\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one thing I could pass on to readers for the New Year, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guarding against getting bilked. Almost daily we read about the people falling victim to unscrupulous scammers who promise instant wealth.<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0In Las Vegas, bank employees have counseled a number of people \u00e2\u20ac\u201d usually those of advanced years \u00e2\u20ac\u201d who attempt to withdraw their life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s savings on the basis of a stranger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promise of instant wealth.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0These people grew up in an era when a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s word was his bond, where a handshake sealed a deal. My mother used to phone me, asking advice on a stranger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promise, via telephone, to double the amount in her savings account if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d only advance him a few thousand dollars. Because she grew up in an era of mutual trust, it was difficult for her to refuse the stranger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offer outright. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad she called me, although I suspect that on one occasion she was disappointed I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give her a thumbs up on the deal.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Unsolicited promises of wealth also come in the form of television commercials.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The other morning (I almost never watch the tube in the morning but use the TV as an alarm clock), I observed an infomercial on a Spanish-language channel.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The 30-minute pitch showed a young woman placing a coin under her bed before retiring. As she slept, three light rays seemed to penetrate the mattress and settle in her heart, head and soul.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Then the off-camera voice promised us, the viewers, three things: better health, financial security and an improved love life.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m aghast at how a simple medallion can bring about so many beneficial changes. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see any religious images on the medallion but noticed symbols that appear in the pyramid on currency.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0By their nature, infomercials are cyclical. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really matter when you tune in; you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see the offer repeated several times.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0In one sequence, a woman working in her cube receives an envelope from a man and discovers a goodly amount, all in cash. She embraces the envelope with the ardor usually reserved for a lover. Or maybe the benefactor really was her lover, settling an account with her from the night before . . .
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Another woman is on the verge of ending a relationship with her beau by striking him but puts on the “miracle medallion” instead and soon finds herself romping along the seashore with the man.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The quarrel is repeated later in the commercial, and \u00e2\u20ac\u201d thanks to the talisman \u00e2\u20ac\u201d el hombre and la mujer soon adjourn to the beach. That repetition validates the notion that making up is enjoyable.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Now we have two bases covered: love and financial security. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s missing? What about health?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A man obviously suffering from arm pain has his female companion rub the miracle medallion on the pained arm, and like magic, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cured.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0All right. Many of us have lived through appeals guaranteed to restore our health, whether the product be Geritol for tired blood, Carter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Little Liver Pills, to cure backaches or any of a slew of remedies we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re exposed to.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve listened askance as teens when, riding around in our cars in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s, we could get a bevy of AM radio stations. One station I recall asked us to “send $5” to some address “in Clint, Texas, and the Lord will save you.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The miracle medallion offer, with a toll-free number constantly displayed, attempts to seal the deal by appealing to our sense of guilt, fear, reverence and awe. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how:
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A man with a beard and ministerial collar tells us that Jesus Christ wants us to have the medal. For insurance, he says he himself is never without the medallion, as he pulls it out of his shirt pocket and displays it. Never leave church without it. Having this man of the cloth holding this object deliver direct orders from the Lord makes it tough to refuse.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But wait, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more. Although we have only speculation as to the physical appearance of Jesus, most believers agree he was slim, slightly built and bearded. In fact, only a few years ago, the cover of a national magazine displayed perhaps 40 images of Christ. Interestingly, the appearance of the personage was influenced, ethnocentrically, by the geographic region in which Christ was worshiped.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Northern Europeans depicted Christ as fair-skinned and Anglo-Saxon; worshippers closer to the equator pray to a darker-skinned savior.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But last Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infomercial pushed the envelope w-a-y too far. In this case, a figure just as convincing as any we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen or imagined, appears in the commercial. The beard and profile provide us with an image just as plausible as any that appeared in “The Passion of the Christ,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told” or “The Ten Commandments.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0So our eyes are drawn to a familiar image. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the problem, but in the anachronism of the millennium, what is Jesus doing? Why He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s using a magnifying glass to inspect the talisman He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparently endorsing. What would Jesus really do?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And this is where we totally empathize with those who lament the commercialization of Christianity. A priest (though he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never identified as such) tells us Christ wants us to have this miracle medallion, and a man with a dismaying similarity to our conception of Christ Himself, inspects the object with an Office-Max-type magnifying glass that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist in Biblical times.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0As we enter 2006, l hope to convince others that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not the Iconoclast of the Century. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go around knocking the beliefs of others. And I respect people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right to worship and believe as they choose, or not to worship or believe at all.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But such a blatant attempt to assure buyers that their physical, financial and social well-being depends on having the metallic rabbit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s foot handy really insults the masses.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It makes us wonder whether a talisman-possessing individuals whose love life remains sour, whose possessions remain in the repo depot and whose carpal tunnel syndrome continues to cause pain would ever be entitled to their money back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one thing I could pass on to readers for the New Year, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guarding against getting bilked. Almost daily we read about the people falling victim to unscrupulous scammers who promise instant wealth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}