Volume 28, No. 43
 November 16, 2003                   

Christian Imitations

   For a whole generation, the world changed on November 22, 1963 with the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.  But no one was affected by the tragedy in quite the same way as Vaughn Meader.

   In the early 60s, Meader was a struggling comedian.  One day while kidding around with some friends, he did an imitation of President Kennedy.  It was so good, his buddies encouraged him to incorporate the impersonation into his comedy act.  So at the end of his routine, he added a five-minute “news conference” in which he responded in Kennedy’s Boston accent to questions from the audience.

   That got Meader a mention in Life magazine, which led to a recording contract for The First Family, an entire album of presidential parodies.  When the record sold 10 million copies, making it the best-selling album up to that time, Meader became a superstar.  He was on every major TV show and pulling in $22,000 a week in Las Vegas.

   Then came that fateful November day in Dallas.  When the high-flying comedian got into a cab in Milwaukee, the driver asked if he’d heard the latest news about the President.  “No, how’s it go?” Meader replied, thinking the cabbie was setting up a joke.  It was no laughing matter.  Kennedy was dead, his power and potential cut short by an assassin’s bullets.

   Though he didn’t realize it on that awful day, Meader’s career was dead, too.  He went from show business to no business, almost overnight because he was so closely associated with Kennedy.  No one could bear to watch him perform, even when he stopped doing JFK.  The memories were just too painful.

   Meader once said, "I'll never forget walking up Fifth Avenue and a [construction worker]... turned his jackhammer off and came over, almost crying...  and said, 'I'm so sorry.' Like I was a member of the family. But in a lot of ways, I was kind of a flesh and blood way they could touch him."   

   But by 1965, Vaughn Meader was broke and all but forgotten. Still, in the years since, he has steadfastly honored a pledge not to do his Kennedy imitation ever again, despite constant pleas from friends and fans. And therein lies the irony.  While Meader won’t imitate the man he admires because he’s dead, we imitate the Man we admire because He’s not!

   “Be imitators of God,” Paul writes, “and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as... a sacrifice to God.”  (Eph. 5:1)  The apostle goes on to say there’s no room in the Christian life for immorality, greed, foolish talk or coarse joking.  “For though your hearts were once full of darkness, now you’re full of light from the Lord, and your behaviour should show it! (v.8).  The goal is to “come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we’ll be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ... becoming more and more in every way like [him],..” (Eph. 4:13,15)

   That won’t happen if you insist on putting yourself first.  “Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.  You must display a new nature because you’re a new person, created in God’s likeness — righteous, holy and true.” (4:23,24)

   As the Lord changes the way you think, your speech and actions will follow.  People will see in you the heart, mind and will of Jesus until you become so closely identified with him that you’re a constant reminder, not of his death, but of his life.  For the people around you, you’ll be a flesh and blood way they can touch Him.  And since He lives forever, you’ll never be out of work.

   Just one word of caution.  We must act to put on Christ, not put on a Christ act.  There’s a big difference between a Christian imitation, and an imitation Christian.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe, contact sgamble@bfree.on.ca