All Entries in the "Kenny Smith" Category
Religion Lately: Scientology’s Super-Power Building, Celebrity Vampires Outed, Obama as Anti-Christ (again), and American “Moneytheism”
By Kenny Smith….
The Church of Scientology’s ($90 million) Super Power Building, which some describe as “a bizarre cross between a Mediterranean-style hotel and the Starship Enterprise,” offers some “889 rooms, an indoor running track and NASA-style training equipment,” where devotees will master super-human abilities, opens later this year. While it’s unclear how Vampire Churches (yes, they exist) will react, apparently both John Travolta and Nicholas Cage are vampires dating back at least to the Civil War, and photographs (now for sale on EBay for some $50,000, though with free gift wrapping and shipping) prove it!
Religion Lately: Mabon Celebrations, More Teavangelicals, Ugly Atheists, and the Machine Gun Preacher
By Kenny Smith and Heather Abraham…..
Wiccans and Neo-Pagans of all sorts celebrate Mabon this September 23 (or there about), a celebration of the fall harvest and the Autumn Equinox, a day in which the hours of day and night are perfectly balanced, and just one day after the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! Looking for a primer on Wiccan/Pagan holidays? Rob Bell, the controversial Christian minister whose book, Love Wins, published earlier this year questions some basic conservative ideas, for instance, that heaven is not a Christians-only club, strikes out on his own. Elsewhere in Christendom, one Southern Baptist leader argues that state executions are “pro-life.”
Religion Lately: The Religious Art of Dudeism, Evangelical Protestors v. Vanderbilt Fraternities, and the Rise of Big Religion
By Kenny Smith….
A Dudeist painter, inspired classical Western artistic traditions, works to capture the spiritual complexities of the Dude and his companions. Evangelical protestors confronted “drunk and immodestly dressed” Vanderbilt undergraduates, beseeching them to “put on some clothes and repent of their idolatry and fortification” as “no drunkard will enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”
Would you like to “friend” Jesus? Check out Jesus Daily, among the most frequented Facebook pages religious or otherwise. Americans may obsess about Big Government, but one scholar contemplates the emergence and implications of Big Religion, as evidenced by, say, Presidential candidate Rick Perry’s totalizing “Day of Prayer,” at which “everyone was welcome to come” and be Christian.
What’s in Your Bible?
By Kenny Smith, Religion Bulletin….
In a recent piece for CNN’s religion blog, “Actually, that’s not in the Bible,” John Blake examines the ubiquity of “phantom scripture” in American Christian communities. By “phantom scripture” he means ideas, teachings, and passages that sound like they belong in the Bible–e.g., “This too shall pass,” “God helps those who help themselves,” “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” or the notion that it was Satan (rather than a serpent) who tempted Eve in the Garden–but which, upon “close” (i.e., scholarly) examination, are in fact not there at all. A mild deconstruction of Blake’s discussion, I hope to suggest, opens up important pedagogical insights. By way of getting at such insights, consider a somewhat parallel example. In my undergraduate “introduction to religion” course, students watched a documentary about the “Purity Balls” movement popular among some contemporary American evangelicals….
Religion Lately: Meet the Gods by Wearing Levis, The Church of Harry Potter, and Galileo Proved Wrong!
By Kenny Smith…..
Looking for a complex symbol to decode, demystify, and historicize? The new and improved Statue of Liberty should keep you busy for some time. The emergence of explicitly religious traditions from popular Hollywood images continues apace, this time with the Church of Harry Potter, where “we believe in the words of wisdom from all characters in the books of Harry Potter.” Speaking of Hollywood-generated images, a new book by Elaine A. Heath, The Gospel According to Twilight: Women, Sex and God offers a thoughtful critique of the gendered theological and social messages offered in the Twilight series: interesting theology, but unfortunate gender blueprints, she seems to say.
Hollywood Images as Religious Resources
By Kenny Smith, Religion Bulletin….
Towards the end of her fine essay in Mark C. Taylor’s Critical Terms for Religious Studies, Margaret R. Miles distinguishes between icons used in some Christian traditions (e.g., Eastern Orthodox) and the images of contemporary film. The latter, she argues, “function iconically” only when “viewers augment the image[s]… imagin[ing] how it would feel to be in the protagonist’s situation… the smells, the tastes, the touch the film character experiences… Moreover, Christians who use icons gaze at the same image again and again; most people see a film only once, though some people see a few films again and again.”
Religion Lately: The Church of the Cylon God and St. Gaius Baltar, Extinction of Religion, No “Go Topless Day” for Toronto
By Kenny Smith….
While they presently remain at the level of fandom and “just for fun,” elements from the Sci-Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica series have been re-crafted and re-presented in religious terms. See, for instance, the Church of the Cylon God Facebook page, or the Church St. Gaius Baltar. “Pray at the Pump” founder warns President Obama, create jobs or face more earthquakes, a claim which God then quickly refuted. Others have suggested that the divine reprimand said to be implied in recent earthquakes and historic hurricanes was in fact aimed at Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, in whose district a major quake’s epicenter was located, perhaps in response to the steep cuts Cantor proposed to the U.S. Geological Service. So, is God an angry geologist?
Religion Lately: Pagan Seminary, Is The Religion of Battlestar Galactica About To Go Actual? The Rise of Christian Atheism in Europe and Teavangelicals in America
By Kenny Smith….
Looking for a different sort of theological education and ministerial training, one that includes both God and Goddess? Check out Cherry Hill Seminary, which recently added noted Wiccan author Viviane Crowley to its faculty. This past Sunday members of the International Raelian Religion participated in a “Go-Topless Day” in Dolores Park, San Francisco. The demonstration was initiated by GoTopless.org as part of a broader national campaign aimed at bringing equal topless rights to women.
Religion Lately: A Star Wars Mecca, Remembering Slackmaster Bob & Anonymous as Religion?
By Kenny Smith….
San Francisco’s Yoda statue draws pilgrims from around the globe. Are we all Jediists at heart?
According to the Prison Literature Project, inmates most frequently request books on Buddhism, Wicca, and Islam. Practitioners of minority religions continue to face many different forms of discrimination throughout American culture.
One writer recalls the Church of the Subgenius’ Prophet Bob and the balmy days of the 1980s.
Religion Lately: Raelian Women Go Topless, WTC-Cross, An Atheist Hymn, & NASCAR-Christianity
By Kenny Smith….
The International Raelian Religion (based on the teachings of Rael, formerly Claude Verhilon, who claimed to have been personally contacted by extraterrestrials in the early 1970s), is planning a “Go Topless Day” for female devotees on August 21 on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Is Harry Potter really about Christian alchemy rather than witchcraft and sorcery? Some Wiccans and Neo-Pagans are re-thinking the role of esoteric (i.e., secret) knowledge in their traditions. A new book argues that Pagan myths and philosophies have something to offer mainstream Americans. As the days begin to grow shorter, Wiccans and Pagans of all sorts celebrated Lughnasadh at the end of July. In England, accusations of Wiccan child-abuse (common fare in the cult scares of the 1980s) have emerged. In the U.S., Wicca may well be the third-largest religious tradition in the U.S. by 2012, that is, next year.
Religion Lately: Islamic Jediism, “Fuck It” Spirituality, Michelle Bachmann’s 2006 End Time Vision, & A Pagan Policeman
By Kenny Smith…..
Australians debate the validity of religions based upon popular culture, such as Jediism and Matrixism (based upon the film, The Matrix), and the blending of new and old traditions, such as “Islamic Jediism,” as the 2011 census approaches this August. Also in Australia, The Dali Lama appeared as a surprise judge on the TV cooking show “Masterchef.” Sadly, while quite friendly, the Tibetan spiritual leader proved somewhat of a judicial disappointment, stating: “As a Buddhist monk, it is not right to prefer this or that food.”
Religion Lately: Jedi Saints, Oprah as Anti-Christ Enabler, a Scientology Musical? & Hindu-Pagan Dialogue
By Kenny Smith…..
Recent Star Wars artwork may well resonate with new religious movements that understand and live Star Wars mythology as spiritual truth. Thank you St.Vader? In a recent CNN interview, Bill Maher explains his own philosophy of “Apatheism,” which blends religious apathy and atheism: “I don’t know what happens when you die and I don’t care.” In another instance of blending, the idea of UFOs as extraterrestrial spacecraft seems to have been explicitly combined with the new religious movement known as ECKANKAR (“The Light and Sound of God”). After vandalism to a local church implicated The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (or FSM, whose members are often known as Pastafarians), local FSM members raised $2,600 to repair the damage.
Religion Lately: Occult Symbols in Pop Culture, Pre-2012 End Time Refugees & Technopagan Heresy
By Kenny Smith…..
Is the “mark of the beast” lurking in the Walt Disney logo, Illuminati symbols in Adidas’ footwear, occult signs in McDonald’s Chicken Selects? Check out the most popular corporate logos and their ties to the occult. To remove such occult influences, one news caster recommended an exorcism on the Republican party.
Religion Lately: Create Your Own Religion, “Swastika Rehabilitation Day,” and “Real Housewives of the Bible”
By Kenny Smith…..
Want to see how it all adds up? Try the religion of Universal Calculationism. Want to bliss out with the Children of Bob, perfect yourself in the United Church of Awesome, relish in the religions of Mine or Money, or simply create your own tradition wholesale? Check out the results of Huffington Post’s “Create Your Own Religion” contest. The International Raelian Movement, a worldwide UFO-based religious organization founded in the 1970s and that claimed to have successfully cloned a human being in 20002 celebrated “Swastika Rehabilitation Day” on Sunday, June 26.
