Station III: Jesus Falls for the First Time

Michael Duffy

As a boy, I endured years of Christian indoctrination from the nuns and priests of my Catholic parish. Despite the dementia of the Roman Catholic operation — the sadism, the guilt, the awaiting fires of hell — I encountered some good Christians. The Christian philosophy appealed to me. It is selfless and pacifist. It provides some recommendations for proper behavior: Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not covet, etc. Its founder, Jesus H. Christ, was a revolutionary thinker. He stood with the oppressed against the oppressor. He said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And this classic: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me.” And how ‘bout: “Love thine enemy as thyself?” And torn from today’s headlines: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Good stuff.

But Christianity, as currently practiced in America, doesn’t seem to reflect the values of the Prince of Peace. A religion that takes the depiction of gruesome torture (Christ on the Cross) as its logo may be giving the game away. We have become very coarse and cruel of late, with the renditions and the enhanced techniques and the cowardly and karmically ill-advised drone killings in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And Christ would have a lot to say about this.

Michael Duffy lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a graphic artist and web designer.

duff-co.com

The Passion of the Detainee
72” x 30”, paint on glass