It has been about 20 years now since Eminem first informed the world he is the “Real Slim Shady”, that “all other Slim Shadys are just imitating”, and that he was (or still is?) waiting on the answer to this question “Won’t the Real Slim Shady please stand up?” And while the song is a funny mix of self-congratulating success and calling out other pop musicians who then not-so-successfully tried copying Eminem’s brand – it does give some insight (albeit in a hip-hop way) about how we humans keep proving the “100th monkey theory” time and time again.
In short, the 100th monkey theory is based on a group of scientists/primatologists in the 1950s who witnessed a small group of macaque monkeys that discovered how to wash sweet potatoes – which, in turn, caused a chain reaction of other macaques observing and then imitating the newfound skill, including passing on the knowledge to younger generations of macaques.
And such is the essence of most life forms and what we often blatantly observe throughout the mammalian world: An animal (non-human or human) gets a bright idea, experiments with the idea, builds a system upon it, shares the system with their society, and the society turns it into a trend (and often an integral part of surviving and thriving in this world).
That is not to suggest looking down on followers, or that all followers just blindly accept an idea, even if it is to their own undoing or being labeled as an imitator. Not everyone in life is an innovator. There is no shame in that. After all, if followers did not exist in any area of life, then neither would social hierarchies, which are fundamental to how species have evolved for at least the past 300 million years.
Therefore, this article is not to shame imitators – we *all* imitate each other in one way or another, minor or major – Rather, I will be covering some basics about how all Slim Shadys are not the Real Slim Shady – or, in this case, of how not all brandings of Jesus equal the “Real Jesus”.
Thankfully, the book Counterfeit Christs by Trent Horn not only sorts through the question (and saves me from having to giving my own book-length answer!), “Will the Real Jesus please stand up?” – but Horn also shows that many depictions of Jesus, outside of Catholic Christian teaching, are, well, just imitating.
Case in point: As if the ~30,000 sects of Christianity are not enough to make our heads spin for eternity, or that Jesus keeps getting rebranded into whatever fits a particular ideology, how can it not beg the question, “Will the Real Jesus please stand up?”
Here is the somewhat short list: Trinity Jesus, Jesus-is-the-only-God-Jesus, Mary-was-not-a-virgin-Jesus, He-was-just-a-wise-teacher-Jesus, prosperity Jesus, socialist Jesus, Republican Jesus, Social-Justice-Warrior-Jesus, Peace-Love-Hippy-Jesus, pro-abortion Jesus, pro-gay rights Jesus, LDS Jesus, Jehovah Witness Jesus, New Age Jesus, Buddha consciousness Jesus, He-was-not-Divine-Jesus, He-broke-Jewish-law-Jesus, He-Was-Never-Crucified-Jesus, Jesus-is-a-myth-Jesus…and the list truly goes on…and on.
Counterfeit Christs dives into the many proclaimed types of Jesus: Horn provides a wealth of evidence showing how the Bible, the early Church fathers, the Catechism, and historical documents point directly to Jesus as part of the triune God, and that the re-branded labels of Jesus do not hold up to their burden of proof.
This is not just a “take my word for it” statement. Read the book. See that Horn is not looking to rant about imitators, or to gloat that Catholicism is true and all outside beliefs are false. In fact, Horn does not shy away from presenting the core arguments for each type of Jesus, and then point-by-point refuting the arguments. In other words, Counterfeit Christs is both useful for understanding what imitators believe (even providing the exact references from the Bible) and how best to refute the arguments.
Sure, this immerses you into the world of apologetics – and I get that not everyone wants to spend too much time in that world – but Horn makes the book an easily digestible read for understanding why there is only one Real Jesus and that all the others are just imitating.
That said, if your spiritual-but-not-religious friends proclaim that Jesus is Buddha consciousness, this book has got you covered. Or if your Leftist friends show that Jesus was a socialist, this book has got you covered. Or if your Muslim friend says Jesus was just a prophet who escaped death (was never crucified), this book has got you covered. Or because the rash of misinformation about pagan parallels to Christ have been conflated with a mess of ‘alternative facts’ – this book has got you covered.
Finally, keep in mind that because we live in an age where knowledge truly is power – though that ‘power’ is often misguided, or helps promote the insane volume of conspiracy theories squeezing the life out of real logic and reason – more and more people are empowering themselves with readily available research, even if that research is flawed. Meaning that the more we empower ourselves as Catholic Christians to separate fact from fiction, the more we can identify the imitators – and the more we understand the Real Jesus.