Living With Caricatures

Once a year, I draw a caricature of Susan and myself for our Christmas newsletter. My daughters are happy that I no longer include them in this rather embarrassing family tradition. Drawing myself is easy. Basically, all I have to do is create a classic light bulb shape, paste on a pair of big ears, add some round glasses and ink in my beard.

For some reason, I can also do a decent caricature of my friend, Jack Faulkner. Oh, that's right! He is bald, wears little glasses and has a beard.

Drawing Su is a bit more difficult. Because it is a caricature, I need to make the drawing humorous. Because she is my wife, I need to make it, well - pretty. In searching for the balance between funny and flattery, I usually default to a harmonious December over the quick laugh. My normal technique is to spend a few hours getting Su's drawing "just right" and then penciling in my self-descriptive light bulb in a matter of minutes.

The term "caricature" originally came from Italian and meant to charge or load. So, the English word basically means "a loaded drawing." The easiest way to make a caricature is to exaggerate some of the natural characteristics of the subject. My bald head and big ears make things easy. As I grow older my bushy eyebrows add another "B" feature to simplify my task. Of course, another area you can exaggerate in the drawing deals with vanities - choice of hair style, glasses, clothing or little mannerisms. That is one reason why computerized caricatures lack humor. The drawing program has a hard time picking up on that certain something that makes us who we are.

It occurred to me this week that one of our cardinal sins as humans is the caricaturization of those we do not understand. We would prefer to confront the cartoon in our mind rather than the real person who lives in time and space.

People who are politically conservative tend to create caricatures of those who lean towards the left. Liberals become unpatriotic idiots rather than well-meaning citizens with a profoundly different social philosophy.

On the other hand, people on the left tend to draw social conservatives as unfeeling or uncharitable brutes. My sister (who I will not identify here except to say that her initials are Janet Thune) is vocal in her conservative beliefs. However, I have probably never met a more charitable individual in all my travels. In fact, when Evangelicals finally identify a list of saints, she and her husband may well be first on the list.

Christians are invariably presented in caricature form by popular media.
Truth be told, we seem to provide a great deal of ammo to those who would make jest of us. Every time another pastor or Christian politician jumps into a moral quagmire with both feet, it makes it pretty easy for our secular friends to poke fun at our family values. Every time we make growth and numbers in our churches more important than being faithful followers of Jesus, it becomes easier for people in the media to perceive us as shysters and hucksters rather than serious disciples.

It shouldn't surprise us that people present a caricature of Christians. After all, they have done the same thing with Jesus for centuries. In popular culture He has become a rather effeminate individual walking around a dusty Roman province like He just had His nails done. Somehow, the robust Jewish rabbi who "spoke as one having authority" is lost in the caricatures of contemporary media.

We haven't done much better in popular Christianity. It seems to me that we have reduced Jesus from being Savior, Master and King to a nice guy providing very practical self-help advice. "Come and die" has been replaced with "follow me and feel good."

I enjoy drawing my annual caricature. It is a chance for me to be a bit creative. However, I do not carry a drawing of Su in my wallet. Instead, I like to have a photo that reminds me of the real her.

Hopefully, I am brave enough to continue to search for the Jesus revealed in Scripture rather than contenting myself with the contemporary caricature. The real Jesus may be wilder than, and not quite as domesticated as, the cartoon character, but He is still the One I want to follow.