Jim Carrey, Jesus Guy?

Jesus -- Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey's manic humour often stikes me as both hilarious and demon-possessed. I never think of Carrey as a Jesus guy. Now I discover that he's created a number of images of Jesus and that he reflects on the importance of religious and spiritual concepts. Last year he spoke to Homeboy Industries, a remarkable ministry founded by Father Greg Boyle.

Here is part of an article about an article about Carrey...got that straight? Relevant magazine shares a profile of Carrey from the Hollywood Reporter. You just never know how Jesus will sneak up on people.

In the piece (Warning: It contains strong language), Carrey talks about why he walked away from the spotlight in recent years, his displeasure with the business of Hollywood, his thoughts on the current political climate and his unique collection of artwork, much of it, he created.

At one point, the writer is invited to Carrey’s home and notices a painting depicting “a Jesus of every race hanging in the entryway.” Carrey explained, “I wanted to capture Christ’s consciousness coming through the ether.”

In recent years, Carrey has expressed interest and thoughts  on an array of spiritual and religious ideas, including the teachings of the Jesus. 

Last year, he spoke at a meeting for the ministry Homeboy Industries led by Jesuit Rev. Greg Boyle, which seeks to rehabilitate former gang members and inmates. 

He told them: “You are heroes to me, and I admire you. When you stepped through these doors, you decided to be a part of this family. You’ve made a decision to transcend and to leave darkness behind, and it takes a champion to make that decision.”

He said: “I believe that suffering leads to salvation. In fact, it’s the only way…that we have to, somehow, accept, not deny, but feel our suffering and feel our losses. And then, we make one of two decisions. We either decide to go through the gate of resentment, which leads to vengeance, which leads to self-harm, which leads to harm to others. Or, we go through the gate of forgiveness, which leads to grace.”

Carrey then spoke about Jesus, saying: “Your being here is an indication that, you’ve made the decision to walk through the gate of forgiveness to grace, just as Christ did on the cross. He suffered terribly and He was broken by it, to the point of doubt and a feeling of absolutely abandonment, which all of you have felt. Then there was a decision to be made. And the decision was to look upon the people who were causing that suffering with compassion and with forgiveness, and that’s what opens the gates of heaven for all of us. I wish that for all of you. I wish that for myself.”