wfn.org | Controversy Greets Posters Showing Jesus

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14-January-1999 
99011 
 
    Controversy Greets Posters Showing Jesus 
    as World's "Greatest Revolutionary" 
 
    by Cedric Pulford 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
LONDON-A poster unveiled in Britain this week to promote church attendance 
at Easter has provoked controversy by showing Jesus Christ looking like the 
Latin American Marxist 
revolutionary Che Guevara. 
 
    The poster uses an image similar to the famous red and black portrait 
of Guevara that sold in millions around the world in the 1960s and '70s. 
The tilt of the head, the flowing hair, the visionary eyes, the 
high-contrast image are all the same, but Guevara's trademark beret has 
been replaced by a crown of thorns. The caption reads: "Meek, mild. As if. 
Discover the real Jesus. Church.  April 4." 
 
    Tom Ambrose, secretary of the Churches Advertising Network, which 
produced the poster,  told ENI: "We want to get across the idea that Jesus 
Christ was the greatest revolutionary who ever lived." 
 
    The poster was slammed as "trivializing and misleading" by the Bishop 
of Wakefield, Nigel McCulloch, the Church of England's spokesman for 
broadcasting and the media. He told ENI: "Although the poster is clearly 
well intentioned, it is biblically ill-founded.  Jesus was a revolutionary, 
but he made clear that he was not a political and violent revolutionary." 
 
    Kieran Conry, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church of England and 
Wales, had a similar reaction: "The image of a revolutionary is fair enough 
in principle, but Jesus did not lead a militaristic revolution." 
 
    Che Guevara, the hero of a generation of radical students, was an 
Argentine-born doctor who became a key supporter of the Cuban revolution of 
Fidel Castro.  Castro celebrated 40 years in power this month. Guevara held 
government posts under Castro, but left Cuba in 1965 to become a guerrilla 
leader in South America.  Two years later he was captured and killed in 
Bolivia. 
 
    Asked by ENI whether Guevara means anything to today's young 
generation, Ambrose said: "They know now [referring to massive coverage of 
the Christian poster in British media].  In any case, the style is 
sufficiently gripping in itself." 
 
    The Guevara-style poster has received strong support from Major Bruce 
Tulloch of the Salvation Army.  "The idea of Jesus as a revolutionary is 
part of it," he told ENI.  "The image excites interest.  The original 
picture [the Guevara poster] is very well known to many people.  It's not 
only teens and 20s we want to reach." 
 
    CAN,  an ecumenical network of volunteers, including top professionals 
in the advertising and design industries, is sending 50,000 brochures to 
churches throughout Britain asking them to display the poster.  The network 
also uses billboard sites provided free or at low cost by well-wishers.  It 
has a tradition of producing controversial posters.  A previous Easter 
poster replaced the traditional cross with the word "SURPRISE."  The 
network explained that "focusing on the Crucifixion tells only half the 
story." 

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