July 22, 2018

Slice of PIE: THE LAST JEDI vs The Last Christians


NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki, Finland in August 2017 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…

My wife and I just finished watching THE LAST JEDI on our new DVD.

I read an article “As Churches Close, A Way of Life Fades” the next day.

Some months ago, I read the book UNCHRISTIAN by Kinnaman & Lyons.

The three very different media intersected in a fascinating way.

Yoda has this to say about Luke’s crisis of faith (in the Force, in the Jedi, in everything he’s ever believed):

“Luke: So, it is time for the Jedi Order to end?
Yoda: Time, it is...hmm, for you to look past a pile of old books, hmm?         
Luke: The sacred Jedi texts!
Yoda: Oh? Read them, have you?
Luke: Well, I...
Yoda: Page-turners, they were not. Yes, yes, yes. Wisdom, they held, but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess. Ah, Skywalker...still looking to the horizon. Never here! [pokes Luke with his walking stick] Now, hmm? The need in front of your nose!
Luke: I was weak. Unwise.
Yoda: Lost Ben Solo, you did. Lose Rey, you must not.
Luke: I can't be what she needs me to be!
Yoda: Heeded my words not, did you? ‘Pass on what you have learned.’ Strength, mastery, hmm...but weakness, folly, failure, also. Yes, failure, most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.”

[The culture of the United States and Western Europe (of course these areas are MOST important and anywhere NOT Western doesn’t really matter (*sarcasm*) has long been sliding away from the kind of Christianity practiced by Jesus, the Christ and his followers all over the world. http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-regions/]

According to the article “As Churches Close, A Way of Life Fades” (7/21/2018, StarTribune, Jean Hopfensperger), “Steep drops in church attendance, aging congregations, and cultural shifts away from organized religion have left most of Minnesota’s mainline Christian denominations facing unprecedented declines.”

Yet the aging of America hasn’t caused a steep decline in the membership of health clubs. Cultural shifts haven’t closed Caribou Coffee shops (though Netflix and live streaming have affected movie theater attendance…maybe there’s a connection?) Oddly, the article doesn’t talk about the loss of a life of faith with the demise of the churches. Rather it notes: “The closings and mergers are leaving a void in communities where churches frequently house child care, senior programs, food shelves, tutoring, and other services.”

I can’t help but note that the collapse of the Jedi order parallels the phenomenal growth of The First Order – and it’s not just among the pillars of that Order, but among the common people. They don’t know who the Jedi are any more. Rey has no idea who the Jedi are, except as a sort of magic or something:

“Luke Skywalker: What do you know about the force?
Rey: It's a power that Jedi have that lets them control people and... make things float.”

Nobody but Rey actually seems to care. The New Republic certainly didn’t employ any Jedi. It attempted to rebuild itself WITHOUT them. Look where it got them (I’m not sure if the writers were trying to be ironic or if they had no idea what the did). But “today”, in TLJ, we don’t NEED the Jedi. Yoda, Jedi master, clearly says as much, Rey has everything she needs all bundled up in herself. Without any training or Jedi writings or Jedi masters, Rey will surpass them because…well, just because. (Though I find the irony delightful and can’t wait to see if the writers bother to raise it up later or if, like the Jedi-less New Republic being blasted out of existence by the New Order, they didn’t notice what they’d communicated.)

Young adults (and old adults as well) are attempting to rebuild the church in the form of a social “ministry” with a massive increase in social services available through the most institutionalized public service: schools. When I was a child, schools provided lunch. Today, the high school I work at provides lunch…and breakfast, after school snacks and programming, nearly-full-service medical care, counseling, psychological care, family planning, and social skills training as well as assistance with job placement, college application, and career resources.

This has come as no surprise to the authors of the book UNCHRISTIAN: “Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.” [p 26]

All of this has mish-mashed in my head into a murky view of what’s happening to Christians here and how the world outside of Christianity is promoting something similar as well. This “new” world view might be summed up as: “You don’t need anyone or anything else. Make your own way – it’s the best way.”

I guess we’ll see both how Christianity in the west (and the rest of the world) fares in the next thirty years and the new Force users starting with Rey (and by implication) some of the jockeys on Casino World (aka Cantonica; the casino itself is called Canto Bight) fare in the next ten years of Disney’s STAR WARS franchise…


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