Jesus and Irreverent Religious Humor

Seeing as you're all immersed in the first chapter of Crossan's Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, I thought I would kick off the unit with this:

This image exemplifies the wider contemporary phenomenon of irreverent humor in regards to religion. Another example is the film Dogma. I'm sure you can think of numerous other examples without my help.

What do people think of this? Is this belittling religion, which is at least in part humanity's attempt to connect with some higher good? Or does it make the (often frightening) phenomenon of religious experience less intimidating? Is there a right way and a wrong way to use irreverent humor? (Please answer this on your blogs, not in the comments section of this post). 

A Note About Comments

Just a note: due to the large number of blogs, I will only be reviewing comments on blog posts for week that has just passed. So for future reference, if you comment on someone's blog post from a previous week, please also post that comment on your own blog.

A reminder: blogging weeks start on Sunday and end on Saturday.

Have fun!

Luke Skywalker and the Gita

Here is a fun link to an  interview/video by Joshua Seftel and Gadadhara Pandit Dasa, entitled "What do Luke Skywalker, Neo, and the Karate Kid Know About the Bhagavad Gita?"

The experiences of Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita are paralleled elsewhere - even in such movies as The Matrix and Star Wars (Jess Gamari made a connection between the Gita and The Matrix in her blog post a couple weeks ago). This shouldn't be particularly surprising; after all, the Bhagavad Gita is a part of the larger Mahabharata, which is the epic story central to Hindu cultures.

A particularly striking quote: Amitav Koul describes how his Hindu father, who rarely talked about religion, passionately stated after watching Star Wars, "If you want to know what it means to be Hindu, just think of Obi-Wan and the Force."

Is there a book or film that has taught you a spiritual/religious truth? Can you think of a popular, contemporary story that neatly and powerfully expresses the ideas of a world religion? (this is a great idea for a blog post!)