So, here’s what Pope Francis brings to the table:
- He’s a guy who, famously, cooks his own meals, rides the bus to work, and lives in a single apartment rather than the palace befitting an archbishop. What a man of the people! These are all good things! But also…
Recently I decided to go back to school to study science, and, astoundingly, most people I’ve crossed paths with have been enormous dicks about it. Even the secretary at the office of the registrar said, “Science? How do you know you want to study science? Science is hard, you know.”
If “Vatican insiders” are to be believed, instead of a drawn-out search for the new pope, those crazy cardinals are going to lock themselves in for a few short days before blowing out that sweet, sweet white smoke.
Among the many beliefs that members of the Catholic church hold is one of “papal infallibility.” This means that if you’re a Catholic, you do whatever the pope says. Pope says birth control’s the work of the devil, you say it too. Pope hates gay marriage, that’s your opinion as well.
They had to carry the last guy out of there in a box. Three boxes, in fact. One of the many perks to being Pope is the way that they don’t simply bury you in one coffin.
This might come as news to you, but religion isn’t that cool anymore, and people trust their elected representatives about as much as razorblade toilet seats. Society’s traditional keepers of mutual respect are UNCOOL, possibly more uncool than they’ve ever been before. So we strut around our chaotic cities disrespecting whomever and whatever the hell we want. Because you know what is cool? Disrespecting someone by wearing their cherished, centuries-old culture as a fashion accessory.
With that in mind, here are a few more ways in which Western culture has made a complete ass of itself by re-appropriating cultures and religions it doesn’t even care enough about to want to understand.
In the small village of Shimitsukoya in northern Japan, five members of Little Pebble Dohsyuku-kai live huddled together inside a two-story house. As part of a tradition lifted from the Roman Catholic model, members of this devout commune, headed by Father Jean-Marie Thornbush Little John, gather in a cluttered space each morning and await secret messages from the Virgin Mary. Afterward, Jean-Marie lubes up a woman’s belly and pussy with yogurt and has sex with her at an altar as the other members look on patiently. One cold weekend recently they let us come watch.
A few years ago, I came out to my parents.
It was during the Christmas season, a period of time where I head back to Chicago for a week to, ostensibly, put on five pounds of roast beef and beer. But that year, there was an albatross hovering over the debauchery: Christmas Mass.
Since my youth, I’d labeled myself as a “Catholic.” Not because I had any fervent belief in Jesus, but because that was what happens on the south suburbs of Chicago. You go to Catholic grade school, you go to church on Sundays, you become an altar server, you dress up for Christmas mass—obligatory actions and traditions that become a part of your life organically, without consent.
As recounted in part last week, I was invited to attend Guadalajara International Film Festival as a special guest of their new GLBTTI section Premio Maguey, where I received the Cult Film Award. Andrew Logan, another Maguey honoree, has been holding a crazy, intense event, Alternative Miss World, since the early seventies, boasting a roster of judges over the years that includes Carroll Baker, the late Ken Russell, Tim Curry, and David Hockney. The scene he has accumulated around him, and his wild, baroque style, has influenced the likes of director Derek Jarman, Rocky Horror Picture Show creator Richard O’Brien, and Brian Eno. He is also an artist who works largely in the medium of broken glass. Last week we saw Andrew Logan zombified. Here, he poses with the reproductions of his own gigantic flower sculptures that the festival whipped up for his party at a crazy gay bar called Monica. They look like gay Triffids!
Read the rest: Wondering… Great Wall of Mexico, Part 2
As you may know, the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, began on Tuesday. It’s one of the most important holidays in Islam, and it commemorates that time Abraham almost sacrificed his kid because voices aka God asked him to.
Read the rest at Vice Magazine: AN INTERVIEW WITH AN EX-MUSLIM - Viceland Today
