John Safran vs. God

Having just seen the final episode of 'John Safran Vs. God', I'm pleased to conclude that this series is as equally entertaining as his previous show, 2002's 'Music Jamboree' (despite being two episodes shorter). While religion is perhaps a risky topic on which to base a television show, Safran manages to explore the subject in his usual unique style by placing himself at the centre of his stories. While this might have been a less appealing method had the show featured somebody more subdued, it is Safran's personality and the situations he is willing to place himself in that makes the series as entertaining as it is informative.

Oh, and the final episode is one of the most riveting conclusions to a television series I've seen in a long time.

The DVD, released in late October 2004, looks to be a worthwhile purchase.

A Jewish boy from Australia with a sharp attitude gives many surprising twists as he savors the smorgasbord of religious diversity available to the curious and the committed.

John Safran has been spoiling to debunk just about every sacred cow in religion throughout this series. He dabbles with many different religious ceremonies, and usually ends up being involved in them, sometimes out of curiosity, sometimes out of pure rebellion.

At times John is willing to have a scoffing attitude, but when you REALLY end up taking on God, who will win? Scoffers beware!

John ends up providing the viewer with a fantastic spiritual journey that keeps you wondering, "What next, John?"

After seven episodes of 'travelogue' journalism, where John generally enjoys himself in his role of entertainer and humorist, we find the last episode to be the most provocative and personally honest experience in John's career and life.

He must have decided to leave the episode with the exorcist until last, knowing that there would definitely be some demons that needed exorcising. The truly amazing part of this episode is that with what seems like total honesty and trust, Mr. Safran gives himself over to be exorcised. He then goes through an incredible deliverance from demonic spirits that were inhabiting his person.

This final episode must be the most remarkable piece of experiential, expose or investigative journalism that has come out of Australia for a long time! For those who doubt the supernatural, the paranormal or just whether God or demons exist, John Safran can now no longer doubt! He has gone through an experience that has liberated his soul from all the demonic and idolatrous spirits in a most public way, embracing Jesus as his Messiah, and deliverer.

Not since Bob Dylan made the public aware that he had become a Messianic Jew (a Jew who believes Jesus as his Messiah or Christ) has a Jew in the entertainment industry been so honest and public about faith fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Jewish people as well as followers of all other religious streams of thought will be confronted with the demonic and religious prostitution that is considered tolerable and acceptable throughout the world.

The exorcism John Safran goes through tears down the facades that cover the host of spiritual darkness found in the idolatrous religions that do not give Jesus Christ his rightful place as the One and Only Lord God. It is only through submission to Jesus Christ and repenting of spiritual unfaithfulness that John Safran, you, or I, could ever be truly set free and delivered from the enemy of our souls, Satan.

Like Bob Dylan, after publicly declaring Jesus Christ as his Saviour, John Safran may also find himself a pariah in the media and entertainment industry. This will not occur due to the quality of his work, but because of the industry's generally idolatrous infatuation with itself and because it promotes the embracing of any form of religion other than the personal life-changing Christianity as experienced by John Safran.

If no other work becomes available, the man who exorcised the demons has at least offered John a job as an evangelist when he tours Australia in the future. Now THAT could be some genuine reality TV!

Bravo, John Safran and the ABC.

NOTE: only one episode discussed here.

Writer, co-producer and host John Safran goes on a worldwide expedition to find God in various religions. Instead he exposes the various types of practices carried out in the name of religion. It begins with how the supreme judge of the Shariat court in UK is so Fatwa-friendly that he issues one in the blink of the eye.

It continues to say how old junkies in Texas are using the garb of Native American religion (peyote) to get a fix, legally. Later, it points out that Scientology is really nothing more than a group of obsessed sci-fi believers. A film such as this is an entertainer – its comic sequences, over the top statements and sweeping judgments are carried out in a comic manner, thereby ensuring a lot of laughs. However, laughter is all that there is to it.

The film is (somewhat) a polemic, aimed at debunking all other views and voices except those of its creators. Large tracts of commentary, magnificent editing of sequences and musical scores as fillers make it a very clever ploy to get audiences to share in their beliefs. So even though it exposes individuals, it uses these to make sweeping statements at the religion per se. For e.g. the Muslims following Islam in Britain are extremists, the peyote way church is just a group of drug junkies and scientologists are trying to brainwash the world into following them. Of course it does not literally say that. However, the juxtaposition of visuals and news clippings along with comments loaded with 'If', 'Perhaps' and 'maybe' leave the viewer to connect the dots in a style earlier seen with Michael Moore.

Lastly, its holier-than-thou attitude makes it into a screening of snob value. So, even when it provokes thought it is not the direction intended. Perhaps, the film is just a reaffirmation of the existing prejudices of SOME, but these cannot be counted as ALL.

Having seen all of the episodes on TV I can say that they have been very interesting to watch. Some episodes in the middle sort of fall over themselves as he tries to stretch out weak jokes. But the vast majority had me in stitches. The Scientology bit, his rants and the countless jokes about Mormonism and many more are truly hilarious and often makes poignant criticisms of the various religions. Needless to say, the final exorcism episode is an exhilarating fly on the wall documentary, although it was obviously heavily edited considering the process went over 4 days. Form your own opinion about it, but remember that all is not as it seems and a lot was cut out. John doesn't seem to have converted! The DVD will contain the outtakes from this episode so it will be interesting to see what they reveal. Overall a highly entertaining Australian series which goes where few other shows have and has some truly revealing pieces (the voodoo one in particular!).

Watching the complete series of John Safran vs. God was the first time I got in contact with this peculiar Aussie. Although religion as a subject might be a difficult one to make a series on, John carries out his task diligently. He tries out several religions, some of them being well-known such as Zen Buddhism and Hinduism while other religions might be less known. How about a church where peyote, a a cacti which contains the psychedelic substance mescaline, is in the centre of religious practice? How about cursing "priests" in Mozambique of whom are accused of Australia's football team's weak performance due to a curse cast 30 years ago? There is a lot more to this series than this as John tries out several ways of reaching a higher spiritual state of mind. John has a sort of sarcastic approach to his search for enlightenment and he frequently mixes the footage of his experiences with a heavy dose of irony and rants about religious practice in the context of hypocrisy, I would say.

Although I do not regret that I watched the series as some of the episodes are great, I must stress that John at times becomes a bit silly about his rants. Yet the series is worth to give a shoot.

6/10