Still smarting from their ignominious retreat on the Lucas Cranach poster, the guardians of public morals at the London Transit Authority have banned yet another poster for being "offensive." This time it's an ad for a new play called "Fat Jesus."
The play is a loose re-telling of the story of a man who is turned down for the part of Christ in a stage performance of the rock opera "Jesus Christ Super Star" because he was overweight. The man then decides to stage a mock crucifixion of himself as a part art project and part protest. The poster promoting the play, which is due to open February 26, shows an overweight man wearing pink boxer shorts tied to a cross.
Transit officials, who apparently have learned nothing from their recent climb down in the matter of the Cranach poster, stepped in to "save" the sensitivities of fragile subway passengers claiming that the poster might be "offensive" to some of the more than one million riders who travel on the tube daily.
A Transit spokesman explained the decision saying:
"Millions of people travel on the London Underground each day and they have no choice but to view whatever adverts are posted there...."We have to take account of every passenger and endeavour not to cause offence in the advertising we display."
Advertising not deemed offensive by Transit officials.
Gavin Davis, the writer of the play, defended the poster pointing out that it was not blasphemous. It should be remembered that the play is not about Jesus, it is about a man turned down to play the part of Jesus in a musical and how he reacted to his rejection.
The "politically correct" decision by the Transit Authority officials fails to take into consideration the fact that someone can find something to be offended by in almost any situation provided they are willing to work hard enough.
One would think that after the laughingstock that they made of themselves over the last poster these Philistines would have learned their lesson but apparently not.
What gets me is that no one knows what Jesus looked like. Our modern view dates to the middle ages. Before that he was usually shown with a clean shave.
The beard did not show up until much later, around the fourth century.
@666divine
Doesn't it say somewhere in the bible that Jesus was born with woolly hair?
There is some controversy but Revel
I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man,"[a]dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
Revelation 1:12-18
The interesting thing is that his hair is WHITE!
He may also have been a bit overweight since the Bible says:
The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
Luke 7:34
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
Matthew 11:19
While these quotes may have been meant as an insult the fact is that insults only work if they have some roots in reality. The whole notion that he was some sort of ascetic dates from after the 4th century, like the idea of the beard.
I don't think that Jesus was over weight. It seems that when ever it mentions that he was eating it was because someone asked him to eat with them.
I believe that it was said of him as an insult. Jesus is the one that was saying the quotes that you gave Lensman.
He was making a comparison to what was being said about John the Baptist. It was said of John that he came not eating or drinking wine and it was being said of him that he had a devil.
When Jesus came eating and drinking he was called a glutton and a winebibber. He was being social by eating at different homes when he was invited to do so.
I would take it that John the Baptist did not go to people's houses to eat but that Jesus did.
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]
I don't think that Jesus was over weight. It seems that when ever it mentions that he was eating it was because someone asked him to eat with them.
I believe that it was said of him as an insult. Jesus is the one that was saying the quotes that you gave Lensman.
He was making a comparison to what was being said about John the Baptist. It was said of John that he came not eating or drinking wine and it was being said of him that he had a devil.
When Jesus came eating and drinking he was called a glutton and a winebibber. He was being social by eating at different homes when he was invited to do so.
I would take it that John the Baptist did not go to people's houses to eat but that Jesus did.
There is nothing shameful, particularly in Jesus' era, in liking to eat or in being overweight. The Greeks were always criticizing the Jews and other people of the East for being overweight and not liking to exercise. It was the Greeks who were thought to be strange because of their obsession with the "beautiful body." This is one of the motives behind the Maccabees revolt (plus circumcision, which keep the Jews out of the gym).
The poster was not even about Jesus. It was about an actor who wanted to play Jesus and was turned down due to his weight. Since we have no idea what Jesus looked like, and since he has been played by a variety of actors (as the videos show) including women (girl's school production I saw on YouTube) there is no reason why he should not have played Jesus if he had the other talents that the part required.
@lensman67
There is nothing shameful, particularly in Jesus' era, in liking to eat or in being overweight. The Greeks were always criticizing the Jews and other people of the East for being overweight and not liking to exercise. It was the Greeks who were thought to be strange because of their obsession with the "beautiful body." This is one of the motives behind the Maccabees revolt (plus circumcision, which keep the Jews out of the gym).
The poster was not even about Jesus. It was about an actor who wanted to play Jesus and was turned down due to his weight. Since we have no idea what Jesus looked like, and since he has been played by a variety of actors (as the videos show) including women (girl's school production I saw on YouTube) there is no reason why he should not have played Jesus if he had the other talents that the part required.
I don't think the fact that the man was overweight should have necessarily disqualified him from playing the part. Especially if that was true and it was the only reason. The article says:
"based in part on the story of a man turned down for a part in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ because of his weight issues."
Based in part, if it is just a small part and someone saw a chance to make another play, what would be truth would be questionable.
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]
Based in part, if it is just a small part and someone saw a chance to make another play, what would be truth would be questionable.
The play, which I have not seen or read reviews of yet (it opened last night) is a comedy so who knows what issues it dealt with?
Weight was certainly one of the issues but the author may have also looked at what made the real actor (the one that the play is loosely based on) decide that this was a good way to protest his not getting the job.
The funny thing about the part he was auditioning for is that when it came out Jesus Christ Super Star got a lot of conservative Christians hopping mad. When I and several of my friends went to see the movie we had crowds of angry protesters praying at us and screaming in our faces.
Now the play is a big hit in the Christian community and the local mega church a few blocks from here put on a performance over the summer. It is an extremely powerful play that makes a lot of very important points.
In a way that is very funny that the "mega church" put on the play since the play makes fun of just this sort of operation.
Notice the difference between the quite figure of Christ in the beginning of this clip and all the noise and "glitz" and "showmanship" of Judas and the chorus.
Then the part that always gets me choked up is at the end when the real crucifixion (real in the sense of the play) is carried out in a stark background with any sound being drowned out by the music of the "theatrical church."
Two thousand years of history have shown that there is a heck of a lot of difference between the message (Jesus) and the messenger (some of the churches). That is what makes the play so powerful. There is a whole lot more there than those protesters realized so many years ago.
I just found an article about the play that caused the ban and thought that those who were interested might like the link.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4639/
As I suspected the play has nothing to do with Jesus at all. It is about a struggling actor who is trying to support his family and loses an important job because of the "sin" of being overweight.
Anyway the article says it all so I would like to recommend it.
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]I don't think that Jesus was over weight. It seems that when ever it mentions that he was eating it was because someone asked him to eat with them.
I believe that it was said of him as an insult. Jesus is the one that was saying the quotes that you gave Lensman.
He was making a comparison to what was being said about John the Baptist. It was said of John that he came not eating or drinking wine and it was being said of him that he had a devil.
When Jesus came eating and drinking he was called a glutton and a winebibber. He was being social by eating at different homes when he was invited to do so.
I would take it that John the Baptist did not go to people's houses to eat but that Jesus did.
It is actually quite likely that Jesus was overweight, when you think that he was roaming from one place to the next. That is, if he has existed at all. Accepting that, is still a leap of faith given current knowledge.
@lensman67
I just found an article about the play that caused the ban and thought that those who were interested might like the link.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4639/
As I suspected the play has nothing to do with Jesus at all. It is about a struggling actor who is trying to support his family and loses an important job because of the "sin" of being overweight.
Anyway the article says it all so I would like to recommend it.
I read the article that you have provided the link to.
I didn't see it that he lost his acting job because of being overweight.
It says
"it’s about a chubby loser-type who ends up portraying Jesus"
About this "loser" type it says
a chubby man looking for his big break in life. His endeavours so far have left him and his pregnant wife so poor that he has to support them by cleaning windows.
I take it the guy is a loser anyway and because he was turned down for this job he of course knew where to place the blame.
@Bart B. Van Bockstaele
It is actually quite likely that Jesus was overweight, when you think that he was roaming from one place to the next.
I would tend to think that he wasn't overweight. He did a lot of walking from place to place and probably ate a lot of fish that was not deep fried. :-)
The article that Lensman put in his comment says this
"We’re told that Jesus was primarily into ‘natural foods in their natural states - lots of vegetables, especially beans and lentils…He would have eaten wheat bread, a lot of fruit, drunk a lot of water and also red wine…And he would only eat meat on special occasions."
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]
I take it the guy is a loser anyway and because he was turned down for this job he of course knew where to place the blame.
You are right. The new article does not say that he was turned down for the part in Jesus Christ Superstar, I got that from the original article that this story is based on.
The play is about a looser who is so desperate for a job that he has himself "crucified" as a PR stunt. I really see no reason why the Transit Authority thought that they needed to "protect" anyone from this picture.
The real problem here, and in the nude poster story, is "political correctness" where a minority try to deny freedom to the rest of society so that they are not "offended." Recently Muslims have held bloody riots and threatened to kill people while Christians just get someone in the government to ban "offensive" things or they threaten boycotts.
The effect is the same however. One group limiting the freedoms of another group in the name of political correctness.
@lensman67
Weight was certainly one of the issues but the author may have also looked at what made the real actor (the one that the play is loosely based on) decide that this was a good way to protest his not getting the job.
The funny thing about the part he was auditioning for is that when it came out Jesus Christ Super Star got a lot of conservative Christians hopping mad. When I and several of my friends went to see the movie we had crowds of angry protesters praying at us and screaming in our faces.
Always a puzzle to me is how some Christians, conservative or otherwise, think they are doing any good by screaming in peoples faces and being nasty and rude.
When anyone is rude to me they have lost all possibility that I will even listen to them or care about what they have to say.
@lensman67
Two thousand years of history have shown that there is a heck of a lot of difference between the message (Jesus) and the messenger (some of the churches). That is what makes the play so powerful. There is a whole lot more there than those protesters realized so many years ago.
What a profound statement if anyone really gives it some thought.
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]
"We’re told that Jesus was primarily into ‘natural foods in their natural states - lots of vegetables, especially beans and lentils…He would have eaten wheat bread, a lot of fruit, drunk a lot of water and also red wine…And he would only eat meat on special occasions."
Well he had to be into "natural foods" since no one had invented "unnatural" ones yet.
As the early Christian art I posted above shows, each society creates its own vision of what Jesus looked like since fashions change. Most people living in the Roman empire in the First Century thought that beards were the sign of a barbarian and so he is shown without one.
He grew up in a predominately Greek area (the Decapolis) and was no doubt aware of the local fashions. Even among the Jews beards were usually only worn by the very conservative ones since they made doing business with Greeks and Romans difficult and kept one out of the gym.
If so many Jews were willing to under go the extremely painful operation to "reverse" their circumcision shaving would have been no problem at all for them.
Thing is, do we really know if any of those people were obese at that point of time? I'm familiar with the thought that we also don't know what Jesus looked like, though. A matter of interpretation?
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]I would tend to think that he wasn't overweight. He did a lot of walking from place to place and probably ate a lot of fish that was not deep fried. :-)
LOL. On the other hand, Buddha led a similar existence, and he was not always depicted as particularly skinny. And yes, I know, the climate and the eating habits were quite different over there, but Buddha was at least somewhat of an ascetic, and even when he no longer walked that path, he still advocated "the middle way".
@lensman67
You are right. The new article does not say that he was turned down for the part in Jesus Christ Superstar, I got that from the original article that this story is based on.
The play is about a looser who is so desperate for a job that he has himself "crucified" as a PR stunt. I really see no reason why the Transit Authority thought that they needed to "protect" anyone from this picture.
The real problem here, and in the nude poster story, is "political correctness" where a minority try to deny freedom to the rest of society so that they are not "offended." Recently Muslims have held bloody riots and threatened to kill people while Christians just get someone in the government to ban "offensive" things or they threaten boycotts.
The effect is the same however. One group limiting the freedoms of another group in the name of political correctness.
It would seem from your three articles that it was the Transit Authority that decided to not allow the posters. There didn't seem to be any group that was protesting them.
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]
Always a puzzle to me is how some Christians, conservative or otherwise, think they are doing any good by screaming in peoples faces and being nasty and rude.
When anyone is rude to me they have lost all possibility that I will even listen to them or care about what they have to say.
I know what you mean. I like the saying "speak softer so that I can hear you." ;o)
@lensman67Well he had to be into "natural foods" since no one had invented "unnatural" ones yet.
I don't entirely agree. Bread and wine are two examples of "unnatural" foods. Not unnatural in the sense that they are not created by nature, but unnatural in the sense that they are "processed".
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]
It would seem from your three articles that it was the Transit Authority that decided to not allow the posters. There didn't seem to be any group that was protesting them.
Did you notice the posters that they DID allow? Nude bungy jumping and ads for prostitutes? They don't have a problem with those but serious art makes them nervous? Weird!
@Debra Myers (skyangel)
Thing is, do we really know if any of those people were obese at that point of time? I'm familiar with the thought that we also don't know what Jesus looked like, though. A matter of interpretation?
The Greeks were always poking fun at the people of Palestine (Jews were only a small minority in those days) for being fat or at least out of shape.
To a Greek there were very few sins worse than being over weight. I have a picture from a Greek drinking cup that shows a fat boy in the gym surrounded by kids his own age who are in shape. The picture alone was considered a laugh riot among the Greeks.
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]Always a puzzle to me is how some Christians, conservative or otherwise, think they are doing any good by screaming in peoples faces and being nasty and rude.
When anyone is rude to me they have lost all possibility that I will even listen to them or care about what they have to say.
Everybody who claims that Christianity is not a peaceful religion will be burned at the stake! LOL.
@lensman67
Did you notice the posters that they DID allow? Nude bungy jumping and ads for prostitutes? They don't have a problem with those but serious art makes them nervous? Weird!
Yes i did see the posters that are allowed. They are far worse than some guy hanging on a cross with pink boxer shorts on.
@lensman67
I know what you mean. I like the saying "speak softer so that I can hear you." ;o)
True Lensman.
I always think if I really want someone to listen to what I have to say and hopefully think about it what is the best way to accomplish that. Is it to be nasty and rude or is it to be polite and kind and hopefully encourage a discussion on it if necessary.
@Cynthia T. [Picasso]
Yes i did see the posters that are allowed. They are far worse than some guy hanging on a cross with pink boxer shorts on.
The funny thing is that so many of the movies, plays and art objects that have gotten people riled up are exactly opposite from what they think they are.
Jesus Christ Superstar, which was once so hated, is now a big hit with Christians. Another movie that got some people angry was "Leap of Faith" with Steve Martin.
He plays a con man who poses as a minister and holds revival meetings to swindle people out of their money. That was all most people who opposed it knew and they went crazy. What they did not know is that the end the phony minister realizes that he is in the presence of a real miracle and because he is a con man he knows that it is not a con.
He is so shaken up by this that he quits the business, gives his bus and everything else to has assistant, who really is religious, and hitchhikes out of town in a 18 wheel truck. In addition to the miracle the people of the town had been praying for rain and as soon as he leaves town the skies open up and pour. He sees this and starts laughing and shouting "Hallelujah!"
People who bother to see the movie to the end realize that it is exactly opposite of what they thought it was.
@lensman67
The funny thing is that so many of the movies, plays and art objects that have gotten people riled up are exactly opposite from what they think they are.
Jesus Christ Superstar, which was once so hated, is now a big hit with Christians. Another movie that got some people angry was "Leap of Faith" with Steve Martin.
He plays a con man who poses as a minister and holds revival meetings to swindle people out of their money. That was all most people who opposed it knew and they went crazy. What they did not know is that the end the phony minister realizes that he is in the presence of a real miracle and because he is a con man he knows that it is not a con.
He is so shaken up by this that he quits the business, gives his bus and everything else to has assistant, who really is religious, and hitchhikes out of town in a 18 wheel truck. In addition to the miracle the people of the town had been praying for rain and as soon as he leaves town the skies open up and pour. He sees this and starts laughing and shouting "Hallelujah!"
People who bother to see the movie to the end realize that it is exactly opposite of what they thought it was.
Too many people will jump to conclusions about something that they don't know about, or have just "heard" about but do not know all the facts about it.
If you don't know what you are talking about best be quiet until you know all the facts if it really matters that much to you.
Email
Print
Share
Op-Ed: London Calling, Fat Jesus poster banned
