Our younger son Noah (16) is taking AP World History. The AP exam was a few weeks ago, so they wind down the school year with May Madness–64 of the supposedly most influential people in history battle head-to-head over 6 rounds to see who will be crowned the most-influential person of all time.
The teacher selects many of the individuals, but she allows students to nominate people, many of these are recent, popular selections (Beyonce, Ken Jeong, George Lucas). The students then draft the person they want to represent.
Noah got the 17th pick. Muhammad was picked first in his class. Noah was surprised that Jesus (one of the top seeds) was still available, so he decided to follow Jesus.
You’d think Jesus would have to be the overall favorite, but recent outcomes suggest otherwise.
1) Students in Noah’s class clearly didn’t Jesus was influential since the first 16 selectors skipped him.
2) In Nate’s class 2 years ago, Jesus lost in the 1st round to Socrates. Nate made it to the Elite Eight with Pericles. He also beat Gandhi as Hitler. We felt bad about that one.
3) In the other section this year, Jesus lost in the 1st round to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates won overall. Technological idolatry?
I guess that makes Jesus a dark horse (not literally).
First round: Noah went up against Ken Jeong (The Hangover). It was a beat-down, Jesus-style.
Second round: Noah against Confucius (The Philosopher). This one was close, but Noah didn’t turn the other cheek and defeated his second Asian opponent.
Third round: I would have thought this one would be easy against Osama bin Laden (The Terrorist), but it was a tough battle between OBL and JC, with the Christ coming out on top.
Fourth round: The girl who picked Muhammad had 3 people in the Elite Eight, including Benazir Bhutto (The First Female Prime Minister of Pakistan), and she was good, so she made this one close, but Jesus still defeated his second Muslim opponent.
Fifth round: Noah was torn on this one since he was born on May 4 (“May the Forth be with you”). He decided to do and not try. Victorious Jesus was over George Lucas (The Director).
The Final: Jesus versus Muhammad (The Prophet). Jesus was a bit tired since he had already defeated the creator of Star Wars a few minutes earlier (the semis and finals were both today), but after a short nap in the boat, he was ready to take on his biggest rival among World Religions.
I’ll post the winner tomorrow.
But doesn’t it seem like the global story of the last twelve years has been Jesus versus Muhammad?