Vancouver, British Columbia – Religious Scholar Reza Aslan was addressing an audience at the 2014 Indian Summer Festival and made some controversial comments about the Jesus Christ in the Christian faith.
He cited that the fact that over time, the central figure of the faith has evolved into the image of whatever the believer wants him to be. When asked about how he feels the Savior has been portrayed in film, he said he generally enjoys the fictional accounts made of the man from Galilee.
Whether the subject is “The Last Temptation of Christ” or “The Passion of the Christ”, he calls both accounts fictional. As for his favorite, it is “Jesus Christ, Superstar” which was roundly denounced by the Christian Churches for portraying the Son of God as a hippie. Dr. Aslan addressed the interesting dichotomy in Christianity that while all the Churches profess a belief in Christ, both congregation and believers make him out to be what they want him to be. To this extent, they miss what he says is an important characteristic of Jesus which is that he did not favor the accumulation of wealth.
This is why he finds men such as Joel Osteen to be charlatans because they preach of a “prosperity gospel” which he says works on this wise:
The charlatan says give me $10 and God will give you $100. Obviously, the guaranteed winner in this scenario is Osteen with his believers pursuing high priced cars because they believe Jesus wants them to enjoy such luxuries. He cites the fact that there is no such teaching in the scriptures to support that belief. Nevertheless, the “Prosperity Gospel” is the fastest growing Christian movement in North America.