Jesus Loves a Whore
While on vacation here in Maine at my daughter Hannah’s house, I’ll confess I’ve become hooked on the DVD’s of the television series Gilmore Girls. Yes, I know it’s an extended chick flick, but a blog is supposed to be a confessional of one’s deepest sins and weaknesses, right? Maybe I’m just indulging after a year of seminary-imposed TV deprivation, but I’ll admit to be a sucker for shows that have a common thread of small town community (hence my continued fixation on Northern Exposure). They reveal to me a yearning that I think we all share and that should find its full satisfaction in the church.
Anyway, in one of the episodes of Gilmore Girls, the town adds a new twist to its annual Revolutionary War reenactment. The reenactment had always been a pretty boring (and short) drama, as all that had happened at Star’s Hollow was the blocking of a road by the local militia, causing the British troops to be late to a battle. But this year a historian had uncovered the story behind the story. Seems that a local “woman of questionable morals” had lured the British general who was over the detouring troops to her…ahem…boudoir, thus contributing in her own way to the Revolutinary cause. The town held a talent search to pick a young lady to play the heroine in the newly revised reenactment, and ended up choosing the girlfriend of town odd-ball Kirk. He was so thrilled that he rushed into the local diner proclaiming exuberantly, “My girlfriend is the whore! My girlfriend is the whore!”
It occurred to me that Jesus, in his relationship to the church, could proclaim the same thing…except that he went the extra step of actually marrying his beloved whore! Well lo and behold if I didn’t read the very next day a blog post that presents the gospel in just such a shocking way. Read it here, with a hat tip to Mark Horne for pointing us to it. (Warning: four letter word is used.)
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June 17th, 2005 at 8:18 am
Frankly, “Women of Questionable Morals” was a horrible, horrible episode in the pantheon of Gilmore Girls episodes. Your point is still well-taken.
[I'm loving that you're hooked on GG.]
June 17th, 2005 at 8:23 am
C’mon, Geof, knowing me you had to know that would happen!
So what was so ‘horrible’ about that episode?
June 17th, 2005 at 8:59 am
There were some funny things about it (like Kirk, heh), but I didn’t like how Lorelai acted. It was kind of out of character.
June 17th, 2005 at 10:13 am
Kari’s right: Lorelai was out of character. The root of all the evil? Daniel Palladino, who wrote the episode.
Let’s just put it this way: I don’t like Daniel’s writing, and Kari’s not much of a fan, either. [If I may be so bold ask to speak for her.]
June 17th, 2005 at 10:32 am
Ah…I didn’t observe that. It is Amy Sherman-Palladino’s writing that gives the dialogue its characteristic snap, is it not?
Kind of like the noticeable difference when Sorkin (sp?) stopped writing West Wing.
And I can’t believe this turned into a thread about a TV show! Perhaps I should include it in my “pop culture” category as well as “theology,” eh?
June 17th, 2005 at 11:30 am
Well, you mentioned Gilmore Girls …
[Yeah, ASP does the best of the writing for the show. You'll note that she generally gets the most important shows of the season, for good reason.]
But yes … I see your point as well. But if Jesus looked anything like Taylor Doose …
June 17th, 2005 at 2:32 pm
I’m making a T-shirt:
Jesus loves a Whore.
June 17th, 2005 at 3:40 pm
Geof:
As long as we’re overextending my analogy
…
…perhaps the point is that we all look like Taylor Doose, pretentious pretenders up on our horse, without Jesus.
June 17th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
Let’s overextend it more … we’re fat, dumb, and happy, think that we’re all that and a bag of chips [that we'll charge you $1.29 at our market for], and we meddle in everyone else’s business and try to bully our way through life.
:sigh: I am Taylor Doose.
June 18th, 2005 at 12:40 am
I love that yall came up with the same illustration, its is really cool. I’d have to say that in the end Joshua’s story is a bit more powerful than Gilmore girls, in fact I may just have to link that from my blog as well, thanks for the heads up, great great story.
June 18th, 2005 at 5:58 am
Oh, believe me, Zach…I agree! The GG allegory can’t go nearly as far (see Geof above on Taylor as Jesus…yeesh!)
June 20th, 2005 at 4:22 pm
What, you think Jesus didn’t look like Taylor? HERETIC! APOSTATE!
Oh, sorry. Wrong place.