But what does it have to do with religion?

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by Tiassa, Apr 8, 2004.

  1. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    I've said little, since its release, about Gibson's The Passion. I was excited about its prospect--a film about Jesus in dead languages. And while I'm certainly amused at the South Park take on the issue, I wanted to run a different aspect by people.

    I just picked four advertisements out of the daily snail mail. These are not, of course all the advertisements, but I don't think you care how much money I can save on GutterMax®.

    Casey and Wendy Treat, in support of two Christian Faith Centers sent an oversized postcard, addressed "Resident," featuring a familiarly-stylized use of the word passion: "His Passion Gave Life." It is an invitation to the Easter services. ("Outstanding children's church - sunrise service excluded; exciting junior high services; a passionate musical presentation from the creative arts ministry . . . .")
    Canyon Hills Community Church also has Easter on its mind (it's the common theme); Pastor Steve Walker will share an inspiring teaching on the Resurrection - "What if it's true"? Or so says the oversized postcard addressed to "Resident."
    Canyon Creek Church (I live near a canyon?!) sends yet another oversized postcard, this, "To our neighbors at ...." The front shows a stylized cross on a dark crimson band over a background consisting of two palms of the hand superimposed transparently over a sun-flaring cloudy background. While not invoking Easter except to list the service dates, CCC offers, "The Day After the Passion."
    • Lastly, the Monroe Seventh-day Adventist Church offers a more commonsense advert, a cheaply-printed flyer folded over, addressed, and stamped. They're announcing The Sun Has Risen, a "musical drama about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the historic and Biblical sequel to 'The Passion of the Christ.'

    I'm going to begin not with the detail I've left out. That's actually a separate issue. But this is crass. One in four churches advertising for Easter today can actually avoid attempting to exploit Gibson's movie. Is Christianity really reduced to nothing more than an ongoing, self-recycling pop-culture fad?

    And I recongnize that the movie isn't the only thing. The Resurrection itself doesn't carry as much punch these days, and it took until I was in Catholic school to get much discussion of "the passion." Perhaps the Catholics have always discussed it, but it's only in the face of skepticism that I feel the issue was ever addressed seriously (or semi-seriously, or intended-to-be-seriously, as some might have it) by those who attempted to instruct and indoctrinate me into Christianity.

    But I didn't get this last year. It was the same old Resurrection and sacrifice and new hope bit.

    Now it's passion, passion, passion.

    The fact that I left out? The SDA flyer was addressed to my partner and her ex-husband. Which is a longer story than needs recounting, but I'm wondering why her parents have a church up here harassing her about that.

    So much for the spirit of Easter. Market appeal holds three-quarters of the represented sample ("The Day After the Passion" is fair); and that's more than enough to define the propriety of war. Is it enough to suggest--and, possibly, in a more extended and complete examination, define--the nature of Christianity?
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2004
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Jenyar Solar flair Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,833
    Late night, tiassa? I think the movie - and by association, it's title - has become a modern banner for Christianity to rally under. How can people resist uniting under it, pointing at it and whispering, or throwing rocks at it as it passes by? It's certainly polarized people in a way that probably echoes the original Passion more than they would like to admit. The stone the builders rejected has been excavated and put on display again. Everybody wants a chance to stub their toe on it.

    What you're experiencing could be the American consumer culture flavour of it. It certainly fits the stereotype. Not really practical here in SA... personalized postcards are outside the budget for most churches, and capitalism more clearly distinguished from religion in people's minds. Call us third world or "developing", but I prefer it this way. Although the amount of churches that measure themselves (and others) by the "punch" they deliver are increasing. Myself, if the truth isn't good enough, I'm out of there.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2004
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. §outh§tar is feeling caustic Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,832
    The film has been viewed as a tool for bringing people to Christ. I am a slave of God and I haven't watched the film yet. Many churches, including the one I go to (Baptist) have encouraged all members to go see the movie.

    I wonder if the Church NEEDED this film as a spark.. However, I'm waiting for the History Channel to present their special on Easter. I'm sure America is the only, or at least one of the only countries, with this mindset. I don't think my country is slaving over the Passion, I think more focus should be on God rather than on the movie. After all, it's just a movie, or is it?
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    Jenyar
    As an issue of good taste?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    South Star
    It probably did, though I hesitate to ascribe the South Park version of viewer stupidity.

    I actually have yet to see it; it's just a matter of convenience, although I admit that the nearly-slobbering hype and second-rate hissy about anti-Semitism have dulled my enthusiasm.

    General Commentary

    Jenyar, that's an excellent point about the US and its priorities in behavior. SouthStar, on the one hand, you're right that it is just a movie. To the other, at least one person has died while watching the film, and one has spontaneously confessed to a crime in response. Is it the miracle of Jesus, or coincidence on the one hand and predictable psychology on the other?

    It does strike me, though, that it's a good thing George W. Bush isn't Christian, or else we'd be fighting both the Jews and the Muslims at the same time.
     
  8. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit!

    Whipping the Easter Bunny - "What Easter is all about."

    This is just disturbing:

    http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/strange/040804_ap_sn_easterbunny.html
    http://www.kirotv.com/weirdheadlines/2986223/detail.html
    http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pittsburgh/s_188386.html

    The situation: A church in Pennsylvania has staged a sketch in which performers declared, "There is no Easter Bunny," and then proceeded to whip the Easter Bunny . . . .
    Ahhh ... the spirit of life and love that Christ brings.

    Look, I'll buy the church's line about how this wasn't meant to be offensive, but ... they had to realize ... didn't they? (No smiley suits the expression on my face.)

    It's one thing if a member of the flock--e.g. Mel Gibson--wishes to depict the suffering of his preferred Lord and Savior in order to reaffirm his own faith in front of millions. But it's quite another if a member of the flock wishes to depict the beating and torment of a chosen "enemy" in order to berate people for not believing what he believes.

    I took that barb at President Bush in my last post because I really do think him so effing stupid, so malicious whether wilfully or accidentally, that I feel to call him a Christian is sort of an affront to Christians. After all, when does it come up? When people are hammering away on the idiocy of the Bush White House.

    And while we might argue whether or not it's appropriate or intelligent to feel a certain way, I'm not entirely sure these folks whipping the Easter Bunny qualify as Christians; while I'm prone to say that Christians can amaze me with manifestations of stupidity and idiocy, this, like Bush and his holy war and his revelations from God to bomb Iraq, is damn near a mystery for the oracles.

    It's the kind of thing that makes me want to give our friend Proud Muslim an apologetic hug and say, "Do you see? This is why Americans don't understand. The Arab world has some serious problems to deal with, but we're whipping the goddamn Easter Bunny over here! This is how people think of God in this country. They're not evil; they don't need punishment. They need help." Serious, psychospiritual help. Americans don't need spiritual enemies, but rather spiritual enemas.

    I mean ... whipping the Easter Bunny? What the hell does that have to do with God, religion, or anything but an intense earthsickness?

    And as long as I'm on that comparison I'll say this: Christians have no malamati. And if malamiyyah among Sufism isn't far-enough removed from orthopraxic Islam, hey ... any malamiyyah Christianity would have endured ... well, it wouldn't have been endured or tolerated; it would have been destroyed. I'm sure they were in there, somewhere, among the many faceless, nameless heretics whose texts didn't survive through the ages. But ... no, this is not, as ibn Ajiba phrases it, "hiding their taste of sanctity and displaying states that make people flee their company." These are not, again borrowing from ibn Ajiba, people who "do not manifest anything good outwardly and do not hide anything bad."

    It sounds like sickness.

    Edit: Another link; a friend just emailed me the story, and that one has a picture of the Easter Bunny, but you don't see it being whipped.

    http://www.nbc10.com/news/2983535/detail.html
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2004
  9. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    I ... uh ... I didn't know what to do with this one. So I'll stick it in this topic.

    • BBC News Online. "Kuwait sex-change case upheld." April 25, 2004. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3657727.stm
    A fatwa from al-Azhar, in Egypt, was the clincher.

    Would any of our Muslim friends know where we might possibly get to see a glimpse of the discussions that lead to such a fatwa?

    I mean, truly ... the will of God be the will of God, but this is one of the great conundrums of all time - to what end does God will this?

    Such are the mysteries of God.

    But still, to have been in on the process leading to such a fatwa--I think Westerners in general would benefit from understanding how to go from A to B to C on this one because ... well, welcome to the twenty-first century. It seems the Sunnis are already onboard. Take that Muslim-haters ...

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    I'm going to go smoke a bowl. Props to the al-Azhar. We in the West await the dissemination of this one in the standard periodicals. Seriously, it'll be a best-seller. When comes the biography and the biopic/MotW?
     

Share This Page