It's a small post, so I'll violate a couple of copyright laws and just reproduce the entire post:
So McDonald's now has Chronicles of Narnia Happy Meals.
Each comes with one of several plastic Narnia figurines -- Tumnus, Lucy, Edmund. Aslan.
They're selling plastic Aslans at McDonald's.
Plastic Aslans. At McDonald's.
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Plastic Aslans at McDonald's. The crucifixion-nail pendants were pretty awful, but at least Mel had the decency not to license Happy Meals.
Would someone please explain to me, again, the relationship between the Bible, modern Christianity, and US culture/society in the 21st Century?
Posted by baltar at January 5, 2006 07:50 PM | TrackBack | Posted to ReligionI'm a little confused. What is wrong with plastic Aslans? I get that this is supposed to be within the context of WWII, so the beavers are the symbol for Canada and the lion is the symbol for Churchill. And I understand that Aslan gets crucified in the movie, but as it goes with the Christian crucifixion (spoiler alert), Aslan comes back to life. I'm certainly no fan of exemplarism as a way of life, but what's wrong with children having an Aslan action figure to fight off the wolf pack?
Posted by: Morris at January 6, 2006 08:44 AM | PERMALINKWould someone please explain to me, again, the relationship between the Bible, modern Christianity, and US culture/society in the 21st Century?
Well, unfortunately, they are gradually merging into one another. The liberalization of the Church -- theologically, not politically (I'd argue that conservative, biblical theology will often look political liberal at times) -- during the middle part of the 20th century has changed mainline churches (think PC USA) from houses of worship to houses of feel-good psychology. Christians don't want to be told what to do, they simply want to feel good about their lives for one hour each week. The focus isn't on what you can do for God, but what God can do for you. Sadly, some folks have even taken to defending some of the worst bits of modernity (unfettered capitalism, for example) from a biblical perspective.
That said, there are pockets of resistance, but since these churches critique the media and the larger culture, you won't see them mentioned in the mainstream media. Some examples:
The New Pantagruel
Caelum et Terra
Comment (Journal of the Work Research Foundation)