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Culture

Why Christians need to learn to laugh at themselves

Can American Christians take a joke? The question will be tested by the new film Don Verdean, a satire about a Christian archeologist who tours churches showcasing the “biblical” artifacts he has unearthed—from the shears used to cut Samson’s hair to the Goliath’s skull. The movie lampoons a Christian subculture that seems to attract more than its share of swindlers, shysters, and hucksters.

But it’s difficult to imagine the film recreating the success of its director Jared Hess’s 2004 hit, Napoleon Dynamite, because the audience most likely to understand the jokes is the one least likely to find it amusing.

The line between a giggle and a groan is often thin, and much religious comedy is just ridicule offered in bad taste. But when done right, religious humor in film, television, literature, and stand-up can be a gateway to important conversations and even instill listeners with humility. So Christians need to learn to laugh at themselves.

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December 15, 2015by Jonathan
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Culture

What’s wrong with your nativity scene?

What happens when you cross the newborn baby Jesus with The Walking Dead? Upset neighbors and a whole of of controversy—especially if you’re the couple in Ohio who built a zombie nativity in their front yard.

Theirs isn’t even the strangest nativity out there: There are Etsy artisans offering nativities featuring everything from cats to Star Wars characters. There’s a rubber-duck nativity for those want yuletide during their bath time, and even an Irish nativity with three wise men bearing gifts of clover, Guinness, and a pot of gold. The 2003 Christmas film Love Actually famously featured a grade-school nativity play with multiple lobsters, Spider-Man, and a large green octopus—as if pointing out the myriad strange ways the nativity can been reimagined.

And yet these nativity scenes aren’t much more far-fetched than the traditional ones. Christmas, like many other holidays, is a social ritual informed by some mix of religion and folklore. As you’d expect, many popular depictions of Jesus’s birth are filled with inaccuracies that conflict with the story told in the Bible.

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December 15, 2015by Jonathan
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“If we wake up to our current realities and return to our foundations... the faith's best days may yet lie ahead.” Jonathan Merritt, The Atlantic

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