Adam and Eve

My boyfriend, Adam, and I often have conversations about Christianity and God. He is confident in his belief in God and I think that I believe but I’m still confused. I had been thinking a lot about all of this lately, ever since I interviewed my aunt and uncle for my essay. Their views really had an unexpectedly huge influence on me, and my thoughts have been tending towards religious subject matter more than ever lately.

Last week, Adam and I went to Byron for a day just because we love it there. We were at a market and sat down at a bench to eat, again. I looked over at a family sitting at a nearby bench. They struck me as glorious and beautiful and even divine. I could not stop staring. I was freaking out. ‘Adam, babe, seriously, look there. It’s Adam and Eve. Oh my God, it’s Adam and Eve. This is insane.’ I could not shut up. He had seen it too, he felt it too. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. Seriously, he was crying actual tears – that’s a telling effect of their glory. This family were divine, for sure. This couple had the most amazing aura about them; they were honestly glowing against the trees. They were perfect.

Adam (of Adam and Eve) is a big black guy with long braids that end in dreads. He is physically perfect.  He was wearing a crisp white linen shirt and dark green shorts. He was reading the newspaper; like any old average Joe, Adam was reading the paper. Imagine it. Eve was staring into the distance with the most peaceful, moving look on her face. It was mainly this angelic face that caught my eye at the start. She has beautiful, long, blonde hair that ends in dreads. Her skin is fair and delicate and perfect. She was wearing a purple silk skirt and matching top and was carrying her beautiful baby in a green silk wrap against her creamy, soft body. Angel baby has thick dark hair and bright eyes. Eve was running her fingers through her beautiful son’s ringlets. He is the perfect shade of caramel and the cutest, most perfect looking boy I’ve ever seen. Caramel looks about three. He was wearing a green linen shirt, matching pants and blue gum boots. This feeling that they created in me was one that I had never felt before. I had never before been so moved by a seemingly normal group of people. It was an intense, profound, beautiful experience. I think it may have been my very own religious experience.

We tried our hardest to take a photo without alerting them to our creepiness. Really, we were that random stalker-like couple who stared lovingly at another family for a good half an hour. There was something about this beautiful family that drew the two of us in; but no one else was looking at them. It was crazy that no one else seemed to notice them because they did something incredible to me, and to Adam, too. And I can’t help but think that this was meant for us, that there was some reason we felt so moved by them, and that only we seemed so connected to them. We didn’t want to leave. We only left because they did. And when they did, there was no reason to stay.

I wander if someone, God maybe, is answering my confused questions by giving me something to think about; by giving me Adam and Eve.

Stop the misrepresentation already

The major Western media regard industrialised nations as superior to developing nations. Africa is made up of 53 countries, yet it is constantly lumped together and treated as one country – a savage place at the heart of darkness where jungle life has eluded civilisation (Ebo, 1992). Nothing frustrates me more than hearing someone (usually an American someone) talk about the cute black baby from Africa. Africa is not a country, people. At the heart of the misrepresentation of Africa is ignorance, which is continually perpetuated and reinforced by the media. 

Western journalists continue to broadcast negative news rife with conflict and violence. This because the media selects stories that will sell – dramatic, sensational stories that set-up an image of Africa’s impending doom. (Ebo, 1992) Journalism is headline-drive, crisis-driven, superficial and without context. When I met my boyfriend and he told his friends he was dating a South African, they were surprised to see firstly that I wasn’t black; secondly, that I survived living in Africa, that I hadn’t been shot at; and thirdly that we have air conditioners.

Images of Africa presented by the Western media are thus misrepresentations, and I can certainly vouch for that hundreds of times over.

Africans are not a savage, uneducated group of people; nor do they live in one country.  There is so much more to every African country than the media chooses to present to you and everybody else. There is food and water and smiling faces; there is love and beauty and harmony. We are innovative and intelligent and a force to be reckoned with.

Image source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQcn2n1rhNTHZr8leEh5cgbmRz9uCQKJTsAflfF9HLnBU5_YU7dxYit0Y6WBjP8_JoscazyZcK89iCj5zKRqTbjxvhZQFDQcJC4IRxAT6VcSsomtD9VkYrOw6ElnWIUyr8Ubb6bBQ24TM/s1600/africa+is+beautiful.jpg

References:

Ebo, Bosah. “American Media and African  Culture” in Hawk, Beverly G.  1992.

Africa’s Media Image. London: Praeger. (p15 – 25)

The religion of sport

Sport is an important part of a country’s national identity. Sport functions in a similar way to religion, hence it’s often referred to as a sort of quasi religion. It provides people with a system of symbols that attribute meaning to experience. Wann notes that sport can be discussed in terms of natural and humanistic religion, pointing out that ‘spectators worship other human beings, their achievements, and the groups to which they belong’ (2001:200). Where sports are played and watched, stadia and arenas, also resemble ‘cathedrals where followers gather to worship their heroes and pray for their successes’ [Wann, et al., 2001: 200]. Barcelona football club is a great example of a nation that has invested so much in the religion of soccer, which is probably one of the reasons the club has been so successful. The country has taken on its football team as an important symbol of their national identity and cultural and social heritage. Xifra says that there are: ‘thousands of supporters who are not only passionate about Barca but who also see Barca as a symbol to which they attribute transcendental meanings and truths’ (2008: 193).

I’m from South Africa. And in South Africa, sport has always had the power to unify. In a diverse country like Safa land, unification is something that is often difficult to achieve. The happiest, most patriotic moments in our history (excluding Mandela’s release from prison and his subsequent presidency) have been sports-related. Winning the 1995 and 2007 rugby world cups and hosting the 2010 soccer world cup stand out as events with enormous cultural, social, economic and political significance. I experienced the magic of the 2010 soccer world cup the same year that I was due to move to Australia. The experience, the way our country came together in an unprecedented way, the support and the spirit, made it so much harder to leave my country of birth. I had never been prouder to be a South African.  ‘Seen in this light, ethnic or national symbols and rituals are vital for the members of a given human group to be able to affirm their awareness of belonging and self-identification in a way that is clear to others’ (Wann et al., 2001). I could see how the world cup became a way for South Africa to express itself as a successful African country. Preston Davis reflects on what a game like soccer can and cannot do, concluding that ‘World Cup soccer, like religion, possesses a beauty that humanises’ (2010). He goes on to say that sport ‘mysteriously wields us together and separates us all at once.’ (Davis, 2010)

While sport as a whole provides this unifying experience, it still reinforces inherent racial divides. While the South African Apartheid government indoctrinated the entire country with their flawed and violent ideals, they ensured that emphasis was placed on traditionally white sports, like rugby. Sport may unify, but in countries with problems of inherent racism, it unifies the same people – whites with whites, blacks with blacks. The Afrikaans government decided that rugby would be an Afrikaans sport, while others were reserved for non-whites and English whites. South Africa has been a democracy for 16 years, yet the rugby team is still predominantly white and the soccer team 95% black. While sport is positioned as a national symbol for South Africa, it is a symbol that perpetuates a lot of the racism that will, unfortunately, forever live on. 

Sport cannot take away from the tragedy associated with Apartheid, but it can provide transcendence from it. Alexandra Fuller’s profile on South Africa is insightful. She says that Apartheid is still there, always, wherever you go:  ‘scratch the surface of any community, and one way or another there it is, the A-word.’ I think she’s right. She asks whether the game (soccer) can make South Africa’s messy history just history – something of the past. I don’t believe it can, but I am fully aware of the immense, positive impact sport has on a country like South Africa. My favourite memories of my country involve the patriotism and spirit that sport brings with it. In this light, sport is an important ritual for members of society.

References

Davis, P. Soccer and the sublime in the shadow of Apartheid. 2010. Religion Dispatches Magazine. Retrieved from: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/2784/soccer_and_the_sublime_in_the_shadow_of_apartheid

Fuller, A. South Africa. 2010. National Geographic. Retrieved from:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/06/south-africa/fuller-text

Wann, D. L., Melznick, M. J., Russell, G. W., & Pease, D. G. 2001. Sport fans: The psychology and social impact of spectators .New York: Routledge

Xifra, J. 2008.Soccer, civil religion, and public relations: Devotional–promotional

communication and Barcelona Football Club. Public Relations Review 34. 192–198

Stereotype this

Stereotypes are created when ideologies are adopted and applied generally to a whole group, without distinction or merit. Stereotypes are an inevitable result of diversity and ‘otherness’ coupled with the media’s immense power of representation. The ideologies are circulated and perpetuated by the media because they are produced and transformed by the media. These racist ideologies can only extend from ‘some single-minded and unified conception of the world’ (Hall, 2000: 281). These ideologies are so constrained; in fact the power of both the media and this carefully constructed discourse is its ‘capacity to constrain a very great variety of individuals’ (Hall, 2000: 281).

The media have constructed important ideologies about what race means to us, what the definition carries and the immediate problems associated with race. The media helps us categorise the world according to these categories of race. The media have not only constructed these ideologies of race, they have also reinforced, transformed, and elaborated upon them (Hall, 2000).

The 9 11 attacks would not have had the same impact worldwide without the media. The images of terrorism from 9/11 are mainly focused on the consequences and the aftermath of what had happened. ‘The actors are less specific. Published images of the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks blur into a generic mug shot of a man of Middle Eastern ancestry’ (Elliot, 2003: 52). The media’s representation of 9 11 reinforces the Middle Eastern stereotype. Circulating and perpetuating.

Those terrorists who were blamed for 9 11 wore turbans and sported thick, black beards. Turbans certainly don’t fit the dominant Western image, so it makes sense then that the media and thus the public allocate derogatory labels to people with the general look and feel of a terrorist.  And it’s just as easy ‘to extend that label to stereotypically include other people who happen to share that religion, culture or physical look, or even to encompass an entire geographical region as the home of terrorists.’ (Elliot, 2003: 52).

In much the same way that the media creates and perpetuates simplified racial categories, it creates religious ideologies that allow the world to see religious groups the way the mostly secular media wants them to. During the 2004 presidential elections, American news organisations portrayed religious Americans as conservative Americans ‘motivated by opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion…’ (Media Matters, 2007) The media drew on an already constructed ideology to perpetuate a stereotype about religious Americans; they just did what they had to exert their influence. Really are we at all surprised? We have allowed the media to think for us, to control our beliefs and to shift our culture. Why? How have we, intelligent, moral man, allowed this to happen? How have we allowed something we call media to claim so much power and present us with well, whatever they feel like?

Image Source:

http://openparachute.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/religion-in-the-public-square/

References:

Elliot, D. 2003. ‘Terrorists we do like and Terrorists we don't like’. In PM Lester and EE Dennis Eds., Images that Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media, 2nd Edn, London: Praeger, ch7, 51-55.

Hall, S. 2000. ‘Racist Ideologies and the Media’. In P Marris and S Thornham, Eds., Media Studies: A Reader. 2nd Edn.,New York: New York University Press, Ch.22, 271-282.

Media Matters for America. 2007. Left Behind,  The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media,  May

Stop the persecution

When I interviewed Dave and Tracey Roake for my essay I gathered so much interesting information that I couldn’t use because it would mean the introduction of yet another topic in my already over-crammed 1200 words.  This may seem ignorant and you may think I live under a rock, but I really knew nothing at all about the persecution of Christians. Dave is currently writing a book about underground churches as a result of this savage, unfounded persecutory behaviour. He has attempt to answer difficult, confronting questions: Why are Christians persecuted? How can they prepare to stand strong in times of persecution? What does the future hold for Christians? Will the violence continue?

In many parts of the world, the persecution has advanced to brutal proportions:

Literally hundreds of thousands of people today are being killed, brutalized, sold as slaves, imprisoned, tortured, threatened, discriminated against and arrested solely because they are Christians. They are being subjected to persecution and suffering, the extent of which we can hardly begin to comprehend, because of their faith. (Esper, 2004)

Dave spoke of the impending doom for Christians all over the world. He believes it’s only going to get worse for Christians; that what is happening in places like India, Sudan and Ethiopia will eventually become the reality for contemporary Western societies, and that the violence and persecution will continue to advance through its stages of development. An article in published in The Bible league of Canada on March 2011 said that Christian persecution in Ethiopia had reached crisis point:

The attacks on the Christians lasted a week, during which time the Muslims had burned down the homes of 30 Christian leaders, they had killed one Christian, wounded several others and burned down 69 churches, a Bible school and an orphanage.

Research suggests that there are varying expert opinions about the stages of persecution. Some document that there are three stages, some five, some seven. Dave has written about what he believes are the five main stages of persecution. The various stages that have been documented are all quite similar – either collapsed or expanded based on the number of stages.  

The first stage is people being criticised or mocked for their faith.

The second stage extends closely from the first, as disinformation is spread throughout society. ‘Disinformation begins more often than not in the media’ (Esper, 2004); Dave is explicit about the media as the primary tool used by evil forces to perpetuate the circulation of negative images and information. Most Western countries are in this second phase, where lies are represented as the truth and cultural beliefs about Christians and their faith begin to change.

The third phase is a shift in status of these people as they are deemed as a lower social class – inferior and unworthy of the same, fair treatment that others may receive. This is what is happening in India at the moment.

The fourth phase is when this inferiority shifts to a sub-human level, where they will be viewed as low lives or animals.

The fifth stage is torture, imprisonment, and ultimately genocide. This is what German Jews experienced, and Dave believes this will eventually be the reality for the Christian faith in contemporary society.

I didn’t even know that this was happening. Why isn’t there more of an outcry? Why aren’t we signing petitions and making posters? Kony got posters. I know what Beyonce and Jay Z named their daughter and that Tom Cruise’s daughter has millions of dollars worth of shoes but I didn’t know that Christians were being locked up with murderers for attending Church. I blame the media.

Image Source: http://unfriendlyatheist.tumblr.com/post/10140544160/christian-persecution-in-america

References:

Esper, J.M. 2004. ‘Anti-Christian bias: the five stages of religious persecution.’ Homiletic and Pastoral Review. Retrieved from:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1173387/posts

The Bible league of Canada. (2011).  Christian persecution in Ethiopia reaches crisis stage. Published 16 March 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.bibleleague.ca/news-detail-inter.php?id=36

www.religion.com

The following are my reflections about online religion based on the knowledge I gained from the interview and essay we just wrote. 

We certainly don’t need any more reason to take to the online world. There are already far too many of us who type more than we talk and click more than we walk. As contemporary society spends more and more time online, it is inevitable that a significant portion of Internet users are searching for something religious, online (but also in real life, I suppose). That there is greater accessibility to heaps of religious material does not mean that this platform of gathering information should become one’s primary means of practicing religion.  The Internet is a great platform for secondary practice, watching additional sermons, discovering new music, and accessing diverse arenas of information, stories and opinions.

But the Internet should not replace the real thing. Sharing your faith with your supportive community, growing and helping others grow through shared experience is living your faith. It’s not even that you’re not in a sacred space, that sitting in front of your computer in your pyjamas is profane; it’s that you’re not out there living your faith, actually practising your religion in the community. If you invited the entire congregation to your house to praise God, it would absolutely be sacred.  What is sacred about the church is not the building or the space as a place where God is worshipped. What is sacred about the church is the people and the coming together of people. As people join together in their like-mindedness and shared beliefs and love, faith in God is increased. It is these people and this community that is sacred, because it is in this community that people come together to give and heal and connect though their love for God and their dedication to Jesus.

We all know that this community isn’t really possible online, even though people have tried to deceive themselves into thinking that social media is about real community and interaction. Your faith is sacred; allow it to be the one thing that doesn’t involve you hunched in front of a screen.

Does popular culture dilute religion?

This is pretty generalised and may seem short-sighted, but these are the questions that filled my mind when I thought about this. And the answers that flowed weren’t the answers I wanted to hear. You see, I’m not religious, (I’m confused) and I often dream of having enough money to fill my wardrobe with designer clothes. Does this make me human? Or, does it make me one of those people letting the side down?

In such a fast-paced, mediated world, we have become conditioned to seek constantly. We look for instant gratification but we never seem fulfilled. Are we all constantly searching? Are those people who have chosen religious lifestyles still trying to find something more? Has materialism reached us all, or does it just lie with the superficial and the weak?

Pop culture provides us with instantly gratifying, although fleeting, answers to the questions we ask. The questions we are ask are determined by pop culture, and pop culture answers them the only way it knows how – commercially. Is leading a wholesome, religious lifestyle kept separate from pop culture? Probably not. People who have embedded their lives within a religious framework may not be seeking what pop culture can provide them with. They’re seeking to become better people, to sin less, to forgive more. But people who have embedded their lives within a mediated world, a commodity, a world informed by pop culture and celebrity obsessions, are seeking to find the money to buy that new pair of shoes or concert tickets to see that singer that we love. Is this the real difference? It seems almost impossible to refuse to allow pop culture to inform your sense of self. How sad is that. Does the answer to the materialism-obsessed, insecure society rest in a selfless worshiping of God? Is it even possible to really be selfless, to not chase money, to not become consumed by consumption?

I wrote a blog about spirituality versus religion a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure why it mattered that new-aged, individualised spirituality was becoming more and more popular. Now it seems that this kind of religiosity, the kind that is highly personalised and tailored to suit your own needs does not allow the self-development necessary to become selfless, to stop chasing the high or the money or the fashion. If we adapt religion to fit our new, fast, 21^st Century lives, we’ll only become what the 21^st Century is, obsessed with things that are faster, more expensive, better. What if, we eventually lose sight of humanity and community because we’re always competing with each other? What if religion becomes so diluted by popular culture that we lose the grounding, the values and the selflessness that comes with it?