Passion Smassion

I saw the much touted film The Passion of the Christ last night. My initial reaction was, "Couldn't Aaron get a better pirated copy than this!" You see my wife is on bed rest and really wanted to see the film with me and some friends so that obviously legitimizing the stealing of a movie, right? Well anyway it was okay. I must say that I must be desensitized to violence because it was not what I expected, I thought it was going to be worse. The buzz amongst some people from church is: "You must go see it!!!! It has changed me. I have a deeper and better understanding of what Jesus went through." I guess that is cool but couldn't you just read some history and find out what happened during a crucifixion? That is what I did and it was pretty accurate so it wasn't that shocking to me. It was what I expected. I of course hate to see anybody suffer through so much physical pain especially the Son of God. The parts that made me whince or mad the most were the continual whipping of Jesus as he carried the cross geezz...give the guy a break and the turning over of the cross was pretty brutal as well.

Here are someopints to chew on:
- If you didn't know the story the flashbacks would have been tough to understand.
-The devil and baby scene was freaky. I mean that was really freaky....like it was totally like "horror" movie freaky
-It was very Catholic but that is not a secret
-Is this the greatest evangelistic tool ever or in the last 100 years? No!
-Are Christian going to be stupid and buy dumb trinkets and coffee table books? Yes!
-Is this going to be a whore for the savvy business man? Yes!
-Can this bring people into a relationship with the Christ? Not sure
-Can people living transparent Godly lives, "preaching" the message of the Kingdom have more of an impact than a movie? Yes!
-Is the church willing to teach that rather than waiting for the next gimmick or outreach event? I hope so.
-Am I babbling? Yes
-Does anybody read this? I don't know.

I just am scared with the deployment of the Purpose Driven mumbo jumbo, now the passion what is next? Possible a reality TV show pitting Protestants against Catholics or even better yet Christian church peeps against non-instrumental church of Christ peeps. It could be titled: "Voice Wars" but nobody would listen. Be Jesus to people let them "rest" in the branches of the Kingdom. They will enter.