Debunking Hype in Any Form
Sometimes one reads things and puts the accent on the wrong place. The front cover of last month’s Christianity Today Magazine had a teaser for an article. It read: Debunking Jesus Hype. A quick look at the article will tell you that it was about all the hype the past few years over movies and books that seek to “debunk Jesus.” They refer to the recent controversy over The Compass, the DaVinci Code, and others.
Well that isn’t how I read it at first. I put the emphasis like this:
Debunking “Jesus Hype” instead of “Debunking Jesus” Hype.
It made me stop and ponder for a while about what could be considered “Jesus Hype.”
I wondered if it is possible to over-hype Jesus.
I asked myself if hyping Jesus is a bad thing.
I was struck by the idea that perhaps, just perhaps, we Christians do a major disservice to Jesus by presenting him in ways that may not be what happens. Naturally I was thinking about the “Prosperity Gospel” that promises wealth and wonders to all who follow Him. Or the “Health and Healing Gospel” that promises that we won’t be sick or have any problems, mental or psychological, if we truly took the path He wants. Or the “Social Gospel” group that seems at times to promise that by doing good works for the poor and oppressed we will be following Jesus in the one true way.
All those have kernels of the truth. That is what makes something heresy- taking a portion of the truth and turning it into the whole truth. Of course, that means we are all heretics at some level or another. We all, in spite of our loud protestations discover that there’s more to the truth than we had thought there was and it might just be that the other group down the street has discovered that kernel.
Perhaps in the long run our “Jesus Hype” might be more difficult to discover and counteract than the hype around “Debunking Jesus.” It may even be more dangerous since we will often feel that we have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and the others don’t. It’s not a big jump from there to persecuting others and condemning them for their “lies.”
Maybe we all need to stop and be honest a little more often, admitting that our understandings are limited- very limited- by our narrow human understandings. Maybe we need to look at how we present Jesus and stop hyping him and instead getting down on our knees and worshiping him and then standing and following him.
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