FIREPROOF Part 2 of 14

I just thought I would post this video as a point of reference with the theme of today's ( March 27, 2012) lecture, which illustrates actor Kirk Cameron's role within a Christian movie context. This scene from the Christian movie FIREPROOF, feeds directly into the stereotypes discussed in today's lecture with ethnic and gender roles. Masculinity and heroism seem to go hand in hand within the Christian "Right" Conservative agenda, however, this movie's narrative was intended to help save marriages. This movie takes Kirk Cameron's role of playing the character, Calieb, on a winding trail from being a egotistical self-serving husband to humbling himself in his relationship with God and his wife.

I Was Stabbed By Satan - K'Naan HQ Sound Widescreen

In thinking of spiritual warfare and Satan's protagonist identity, although K'naan is Muslim, the lyrics really echo Cowan's sentiments of the racialization violence of heroes, monsters and demons and how sin comes into play. The Abrahamic traditions are tied together through the early parts of the Old Testament up until where the division occurs about the sacrifice of Abraham's son. Chritianity and Islam both agree that Ismael was a son of Abraham, and that Abraham sent Hagar and Ismael  into the desert, however, both Judaism and Christianity depict Isaac on the sacrificial altar of Abraham, and then a "angel of the Lord", came to stop Abraham just in time as Abraham passes God's test of his faithfulness (Biblegateway.com. Genesis 21:14-21, NKJV). Conversely, in Islam, it is Ismael going through the same scenario, hence the initial crack in the Abrahamic traditions.

So when we look at K'naan as he flips the script in this song, I Was Stabbed by Satan, he associates Satan with the Caucasian colonializer and violence experienced as a Black African man, through the window of this song. K'naan also has transcended into the popular culture forum with the song he wrote that is now famous song, Waving Flag- Young Artists for Haiti, which has had over 15,000,000 hits on Youtube. This song has gone viral and became the flag ship song for donations after the Haitian Earthquake in 2010, in wake of the great devastation. However, one song presents K'naan as a "unlikely" symbol of heroism in writing Waving Flag, but conversely paints him in very different light with his lyrics in, I Was Stabbed By Satan.


Having noted this story of Abraham as an example, it further underscores the dynamics of how spiritual warfare and controversy has divided the people in the fertile crescent (or Cradle of Civilization as it is more commonly described in the Middle East) and this video's appropriation of this religious narrative, to once again commodify spirituality in the contemporary marketplace, but impacts all three faith identities; Judaism, Christianity and Islam's. Colonization no longer needs to have wars for its effects to be experienced, as now it is done by economics. Gender, class, and caste systems contribute to the lingering effects of how global communities are targeted by popular culture, evangelization (i.e. global south, continental Africa and Latin America) by both Christians and Muslims. In looking through the popular culture lens, "the western communities", who continue in their commodifying of these communities through such avenues as mass marketing, product branding and control of music distribution in these respective industries, solidify their position just as much through religious distribution. Yet, ironically enough through global migration and immigration, in and from Canada, society in North America needs flip the script and marginalize the same people that they manipulate into believing that there is a level playing field in places like the music industry. Religion operates very much in the same fashion in that Christians want to infer their values, beliefs and lifestyles on developing nations, but marginalize them at the door step of western countries with racist labelling them as "other" when they emulate all the evangelized Christian indoctrination that considered "right" for them on the outside looking in. 


Popular cultural seems just to be a metaphor that compartmentalizes groups of people according to their culturally defined spaces and fails to meet the expectations of what Christian concepts are idealized to be.
Walt Disney, abortion, and gender stereotypes, help to divide and compartmentalize society. I believe that when a "Christian" community fails to link the core religious issues that popular culture is substituting with these commodified alternative contemporary substitutions, they illustrate that some people need something to cling to when they depart from a strong religious denominational ethos like Christianity.


However, to counteract all of the negative criticisms associated with ethnic marginalization of and in the Christian messages, I want to present a different perspective of a positive Christian media message that ties popular culture environments, theology and contemporary meaning for Christian followers. Not all Christianity is bad, and popular cultures may not always be right in steering the "me" complex to their wider general audiences.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48-Li7lIfA





Sources: Biblegateway.com. Genesis 21:14-21. New King James Version. 2012. March 25, 2012.http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+21%3A14-21&version=NKJV.

Touched By An Angel "I Will Walk With You" Part 2 3/5

In response to Faith Blogger's March 22, 2012, post My Best Friend Is A Monster, which is a interesting narrative drawn together using the character, Edward Cullen from the movie Twilight, and the Sloth character,  from the movie, The Goonies, bringing both characters to present themselves as a approachable "demon/monster" hero's for humans, their nature is subverted for the convenience of fulfilling human needs. 

Similarly, the program, Touched By An Angel, uniquely incorporates religious ideals and angels to the rescue of society in times of crisis, relies on characters like, "Andrew", who plays the role of the angel of death (played by actor John Dye). Andrew's supportive role to the character "Monica" (played by actress Roma Downey)  who is a angel in human form that helps to guide, support and comfort people in precarious living circumstances, plays an instrumental position in resolving human conflicts and crisis. So just as Twilight's, Edward Cullen serves to avoid his vampire role in nature, the final episode of Touched By An Angel, leaves Andrew wanting, for an alternative role outside his primary occupation as the angel of death.

A great contrast to movies like Twilight and The Goonies is an example of the final episode of Touched By An Angel, which like many others, places Monica revealing her status of being an angel at the climax or crisis point in the show. However, in this particular episode, Monica and Andrew have a conversation about about the spiritual warfare going on in and around this case and Andrew tells Monica,

"we not fighting against flesh and blood here, we are fighting  "evil", against the Devil. But you and I both know that he is not going to win the war, but sometimes he wins the battle  (during frames between 8:12 to 8:30)" (CBS/Moon Water Productions, 2003),

while discussing the survival of a recently convicted murder, convicted of murdering 46 children.




However, in a later part of the episode, the identity of the convicted murderer "Zack" is revealed to be Jesus in the human form of the person Zack.

Monica tells Zack, also the incarnation of Jesus,

"Forgive me, I didn't know who you were" and Jesus responds, "they hardly ever do Monica."

Monica responds to Jesus' comments by saying,

"Why didn't I recognize you?" and Jesus responds, "because you would have done anything for me, but look what you did for a stranger, no greater love hath no person nor angel, than to give her a life for another, well done good and faithful servant", (CBS/Moon Water Productions, 2003).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkwuERhiB-M&feature=related

These scenes illustrate every day "spiritual warfare" battles and revive the Christian traditions  modern day narrative of Jesus' gift of love, sacrifice and transcendence through life and death, but also the paradigms of evil, demons and monsters in human form. Although the Bible, and particular in Revelations, where Jesus is to come again during the Rapture, the Santana and Erikson reading, Demons, Aliens, and Spiritual Warfare: Belief and Reality, amplifies and examines a more theological role of contemporary monsters and demons.

However, a gap missed in FaithBlogger's argument was highlighted in Cowan's reading, Stalking Life: Fear of Death and of Dying Badly, wherein this scholar looks at the racialization of angels, demons and monsters to include how African slaves were affected by their life in the West Indies. In noting that Africans brought their religions with them on their journey of slavery and colonization, the after effects lead to a creolization of their religions with Catholicism. Cowan notes that, "In doing so, many of these films [and shows] constantly recreate a dangerous religious Other that has barely a passing resemblance to its offscreen source but that highlights yet again the ambivalence and fear with which we regard religion generally and religions other than our own specifically" (Cowan, 2008:158). Haiti has been known for the the practice of Voodoo, but the contemporary popular culture hears much about the effects of Voodoo, with Zombies and the walking of the dead (similar to the video shown in the March 20, 2012, lecture), popular culture rarely depicts a "good or loving" ethnic hero, monster or zombie" to save the day like Wesley Snipes character in the 1998 movie Blade.

Nonetheless, society needs to be able to self-identify with a hero that loves, saves and conquers evil with martyrdom being the ultimate crescendo, whether it be on a secular or religious basis. Monsters like the Sloth in Goonies have a transformative nature on humans, but vampires and demons like Twilight's Edward Cullen, bring an alternative form of angels to human rescues.

Response to Depictions of Christianity in Films:Saved! posted February 27, 2012

Original post done on March 3, 2012 in response to Miranda's post: Depictions of Christianity in Films:Saved! posted February 27, 2012.

Donna GMar 3, 2012 08:40 PM

The parallels of the "Saved" movie's Mary and Jesus' mother Mary, speaks volumes in how Christianity is appropriated to suit ones needs in this movie. In cheapening the sanctity of Christian values in the movie to seem like a bunch of fanatics, rather than the essence of Christian movement, this movie helps to erode the benefits of Christianity ethos and fictionalize the narrative around the birth of Jesus.

However, it is interesting that you mention that in the movie, the character "Hilary Faye" includes the citation of "the bible not being used as a weapon", when the NIV version in Ephesians 6:17 cites, "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God", (http://bible.cc/ephesians/6-17.htm. March 3, 2012) and so many Conservative Christians rely on this passage faithfully.

It is not uncommon in the Bible Belt of the U.S. that you see this dialogue take place on news media (CNN, Fox and others) around topics depicted in the movie "Saved". One great example is the Republican Nominee debate process that has been taking place in the U.S. over the last few months. This includes churches being obligated to providing contraception to women and a law student for being chastised by Rush Limbaugh in the media forum debates.

But I think the ethos of Christianity is that Jesus came to the world to "save" Christians from their sins, and it is only through Him that Christians are saved. The interpretation of how and who is saved helps popular culture to subvert and leave behind the foundational precepts of Christianity of getting saved through Jesus and presenting it as a impediment rather than a tenent of Christian values.

Moreover, when popular culture outlets encourage, stream or pick for people through movies like this, to "pick and choose" what Christian values they ought to subscribe to, I think the need for spirituality slips down a slippery slope that society may not recover from. Media outlets push these issues so hard that people get addicted to the consumption of the debate like an alcoholic to the bottle. What's even worse is the the glamorization of the teen pregnancy shows that polarize the lack of skills and money issues they face and forego the Christian values all in the name of marketing these reality television shows.

Oddly enough as a side note, CNN has included images of people praying and then saved from the path of disastrous tornadoes this weekend. I only am left to wonder, why people have to appear to be desperate to talk about the "safety" of spirituality and how much better ratings will be with these images included.

Copy of Original Response to Advertising Gaga or Not?: Christianity and Popular Culture

Original post was made on March 3, 2012 on  Advertising Gaga or Not?: Christianity and Popular Culture's page.


Donna GMar 3, 2012 07:38 PM

The sentiments that you have expressed really get to the heart of Gaga's agenda and how her own anxiety translates into the freakish frenzy around the Gaga culture, as mentioned in the Victor Corona reading on Gaga. This culture of manufacturing and manipulation of media marketing houses has almost homogenized a basic infrastructure of what people need to do to "fit" in the music media realm. Personally, I think Gaga's outlandish outfits, while sometimes considered "art" and/or obnoxious to some, are just all apart of her eccentricity. Just like a reality television show, you get drawn into their (Gaga's) need to entertain you and the spectator is all too happy to take it in and consume the visual distraction/attraction.

However, there is so much more than Lady Gaga to subvert your attention and while looking for the meaning of spirituality within popular culture, media spin doctor's play their role in steering society clear of the now fabled sacredness of spirituality. The art of Gaga has also taken shape over the commodification of her voice value at times i.e. Gaga fashion influences. Being mindful of what makes one continually question how hard it is to isolate the amount of Gaga's images being presented in her videos, you can see how similar her path is to that of Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and others in the 80's and 90's. Retro has truly made a cycle back I think through Gaga and her genre of marketing/advertising has further crossed over to isolate the theatrics in spirituality as well, in being just another entertainment tool to be used as a "add-on" in videos that she has created such as Judas. In listening to Lady Gaga's lyrics to the song Judas and then viewing the video, I note that she really de-constructured the narrative around the  Biblical story of Judas and Jesus in several ways. One such video example is highlighted wherein Lady Gaga and the man wearing the crown of thorns (appropriated symbol of Jesus) are either holding on to each other (motorcycle ride at the beginning where Lady Gaga is clutching around his waist on the bike) 

or reaching out to each other while they walk/dance and make their way to the platform. 

This representation of Jesus Christ appropriated by the man wearing the crown of thorns in illustrating society's relationship with Jesus, is articulating the association of Christ being either beside us, watching us or supporting us even when humans least deserve it as in the case of the Judas narrative, wherein Judas betrayed Jesus for a few pieces of silver. This symbolism also carries over into the appropriation of the foot washing in the hot tub, again the appropriated Jesus and Judas figures having their feet washed by Gaga, just like at the Last Supper where Jesus was betrayed by Judas, which further highlights the twisted way Gaga's narrative end the video by her falling on the ground.

 Ironically she is dressed as a bride, which can further be appropriated to the bride of Jesus Christ, his church and the fall from grace indicates society's fallen relationship with Jesus. 

Moreover, this is not the first time Gaga has exploited the Christian narrative for her own financial benefit as a  entertainer, commodifying and repackaging Christian stories and symbolism creates the dialogue for debate and controversy, giving her the free publicity that she seeks to indirectly/directly fuel her momentum to push the envelope further to push "traditional" video and artistic formats. The sacred and profane historical narratives must realize their position in the popular culture cue and understand that audiences crave a more apophatic genre.  Consumerism has displaced sacred roles, rituals and tools of religion, and are now utilized in a bevy of entertainment add ons, set designs and props to expand the framework of the evolving popular culture framework.

Violence, Demons and Christian Spiritual Warfare

In my own personal Christian faith walk, I have attended various Christian church services, which include, Vineyard, Pentacostal, Baptist, Anglican and Catholic church services, and while the rituals may vary, the message about Jesus' salvation, (which is highlighted during the Eucharist season), is the common thread that ties all of these denominations together. This unifying Christian narrative of the crucifixion remains virtually the same denominationally across Christian sects, and illustrated more recently in Mel Gibson's, Passion of the Christ film. Yet in vividly portraying this story in great detail, the crossing of denominational lines for its authenticity and accuracy, leaves one to wonder why the graphic violence must be shown to "ensure" the spectators truly "understand" the narrative. I have to admit in my own personal circumstances, a strong stomach for blood and gore is necessary to be able to watch the film.

The media however, has also covered live events in the Philippines, where Christian followers re-enact the crucifixion as a part of the Good Friday service tradition, as highlighted in a New York Daily Times April 22, 2011, news article (NYDailyNews.com. April 22, 2011. March 21, 2012.)

wherein the media as seen in the photo, exacerbates the spectacle as depicted in the articles photograph that accompanies it. So why does the media in particular exotify its portrial of this event? I question whether I and so many other Christians do not see or understand the narrative that Jesus' transcendence through His violent death was His altruistic way to and for the forgiveness of sins and give salvation for the benefit and redemption of humankind? The Bible does not overtly call for adherents to perform the same ritualization (crucifixion) in remembrance of Him, this just recorded in the Bible as to the way that some Roman authorities chose  to deal with criminals at that point in time in history. More importantly, do Christian followers need to or benefit from visualizing violence, sin, and role playing Christian narratives to claim Christianity for themselves? I leave this as a open ended question as I recognize that in my own faith narrative, my own emic analyzation and ethos are tied to one Christian believer's perspective.

However, in my own surveying of church services, I have also heard that as Christians, we are to "walk by faith and not by sight"as noted in 2 Corinthians 5:7 in the New Testament section of the Bible, (New King James Version. Biblegateway.com. 1982. March 21, 2012.) and that some Christian believers also utilize the Old Testament passage of Isaiah 54:17, "No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment,You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me, Says the Lord "(New King James Version. Biblegateway.com. 1982. March 21, 2012.) passage to bolster their own respective prayers and encounters with their own actions and concepts of demons and/or spiritual warfare. Interestingly enough, in affecting Christians own individual circumstances, many Christians share this belief in their faith narrative, that has been grandfathered from the Jewish Tanakh (Torah.org. 2007. March 21, 2012).

From Genesis to Revelations, violence has been weaved into the Abrahamic traditions; Judaism, Islam and Christianity transcendence with the divinity and/or spirituality around death. Although great debates surround if and what parts of the Bible are to be followed literally or that thereto the Bible, Pentateuch or Koran, are just pieces of literature, to this day.  Popular culture and news media outlets just seem to ride the coattails of movements of Holy Wars during the time of Augustine of Hippo's legacy to modern times. So I perceive that the theological debates that Santana and Erickson alludes to for societal needs, leaves many people stumped but addicted to the mystery of death, demons and angels attempting to quantify a rational or empirical answer. 

Moving from the historical to the contemportary Christian's narrative, and attempting to rational these external and sometimes invisible  Christian ideals, the waves of power struggles through Satan as vehicle and protagonist, leaves the religious debate open to more questions as to why there's never an end to the  violence cycle. I try to think that Christianity has a linear cycle, as the group Mercy Me conceives in their Imagine video, of a utopia in the heavenly Kingdom of God. However, the cultural frameworks leave a cyclical framework for Jesus' storytellers and popular culture alike to push their own agenda in tandem with the presence of all kinds of monsters, demons included. The hugely controversial author Dan Brown brought forward to the world the critique of the first Christian church, now known as Roman Catholicism, through the 2006 movie The Da Vinci Code (book/movie) and its 2009 sequel Angels and Demons, that took the world on a Christian theology tour  to renew a the historical and current contemporary religious debate dialogue. 

While Santana and Erikson's reading,  Demons, Aliens, and Spiritual Warfare: Belief and Reality.” In Religion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred, teased out the debate around spiritual warfare, spiritual warfare is also de-constructedand and explored around Christian denominational positions. However, one has to wonder without popular culture artefacts like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, being in and out of the secular and religious debate arena, how else would the momentum and dialogue evolve around angels, demons and monsters without a revival of criticism around the Christian faith origins? Sometimes not all popular culture changes are bad, technology advancements in movie and media venues have brought non-traditional forms of dialogue to many forums. But who stands in the middle of debate to measure the amount of violence displayed on television, movies and videos, when it has progressed to a point where every graphic detail and gore expose more than most can bare like the video clip showed in class, that went well beyond the scope of what most people are comfortable with, myself included. Do I need to see this amount of blood? human vulnerability and death to know that death is a mystery? No. Why has the "accepted" norms of visualizing death in the media upped the anti and to capture violence in more and more vivid depictions.... for ratings and advertisement spots all in the name of capitalism? Has society chosen the the money demon over the sacred and altruistic ways the Christianity urges society to take up? Karl Marx might beg to differ.

Yet, while the religious community amy not be comfortable with the engagement, it creates opportunities for dialogue in a public forum to look through a lens to grapple with human transcendence and fear of death. Dan Brown's specific examples provided through The Da Vinci Code movie, in identifying the Opus Dei and Knights Templar members, might not been as effective without violence and visualizing death of "Christian" servants and hero's. Both the Christian and the Secular world got to view the foundations of the Roman Catholic church's history like never before, and the inner church politics helped to conceive the notions of the human side of Christianity. Violence and death in the name of Jesus Christ and the value of the valour and honour in the Christian narratives theology provided a foreground to understand the foundational arguments around transcendence and spirituality in The Da Vinci Code characterization of Christian altruism. Human monsters like the character Silas in The Da Vinci Code, who was a Opus Dei member retained by a Catholic priest charged with the responsibility of killing all those that carried the secret of Jesus' possible heir bloodline, provided just enough graphic violence to bait and lure its audience, while doing all these actions ironically to preserve the legacy of Jesus, as the Catholic church has packaged its Christian tradition. 

So while I seek with many others it seems, attempt to rationalize if there is any truth to demons, angels and monsters, being real or manufactured through religious or secular genres, the instilled fear around the mystery and transcendence of death, continues to be packaged up by popular cultural entertainers, scholars, churches and lay persons, (who may commodify sacred artefacts), add fuel to fiery debate. Armageddon or the day of the Rapture, may one day decipher this all.




Sources:

Biblegateway.com. New King James Version. 2 Corinthians 5:7. Biblegateway.com. 1982. March 21, 2012.http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+54%3A17&version=NKJV.

Biblegateway.com. New King James Version. Isaiah 54:17. Biblegateway.com. 1982. March 21, 2012. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+5%3A7&version=NKJV

Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown Website. 2012. March 23, 2012. http://www.danbrown.com/#/davinciCode.

Santana, Richard W. and Gregory Erickson. Demons, Aliens, and Spiritual Warfare: Belief and Reality. Religion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred, 138-68. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008.

Torah.org.. Project Genesis Inc. 2007. March 21, 2012. http://www.torah.org/learning/basics/primer/torah/jermi.html#.

Uribarri, Jaime. Christians in Phillippines Celebrate Good Friday By Recreating Crucifixion of Jesus. NYDailyNews.com. New York Daily News. April 22, 2011. March 21, 2012.  http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-04-22/news/29480743_1_ruben-enaje-ching-pangilinan-philippines).

Response to Christianity: An Anchor for the Soul

In reflecting on Miranda's March 8, 2012, post, I think it is important to note that, The Script, and other musical groups have managed to cross over with their music within the popular culture realm with spiritual lyrical content and financially profited from the emotional attachment people develop with the music they create. The lyrics appear to speak for themselves and while Miranda notes how they have "touched and comforted her", music carries emotionally charged content, hence their attraction. Wherein we see the emotions expressed by Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and Johnny Cash by the videos shown in lecture, we see the transcendence through words and images, takes people on the journey through the artist(s) vision of what Christ or religiosity means through their eyes.

In Dr. Harris's grouping of the, "transformationists", I see groups like Casting Crowns, Mercy Me and Hillsong, fitting in with this category, as they overtly wear their Christian message as a garment that they are proud of. The transformationists have not only had their music in the Christian entertainment industry, but also have transformed the praise and worship Christian ritual formats distancing themselves from using traditional hymns during church services. An example of this in particular, in one of my prior posts of Casting Crowns video/song Does Anybody Hear Her, it is not so much a spiritual song as it is relational to the masses. This scenario seems genuine but relatable to the transcending form of popular Christian/Pop Music that is changing the face of what we see of Christian artists. Lynch might categorize this video under all of his categories as it relates to popular cultures environment in contemporary life, has a missiological message, serve a religious function and takes in the medium of a "theological message" ( Lynch 2005:21) yet although the lyrics do not express a Christian reflection, the video uses a eclectic array of images to capture these sentiments.

Does Anybody Hear Her"

She is running
A hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction
She is trying
But the canyon's ever widening
In the depths of her cold heart
So she sets out on another misadventure just to find
She's another two years older
And she's three more steps behind

Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even knows she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?

She is yearning
For shelter and affection
That she never found at home
She is searching
For a hero to ride in
To ride in and save the day
And in walks her prince charming
And he knows just what to say
Momentary lapse of reason
And she gives herself away

If judgement looms under every steeple
If lofty glances from lofty people
Can't see past her scarlet letter
And we never even met her

He is running
A hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction

Source: ALZ Lyrics.Com. 2012. March 19, 2012. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/castingcrowns/doesanybodyhearher.html.


More importantly, the way this video illustrates the anxiety of the young woman trying to fit in this Christian environment (outside church), by trying to put herself together to go into the church in light of "Christian" congregational stares of disapproval. This demonstration of cliques in congregational dynamics, leaver others with feeling unwelcome in being the "outsider" looking in on the Christian environment. This seems to park Jesus' message at the door, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest", (http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-11-28/. American Standard Version (1995) March 19, 2012). 


In addition, I believe that Miranda has highlighted an important aspect of faith and spirituality in the contemporary North American landscape, as she spoke of Dr. Harris mentioning "it is a faith not a genre" (Harris 2012), where many secular observers see the rather hypocritical side of the many other spiritual messages that are floating around under the guise of Christian theology. 


While the integrationist singers like Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, and Carrie Underwood cross back and forth from popular culture and Christian music genres. The separationists like Marilyn Manson and Ozzy Osborne have opposite transcendent vehicles with demonic rituals to coincide with their vivid videos and lyrics that leave little to the imagination.

Unfortunately, the sad reality is that these music groups/singers are not just in the public forum to freely "minister" to the masses, but they are in the public sphere to make money and are in and of themselves a commodity that consumers gladly purchase with no relationship required. Self-identifying ones faith is not necessary, just make a few bucks at the expense of the Christian/Jesus narrative....appropriation is all apart of the need for entertainment. The sacred spaces of worship are becoming a the platform for commodification with the sale of books, videos and artefacts with evangelical ministries, yet this concept isn't new, just recycled from the uses (sale) of indulgences sold to pacify societies religiosity eclipse purgatory and transcend souls.

Violence and Ethos of Virtual Reality

The gaming world provides, masks and manipulates violence as just all apart of the entertainment, where people participate in a avatar role within video games. Yet while one can create an alternative identity that takes shapes as a ultra ego animated character, played out within the framework of these games, its structure as Wagner asserts can become, "[a] Ritual, [and] then, offers us a compelling means of comparing the experience of interactivity in films and video games, highIiglating for us the distinctive differences in player choice." (Wagner 53), in players engagement.

Through observing the level of engagement in my own children's video gaming activity, the lure is so great that I concur with Dr. Harris's citation in the March 14, 2012, class lecture, that "8 year old boys spend a average of at least forty minutes a day"(Harris, 2012). My own quasi empirical evidence is watching own son appear to transcend into his daily Wii game console routine playing on the gaming system, more or less in the same fashion. However, Rachel Wagner's sentiments of, "[t]he deep connection between ritual, [and] games" (Wagner, 53), crossing over or intersecting with religious overtones, demands closer scrutiny. Wherein the violence in such games might have a cathartic social benefit, it also conversely challenges the notion of what Dr. Harris also cited in that, "Augustine of Hippo noted that violence encourages imitation" (Harris, 2012), even in the early Christian arena. and numerous scholars have sought to research this correlation.

Unfortunately for me, I remember when Atari was the greatest thing ever according to all of my neighbour friends and we were mesmerized by the new invention that only one kid on the block had. Yet, there were no game warnings for Frogger, Donkey Kong or Mario Brothers, and it did not seem to be a priority of our parents to scrutinize the games we played. Since that time, technology has drastically matured from these popular culture artefacts, to transform into what is now very much the norm of youth recreational entertainment in my child's generation.

Labelling as depicted below, has been put in place to provide a caveat to parents prior to their purchase of the games, so that they can make a conscious decision as to the "acceptable"level of violence in the game. The standard of game ratings such as Adult, Mature, Teen, Everyone would reflect the current packing caveat labels in place.

Although the games are now labelled with the above noted ratings on their packaging, in my own experience the peer pressure on children to participate in on-line gaming and/or video game console gaming with or without ratings, seems subjective to the parents purchasing power. The problematic discourse is in these games systems now serving as an alternative electronic babysitters and the ritual or vehicle for transcendence is taking over the place of television. Parental scrutiny of a specific game's violence has been more often than not set on the back burner over the last decade it seems, to pacify their children's recreational needs. However the ESRB ( Entertainment Software Ratings Board) with its lobbying as talked about in lecture, holds these game manufacturers to task in the regulation of their violence content, which lead to the now standardized ESRB board labelling.

 So one could question why the Religious right, while at times warranted, does not draw similar  comparisons between games like Doom versus Left Over, as being on par with their respective levels violence. Better yet, I too was quite shocked when I discovered at a Pentacostal church camp that two of my children attended, allowed children to play Wii games with a Cinema size screen as apart of their activities. However, maybe not all gaming is bad. Parents have since flipped the script to take violence out of some games to allow for their own entertainment. By now having their own Wii console time to exercise with their kids to play the Just Dance or on their own like the Wii Fit games with the creation of motion detected controller (s), the battle combat the virtual reality violence epidemic has been transposed into a exercise of body motion. Nonetheless, the intrinsic transformation of merging virtual realities with the traditional recreation for both adults and kids has allowed for a homogenization of electronic entertainment minus the "real" hands on violence between real people.

Yet, more importantly religious institutions and groups are chasing the coattails of gaming entertainment to re-capture lost church parishioners attendance. This paradox faces the complexity  of balancing getting families to attend church and/or keep children engaged in Sunday school.  Does this therefore mean that these sacred spaces has been further perverted because society is so addicted to electronic devices, like a transcendent drug addiction? Where is the line drawn in the sand, when churches too are guilty of using these types of artefacts in their places of worship, (where many consider a sacred space),  to keep it, "holy and sanctified", instead of stopping the invasion of electronic violence at the church doors? Violent entertainment's congealing of secular and religious spaces, is still trying to be measure out out this complex immersion. 

Sources: Wagner, Rachel.The Play Is the Thing: Interactivity from Bible Fights to Passions of the Christ.

Harris, Jennifer. “Violence and Popular Culture". Christianity and Popular Culture Lecture. St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. March 13, 2012. Toronto.

Response to Christianity and Popular Culture in Perspective

Response to Ccandelario's post.

After a closer look at Tracy Trothen's reading and the in class discussion with respect to Christianity and violence, the theological correlations between sport and religion seemed to push the binaries of real life versus theological causation factors. However, I am challenged with ccandelario's and Trothen's view that violence in hockey has reached the same level of "normalized" violence as in the crucifixion narrative Trothen portrays.  Trothen goes through concepts of sexual abuse, commodification of sport, gender and religious issues, but at some point I have to stop and question some of the over reaching qualifications that are being made by Trothen's analysis.  Sheldon Kennedy's case was by no means was an isolated incident, and yet I do not support the notion that there is some moral ambiguity as to what types of behaviours are tolerated by the hockey league and the actual reality of what goes on behind the scenes of scouting and drafting players of any sport. Simply that there are means to an end for the choices made to elect to engage and participate in these acts of violence. 

In tandem with this discussion, I also had an opportunity on March 2, 2012, to view a Fifth Estate's investigative documentary program called "Fast Break", (http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2011-2012/fastbreak/) which aired on CBC television. So, while there has been no evidence of sexual abuse of the "scouted" players to date illustrated in this documentary, there was a obvious derelict of duty by the coach/scout Ro Russell, in luring young promising basketball star hopefuls to a "Christian" school in Creedmore, North Carolina with false promises and no real supervision. In acknowledging the similarities of Trothen's article and Fast Break, which both articulate the "grooming" aspect of young players, and in particular this above noted example of commodification of young players, the level of violence can not be equated in my mind to the parallels of Jesus Christ's crucifixion. Cultural boundaries, time frames and the ethos of the times between Jesus Christ's  time of crucifixion and Pacquiao's current boxing career are just to large of a gap in time. ccandelario mentions, "Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao's" rituals prior to and at the end of his boxing matches, but does not also make the link or attribution of his behaviour to his cultural background or how this public demonstration of praying and wearing the rosary prior to matches might serve to be some how be linked to his appeal in his marketing to "spectators" as all apart of the "entertainment" provided. While I agree that violence is all to prevalent in sports, there has to be something said for the participants willing "engagement" in the sports, and their willingness to gladly accept the money, fame, and celebrity status that players/athletes rarely refuse to accept in association with their sports performance. Jesus Christ did not receive all of these financial perks, but certainly became a celebrity during his time for quite different reasons. Evidence of the vigour in which religion, and Jesus Christ's life is debated in public forums nearly two thousand years after his death might act as to support the fame of Jesus' altruistic life, but the correlation to entertainment and commodification of Jesus Christ versus athletes I simply reject as being "parallel" in terms of the "value added" violence. Violence goes beyond just Jesus's offer of salvation to encompass how we as a society, whether voluntarily or involuntarily negotiate the boundaries for which we "accept" or normalize violence in any genre, sports included. More importantly, when society acts as bystanders or spectators willing to participate in and failing to take a stand on or attempting to stop this normalisation of violence, I believe I have to reject ccandelario's argument of ambiguity as I believe the ambiguity is only in the conscious choices of how we as a society choose to participate and tolerate acts of violence.

 In reflecting on the class discussion, I thought of how Jesus is commodified and images like this, "Gimme Your Money" Jesus picture, illustrates one similarity between religion and sports, big profits.  Football is big business is the US, and many Canadians and Americans according to Dr. Harris's lecture, people spend inordinate amounts of money in advertising, entertainment, player and management salaries that thirty years ago were unheard of in professional sports. ESPN notes that Joe Montana got signed at a salary of $50,000.00, in the early 1980's (http://espn.go.com/classic/s/000729montanaadd.html. March 7, 2012) which is a far cry from what Tebow got paid last year of 1.6 million dollars according to Celebrity Networth (http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-athletes/nfl/tim-tebow-net-worth/, March 2012).
However, I was so pleased to finally see in a Toronto Star article (http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1142691--ontario-schools-will-do-more-for-students-with-head-injuries-under-new-legislation. March 7, 2012) that the government of Ontario is taking a pro-active stance, in becoming the first province to under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education, to address a major sports problem, head injuries, that has gone below the radar for many years until recently.
In addition, I also came across a picture of "touch down Jesus"and thought of how the "sacredness" and perceived miracles of Jesus, related to the class discussion about the rituals of the Notre Dame football team, which appeared to marry together in essence, football as a ritual of its own. Is there some kind of euphoria similar to what some evangelical Christians would say mirrors blessings of the Holy Spirit?

Tebow in this image below, points to heaven and the banner along the bottom, "Not Ashamed of Jesus", indicating some how through popular culture's lenses, would insinuate that publicly professing, acting or committing Christian rituals in public was a bad thing. Does committing public professions of Christian acts, rituals seem some how exotic in today's culture?  One might ask the question how this sports culture has attempted to fill the gap for the lack or decreasing religiosity expressed in and by youth beyond the traditional US Bible belt. When I was a kid, it wasn't usual to go to Sunday School and say the Lord's prayer in school, however, The province of Ontario no longer permits in public schools for the reciting of Lords Prayer along side singing O' Canada. In a 1990 Ontario Court of appeal decision which struck down the regulation that dealt with "religious education",(www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/religion/religioe.html, September 27, 2007. March 2012).

Some parents of children that participate in extra-curricular in Ontario sports such as hockey, basketball and soccers, groom kids from a early age, can be said to be quite passionate about their respective child's abilities. In having sat on the sidelines on soccer fields in Ontario, I have seen very little religious or public professions of faith by players or parents alike, yet these same parents spend money quite willingly, living vicariously through their child's sports success. 

So where does this leave religion? On the shelf ? or where popular culture designates an "appropriate" space for professions of faith? What are people ashamed of? Maybe if there is enough marketing in Canada, people can transform Tebow's John 3:16, into a profitable branding opportunity.