Is This Guy For Real? - Tim Tebow

Authenticity and sincerity in the world of celebrities is always questioned.  In today’s class we spoke about two very famous people in our music industry, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. Their music videos for Pray and Judas, respectively, is where they integrate their faith into their music, and were ultimately questioned whether it was all just an act or in they sincerely wanted their faith to be recognized.

The first thing that came to mind when thinking about faith and sincerity was Tim Tebow. He is the quarterback for the Denver Broncos, and a very religious man, on and off the field. The talk of the NFL season was all about Tebow and whether or not his “kneeling and praying after a touchdown” was serious or was it just a show. Was Tebow really trying to integrate his religion and his work as a quarterback into one? As viewers watched from all over America, they questioned his sincerity and authenticity when it came to his faith. Was he just trying to create news or did he truly believe?

In this video clip, the sports announcers for the NFL discuss Tebow and his representation of his faith. One of the men ask “Is this guy for real?” Then you hear “gift of influence” and “we should pray for him that he continues to stay on the right path”. There are obviously different opinions even with these five sports announcers that represent the different opinions of the public. The big question… “IS THIS GUY FOR REAL?” 

Tim Tebow is a commodity not only for his team, but also for the whole of the NFL, and I believe that people were a bit shocked with his faith-based reactions. Usually people see a touchdown end zone dance, but not a full on kneel and pray, and I can see why people were very skeptical about it.

Below is a clip from an SNL skit that featured Tebow and the uprising questions about his faith.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6cCYILZ36M

Superman Jesus

A response to Rachel's Post: 

http://gospelaccordingtobuddychrist.blogspot.com/2012/02/jesus-ill-be-back.html

Rachel,

I do agree with you with respect to the Kozlovic’s model of twenty-five attributes of a Christ figure. We still yet to really figure out why anyone would intentionally be looking for Christ figures in movies. Doesn’t it take away from the actual film? The film as an art piece is then rendered to the audience to look for non-existent subtextual Christ figures. Yes, some directors intentionally want to add the Christ figure in their superhero movie, but what does that do for the audience? Like Rachel said, would it bring out more of a crowd to Transformers if they though Optimus Prime was a Christ figure? Probably not. If people continually go into watching a film looking for Christ figures, what does that do for the experience of watching the film, and again looking at the film as an art piece instead of a religious artifact?

 

I again agree wit Rachel; this list of attributes can be associated with any super hero on the film market. From Charlie Brown to Spock, they all have some of the attributes listed by Kozlovic. I feel like it is a bit ridiculous to be associated characters of films like that, unless they are intentionally but into the repertoire of the character, and meant to be seen as a Christ figure.

To be devils advocate, the only reason in which I could find the reason why people would intentionally look for a Christ figure, would be that it allows the audience to be associated with their “real-life” Jesus. With Christ figures like, Superman for example, you can go watch the movie, or buy his comic books. He is “real life”, right infront of your eyes, instead of the real Jesus in which you can talk to him, but you can never really see him. I argue that Christ figures make Jesus more relatable and maybe even attainable to be able to see a super hero acting like him in the movies, or even in comic books. 

Lil Wayne a Christ Figure?

The topic of today’s lecture was Jesus films, and the representation/ the presence of Christ figures in films. This post won’t talk about a specific Jesus figure in film, but in a recent music video. Lil Wayne and Bruno Mars just released their newest single called “Mirror” where in there are many images of God and Jesus, and even relating Lil Wayne to Jesus. Throughout the video we see Lil Wayne painting or throwing red paint on a wall, in what we can assume to be a mural. 

Not only that but we see his tattoos, of the words like “Fear God” on his inner eyelids, a subtextual image of the tools used to make the mural (familiar with the tools used to bear the cross, like the nails, hammer, and crown of thorns). Most notably, if you can go through the entire video, Lil Wayne stands in the cross-bearing pose, and his mural is of him, in a cross bearing position with a microphone in one hand, and I believe a stack of cash on the other (the image isn’t very clear).

I personally did not go into watching this music video thinking that I was going to have material to relate it to Kozlovic’s twenty-five characteristics of a Jesus figure, or looking for characteristics, but I did. Lil Wayne’s pose of the cross bearing related to the characteristics of the Jesus Figure that Kozlovic goes into depth with (although I think I can assume that no one would really associates Lil Wayne with a Jesus). What do you think the intention of Lil Wayne was? Opinions…

Heres the link to the music videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLUa8JUR18&ob=av3e