Wait, was Jesus a foot guy?

Modern Relics is the weekly newsletter that examines the esoteric side of the internet and pop culture.

This newsletter relies on word of mouth to grow! Please send on to a friend who might find it interesting, and encourage them to subscribe!

He Gets Us again

I can't believe I'm writing about religion and the Super Bowl two years in a row, but arguably this year's ads were even more religious than the last. Three religious groups had ads this year, all of which positioned religion as a force for peacemaking.

Remember last year's He Gets Us ads about Jesus? They're back. This time with foot stuff.

The ad refers to John 13:1–15, where Jesus washes his follower's feet – and encourages them to do the same – the night before his crucifixion. After about a minute of pictures of people on opposite sides of political divides washing each other's feet, the titles proclaim:

"JESUS DIDN'T TEACH HATE"

"HE WASHED FEET"

On the one hand, Christian conservatives are insanely mad about it. Newsweek collates some of the more irate posts from higher-profile X users, who say the commercial is "obviously part of a psyop to trick Christians into thinking Jesus is fine with sin & apostasy." According to them, Jesus didn't wash the feet of sinners, but of his own followers.

On the other, mentioning feet put the extremely online on a completely different train of thought. Jesus was a foot guy?

I didn't watch the Super Bowl (I live in Australia) so I was extremely confused when a flood of foot fetish jokes swept across my various feeds as the ad went to air.

It makes me wonder if there's adequate baseline familiarity with the story for it to actually mean anything to the people its trying to reach.

In addition to the He Gets Us foot ad, there was a commercial sponsored by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism encouraging people to speak out against hateful speech. Also an ad for the prayer app Hallow, featuring Mark Wahlberg encouraging viewers to "stay prayed up" this Lent. It was followed by a Duolingo ad, leading to this delightful juxtaposition:

Honestly I'm disappointed the marketing team at Hallow didn't just run with "Mark Wahlberg's 40-Day Challenge" from last year.

Speaking of Lent

(Thank you to my husband who sent me this, among many other things I post and forget to credit him with finding)

And speaking of Duolingo

Let me introduce you to Sister Mary Blaze

Sister Mary Blaze has started to appear on my TikTok fyp. I was kind of hoping it would be a Daughters of St Paul-type thing, but apparently not. On her Facebook page this strutting 'nun' describes herself as "a devout follower of God who's main mission is to demystify the misconceptions of marijuana usage."

I'm actually not sure if she is part of the weed-loving, new age-y Sisters of the Valley (although their habits are different colours, so probably not) but in the process of trying to find out, I discovered this fascinating Reuters report about a branch of the sisterhood in Mexico, a majority-Catholic country with a significant drug trade.

Another Lent post

Thanks for this one also go to my husband.

My ancestors found rolling in their graves

Hindu roots of avatars

Just want to remind you that Religion for Breakfast, aka Dr Andrew M Henry, is a religious studies academic that makes regular, easy to digest videos about various religious curiosities.

Netflix is doing another live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender remake (and seems like they're doing a terrible job) also, if the studio can be believed, there's meant to be three more Avatar movies on the way (with a further two "if there is demand"). The concept of an avatar is also common in computing and gaming, but is originally drawn from Hindu ideas about the gods.

For me, it's yet another reminder that religious ideas shape how we interact with the technology we use every day and Eastern religion continues to flourish in Silicon Valley – something Dr Henry has also addressed in his videos.

"How was work?"

What ARE all the eyes for?

That's all from me this week. Have a great weekend!