what do you think the Christian right thinks about Jesus Christ Superstar?

[pres2032]

first off, as a christian myself, i hesitate starting a thread which could ignite a holy war, so let's try and avoid the general christian bashing.

Do you think they like it? I love it. I have the original London and the newest london recording, have seen the new one on broadway and have a video of it. My catholic HS band even did its music as part of our field show.

They portray Jesus as actually being human as well as the deity I know Him to be. Judas is also portrayed as being a tragic hero as opposed to just being the ultimate sinner. Do you think they go crazy whenever they hear JCS?

seriously, after listening to Herod's song, i almost think they'd be more like him, demanding signs from Jesus as opposed to having faith.

what do you think? again, let's try and refrain from general christian bashing, please.

[tuvor]

1. They probably wish it included the resurrection.

Other than that I don't know.

[youngred]

2. I think they hate it

and Godspell for that matter.

[tjdee]

27. Godpell is done at some churches....

That's a bit more accepted than JCS, of the two.

It's got a lot of lovey dovey happy Jesus songs, and nobody singing that he's getting full of himself like JCS does.

[youngred]

28. slightly more acceptable

but in their eyes too liberal and hippieish

[tjdee]

29. Oh yeah...done with the clown makeup they really don't like it.

I find they dig the songs, but when they get a load of the show overall they're not too thrilled with it.

But JCS, they hate hate hate!

I just asked my mom about it and she was launched into a talk about how "they" always want to bring Jesus down....:scared:

[disgruntled_goat]

3. a boss several years ago

was a fundie....he didnt like it.
I mentioned JCS in passing one day...dont remember why. he just puckered up like he had eaten raw lemon..

he was a jerkface as a boss as well; a real martinet.

[BattyDem]

4. Jesus Christ Superstar portrays ...

Jesus, Judas and all the others as multi-faceted human beings. The RW deals strictly with good and evil or black and white ... there are no gray areas with them, so I suspect they hate it.

[eaprez]

5. who cares what they think? i think the CR is wrong on

most things and they misunderstand their Bibles.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Anything that pisses off the mullahs is OK by me

whether their logo includes curved lines or not.

[Droopy]

7. Wasn't there a scene in there

that suggested that Jesus was about to have intimate relations with a woman? My guess is that that alone would be enough to send the fundies into a tizzy.

I saw the film a long time ago and although I'm not a Christian I was thoroughly entertained by it, but it's been so long that I remember very little about it.

I do remember thinking that when Judas hanged himself that it was a very realistic representation of someone being hanged.

[MotorCityMan]

19. You might be thinking of another movie

"The Last Temptation of Christ" had a scene that showed him in bed with a woman. The fundies went nuts over that 15 years ago. I went to see it (with a gay priest yet!). Excellent, thought provoking movie.

I loved JCS also (we also played selections from it in high school band). Jesus' song "Gesthemane" just gives me chills and can actually move me to tears.

[Liberal Veteran]

21. I never understood why they hated that so much.

The Bible out and out says that Satan tempted Jesus over and over again.

Why did this particular temptation (normal life, getting married, etc) bother them so damn much?

[Left Is Write]

8. I'm quite sure many of them think it's blasphemous.

As for me, I've always loved it.

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. I agree... they don't hold with that sort of thing

-------------------------------------
Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[seriousstan]

9. We had it played in it's entirety in class at a Catholic grade school

in seventh grade. OOPS aged myself there? :)

[Bluzmann57]

10. As I recall, it originally came out in about 1968 or so

and a lot of people were up in arms, at least in the small town where I grew up. My parents went out and bought the LP and I think they still have it to this day.Limbaugh and his ilk weren't around back then, so there wasn't as much backlash like there would be now. Anyway, today's right wing fundies seem to be a lot more fanatical than when I was a kid,probably in part because of the right wing takeover of the airwaves, so they probably would actually write insane letters to the editors and try to picket the places which showed it, etc. Or being the gutless types they are, they may just scream and holler without actually doing anything.
I am not exactly sure about the year Jesus Christ Superstar came out, but I am pretty sure it was in the late '60's sometimes.

[sui generis]

11. okay, no bashing, but here goes

some people like these untarnished images of benevolent perfection. They hated The Last Temptation of Christ too, remember?

Personally, if I could believe that he ever did really exist, I know with absolute certainty that he would have been a product of his times, divine connection or not. That means that he ate and shit and had to put his toga on one arm at a time like everyone else.

If he ate, he probably farted. The Japanese idea of Divine Wind probably doesn't have anything to do with this phenomenon. And if he crapped he probably wiped his ass, I hope.

Get real, if he was a real man, he woke up turgid most mornings and probably checked out more than a few asses in his time.

No, SOME PEOPLE want it to be black and white. They want Judas to be inherently evil, and yet love to make the claim that we have "free will". To make Judas a thinking person is anathema; it complicates things and is therefore wrong. To make Jesus a complex man with complex human desires is to remove his divinity, and they'll fight you to the death for that.

on edit: I don't really have a preoccupation with bodily functions; just using them to demonstrate that some of the "basest" things we do ourselves were not necessarily out of the ball park for him either.

[jackelope72]

12. The new version on video (2000, I believe)

actually seems to make it look like the Jesus/Mary Magdalene/Judas relationship is a love triangle--with Jesus being the middle point. I don't know if it's just because I'm gay and read these things into it, or if it was intentional on the part of the director and/or actors, but there seemed to be an almost sexual tension between Jesus and Judas.

[blackcat77]

18. They were saying the same thing when it first came out

I guess some people are so uncomfortable with their own sexuality that when one man dares to say he loves another man, that automatically makes them think of it in a sexual sense.

The truth is that Judas is both drewn toward and repelled by Jesus all through the play, but never in any sexual sense that I could detect.

[jdonaldball]

13. As a Christian, never mind left or right, I love it!

I'm a Catholic - although a very badly behaved and heretical one (the kind of Catholic whom Jesus would hang out with!) - and I think it is a very Catholic opera, in the BEST way!
My devoutly Catholic mother loved it, and often played the record in our house over 30 years ago in a more conservative time of the Catholic Church. But my Catholic parish in America, also played some of those songs, around 30 years ago.
Pres2032, I disagree with ONE of your opinions, that it portrays Jesus to be "the deity." I think this opera leaves the Divinity of Jesus open to interpretation - and I think that is part of its genius, because any SANE devout Catholic can love it and find that it agrees with Catholicism, and so can any sane Protestant (the operative word here is "sane" - the vicious Catholic fascists like Opus Dei, and the vicious Protestant Fundamentalists, will not see it this way) - and equally, any sane Atheist or Jew or Muslim or Pagan, can appreciate the splendid Humanity of Jesus in this opera.
And all sane Christians know, that splendid Humanity was what Jesus Christ embodied. We can disagree with the non-Christians, about whether he was God. But we can agree that his story was wonderful, and exemplary for all Humans, and this opera tells the story in that way.
It is a very Humanist opera, and all the more truly Christian for that reason! :-)
Oh and of course it's also a very good Jewish story, about a brilliant Jewish teacher whose Jewish teachings are still very much alive in the world today! :-)

[pres2032]

14. that is very true

it does have that almost universal appeal to it. I'm sure there are Hindus and muslims who could pick stuff out of it too that fits their beliefs. heh, all the more reason the fundamentalists of any sect don't like it.

[Beer Snob-50]

15. growing up, my church (catholic) used it during it's masses

in an effort to get the young back to church. it worked btw. they set up a drum set on the alter, electric guittars, and various other instruments of mass destruction. it was all good.

[Eugene]

16. Some hard-core Christians denounce it.

They see JCS as the start of a downward slide
that humanizes Christ, pollutes the faith,
and heralds the coming End Times.

[MadHound]

17. I remember when it first came out

And there was some serious differences of opinion in the Christian community. The older, more traditional fundies hated it, it had rock music, and showed Mary Magdalene as something other than a whore, it was compassionate, etc etc. The new, born again Christians that came out of the early seventies Christian movement thought it was great, for it showed that Christ and Christianity could be cool. It was used repeatedly as a recruitment vehicle.

Today, I think that it will get politely ignored. These neo Christians from the seventies can't risk looking like hypocrites by jumping all over it, but since the fundementalist movement has taken a serious Old Testament turn, the fact that it shows Christ as compassionate is not the message they want to project anymore. Thus, I think they'll politely ignore it, and hope it dies a quiet death.

I've never seen JC Superstar on stage, merely on screen. But I love the music, it is classic.

[fishwax]

20. Hmmm ... that's an interesting analysis

regarding the current approach to it. I think you're right.

[last1standing]

22. They'll think what ever their cult leaders tell them to.

Then they'll do everything they can to legislate that thought into law so they can force everyone else to think the way they do.

So what else is new?

Edited to correct spelling.

[KurtNYC]

23. I think the new version pales compared to the original cast recording

My dad was playing the new version in his car and I thought 'this isnt the way I remember JCSS, where are the fuzzy guitars, the low growling Pilot, etc' then he showed me the cover.

So I think hard core RW christians prefer the orginal cast recording:
Telling the story of the last days of Christ from the point of view of Judas (Murray Head), the still-unmatched original cast also stars Deep Purple's Ian Gillan as Jesus and Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene, the role she made into a career (with a cameo on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack). Decades later, such songs as "Superstar," "I Don't Know How to Love Him," "Heaven on Their Minds," and "Everything's Alright" still retain their extraordinary power.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002P4H/qid=1105479633/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl15/104-2426546-4705501?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

I think they think the movie blows and the revival recording is just not as good but of course maybe you should ask them.

[tjdee]

24. Judas is resurrected, not Jesus. That's (one of) the problem(s).

Some fundies I know said it makes Jesus look like a frail loser. And, the very first song is doubtful that Jesus is the Messiah, kind of makes him look delusional if done a certain way, which pisses fundies off. Also Judas is the one to come back from the dead (in a way), not Jesus (as there is no resurrection). A lot depends on the director.

Judas has the kick assingest songs in the whole show. The title song ROOOCCCCKKKKSSS. So if you've got a hot guy playing Judas and a director who has a different vision, all of a sudden Jesus is this Hamlettish character kind of staring at Judas kicking ass and rocking out.

You've really got to have a good Jesus. And even then, the "Christian" right wouldn't like it in part because it ends before the resurrection.

[patcox2]

25. Absolute heresy, Jesus in love with Mary Magdelene?

And dancing is sinful anyway.