Oh, My Pop Culture Force: Why Christians Love Star Wars (a bit too much)

I firmly believe that one of the reasons why Star Wars is going to stand the test of time is because it’s the classic hero’s journey. Our plucky hero hears the call to adventure, but needs reassurance before they begin. Once our hero sets out, they meet all kinds of interesting characters and gains knowledge and training and spiffy tools to help them with their mission. Just when they think they’re at their lowest, they’re pulled out from despair and prepared for the final boss battle. Our hero wins, we celebrate, and our hero is a changed person for it. This model worked for the original trilogy, and it looks like it’s working for The Force Awakens, too.

You could probably name dozens of stories that fit this model without much effort. You see shadows of this model all throughout the Bible, too. In the Old and New Testaments we have all kinds of stories of people that follow a similar (or the same) framework. So it’d be easy to say that Star Wars is a Christian story, right? We have a great fight between good and evil, the Jedi are a lot like monks, and even the evil Darth Vader has that gloriously religious line: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” Christian groups clamor to ride the hype train by injecting Star Wars themes into religious services. Alissa Wilkinson’s article in Christianity Today shows just how popular a “spirituality of Star Wars” is becoming in all sorts of religious groups, especially among Christians. But does it work? Is Star Wars really a universe compatible with Christian beliefs?

Spoilers abound below.

Oh, My Pop Culture Monks: The Jedi Order and Monasticism

Star Wars’s next episode is almost here, you guys! Well, it’s a couple months away, but still, I’m excited, and I’m feeling all Star Wars-y today because of it.

So in order to celebrate, let’s talk about Jedi, monks, and monasticism. The Jedi are warrior monks, who spend their days either meditating or kicking Sith ass. They live minimalistic lives and belong to a spiritual order charged with keeping the peace. The Jedi and their way of life, like many other things in Star Wars, are based off Eastern cultures and religions, but the story is told from a Western lens. As such, the story, especially in the prequels, doesn’t really do all that well representing the way of life it borrows from.

Magical Mondays: The Force

Science fiction and fantasy seem to be divided by a pretty definitive line. Science fiction deals in advanced technology that either doesn’t exist yet, such as interplanetary travel on massive levels, or seems to be completely impossible given what we currently understand about science, like Stargates. We suspend our disbelief and for a brief period of time allow for the possibility of the seemingly impossible. Fantasy also requires our suspension of disbelief for another seemingly impossible matter, one that is generally more fantastical that scientific. On top of that, magic is normally an unexplainable construct within a universe, and its existence is usually simply accepted without any kind of reasoning as to why it’s there. That tends to be the purpose of the fantastical. We suspend our disbelief for it, and though we like to learn how it works, we don’t need its existence defined.

This distinction, however, is not always clear cut, and it has resulted in some debate over which category Star Wars falls into. On the one hand, though it takes place “a long time ago”, the setting is still a futuristic society with advanced technology and space travel. On the other hand, the story still utilizes some fantastical elements in how it presents its technology—lightsabers, the Death Star, etc.

Light doesn’t bend like this. Sorry.

But probably most fantastical is the Force. Because of this, I would classify Star Wars as science fantasy, since it has elements of both. I mean, let’s face it; the Force is essentially just magic.

Web Crush Wednesdays: The Cooler Steve Martin

It’s Web Crush Wednesday, party people! Let’s take a look at the latest Web Crush!

Okay, let me be honest, I hate LMFAO. I don’t think they are very talented. They are catchy and fun, I guess, but talented? No. There are many pop artists like this that I simply do not care for, but then something happens, something that makes me change my opinion of a song, and causes me to embarrassingly sing along to a song that I once professed to hate. What brings me to this lowly state? Parodies of songs, or to be very honest, nerd parodies of songs. Without fail, if you take a song I hate and relate it to something nerdy, I’m suddenly a silly screaming fangirl, which brings me to my latest Web Crush. Ladies and gentleman—Mr. Steve Martin!

No! Not that one, you idiot! The Cooler Steve Martin! What do you mean you don’t believe me? Just check this guy out!

Cool, right? Ha! I thought so! This video has everything a nerd could ask for looting, minecraft, wizards, comic book references, the Force, big guns (“I call it Vera.“), and to put it quite simply, nerds doing awesome nerd things. Steve also got rid of the annoying part in the original song where they just say the word “wiggle” over and over. Seriously, LMFAO, what the fuck?! It’s replaced by the much more hilarious “study, study, study, study, study, yeah!”  It also has zombies. I love zombies!

I would also recommend that Steve nerdify: Fell in Love in a Hopeless Place, Love You Like a Love Song, and The One That Got Away. Those all need nerdified immediately… because they suck.

So check out, like, and subscribe to The Cooler Steve Martin‘s latest video and check out his vlog too!

Go now and support my latest Web Crush!