News: February 2006 Archives

Today would not be complete on the BoG without a look at Mardi Gras, the traditional celebration of indulgence held before the forty days of self-denial known as Lent. 

Mardi Gras is a fascinating holiday.  It's a form of holy hedonism that distills our moral complexity into a single day--eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow you fast for the Lord.  Given that, I guess it's fitting that controversies arise over whether the festival is appropriate, from fundamentalist sermons against pagan practices to human rights concerns over the work conditions in Chinese factories where plastic beads are made.

What then shall we do?  To show that all are welcome here at the B of G, we offer a few Mardi Gras tokens that are workplace friendly in every sense of the phrase. Pictured here are nice vintage Mardi Gras beads, crafted in New Orleans from classic Czech glass.  If you're interested in more about the beads check out this article from National Geographic, which provides a lot of information without revealing why the magazine has remained popular among schoolboys for more than a century.

Want to learn more?  Wikepedia covers Mardi Gras across America, while the Times-Picayune has a nifty overview of the New Orleans MG celebration.  Should you be planning to cut back for Lent, remember that the City still could use our tourist dollars--if you're strategic about your Lenten self-denial (e.g., no chocolate-covered ants or young Cabernet), it's still quite possible to go there and have a great time!

While paying obeisance to the Caffeine God at Starbucks this morning, I embarked upon some technorati searches to follow up on my post on China exports of religious bling.  The result?  A number of blogs detailing persecution in China, a couple of which were particularly interesting in relation to the BofG.

One observant Christian blogger realized that his Bible was made in China & puzzled over the irony of pastors smuggling in something actually made there. 

Meanwhile, Cherry, a new teen blogger, writes an impassioned post on Falun Dafa in response to folks who call her a Nazi for wearing a swastika necklace.  As she correctly notes, the swastika had a long history as a religious symbol long before the Nazis appropriated it for their nefarious ends,  although the association with the Holocaust has indeed made the swastika rather controversial in the West. 

What happens when a religious symbol is tarnished due to actions that believers abhor?  That's one of many subjects we'll be exploring soon here on the Blingdom of God!

Did you know that China makes about half of the world's jewelry?  According to the linked report, this amounted to more than $650 million worth of goods in the first 3 quarters of last year alone, a fifty percent increase for year before. 

A wide selection of this jewelry will be on display at this week's China International Gold, Jewelry & Gem Fair.  While this one has quickly grown into one of the region's largest, here at the BofG the race does not go to the swift (or the large). 

Rather, what we find most intriguing about the China trade in jewelry & other assorted tchotchkes is that a fair amount of it is explicitly religious.  Diamond crosses, Jesus medallions, Hindu gold and Buddha figures--look around the web and local stores, and you'll soon find an endless supply of Chinese-crafted goods.

China, of course, is a communist nation.  Even as the government is imprisoning Chinese evangelical Christians in forced labor camps, American Christians are buying the cheap religious trinkets that such camps produce.  Moreover, even if the item in question isn't made by prisoners, a portion of the profits still goes to the support of the state's religious persecution.

Which brings us back to Karl Marx's maxim that religion is "opium of the people."  Many in the U.S. are now working hard to end religious persecution in China, whether it concerns evangelicals & Catholics or Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong.  Is China's burgeoning supply of religious trinkets a sign of positive change or our own willful intoxication?

"The midriff is the message"--brilliant!

An article in today's Syracuse Post-Standard reminds us that the purveyors of spiritual bling live not only in the ethereal net, but the material realm. 

As the article relates, Seven Rays, a storied seller of new age books and jewelry, had announced that it would close this upcoming spring, but a couple entrepreneurial (and spiritual) employees are trying to keep it alive by opening a similar shop with the same name. 

The key to success, the employees believe is community--while anyone can buy things on the web, stores such as Seven Rays offer classes and meetings for spiritual seekers.  The new store would also have more things for kids.

If getting reborn in a new shell means we get more Buddha Beanies, I'm all for it!  Here's wishing everyone at Seven Rays all the best. 

A charity auction isn't the only measure the Pope could take to counter criticism that his lavish fashion sense is too materialistic.  He could also replace his expensive bling with a far cheaper tattoo. 

As this newspaper article observes, religious tattoos are on the rise in the U.S., from the Bible verses on Duke's J.J. Redick and to the Hindu lotus flower.

Just we have long worn clothing has as "an extension of the skin" both to warm our bodies and to define ourselves, many now freely using their skin as an extension of their soul.  This should not come as no surprise.  Back in 1964 Marshall McLuhan observed that

After centuries of being fully clad and of being contained in uniform visual space, the electric age ushers us into a world in which we live and breathe and listen with the entire epidermis.

The Bahai tattoo above represents the fundamental unity of all religions, but it could also symbolize what McLuhan referred to as the "all-at-onceness" created by electronic technology.  People, places, objects, time--everything now flows together, smashing the divisions and taboos of the literate West.  Which also brings with the supreme irony of our technological age--

by immersing us in a world in which every surface is a communications medium, computers and the Web have actually helped revive our tribal spirit.

I don't care if the holiday is named after him--giving your loved one this St. Valentine pendant is not a good idea. 

Of the making of Christian books against evolution there may be no end, but adaptation and natural selection are everyday realities in the world of Christian booksellers.  As this article notes, one of the themes emerging from the annual convention of the Christian Booksellers Association is the need to adapt to Walmart and big box stores, who are taking away a sizable portion of the Christian book trade.

What is keeping the booksellers in the black?  Yes, they are beginning to emphasize their more informed selection & ties to local churches, but statistics tell the real tale:  "Books now account for only 40 percent of sales in Christian retail stores." 

Jewelry, tchotchkes, gifts--that's where the profit center now lies in the Christian market.  But if mainstream merchants continue to expand their range of Christian and other religious products, look for more traditional Christian bookstores to go the way of all flesh.

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, so in addition to commemorating the complexities of Darwin Week, the Blingdom of God will go on a sacred pilgrimage to holy shrines of love.

We begin our travels at the heart of European civilization:  the pagan Roman Empire.  The week of love actually began yesterday, February 12, with an ancient Roman holiday dedicated to the goddess Diana. 

Like the Norse god Ullr, Diana was a divinity associated with hunting, but she also was also something more:  an eternal virgin.

Goddess of chastity, Diana was immune to Cupid's arrows. Nonetheless, she was a protector of women in all aspects of their lives, from warding off undesirable suitors to enduring childbirth.

What does an ancient holiday for the goddess Diana have to do with the present celebration of Valentine's Day?  Ask your local Wiccan!  Diana is a central figure in the growing Wicca movement, especially in the younger generation.  While Venus may rule over love, Diana the Huntress provides a model of a woman who will not let her loves rule over her.

Religious jewelry miraculously appears in a three-page R. Crumb comic in the pages of the latest New Yorker.  Look to the right of the panel to see Aline Kominsky-Crumb sporting a Virgin of Guadalupe bolo tie while visiting Manhattan last month.

Devotees of illuminated manuscripts know that the appearance of a Robert Crumb cartoon is in event in itself, so hie thee to a magazinery and check it out in the Feb. 13-20 2006 New Yorker!

But what is this Virgin of Guadalupe?  A miracle, or at least that's what many believe--it is an image of the Virgin Mary that materialized on a piece of cloth after Mary appeared in a vision to Juan Diego in 1531. 

Since then, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has become a cultural icon in Mexico and beyond.  In the picture below, for example, Our Lady of Guadalupe communes with the leading religious icon of the United States--

Saint Elvis!

Here at the B of G we're always in the mood for a good word from on high, and this meditation from the saints at Jack & Hill has deeply moved our soul. 

At a time when people are getting killed over cartoons and threatened (or worse) for using religious imagery in design, we join in looking forward to the day when artists the world over feel free to communicate with the symbols from all major faiths--even if the result isn't always easy on the eyes!

of those who heed the wisdom of Manolo at Shoeblogs.com! 

Sad.

Today's New York Times has an article on roadside memorials and the growing effort to regulate them. 

These memorials, known as descansos in Spanish-speaking communities, are often much more than just a sign, a cross and flowers.  They also provide a place for remembering the deceased through the display of religious jewelry and other meaningful icons. 

For example, wrapped around the cross above is a St. Christopher's medal.  St. Christopher was a saint who somewhere in the third supposedly carried an infant across a river, only then to discover that it was the baby Jesus (like the ever-popular Footprints in the Sand, except in reverse). 

Thus St. Christopher (in Latin, Christ-bearer) became the patron saint of travellers, leading millions of people to where his medallion to secure a safe journey.  Unfortunately, the Vatican decided a few years ago that St. Christopher probably never existed, and so in 1969 he was delisted from the roll of saints.  Which probably explains the medal's rather dubious rate of success.

Here, the memorial features a rosary, buddha and Tweety.  In the remix culture that is American religion, "God is a DJ" indeed.