Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Good news...and bad news....


The good news?? Starbucks brings back its holiday drink line, including EGG NOG LATTE...my favorite. Yum.
I will single-handedly keep Starbucks a major financial entity with my latte purchases in the next 2 months.
And what could make it even better? A CHAI Egg Nog Latte....mmm. Oral ecstasy.




The bad news??
Last night Steve-o showed me THIS website about a group of people who, I kid you not, make talking Jesus, Mary, Moses, and David dolls. They offered to donate 10,000 of them to Toys for Tots - they refused them. Is it bad news that T4T rejected them? No...the bad news is that people actually spend money to manufacture these. Or maybe that people would actually buy them....Notice the atypical white American-ish looking Jesus, complete with blue eyes and flowing brunette hair. He actually looks like one of my neighbors -- It's surburban USA Jesus! Complete with SUV and a ripped up six-pack under his robe! Available in stores now!
Ok...I'll stop now.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Within the last 50 years there has been an abundance of ethnic paintings of Jesus. Jesus has been rendered by the Filipino artists as Filipino, by the Chinese as Chinese and by the Africans as African.
The reaction against these portrayals have been mostly from the Anglo-Saxons who imagine the Jesus they have seen in some of the paintings with which they are familiar. These are the portrayals of Jesus by the Italian, Dutch and German painters.
The Bible does not give us any information about how Jesus looked. There are descriptions about Moses, David and others, but nothing about Jesus. Some commentators have made the argument that he was the perfection of God’s creation.
David Flusser, a Jewish New Testament scholar, commented that when he looks at the Christian paintings portraying Jesus, he sees an Italian-looking Jesus, a Dutch-looking Jesus, and a German-looking Jesus, but rarely a Jewish-looking Jesus. However, according to his human nature, the closest resemblance Jesus could have to any one group would be to the Jews since his mother Mary was Jewish.
is he from Michigan?

Anonymous said...

Do they sell a "Moses" doll b/c I'd love to send one to a friend I have who was once told, "Well, you're not Moses."

I think Jesus most likely didn't have blue eyes, but he COULD have. Where did blue eyes come from if we all are descendents of Adam and Eve, who were...well not officially Middle Easterners, at that time they were pretty much global. Also, if you remember your "gene" lesson in science, everyone carries dominant and recessive genes. Blue is recessive, but it is still possible for a Middle Eastern person to have blue eyes. I believe that it is common in Persia. Someone please HELP me!

My hubby USED to coach against a HUGE Jewish school in basketball. They almost always whipped our butts. They were ripped, tall, GOOD-LOOKIN' boys with flowing, DARK brunette hair that they almost all wore to their shoulders. It hit me one time while at a game, this is probably what Jesus looked like as an adolescent living on earth. They were VERY physical players, who swore often, and did NOT like to lose.

What about the verse...Jesus was tall of stature, wise and in favor w/God and man. I always assumed he was tall, rugged, ripped, very tan, good-lookin', w/filthy, calloused feet and calloused hands. Why? B/c their diet was excellent, they walked everywhere in the blazing desert sun, and Jesus was a carpenter.

Secretly, I've always wondered if Jesus will look different to each of us; if he will take on the "ethnicity" of each individual believer. Since we will have new bodies, our eyes may see things differently than we see now. I'm weird, I know.

One more thing, I don't care what some people say, I think all dogs (okay, cats too) go to heaven. You say they don't have a soul? I think that's the only thing that they are--little furry souls running around barking, tearing up trashbags and peeing in the flowers. Some God-humor.

Anonymous said...

Dan - Interesting how each culture will paint Christ to look as their own. What a narcissistic humankind we are. Why are people so resistant to paint things as they truly are? Or, if they DO paint them as they are, are unable to do it without bias. This, I suppose, is the essence of art. But we weren't talking about art, so I digress.
Amy -I think you're right on about Jesus in actuality being rather ripped and probably pretty tan as well. You're also probably right about the dirty and calloused feet - I never thought about that before. As for him being really good looking, I dunno. What's the verse that (paraphrase) says that he was rather plain looking? I can't remember the exact reference, but Steve would.....I'll ask him.
For some reason my soul rebels against the stereotypical "anglo-saxon" image of Jesus--I'm not sure why, it just really bugs me. Not go completely postal bugs me, just equal with words I hate (i.e. scrumptious).

Anyway, more importantly - what about the egg nog latte? AND....why is "egg" spelled with 2 g's and "nog" is only spelled with one? They are phonetically almost identical....there's somethin' to scramble your brain.

Anonymous said...

Tam's:

I think each perspective is inevitable because he is our Lord and "their Lord"...THE LORD...Have you ever thought about what God looks like? When you pray, do you pray to a face, to a thought or a presence?...and insofar as narcissistic humankind: We are all shaped and discern what we see by who we are and what we've done; "Cogito, ergo sum" Descartes' I think therefore I am. We are all different and paradoxically the same. We than further express that interpretively and also as another derivation...Suffice to say:your Savior and mine in our imperfect perspectives is "all that" and than some. You could also make the point that our lives are art as we present the intrepretation of what we are led to do by faith....Yikes, getting deep!!!Enjoy Atlanta and see yu soon!
D

Anonymous said...

...........and Eggnog literally means eggs inside a small cup. It is used as a toast to ones health. Nog is an old English dialect word (from East Anglia) of obscure origins that was used to describe a kind of strong beer (hence noggin). It is first recorded in the seventeenth century. Eggnog, however, is first mentioned in the early nineteenth century but seems to have been popular on both sides of the Atlantic at that time. An alternative British name was egg flip.

Just ensure Casey's is not augmented with libatious spirits!

Anonymous said...

Wow...that was some deep reading!

I was just thinking the other day...walking through a store with X-Mas decor that it really peeves me to know that they make white nativity scenes and black ones...but NO arabic looking nativity scenes!!!!
I'm just glad that the one I put up in my home is terra-cotta!!!!

Anonymous said...

as opposed to paper mache.....or even a fresco relief.........
:)