ENI — “Although the Bible doesn't say that Jesus laughed, I think that the evangelists didn't need to write about it because he would always have been laughing,” said Rev. Nobuhisa Yamakita, chairperson of the Japan Confederation of Christian Churches, which links Roman Catholic, Anglican and Protestant denominations.
Christianity, he said, is “a religion of light, love and life to the last, the lost and the least.” But he says he is now also interested in another L, for laughter.
The Japanese pastor is the author of The Good News and Laughter: This is Exactly Good Laughter. “Japanese Christians are serious but have no joy. The churches have such an atmosphere that it is unwise to laugh there. The Japanese word for joy appears 800 times in the Bible. I think that (churchgoers) can be more cheerful,” said Yamakita. “I get troubled like everybody else. In the United Church of Christ in Japan, I keep taking beatings like a sandbag. But Psalm 2:4 says, 'He who sits in the heavens laughs.'”
