Here's a fact about yours truly that might not be obvious from this site: when I was high school & college, I became an uber-strict fundamentalist. As in, not tolerating anything remotely connected to worldliness, which included, well, basically most of my pop culture obsessions. Star Trek espoused evolution. Star Wars--the Force, which was obviously (to the folks I listened to, anyway) satanic. Non-Christian comics likewise were deemed to be pure evil.

Which is why I refused invitations to go see Star Trek III & Return of the Jedi, which in retrospect wasn't as bad a couple of omissions as they felt at the time. Perhaps the most painful thing was getting rid of my rather sizable comic collection and all my 1st edition Complete EC Library sets, a series to which I was an original subscriber.

Y'know, that comic collection had a complete run of Batman and Detective going back into the early 1950s. Sold those for 200 bucks to buy tracts. To see how I feel about that transaction now, watch this video.

This experience came to mind today when I read the story making the rounds re Simon White, the guy in the UK who is selling his extensive Doctor Who collection now that he's a Christian. A few excerpts from the story below--although before he gets rid of everything, he may want to attend the Spirituality and Doctor Who conference in Sheffield on April 19.

By the by, did you note how I said "most of my pop culture obsessions?" That's because even when I was separating from everything that wasn't fundamentalist, the one thing that stayed was Doctor Who.

As a counterpoint to what is clearly my spiritual Achilles Heel, here's the confession of Simon White:

Dr Who and his materialistic obsession with it represents the "greatest lie that Satan ever told" according to Mr White.

He said: "I loved science fiction as a kid. It was the Tardis that did it for me. You could get in that box and go anywhere.

"I started collecting Dr Who stuff starting with the Dalek, which I got from an old exhibition in Brighton.

"Me and a friend spent two years making the Tardis and I became obsessed. I made a model of K-9, then a full size Cyberman with authentic Dr Who parts. I couldn't stop.

"I had to retire early from my job as a nurse at the Royal United Hospital in Bath in 1998 because I was suffering from bipolar disorder.

"I turned to drink and became an alcoholic and the Dr Who obsession was the only thing that kept me going. I wouldn't have given it up if you'd have put a gun to my head."

Having discovered Christianity Mr Smith has renounced his old life and is putting the whole collection up for sale in local trade magazines and on eBay.

He said: "God delivered me from the evil that is Dr Who, materialism and alcoholism.

"Through my relationship with Jesus I saw that none of this was making me happy and I was born again like Lazarus.

"It's a timely tale as we come up to Easter. I wanted to tell others that no matter what trouble you are in God can deliver you from the evil. If you are prepared to have a relationship with him then God can help. I have been resurrected. My old life is dead, my new life is alive."

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Upside-down crosses may rule the night at "black metal" clubs, but devotees of the genre are upset that the music is seeing daylight.  There's a fascinating confluence of interest with Christian critics who would condemn the music's popularity because the anti-Christian lyrics and iconography are telltale hallmarks of a satanic cult--black metal's early adopters are upset precisely because they want the movement to remain a private world for initiates:

"It's so strange, to be there in this strip mall; it's surreal," Albert Mudrian, editor of the new extreme metal magazine Decibel, said of Jaxx. "I've seen Napalm Death there twice."

All this isn't entirely great news for Bittinger, who calls music -- mostly extreme metal -- "my life." He listens to dark, ambient music during his entire two-hour commute to and from Alexandria, all through the workday and on weekends at the home he shares with his girlfriend and two cats.

Black metal was meant to be private, he says, for people who get it. Who understand the imagery of knights on the mount, who want to lose themselves in blasting melodies that are the musical equivalent of a scary, gray winter sky. Who know the difference between fantasy and irony.

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On Slate, Jeff Greenfield observes that tomorrow's Super Tuesday primary vote will make for "a nutty night." Yet one thing is certain:

Now, barring a McCain appearance at a Black Mass (and given New York's approach to matters spiritual, maybe not even then), McCain appears certain to win New York—and its neighbors.

It's a great line, but what Greenfield might not realize is that McCain is a Satanist.

No, really: it's on YouTube:

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Neatorama spots this intriguing story out of India, in which a man, cursed with calamities after killing dogs years ago, seeks to reverse the curse by marrying a stray dog. This remedy came from an astrologer, which is arguably one reason why I should stop reading my horoscope while I'm ahead ("don't waste time and energy on passing distractions"--ooooops).

Two things about this story caught my eye. One, of course, was the wedding garb: a traditional bright colored sari and garland. The other is the all too Western reduction of the event to sex:

Mr Selvakumar is not the first man to have hit the headlines for having romantic relations with animals.

Last year a Sudanese man was forced to marry a goat after village elders discovered him having sex with her. The goat died shortly afterwards.

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Via AltReligion, here's an article explaining how pentagram earrings in an Alltel ad are point to a murderous occult conspiracy involving Hillary Clinton.

Of course, if she becomes president, Hillary won't be the first secret satanist in the White House!

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Hot off the press:

''What 19-year-old doesn't have some type of skulls?'' said [Lazaro] Galindo, who is defending himself.

He showed the jury a picture police took of his home and said the skulls in the picture were just plastic toys.

Up until last week, Galindo said he was a Satanist and even insisted on his constitutional right to wear his religious garb -- a special cap and pentagram jewelry -- in court.

On Monday, he announced that he had found God and no longer needed the special clothes. He abandoned his plan to keep his Satanic Bible on the defense table during the trial.

''At no time in this case will you hear that I said I kill for Satan,'' he told the jury.

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You see, he called his operating system Windows, and eyes are a window of the soul, and eyes in Hebrew is singular, and the eye of Horus is an occult symbol.

Spooky, isn't it?

If you're still not convinced, check out the whole article and haunting symbological* video.

 *They have a whole department of symbology at Harvard.  No, really.  

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about satanic symbols and the Catholic Church*, but these guys aren't.  According to the documentary Rape of the Soul, images embedded in Catholic art exert a subliminal influence that leads to "deviant sexual behavior."  Says writer-producer (and devout Catholic) Michael Calace,

Artists from DaVinci to Botticelli have embedded subliminal images into their art for centuries. . .  In this case we found penises on crucifixes, anarchy symbols, swastikas, demonic faces and in modern works even the word 'sex' encrypted into the images. The works in question include modern artists' work currently on the covers of missalettes and hymnals that at this very moment sit in the pews of churches throughout the U.S. and on children's religious teaching aids.

Folks familiar with the history of such claims will recognize one of the experts quoted in the film:  Wilson Bryan Key.  In the 1970s, Key wrote a series of books exposing subliminal sex messages in ads and art.  Key's most well-known work is Subliminal Seduction; had he stopped there he might have enjoyed more long-term influence, but the sequels Media Sexploitation and The Clam Plate Orgy often bordered on self-parody, if not bizarre obsession. 

Plus ca change .  . .

*The upside-down cross is not only used in satanism, but is also a visual reference to St. Peter, who according to tradition was crucified upside-down.

Posted by jat at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

So you see, if Liz Claiborne really were a satanist, her cross would have been upside down--like the Pope's!

Posted by jat at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (1)