{"id":112,"date":"2008-12-29T15:29:20","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T15:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/textmessages\/2008\/12\/worst-christian-killer-so-far.html"},"modified":"2008-12-29T15:29:20","modified_gmt":"2008-12-29T15:29:20","slug":"worst-christian-killer-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/textmessages\/2008\/12\/worst-christian-killer-so-far.html","title":{"rendered":"Jake Busey’s Christian Killer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A month or so ago I announced<\/a> that I was looking for movies with Christian killers, and many of you helped out with titles that hadn’t occurred to me. I’ve since seen more religiously motivated violence on screen than I care to recount, and I have a long way to go, but I’m enjoying this project (which is for my dissertation) and learning a lot.<\/p>\n

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So far, the worst–most ridiculous and far-fetched–Christian killer I’ve seen is\u00a0Jake Busey<\/a>‘s\u00a0<\/div>\n

\"jakebusey.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

revivalist-terrorist in Robert Zemeckis’\u00a0Contact<\/a><\/span>. The whole movie is pretty ridiculous, some outstanding cinematic effects aside. Every character is a caricature, and the point of the movie seems to be that whatever we’re exploring–whether science or religion–in the end we’re really just exploring (say it with me)\u00a0ourselves<\/span>. If only\u00a0MST3K<\/a> were still around to give this movie the proper treatment.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Busey’s Christian revivalist hates Jodie Foster’s scientist, though we’re never told why; the fact that he’s a fundamentalist is apparently explanation enough. Eventually, he straps a bomb to his chest and blows himself, a few scientists, and an expensive alien communication machine to kingdom come.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Which raises a question: What’s the precedent for characterizing a Christian extremist as a suicide bomber? Timothy McVeigh might count, or maybe abortion clinic protestors of earlier days, but is this mostly an example of Hollywood’s general tone-deaf-ness when it comes to religion? I’m not saying representations of, say, Arab Americans are any better, but still–why this conflation of Christian extremism and suicide bombing? What do you make of a characterization like this?\u00a0<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A month or so ago I announced that I was looking for movies with Christian killers, and many of you helped out with titles that hadn’t occurred to me. I’ve since seen more religiously motivated violence on screen than I care to recount, and I have a long way to go, but I’m enjoying this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,17,15,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-culture","category-media","category-movies","category-patton-dodd"],"yoast_head":"\nJake Busey's Christian Killer - Text Messages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/textmessages\/2008\/12\/worst-christian-killer-so-far.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jake Busey's Christian Killer - Text Messages\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A month or so ago I announced that I was looking for movies with Christian killers, and many of you helped out with titles that hadn’t occurred to me. 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