Jesus Like You've Never Seen Him Before
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According to a recent LA Times article, the story of Jesus a billion people have heard all their lives will finally receive a cinematic treatment courtesy of an Iranian director.

Nader Talebzadeh's "Jesus, the Spirit of God," tells the story of Jesus as it appears in the Qur'an. That of a man born to a virgin mother who went on to become one of the greatest Prophets in the world and escaped crucifixtion by the Romans.

As the article states, the film has already earned the ire of some Christian groups, with the Worldwide Church of God in Fairfield, California stating:

"Attempts by the Iranians or anyone else who try to deny that Jesus Christ is the true messiah will ultimately fail. The Holy Bible confirms the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth in numerous ways, and no amount of filmmaking or lecturing or rhetoric to the contrary can defeat that fact."

As Talebzadeh has feared, some critics of the film are unwilling to see it simply as the depiction of the words of a religious text but rather as an Iranian attack against Christianity.

In taking the film as another way to demonize and vilify Iranians and Muslims, these critics are denying themselves an opportunity to possibly create a link between the two faiths over a shared story with differing interpretations. A link which can be seen as very similar to that of the story of Moses as it appears in Judaism and Christianity. Perhaps in seeing this link all three faiths will be able to see that they share more similarities than differences, but then again that’s probably far too dangerous of a thought.

Best Digg.com Comment:

“Well, this is sure to encourage an eloquent and well-reasoned dialogue between faiths…”


Reader Comments
  
lol
By Liberaltarian May 1st 2008 at 5:51 pm EDT
"Our Bible is the truth, because it is infallible!"

"No, our Qu'ran is the truth, because it is infallible!"

Wow, what a choice: picking between one circular reasoning and another.
  
As a secularist...
By Superduperficial May 1st 2008 at 7:19 pm EDT
...the one thing scarier to me than the religions fighting one another is when they find too much 'common ground', because that common ground usually consists of uniting against us.
Re: As a secularist...
By Ali M Latifi May 2nd 2008 at 12:57 pm EDT
"uniting against" who?

I think thats kind of a nonsensical comment (if it was serious), because the truth is religion is such a large and deeply personal topic that it can be so easily co-opted for politics, fear, and hate but if you have a common understanding among people that much of your faiths are similar it works to fight that urge to automatically hate someone for being "a pagan" or a "heathen."

If people could realize that their faiths are very similar both in a nebulous sense and in more anecdotal cases it would put an end to stupid debates like "do Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe in the same God?" that was so prevalent after 9/11 - its a pointless debate because yes they do believe in the same GOD. God as entity or a divinity is the same thing all three its just how you worship and the stories around it that may differ but GOD is essentially always GOD.
Re: As a secularist...
By Superduperficial May 7th 2008 at 5:19 am EDT
Read my headline: Uniting against the secularists.

""If people could realize that their faiths are very similar both in a nebulous sense and in more anecdotal cases it would put an end to stupid debates like "do Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe in the same God?" that was so prevalent after 9/11 - its a pointless debate because yes they do believe in the same GOD. God as entity or a divinity is the same thing all three its just how you worship and the stories around it that may differ but GOD is essentially always GOD.""

Exactly my point. They then proceed to unite against the secularists.
  
finally,
By matt May 4th 2008 at 10:56 am EDT
so this movie will prove finally that Jesus actually existed, then? whew, I was getting worried that my atheism was justified and logical there for a second.
  
The battle..
By MadChatter May 9th 2008 at 3:11 pm EDT
between Christian dogma and Islamic dogma has begun. I'm curious to see who wins.
  
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