Jesus' 13th disciple a radio hit

YouTube DJ a (minor) cult figure

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DBC) is currently running a series of short interviews with a straight radio speaker and a flippant North Jutlander who claims to be Jesus’ 13th disciple, but for the most part has drunk too much to remember clearly what happened. Youtube is also carrying the series which consists of Chrille (pronounced Krelle), as he is called, recounting his experiences at the birth of Jesus and the Wedding in Cana to mention just two episodes. Each of them lasts for only 1½ minutes but they are a minor cult hit both on DBC and Youtube. Here’s an example in translation:

 

“Me and the boys had just checked in at Bethlehem. There were loads of people in town. We looked up at the sky and there was this huge big star. Must be a great party on somewhere we thought. But then we came to a tiny stable where someone was having a baby and then along came some wise men who had gold label beer, frankincense and bling-bling – the whole caboodle. Crazy.”

 

Chrille is in fact Christian Larsen, born in 1973 and a well-known DJ, who after 20 years in the business was nominated for Mainstream DeeJay of the Year 2010. Occasionally in the 13th disciple interviews Chrille utters oaths and worse, much worse, but the satire is substantially faithful to the Bible. When asked for a comment, Bishop of Viborg, Karsten Nissen told the Christian Daily “Religion and satire have always gone hand in hand and there’s no doubt that youngsters become aware of the Bible stories in this way, but I don’t much care for the swearwords.” Director of the Church Media Academy, Svend Loebner, adds: “It’s refreshing – and it has a new take on the stories. Just the fact that the stories are mentioned puts Jesus into people’s minds.”

 

Less enthusiastic is the well-known church commentator Hans Raun Iversen: “It breaks new ground but it’s running in neutral,” he says. ”If you know the stories of Jesus you can give the nod to some of Chrille’s versions, but if you don’t, then he just runs into the stream of all the other nonsense he talks.”

 

Readers who speak Danish can judge for themselves at

www.dr.dk/p3/satire/detsorteur/2010/12/02/m%C3%B8d-chrille-og-jesus

 

Photo: "we three kings" from stock.xchng

 

By: Edward Broadbridge

---