The Church and Pop Culture
Dr. Leithart has a new post about the Church and pop culture that is relevant to education. It starts off with a quiz. I’ve copied it below. My answers are in bold italics.
I got 8 of 13 questions correct in Part 2. I’m 38% pagan and illiterate. (Paganism and illiteracy being measured not by how many of Part 1 that you know but how many of Part 2 you don’t know.) Leave your answers in the comments!
Quiz Part 1
Finish the following sentences or phrases: (3/9)
- With great power …
- Hasta la vista … baby. (Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger)
- Do the … (Dew)
- Shaken, not …
- Space, the final …
- Think outside the …
- I’d walk a mile for …
- Life is like a box … chocolates. (I don’t know where that’s from.)
- May the force … be with you.(My cousin said this to me once when I was 12. When my father heard me saying a few days later, he stopped me and told me never to say it again because it was tantamount to blasphemy. He then explained how there is no power or “force” in itself but that all comes from God, he told me about the evils of dualism, yin and yang and it’s cultural impact from ancient times to the present, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and a lot more about comparative religion and the Bible and
how Star Wars was makinghow the people making Star Wars were making paganism accessible, popular, and fun for apostate America by using Biblical language in a science fiction movie. I never said those words again.Identify the advertisers by the following taglines: (1/9 … I only know one.)
- I’m loving it. (MacDonald’s … they use the same line in Japan.)
- You’re in good hands.
- Where’s the beef?
- Have it your way.
- Be all you can be.
- Can you hear me now?
- Is it in you?
- Obey your taste.
- The king of beers.Identify these people: (8/8. Dang. I know all these people.)
- Captain Jack Sparrow
- Paula Abdul
- Paul McCartney
- Elvis
- Beyonce
- Orlando Bloom
- Brad Pitt
- Johnny DeppQuiz Part 2
Now, the rest of the quiz is from me, not from my kids. Again, finish the following sentences or song lyrics: (4/7)
- Let God arise … ummm.
- I bind unto myself today … the strong name of the Trinity.
- We praise thee, O God, We acknowledge thee … to be the Lord.
- Midway through the journey of our life I found myself in … no idea.
- As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods … It’s something from Shakespeare, But I can’t remember what.
- I believe in one God, the Father Almighty … Maker of Heaven and Earth.
- Call me … Ishmael.Identify these people: (4/6)
- Zelophahad - Israelite with 5 daughters (and one of them was named Noah, I think … yep … and Milk and Hog)
- Polycarp - (early church leader)
- Dominic - Founder of the Dominicans.
- Becky Sharp - Argh, sounds familiar, but I don’t know. (I looked up the answer and now I remember.)
- Charles Wesley - Methodist preacher, 19th century.
- Karol Wotyla - Also sounds familiar but I can’t place it. (After seeing the answer, yeah, of course. Duh.)Go to the article at leithart.com for the answers.
When my children are old enough to talk, I want them to be able to answer the second part of the quiz without even thinking.
“The Church and Pop Culture” has been splattered on 3 times.
Small children tend to have problems separating fantasy and reality. But my father wasn’t trying to tell me “The Force” didn’t exist. He was explaining to me the mindset behind the makers of the movie.
I know I’m a wacky enough home schooler but I’m not going to reject something just because it was made or said by a homosexual or a communist. Of course, it’s not wrong to enjoy art and literature made by people who hate God. But to teach me to be in the world and not of it, he wanted me to be conscious of the spiritual battle behind the scenes, to view things critically and not just mindlessly soak up the fun.
I think it’s good to teach children to think critically about the entertainments they consume. It was just the “tantamount to blasphemy” part that sounded distasteful to me.
“Small children tend to have problems separating fantasy and reality.” Do they? I haven’t really ever encountered this. Part of the problem I suppose is using myself as an example - as I never saw fiction as less than imaginary, and as often as I ran around declaring myself to have the Power by the power of Castle Greyskull, I never once imagined that I was engaging in anything other than fantasy play. I guess that I just assumed that level of cognizance was pretty average.
emethhesed
emeth.hesed
The Dane | 10:17 AM, Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Weren’t you the one who was all disappointed with Western elitism? All of that trivia in the second part that you want your kids to know without thinking is oh so very Western. Don’t forget the balance that you hoped for when you were younger :)
p.s. Your dad was mistaken about “May the force be with you.” The phrase was not tantamount to blaspheme because within the scope of the fictional universe in which the movies take place, the Force is a viable and very real natural resource that can be called upon much like we call upon the forces of electricity and particle physics in our world. As a simple cultural reference to a popular story, there is nothing wrong with the phrase. If, however, one were to invest real faith into the term in this world rather than strictly in that fictional world, then you would have a problem - but the vast majority of us don’t have that kind of difficulty separating fiction from reality.