Sticks and Snakes

The Pope is Not on Team Edward.

Unless you've been living under a rock this week, you are probably aware that the latest installment of the Twilight movie franchise, "New Moon", debuted in theaters nation-wide on Friday. Based on the four-book series by Stephanie Meyer, "New Moon" picks up where last Fall's "Twilight" movie left off. In her small town of Forks, Washington, Bella, the awkward human teenager in love with the vampire Edward, encounters her own broken heart and the shocking revelation that her best friend Jacob is actually a warewolf (I'll leave it at that so as not to spoil the fun). I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've read all the books (twice...), and as you may know from past entries on Sticks and Snakes, I am totally fascinated with the full-blown cultural phenomenon that these books have brought about.

image/Vanity Fair

Well, it seems that Pope Benedict XVI and some other top Vatican officials are not as smitten with Edward Cullen as I am (big surprise!). The Vatican recently released a statement slamming "New Moon" and calling it a "deviant moral vaccuum." Uh-oh! Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, of the Pontifical Council on Culture, had this to say about the blockbusting movie:

'Men and women are transformed with horrible masks and it is once again that age-old trick or ideal formula of using extremes to make an impact at the box office. This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern.' Source.

Six years ago, the Vatican famously criticized the Harry Potter franchise for similar reasons. I am always surprised by how religious cultural critics (Roman Catholic, Evangelical, or otherwise) seem completely unable to grasp the importance of metaphor in popular media. The Twilight Saga is certainly not overtly religious, but like Harry Potter, it contains important messages about the triumph of good over evil, the struggle between one's best intention and one's fallen nature, and the meaning of friendship. And you'd think that the Vatican would applaud the books' emphasis on teenage abstinence--the Pope loves abstinence!

A parishioner at my church recently asked me if I thought it was appropriate for her teenage daughter to read the Twilight books. I paused for a moment, not because of my religious interests, but because of my feminist ones. I told her that as long as her daughter is able to discern the difference between fantasy and reality, and as long as she understands that the super-controlling elements of vampire-human relationships do not translate in a healthy way to human-human relationships, then she is good to go. 

Ultimately, Twilight is another vehicle for young women to experience the joy of reading and to exercise their imaginations--what can be wrong with that?

Does this Cassock Make my Butt Look Big?

Some of you may  have noticed that priests--maybe especially female priests--sometimes have a hard time finding ways to stay stylish post-ordination. I have thought long and hard about this phenomenon and have identified three reasons for priestly fashion violations: (1) The long hours and odd scheduling makes it hard to muster the energy to, like, wash your hair; (2) Clerical shirts are generally un-flattering and can make an otherwise cute outfit to straight to hell; and (3) On a more serious note, I think that female priests are especially self-concious of putting energy into looking attractive, either because they don't want to send the "wrong" message to parishioners or because they are afraid that they won't be taken seriously if they look "cute." Obviously, reason number three is deeply rooted and cannot be solved with a quick fix,  but reasons one and two are totally (in my opinion) avoidable! (Quick side note: When I was in seminary I was once told that I should cut my hair short and stop wearing makeup so that men will be less inclined to sexually harass me at work...seriously. I mean, just think about that.)

Anyway, I was really excited on Sunday morning when a parishioner at my church told me that a friend of hers--a 25 year-old priest in Mossouri--was selected to be on TLC's What Not to Wear. Now, I really love this show and I often hear the voices of its hosts, Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, echoing in my ears when I go shopping. Their "rules" for clothing selection have been an enormous help for me as I've transitioned to professional life. Just thinking of them doing a show on a female priest delights me! My mom has always thought that a priest would make a good candidate on the show and she's totally right. Clinton and Stacy will have a lot to work with as they deal with the inherant fasion illiteracy of clergy, the peculiar problem of the clerical collar, and maybe some style resistance. Oh, I can't wait!

The show probably won't air until sometime next year, but I'll keep you posted!

God is Watching Us...From a Distance.

I recently ran across this amazing artwork by the Australia based art collective, The Glue Society. The collection, called "God's Eye View," is intended to fool with the ways that we inherently trust satellite images these days. Not only are the pictures really interesting, but they are very beautiful. Meant to depict the way that key biblical events may have looked from space, the images strikingly portray how small we are and the strange beauty of our beliefs. 

You can see the rest of the pictures after the jump!

Bloodsuckers and Bibles

It seems that the recent resurgence in popularity of vampire fiction has trickled all the way down to the Christian publishing world. This week the annual Christian International Retail Show met in Denver, Colorado to introduce some of the newer titles in Christian religious fiction. I can hardly imagine what a convention like this would be like, although I bet it might be something similar to how I think of Dollywood: fascinating, tacky, and culturally confusing. In any event, publishers introduced the world to new series of Amish fiction (not fiction written by Amish people, but written for Evangelical women about Amish people), which has grown to be a popular sub-genre in Christian books. No surprise there.

A big shocker came later in the convention, however, when it was announced that WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group will soon release Thirsty, a novel by Tracey Bateman, which tells the story of  a vampire named Markus and the divorced alcoholic woman that he is obsessed with. It seems that the vampire is a metaphor for the demonic, and the female character's struggle over whether to fall in love with him has something to do with her redemption. I think. 

Anyway, I find it interesting that the Christian publishing world is taking on as confusing a theological topic as vampirism, although I am not convinced that they are really going to work through subject with the same philosophical literacy that, say, Buffy did. The fact that Thirsty's cover bears a slight resemblance to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series makes me think that this book might just put a Christian gloss on a secular-tested cash cow without getting too original. But we'll see...

Too Soon?

Like everyone else, I was incredibly  surprised to learn of Michael Jackson's sudden death yesterday afternoon. Although my feelings surrounding the pop star's death are--to say the least--more ambivalent than many of the cable TV commentators I've seen, I have always been impressed by MJ's talent and recognize the amazing contribution that he made to pop music in his short life. Like a lot of people my age, Michael Jackson's songs hold enormous sentimental value for me, and I will always love dancing to them. 

imgage/here

Anyway. I find it interesting to watch how the public reacts to the deaths of pop-culture icons. I am sure that there is some psychological significance to the ritual actions surrounding public deaths--gathering outside the hospital, 24-hour television vigils disguised as "news," etc. I think it is important for people to be allowed to grieve in this way, especially because they seem to be grieving something about themselves and their own lives. After all, most of us didn't actually know Michael Jackson. 

       

One aspect of this public grieving just bugs me, however, is the way that some people seek to make money off of death. One can make a neat little business "memorializing" the fallen, it seems. I was looking around on Etsy today in hopes of finding a cool screen-printed image of MJ (like the one above) and was shocked to see pages of memorial merchandise...already! Even the indie artisans over at Etsy would like to make a cool buck off of the death of a stranger. I guess I don't have too strong of opinions one way or another, but it seems like an awful lot of effort to go through so soon. Like, were all these jewlery makers and screen-printers up all night last nigh working away? Who knows. 

More Vampire Priests

Now that Sticks and Snakes is the leading Internet authority on Vampire Eucharistic Theology (seriously), I thought that I would be remiss if I didn't deliver the following bit of news. It seems that "Twilight" star Cam Gigandet has signed on to star in yet another vampire film--the movie adaptation of the TokyoPop comic book, "Priest." 

"Priest" takes place in a world that is being destroyed by a vampire-human war. Gigandet's character, a sheriff, teams up with a warrior priest (played by Paul Bettany) to save a girl that is in danger. There is no word yet on when the film will be released. 

Intrigued yet again by the vampire-priest combo (in "Priest," the title character is a human, which is a different arrangement from the South Korean film "Thirst," which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago), I did a little research on the original TokyoPop comic. 

And by "research" I mean that I looked it up on Wikipedia. 

Anyway, it seems that the creator of the comic was inspired by both western and dark/fantasy genres, so he blended them in this story about human sheriffs, athiests, and priests battling the undead. I tried to learn more but, frankly, even the Wikipedia article was too confusing for me to understand. As far as I can tell, the comic book does not go into great detail about how Eucharistic Theology relates to vampires, but I am sure we can expect big developments in the field once the movie comes out...

photo/here

More Fodder for my Dissertation

As some of you know, in the last six months or so I have developed a pretty intense fascination with vampires. Or, not with vampires specifically, but more with the entire vampire phenomenon, which has really blown up recently (see Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga franchise and HBO's "True Blood"). I spend a little too much time wondering why people are so interested in this particular legend, and I am especially fascinated by how each generation seems to re-create the same old narrative: vampire meets girl, vampire struggles against his own nature to keep from killing girl, etc.  

   

Since much of the rest of my mind is consumed with topics related to theology, I can't help but wonder if there is a relationship between vampires and religion (Christianity in particular). After all, the two narratives have a lot in common: the defeat of death, a promise of immortality, and the drinking of blood (hello Eucharist!). The vampire legend especially explores one particular element of Christian theology: free will and its relationship to inherent nature and the struggle to temper sinful desire (in the case of vampires, that desire usually involves killing people and drinking their blood). I wonder how much the vampire legend has borrowed from the Church in the last few centuries and whether Christian theology can inform our understanding of this popular folklore (or, visa versa, I guess)

Well, it looks like someone got there before I did. This year, the Cannes Film Festival debuted "Thirst", a film by South Korean director Park Chan-wook. The movie centers on a Roman Catholic priest (played by Song Kang-ho) who becomes a vampire and must fight against his urge to kill people for their blood, a desire that he knows is wrong but is necessary for his survival. The priest becomes a vampire through a failed medical experiment, something that he volunteered to participate in because of his desire to save the world (this is the part that I don't really get, but I haven't actually seen the movie). 

Interestingly enough, the film's French title translates to "This is My Blood," part of the words of institution in the Eucharistic Prayer. A major tension in the film seems to be the priest's sacramental devotion to the Eucharist (the body and blood of Christ consumed the form of consecrated bread and wine) and his natural desire (as a vampire) to consume the blood of humans. Crazy!

I should say that I don't actually recommend this movie, as I've never seen it and probably won't--it is definitely a horror film and it sounds really, really bloody. That said, I am glad that I'm not the only person to think of the relationship between Eucharist and vampirism...I guess. 

You can read Time Magazine's take on "Thirst" here.

A Dream is a Wish

I am back from an fun and successful (I found an apartment!) trip to Omaha and am now catching up on all the media that I missed while I was away. Today I ran accross Annie Leibovitz's "Disney Dream Series"--a collection of beautiful photographs that recreate famous Disney scenes using equally as famous models. Leibovitz tends to photograph "A-List" celebrities, so I was thrilled to see her depiction of Mikhael Barishnikov as Peter Pan. Now, Barishnikov is certainly on my A-list, but I am not sure that other people feel the same way about him that I do. It's great to see him in such a fresh, delightful, dance-worthy image. Makes me want to go to the ballet!

Happy Earth Day!

Nothing says "save the planet"  like a buffalo resting on a pristine green field. I took this picture at Custer State Park in South Dakota while Hannah and I were on our road trip last summer. 

I grew up in Seattle and spent my formative elementary years at a school that was very conscious about environmental issues. Accordingly, a mantra that was burned into my brain at an early age was "reduce, reuse, recycle." We had a song and everything...complete with hand motions. 

I am glad that "going green" has become an important concept in the last several years. Ever since Al Gore released his wonderful documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth", global warming and other environmental issues have been a hot topic of conversation and an important cause that everyone can rally behind. 

I am a little concerned, however, by the fact that "green" products have become such big money-makers as of late. It seems like people are forgetting the first word in the mantra--reduce--and are trying to soothe their consciences by buying products that claim to be environmentally friendly, even if they are made by big companies that produce plenty of other, un-friendly, items. My suspicion that many of these products are actually "greenwashed" scams was affirmed by this article on Slate.

The article blows the proverbial whistle on several "green" scams, describing why some products that claim to be environmentally friendly are anything but that. Check it out!

Jesus Tweet

As many of you know, yesterday was Good Friday, the Christian holy day that commemorates the crucifixion and death of Christ. Different churches observe Good Friday in different ways, but a common element--at least among more liturgically-minded traditions--is to mark the three hours that Jesus hung on the cross with a service that includes hymn-singing, Stations of the Cross, and preaching. This service usually takes place between noon and 3:00 in the afternoon, and often precedes a later service in the evening where the cross is venerated. That later service usually includes the "passion narrative"--a re-telling of the biblical account of the crucifixion from one of the four gospels. 

I ran across this article from the New York Times website, about how Trinity Church, Wall Street--a big and prominent Episcopal Church in NYC--combined the tradition of the three hours with the tradition of the passion reading...in a new way. 

Between the hours of 12:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon, Trinity used Twitter, the popular microblogging website, to "tweet" the passion narrative in the form of a play. On Twitter, every message must be 140 characters or less, so each "line" of the story was reduced to a short phrase or two, delivered by a variety of characters. The New York Times reports that a young member of the church's communication team came up with the idea, hoping that it would be a way to engage more technologically-minded young people. 

Now, I'm no Luddite. In fact, I love technology and I truly believe that the Church needs to get hip and learn how use the tools of today in order to better and more fully reach its people. However, my first reaction when I read about Trinity's tweeting was, "oh no!" There is something totally irreverent about this experiment, and I can't help but think it's a bad idea. Although I am glad that Trinity--and church's like it--are trying out new ways to worship and are thinking about how to reach us young folks, context continues to be everything. Tweeting is a great way to remind the congregation about service times and potlucks, but I think Jesus' final three hours of life deserve a bit more. 

And BTW, next time your church starts thinking about how to reach "young people," the answer is simple: invite them.