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).