RELIGION–THE FORBIDDEN TOPIC

Karen’s note: You may not want to read this blog post if you are uber sensitive to religious jokes, because I’m not promising that a few won’t slip out. Intentionally. Sorry in advance! (Kind-of!)

Today is the day. Melissa and I have been planning this day for months. Today is the day that we watch the musical Jesus Christ Superstar together. The original. You remember, the one that came out in the seventies with the hunk, Ted Neely. (I saw him a few years ago reviving his role in the play. No, he is NOT still a hunk, but yes, he can still belt out those songs!)

The reason this is such a huge thing for us is somewhat complicated. You need to understand that Melissa is very spiritual and very dedicated to her religion. I think she’s Lutheran. Frankly, all the Christian religions are pretty much the same to me. If you believe in Christ, you’re lumped in the same category. I, on the other hand, was raised Jewish (could you tell?), but married a Christian-turned-Atheist, and now don’t really do much of anything. I guess you could call me a Lapsed Jew. Kind-of like a Lapsed Catholic, but without all that fire and brimstone, going-to-hell stuff!

Okay, so keeping that in mind, Melissa has actually never seen Jesus Christ Superstar. And I have seen it, movie and live performances, at least a dozen times. I LOVE IT!!! I love the music and the dancing and everything about it. But even more importantly, everything I know about the Christian religions, I learned from this musical. (I can hear the gasps!) Really! Do you think we learned that stuff in temple? No, I learned it when the movie came out.

I learned about Judas (was he really black?), Mary (I have been told NOT to suggest that she actually slept with Jesus), that Pilot dude (I always forget his name), all those Roman priests, and a ton of other guys.

So Melissa is going to let me know how true to life (so to speak) it really is. I’ll make sure she comments on this post so we all know what she thinks! But I hope she won’t comment on my singing voice!

Karen

PS Happy Birthday to my MUCH older sister who will be joining us!