?

Had Sir Liberace instead said, "Jesus was the greatest person who ever lived" would anybody have printed that? No, they wouldn't. It's not controversial, hence no ad revenues.

Now, I'm supposed to be a right wing extremist (or so I've been told recently) therefore I might be expected to say something like, "Hey Sir Liberace, why don't you go ahead and opine on Mohammed's sexual orientation while you're at it?"

While I might daydream such a thing (I have a sick sense of humor) we all know Sir Liberace won't do that, and we know why. But in engineering, you're taught that usually in a manufacturing problem, one has to patiently ask 'why' about five times, before getting at the root of the deal.

It's true, Sir Liberace calling Mohammed gay would lead to more than headlines. But for much of Christianity's history Sir Liberace would've been stoned to death, or burned alive for insulting Christ. The difference is that Islam remains in stasis forever, while Jesus hasn't forgotten His followers.

Across centuries the history of Christendom is a sucession of dissenters who called the Faith to the shadow of the Cross, often at the cost of their lives. We no longer believe Sir Liberace should be burned for his blasphemy. Oddly enough though, the origin of the word 'faggot' is a bundle of sticks used to build a fire. He he he he that's funny! Oh man, I crack me up sometimes.

So our faith is strong enough, you can insult our Saviour. And boy, is THAT a long line! Therefore Jesus is not only Light of the World, but also a piggy bank. Yep, pick Him up and shake Him. Maybe a million dollar book deal there, or a little media attention in a life without any other real center.