Theologian Converted After Watching Finding Bigfoot

Jesus Meets Bigfoot is an original oil painting on raised canvas by Jeremiah Palecek.

"Now I'm sure there are many Christians who also believe in Bigfoot. After all, if you're going to go with Jesus, it doesn't seem like such a stretch to believe in Bigfoot." -- Jim Wright for The Richmond Times Dispatch

In their Faith and Values column The Richmond Times Dispatch has an article written by Jim Wright, a master of arts in theological studies graduate from Union Presbyterian Seminary. Mr. Wright compares Jesus to Bigfoot and even gives Bigfoot the hypothetical role of a savior if you are lost in the woods.

You can read the article below:

Faith and Values: Seeking encounters with Jesus, not Bigfoot
By: Jim Wright
Published: December 10, 2011

It's not too often that a budding semi-pro theologian like me gets to talk about Jesus and Bigfoot in the same column, so I'm really psyched about this one.

Now ordinarily, I wouldn't think too much about Bigfoot, but then I watched "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet the other day. Here were folks from the BFRO (Bigfoot Field Research Organization): sincere, well-spoken people, congregating for regular meetings centered on a being with supernatural powers. They are so affected by this being that they devote their whole lives in the pursuit of a personal encounter with him.

Believers can be found on every continent. And they seemed totally sane — until they started talking.

Bigfoot, Sasquatch — or just plain 'Squatch, as they say — likes to build shelters made out of pine branches. Squatch likes to throw rocks and bang sticks together. "Squatch digs chicks," we were told. "Squatch digs chicks"? How interesting. How interesting, and how very, very crazy it all sounds.

As I was thinking about this — and again, Bigfoot is something I rarely think about — it struck me that I know another group of people: sincere and well-spoken, gathered around the belief in a being that is both supernatural and natural — both God and human. And these people seem totally sane as well — until they start talking.

Jesus, they say, through his life and death, did something that saved us — that opened up a huge new possibility: of leaving behind what we were and becoming what we thought we never could be, reconciled to a God from which we were estranged. Jesus, they say, adopted us into God's family, welcoming us into a home that is greater than the sum of all the warmth and security and light and wholeness for which we long most deeply. All of this through the actions of an eternally alive, homeless Jewish God-man. How interesting. How interesting, and how very, very crazy it all sounds.

Now I'm sure there are many Christians who also believe in Bigfoot. After all, if you're going to go with Jesus, it doesn't seem like such a stretch to believe in Bigfoot. I suppose I could consider joining the BFRO as well, but I have some stringent demands from my supernatural beings, and if I'm going to take that leap of faith, they've got to measure up.

So here are my requirements: I'm a firm believer that humans, for all their natural goodness, have a tendency to lose their way. And as a result of this tendency, the human race is sorely in need of a redeemer, someone to find humans in the middle of their darkness and bring them into the light.

So here's a hypothetical (stick with me here; we're talking about Bigfoot, after all): Let's say I'm on a hunting trip in some great northern forest — thousands of miles away from the nearest light bulb — and I'm lost. Hopelessly lost. It's dark and cold, my map is outdated, my compass seems to point south no matter where I turn. It's getting colder, and I'm not sure I'm going to make it through the night.

And just at my darkest hour — Bigfoot appears. He gives off this incredible warmth; he's kind, confident in the place where I feel lost. He leads me out of that great dark forest, back home. And that's not all — he leads everyone else out of the forest as well (because there are a lot of us out here) — the ones who thought cold and darkness were their lot, the ones who hated the light, who hated Bigfoot, even. He has to save them as well.

Now that's a Squatch I could believe in.

But then I'm not a dues-paying member of the BFRO, and it's not because I'm not willing to sound crazy or to believe the unbelievable. It's just that when it comes down to it, if I'm going to have a mythical, supernatural being in my life, I need to encounter that being on a regular basis, to be pursued and found by that creature on a regular basis. I'm prone to wander, after all.

Supernatural creature? Make mine Jesus.

SRC: Richmond Times Dispatch