11.28.06
Comedy versus Theology
There’s been a lot of portrayal of smaller religious groups on television lately. South Park’s treatment of Scientology is probably best remembered, but this season’s two-parter Go God Go parodied atheism with a theme I’ve often used in debates with anti-religionists. Namely, that even if all religion was done away with people would still find arbitrary things to fight about.
The rival Cartoon Network has had some interesting portrayals of religion in its Adult Swim shows this season. One episode of Metalocalypse followed one of the characters as he explored different paths, including atheism and the Church of Satan. Each in turn was as boring to him as the last; even Satanism, which he expected to be “hardcore.” This Sunday’s Moral Orel, itself a parody of Davey and Goliath, also mocked the Church of Satan in a surprisingly accurate way.
This just goes to show how flimsy one of the arguments for Christian persecution in the media is. The aforementioned shows go to show that Christianity isn’t the exclusively the butt of jokes in mass media. Not that making fun of a religion is anywhere near the same thing as persecution, anyway. It should also be noted a fair amount of humor at Christians’ expense comes from Christians themselves. In my opinion, any religious tradition worth its salt should be able to laugh at itself. Just look at the rich heritage of Jewish and Unitarian Universalist self-deprecating humor.
11.24.06
Update on Christian Coalition and Rev. Hunter
Turns out Rev. Joel Hunter won’t become the new president of the Christian Coalition because the board won’t let him expand the group’s agenda from just the two hot-button issues of abortion and homosexuality. Hunter summarizes the response he got to hoping to focus on poverty and the environment this way: “These issues are fine, but they’re not our issues, that’s not our base.” Looks like the CC would rather continue to pander to the Far Right by sticking to deadlocked litmus issues than actually bothering to get anything accomplished. Guess I’m back to hoping the CC is a sinking ship once again. I wonder if evangelicals who actually care about the same things that Jesus did will ever be able to get their voices heard.
More here.
11.17.06
UU Congregation on my Favourite Podcast
State of Belief, a radio show primarily about religion and politics which is hosted by the president of the Interfaith Alliance, is to feature Rev. Sarah Clarke of First Parish of Plymouth on this Sunday’s episode. She will “explains how a calvanistic church founded by the Pilgrims has become a thriving Unitarian Universalist congregation.” It’s bound to be an interesting story both for people within and outside our tradition. You’ll be able to listen to the show here.
11.10.06
For Consideration #1
Like anyone else, I often have many thoughts flying through my head at once. A lot of these are ideas, either ones that others have given me or that have come up with myself, that I have not yet been able to grok. Instead of keeping them my turbulent mind, I think it would benefit myself and others to keep track of ideas for consideration here.
A) Something I noticed this summer when I attended various Christian services is that they all seemed to have a heck of a lot less narration than UU services. I was reminded of it in a recent post by PeaceBang. So the question is, would dropping the narration in any way detract from UU services? I for one think our services would stand to benefit greatly in a number of ways by such reform. It seems the the service as a whole would feel less stilted and more coherent. And as PB noted: we already have printed orders of service.
B) I attended a panel discussion by rabbis from the three major Jewish movements (Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative) on women in Judaism. As anyone who is familiar with the differences between the three could imagine, it was quite a lively discussion! But one thing in particular stuck with me. The Orthodox rabbi spoke of how he loved his wife more than himself. When I was younger I always wanted to have just such a relationship, but as I’ve grown older I’ve thought of this as youthful naivete or a relic of an older generation. But here was a young man, probably no more than 15 years my senior, who was doing it. So is such love possible in this era, in this culture? I can see how it would be possible in a conservative subculture such as Orthodox Judaism, but is it possible for UUs?
