Because I am a girl - A response to "Christianity in the Princess and the Frog"

This is a response to Doreen’s recent post “Christianity in the Princess and the Frog”:

Doreen’s post:

http://op-doreen.blogspot.ca/2012/04/christianity-in-princess-and-frog.html

Disney fairy tales had always been my favorite when I was a little girl, all the things such as love, prince, happiness, ultimate victory of goodness, and fairy godmothers. They once made me believe that all girls will eventually have a dream coming true and have a forever-lasting happy life. Disney is a kind of selling a series of dreams to every little girl all around the world, no matter where you are, no matter what language you speak.

In the lecture last week, Professor Harris talked about teenager girls being targeted in the fashion market, merchandise with sexy elements being designed for them. In a lot of posters and photographs, young girls with makeup as well as dressing-up like sexy adults are showing as models to attract their peer groups. It makes me think about the Disney fairy tales as similar to it, female protagonists are portrayed as living in an unfortunate life, struggle with it and eventually defeat it. Females have always been set as the weak group, the soft target and the sympathetic figures.

As the society develops, the Disney fairy tales also innovates as Doreen said, “the protagonist is set as a black girl which break the stereotype of princess in Disney films”. As I see, I cannot really tell if this innovation is good or not, we can see that Disney is trying hard to do something new, and to do something updated which could fit the social topic in nowadays, but it also points out the issues directly such as the gender issues, the social status of girls in society, the racial issues, etc. Portraying this black princess has nothing to do with the theme or the storyline, but instead, bringing out those social issues without responding to any of them. And also as Doreen mentioned, it doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test！

Left behind – the fear of death and apocalypse

Apocalypse is the last topic in the course, it seems like an ending, but also a start, it leads me my way to further explore the interaction between Christianity and popular culture in contemporary society. 

I never watched the movie “left behind” before, or read the novel only until after the lecture this week, it is an interesting movie, and perfectly matches the topic for this week. This film received a lot of negative feedback, when I researched it in Google, I found some comments like “The more this movie tries, the worse it gets.” The interpretation of apocalypse in this film upsets some people, but in my opinion, it quite resonates. The anti-Christian causes the doomsday and people with pure soul were raptured, the rest are left behind to face the Ends Day. What makes me interested is not the idea “it will ultimately ends” but “anxiety”, the “anxiety” of characters in the movie and also my anxious feeling when I watch it. The idea of doomsday has been existed in our culture since ancient time, but before twentieth century, the fear of it only appears during certain period such as during the Black Death, but after twentieth century, people began to lose hope even during the normal life, the more we know about the world and ourselves, the less we look back into our religion, and this is where the anxiety comes from. Popular culture such as film spread the anxiety, creates the fear, and drive us to think about ourselves and our believes.

“It is not reading, it’s believing”. The movie conveys the idea: “don’t be the ones left behind”, it is really a strong way to communicate the Christian idea through film, and it did make both positive and negative impacts on Christians. “Left behind” resonates people while the resonation is due to the fear of death.

When I say I am a Christian

This is a poem that one of my Christian friend read to me

When i heard it, I just felt so powerful, i don't know if it is a well-known one, just feel like really want to share.. I guess that's how my friend felt when she read to me.. the poem makes you want to share the emotion with others. I could feel how proud the poet is, even when he/she says No, it's the faith, and it's a kind of nature. 

 

When I say..."I am a Christian"　　　

I don't speak of this with pride. 　

I'm confessing that I stumble 　　　 

and need someone to be my guide.　
　　
When I say..."I am a Christian"　　
I'm not trying to be strong. 　　　
I'm professing that I'm weak 　　　　 

and pray for strength to carry on.
　　
When I say..."I am a Christian"　　　
I'm not bragging of success. 　　　
I'm admitting I have failed 　　　
and cannot ever pay the debt. 　
　　
When I say..."I am a Christian"　　
I'm not claiming to be perfect, 　　
my flaws are too visible　　　　　　
but God believes I'm worth it.　　
　　
When I say..."I am a Christian"　　
I still feel the sting of pain　　　　　
I have my share of heartaches 　　　
which is why I seek His name. 　　　
　　
When I say..."I am a Christian"　　
I do not wish to judge. 　　　　　
I have no authority. 　　　　　　　　
I only know I'm loved, 　　　　　　

Meaningful Death and Meaningless Eternity - A response to "Harry Potter and the Fear of Death"

This is a response to Andreia De Freita’s recent post “Harry Potter and the Fear of Death”:

Andreia De Freita’s post:

http://smc305ohmyblog.blogspot.ca/2012/03/harry-potter-and-fear-of-death.html

I am a huge harry potter fan myself, so when I see the title, “Harry Potter and the Fear of Death”, I just feel so interested to read it. All the books in Harry Potter series show the same storyline, which is the battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort. In these stories, Harry is fighting against Voldemort, the monster, as well as against death.

Voldemort could be seen as a “monster” figure, he is half-life wizard, he was human, and became a sort of monster when he split his soul into various parts in order to get immortality. Although he is not belonged to any unversally known “monster” groups, and he is certainly not attempting to get any redemption. This makes me think about how should we define “monsters” in Christianity anyway, I think maybe hybrid of good and evil is a way to do it.

The monsters motif in popular culture always come with death, they are threatening, and they are pronouns of death. In Harry Potter series, especially the last several books, the death is everywhere in the novel. Voldemort killed lots of people for his own eternal life. People sacrificed for his fear of death, this makes the death becomes meaningful while the immortality becomes meaningless. The whole signal of death and fear of death came out with the theme in Harry Pottery.

As Freita said, in Christianity, lots of elements in Harry Potter are not welcomed, such as the magic, escaping from death or even “live” his half-life because he committed an act against nature. But popular culture seems build up a connection with those conflicts, brings things which seems never will be existed on same stage into one theme. The death motif in popular culture has productive function for being presented, as well as the monsters, learning from them, we understand what is being alive, and we understand what is being human. 

“Supernatural”: Angel or Monster?

The TV show “Supernatural” has 7 seasons up now. The show is about two brothers Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester hunt ghosts, demons and other figures of the supernatural. There are several story lines in the show, first of all, the brother hunters hunting demons to save the human world, and then the conflict between hell and heaven, moreover, the civil war in the heaven!

“It’s a civil war up there”, isn’t heaven supposed to be the place full of love, trust, hope and forgiveness? Apparently it is not in the “Supernatural” show, angels collect “weapons”, “forces” to against each other. Raphael is the evil archangel figure while Castiel was the good angel figure, who turned to a “monster” and declared himself the new God in season 7. He turns to monster on his way searching for redemption. The heaven is more like another human world in the TV series, evil and humanity are shown everywhere. 

There is a lot of themes in the show could fit in the topic for this week. Episode 11, season 6 is talking about death, and the fear of death. It also brings deeper question about who deserve to die, and who shouldn’t die? Everyone has the fear of death, but just as Professor Harris said, death teaches us how to live!

In this Week’s Lecture, we talked about that monsters which are hybrid of human and non-human, after watching “Supernatural”, I think there is another kind of monster, which is the hybrid of Good and Evil. The topic of monster for this week also reminds me of Lady Gaga, she call her fans “Her little Monsters”, because she said “monsters” are the origin sin inside everybody, we face it, we fight it, and we could be saved.

When I think about the characters, the story in Supernatural Season 7, I kinda question myself if the Angel doesn’t become a monster, do I still want to watch it? Or like it? Maybe not, and I guess that’s the little monster inside me!

Blessings - Laura Story

When I first listened to this song, I simply like the music, and the lyrics, kind of calming and comforting, bring peace of mind to people, guess that's the power of popular culture. The music brings some sensible experience for the evangelization.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

The violence in Christian tradition --- A response to “review of THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST”

This is a response to Doreen’s earlier post “review of THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST”:

Doreen’s post:

http://op-doreen.blogspot.ca/2012/02/review-of-passion-of-christ.html

“The passion of the Christ” seems like a pretty good artifact to look at when we study Christianity and popular culture, we watched one short clip in earlier lecture, and it is also mentioned in the reading for last week, which talks about Christian video games. Just same as Doreen, I never watched it before, and really impressed by the scenes, the bloody crucifixion really shocked me a lot! The lecture in this week reminds me of this film, but no longer just about how the religious content is being represented in movie, but also about the violence in Christian tradition. 

At around the first 10 minutes of the movie, Jesus has been captured, and from there to the end of the movie, there is a lot of direct depiction of detailed bloody tortures. All of these scenes are extremely violent, the tortures and the crucifixion. Does this movie also reflect the violence in Christian tradition? I do think so, Jesus suffered for our sins, and his blood cleaned us, it is violent. And just as Professor Harris mentioned in class, religion also becomes the best excuse for violence. Some violence is on behalf of Jesus, and others are in the name of Jesus.

There is even one woman died during watching this movie, because of the violent and bloody scene. The violence in Christian tradition is undeniable, but I also think the violence in humanity is undeniable. It really makes me to think, maybe without the suffering, we will never appreciate what we have.

The movie also reveals the passion of Mel Gibson himself, making this film is a sort of his personal devotion, and also his own interpretation of his faith. When people expect forgiveness and love in Christian movies, he chose to focus on “suffering”. Just as Doreen said, Gibson uses this movie to tell people that God is suffering, and he is suffering for our sin.