DJ priest turns tables at World Youth Day
Also, what would you ask AI Jesus
Hi you’ve reached Modern Relics, the newsletter that highlights the religious bits on the internet and in popular culture. Today the vibe is…
Sorry for not posting last week — I did my best but just couldn’t get the newsletter out on time. Thanks to the people who followed up on me with words of encouragement. I promise everything is fine!
Small peep behind the curtain: We are just shy of 400 free subscribers!! It’s a cheeky wish, but I’d love to get to 500 by the end of the year — for ego reasons. Please share this newsletter with your friends, and subscribe if you haven’t already.
Does your religion make you laugh?
Last week on Soul Search I interviewed author Tami Sussman and writer Shoshana Gottlieb, who you might know from JewishMemesOnly on Instagram. I was excited to meet Shoshana in person for the first time, because her meme work features here regularly.
In the other part of the episode, my colleague Meredith interviewed Rabbi Ralph Genende, who is Principal Rabbi to the Australian Defence Forces. They’re both really interesting conversations about laughter and grief. I’m so glad how it’s turned out.
I usually only post Soul Search here when I’m actually on mic (or when the topic is particularly pop culture-y) but it’s a good weekly program about contemporary religion and you can listen free wherever you are in the world. If you like this newsletter, you’ll like Soul Search too.
Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine has Girl Dinner
@stjohndivinenycThe Eucharist (also known as Communion) is the heart of our Christian life—it roots us in the living, vibrant love of God in Jesus Christ, and connects us deeply with one another. “So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and each member belongs to all the others.”—Romans 12:5 #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #viral #episcopal #nyc #nycathedral #cathedral #mass #girldinner #communion
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AI Jesii
Jesus, or at least a digital simulacrum of Jesus, is on Twitch. This article by Joseph L Kimmel on The Conversation says this AI chatbot is just the latest refashioning of the figure of Jesus over the years to suit the needs of the times.
The AI Jesus who engages individuals online in the form of a chatbot is the latest in this ongoing pattern of reinterpretation, geared to making Jesus suited to the current times. On AI Jesus’ Twitch channel, users consistently treat this chatbot Jesus as an authority in both personal and spiritual matters.
This Jesus is white and has an American accent, and takes donations to help pay for server costs. There’s a bit of theological questioning going on, but overall the quality of discourse is not high. I just opened the stream again and a viewer has tricked Jesus into saying the n-word by asking a question using the cyrillic alphabet.
This isn’t the only AI Jesus on the market. Religion News Service reports that the app Text With Jesus allows the user to text with many characters from the Bible, including “the Holy Family, the apostles, the prophets, Ruth, Job and Abraham’s nephew, Lot.” The program is powered by ChatGPT and all responses incorporate at least one Bible verse.
You can also text with Satan if you choose, who will sign off all texts with 😈.
Good skeets…
…and a good tweet
Eat. Sleep. Pray. Repeat.
World Youth Day is a major Catholic youth festival held every couple of years in a major city somewhere in the world. This year’s event was held in Lisbon, Portugal, and soon after this video of a priest DJing in the early morning in front of a bunch of bishops went viral on Twitter/X.
Trads: Horrified! Everyone else: Highly amused.
Turns out the DJ is Padre Guilherme Peixoto, who is a priest in his parish of Laundos, near Porto.
Rad trads on Twitter quickly found Padre Guilherme’s YouTube account which has this video of him DJing at an event where the dancers have spooky costumes and devil horns.
But do not worry, says Daily Wire Rome Correspondent Bree A Dail, it’s not satanic. It’s just the Friday the 13th festival in the town of Montalegre where everyone dresses up as witches and demons to scare away the real ones.
Here’s what I’m pretty sure is his full World Youth Day set (no demons in this one, unfortunately).
Padre Guilherme is a verified artist on Spotify. I’ve put some of his tracks on the Modern Relics Spotify playlist.
They all still want to sit on the top of the tower, that hasn’t changed
Flamy Grant update
Last time on Modern Relics I wrote about how the top spot on the Christian iTunes charts was held by Nashville drag queen Flamy Grant. Since then, she has been interviewed by the Guardian and debuted at #20 on Billboard’s Christian Digital Song Sales chart.
Despite her ongoing success, Grant has not been invited to the Dove Awards in October. But she and fellow Christian iTunes gatecrasher Semler have bought tickets in the nosebleed section of the gallery, which are available to the public. If you would like to join them, they will be sitting in section 102.
Lastly, thanks to Travis for causing me psychic damage with this
