The Liturgy of Corporate Christianity

[arendt]

The Liturgy of Corporate Christianity
by arendt

...."The liturgical year, also known as the Christian year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in some Christian
.... churches which determines when Feasts, Memorials, Commemorations and Solemnities are to be observed and
....which portions of Scripture are to be read. Distinct liturgical colours may appear in connection with different seasons
....of the liturgical year."

........http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_year

The post-Thanksgiving onslaught of "news" stories about how rabid the shoppers were on this high feast of selling,
reminded me of pagan priests looking for auguries in the liver of a slaughered calf. Indeed, the corporate
media has become one vast, scripted liturgical year. It increasingly succeeds in defining normality for its docile,
blinkered followers.

Since the corporate news divisions kicked out real reporters in favor of infotainment, the public disgust with
scripted, phony photo-ops and other media events has steadily increased, but to no avail. The media is now
24/7 corporate propaganda. A newscast consists mostly of commercials, weather and sports banter, and canned
corporate product placements masquerading as news. Programming is grade Z reality trash and titillation. But,
increasingly during the values-intoxicated Bush takeover, religious overtones are growing as the corporate feudalists
and the religious theocrats in control of our country work out a new religion of corporate Christianity, one wardrobe
malfunction at a time.

To anyone who hasn't drunk the koolaid, the social indoctrination spewing from the mass media stinks to high heaven.
Guys are fat, dumb, aggressive, crude, slovenly, and rude. Girls are seductive, weight-obsessed, passive, baby-
obsessed chattel, hanging on every grunt from their guys, when they are not busy cooing at their six children. But,
that is all just background atmosphere for the new liturgy of male domination, social unawareness, self-righteous
brutality, and anti-Enlightenment lynch mobs brought to you by Corporate Christianity.

The major feast days of the CC year are shopping holidays, most notably Christmas. The advents and lents leading up to
those holidays are the various sports seasons, culminating in some orgy of couch potato-ness like the New Year's
football fest. At these events, sports, nationalism, and religion are increasingly conflated. We even had an ad blitz to
fly the flag at Christmas - a flop, thank god. Nevertheless, sports is used to push macho nationalism out to guys who
think that any social communication less violent than a punch in the nose is "girlie man" stuff.

Since the beginning of the Iraq invasion, media has increasingly diverged from reality into liturgy. The so-called
news stories from the war zone are produced by captive, self-censoring reporters and then scrutinized by military
censors. The result is a Viet Nam scale fantasy of success by mass murder of civilians. On the home front, the
deliberate destruction of the middle class economy metamorphizes into the rise of the lower class, Wal-Mart workers
and shoppers all. Blatant election theft, the shredding of the Constitution, and the violation of every political tradition
of bipartisanship and respect are dismissed as merely the natural order of politics, when not outright praised as cleaning
out nests of traitors.

Its only a matter of time before the news is produced months in advance, with the corporations rolling out marketing
tie-ins to coincide with "breaking news". The whole trajectory is self-reinforcing. Anyone with half a brain stops watching
this plug-in drug, which leaves increasingly stupid and desperate people driving the ratings numbers. You know these
people: even in the age of VCRs, DVDs, and Tivos, they still structure their day around the TV schedule. Some people,
especially prized by the advertisers, leave the TV on constantly. These pathologically lonely folks make purchases from
the shopping channels just for the human contact of talking on the phone. Once these demographics lock in, the Corporate
Christians can construct any reality they want. Pretty soon we will be seeing Pat Robertson's Christmas Football, where
they burn a liberal at the stake at halftime, then light the Christmas candle with his flaming corpse, right before Bush hands
out medals to the latest bunch of Abu Ghraib torturers.

We have passed some kind of event horizon for honest information escaping from inside the corporate media. It has
become a roach motel for reality. The thinking minority needs its own media, and we need it now. Stop buying the
corporate news. Buy any legitimate source; but stop tithing to Corporate Christianity and stop following their liturgy. I
recommend Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping. Seriously. Google it.

[DianeG5385]

1. Corporatism and consumerism are inconsistent with true Christianity

I agree that a new creature has "evolved" (note to self: make note each time a creationist uses this term)which is in effect a corporate, consumer driven version of Christianity, which is completely inconsistent with historical teachings.

This "evolution" is of no import to the christian fundamentalist Bush supporting pseudo-religious war-mongering individual because they have become their own sect, or cult, given the end of days flavoring to their actions. They have developed their own "way of looking at things" which cannot be reached by reason and I do not have the answer without deep reflection as to how to reach them.

I first recognized this phenomenon in the late 70's, early 80's with the advent of "drive-in" churches and the Crystal Cathedral (kinda like fast-food, eh?). They have become more of a sub-culture than a true religious philosophy as we know it. It is militaristic ideology driven by unthinking obedience. It has focused on abortion and gays which are ultimately irrelevant issues which serve to distract them form focusing on the issues which serve their own self interest. It's been a long time coming and it will be generations, if ever, that we can purge their influence from our country.

The other economically based supporters of Bush have zero grounding in sound economic policy and are basically the greed set looking out for numero uno.

The third set of Bush supporters are the maniacal blood-thirsty type who like a "good" war as long as we win and who are completely disconnected from the suffering of both our soldiers and the Iraqi people. These are the scary ones who watched one-too many John Wayne and Rambo movie. They think of it as a "game" we must win. That is why the media are doing us such a disservice by not highlighting the reality of the mess Bush has made.

[arendt]

2. I forgot about the feel-good drive-in churches

Yeah, white bread churches for white bread Christians.

Pathetic, consumerist big box stores. But they serve the
corporations bidding by further reducing any chance that
people might encounter a genuinely difficult spiritual idea.

It is becoming an alternative reality before our eyes.
Actually, its a hundred year old alternate reality that
has grown like cancer, funded by the spooks and neocons.

I can't say I'm a liberal anymore, because liberals are suckers
who would try to tolerate this kind of "religious" thinking.

We need people to stand up and speak the truth to power.

arendt

[scarletwoman]

4. "...reducing any chance that people might encounter

a genuinely difficult spiritual idea."

This, imho, has been the greatest ill perpetuated by institutional christianity from its very beginning. The Rabbi Jesus' teachings were both simple and profound, a guide to leading a spiritual life not unlike the teachings of the Buddha, 3 1/2 centuries earlier. Yet over the centuries there have always been those who furthered their worldly ambitions through twisting and distorting and destroying the truth of Jesus' teachings. (disclaimer: I say this as a non-Christian.)

Jesus was a sacred rebel, a penniless wanderer. "Love one another." How many exceptions did he list?

sw

[arendt]

8. Yes. Did you notice how nobody tried to market Pasolini's...

Gospel of St. Matthew?/Mark? when Gibson's splatter-fest was big?

I mean, marketers are always looking for tie-ins. Did you see anyone
even mention what critics say is arguably the best movie ever made
about Jesus? Well, no. Because they would have to say it was made
by an Italian Communist. Because they would have to say it showed
Jesus as a long-haired, Jewish-looking, hippie rebel.

This was definitely a movie that made you think about difficult
spiritual ideas. I better buy a copy before it is banned as subversive.

arendt

[scarletwoman]

9. To be honest, I wasn't aware of the Pasolini movie at all.

I'll check into it. Perhaps I'll want a copy for myself.

With the nearest independent/arthouse theatre a good 120 miles away from my little home in the woods, I don't keep up much with films made by Italian Communists. ;-)

sw

[arendt]

3. morning kick n/t

[scarletwoman]

5. Marvelous insight!

So very apt; the corporate liturgical year...

Yes, it's all there. Television has trained the herd well.

sw

[hollowdweller]

6. My grandma is a hard core fundamentalist and doesn't believe

In Christmas trees or decorations. Too pagan.

[arendt]

7. Well, technically, she is correct

The Catholic Church stole every pagan symbol and holiday
it could get its hands on, in a process of cultural assimilation.

That's why Halloween "just happens" to fall on Beltane, why
May Day maypoles "just happen" to fall on the spring fertility
feast, why the Epiphany "just happens" to fall on the birthday
of ?Mithras? or some other early Roman deity.

Of course, there are many reasons for no decorations. The
Dutch Reformed churches look like prisons. No decorations
at all. Stark and bare, with a simple cross.

My point is that traditional trappings of any sort have almost
nothing to do with spirituality. The most laughable in my eyes
are the Eastern European Orthodox Hassidim, who must wear
their "traditional" black suits. That "tradition" is barely one hundred
years old. What on earth does Eastern European fashion have
to do with spirituality?

But, it is possible to digress endlessly on the idiocy of ritual
in organized religion, and its role in distracting people from
spirituality. In a long winded way, I have expanded on my
original post.

BTW, welcome to DU hollowdweller.

arendt

[scarletwoman]

10. What "soul" was preserved in the Institutional Church,

came from the co-opted "pagan" elements -- although these have now been well-drained of any lingering mana.

Still, I am old enough to have childhood memories of decorating "May baskets" to leave on doorsteps on Mayday. And the old Catholic May Day processions where the statue of Mary (the Great Mother LIVES!) was bedecked with flowers and carried out into the sunshine.

sw