AI Jesus is all over Facebook

Modern Relics is a newsletter about religion online and in pop culture, but not like in a “Matrix sermon at youth group” way, in a “It’s Ramadan and all cats are Muslims” way.

It’s a longstanding belief of mine all cats are Muslims and I talk about it all the time. Have I ever posted about Sister Minnie? Anyway, I’ll never stop talking about it. Allah loves cats.

Please don’t forget to tell all your friends to subscribe. It’s actually really difficult to promote a newsletter, especially now that the internet is the way it is, so word-of-mouth is all we’ve got.

It’s Ramadan

Ramadan began a couple of days ago and lasts until around about the 9th of April, depending on the moon. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during this time, but break their fast in the evening. Here in Sydney there are big Ramadan night markets in Lakemba, but I’ve actually never been! Gotta make time to go this year.

Here are some posts.

I can’t believe I’ve never actually seen this video before. “Allah fed me” just got added to my lexicon.

Here’s a cute video where a Muslim guy’s housemate surprises him for Suhoor (morning meal) by cooking eggs and toast.

The thing that caught my eye was the username at the end of the video, “@youthpastorryan”. Is this an inter-religious household? According to Ryan Kelly’s Instagram, no. “I go by Youth Pastor Ryan because I look like one”. Oh, a comedian. Oh well.

Gen Z praise and worship music

Gavin, I will never forgive you for sending this to me (thank you).

Bringing this video back because it sends me every time

AI Jesii on Facebook

Okay so, I’m not really on Facebook anymore. I finally don’t need to use it for work, but occasionally I need to post in groups I’m a part of. Whenever I log in I’m assaulted with truly the dumbest algorithmic posts I’ve ever seen in my life.

So this week, when I saw this post on Bluesky of AI Jesus feeding hot dogs to actual dogs with the caption “Someone I know on Facebook posted this” I thought it was just a weird thing someone did while playing with AI.

But then a completely different person I follow on Bluesky posted about these lobster Jesus pics posted by two different Facebook pages, with hundreds of comments saying “Amen” underneath. This is surely ~a thing~

A quick Google search reveals this post from r/aiArt from 10 days ago complaining about Facebook being bombarded by AI Jesus pics. “It’s like every other post and no matter how much I block or dismiss the posts, more pop up.” I encourage you to click through. They are genuinely all so deranged.

The top comment says "Hackers hacked my page a week ago then posted ai pictures of Jesus Christ to clickfarm" so I guess that's what's going on here. Jesus is pretty clickable.

If this has happened to you or you know anything more about this, please let me know. Just email me back or leave a comment, I'm serious.

TikTok trove

United States Congress has voted to force ByteDance to sell TikTok or else face a ban. Between this, Elon's Twitter buyout and Facebook slowly choking to death on AI Jesus it kind of feels like it's the end of social media. That would be a bummer for this newsletter for sure lol.

Remember how, shortly after Elon Musk bought Twitter, everyone started pulling out their favourite banger tweets? With TikTok's future looking uncertain, everyone's showing off their favourite videos.

Of course, a bunch are religion-y. Loved this one that's a variation on the classic one above.

I obviously can't post them all, but you can look at all the responses to the post here.

St Mewtwo

What on earth does Aquaria the drag queen quoting Mewtwo from the Pokemon movie have to do with the esoteric internet?

Twenty-three years ago, Theology Secretary of the Church of England, Anne Richards described the movie as being a parable about the pointlessness of force and that "Mewtwo is completely changed by Ash's sacrifice. ... All evil is gone from him and he is redeemed."

It's the Oscars

Probably not as important as Ramadan, but still pretty important. I haven't seen all the Best Picture nominees, but religion features heavily in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon and of course, in Greta Gerwig's Barbie.

Anyway, a new red carpet means a new Jewish red carpet review from Shoshana Gottlieb.

Shoshana's red carpet tweets have gone international, with an interview appearing in Forward, an American Jewish outlet.

From Forward:

Shoshana: It’s the most unifying genre of post I have — rabbis love it, middle-aged mothers love it. People are really invested. It’s strange to me that this has become like THE thing I’m known for. I’m not mad about it, but I really never expected it.

I hope she never stops. Every time Shoshana does a red carpet review I end up looking up a word and learning something. Like, I'm mostly posting the most accessible ones here but there are lots, lots more.

Martha Lucr King Jr

Lastly, what if God was one of us?

This is a video-heavy edition, so I hope they are all still online and able to be viewed by the time you read this. I actually had so much to put in this edition it won't all fit it's too long already!! I'll try not to lose any of the posts you have sent me and I'll put them in next week. Thanks bye!