"The Gospel according to The Matrix"
Also, AOC's Met Gala chicken dress
Before I start
Greetings to the Jewish community who are certainly not reading this edition the day it publishes, on account of it’s currently Yom Kippur.
I previously wrote about the last Jewish person in Afghanistan, Zebulon Simentov. He has now left the country, evacuating with dozens of women and children. His former neighbours have pledged to maintain the synagogue he left behind.
Resurrecting Matrix memories
If you grew up in evangelical churches during the 2000s you’ve probably heard more than one sermon based on The Matrix. It’s a natural fit - it was wildly popular and draws clear themes from religion and philosophy, and the main character Neo is a messianic figure. I don’t know if it’s widely known outside of evangelicalism, but Matrix-themed sermons were so common it became a cliche.
With the upcoming release of The Matrix: Resurrections (you reckon the religious themes might continue?) Twitter users are beginning to recall some of these stories.
The Matrix (along with Braveheart) is one of those movies that holds a special place in the evangelical imagination. It has become less popular since the Wachowskis explained it’s also a trans allegory, but sermons are still being written.
I’ll be very interested to see how Lana Wachowski handles this in the upcoming film, and how she will reappropriate the red pill/blue pill rhetoric that’s been claimed by alt-right men’s rights groups online for years.
Incidentally, like its fellow sci-fi blockbuster Star Wars, The Matrix also spawned a new religious movement - Matrixism. It appears to be Baháʼí Faith + psychedelic drugs. I wonder if there’ll be a revival in this faith after the new movie.
Just (Star) War(s) theory
Speaking of Star Wars, are the weapons depicted therein permissible under Catholic moral teaching? Here’s a good answer.
Donald Trump spoke at the Unification Church conference
Donald Trump has been doing a few gigs since he lost the 2020 election, including commentating a pay-per-view boxing match. Most recently he spoke alongside several right-wing world leaders at the Rally of Hope conference organised by the controversial Unification Church (or popularly, “the Moonies”, which is now considered a pejorative term).
The Korean-based church was founded by Sun Myung Moon, who claimed to be a second messiah ordained by Jesus Christ to carry out his unfinished work. The church is known for mass wedding ceremonies, fanatical anti-Communism and commitment to Korean reunification. In this 2008 episode of the ABC’s Spirit of Things, former Unification Church member Steve Hassan describes them as “authoritarian, deceptive, manipulative [and] fear based”.
For a relatively small religious movement, their influence in governments around the world is remarkable. I guess it makes sense why Donald Trump would want to align himself with a group such as this.
Moore fun from Ms Beth
Some context: Beth Moore and Russell Moore are two former high-profile Southern Baptists who left the denomination around the same time in response to how that denomination was handling rising Christian nationalism and white supremacy. They are not actually related.
EAT MOR RICH
The Met Gala - one of my favourite events of the year - was just a few days ago, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got people talking by wearing a white dress with red letters saying TAX THE RICH.
An interesting statement to be making at one of the most exclusive and expensive events on the American social calendar (although I’m told she was invited by the designer, and didn’t pay to attend).
Unfortunately, she looked like a Chick-fil-A bag. Even the font was reminiscent of the Christian-owned, anti-gay chicken joint’s famous EAT MOR CHIKIN campaign.
This year’s theme was In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, whatever that means. Nothing will be as religiously fashionable as the 2018 theme, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.