A Weekend of Dance

I was lucky to receive a complimentary ticket through a friend of a friend to attend the annual Seoul Choreography Festival last night. The festival brings together the best dance choreographers in Korea for a dance competition that stretches a couple of days. The viewing I saw last night included two outstanding performances under the title "Blue Blood".

This morning (Sunday) I went to train in capoeira the Afro-Brazil fighting dance. I'm the organizer for a martial art group in Seoul that meets roughly every second Sunday to train in martial arts. I try to get as varied a selection of instructors as possible and this weekend we got to train with a great capoeria instructor from Jamaica. Capoeira requires lots of rhythm and part of the lesson we had this morning involved Afro-dance sequences to help us loosen up our bodies in order to move smoother during the "fights". It was lots of fun.

Then in the afternoon I went to the LG Arts Center again, this time to watch yet another dance performance. Jung Young-Doo, founder of the Doo Dance Theatre, choreographed probably one of the most beautiful performances I have ever seen. I truly feel that my soul was enriched from this performance. The production is called "Forethought: Prometheus's Fire". The ticket sales website reads: "Forethought - Prometheus Fire is an interesting reflection on Prometheus who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals in Greek mythology. How has mankind interpreted and utilized this special gift? What have we lost and gained from it? Are we happier and liberated with the power? JUNG Young Doo will look into these questions exploring human evolution and civilization."

After the dance performance I quickly went to see a friend of mine who owns a lounge-disco in the area. On Sunday nights they have an informal church service, basically just a group of friends coming together to worship. Because I live rather far and had been away from home since 8am (and it was after 8pm already) I didn't stay for the whole service, just for the praise section. I was really impressed. I particularly liked the name of their "church", namely Sinner's Church. Here we have in the middle of Gangnam (yes the neighbourhood made famous by the infamous "Gangnam Style"-song) a small group of self-confessed sinners having worship in a nightclub. I liked the unpretentious, honesty of it all.  These are just friends, people that work or hang-out together, who also happen to want to share God together. It was a nice break from the formal church setup that has become the custom. The Sinner's Church is much more inline with the apostolic movement that Christ and the apostles established -- informal congregations that met in houses, rather than temples. If Sinner's Church had an English service, or if my Korean was better, I would definitely have joined them as one of the ways for me to "dance" with God.

Queen Elizabeth II's 2011 Christmas Message

There is much that can be said about Britain, and with ever decreasing favour. However, I have a soft spot for Her Majesty the Queen.

I keep Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558-1603, in high esteem. She was one of the first rulers who considered religion a personal act between man and God and worked towards Freedom of Religion in a time when "heretics" were routinely excommunicated and / or burned at the stake. Queen Elizabeth I may have been "only a woman" and ruler of “half an island” as Pope Sixtus V referred to her, but she stood her ground against the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire, before whom many a king had bowed the knee, and withstood Spain and France. The England of today, including the Common Wealth, that enjoys its great freedoms of religion, speech, and conscience would not have been had it not been for this wonderful woman. Even the attacks of religiously-aggressive atheists like Richard Dawkins would not have been conceivable was it not for the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I who believed in religious tolerance.

It might be because of this endearment I have to Queen Elizabeth I that I'm curiously open to her name-bearer, Queen Elizabeth II, particularly to her annual Christmas Message. And what a beautiful address this year's Christmas Message was! She emphasized the value of family and friendship and man's need of a Saviour and forgiveness. Keep in mind that the annual Christmas Message is the only time the Queen is allowed to freely speak her mind. At all other times she is restricted by “advisers” on what she can or cannot say, but the Christmas Message is thoroughly her own. Imagine that you have only once a year the opportunity to freely speak your mind. Certainly at this opportunity you would share the things that are most important to you.

I highly recommend you listen to Her Majesty the Queen's 2011 Royal Christmas Message.

Since I don't really keep Christmas, this will probably be my only Chirstmassy-post for the year. The Queen's message of family, friendship and forgiveness is also my wish for you all.

Salvation by Spam

I saw the picture below on a social network site and then thought of something I wrote a couple of years ago somewhere else. Since the two compliment each other so well, I thought I'd post them here together.

Email this to 15 people and God will love you more.

Email has become the next bondage to works-religion. Almost daily I get (Christian) emails telling me to forward this to people and I will be blessed. Here’s an example:

Pass this message to 15 people except you and me.
Don't ignore and God will bless you.

So if I do not send irritating time consuming emails to other people God will not bless me? In other words, I have to work (send emails) in order to gain God’s favour?

Christianity is unique among the great religions because it is centred upon the idea that salvation (i.e. God’s favour) is not because something we do, but due to something God has done. The greatest struggle for many Christians is to accept God’s love and saving provision. Not to try and save ourselves, but accept God’s salvation on our part.

These chain-letters also usually make emotional manipulative appeals to make you feel guilty. For instance in the letter already quoted, the author pretends to pray for me. Included in that prayer is this sneaky manipulative sentence:

I pray for those who don't know You intimately. I pray for those that will delete this without sharing it with others. I pray for those that don't believe.

By proximity of the sentences I am to deduce that if I “delete [the email] without sharing it with others” then I do not know God intimately and do not believe. Apparently ones relationship with God depends on whether or not you “share” these irritating emails with other people. So the more you spam other people’s mailboxes, the closer you are to God?!
Call me paranoid, but I think that these emails are a ploy of Satan to get Christians to doubt in the faithfulness of God. Getting us to doubt in God’s complete salvation. Getting us to subtly try and contribute to our salvation – thereby insulting our Lord and Saviour by insinuating that His saving sacrifice was insufficient.

To become perfect I still need to send this to 15 more people.

The text focussed on religious emails that do the guild-tripping trick, but they are not the only ones to do so. Many other emails and social network posts use emotional appeals to make you feel guilty less you also copy-and-paste the emotionally charged request. Chain letters showing dying babies and telling you that for every email sent a few cents will be donated to the suffering child are equally manipulative and utterly bogus. Emails are not "tracked" in this way, and if they were it would be an illegal infringement of your privacy. No money will be paid to the dying baby through your email forwards.

As the picture above says, if you want to make a difference, make a tangible one. Go volunteer. Send actual money to an actual charity.

Do not forward me your guild-tripping devil-spawned messages! I just delete them and do not feel guilty for doing so at all. In fact, I sometimes even take the time to "Reply to All" in which I tell you and the other friends you sent your stupid email to, just how silly you must be for believing in such nonsense.

"The Power of the Gospel" -- Ben Harper

Lady Gaga's "Judas" and the Battle with Sin

A friend practically begged me to translate into English the post I did in Afrikaans about Lady Gaga's new single “Judas”. I was reluctant because it requires time – something I'm stingy of, but I'm giving into her request; although this will be a very direct and very sloppy translation:

Lady Gaga's new song “Judas” from her most recent album “Born This Way” is not finding favour in South Africa. Many radio listeners have requested that it be removed from the air.

The speaker in the song says that she is in love with Judas and that she washes the feet of Judas with her hair. The speaker draws thus a parallel between Jesus and Judas and like Mary Magdalene washed the feet of Jesus and dried it with her hair, so the speaker will also wash the feet of Judas. In effect, Judas becomes a parallel Messiah of worship deserving figure. Her love for Judas is unconditional. She will forgive him if he were to “lie through his brain”; even if he were to cheat on her “three times,” she would still forgive him. Judas is not good for her, nonetheless does she love him unconditionally and therefore she describes herself as a “Holy fool.” By implication, Jesus is also a “Holy fool” because he loves us unconditionally and because he forgives us ceaselessly.

The song makes a strange turn in the bridge when the speaker describes herself as a “fame hooker, prostitute wench” that “vomits” her thoughts. The prostitute that washed Jesus' feet, found forgiveness for her sins in Jesus. The speaker in the “Judas” song finds her forgiveness in Judas: “Judas kiss me if offensed.” She is unhappy that her loyalty to Judas is incomplete because “something's pulling me away from [Judas].” That something that pulls her away from Judas is Jesus. She finds herself in a double bind: “Jesus is my virtue, / Judas is the demon I cling to.”

What exactly Lady Gaga's intention is with this song I do not know. If Judas is a symbol for the sins in her life with whom she has a relationship, then I have much sympathy for her. I have also written about my (love) relationship with sin – poems inspired by my battle with habitual sins.

[I'm too lazy to translate the poems.]

And just like Lady Gaga have I described myself as a whore, in much worse terms than those she use in her song.

Anyone that has an honest recognition of his or her own sins knows that it is a type of love relationship one has with the deed. You know that it is bad for you, but you can't help it. Even the Apostle Paul was honest about this:

Romans 7:18, 19, 24 (my translation): “For I know that in my, that is in my flesh, resides nothing good; for to do is present in me, but to do good, I find not. Because the good that I wish to do, I do not, but the evil I wish not to do, that I do . . . O, woeful human! Who will save me from this body of death?”

Paul was of the opinion that as a Christian one is in a double bind battle: “For I embrace the law of God to the inner man; but I am aware of another law in my body that fights against the law of my mind and captures me under the law of sin that is within me” (Romans 7:23, my translation.) There are two laws in us; two forces: one good and one bad; the influence of Jesus and the influence of Satan. Lady Gaga describes it in her song as “Jesus is my virtue, / Judas is the demon I cling to.”

There is a moment of hope in Lady Gaga's song; that line: “Jesus is my virtue.” Nowhere is she trying to redeem herself. She is a “Fame hooker, prostitute wench” that clings to sin – almost without hope. Paul's exclamation is similar: “I, woeful human! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

But then Paul answers his question: “ . . . Jesus Christ, our Lord!” (Romans 7:25); like Lady Gaga: “Jesus is my virtue.”

I'm not trying to defend Lady Gaga's song. I agree that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Nonetheless, it reveals a pertinent Christian point: The battle with sin is an intimate reality – almost like being in love or addicted; however, there is hope: “Jesus is my virtue.” Paul continues in his argument saying that “the Law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus freed me from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2, my translation). Paul's advice is to keep our hope in God and to turn our thoughts away from the “fleshly,” and rather contemplate spiritual matters. It requires a conscious purposeful choice to rather think upon the “spiritual things” (Romans 8:5). Eventually, like Jesus said, we have to choose—we cannot follow two masters. Either Judas or Jesus.

Until you have not had the experience of struggling with personal intimate sins, be not too hasty to judge Lady Gaga.

There are two things that I can say about Lady Gaga. It is not my type of music, but there is no question that she has an excellent voice and is very talented. Secondly, she is brave. Not any person can do what she does. Call it sensationalism if you wish. Nevertheless, it requires guts to expose yourself like that.

Lastly, what do I think about the reaction of South Africans and them requesting the song being removed from the airwaves. I like it. Consumers need to be more proactive in what they want. It is not necessary for us to just gobble up everything the mass media throws at us. We need to be given a choice and we need to strive for quality. I hope that South Africans will also start to criticise all those other (Afrikaans) trash that are polluting our radio waves.

Atheists and Christians

On Friday night I visited a friend and his partner. He's an atheist. (She is also, kinda.) I often find it quite peculiar how well I get along with many atheists. Granted, I do not know that many self-professed atheists. There are far more people that don't seem to care either way -- agnostics by default, since they don't have much of an opinion on the matter. But back to atheists . . . I know a number of them, and have a couple of friends who accept the title. The more militant type of atheist (like the more militant Christian) I tend to avoid at all cost. However, the few atheist whom I call friends are truly people I appreciate and whose company I quite enjoy. For one, my atheist friends are quite intelligent. They're persuasion is an intellectual one, not one based one merely inherited by culture and tradition. Secondly, they are respectful of my conviction as I am of theirs. Thirdly, we share some common beliefs. The reason they do not believe in God is exactly the reason I do not associate myself with mainstream Christianity. If the God held up by mainstream Christianity -- the one that would keep people alive eternally so that He could torture them in hell through all ages -- was the only option, I would have chosen to cop-out of believing in God too. Luckily, I believe, there is an alternative. There is a God that does not command worship at the threat of torture. A God to whom freedom of choice is of utmost importance.

Yesterday I came to Potchefstroom to spend some time with a community of Christians here that I have come to care for deeply. A number of them share my idea of God. To some of them the Gospel is truly Good News. The message that God is not a vindictive, megalomaniac that doesn't say "love Me or go to hell." An alternative message: One that says that God is really on our side and that God actually do love us, no strings attached. A God that respects our freedom of choice so much that he would not force us into hell or heaven. Those that want to spend eternity with this God will. Those that do not, won't. God won't force you either way.

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Some Christmas Thoughts

Last year I mentioned why I do not celebrate Christmas as a holy-day. The following little animation illustrate my points in an entertaining way.



As the video points out, there is a beautiful message to Christ-mas, and although I don't consider December 25th as particularly special, I do have great appreciation for the historic event when Love became embodied in a human being who would have it as part of His mission to demonstrate to us what love-in-action is. And by implication also to demonstrate to us our sinful nature -- that when Love foils our selfishness, we would kill Love to silence it. Luckily, Love, like Truth (for the two are intimately related), cannot stay dead, and even if we were to bury it, eventually it will always come out again -- it will always rise from the dead.

Incidentally, we see this motif in the WikiLeaks-saga. When the Truth of corrupt governments come to light, the messengers of truth are persecuted. But Truth, like Love, will eventually prevail.

Christianity vs Secularism and I

My brother informed me that the episode of Consider This in which I was a guest speaker and spoke about Christianity vs Secularism has aired and that it is available on the counter.act media YouTube channel. The thought of me sharing ideas—particularly religious ideas—on television is somewhat troubling. When speaking about God and "oughts" and "naughts," one has to be very careful. As I mentioned elsewhere, I hope my views are sound.

At first I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to see myself on television. I felt a little like Johnny Depp who refuses to watch his own movies. Eventually I did gather up the courage and looked at the episode to see how I applied my 15 minutes . . . uhm, 8 minutes . . . of fame.

The three videos below are the three segments of the episode. I feature in the middle segment.







Consider This is a counter.act media production and was produced by my brother, Nethan.

My Alter-Ego: Dash Snow

Het jy al ooit jouself in iemand gesien? Tot 'n skokkende insig gekom dat daardie persoon is wie jy kon gewees het, maar eintlik bly is dat dit nie is hoe jou lewe uitgedraai het nie?

My ander-ek is Dash Snow, 'n Amerikaanse kunstenaar wat in 2009 op die ouderdom van 27(?) gesterf het. Ek lees oor die lewe van Dash Snow en ek sien hoe klomp geleenthede daar was vir my lewe om soortgelyk aan syne te kon uitdraai. Het ek drie of vier ander keuses tydens kneloomblikke in my lewe gemaak, was ek ook dalk nou al dood nadat ek 'n uitspattige kunstenaarslewe geleef het. Ek probeer nie sê dat ek ook so bekend en opsprakend wekkend as Dash Snow sou gewees het. Dit is nie die punt wat ek probeer maak nie. Wat ek probeer sê is dat ek ook op 'n stadium daardie tipe lewe wou leef en dat ek die geleentheid gehad het om in soortgelyke destruktiewe (kunstenaars/dwelm/ens.) kringe te beweeg.

Om eerlik te wees, partykeer dink ek aan van daardie keuses—daardie “sensible” keuses wat ek gemaak het—en ek wonder of ek die regte keuses gemaak het. Soms wonder ek of ek uitgemis het op iets. Oor party keuses is ek soms spyt. Maar meestal dank ek God dat ek nie sekere paaie langs gestap het toe die opsies daarvoor oopgegaan het nie. Ek is oortuig daarvan dat sekere mense se gebede, veral die van my ouma en ma, gehelp het dat my lewenspad anders uitgedraai het. Ek leef dalk nou 'n minder “opwindende” lewe, maar dis 'n baie gesonder een.

Daar is steeds 'n bietjie Dash Snow in my; my ongesonde alter-ego is nie dood nie, net relatief getem. Dash Snow steek nog steeds kopuit by tye, maar hy's redelik onderbeheer. Die mense wat my ken sal weet van daardie kant van my. Daardie eksibisionistiese kant. Daardie kant wat so maklik verslaaf kan raak en wie ek van byna elke gewoontevormingde ding weerhou. (Ek vermy dwelms, alkohol, sigarette, kaffeïen en selfs videospeletjies!) Daar is steeds 'n rebel, 'n anti-establishment drang, bietjie van 'n anarchis, effense paranoïa. Alles onderbeheer, maar steeds daar. Krokkedille in die onderbewussyn, soos Steven King sou sê.

Beny ek Dash Snow? Nee. My lewe is opwindend genoeg en ryk aan ervaringe. Ek het 'n vrede wat Dash Snow nie het nie. Daar is 'n stabiliteit wat ek nou het, 'n fokus, wat ek nie wil verruil nie. Ek is bewus van my blekke, maar is ook bewus van God se goedheid.

Stellenbosch University Choir

A better established gospel song than Linking Park's "The Catalyst" is the classic gospel song "Amazing Grace."

In the video below it is performed by South Africa's Stellenbosch University Choir.



The Stellenbosh University Choir was crowned best choir in the world during the World Choir Games in Shiaoxing, China, last month (July 2010).

Yet it is still those old time gospel and rhythm & blues singers like Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson that really gives me goosebumps with their renditions of this gospel classic. 





And since I'm listening to Willie Nelson again, here is his version of "Amazing Grace":

Linkin Park Sings Gospel

The latest single by Linkin Park "The Catalyst" has elements of a gospel song to it. It is saturated with a sense of sin, condemnation and damnation. The lyrics confess "the sins of our tongue / the sins of our father / the sins of our young." Condemnation is symbolised by "living under a loaded gun." It is not something we can outfight, outmatch, outdo or outrun. We cannot save ourselves from our sins. We feel overwhelmed by them -- being in a state of damnation, wondering if our only future is burning "inside the fires of a thousand suns?"

But typical of a gospel song, there is a solution: "God bless us everyone" beseeches the song, for it is only God who can "lift me up / let me go"; i.e. save me, from my sin.

The song has numerous biblical and apocalyptic reference worth further exploration. Apart from its intriguing lyrics, the song is a successful--typical Linkin Park--song, with a beautiful blend of traditional "church" instruments like the organ and piano, mixed with modern synthesizers, electro beats and electric guitars.

My Brother's Work

This is another open my younger brother made for a 13-part series that will be featuring on a Christian television channel. I think he mentioned that it will start showing in October. The title of the show, "The Everlasting Gospel," comes from Revelation 14:6: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people..."

Two "Projects"

So what have I been up to lately?

The past week I spent time on two projects. “Projects” is probably the wrong word, but I don’t know what else to call them.

First, I prepared a report for the national governing body of ITF Taekwon-Do in South Africa (SA-ITF) on the differences between ITF Taekwon-Do and WTF Taekwon-Do, as well as an outline of the history of ITF Taekwon-Do in South Africa. The latter was exceptionally interesting as it confirmed that ITF Taekwon-Do in South Africa started in the Vaal Triangle. This has been contested by the current powers-that-be for many years now; whom insisted that Taekwon-Do’s roots in South Africa is in Johannesburg. I’m glad to say, however, that the recent issue that required me to write the report created in the Taekwon-Do community the need to claim as old a history as possible. Some dated newspaper clips were at last acknowledged and the SA-ITF’s president announced the Vaal Triangle’s claims to be bona fide. It is now official that Taekwon-Do started in South Africa during 1976, when a Karate instructor named Andrew Fall heard about this new martial art, went abroad to study it with a master and returned to establish the South Africa Taekwon-Do Institute – the first Taekwon-Do association in South Africa, which over time evolved into the current national governing body, the SA-ITF. This also means that two ladies, Lynette Els and Evanthia Phillipou, whom both received gold medals at the 1978 World Champs, can now at last be honoured as the first South Africans to achieve gold medals at this prestigious event, and they will be put in South Africa's Taekwon-Do Hall of Fame and Achiever's Scroll where they should have been long ago. Establishing this heritage has been a long battle for me, and one at last achieved!

Second, a friend has been asking me some interesting theological questions recently, so I had the opportunity to think and write about an old interest (religion and Christianity) again. It reminded me of the time I wanted to go do a master’s degree in divinity. I never did, as I don’t feel called to the ministry, but I do realise that I have a deep love for philosophy and theology. While answering my friend’s questions I was also reminded why I believe in these things and what a beautiful and strangely unique message the Gospel is.

University is not the Gospel

“So could you give me [a] second chance to rewrite the paper? I don't think you want your student […] not to be able to graduate because of this class.” So wrote a student of mine in an email I received last night. I gave her 0% for her research paper in my Research Methodology class because she plagiarized the paper in its entirety from the Internet. Apparently failing this class will keep her from graduating.

Her assumption “I don't think you want your student […] not to be able to graduate because of this class” really bothers me. It bothers me, not because she won’t be able to graduate; it bothers me because she is shifting responsibility – as if it is my fault that she won’t be able to graduate. She is not the only student to have approached me with similar sentiment. The underlying premise is that it is I that failed them; not that their failure is a result of their own doing. One student emailed me, saying that because he got an F in one of my classes he won’t be able to stay in the dormitory next semester and hopes that I will change his grade. Another student requested me to raise her grade because she wishes to become a teacher and a C-symbol will reflect badly on her transcript. So too, yet another student complained that he has never received a C, even when he didn't study. And so the list goes on. The majority of them has this attitude that I can merely swing my magic wand and change their lives, they don’t have to deserve it, they only have to beg persistently enough.

I’m sorry, but that is not how it works. Actually, I’m not sorry. I feel indifferent, to be honest. They had opportunity to come see me throughout the semester. There were extra credit assignments. I gave them hints for the exam. You get what you deserve. University is not the Gospel.

Die voetewassing van (die intertekstuele) Jacob Zuma

Hierdie is ’n essay wat ek lank terug (verlede jaar) vir P~YP! geskryf het. Onwetend aan my kant van die wêreld was daar op dieselfde tyd politieke onrus op kampus, en was die redaksie effens skrikkerig oor die reaksie wat my essay kan ontlok. Ek het toe besluit om nie die essay te plaas nie, maar het toe ’n ander essay geskryf oor "self-censorship" wat ek dink goed afgegaan het.

Wel, met die onlangse verkiesing en die (religieuse) Zuma se naam op almal se lippe het ek gedink dis nou dalk ’n goeie tyd om dit weer af te stof. Nes die "Size doesn't matter, or does it?"-essay kry "Voetewassing" nou maar ’n plekkie hier.

Die voetewassing van (die intertekstuele) Jacob Zuma

Vroeër vanjaar het ek ’n bybelstudie groep gefassiliteer. Die onderwerp: die buitengewoonheid van Jesus se leer. Dié oggend gesels ons oor van Jesus se mees radikale stellings – “Julle moet jul vyande liefhê; seën die wat vir julle vervloek, doen goed aan die wat vir julle haat, en bid vir die wat julle beledig en julle vervolg...” Ek gaan met die ry af en vra: “Wie is jou vyand?” Nie een kan aan ’n vyand dink nie. Ek besluit om dit maar vanuit ’n ander (en minder vyandige) hoek te benader. “Goed dan, van wie hou jy regtig nie?” Dit gaan veel makliker. Twee name kom op, Jacob Zuma en Robert Mugabe. En toe laatval ek die bom: “As ons Jesus reg verstaan, dan sê Hy hier dat ons vir Jacob Zuma en Robert Mugabe moet lief hê.”

Later begin die kunstenaar in my wonder oor hoe om hierdie radikale leer van Jesus visueel te illustreer? Een van Jesus se vyande was seker Judas wat hom verraai het. Hoe het Jesus vir Judas hanteer? Hy het sy voete gewas en hom laat deel hê aan die nagmaal – simbole van sy vergifnis. En so ontstaan die skets Die voetewassing van Jacob Zuma . Ouderling Pretorius is ontsteld en sê vir my dis godslasterlik. Hy’s opgeblaas en rooi in die gesig. Ek ignoreer hom. Ouderling Klopper is minder emosioneel, maar is die skets ook teengekant. “Jacob Zuma is lankal nie meer ’n mens nie,” sê hy vir my. “Zuma is ’n ikoon vir ’n politieke ideologie.” En na Ouderling Klopper luister ek. “Jy is besig met ’n politiese stelling, nie ’n religieuse stelling nie.”

In my skets het ek Jesus se liefdesbeginsel probeer illustreer, maar my illustrasie faal omdat dit onmoontlik geword het om vir Jacob Zuma (en slegs Jacob Zuma) te teken. Jacob Zuma het ’n nes geword vir verskeie idees. Teken jy Jacob Zuma, teken jy óók alles wat met hom geassosieer word: hofsake oor korrupsie, verkragtingsaantuigings, VIGS, storte, veelwywery, die struggle, die ANC, die ANC-jeugliga en hulle moorduitsprake, en selfs ’n toekomstige (distopiese?) Suid-Afrika met Zuma as moontlike president. In ’n aanlynaplikasie wat metatekstuele verbande opspoor tik ek “Jacob Zuma” in om te sien hoe hy op die kuberruimte met ander ikone skakel. Sy naam spring op in Houstan; Tokyo; Uganda. Dit is onvermydelik – Zuma het ’n intertekstuele nodus geword.

Maar ek verbeel my ek is ’n martelaar en herroep nie die skets nie. Jesus kan ook die sondes van die korruptes en regverdiges, die verkragters en liefdadiges, die siekes en gesondes, die vuiles en skones, die getroues en ontroues, die opstandiges en gehoorsames, die aktiviste en pasifiste, die ANC-jeugliga en die toekomstige presidente van Suid-Afrika weg was. So bly die uitdaging staan: Julle moet jul vyande liefhê. En dit, sou ek sê, is menslik onmoontlik. Daarom is die Christelike geloof nie ’n menslike religie nie, maar ’n goddelike een: “By mense is dit onmoontlik, maar by God is alle dinge moontlik.”

...ooOoo...

’n Ander kunstenaar (Lars Justinen) het ’n paar jaar gelede ’n portret geskilder waar Christus die voete van Osama Bin Laden en ander wêreldleiers was.