FFT

" 'If God created us in His image, we have more than reciprocated.' That's what French philosopher Voltaire said of the human tendency to mould God into our own likeness. Similarly, God's son has been adapted to a great variety of human-created roles. To capitalist Christians, Jesus was a model entrepreneur. To socialist Christians, he was a hard-core socialist. To eco-Christians, he was a lily-loving environmentalist. To self-help Christians, he was motivational guru. And to Christian activists, he was a revolutionary....
...there was always some uneasiness about such a specific and selective interpretation of Jesus' life... How can the story of Jesus shape me if I am so busy shaping it?...
...instinct tells me that it's more valuable to focus not on what I want to see but on what I may not want to see. It is the latter that can stretch me."
- Will Braun

"Obviously Jesus was a hippie. Just look at the pictures of him, all earnest and long-haired. With his sandals and his groovy tunic. Always going on about peace and love and expanding people's consciousness. No doubt he could do wonders with a hacky sack.
For a long time I really embraced that caricature - well, except for the part about the hacky sack. I had Jesus pegged as a peace-loving, social justice advocate with no time for the rich. So, he was kind of like me. But then it struck me that it was just a bit too convenient that Jesus' political and social views mirrored mine so well.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm still convinced that Jesus was a lefty. But I'm not so arrogant as to believe that anyone who has a different take on him is necessarily out of line....
Contrast, for example, my hippie-Jesus with the Jesus of Revelation... whoa.
There are other less dramatic contradictions, of course...
All of this is open to interpretation, of course. And therein lies the key to our propensity to project all kinds of characteristics on Jesus to suit a chosen image of him. We fashion Jesus' sayings and teachings to fit our line of thinking, and if we don't like the face value of his words, we can always add the caveat: "what he really meant when he said that was [insert theological interpretation here]."
Because Jesus is such a potent symbolic figure for religious and non-religious people alike, he's constantly used as an instrument to further a point of view - political, religious or other-wise.... most of the time, characterization of Jesus that rub us the wrong way can't simply be written off as disingenuous or duplicitous - no matter how unreasonable we may find them.
This point struck me a few years ago while listening to a right-wing preacher use Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to justify the war in Iraq. Seriously...
A warmonger. A guerilla. These examples show that when you take the complexities and contradictions of the figure of Jesus himself, and combine them with our presumptions and contemporary sensibilities, he can end up being whoever you want him to be. A superhero. A revolutionary. A magician. A carpenter. All those things and more...."
- Nicholas Klassen