Monday, January 15, 2007

Actors Who Play Jesus and then Play Rapists??

Bible Experience

So I've been listening to the Bible Experience which is the TNIV New Testament read by a bunch of different African-American stars who have pretty awesome voices. I've loved listening so far - I'm only about halfway through Mark. It's funny hearing Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of God saying, "This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased," sounding like the speech from Pulp Fiction. Weird. Blair Underwood is the voice of Jesus and I think he's pretty good.

The craziest thing that happened to me this week was that I was watching Law and Order SVU and Blair Underwood was on it playing the role of a man falsely accused of rape who eventually commits murder because of his extreme frustration with being accused. It was just so awful hearing the voice of Jesus being the voice of a murderer and potential rapist. So stars playing Biblical roles can sure mess us up when they play other roles. I don't know if I can ever watch Jim Caviezel in another role.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always feel a little betrayed by actors because they get so "into" their roles and then move onto to the next one. How many of the speakers in the Bible Experience have had sex scenes that they immediately dismissed as "work" and then moved onto to reading the Bible. The problem is that I believe that they have the same reverence for the Word of God that I do and then I am slapped with a reminder that they don't when I see them using foul languange in a movie or TV show. I guess the solution is to make myself as removed from them as they do from their work, but I am so easily sucked in.

Eric Wakeling said...

that last comment was Bea

Anonymous said...

I've listened to the Bible Experience as well and at first was a little cynical about the actors involved. But as I listened, and as the Word came alive I started thinking how cool is this - some of these actors are Christians, some are not. For those that are not, they are being exposed to God's Word - God's Word is "active and sharper than any two edged sword" - and "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" so my prayer is that hearts of listeners and those that did the performing would be convicted and changed.

Eric Wakeling said...

yeah, my post was more about the weirdness of seeing "jesus" in this rapist role on SVU. I have loved listening to it as well. I pray the same prayer for the participants.