Judas: a bad hiring decision = bad PR

(author's note: this is not a personal Christian testimony, nor an offer to debate the Godliness of Jesus Christ, the literal interpretation of the Bible, the gender of God, the eternal status of Judas, or the demonic influence of "Jesus Christ Superstar" ... and, yes, there is a PR lesson in here)


Sometimes I'm embarrassed because I'm Peter, ripping out my sword to fight the good fight, typing words with all the smoothness of a rapier whipping through the air ... and then I accidentally cut off some poor bystander's ear. As passionate and fiery as can be, but maybe just a little off-center of understanding or communicating the real message.

As a communications professional, I sometimes I like to think I'm Paul and have been blessed with the gifts of empathy, understanding and persuasion, of being all things to all men. Best communications advice ever: be as shrewd as a snake, but as innocent as a dove.

Other times I feel like Job, sitting pitifully on my dung heap. Unlike the ever-patient Job though, I'm asking, "How did I end up in (cause) this mess? Why doesn't anybody understand me?"

But this time, I recognized myself in Judas. Not the traditional Judas-the-hated-betrayer, but Judas, the overly cautious. Judas, the disillusioned opportunist. Judas, the "problem."

A few months ago, I took a trip back in time to watch "Jesus Christ Superstar;" and that's when I noticed. Singing Heaven on Their Minds, Judas warns Jesus about his followers turning on him:

Listen Jesus I don't like what I see
All I ask is that you listen to me

And remember - I've been your right hand man all along

You have set them all on fire

They think they've found the new Messiah

And they'll hurt you when they find they're wrong

 

And then after telling Jesus that everything he says gets "twisted in some other way" and positing that he would be safer remaining a carpenter, he shows fear when he warns of Roman backlash:
Listen Jesus do you care for your race?
Don't you see we must keep in our place?

We are occupied - have you forgotten how put down we are?

I am frightened by the crowd

For we are getting much too loud

And they'll crush us if we go too far

And that's where I begin to collect my 30 pieces of silver. I like to think of myself as an independent rogue with unquestionably smooth collaborative skills; but I really like the status quo.

And that's also where I admire the true public relations professional who recognizes and thrives with opportunity and stands firm under duress. I'm great as long as all is good. A small hiccup, and I'm still there for you. Some grumbling among the troops, and I'm becoming hesitant and offering "insight" into alternatives. A plausible threat to success, and I sometimes go straight to "it's been real, and it's been fun, but ..."

I couldn't have been surprised more to see Judas and find myself saying, "hey, that's me." I had to fill a week of Sunday School earlier this month and based my lesson on this thought. I did a little research on Judas and gained some interesting insight.

Judas was the Apostles' money man. He handled all the funds, and in talking with our class, I asked them to consider an imaginary firm, "Jesus, Inc." (not the existing non-profit). Peter would be its chief operating officer, and Judas would be its chief financial officer.

In my own mind, I took a step further. Fortunately, for those of us who are believers, Jesus' death and resurrection is part of the grand plan; but the imaginary "Jesus, Inc." had a serious public relations problem, both internally and externally.

Judas definitely was an outsider. All the rest of Jesus' apostles were from Galilee, and some Biblical scholars associate Judas' Iscariot name with the town of Kerioth, near the Dead Sea and FAR south of Galilee. 

More importantly, Iscariot is a name associated with Zealots, or those militaristic Jews who wanted to overthrow the Romans occupying their homeland. The Jews had been waiting for a messiah or king, like the Old Testament kings, who could bring them back to power; and Judas may have followed Jesus so he could be there when the first shots of the revolution were fired (thrown? hurled? catapulted?).

In other words, Judas was ready for the fight. He had a cause, and Jesus was his ticket to winning. Unfortunately for Judas, "Jesus, Inc." had an entirely different mission. Back in the day, I was told by supervisors that I was hard to manage. Like Judas, I sometimes missed the bigger picture because I was painting my own.

Judas eventually recognized that Jesus was not going to win him his personal throne overlooking miles and miles and miles and miles of sand (and he probably hadn't learned about the oil yet). He even saw Jesus as a detriment to his goal, a thorn in the side of his enemies who, riled, could easily and readily crush everything in their path.
 
And that's when he went to the Jewish high priests and elders to work out the details. Afraid that Jesus would force the Romans to upset their comfortable status quo, in "Superstar," the high priests sing "This Jesus Must Die." 

When Judas sings "Damned for All Time" in Superstar -- "I came because I had to I'm the one who saw; Jesus can't control it like he did before" -- the viewer gets a better understanding of his Zealot motives (a Jesus-era Eric Snowden?).

And if you can't accept that Jesus' death and resurrection provides hope to a dying world (one way or the other), then maybe Judas' character has a point about "Jesus, Inc.'s" PR problems, when he sings the title song, "Superstar:"

Why you let the things you did get so out of your hand
You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned

Why'd you choose such a backward time and such a strange land?

If you'd come today you would have reached a whole nation

Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication

 

And that's the PR lesson.

• For those publics, internal and external, who just don't get our message, how do we adjust?
• How do we strengthen our message and our plan to be sure it endures under stress? 
• How do we address those "followers" who do us more damage than good, who misunderstand and misrepresent our mission?
• Have we tested our message to be sure it's audience-focused and clearly communicated with a minimum of being "twisted in some other way" by our opponents or those we'd like to sway to our side.
• Are we still in "Israel in 4 BC?" Or are we professionals using the most effective, current tools and methods to develop that coveted "mutually beneficial" PR relationship with our client's public?

Finally, do we have a strategic communications plan customized to the goals and informed interests of our client? Or are we our client's "Judas," focusing on our own goals and simply offering our client a cookie-cutter approach to publicity and column inches?


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