The Graphic Bible

RELIGION IN THE NEWS

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from The New York Times, February 10, 2008, with a headline: The Bible As a Graphic Novel With A Samurai Stranger Called Christ. The following are excerpts: Ajinbayo Akinsiku wants the world to know Jesus Christ, just not the gentle blue-eyed Christ of old Hollywood movies, and illustrated Bibles. He says his Son of God is “a Samurai stranger who’s come to town in silhouette” here to shake things up in a new, much-abridged version of the Bible routed in Manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels. “We present things in a very brazen way,” said Mr. Akinsiku, who hopes to become an Anglican priest, and who is the author of, The Manga Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. “Christ is a hard guy seeking revolution and revolt, a tough guy.” Timothy Beal, professor of religion at CaseWestern ReserveUniversity, said of the reworking of the Bible in new forms including, Manga, “It opens up new ways of understanding scripture, and ends up breaking the idols a bit.” In a blurb of The Manga Bible which is published by Doubleday, the archbishop of Canterbury, the most reverend Roland Williams is quoted as saying, “It will convey the shock and freshness of the Bible in a unique way.” No doubt. In the Manga Bible, whose heroes look and sound like skate boarders in Bedouin gear, Noah gets tripped up counting the animals in the ark. “That’s 11,344 animals? Arggh! I’ve lost count again. I’m going to have to start from scratch!” Abraham rides a horse out of an explosion to save Lot. Og, king of Bashan, looms like an early Darth Vader. The Sermon on the Mount did not make the book though, because there is not enough action in it. “For the unchurched, the book is to show that this thing, the Bible, is still relevant,” Akinsiku said.

Tom:

Dave, this is really upsetting. Some people may find it humorous but…. We see so many things going on today: adding to, taking away from the Bible. A couple of weeks ago we had the reissuing, reshowing of The Passion of the Christ, many churches, evangelical churches, for Easter, the Easter week. Some churches, Baptist churches, one in Anchorage, Alaska, I can think of, that offered door prizes! You come to this showing of the Passion of the Christ, there will be a door prize, and the door prizes was actually higher if you came to the Easter service itself. And they had evening showings of the Passion of the Christ. Again, many Christian leaders, sadly, would say, Well come on, you know, it’s not really the Bible, what it is, is artistic license, and we don’t go all through that. But here we, again, this supposedly is artistic license. Is this adding to the Bible? Well, wait a minute, Noah gets tripped up counting the animals in the Ark: “That’s 11,344 animals? Arrggh!" (And he sounds like a pirate). "I’ve lost count again. I’m going to have to start from scratch!” Show me Chapter and Verse for that, Dave.

Dave:

The Sermon on the Mount isn’t even included.

Tom:

No, it doesn’t fit into this genre.

Dave:

Right. Tom…. He says, “For the unchurched, the book is to show that this thing, the Bible,”—Ah, well, at least he doesn’t call it the Bible, he calls it a book—“[This] book is to show that this thing, the Bible, is still relevant.” Well, what do you mean? He’s trashed the Bible. He’s changed the Bible. How is he showing that the Bible, the real Bible, is still relevant? No, in fact, the very reason that he did this is because he considers the Bible not to be relevant, therefore he’s got to change it all around.

Tom:

Yeah, or emphasize something that is to the audience that he writes to can enjoy, can get into, and so on. Dave, now many people would be upset because, well, wait a minute, we’re turning Jesus into a Samurai? Well, we know He’s the lion of Judah, okay, at the expense of the Lamb of God. But we’ve also seen this with a book that was very popular among Evangelicals, Brennan Manning, the former Catholic priest, still Catholic, who wrote, The Ragamuffin Gospel. You’ll find lots of things in there about God’s love. It’s just about love, about love, about love. But nothing about correction, nothing about a balanced, when I say balanced, a Biblical view of Jesus, and that leads to distortions.

Dave:

Tom, one of the big arguments in the church, so-called church, is the Bible really inspired? Is this really God’s Word, all of it, every Word, every verse? Well, now that can’t be, some of it we’re going to have to throw out. Robert Schuller writes his positive thinkers Bible. And, we talked about Eugene Peterson, he just changes it. He puts his own words in, and in the place of what the Bible says, and yet he dares to call it a translation of the Bible, or a version, or whatever. It’s not! These men—I don’t know what their judgment will be for trashing the Bible, for saying to God; God you didn’t say it right, you didn’t understand this generation, I mean, you’ve got this all messed up, you are so far behind the times, now this is the way you should have said it, now let me throw your words out and I’ll put my own in.

Tom:

So then it’s not, Thus sayeth the Lord, it’s thus sayeth Eugene Peterson, and others who are doing the same thing.

Dave:

Right. Thus sayeth Ajinbayo Akinsiku.