Category Archives: Pop-Culture

Bono meets Popo

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Bono, pseudonym for Paul David Hewson, recently met with Pope Francis, pseudonym for Jorge Mario Bergoglio, to discuss among other things the “wild beast that is capitalism”. Hewson knows quite a lot about this particular wild beast because, when not campaigning to murder babies in their mothers’ wombs, not only is he is the primary crooner – or screecher, depending on the fidelity of your hearing – of the richest band in Christendom but he is a master of tax evasion.

As Hewson mentions in this video, he is still hasn’t found what he is looking for: the “peace that passes all understanding”. He has to make do with nausea inducing posturing that surpasses all attempts to suppress it with Gravol instead.

play-sharp-fill

More here:

U2 frontman Bono said Pope Francis was ‘aghast’ about sexual abuse within the Catholic church, following a private meeting between the pair in Vatican City on Wednesday.

The Irish singer met at the Pope at the Vatican hotel and told reporters the pair discussed sexual abuse within the Catholic church, sustainable development and the ‘wild beast that is capitalism’.

Bono said that because Francis visited Ireland recently, they spoke about the pontiff’s ‘feelings about what has happened in the church’.

The Royal Wedding

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I didn’t get up early to watch the royal wedding. My wife did, though, so when I appeared, cup of tea in hand, the affair was in full swing with Justin Welby presiding over the recital of the marriage vows.

“An American gave the sermon”, my wife said.

“Yes, Michael Curry”, I replied. “You remember, the fellow in charge of The Episcopal Church – the church that isn’t allowed to represent Anglicanism anywhere. Except unimportant events like royal weddings.”

“It was all about love”, she said. “But he did mention Jesus”.

“Which, TEC’s or the real one?” I asked.

“Don’t be silly”.

“Well”, I said, “You know that Michael Curry doesn’t believe in marriage, don’t you? At least, not the same Judeo-Christian marriage that has been going strong for 6000 years: he thinks men can ‘marry’ each other!”

“That’s daft”, she replied. “Still, he did talk about love a lot. Don’t they look lovely together?”

“So it was a John Lennon sermon? – you know ‘All you need is Love’.”

“I suppose so. He was very enthusiastic about their love: he said we will see the end of poverty because of it.”

“I don’t expect Harry and Meghan will see much poverty”, I agreed. “Her dress wasn’t cheap, was it?” “Hang on a minute, isn’t that George Clooney in the congregation?”

“Yes dear, Meghan is a Hollywood actress, of course George is there. Do try to keep up, dear.”

“I don’t see Elton. Surely they didn’t forget him!”

“Yes, he’s there with his husband. Or is it his wife…… it’s hard to keep these things straight”.

“I’ll leave you to it”, I said, “it’s too much excitement for me first thing in the morning”.

What better way to sum up my enthusiasm for all this than with a pearl of wisdom from Michael Curry:

“The power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we are all here. Two young people fell in love and we all showed up!”

Coincidentally, my morning Bible reading included a passage from John (not Lennon) which offers a different explanation of why Michael, Justin, George, Elton, et al “showed up”:

For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. (John 12:43)

Bisexual lighting

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For those who are not convinced that homosexuality, bi-sexuality, trans-sexuality, gender fluidity, gray sexuality, demi-sexuality, asexuality and pansexuality have become the predominant obsession of what is left of Western culture, consider this: we now have bisexual lighting casting its eerie glow over our entertainment.

From the BBC:

What is ‘bisexual lighting’?

An early use of the term comes from a 2014 post on the blogging site Trumblr, which discusses a pink-and-blue-washed scene in the BBC’s Sherlock and speculates about the hidden desires of Dr John Watson.

A more recent, and commonly discussed, example of bisexual lighting can be seen in the San Junipero episode of the Netflix show Black Mirror.

The Emmy Award-winning episode follows the development of a relationship between two bisexual female characters.

Many point out that these colours mirror those of the bisexual pride flag, and suggest the lighting design is a direct reference to the symbol.

I’ll give the Anglican church about five years to latch on to this trend, at which point it will declare that its cathedrals are illuminated with holy bisexual lighting from their multicoloured stained glass windows.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

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One of the hymns we Anglicans like to sing goes like this:

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole, and calms the troubled breast;
‘tis manna to the hungry soul, and to the weary rest.

Dear Name! the rock on which I build, my shield and hiding place,
My never-failing treasury, filled with boundless stores of grace.

Jesus, my Shepherd, Brother, Friend, my Prophet, Priest and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring.

Weak is the effort of my heart, and cold my warmest thought;
But when I see thee as thou art, I’ll praise thee as I ought.

When John Newton wrote that, he could not have foreseen that 250 years later the sweetness of Jesus’ name would no longer be thought of as manna to the hungry soul, but ice-cream to the greedy stomach. The Sweet Jesus ice-cream company, we are told, was born out of a love for experimentation. Experimenting with shabbily belittling what Christians regard as the most important event in human history: God becoming man.

Christians have so little influence on Canadian society today that not only can an ice-cream merchant name his sticky wares “Sweet Jesus” without fear of losing his profit, but the free advertising generated by gratuitously irritating Christians will probably result in increasing it.

Had the owners been less astute in their assessment of the cultural zeitgeist and named their obesity inducing, artery clogging sugar laden junk confection “Munchable Mohammed”, they would not only have lost their profits but been prosecuted under Bill 59; assuming they hadn’t lost their heads first.

It doesn’t help that the “t” in “Sweet” is an inverted cross and the “s” in “Jesus” is a lightning bolt, both obliquely tied to Satanism.

Adding to the odious miasma that wafts effortlessly like mist from a B grade horror film are these advertisements that feature what some have called “creepy” looking children:

There are some online petitions urging a name change, something that the owner is not willing to do, and there are numerous expressions of outrage on both sides.

None of this surprises me. In Canada, the ridiculing of Christianity and Christians is a national sport; I am surprised that it is not worse than it is. It’s futile to blame the world: it knows no better. If anyone is to blame, we – Christians and our pathetic, impotent mainline churches  – are. If our church doesn’t take Christ seriously, and we continue to support it, why should we expect anyone else to?

From here:

There are few things that feel more care-free than enjoying an ice cream cone, and Toronto-based chain Sweet Jesus serves up gigantic, Instagram-worthy soft serve cones — or blasphemy, depending on who you ask.

The brand, founded in 2015 by Andrew Richmond and Amin Todai, has received attention from some in the Christian community for the religious imagery in their logo and advertising. Richmond told the Star in 2016 that the name stuck after an employee would often declare “sweet Jesus,” after tasting the ice cream and says the brand has nothing to do with religion.

The backlash has followed Sweet Jesus’ expansion south of the border, where they have opened up shop in Baltimore and the Mall of America. Petitions began popping up in January, after right-wing blog Activist Mommy posted an article analyzing the “blasphemous” use of religious imagery in the brand’s logo.

A petition hosted on CitizenGO, a site that bills itself as a conservative advocacy group, calls Sweet Jesus “offensive and revolting,” and accuses the ice cream parlour of hate speech towards Christians. The petition calls for a public apology for “openly (attacking) the Christian community,” and God. The petition further asks for a name change to “eliminate mockery toward our Lord Jesus.”

A modest proposal

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From here:

Dress code policies have become a flashpoint in school districts in Ontario and the Maritimes in recent weeks.

Dozens of students at A.B. Lucas Secondary School in London, Ont., rallied Wednesday in support of Grade 12 student Laura Anderson, who was sent home earlier this week after wearing a loose-fitting, sleeveless top and ripped jeans to school.

An online petition said the school’s dress code is premised on the “outdated” notion that female students should “cover up” because they could distract male students.

“The sexualization of a teenage girl’s body is not her problem, it is the problem of those who choose to sexualize a 17-year-old’s body,” the petition said.

A culture that is infused with Christian values – as ours used to be even though its members may have frequently strayed from them – understands that modesty is, in and of itself, a virtue. Specifically in the case of women’s clothing, as St. Paul said:

 I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. 1 Tim 2:9-10

I would like to try that out on the girls in A.B. Lucas Secondary School if only to see how gustily they would laugh at the notion.

The sad truth is, Christianity and its understating of right, wrong, vice and virtue has not only been abandoned by Western civilization, it is actively ridiculed and suppressed so there can be no rights or wrongs in this mess only outdated notions.

Although, as the article goes on to note, there is at least one virtue left: experimenting with identity. Preferably immodestly:

“If you ask me, high school is not only a place of learning, but a place to experiment with identity.”

The iCloud hack

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From here:

Apple has admitted its iCloud service was to blame for the theft of hundreds of celebrity pictures.

The firm said it was ‘outraged’ by the attacks, and said they were the result of ‘a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions’.

Various actresses have had au naturel photographs they recklessly posted to iCloud distributed all over the place. The actresses are, understandably, complaining bitterly: after all, they make a living out of being filmed taking their clothes off for the ogling pleasure of millions of paying customers. They didn’t make a penny out of the hacked iCloud photos; it’s heart-breaking.

The right to wear facial hardware at work

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From here:

An Edmonton woman is fighting for the right to proudly display her facial piercings without fear of professional punishment.

Kendra Behringer has pierced her ears, eyebrows and lips in an act of “self-expression.”

However, she believes her appearance has cost her jobs, something she hopes to change by launching a petition slamming workplace discrimination against tattooed and pierced employees.

If Behringer is successful – something that wouldn’t surprise me – she may open up a new opportunity for Christians who have been harassed for wearing a cross at work. Punch a hole in your eyebrow, stick the cross in it and you will be OK.

I’m sure that if there are theological implications to wearing an eyebrow cross, Rowan Williams – who may already have several for all we know – would be only too happy to elucidate them; I know, I know, writing “elucidate” and “Rowan Williams” in the same sentence is the essence of oxymoron.

Aliens among us

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From here:

A former Canadian defense minister has declared on Russian TV that not only do aliens already walk amongst us but they are refusing to share their advanced technologies until we change our warring and polluting ways.

According to Paul Hellyer, who was a Liberal defense minister from 1963 to 1967 under prime minister Lester B. Pearson, there are 80 different species of extra-terrestrials.

A few members of one of the 80 alien species that have an obsessive interest in what, in their tongue, they call eco-justice, were recently spotted in Toronto trying to blend  inconspicuously into the crowd:

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I’ve got you under my skin

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I recently attended two funerals which, while making passing references to Christianity, were more cultish new-age productions than anything else. The first was conducted in a Diocese of Niagara church. The priest, whose studious efforts to avoid mentioning God were subverted only by his being compelled to do so by the funeral liturgy, buoyed by years of theological training, concentrated his potent expository talent on how the deceased would live on in each of our hearts.

The second was conducted by a lady cleric of indeterminate denomination; she did mention God and Jesus but only as an afterthought when not waxing eloquent on the cosmic life force in which, apparently, we are all adrift as we journey together, wafting through the spiritual ether like itinerant milkweed seeds never able to settle long enough to germinate.

Neither mentioned the resurrection of Jesus or our hope of resurrection. Without the resurrection we are still in our sins, there is no reconciliation with God, no hope and no coherent meaning to our lives.

So how does the contemporary pagan gain comfort after losing a loved one? By having the ashes of the dearly departed tattooed into his skin; how else?

Trish Rodgers filled a small bottle cap with her dead aunt’s ashes and emptied it into a vial of black ink. In her apartment, the tattoo artist used the combination of human remains and tattoo pigment to draw the outline of a rose into her cousin’s shoulder.

At that point, this was a practice that only tattoo artists used amongst themselves, Ms. Rodgers says. But since that evening in 2008, it has garnered attention of sociologists across the world and Canadian tattoo parlours are seeing requests for the procedure grow.