"The Universal Life Church Monastery strongly believes in the rights of all people from all faiths to practice their religious beliefs, regardless of what those beliefs are, be they Christian, Jew, Gentile, Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, Shinto, Pagan, Wiccan, Druid or even Dignity Catholics; so long as they do not infringe upon the rights of others and are within the law of the land and one’s conscience."

Source - 

ULC mission statement. Accessed on: 20/04/12. Accessed at:http://www.themonastery.org/aboutUs

Locating Religion

This week in class we discussed ‘online religion’ and this provoked (yet again) some debate over whether the internet can be noted as a sacred place and further more if online rituals are significant or not. Cheong’s (2010) article about the relationship between religion and twitter is also reflective of this argument. Cheong includes that religious organisations started using social networking to ‘encourage the extension of presence beyond the church walls’(Cheong 2010 ). If you take this point of view, then it isn’t really a matter of whether online religion is sacred or not, it’s more about whether it is necessary, and the answer to that is yes. 

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Social networking is not a new fad and many other organisations have been clued on to how powerful it is for quite some time. One of these organisations is the Global Atheist Foundation. This foundation completely utilises every kind of social network to spread their beliefs. If religious organisations want to counteract the spread of atheism and want to truly spread the word of god as far as possible, there doesn’t seem to be any other choice in this day and age- they must embrace the internet. Afterall, is there a defined temporal or spatial aspect to religion? Kim Knott’s book, ‘The location of religion’ examines this question. Knott describes her purpose as trying to create ‘a new perspective on the relationship between religion and the physical, social and cultural areas in which it is situated’ (Knott 2005, p1).

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Sources

Cheong, P. 2010. Faith Tweets: Ambient Religious Communication and Microblogging Rituals. M/C Journal 13.2. Accessed on 15/04/12. Accessed at: <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/223>.

Knott, K. 2005. The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis. Equinox Publishing:London. 

Let's take our time.

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I’m sure you will all remember the debate that took place in our week six lecture. There were two sides, dozens of ideas  and  frustratingly enough -no decided winner. Out of the numerous comments which were flung from team to team, the two main points were as follows. Those who were pro ‘fast religion’ argued vehemently that older, traditional or ‘slow religions’ were just that- too old, too stuck on tradition, and too slow for a fast-paced world. However, with just as much gusto was the other side, arguing for slow religion and highlighting the fact that it is only the slow religions that hold true meaning. Yes, maybe slow religions are older, but it is only with time that we learn the most valuable lessons. And yes, maybe slow religions revolve around tradition however; we live in a mad world, there is no order to our chaos, there is no method to our madness, except for tradition. The right traditions grounds us, they provides safety from a world which is one step away from being so individualised, so complacent , and so distorted that soon it will be hard to find meaning in anything.

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The debate got me thinking, or more so worrying, about our concept of time.  Every generation seems to be getting more impatient and more wasteful than the next. We want everything now; all that matters is now and the long term is a far away concept that doesn’t matter right now. This is a disposable society where fast is good; fast cars, fast food, fast transport- we are fast thinkers. Western time is a competition. Many other cultures don’t even have a word for time because they do not have the obsessive urges that we do, to do control time. These cultures judge time through nature, they see a certain flower in bloom and they know it is a good time to grow some crops and not grow others. These cultures see certain animals leaving and they know it is time to brace for cold weather. 

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The western concept of time completely disconnects us from nature and drains the enjoyment from something that should be precious: from life. Even now as I write this, I want to escape such restrictive thinking and give the finger to this Greenwhich system we’ve been indoctrinated into, but I can’t. I can’t, because I have assignments due at a certain time; because I have to have dinner ready by a certain time; because I have to have an early bed time; because my class starts at a certain time tomorrow- the list goes on. But most of all, I can’t because I’ve already been conditioned to think in seconds and minutes and hours and years and by thinking like this, time controls me. We are not friends, time and I, just when I think we are getting closer... time runs away from me. 

The Sellout of Religion.

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Carrette and King (2005) aimed to identify that religion is being commodified in contemporary times to the extent that it is dissipated for the benefit of the current capitalist system. They argue that ‘spirituality’ in many of its current contexts is being marketed to the masses and consequently degrading religion and true ‘spirituality’ in the process. All one has to do is research words such as ‘globalisation’, ‘marketing’ or ‘capitalism’ in conjunction with the words ‘religion’ or spirituality’ and they will find numerous articles on how and why the world should sell religion . One article in particular which sadly highlights the corrupt relationship between religion and capitalism is Sudhir’s (2004) ‘Spirituality, Religion and Globalisation’. Although the title alone is enough to scare anyone with a moral compass, it does get worse. Sudhir depicts a world where religion not only can, but must, be understood not for interfaith purposes but for gaining a financial profit. Sudhir declares:

‘spirituality, religion and globalisation should be topics of vital interest to macromarketers...spiritual needs translate into demand for goods and services worth billions of dollars, and it is important that macromarketers understand these demands’ (Sudhir 2004:92).

Conclusively Carrette and King have an extremely valid argument and there are boundless amounts of prior research to support them; the article above is just one of many pieces that one can find if  they look.  




Reference List

Carrette, J & Richard King. 2005. Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion. Routledge, New York.

Sudhir, H, Kale. 2004. Spirituality, Religion and Globalisation. Journal of Macromarketing. 24:92.

Thank God for Andrew Lloyd Webber (pardon the pun).

Some of the lyrics in this song are very relevant to Religion and its relationship with modern day media: 

"Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land? If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation.
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication". 

The above line, although written over thirty years ago is actually reflective of a lot of modern day examples of religion in the media. Hillsong and and The Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) are just two example of how the word of god is spread through popular media.

The motif of a god figure as a superhero/superstar is obvious in this song. The below lines broach this subject: 

Do you think you're what they say you are Tell me what you think about your friends at the top.
Who'd you think besides yourself's the pick of the crop?
Buddha, was he where it's at? Is he where you are?
Could Mohammed move a mountain, or was that just PR?
Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake, or
Did you know your messy death would be a record breaker?
Don't you get me wrong.
I only want to know.

"Jesus is my superhero"

Not Much Ado about Harry

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"There is no good or evil: only power and those too weak to seek it."
Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone

"Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

 

"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.  Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you."

Deuteronomy 18:10-12

New International Version (NIV)

Soulliere (2010) provides an interesting perspective on the relationship between ‘moral panic’ and J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series. However, it is somewhat generalised as Soulliere fails to identify some of the debates that go on within the Christian organisations she is referring to. She also seems oblivious to the dynamics of different personalities- religious or none religious.

Academics have been studying the versatility of human nature and the oddities it encompasses, for many years. Midgely (2002); Hutschnecker (1955); Wright (1999) are just a minute few of the many authors who look into why human beings love some things/people and hate others.

The Christian Right vs Harry Potter debate is reflective of this versatility in human nature. Some of the organisations which Soulliere exemplified as contributing to the denouncing of Harry Potter novels, also had various postings on their websites in favour of the novels. Yes, some posts labelled the novels as satanic devil-worship,  but others explored the positive lessons that can be taken from them.The American Catholic website had a post declaring: ‘Harry Potter bears a host of life lessons about fairness, loyalty, goodness in the face of evil and self-giving love’ (americancatholic.org ). One post on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) went as far as implying a parallel between Dumbledore to God and Voldemort to Satan (Christian Broadcasting Network). Another CBN post read: ‘The sixth (Harry Potter instalment) gives us the opportunity to talk about souls, eternal life, death and loss, coming of age, relationships, friendship, fears, school, war, tragedy and much more’.

Conclusively, moral panic, as Soulliere discusses, has been around for centuries. This alone indicates that there will always be certain groups of people, or as mentioned above- individuals within certain groups, who will negate or criticise trends in popular culture. Moreover, as society moves further and further away from its traditional pillars, there will be fundamentalists of any kind desperately trying to hold on to those pillars. Soulliere did a fantastic job and dissecting the arguments made by certain right wing Christian groups. However, overall the article was lacking in a more thorough exploration of the arguments regarding moral panic around Harry Potter novels especially the ones opposing the idea.

Reference list

Soulliere, DM  2010, ‘Much Ado about Harry: Harry Potter and the Creation of a Moral Panic’, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Vol. 22, no.1, pp. N/A

Midgely, M 1979, Beast and man: the roots of human nature, Harvester Press Limited, New York.

Hutschnecker, AA 1955, Love and Hate in Human Nature, Crowell, New York.

Wright, W 1999, Born That Way: Genes, Behaviour, Personality, Routlage, New York.

The Christian Broadcasting Network 2012, Viewed 12 March 2012,

<http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/OnlineDiscipleship/HarryPotterControversy/harrypotterharm.asp>

American Catholic. Org 2011, Viewed 12 March 2012,

< http://www.americancatholic.org/>