Buddy Christ

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I have one of these on my dashboard, it makes me smile.
 
PatienceAndLove said:
I have one of these on my dashboard, it makes me smile.
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Ugh, I think it’s irreverent. Didn’t it come from the blaspemous anti-Catholic movie, Dogma? Why not put a traditional dashboardstatue of Christ or a saint on you dash? Or hang an auto-rosary from your rear-view mirror?
 
Metaron said:
Ugh, I think it’s irreverent. Didn’t it come from the blaspemous anti-Catholic movie, Dogma? Why not put a traditional dashboardstatue of Christ or a saint on you dash? Or hang an auto-rosary from your rear-view mirror?
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  1. *]Catholics are the only ones who get the jokes in Dogma
    *]I enjoy being able to laugh at my own religion
    *]I have an auto Rosary. Sometimes I just need that Buddy Christ look to make me go “smile Thanks Jesus! I haven’t died and I haven’t gone crazy (yet)” And then I do a Divine Mercy chaplet.
 
While the pic in the opening post is not at all to my “taste” I dont think necessarily it may have been meant to be offensive. My own “taste” in religious art and depictions of Christ I know are formed by the classical artworks…and this is conditioned into me and conditioning is very hard indeed to get a divorce from totally. I do wonder what Christ really did look like…and he would have smiled and waved perhaps if that was customary in His day. Frankly I rather like religious artworks that challenge my conditioned concepts from the classical works of art, since they can be condusive to breaking out of that conditioning.

I do have an artwork of Jesus laughing…he is hanging on to the mast of a boat with his head tilted back in a joyful laugh.
One day these eyes will be looking at the real face of Christ - I will see His face and look into His eyes …that is an awesome thought…

Funny story. The nun who gave me the pic of Jesus laughing had a copy of it framed in their parlour. When an elderly nun first saw it she asked “Pray, why do we have a picture of Pat Cash laughing in our parlour please?” (Pat Cash is/was a famous tennis player reputed to be very easy to behold.)

The first time I heard a Catholic joke, a Vincentian priest told it to me, and I was horrified. He roared with laughter not at the joke, but at the expression on my face. I think it is good and positive to be shocked out of our notions and concepts religious in nature that have nothing to do with the reality of matters…or that with some sort of shock bring the actual reality home to us - even if it is in the form of a joke or funny statement.

We can tend to be very uncomfortable about such things…we like our comfortable ‘realities’ and the nice comfortable and ‘safe’ religious ‘nests’ we rest in.

Barb:)
 
Normally, a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus shows His Great Mercy to us. It shows that Jesus’ right hand raises up and points a bit toward us as if He says “Peace be with you”; the other hand He points to His heart - the Hear of Mercy.

The statue in the picture of this thread takes all the meaning away from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His hand points to us as if we are doing something right and great or is He telling us “Go inside, I am there”?

Are we at the level where Jesus says “you are great” yet? or Is Jesus really smiling and being happy when He has to stay at the front door of the Church to welcome us in?

Am I imagining too much? 🙂
 
water said:
Am I imagining too much? 🙂
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In Dogma, Buddy Christ was introduced by the local cardinal (played by George Carlin) as part of a campaign to modernize the image of the Church – a bit of satire one would think more Catholics here would appreciate, given their tendency to be somewhat traditionalist 😉
 
Wow… I think you all are taking the Buddy Christ thing way too seriously. And I am very orthodox in my thinking and religious practice. So for me say that you are being waaaaaaaaaay too sensitive about it is something big.
Are we not allowed to laugh about our religion? Is there a law against that? Are we not allowed to begin to “own” the “disrespectful” things people throw at us.
The “Buddy Christ” in Dogma was part of the making the Church more user-friendly, etc… and it was very humorous. It reminds me of all the nonsense that people are trying to put in the Church.
Back to the picture/dashboard Jesus. I decided to take that irreverence and own it. It’s on my dashboard, and I smile whenever I see it. I have a little chuckle, and I give thanks. I now OWN the Buddy Christ idea because I took it back to Jesus, in all of His Glory.
 
PatienceAndLove said:
Wow… I think you all are taking the Buddy Christ thing way too seriously. And I am very orthodox in my thinking and religious practice. So for me say that you are being waaaaaaaaaay too sensitive about it is something big.
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Thanks for pointing this out. 😉 I was just telling what I thought. My thought when seeing Jesus and how He sees me is a little bit different from what I thought the Jesus in this Buddy Jesus sees.
 
PatienceAndLove said:
Wow… I think you all are taking the Buddy Christ thing way too seriously. And I am very orthodox in my thinking and religious practice. So for me say that you are being waaaaaaaaaay too sensitive about it is something big.
Are we not allowed to laugh about our religion? Is there a law against that? Are we not allowed to begin to “own” the “disrespectful” things people throw at us.
The “Buddy Christ” in Dogma was part of the making the Church more user-friendly, etc… and it was very humorous. It reminds me of all the nonsense that people are trying to put in the Church.
Back to the picture/dashboard Jesus. I decided to take that irreverence and own it. It’s on my dashboard, and I smile whenever I see it. I have a little chuckle, and I give thanks. I now OWN the Buddy Christ idea because I took it back to Jesus, in all of His Glory.
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I don’t know? That “buddy Jesus” looks like he just pulled a fast one on you. Not the trusting Lord I imagine.😃
 
Now every time you see it you’ll think, “pull my finger”. And you would have to. 😃
 
water said:
Thanks for pointing this out. 😉 I was just telling what I thought. My thought when seeing Jesus and how He sees me is a little bit different from what I thought the Jesus in this Buddy Jesus sees.
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That’s the point. Dogma is full of little in-jokes that only Catholics (or people familiar with the Church) really get. Buddy Christ is ridiculous – just like, for example, liturgical dancers or any of the zillions of other things that have been introduced to try to make the Church look all groovy and with it.

Catholicism just isn’t cool. That’s one of its greatest strengths – and Buddy Christ points out quite rightly that attempts to make the religion hip and keen only serve to make a mockery of it.

For what it’s worth, Kevin Smith is Catholic himself.
 
Mirdath said:
That’s the point. Dogma is full of little in-jokes that only Catholics (or people familiar with the Church) really get. Buddy Christ is ridiculous – just like, for example, liturgical dancers or any of the zillions of other things that have been introduced to try to make the Church look all groovy and with it.

Catholicism just isn’t cool. That’s one of its greatest strengths – and Buddy Christ points out quite rightly that attempts to make the religion hip and keen only serve to make a mockery of it.

For what it’s worth, Kevin Smith is Catholic himself.
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Ummm … that Kevin Smith calls himself Catholic won’t, I’m afraid, be worth much round these parts Mirdath my newly-happily-wed friend.

But I saw Dogma, and laughed at the idea of ‘hipsterising’ the Church and at the Buddy Jesus. If I saw it again my newly-reverted self might find some of it offensive, but not the Buddy Jesus.

And I couldn’t help but feel a warm fuzzy glow (albeit a glow largely of amusement) in my feminist parts at the idea of Alanis Morrisette being God.
 
I saw a lovely painting - Jesus plays with kids in playground, etc …but the statue above looks too goofy. 😃
 
PatienceAndLove said:
Wow… I think you all are taking the Buddy Christ thing way too seriously. And I am very orthodox in my thinking and religious practice. So for me say that you are being waaaaaaaaaay too sensitive about it is something big.
Are we not allowed to laugh about our religion? Is there a law against that? Are we not allowed to begin to “own” the “disrespectful” things people throw at us.
The “Buddy Christ” in Dogma was part of the making the Church more user-friendly, etc… and it was very humorous. It reminds me of all the nonsense that people are trying to put in the Church.
Back to the picture/dashboard Jesus. I decided to take that irreverence and own it. It’s on my dashboard, and I smile whenever I see it. I have a little chuckle, and I give thanks. I now OWN the Buddy Christ idea because I took it back to Jesus, in all of His Glory.
Click to expand...
…👍 …way too seriously I think!..having worked years ago in an Advertising Agency I know that bad publicity is often far better than good as a medium of advertising something or someone and bringing them to mass public attention with great success…anything or anyone that gets no attention whatsoever fades very very quickly into obscurity and nothingness public knowledge-wise…
 
My husband has a small version of this on his desk at work. I found it a bit questionable, but then, I haven’t seen Dogma. I do like the idea of a warm, smiling Christ and I’m sure He must have had moments of amusement as well as joy. (The flashbacks in The Passion of the Christ reinforces this for me.) Actually, I’m certain He still does. 😉 God is not without a sense of humor.
 
Mirdath said:
For what it’s worth, Kevin Smith is Catholic himself.
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He did, however, apply the term “plenary indulgence” wrongly. 😃 It’s a parrennial misuse of the term. I guess Buddy Christ ain’t so bad. Just a little tacky…
 
This picture is the avatar for a group I’m in on Facebook called “We’re not Crazy, We’re just Catholic” great group.

I think its important to be able to laugh at ourselves. Makes those who want to upset us feel foolish and shush up.
 
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