Gog and Magog

This is loosely based on what we have been discussing in class, about the representations of Christ in televisions and movies.  I was curious about the representation of other Biblical figures in our culture.  I decided to look at Gog’s and Magog’s.  For those of you who don’t know Gog’s and Magog’s are they are generally believed to be the people who bring about Satan’s will on Earth, and will flourish around the end of days.  

 A Persian miniature depicting the erection of an Iron Wall to keep the barbarian Gog and Magog from civilised peoples.

In 1971, during a dinner address to state legislators President Reagan said "Ezekiel tells us that Gog, the nation that will lead all of the other powers of darkness against Israel, will come out of the north. Biblical scholars have been saying for generations that Gog must be Russia. What other powerful nation is to the north of Israel? None. But it didn’t seem to make sense before the Russian revolution, when Russia was a Christian country. Now it does, now that Russia has become Communistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God. Now it fits the description of Gog perfectly."

I know that there were other reasons to portray Russians negatively during this time period, but I was curious as to whether or not television of movies actively promoted the idea of Gog’s and Magogs as synonymous with Russians.  There is no lack of Russian villains, there’s the evil Russian ducks in  Duck Tales, the Russians in Red Dawn, and numerous James Bond villains.  Unfortunately, there is not a lot of description about Gog’s and Magog’s, just that they come from a land that’s north of Israel and that they generally cause trouble.

                                                  

                                                                                  Rocky IV is the best Rocky

The reason I thought of this at all is because I read an article where George Bush was said to have invaded Iraq because he believed that Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East. (http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/agog_over_bushs_comments_on_go.html)  This happened during a time where there is infinitely more negative imagery of the Middle East on television then about Russians.  Possibly the  influence of popular culture is occasionally reversed.  Instead of letting our interpretations of the Bible influence popular culture, perhaps popular culture is influencing our interpretation of the Bible.  Don’t forget these aren’t crackpots these were Presidents of the United States.

Personal Jesus

This week in class we learned that no matter how faithful a retelling of a gospel story was it was still nothing more than a Whose Jesus - metaphorical popular language.  Something as faithful as retelling a gospel story is an interpretation.  There is no literal telling, you make a fundamental category error believing this.   The idea that everyone has their own Jesus really makes you wonder who is Jesus.  Just looking at the two modes of Christic representation demonstrates that large figures such as Obama (saviour mode) to people like war heros (redeemer mode) can be  interpreted as Jesus.  It really made me look back on previous weeks on subjects such as Justin Bieber and Kanye West and see them not as people just delivering a message but people representing Christ figures.  Especially when the professor gave us the 25 characteristics of Christ figures, that truly convinced me that Christ figures can be found everywhere.  My personal favourite item on that list was "the initials JC."  At first I thought this would be a rare occurrence but sure enough it can be found quite often.  John Connor, James Coffey, and James Cole just to name a few.  Surely this is no coincidence.  Personally, I like to see how deep Christianity penetrates popular culture.  To me it means that even though sometimes it may be hard to find, there are positive messages and themes integrated into our favourite shows.

In response to http://christandpopcultpolitics.blogspot.com/, 

I really liked your idea that women were rarely portrayed as someones personal Jesus and instead were given destructive roles.  It doesn't just end with Eve though.  Jezebel, Salome, Delilah, and Herodias, just to name a few, are examples of numerous women who represent women as negative rolemodels.    Your analysis of Eve, however, I feel is the most important because she establishes women as inferior to men in creation and in social roles.  I know there are a lot of negative male roles in the Bible however, women in general are seen as negative not only because of their actions but also because of their bodies, which can be seen in Leviticus which describes women as physically inferior because of their bodily functions, making them impure in the eyes of God.  I really enjoyed your perspective and it made me really think about why women rarely take on the role of a personal Jesus. Thank you.

First Post

Hey, my names Liam.  I'm getting into the blogging thing a little later then most but I've still got my six weeks so I'm not too worried.  I'm in my third year at the University of Toronto.  I'm looking forward to reading other students interpretations on the class in general and contributing to discussions.   Hopefully my  blog can help you as much as yours help me.