“Jesus, where are you? Do you even care these days?”
New Life Church gunman Matthew Murray
“Your own personal Jesus. Someone to hear your prayers. Someone who cares.”
“Personal Jesus,” Depeche Mode
I was surprised to read on Wikipedia that “Personal Jesus” was originally recorded in 1989 by Depeche Mode, and not by Johnny Cash as I’d assumed. In his final 2002 album, Cash co-opted the secular hit, converting a song about Elvis Presley into one about Jesus Christ.
Inspired by Pricilla Presley’s book “Elvis and Me,” “Personal Jesus” was ranked #368 in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” in 2004 and included in Q Magazine’s “100 Best Songs Ever” in 2006, according to Wikipedia.
Depeche Mode’s video on YouTube portrays a group of cowboys visiting a house of prostitution. Marilyn Manson’s version ends with a group of nuns handing a swaddled baby to Manson, who drops the baby to the floor, where it smashes to bits, proving to be nothing but a china doll filled with coins.
Johnny Cash could have done what many Christians do. He could have become offended that Manson desecrated a song about Jesus. Instead, he sang the song himself. Because people know Cash is a believer, he completely shifted the context of the music.
The notion of Jesus as personal Savior was popular when I accepted Christ back in 1976. It’s gone out of style since then. Partly I think this is a result of the pro-life movement. An individual voter can’t alter the results of an election. Christianity switched to a corporate model, one that viewed differences of opinion as disunity. Christians began seeking salvation through changed laws, rather than changed hearts.
Today’s Jesus is an impersonal warrior who cares more about who you vote for than what you pray for.
The Bible tells us Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. If the new and improved Jesus marketed in many churches today hasn’t sold well in America, maybe it’s because secular culture’s concept of a personal savior, though more sexual, has changed little in the past 30 years.
New Life Church gunman Matthew Murray
“Your own personal Jesus. Someone to hear your prayers. Someone who cares.”
“Personal Jesus,” Depeche Mode
I was surprised to read on Wikipedia that “Personal Jesus” was originally recorded in 1989 by Depeche Mode, and not by Johnny Cash as I’d assumed. In his final 2002 album, Cash co-opted the secular hit, converting a song about Elvis Presley into one about Jesus Christ.
Inspired by Pricilla Presley’s book “Elvis and Me,” “Personal Jesus” was ranked #368 in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” in 2004 and included in Q Magazine’s “100 Best Songs Ever” in 2006, according to Wikipedia.
Depeche Mode’s video on YouTube portrays a group of cowboys visiting a house of prostitution. Marilyn Manson’s version ends with a group of nuns handing a swaddled baby to Manson, who drops the baby to the floor, where it smashes to bits, proving to be nothing but a china doll filled with coins.
Johnny Cash could have done what many Christians do. He could have become offended that Manson desecrated a song about Jesus. Instead, he sang the song himself. Because people know Cash is a believer, he completely shifted the context of the music.
The notion of Jesus as personal Savior was popular when I accepted Christ back in 1976. It’s gone out of style since then. Partly I think this is a result of the pro-life movement. An individual voter can’t alter the results of an election. Christianity switched to a corporate model, one that viewed differences of opinion as disunity. Christians began seeking salvation through changed laws, rather than changed hearts.
Today’s Jesus is an impersonal warrior who cares more about who you vote for than what you pray for.
The Bible tells us Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. If the new and improved Jesus marketed in many churches today hasn’t sold well in America, maybe it’s because secular culture’s concept of a personal savior, though more sexual, has changed little in the past 30 years.
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