Narnia and Christianity — does it matter?

After reading Terrence’s ‘Saying No to Narnia‘ and Pharyngula’s ‘Narnia as an inoculation‘, both of which pointed to a Guardian UK article titled ‘Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion‘, I was somewhat annoyed. As an open-minded, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, anti-Bush liberal who was brought up in a Christian household and counts Christianity as a major part of who I am and why I’m an open-minded, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, anti-Bush liberal, it occasionally gets under my skin when I’m reminded yet again that ‘Christian’ has become a dirty word synonymous with the worst of the bigoted bible-thumping set, tainting anything that it touches.

It was quite nice to see Arcterex’s take on the same article, then:

I read the Narnia books as a child, and absolutely loved them. They had a similar draw as modern day Harry Potter. The downtrodden who think they aren’t anybody in the world finding out that they are a heros in a magical world.

Of course, then I found out later on in live about the religious overtones in the books…

And couldn’t care less. A good story is a good story, and personally I find this sort of ignorant reporting as bad as the Christian groups who go around saying how Harry Potter is promoting kids to become satanists and how it’s an evil book. It’s a friggin’ book and a good story. Geez.

Damn skippy. Sure, there are Christian overtones to the Narnia stories. There are Christian overtones to the Matrix stories, the Lord of the Rings stories, the Star Wars stories, and countless other stories (both printed and filmed), too. Why all the rancor? Just because the religious right (who all too often seem to embody the antithesis to the Christianity I grew up with) has jumped all over The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is it suddenly impossible to go out and enjoy a fun fantasy movie?

Sure, you can read all sorts of meaning into the stories and why they’re being brought to the screen now — religious indoctrination, right-wing propelled mass media conspiracy theories, whatever. You can also tell your inner Fox Mulder that every so often it doesn’t matter and go watch a movie.

That’s what I’m planning on doing.

God’s Total Quality Management Questionairre

God would like to thank you for your belief and patronage. In order to better serve your needs, He asks that you take a few moments to answer the following questions.

Please keep in mind that your responses will be kept completely confidential, and that you need not disclose your name or address unless you prefer a direct response to comments or suggestions.

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Rethinking

In science it often happens that scientists say, “You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

— Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP keynote address

(via Atomic Playboy)

Pope Benedict XVI

I’ve been browsing articles about the new Pope off and on all day…have to say, I’m a bit disappointed. They seem to have picked the most staunchly conservative of the candidates.

Bits and pieces from CNN’s profile:

The newly elected Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, was one of the most powerful men in the Vatican under Pope John Paul II, a strict enforcer of church doctrine who earned the nickname “Cardinal No.”

[…]

Ratzinger became known as “Cardinal No” because of his drives to crack down on the liberation theology movement, religious pluralism, challenges to traditional teachings on issues such as homosexuality, and calls to ordain women as priests.

[…]

Ratzinger has said modernity led to a blurring of sexual identity, causing some feminists to become adversaries of men. He labeled homosexuality “an intrinsic moral evil.”

He argued that Muslim Turkey did not belong in Christian Europe and issued a document saying that Catholicism was the only true religion, questioning the validity of other religions, even Christian ones, even as his Pope John Paul II was trying to reach out to other faiths.

[…]

He rejected a 1993 pastoral letter co-written by fellow German Cardinal Walter Kasper that encouraged divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to return to the sacraments.

Y’know, in the church I was brought up in, I was taught that we were supposed to be accepting of others different from us. That we were supposed to love all people equally. To do unto others as we would have done to us. That Jesus shunned the powerful and spent time with the weak, downtrodden, and humble masses.

Of course, I wasn’t brought up Catholic.

iTunesGraveyard” by Webley, Jason from the album Springman Records Sampler (2003, 3:57).

Neri di Bicci, ‘Virgin and Child With Six Saints’

Procession from Town Hall to St. James Cathedral, Seattle, WAAs we were on our way back up the hill after running an errand downtown today, Prairie and I noticed a procession leaving Town Hall. There was a large icon-type puppet figure towards the back, an angel figure towards the front, and quite a few children in acolyte’s robes, so we figured that it was religious in nature, but didn’t know much more than that. Prairie noticed a gentleman standing near us wearing a priest’s collar and asked him what was going on.

As it turns out, we’d stumbled into the celebrations surrounding the return of a 15th century altar painting by Renaissance artist Neri di Bicci to St. James Cathedral after restoration work. This piqued our interest, so we followed along up to the cathedral to watch the pageant and blessing service.

Neri di Bicci's 'Virgin and Child With Six Saints' at St. James Cathedral, Seattle, WAWhile there, we found out that there’s something of a mystery surrounding this work of art — namely, how it got to St. James Cathedral in the first place.

But the big question surrounding the Renaissance work remains unanswered: How did this 15th-century altar painting by Florentine artist Neri di Bicci end up in St. James’ basement? Did a parishioner buy it? Was it an anonymous gift?

Art historians, church administrators and amateur sleuths have all taken their shots at solving the puzzle, but none has succeeded.

[…]

Church officials didn’t know they had a museum-quality piece until 1991. Then, an architect weighing a bid for work at the church asked a friend, Elizabeth Darrow, to take a look at it.

Darrow, then a UW art graduate student who had studied Renaissance art in Florence, was stunned when she saw the regal young Virgin sitting on a monumental throne.

“This is the most important Renaissance artwork in the Northwest — and the largest,” said Darrow, now a guest scholar at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Darrow believes it is among the most exquisite and detailed works of the Virgin Mary by the prolific di Bicci.

“The colors are very intense and vibrant,” she said.

“Her face is round, with rosy, translucent skin and refined features: straight nose, delicately arched eyebrows,” she said. “It’s very beautiful.”

[…]

Art scholars suspect the painting hung in an Italian church for most of its existence and was probably sold in the 19th century when the market for Renaissance artwork began. When it was found at St. James, it was in a 19th-century frame, Dorman said.

How it ended up at a Seattle church is less clear.

“It’s a great mystery,” said Darrow, who has gone so far as to track down wealthy local Catholic families for clues. She still has not given up hope of solving the puzzle; she’s even enlisted the help of art scholars in Florence.

St. James administrators have searched all their archives at the cathedral and the archdiocese, “and there is no record, no bill of sale, no letter,” Ryan said.

Church officials heard there was an art dealer or collector who moved a few di Bicci paintings to the United States — mostly to the Midwest — during the 1920s and 1930s, but it is unknown whether the St. James Madonna was among them.

Church administrators have tracked down congregation members and workers from the 1950s. The best they can tell is that someone, perhaps an architect, found the painting in a crate in the lower level of the cathedral during a major renovation in 1950.

Really a fascinating little piece of local art history to stumble across on an otherwise quiet Sunday afternoon. The painting was still partially under wraps for today’s ceremonies, but it will be hung this week and formally dedicated during next Sunday’s 4pm vespers service.

More photos can, as usual, be found in a Flickr photoset.

Which religion?

I know I’m not going to have time to really go as much into this as I’d like while I’m on my lunch break, but I found an interesting little online quiz through Subzero Blue: Which religion is the right one for you? Here’s my results:

You scored as agnosticism. You are an agnostic. Though it is generally taken that agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve in God, it is possible to be a theist or atheist in addition to an agnostic. Agnostics don’t believe it is possible to prove the existence of God (nor lack thereof).

Agnosticism is a philosophy that God’s existence cannot be proven. Some say it is possible to be agnostic and follow a religion; however, one cannot be a devout believer if he or she does not truly believe.

agnosticism
79%
Satanism
75%
Islam
58%
Buddhism
54%
Christianity
50%
atheism
50%
Paganism
46%
Hinduism
38%
Judaism
38%

Some points before I head off to work, some of which I might come back and expand on later:

I come from a strongly religious background, specifically the Episcopal faith. Having grown up with that, Christianity forms the base for many of my beliefs.

That said, one of the things I’ve always felt very fortunate for is that my parents never had any problems with the fact that we’re a pretty bright family, and have a tendency to question, poke, and prod at things. Christianity was never something that had to be accepted at face value — it was okay to ask “why?” when things didn’t seem to make sense. In fact, if I’m remembering the story correctly, my father was at a point where he found either Christianity in particular or religion as a whole to be fairly hokey, and first sat down to read through the Bible with the avowed goal of finding every problem, every issue, and every inconsistency so that he could point them out to mom…and while he certainly found a fair amount of all of those, he also discovered along the way that there was a lot of really good stuff in there, too. He’s since devoted a fair amount of time to theological study, and is currently in the long process of getting ordained as a minister.

Over the years, I’ve found plenty to question when it comes to religion, which came into play as I was answering the questions on this test. While I wouldn’t say that I am entirely without faith, I certainly do question things, and I often have difficulties when it comes to my concepts of both God and the afterlife. I tried to be as honest as possible when answering the questions, and these doubts certainly pulled my scores towards the middle of the spectrum.

I’m also not entirely happy with either the questions or the scoring system on the test — there were a few where I felt that having to pick a point on an agree/disagree scale didn’t really do justice to the question, or truly represent the answer I wanted to give. Still, I did the best I could with it.

I am rather amused that my second-place score was Satanism, though. Make of that what you will.

Lastly — why do all of these quizzes produce the most god-awful HTML when giving you the code to post your results? Normally I clean them up, but this one was too complex for the little time I have on my lunch hour. Ick.

iTunesSkin” by Oingo Boingo from the album Best o’ Boingo (1990, 4:40).

Christianity and the ACLU

John Scalzi is looking for Christian lawyers who work for the ACLU:

Someone who is very close to me (who will remain nameless for the moment) just presented the opinion to me that, for various reasons, she strongly suspects there are no lawyers who work for the ACLU who are also Christians, since she was also of the opinion that the ACLU isn’t interested in the constitutional rights of Christians…

Naturally, I was appalled at this statement and told her that I would make it my mission to find her an ACLU lawyer who was also a Christian, and that upon finding such a specimen, that I would ask her to consider the possibility that one could be a Christian and a lawyer and consider as one’s mission the constitutional rights of all Americans.

If you are a lawyer who loves Christ and are either on staff or has worked for the ACLU, would you please come forward to say hello?

The ensuing comment thread on his post is getting very interesting, too. Worth checking out (though it keeps getting longer, so give yourself a few minutes).

(via Boing Boing)

iTunesI Believe” by Absolute U.S., The feat. Palmer, Suzanne from the album This is the Sound of Tribal U.K. Vol. 2 (1995, 9:23).