A Blog Post for Jesus

When did adding "Jesus" to any phrase make it automatically risible and ridiculous? It's been coming on for a long time, but gradually, like a glacier. This morning, the glacier hit my house when I linked to Richard Dawkins' review of the pro-Intelligent Design movie Expelled. The howler monkeys* have crashed Dawkins' server in their enthusiasm, but its title is "Lying for Jesus." The "For Jesus" part, we understand, is to elicit a smirk before we dive into his dissection of the movie.**

There are lots of recent examples (Bong Hits for Jesus, Jesus Camp, etc., etc. - just go search for "Jesus" at dailykos). It's entered American culture so forcefully, that I realized this morning that I've heard Christians use the word "Jesus" in an ironic way.

* The name "howler monkeys" was proudly borne by pro-evolutionists on the old origins faq site. It was an apt description of their loud and incessant screeching.

** In his titanic rage and indignation at the mere existence of dissent from philosophical materialism, he picked up a chain saw rather than a scalpel, but this post does not concern his review.