Have You Forsaken Baby Jesus?

image Lots of people are linking to this floating Baby Jesus head that squeaks plaintively, occasionally moans 'WHY', and constantly demands 'WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?' One look at the URL told me that it was a spoof, because it's part of the Objective: Christian Ministries (O:CM) site, probably the most elaborate anti-fundamentalist parody site on the internet. But apparently not everyone is aware of O:CM, so they're getting creeped out thinking the floating Baby Jesus head is supposed to be taken seriously.

O:CM has been around for a while. I first became aware of it in mid-2003, but it's older than that. I think it's a spinoff of Landover Baptist Church (note the many links to Landover Baptist on the O:CM site). For a while back in 2003 O:CM was frequently changing servers and domain names. In fact, for a brief time it conned its way onto an actual Christian webhosting service (which gave it a veneer of authenticity), but then got booted off that service once the Christian webhost realized what O:CM was. A Boing Boing reader notes that O:CM is registered to IdeaFlood, a company owned by Brian Shuster, a porn website operator who also owns a patent on pop-up ads.

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Posted on Tue Dec 07, 2004



Comments

I think that BoingBoing reader is barking up the wrong tree. O:CM is merely using IdeaFlood's free hosting service. If you go to the root URL:

http://jesussave.us/

you get an ad for free hosting from Web 1000, and if you follow the sign up form to here:

http://www.web1000.com/index2.cgi?stage=2

you can see jesussave.us listed among many possible root domains that you can personalize.

Also, you can do a Google site search:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ajesussave.us

and see that there's a number of other *.jesusave.us sites out there.

There's no reason to believe that IdeaFlood or Brian Shuster are involved in O:CM's creation. Most likely O:MC chose that host since they are unlikly to get booted off a host that also hosts porn. Plus the URL is kind of funny :D
Posted by Stevem  on  Tue Dec 07, 2004  at  04:41 PM
Please, please tell me that the O:CM site is a hoax! Some of their stuff is down right scary if people honestly believe what they are writing on that thing!
Posted by Tru  on  Tue Dec 07, 2004  at  05:49 PM
Heh. I've always found the mutable nature of Jesus to be very intriguing.

A given demagogue can present Jesus in whatever form best fits his message. Jesus can be a fiery, angry rebel, complete with rippling muscles, kicking over the tables of money-changers in the temple, IF the demagogue wants to present an intimidating, righteous Jesus.

Or he can be a meek, passive victim of unjust authorities, dripping blood from his forehead and wrists and looking at you with big sad puppy-dog eyes, if the demagogue wishes to appeal to one's sympathy.

He can even be reduced to a cute, shiny little baby if the demagogue wants to shame or embarrass you. (When you tell a lie, Baby Jesus cries!) After all, who could argue with a cute little angelic baby? All he wants to do is wuv you! (Which is the kind of sentiment the above satire is mocking so cleverly.)

They can even switch Jesus' race around, making him a beautiful white man with long flowing brown hair who resembles a Northern European OR a Semitic middle-eastern man of humble countenance OR they can even make him African, depending on which image the demagogue thinks might appeal to you most. (Just like Santa!)

Well, Jesus IS supposed to be divine. Apparently he pulls the same kind of shapeshifting trickery as Odin, Coyote, Zeus, and other wily magical gods of yore. But you wouldn't think hidebound fundamentalists would want to open that can of worms, would you? Yet they do. Fascinating....
Posted by Barghest  on  Wed Dec 08, 2004  at  03:26 AM
wily...Coyote. Heh.
Posted by Maegan  on  Wed Dec 08, 2004  at  08:07 AM
That is one UGLY baby. He looks more like an old man, and the faces he makes suggest that he feels nauseous.
Posted by PlantPerson  on  Wed Dec 08, 2004  at  09:32 AM
why does Jesus look like TV's Bobby Hill?
Posted by mr man  on  Thu Dec 09, 2004  at  08:54 AM
we shall see how funny it really is come
judgement day! :coolgrin:
Posted by meatcleaver  on  Thu Dec 09, 2004  at  11:38 AM
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