Inside the Work

What happens when metaphors are misunderstood as fact? When symbols are mistaken for weapons?
When something sacred — like the figure of Jesus — is claimed, contorted, and used to justify violence?

Created Metaphor emerged from the dissonance between what Jesus represents and how his name is wielded. You don’t have to be a traditional believer to recognize the power of his symbolism — love, grace, radical compassion. But today, that image is too often a mask for control, greed, and cruelty. A cover story for harm.

This piece doesn’t reject faith. It challenges how faith is taught, how it's understood, and how it’s used to justify systems Jesus would have rebelled against.

Some truths only reveal themselves under specific conditions. Like waking up. The difficult, divine work of asking: “What am I not seeing?” 

This piece is a prayer and a protest.
The voids and blood stains are historical trauma, personal grief, and public amnesia. A Holy War has been ongoing since the beginning of recorded time — Jesus was just one chapter in humanities story of faith twisted to fit fear.

What could the world look like if we honored his life rather than his suffering?
What if belief were rooted in love instead of fear? In presence instead of power?

What causes this distortion? This weaponizing of metaphor, this hatred masked as holiness?

Trauma. Conditional love. Generations taught to obey before they learn to feel.

When love is earned instead of given, it mutates.
When faith is taught through fear, it becomes control.
When power is mistaken for protection, we build entire societies that mirror abuse — then sanctify the mirror.

The violence done in Jesus’ name is not because of him.
It’s because of how we were shaped.
That we weren’t taught to grieve at all.
And the failure to believe we deserve love — as we are.

If Jesus walked into the world today?
He’d be washing feet at a migrant shelter.
He’d be sitting beside trans kids and their parents.
He’d be holding the hands of women in clinics, whispering,
“You are loved. You are sacred. You are free.”

 Created Metaphor doesn’t deny Jesus.
It defends him — from those who use his name to harm in his name.

Yet still, death and all his friends remain. Not just in the wars, the laws, the violence — but in the quiet places too. In the shadows people wrap around themselves like blankets. Pretending things don’t exist. Survival masquerading as righteousness. Emotional warfare mistaken for faith. Comfort used as a shield against seeing. The light reveals what comfort hides. 

And in that exposure — we begin again.