Would Jesus snub me, too?

I attended the Jesus as Celebrity panel at the Tribeca Film Festival, hosted by Peter Jennings, in Manhattan tonight. It was a pretty impressive group, and a reasonably good discussion. As usual, it was a little too middle of the road for me, but I expected that. The best part was when someone pointed out that the same people who had seizures at the glimpse of Janet Jackson's nipple are the ones dragging their kids to see this psychotically violent film.

That said, the part of the night I really want to talk about is after, when the panelists were available to us informally. I wanted to talk to Peter Jennings, but at one point someone said they needed more variety on the panel. He looked at a group of us and remarked that it was pretty varied. I jokingly said "You needed a Pagan up there." He replied " I thought we had some pagans up there." and I said, "No, I mean real Pagans." and showed him my pentagram. He lost his smile and said "oh yes, real Pagans - nice to meet you" then took a step forward into the crowd of people as if he was trying to get away from me. Now I know I don't make much of an impression - especially to a news anchor, who had an obvious "pecking order". The tall white men in suits got his attention first along with handshakes. Then the thin, well-dressed older white women got hellos and kisses, then the younger white people who wanted to speak to him about journalism. Now to be fair, I didn't stay the whole time, because I just didn't feel as if staying would accomplish anything. I know that icy look that a "citizen" gets when confronted by someone who doesn't fit the mold. It was useless to pursue it - nothing I said was going to be taken seriously. Maybe his attentions were shared with more diverse members of the audience as the crowd dissipated. I just hate having something to say and not being able to say it, so I'll tell you.

First, I wanted to ask Mr. Jennings if he read "The Passion as Political Weapon" by Paul Kurtz of the Council for Secular Humanism. Mr. Kurtz has given his kind permission to post the article here on the site - just click the link above. It's really excellent, and cites Mel Gibson's real sources, which have little to do with history or scripture. I wanted to point out that Gibson's claims of accuracy are false, and ask that this be emphasized when the press covers this story.

I wanted to point out that the problem in our political climate right now is that the 80% of the country that identifies as Christian ( that's a figure they cited in the panel, and I think it's way too high) need to be reminded that the other 20% of us have rights, too, and that it would be nice if the news coverage would factor us in a little more. Americans as a whole are so poorly educated right now, that we need to demand that the news inform the public in between the gossip, sports and the weather reports. I know it's so last century to expect the news to inform rather than entertain, but I'm an old-fashioned girl when it comes to journalism. I think it would be nice to hear the fact that in our democracy, the rights of the minority are as important as those of the majority, and those rights were enumerated in the Bill of Rights to insure that every American has equal freedom of religion and from religion. I wanted to say that "religion" is not synonymous with "Christianity" as I am very religious, but not Christian. I wanted to ask that he be aware that "God" is not a generic term, but refers to one very specific deity that doesn't happen to be the one I address in my prayers, but is in fact the same deity both the Christians and Muslims worship.

There was more i could have said about the role of Mary Magdalene in the development of the Jesus as Savior archetype, but I didn't. He didn't want to hear it - not from me. I wasn't surprised, because it happens a lot, but it always disappoints me. When I see someone who has been all around the world and ought to know better dismiss someone because they don't "fit in" for whatever reason, it hurts. I have to wonder, If I asked him a question, what would Jesus do?