Welcome to my portfolio for this class. This is made to show my perspective on the topics we have discussed over this summer during our presentations and explore the relationship between the images and videos I have collected regarding pop culture and religion.
Presentation One
I picked this painting to give a visual representation of what envy and evil that has been represented by Alexandre Cabane. It is in the eyes that you can tell the hate and envy that Satan had for god when he cast him out of heaven. This is the good and evil in one painting. It has the good angels flying above freely and the fallen angel is stuck watching in anger. The culture surrounding this artwork has expanded and even given inspiration for additional works. The art piece gives the viewer the opportunity to dive deeper into the religious faith it is based on as well as get a better moral sense of what the painting is trying to truly convey to the viewer.
Presentation Two
One animated show that depicts themes of religion is American Dad. In the episode Rapture's Delight (season 5 episode 9) it goes into the theme of the christians rapture and the end of the world in the Bible called revelations. In goes into its own depiction of how the rapture will go such as when people rise to heaven and their own depiction of what the fight with Jesus and the anti-christ will be like. It still adds a form of religious and watching it is far from the real sequence of events in reality but it adds its own twist to adjust for the comedic approach of the topic. Shows like this and Family Guy or even The Simpsons puts their own twist on all kinds of religions and cultures. Like Jewish stereotypes with Mort in Family Guy or Brian's atheism beliefs which a running joke is how he thinks he's smarter than everyone else because of his beliefs not just religious.
Presentation Three
There are lots of movies that depicts current religions or made up ones like the force in starwars or Avis in the The Orville. The example I will use is a religion I personally find interesting. The movie is Thor, I'm sure most people have already seen it but I like its depiction of what the world of Norse paganism looks like for their gods. The movies depict asgard as the realm of the gods and other characters from their beliefs such as Loki, Heimdall and Odin. However a few of their practices were not shown such as sacrifices of animals or Blót and Yule which is like Christmas to christian beliefs. This was intended to show the thanks to the gods and pray for another plentiful harvest or whatever the followers desire. This sort of addition to the movie doesn't have an affect on the story of the movie and wouldn't really fit in which is probably why they didn't decide to add their celebrations to the movie.
Presentation Four
There has been a cultural merger with music and religion since music began. Even the oldest song discovered with words, the Hurrian Hymn No. 6, was about praying to a goddess. Even in the modern era musical artists are making songs about or in a religious context. Trip Lee made a song I like that was heavily religious called "Sweet Victory" about when Jesus died on the cross and that it wasn't him that lost it was a victory. He also parallels the song to some of the struggles he was having and implies that he will make it through his trials just as Jesus did. Another song that is an example of popular music and religion mixing together is in the song BIG G.O.D. by red tips. It uses the sound of Travis Scott's song FE!N with their own lyrics. I assume that they used it because the song went live the year before and wanted to reach a bigger audience and mix in with the current trends.
BIG GOD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKOVpsVHaxw&list=RDxKOVpsVHaxw&start_radio=1
Presentation Five
Modifying your body in the Christian faith is strictly forbidden, as it is said in Leviticus 19:28: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord." Therefore, Christians are not allowed to do it as well as Mormons and Judaism. Other religions like Hindus or Buddhism. In Thailand it is a gesture to praise the deities that the person does to get a tattoo on the body, they call it "Sak Yant". For full modifications such as a prosthetic leg or arm would be left up to debate. The bible states your body is your temple as stated in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." I would assume that if it were a purposeful alteration, it would be frowned upon in the Christian culture, but if it was a necessary alteration it would be looked at in a more positive light. This is because it was a necessary procedure instead of just a self-desired modification.
Presentation Six
Regarding contemporary music I do like the music from Bob Marley. He was a influential part of the Rastafarian movement which is similar to Christianity and Judaism beliefs but their god is called Jah who is born to the earth as the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Their key ideas revolve around the humanity of God and the divinity of man and that god is found within every man, similar to how in Christianity the holy spirit lives within all of us. His songs are famous among all cultures aswell, not just the Rastafarian movement. Songs like One Love and Redemption Song, which are two of my favorites. Redemption Song portrays the Rastafarian ideas of liberation and freedom while using spiritual references. Bob Marley never was never for the fame and money during his music career, he wanted to make music to make people happy and have them enjoy the music. His beliefs influenced his style such as his iconic dreadlocks even mentioning himself as a dreadlock rasta in his songs. His dietary decisions are influenced by his Rastafarian beliefs aswell similar to those of Islamic beliefs typically avoiding pork.
One Love: https://youtu.be/IN0KkGeEURw?si=ZXy-zAMlwalMif69
Presentation Seven
Their was an interview with Dana White after Jon Jones just won a fight and praised jesus the interviewer asked Dana White what he thought about the controversy that was brought up after. In the interview he says that the fighter can love and worship Jesus all he wants but just keep it at home and also assumes that people don't want to see things like that. When he said this it caused more controversy around Dana and his views on religion and sports. Jon Jones however still gave praise to Jesus after his fights. This shows that the culture within sports is heavily integrated with religion because the players or fighters won't let their boss tell them not to praise their god and the fans will back them up aswell. Dana White has also openly said in another interview that he doesn't think religion is good at all. This firmly gave his stance on religious praises or mentions within the UFC and caused even more backlash towards him.
Presentation Eight
For this presentation I have chosen to discuss the relationship between religion and Alcoholics Anonymous or AA. To start on their website they display their 12 step program and mention god as well as keeping him within the program as big part of the programs core and the persons path to sobriety. The first step is "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable." Its the first to get ready to embrace God's guidance and says "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity". Which is to help the people feel comfort and safety in their decision which is confirmedin the next step "Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him". Steps 4-7 is to understand what you have done wrong and letting God take away your shortcomings. Steps 8-10 is requiring the person to think about all the people you may have hurt and to make amends with them while continuing to take inventory of when you are wrong and to admit it. Steps 11 is said to meditate and pray while continuing your relationship with God while finally step 12 is to have your spiritual awakening though god.
Presentation Nine
In the show keeping up with the Kardashians to me it gives off fake vibes, like their life's are being scripted for the viewer. Taking this into account its not unreasonable to suspect that shows like this are made to keep the viewer watching, while some worship them and watch it religiously. It can make the average person's personality and perspectives change based on who someone may idolize, much like in religion followers of a god will change their attitudes and actions to please their god. Another reason it is unhealthy to idolize another person is cause people will tend to make unrealistic comparisons to their idol and themselves. Obviously most people aren't in the same position as celebrities and some may get depressed because they can't be like their idol or do what they do. They have a term for the obsession of a celebrity its called celebrity worship syndrome (CWS) or celebrity obsession disorder (COD) it is a obsessive disorder when a person becomes overly involved with the details of a celebrity's personal life. Also like I mentioned before it can cause anxiety and depression within the person. People may want to be like their idol but everyone is unique and special and should embrace it, not change it.
Presentation Ten
In the 2024 presidential election a lot of times the candidates would often times end speechs or add in-between their speech the phrase "may god bless America" or "may god bless our troops". They would say these phrases to appeal to the religious population to get more votes. It's their job to try and attempt to get as most votes as possible so they can with the presidential election and become president. Trump especially focused his political targets towards conservative Christians and the beliefs that some of the current policies are against god. A key point was abortion which most christians are against but Trump made it a point and said things like "every life is a gift from god" saying things like this in his speechs helped his political view with the christian community. Also both Trump and Biden held a lunch with religious leaders today aswell while being seen multiple times during christian church services and funerals. Trump was also asked during his current term what he thinks about church's giving their endorsement to a political candidate and he was happy for it. The picture shows Biden and Trump at a funeral for Jimmy Carter who was christian.
Presentation Eleven
For this presentation I will use a game I'm sure a lot of people will know that has been heavily inspired by religious view is Assassin's Creed. In the game you are an assassin who is trying to bring down the knight's templar who in reality were basically the churches army but in the video game they are a secret group of people who are trying to find and use ancient artifacts from a time before the existence of modern civilization. One of these artifacts being the apple of edan which is a reference to the garden of eden in the christian Bible as well as the apple that Adam and Eve ate in the book of Genesis. Though out the series it references people from the christian faith and historical battles or moments that are in the history of the christian church. It also have a game that was set in Greece and went into some lore of the Greek mythology and a game that featured lore of the viking mythology. Other games also make up their own gods and religions as well as practices one of such is the Elder Scrolls series which has different gods which the characters can choose to worship. Another game with heavy christian themes would be Kingdom Come Deliverance where in one mission you have to give a service to the congregation.
Presentation Twelve
I found this clip of The Sopranos when two characters are at a church trying to arrange a festival with the church. The church however believes they need more of a donation to the church from what they are used to because they have implemented additional services for those in need at the chirch. While Paulie first is trying to discourage the idea by explaining the cost for everything gets expensive enough already. The pastor then explains that the costs he his talking about is far lower than what he exaggerated them to be and also mentioning that he doesn't he own the land he is leasing. Paulie then insults the pastor by insinuates that the church has enough money to pay for lawsuits in the Catholic Church already and should have more than enough. Then theirs a back and forth with subtle threats but in the end Paulie ends up giving the money to the church. I think this was a good example of how finances effect everyone from hardened criminals to church pastor and it was displayed in this scene by showing the churches desire for more money for continuous activities within the church and a criminals desire to save a buck when he can.
https://youtu.be/TB78Lx7uPi8?si=aAqAYegUbIec1-1f
Summary
This class has helped me get a better perspective of how much religious culture is involved with everything that we do, from just watching TV to the music we like or even the political candidates we consider. It’s a significant part of people’s spirit to be creative, like the painting I mentioned or the song I showed. When I started this class I expected there to be a lot of mention of religious culture within things such as music or TV and how if we idolize the people who create this art would look as if we are treating them as gods which could be dangerous. I also learned about other religious cultures and found it interesting that they are all more similar than I thought.