Jesus of Facebook

 


Jesus of Facebook

Growing up, I was never exposed to Jesus. Apart from staying with my grandmother, who was religious, I never heard or thought much about Jesus. I had no friends or classmates that talked about him, and there were no prayers around the table or team events that evoked the name of Jesus. As a result, Jesus was never a part of my life, and I had no real opinion about him.

It wasn't until I took a Religious Studies class in college that I first learned about Jesus from an academic point of view. I found the class fascinating and enjoyed learning about Jesus from a scholarly perspective. However, it wasn't until I attended a wedding in a Catholic Church that I experienced Jesus in a more personal way. The service was modern, with guitars and folk singing, and it was the first time I had been in a church since my preteen years.

Despite this experience, Jesus still didn't play a significant role in my life. My mother passed away when I was in my late twenties, and my dad remarried someone who was Christian. Although my stepmother had religious family members, I had limited contact with them, so religion wasn't something that I thought about often.

It wasn't until I started traveling with my wife, Susan, that I came into contact with Jesus more frequently. We saw depictions of Jesus hanging around in Mexico, South America, France, and Italy.

Susan and I had a tour of the Cloisters in New York, where we learned how depictions of Jesus changed throughout the centuries. It was an academic discussion that I found interesting, and it stuck with me as we visited Jesus in different churches and museums around the world.

However, my experience with Jesus on social media has been less positive. As I started using Facebook more frequently, I noticed that many of my new-found family members were extremely religious and constantly posted about Jesus. It made me uncomfortable, as I didn't know how to relate to their beliefs since my upbringing was so different. Each post made me cringe, and I started to dislike Jesus more and more.

Social media has brought about a more fervent group of religious chatter, which I equally despise, just like right-wing chatter. It makes me pull away from people and question whether these are people I want to meet or hang out with. Unlike Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Facebook has moved me from ambivalence about him to a more visceral dislike of him.

In conclusion, my experience with Jesus has been a mixed bag. I've enjoyed learning about him from an academic perspective and have seen his depictions in various churches and museums around the world. However, my experience with Jesus on social media has been less positive and has led to a more negative view of him.


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Sampling of just this Sunday’s posts from my newly found family:

From my nephew David:  Good is Good with a picture of the heavens and a comment from my cousin Gina, “Yes, he is” 

My sister-in-law Anne watching:  “Left Behind, Rise of the Antichrist” and the post: Who needs to hear this? Believe it! Pray it! Meditate on it! Praise and thank the Lord!

Declare it over yourself, family and friends!  Amen

My cousin Angela: “god is Always Good”

My niece Andrea:  “A Double minded man is unstable in all his ways”  James 1:8 and “Pray for the lost Souls to turn to God”

Angelina, ex sister-in-law and mother of Daniel and David:  In the Old Testament of the Bible, there are 322 Messianic prophecies which talk about the arrival of the King of heaven on earth. What do you think is the mathematical compound probability of all those prophecies coming true in one person at one point in time? Watch to find out.

My nephew Daniel:  Put on the full armor of God

Suzell:  The stepsister of my nephews, David & Daniel: “We have a problem when movie theaters are open to deliverance but churches are not.”

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