David R. Henson (M.A. '09) responds to the controversial "DJesus Uncrossed" sketch on Saturday Night Live on February 16, taking aim at the way Jesus has been used for violence.
[E]ven though the sketch satirized [Quentin] Tarantino, it also said something quite profound and revealing, if unintentionally, about how Americans have remade Jesus in our own violent images.
Because, if truth be told, we’ve been trying to uncross Jesus for decades in this country, long before SNL got their pens into him.
We have tried to arm him with our military-industrial complex, drape him with our xenophobia, outfit him with our weapons, and adorn him with our nationalism. We’ve turned the cross into a flagpole for the Stars and Stripes. We have no need for Tarantino to reimagine the story of Jesus into a fantasy of violent revenge. We’ve done it for him. We’ve already uncrossed him, transforming him from a servant into a triumphalist who holds the causes and interests of our country on his back rather than brutal execution.
Read more via the original post at Patheos: DJesus Uncrossed: Tarantino, Driscoll and the Violent Remaking of Jesus in America