Facebook & εκκλησια

I struggle to make relevant, interesting status updates on Facebook (and I even sometimes manage to remember to crosspost them to Twitter). Due to the way the spheres in my life crash into one another, I tend to keep them relatively generic and detail-free. However, some of what I'm feeling almost always makes it through. So this week, I posted how I was feeling super fatigued and thinking I might have to drop a class yet again this semester (right now I'm thinking I might squeak through, but life keeps conspiring against me...). So here's the responses (which you can also see on my Facebook page):

• Sorry you aren't feeling well. I am a sicky too.
• I hope you feel better!
• Hope you are feeling better, Rachel - or are at least able to get some rest.
• ...but have you started the book?
• sending prayers your way.
• I recommend vitamin B12!
• Hope you get better!

These comments are from members of the church I'm serving, my aunt, a friend from the open mic I play, a friend from local pastor school, a friend from high school, and a friend from my favorite hangout spot in Cambridge. All of these people, many of whom I haven't seen in months if not years, were able to encourage me from wherever they happen to be in the world. Few of them know each other, and probably never will.

And yet, through Facebook, we're connected. Through Facebook, we're part of a community. I'm not going to make the leap that says that my Facebook friends constitute an ecclesia that is comparable to a purposeful Christian community. However, I think there's something to be said for the way that social networking sites allow "the assembly" to no longer be defined by physical boundaries.

There's a lot of anti-technology, specifically anti-Internet rhetoric in academia (totally subjective opinion, but that's my impression) as regards community. The concept of having church on the Internet is sure to ruffle quite a few feathers if brought up in the classroom or during community lunch. I'm always on the defending side, and the responses I got when I mentioned I wasn't feeling well are why.

If the church is the body of Christ in the world, does that body need to be together physically in order to be the body? Does Facebook (and MySpace and Twitter et al.) allow for new ways of being the body of Christ in the world? Can you have church on the Internet? What about incarnation - the physical embodiment of the Word that we remember and reinforce with the sacrament of Communion? Can there be a church without a building? What role can/do/should social networking sites play in the global body of Christ?

~peace&blessings~

Voyeurism & Vengeance

A few weeks ago, I had a chance to watch the latest Jason Statham vehicle, Death Race. The film wasn't too original, the script wasn't that compelling, and the ending was fairly predictable. All in all, a pretty traditional U.S. American action flick. It wasn't something I expected to inspire theological reflection; but sometimes I just can't help myself.

There's a pretty detailed plot synopsis here, and my discussion will probably include spoilers, so consider yourself warned.

Death Race is a play off of the gladiatorial story, and toys with our culture's obsession with reality television. You can read about gladiators here, if you're so inclined. Is reality television the 21st century version of the Roman gladiator pits? In Death Race, the question is taken to an extreme. Some other artists have dealt with this same issue: Stephen King's The Long Walk and The Running Man were published in 1979 and 1981, long before the current reality TV craze; Series 7 (2001) was one of the first films to imagine a world where we watched people die on television and enjoyed it. While we could argue that we will never get to that point, how far away are we really?

And, more importantly, as Christians, what is our responsibility in watching reality TV, in watching people suffer and seeing it as entertainment? Is it something we should do? Or is it something we should avoid? I have to admit, there's something that feels wrong when I watch Jon & Kate plus 8 or The Biggest Loser. Even knowing that a lot of what makes the final cut has been edited and manipulated so that I'll feel a certain way towards the characters (actors? personalities? people?), I still think of those people as real. And watching their suffering and passing judgment on them feels wrong.

The other issue that seemed especially vivid for me in this film was the issue of vengeance. I noticed a similar plot device used in two other films I watched recently, Taken and Fast and Furious. In all three films, the (male) protagonist has something horrible happen to his (female) significant other. In Death Race, Jensen's wife is murdered and he's framed for it; in Taken, Bryan Mills' daughter Kim is kidnapped to be sold into sex slavery; and in Fast and Furious Dom's girlfriend Letty is murdered. In all three films, the hero commits horrible violence in order to gain vengeance for this wrong that has been done to him.

We as the audience are okay with this. In Death Race, we know we're supposed to sympathize with Frank, because we see what a good guy he is in the beginning. We know he loved his wife and baby girl, and that the only reason he's going around snapping people's necks and blowing them up is because he's trying to get out so he can be with his baby girl again. We know that Warden Hennessey, with her white clothes, blonde hair and red lipstick, is the enemy, and that even though she doesn't get her hands dirty, she is ultimately responsible for all of the violence that Frank commits. Bryan Mills slaughters countless kidnappers and ignores other victims of the sex trade, all in search of his lost daughter. Dom kills and steals and commits violence, all in the pursuit of the truth of what happened to his precious Letty.

What do we as Christians believe about violence as vengeance? With the very real war in Iraq and Afghanistan, this is not just a question about what movies we watch or books we read. There is something in us that yearns for justice - and yet, we're told to turn the other cheek to someone who slaps us on the right. Christianity is a religion of nonviolence, and yet it has been used to justify violence in the pursuit of vengeance for centuries.

I don't have a lot of answers, but that's not my job. I just like starting conversations. So let's conversate. :)

~peace&blessings~

Pop Culture Pastor Presents...

Welcome to the Pop Culture Pastor blog...a place where, I, your pop culture pastor, will present various phenomena from U.S. American pop culture for your edification, pondering and heated discussion. I'm always open to new ideas, so if there's something you'd like talked about, just hit me up.

A few things to note:

- I will be dealing with mature material, so be forewarned - this will probably get R-rated. My taste in films tends towards horror and quirky humor, not romantic comedies and family films.

- If you decide to comment, and it's hateful or just rude, I reserve the right to delete it. This is a place for open, honest discussion and exploration of the places where pop culture meets theology, not a place for screaming matches across the vast expanse of the interweb.

- I am a pastor working in a United Methodist church; my particular theological framework is primarily Christian. Therefore I'll be reflecting on things from a decidedly Christian perspective. That doesn't mean that other spiritual or religious traditions are unwelcome. But Christianity is the language I speak best, so it's the one I'll use the most.

That's all I can think of for now, but there will be more to come soon enough. Enjoy!

~peace&blessings~