Jesus Christ with a thousand faces

‘People do all evil things willingly and cheerfully when they do it with the religious conviction.’ Pascal

For many Christians worldwide, Jesus Christ is an embodiment of their values that manifests where they stand in their political, social, cultural and other arenas, and the Christian debate about Jesus Christ has special importance for all of us here in the United States and around the earth, even if you are not a Christian but a Muslim, Buddhist, agnostic, or atheist.

Since the head of Superpower State publicly announced that he consults with his God before executing his overall policies, domestic or foreign, our lives are directly influenced by the prevailing image of his Jesus Christ, whether it is a vindictive warrior god or a benevolent messiah.

Christians for thousands years were never agreed upon who Jesus Christ really was…they even could not agree with what his skin color was…for Caucasians Jesus was depicted as a blondie, fair-skinned and blue-eyed chap, for Black Africans he was a dark-skinned, flat-nosed and muscular bozo, and for Asians he would be more affable for them to see him a round-faced, high-cheek-boned, and yellow-skinned ‘yangbannish’ gentleman, even though he surely looks like a brown-colored Palestinian Arab or Oriental Jew.

However, there is just one exception: Korean Christians are somewhat exceptionally in accord with the image of Caucasian Jesus figure, considering that they are eager to surgically change their facial and bodily figure more closely emulate Caucasian styles of big-nose, round-deep eyes, chiseled-out cheekbones, and dyed blond hair, and on the other hand, they are the renowned creators of Korean messiah as we have witnessed numerous epiphanies of Messiahs like Rev. Sun Myong Moon, et al.

There are also billions of non-believers on earth who mind their own business and live a life in the quiet and peaceful ambience, who see Jesus Christ one of such religious persons as Buddha, Mahatma Ghandi, or Dalai Lama, and some take Jesus nothing more a cult leader roaming in the rugged hill of cow-town Galilee in the first century than Sun Myong Moon is a tribal chief in the modern day Christianity.

It is safe to say that the non-believers are treated as the religious underclass that were denied the public service of help and assistance by the deity-sanctioned Government due exclusively to their non-believer stance even though they are the same taxpayers as Christians.

Even among the many sects of Christian Community, whether it is Catholic, Baptists, Methodist, Pentecostal, Protestant, or England Church, there is no consensus about the spiritual image of their God, Jesus Christ…. Some believe in Jesus as a supernatural Son of God in human form, offering immortality to everyone who repents, while others emphasize His righteousness clothed in a warrior armor plate that massacres evil-doers and brings down the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in an Apocalyptic way.

Recently, some of highly acclaimed Christian theologians look at their faith anew rather in a fashion of the allegorical, spiritual, mythical approach to the Bible and to Christian faith than a literalistic, popularized, and historical approach to the sublime truth.

They think that early Christian church had made a fatal and fateful error by turning the Christian drama and myth into a form of history in which Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a flesh and blood person, becomes a God of Holy Father, Son, and Spirit.

And when these various image of Jesuses enters into the living arenas of human society, a Jesus metamorphoses into a thousand faces, sometimes creating a good rapport with your neighbor or oftentimes wreak havoc on others.

For example, if you image Jesus a greatest example of perfect love for others, you never intend to harm others in whatever situation that has rarely existed in human history.
But you willingly do any evil things to harm others, when you portrayed him a warrior God like Yahweh in the Old Testament, as we have been experiencing in its entirety of our life.

Therefore, when the political ideology intersects with a warrior image of Jesus Christ, as in the evangelical fundamentalism in the Bible belt of the USA, that has helped to elect the political leader, it is not difficult to see a striking reflections of the evangelical agendas that the Government aggressively imposes it on all spectrums of the society, domestic or foreign.

Often combined their apocalypticism with demonization in a way that promotes hatred and violence against an other, the evangelical fundamentalists employ their Endtimes scenarios drawn from the Book of Revelations justifying hostility toward the Islamic world in general and sanctioning the heinous crimes of the Israeli government toward Palestinian Arabs in particular.

When God goes to war like in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq, chances are you see the image of Jesus Christ in a lens through which the vindictive, rapacious and violent God of the Old Testament (Numbers 31:17-18) thunders to their Israelites ordering to kill all men, women, and children of Midianites, not because they are wicked or evil-spirited people but are what they are.

A loving, caring, and concerned God of Jesus Christ disappears in a fog of patriotic and gung-ho marches toward the holocaust of all human species.

The following story is a good manifestation of a Jesus Christ with a thousand faces.The News delivered by Agence France Presse in Iraq just before the US Marine stormed the Sunni City of Fallujah, destroying the entire city and hospitals with massive bombing campaign and massacring hundreds of innocent Iraqi civilians in the name of bringing in “democracy” to that city.

Holy War: Evangelical Marines Prepare to Battle Barbarians NEAR FALLUJAH -

With US forces massing outside Fallujah, 35 marines swayed to Christian rock music and asked Jesus Christ to protect them in what could be the biggest battle since American troops invaded Iraq last year.

Men with buzzcuts and clad in their camouflage waved their hands in the air, M-16 assault rifles beside them, and chanted heavy metal-flavored lyrics in praise of Christ late on Friday in a yellow-brick chapel.

They counted among thousands of troops surrounding the city of Fallujah, seeking solace as they awaited Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision on whether or not to invade Fallujah.

"You are the sovereign. Your name is holy. You are the pure spotless lamb," a female voice cried out on the loudspeakers as the marines clapped their hands and closed their eyes, reflecting on what lay ahead for them.
The US military, with many soldiers coming from the conservative American south and Midwest, has deep Christian roots.

Comforting

In times that fighting looms, many soldiers draw on their evangelical or born-again heritage to help them face the battle.
"It's always comforting. Church attendance is always up before the big push," said first sergeant Miles Thatford. "Sometimes, all you've got is God."

Between the service's electric guitar religious tunes, marines stepped up on the chapel's small stage and recited a verse of scripture, meant to fortify them for war.
One spoke of their Old Testament hero, a shepherd who would become Israel's king, battling the Philistines 3 000 years ago.
"Thus David prevailed over the Philistines," the marine said, reading from scripture, and the marines shouted back "Hoorah, King David," using their signature grunt of approval.

The marines drew parallels from the verse with their present situation, where they perceive themselves as warriors fighting barbaric men opposed to all that is good in the world.
"Victory belongs to the Lord," another young marine read.

Their chaplain, named Horne, told the worshippers they were stationed outside Fallujah to bring the Iraqis "freedom from oppression, rape, torture and murder ... We ask you God to bless us in that effort."

Holy oil

The marines then lined up and their chaplain blessed them with holy oil to protect them.
"God's people would be anointed with oil," the chaplain said, as he lightly dabbed oil on the marines' foreheads.

The crowd then followed him outside their small auditorium for a baptism of about a half-dozen marines who had just found Christ.
The young men lined up and at least three of them stripped down to their shorts.
The three laid down in a rubber dinghy filled with water and the chaplain's assistant, navy corpsman Richard Vaughn, plunged their heads beneath the surface.

Smiling, Vaughn baptized them "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." Dripping wet, corporal Keith Arguelles beamed after his baptism.
"I just wanted to make sure I did this before I headed into the fight," he said on the military base not far from the city of Fallujah.

By Agence France Presse

Do you want willingly and cheerfully to share the same oil with you that the US Marines anointed to their body and the same image of Jesus Christ that was portrayed by them during your entire life?

Do you claim the Jesus of US Marines a Christ of yours?

Your answer tells the world who you are and what you are, and it doesn’t matter how Jesus Christ looks like, Caucasian, Afro, Mongolian, or Eskimos.