“Portrayal of Deity”

Probably not, but I try to squelch that kind of morbid curiosity when I feel it swelling within me. In almost every case where I have actually gotten an answer, the answer has turned my stomach.

That, or someone really didn’t like Jesus Christ Superstar. Which I can kind of understand.

Just one roadshow? Ha ha, how little you know.

Please also note that it specifically mentions meetings. Want to bet that someone who was asked to speak in sacrament meeting didn’t come dressed as Jesus and implore the congregation to do their home teaching or something?

LDS Hymn 308, “As I have loved you, love one another,” as I understand it, was written for a pageant in Mesa as a part with Jesus singing to the multitude. That’s sounds tasteful, but it must be one of those things where the potential downside outweighs the potential upside. For instance the downside of portraying Jesus as our best buddy, evangelical-style. The LDS prefer a bit of reserve in our relationship with our master.

Have any of you been to the Easter pageant held on the Mesa temple grounds? I have not. The infogalactic entry describes it, “With a 450-member cast, the 65-minute pageant depicts the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ using song and dance.” Assuming that the “As I have loved you” song used to be sung by Jesus as I was told, it probably isn’t anymore. It sounds like an interesting problem for the writers and director: a cast of hundreds singing and dancing, but the central character doesn’t do either. Is it like casting John Wayne and Dean Martin’s mother in “The Sons of Katie Elder”?

JM,

I’ve seen it many times, first in 2001. Don’t remember Jesus singing or dancing at all. Mary does, which doesn’t seem to bother any Catholics in attendance.

The first couple of years, my favorite scene was Jesus clearing out the temple, by chasing out money changers with something resembling a cat-o’-nine-tails. In later years he just sort of shooed them away with his hands. I asked someone (who would know) why they did away with the whip, and he said there was a feeling that the Savior should not too closely resemble Indiana Jones.

“e said there was a feeling that the Savior should not too closely resemble Indiana Jones.”

Palpatine: “Yes. Yes, now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance.”

The friend who told me about Jesus singing in the Mesa Easter pageant would have been talking about the early 1980s. He didn’t say anything about dancing.

How long has the ‘no singing Jesus’ rule existed? Michael McClean’s ‘The Garden’ has a song sung by Jesus (set in Gethsemane, no less).

“I never said it would be easy being green.”

“How long has the ‘no singing Jesus’ rule existed? Michael McClean’s ‘The Garden’ has a song sung by Jesus (set in Gethsemane, no less).”

1. It’s not an official Church production, so the rule doesn’t apply unless a ward or stake wants to put it on.

2. It’s not actually Jesus singing, it’s a Jesus analogue, and it’s not really set in Gethsemane so much as a generic garden run by an insane gardener (the Satan analogue). It’s supposed to be a parable or an extended metaphor or something like that, though at times the production seems to cross over the line into straight literalism through on-the-nose lyrics that don’t quite work with the metaphor/parable/analogy it’s aiming for (imagine if in the parable of the wheat and tares, the master of the field had said “Satan did this” and then ended with the master of the field saying “and the good grain will go to heaven to be with God”).