I am old enough (born in 1965) to remember the fuss surrounding the release of this film but, even as a zealous member of the Christian Union at Portsmouth Polytechnic (as was) in 1983-86, thought it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen. However, then, as now (more than 20 years later), I found the closing "Crucifixion" unacceptable...
The film, quite justifiably in my opinion, pokes fun at many things to do with religion, but John Cleese's justification for this particular scene (the Catholic Church's obsession with crucifixes) is no excuse; the film clearly over-steps the mark by making fun of such a seminal moment in human history...
As made abundantly clear by the recent arrest and imprisonment of an English woman in Sudan for agreeing to name a teddy bear "Mohammed" (as if the debacle over the Cartoon was not enough), there is plenty of religious stupidity out there. However, Mohammed was just a man, whereas Jesus claimed to be equal with God and accepted the praise of men as such (why else was he eventually crucified?).
And so, we are back to the classic "trilema" posed by the great C S Lewis. Everyone needs to have a considered opinion - what's yours?
Happy New Year.
This blog was originally created as a forum for comments/discussion on the content of my Geosccience and Jesus - The Case for Co-habitation (Geosus) website, although I have now decided to widen its purpose. However, the great thing about blogs is that they "give frustrated authors everywhere a voice in cyberspace". So, here is my contribution to the deafening cacophony of opinions...
