Conservative Christians Overreact to Saturday Night Live’s ‘Djesus Uncrossed’ Sketch

Over the weekend, Saturday Night Live aired a trailer for a movie called “Djesus Uncrossed”:

If you’re like most people, your reaction was, “That was amusing. I didn’t know SNL still did funny things… or was still on the air.”

But let’s be honest about the skit: It was mocking Quentin Tarantino and his love of rewriting history and adding a lot of blood to the mix. It wasn’t actually making fun of the Bible.

But, if you’re like the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, you don’t parse humor that way. Fischer tweeted about how the SNL staffers would eventually get what’s coming to them:

The AFA also overreacted with this press release:

This past weekend, NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” aired an extremely violent and gory segment mocking Jesus Christ… just for laughs. And, it’s available now online thanks to Kmart, Sears and J.C.Penney.

… Thanks to the funding by mainstream advertisers, NBC is painting Jesus as a revengeful murderer bent on killing the Romans who crucified Him.

I understand why they’re mad. The Bible had waaaaaay more violence than we saw in that trailer. If a movie ruined my favorite book, I’d be pissed off, too.

But really, if these people seriously think the network that airs “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas is out to destroy Christianity and alienate the majority of their viewing audience in the process, they don’t understand how the business operates. SNL wasn’t trying to offend Christians. They were lampooning popular culture — and it worked.

Even Michael Farris, the Chancellor of super-fundamentalist Patrick Henry College, was going berserk on Facebook:

NBC has produced the worst possible attack on the person and character of Jesus Christ. The video is offensive in the maximum, but you should watch it to motivate you to act.

If you want to take action, you should contact NBC, JC Penny’s, Sears, K-Mart, and Target. These are the sponsors according to the American Family Association.

The corporate offices of these groups are pretty calloused. This is so offensive, that I think we are better off contacting the local stores and local NBC affiliate.

After you watch this, ask yourself, what would Muslims do if something like this was shown about their faith? I do not advocate violence, but I cannot condone silence.

Of course, SNL wouldn’t mock Muslims just like they wouldn’t mock Hindus. Comedians know that it’s always funnier to go after the people in power — you make fun of celebrities and the politicians and the rich and, yes, the Christians. It’s just not funny to mock the poor, the unknown, victims, or the people whose religions are already constantly under attack.

The best part of Farris’ post may be the comments:

I could not finish watching that. I am sick. Oh God help us!

…

I am in tears. This is horrifying!

…

Never be surprised at the level of evil man can devise.

…

Lord help them! Father I ask you to reveal Yourself to them and open the eyes of their hearts! I hurts my heart so bad to see how these view You!

…

need clarification is this a real Tarantino movie coming out or is the just a SNL skit?

…

Jesus is going to come back someday and trample his enemies under his feet.

A few words of wisdom get in there, but they’re pretty much ignored.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: Learn to take a joke. Even if you didn’t find the sketch funny, realize that all it was doing was portraying the Bible as Tarantino might — and then exaggerating everything for comedic effect.

By acting like this is some attack on your faith, you’re just filling the SNL writers room with joy — because it would be far worse if no one was talking about the sketch at all.

(Thanks to Ward for the link!)