With such provocative headlines as "Which Of These
Celebs Might Secretly Be Jesus?’ and ‘Jesus 2.0: What Can We Expect? and
a picture showing "Jesus", with a sub machine gun with a
large strap of
ammo, the Singapore FHM magazine withdrew its latest magazine after
complaints from the National Council of Churches in Singapore. They were
accused of making fun of Jesus and causing serious offence and hurting
the sensitivities of Singaporean christians.
Whilst the FHM magazine was offensive, the
Christians in Singapore shouldn't have been reading such racy magazine
with semi nude women posing front cover. They should have called for a
ban of the magazine because of its semi nude photos since they were
perturbed by the male upper torsos at Orchard in the giant ads by
Abercrombie and Fitch

Alas, the male bodies in the ads were giant angelic
beings and so they should not have criticed them.
In the days of Noah, and later at Sodom and
Gomorrah, the beautiful women on the front covers attracted even the
angels until they had affairs with the women creating strange flesh and
giants, a religious abomination. Rampant heterosexuality and religious
worship of a sexual nature was the issue and not homosexuality.
The FHM Singapore magazine was an insensitive
attempt at humour but yet revealed a tinge of truth. Jesus was depicted
as coming back as rock stars that we worshipped. How true is it that
many mega church pastors have reached cult status where what they say is
tantamount to the word of God. Other Christians probably understood it
best with the Pope and Mary being the the bridge between God and man,
and the co-deemer with Jesus.
The Jesus carrying weapons of war has a great irony
as the greatest support for gun rights in the US is the religious right
coupled by their generally war mongering hawkish attitude. In Uganda,
Christianity was the prime motivation for new laws to hunt gays down and
kill them under the death penalty. These laws was supported by the
American Christian prophets/evangelist many of them frequent guest
speakers in Singapore.
In the wake of the Rony Tan criticims of other
faith, the Aware take over saga, and recently Campus for Crusade
depiction of another faith, Christians have at last legitimate reason to
claim a sense of righteous morality as victims. However, the magazine
was not meant for religious reading and once we start focusing on
publications, there is issue with the freedom of speech. Surely, we
don't want others to peek into our Christian bookshops to read what
we published!
What would Jesus do? I don't think He would be
particularly perturbed or insulted. He would be more concerned of our
worship of the church, the pastors, business wealth and power, rather
than the humble Jesus of Galilee journeying together with us through
this lives difficult journey of faith. He would be more concerned when
we ill treat the poor and the outcasts such the gay community, or harm
the unborn child.
Lastly, Jesus came to proclaim the Gospel
message of salvation in the kingdom of God through His own death and
resurrection. Let us stay focused on the kingdom message for others will
depict Jesus to their liking to pour scorn on the Gospel, but who do you
say I AM? We are to pour love and grace on our enemies that we may call
the Sons of God rather than banning their publications.
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