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…
Image: https://i2.wp.com/nerdbastards.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/starwars_casino1.jpg?resize=600%2C411
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