Meek Mild As If

A few years ago the Church of England ran an advertising campaign to try to get people to attend Easter services, and used a poster of Jesus looking very much like Che Guevara. The poster slogan was "Meek. Mild. As If." - probably as provocative then as the current United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit magazine campaign with a bobble-head Jesus. I love the poster, though - particularly as Good Friday approaches and we need to be reminded that Jesus was executed by the authorities on the garbage dump of Jerusalem as a political criminal, just as the death squads brought their victims to the dumps of Managua and San Salvador and killed them. I saw some great Che murals in Nicaragua. There was a debate in our group about how appropriate Che is as a symbol of liberation, given that he spearheaded the more pro-Soviet, hardline faction in Cuba.

Chagall and Crosses

I haven't felt much like blogging since getting back from Central America - and I'm now on Facebook, where I feel loved as people are always wanting to be my friend:) But I was reading Helen McLean's review of Jonathan Wilson's biography of the painter Marc Chagall, published in The Globe & Mail book section today. She writes:
"Chagall had no wish to convert to Christianity, Wilson says. What he wanted was to reclaim Christ for the Jews, not as messiah but as a poet and prophet. He was obsessed with the concept of the crucified Christ as a universal symbol of martyrdom, painting it often and eventually even identifying with that tortured figure. In a late painting of the crucifixion, he wrote "Chagall" in Hebrew letters at the head of the cross."

Back From Managua

I'm back from 10 days in Managua and Nicaragua's northern Atlantic region. There is much to process: dire poverty co-existing with (or producing?) hope and faith.

There is an interview with former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the London Review of Books: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n04/hall02_.html. He speaks of his own experience with liberation theology.