Pop Culture and Religion

Why would you preach a message inspired by a movie that you tell your parish not to see? I only ask this because it seems like one man is.

This guy claims to be trying to reach out to people by simply getting their attention with the movie stuff, but in even joking about them and dressing up as the characters isn't that endorsement of the movies?

Now, as a student of popular culture who gets most of my academic direction from a theologian and religious leader, I have no problem with the idea of the church and the megaplex sharing a common ground. I will gladly tell you that we live in a world where the movie theater is the church, the DVR is the confessional, and the convention is the hajj.* The problem is when you try to use one to boost the other even if that boost is based on something that is condemned.

For example, if I were at a nut allergy conference I would not dress up like Mr. Peanut for the first half of my talk only to take off the monocle and say, "Seriously though, don't eat nuts." The whole point of the gentleman legume is to sell nuts. Likewise, the jokes of white guys playing black guys is about getting people to go see the movie.

This isn't hypocriticalism. That would be much more obvious to see. It is actually a kind of disillusionment. It is a feeling that you can take things from the culture at large and apply them to your pure religion while still condemning them for existing.

This is partially my complaint about Christian Rock. While yes "rock and/or roll music" is a genre that is defined by a distinct sound from its fast tempo to its ability to be complex or simple, it is also carries a distinct philosophy. That is it is all about being subversive. The problem is that Christian Rock doesn't seem to be subversive at all.

This is because of one of two things. First, it could be that no one seems to notice this dichotomy. I doubt this. There have been plenty of louder voices than mine shouting about this. We all know that these two things should not go together when described like this. But there is always the off chance that everyone is really just as dense as this idea would suggest.

The second is much worse than the first. What if rock is no longer subversive? Clearly, it isn't subversive now, but was it ever? While there is always the old joke of the dad banging on the door telling his kind to turn off that shitty music, this stereotype is dieing. Instead we are getting a generation of kinds whose dads are banging on their doors demanding that they return their shitty music.

I might enjoy sitting back and listening to Led Zeppelin with my dad, but in doing so I am admitting that I (and my generation by extension) am neither rebellious nor subversive in the way his might have been.

This worries me because it might mean that we have reached a point where we must redefine rock music, admit that it is mainstream, and realize that the young culture of today is the culture that even the gray feel that they are a part of.



*Yeah, I am sure this is an imperfect analogy. So enjoy it as humor.

The End of Summer

Well, this is the last night before the end of summer for me. I enjoyed it and feel that it was mildly productive. Spending most of it in LA was pretty much awesome, but the parts that were just here in Arkansas were fun too.

With school starting I hope to be getting into a more writerly mode of operations. This means that the several posts I have started on here might get past the draft stage and will become interesting discussions. I also hope that I might start to post sections of my actual thesis here as I work them out. All and all I want to just have more content here.

All said I hope you all had a good summer.