Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus.

There is a beautiful, haunting and dark film called Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus which I saw some years ago.  It's a documentary featuring a country singer called Jim White as he drives around Texas looking for evidence of Jesus in this most Christian of US states. In his boot is a statue of Jesus.  It is a bizarre but wonderful series of scenes, characters and songs.  While it leaves you with a sense that  "the Jesus that I know is no-where here" you also get a sense that Jesus is somehow in all of it.  You start off looking for the archetypal  blue-eyed Jesus but you find Him in the cross-eyed, toothless addicts instead.

I thought about this film again today as I came across a whole host of stuff: the church which will be burning the Koran, responses to Dawkins and Hawkins, some blogs which are critical of the Salvation Army in the US, etc, etc.  I felt the same kind of confusion - expecting to see the Jesus that I know writ large in the various questions and responses but instead struggling to see him anywhere.

How is it that centuries of Christian thinking has taken us so far away from the basic teachings of the person who its all about? Take the Koran burning episode.  Of course the guy is wrong - burning the Koran sends completely the wrong message to the world about faith in Christ!  But why do we not think the same thing about invading other countries, the plight of the Palestinian people, the floods in Pakistan, etc.  Why is it at Pakistan cricketers push the dying and displaced from the headlines.  Why is Pacifism not a hot topic in Christian circles? Why does the simple message of Jesus, to look after each other, get so ignored in the pursuit of deep, doctrinal dogma?

Is it them or am I searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus?

Ironically, when Jim White takes the statue of Jesus out of the boot of the car and the camera zooms in, Jesus has his eyes shut. I know how he feels.

You can view trailers for the film at http://www.searchingforthewrongeyedjesus.com/