When can you make a dirty Jesus joke?

Modern Relics is a newsletter about religion, pop culture and the internet! Also sometimes it is very gay. This week the vibe is…

I have a few pretty crazy weeks coming up soon, so if you’ve been waiting to do a guest post now’s the time! Otherwise I might skip an edition or two, sorry!

Also just a warning, I talk about some jokes that some people would find extremely blasphemous in this edition! Everyone draws the line in different places so if Jesus jokes aren’t for you, this particular edition of this newsletter might not be for you either.

Jesus makes Snatch Game debut

I’ve written about Drag Race and religion before, and last week we got another taste on Down Under season 3. Drag performer Ashley Madison managed a Drag Race first, performing as Jesus Christ on the Snatch Game celebrity impersonation comedy challenge.

At first I was sceptical, but she did a good job, winning the episode. Personally, I think it relied a little too heavily on being “surprisingly campy”, but it was a hell of a lot better than Trinity the Tuck’s Lucifer impersonation on All Stars 7 which used the same schtick without the jokes. I particularly loved Madison’s, “You may have realised that 2000 years ago I was Black, so that’s different too!”

Jesus isn’t the only member of the Holy Family that’s appeared on Snatch Game: Salina EsTitties appeared as horny pregnant Virgin Mary on season 15, but her Jesus birth gag was cut from the broadcast (but performed later and uploaded to Instagram by Frankie Grande). There was also Yvie Oddly’s Jesus-inspired All Stars 7 ‘Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner’ promo look, but again, it wasn’t part of the broadcast.

Snatch Game Jesus is the kind of thing I don’t think any queen would attempt — or perhaps, be allowed to attempt — on the American version of the show, but religious taboos aren’t as strong in Australia and New Zealand.

That said, given how sexual some of Ashley Madison’s jokes were, it made me think about the Reuben Kaye Jesus joke from The Project back in February, which caused enormous controversy at the time. The offending line: “I love Jesus. I love any man who can get nailed for three days straight and come back for more”. On the other hand, Madison’s gay Jesus bit hasn’t generated any discourse at all.

Down Under is tiny compared to The Project, and in Australia, Drag Race is only available on streaming, making it a self-selecting audience unlikely to be offended by that kind of thing. But also I think Kaye’s joke betrayed that he might not be very familiar with Christianity. It’s pedantic of me to say, but Jesus wasn’t on the cross “getting nailed” for three days! He was dead and in the tomb! Do you even know the story?

Compare that to Madison’s arguably most shocking line, “When I told everybody that I wanted to be bread, they misinterpreted that”. It’s a sly, offensive but clever joke about gay sex and transubstantiation! Sometimes no matter how outrageous it is, you just have to pay the laugh, which is another reason I think nobody’s made a big deal about it.

Both Kaye and Madison are reclaiming power from religious oppressors, but Madison’s performance is just so, so much better than Kaye’s attempt. Not every joke was a winner, but she was definitely telegraphing that she knew what she was doing and had bothered to learn a thing or two about what she was making fun of.

Now that’s what I call a fun fact

This dog is a miracle from the Virgin Mary

Islamic futurism on the radio

Two weeks in a row posting about work. Sorry sorry I’m trying to delete it! But this week’s episode of Soul Search includes an interview with Peter Gould, who is Creative Director of Tales of Khayaal.

I’ve written about this webcomic and its utopian Islamic futurist aesthetic before. It was great to have Peter in the studio to talk about Islam and tech!

Also, we are in the middle of moving offices, so we’ve had to go through and clear out hundreds of books and vinyl records from the ABC Religion and Ethics collection (yes, such a thing existed… until now).

I found some amazing examples of Christian kitsch, and this one book written by Dick Gross.

Also a bunch of late 80’s early 90’s Christian records. I have a special edition of Amy Grant’s 1988 album Lead Me On and the vinyl is hot pink. Also this amazing Michael W Smith album cover. I have more records, which I’ll post on my Bluesky account. (Btw I have a few invite codes — let me know if you want one.)

The collection was underutilised, so now the space is being used for something else. Most of the stuff will end up in charity shops, so if you want to scrounge… come to Sydney I guess??

Please rescue the sacred penis

“X” user @Johnny_suputama explains, “the Inyoseki Shrine was built on land where rocks shaped like the male and female reproductive organs were found. It is, of course, dedicated to fertility and people come to pray for pregnancy. Hopefully the sacred penis is returned to its rightful spot soon.”

Me, but it’s the Uniting Church

Pretty soon I’m going to be attending the Uniting Church NSW & ACT Synod meeting because I got convinced to nominate as a member. The Uniting Church operates without bishops on an “interconcilliar” model where different councils are responsible for different things and members nominate to be on those councils and make decisions.

For a while there were renegade group chats run by millennial members of these meetings where memes and other nonsense was shared, and there was a “Uniting Chirps” Twitter account that would publicly shitpost through the meetings before it got nuked. I know I’m the most likely culprit to have run that account but I have an airtight alibi — I wasn’t at the meetings it covered! I wish it still existed though, because I would humbly submit my proudest creation:

No need to get the joke just comment “Great meme Rohan!” and move on with your life.

Priestdaddy

I haven’t read Priestdaddy, a memoir by Patricia Lockwood, but Jay Hulme’s post about it makes me think maybe I should.

Lastly… this!

Thanks to Sarah Balstrup for tagging me in this post of New Age baby books. I love how the series is called “Woo Woo Baby”.