Thursday, January 28, 2010
In response to the question posed at the end of class...
There was a question posed at the very end of last class (and forgive me, I don't know your name) but it was about Christians, the author of the article in particular, who felt that their religion in an organized manner was being threatened by Star Wars. I kept thinking about this after our meeting and came to the conclusion that saying organized religion, mainly Christianity, is threatened by Star Wars is absolutely, one hundred percent mental. While I am not arguing pop culture has no affect on church attendance, I find it remarkably narrow minded to attribute that to any one factor. For several generations now there has been a decline in the number of people practicing organized religion ("Chreasters" included). The church, in a big way, has lost its power in the community. People and communities are no longer organized around the local church but it's not the fault of the Star Wars epic. Business of schedules, pop culture and the media in general, and the attitude of people toward organized religion have all lead to this change. If one feels threatened by Star Wars it stands to reason that the same person would be threatened by stores open on Sunday, the evening news, Vogue, and Lady Gaga to name a few.
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5 comments:
Well in all honesty, the Christian that feels threatened by Star Wars probably DOES also feel threatened by the media and Lady Gaga and whatnot. I agree in that I also don't see this as being the author's stance, but I have come into contact with people who practice a fundamental aspect of given religions who do indeed feel like they are under constant assault by society. Not that I could honestly blame them either, I can't watch a movie or pick up a magazine without seeing some instance of sex or violence...but I certainly do believe they are attacking the wrong enemy if they assault the message of Star Wars or more recently that of the Harry Potter movies. Such movies surely are not the root of the problem.
Do you agree, though, that the author of the article felt that church life was threatened by Star Wars? That was just the impression I got from reading it.
Yes, I think he did feel threatened but I don't think that feeling is valid.
Perhaps the feeling is valid though. When a person has a foundational belief, sometimes he or she is not open to topics that cause them to question his or her belief. This could be because they are so ingrained in this belief that they avoid questioning the reasons they hold the belief. Star Wars can be said to present some topics that do exactly that and would cause the believer to become uneasy. So as a result the series could be very threatening if it rocked the whole foundation that they have set their belief systems upon. I also have to agree with Ben, this type of person is also very threatened by the media and other facets that cause a person to question faith.
What are Chreasters?
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