Having faith in Silicon Valley

Elon Musk totally bought Twitter, and it’s making me wonder: If Twitter were to suddenly go bust or (more likely) slowly collapse into irrelevance, what am I going to write about in this newsletter?

Technically speaking, Modern Relics is more than just about Twitter. But my current social media diet means tweets and the culture of religious Twitter make up the majority of what I’ve been writing about here.

I assume that will change as my media consumption also changes post-Twitter, but it’s still a scary thought! When I started this newsletter, I didn’t think I’d have quite enough content to post consistently each week. Some weeks are less dense than others, but as it turns out, there’s more than enough. If I didn’t do this for free, there would probably be material for at least two editions a week and a regular podcast.

Still, if all the Twitter users worth following become scattered to new communities across different websites and services, tracking them down again would be a challenge. In a way it’s an exciting thought, because new subcultures and memes would flourish there away from the hostile environment of the bird site. This is good and bad. We see it in private Facebook groups and subreddits already: Some are creative, weird and wonderful, while others are sinister and riddled with all the worst prejudices associated with being religious.

Whether those communities would be on accessible parts of the internet is another matter. Not everything I write about here is ‘viral’, but if a shitpost is posted only to Discord — celebrated there, sure, but no further — is it ‘significant’ enough to be covered in a newsletter like this? Is it even ethical to write about something happening in a private community? It presents an issue for the academic study of religion too, because if all this ‘religioning’ is being done effectively in secret, there’s no way to observe it and document it.

Anyway, I don’t tweet heaps anymore — most of my writing happens here. If you’re reading this and not subscribed, please sign up! I’ll be running this newsletter for a while yet.

Silicon Valley religion

Speaking of Twitter and companies like it, I enjoyed this video from Religion for Breakfast about how big tech companies have become a theatre for self-actualisation as well as commerce — both for employees and the people who manage them. Andrew Mark Henry interviews sociologist Dr Carolyn Chen about how work could be replacing religion in Silicon Valley, particularly in the social and institutional functions religion serves.

I’m usually pretty sceptical of “X is a religion” claims common in popular discourse (and religious studies) but Andrew Mark Henry acknowledges how tenuous these comparisons can be and explores how rigorous these ones are. He also covers the use of Eastern religious practises by managers in tech companies, divorced from their cultural and religious roots.

It’s 19 minutes long, but well worth watching.

Now this is what I call Silicon Valley religion

Rest in peace, Leslie

Leslie Jordan died last week, which is one of those celebrity deaths you don’t want to think about too much — even though you don’t actually know the person, their public persona was so radiant it really does feel like a loss. I mostly knew him from his guest appearances on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, but he of course had a long acting career and recently found viral success on Instagram during COVID lockdown. He was 67.

Writer Justin Kirkland wrote this 2021 piece for Esquire about Jordan’s Southern gospel album Company’s Comin’, which is something I never knew he ever did! They chat about being gay and Southern and what God means to them.

From Esquire:

[T]his album, as a gay Tennessee kid who grew up Southern Baptist? It’s very special.
And you knew these songs.

I have the hardest time up here explaining to people how all those things can be in one package.
You are preaching to the choir. I know exactly what you're trying to say. … When I was a kid, I thought that I was maybe the only [gay] one. What a horrible thing to lay on a kid. And I think that it makes us a better people.

Here’s ‘Further Along’, featuring Morgane and Chris Stapleton.

Side note for newer readers: Jordan opens by saying “Oh sometimes I do not feel worthy. Where’s Vestal when you need her?” Vestal Goodman is of course one of the lead singers from the Southern gospel group The Happy Goodmans. Her performance with Johnny Cook singing Looking For A City sends me into hysterics for reasons I can’t put my finger on.

Satan Bite the Dust

I was listening to the Good Christian Fun podcast last week (featuring Brian Gilbert!) which, for Halloween, focussed on Carman’s early 90s hit… song? (Skit? Short film?) Satan Bite the Dust.

I remember this from a mixtape my friend made me when I was a kid, but I’d never actually seen the music video before now. Carman is the epitome of macho, right-wing, American Christianity, but I think you’ll agree there’s something incredibly campy about this whole thing, and the production values are impressive.

More on this theme

How giant a hog are we talking

The VeggieTales Twitter is BACK

There are a lot of new readers since the last time I talked about this, so here’s a quick summary. In February, the official Twitter account for the animated Christian children’s show VeggieTales posted what appeared to be a desperate cry for help, which went viral before being suddenly deleted. The account was made private and puttered along up until Easter Sunday, after which it went dormant.

I tried to get to the bottom of what happened, but Big Idea Productions didn’t seem interested in answering my extremely earnest emails. But yesterday out of nowhere we got a “Happy Birthday November Babies” post!

Perhaps it is just an errant, scheduled graphic, spat out by an unsupervised Hootsuite account in Big Idea HQ? It seems not: Due to the shutdown, all the May–October Babies missed out on VeggieTales birthday wishes, and before now the account was posting using Sprout Social. Also, the account has since posted again (“God is with Us”).

Anyway, it’s very funny to me that VeggieTales has made its return to Twitter just as Elon Musk took over. It matches perfectly with the weirdness of the whole account.

There’s something slightly off about the entire thing. The incongruity of vacant smiles and VeggieTales character design paired almost at random with Bible verses. Plus, the whole ‘Live Laugh Love’ vibe common to a lot of public-facing evangelical material. The whole thing is a little tone-deaf or naïve for the cynical world of Twitter.

It makes me wonder if it’s like this on purpose — VeggieTales is made for children, but children don’t use Twitter. So the audience is undoubtedly millennials who either grew up with the show or began watching it ironically in college. Why does it exist? I don’t know! Maybe they have kids of their own now and it’s a reminder that their old favourite Christian cartoon is still alive and kicking?

Lastly, this is just extremely my shit

I’ve actually wanted a print of this grapic to frame and hang in my house for a long time (chickens are my favourite animal).

Until next week! Please share this post if you enjoyed it.