When I was a burbling tyke, one of the shows I had to watch--in the sense of must-see TV absolutely wanted to watch--was Davey and Goliath.  As you can see from the recent Mountain Dew (licensed) parody above, a lot of other kids watched it too. 

It's easy to make fun of the simplistic religious moralism of the D&G films, although as a kid who mainlined South Park's Butters I have to confess that thought never occurred to me. But the truth is, these shows were genius.  Not just because they snuck in controversial social commentary--the whole idea required a leap of thought that is far from typical in do-gooding, let alone religious media strategy. 

On one level, you see in Davey and Goliath an ur-text for Calvin and Hobbes, right down to sledding. 

More fundamentally, you see a creator who looked at one medium--television--and saw that the traditional mode of communication in another medium--church--would not fit:

Mr. Sutcliffe was director of Lutheran radio and television ministry in New York when he was approached by church leaders about using television to reach young people, said his daughter, J.T. Sutcliffe of Dallas.

"They wanted to do a little sermonette sort of thing, and Dad said, 'In the television medium, people aren't going to put up with that.' "

He proposed a format that would offer sound theology while being entertaining, his daughter said.  

Marshall McLuhan generalized this insight in his observation that a new medium initially repeats prior patterns--TV shows plays and symphonies; people post static pages to the web--until the form of the new medium reshapes how we communicate.  In the electronic environment, McLuhan argued, if you don't see that education is also entertainment you understand neither. 

Sutcliffe saw that merely replicating old content wasn't enough; fun iconic scenes were the wave of the future.  And as we can see by all the Youtube links here, he was right.

Below, a landmark avant-garde parody of D&G:  He Was Once by Mary Hestand with Todd Haynes.

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Via vintage tech blog Modern Mechanix, the story of how the Catholic Church invented modern customized direct marketing.

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Find out about the Rosetta Project here.

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Three of Diamonds, originally uploaded by trexfiles23.

The card is Marshall McLuhan's; the essay, by Angela Zito:

Does the deep investment in the mediated details (where, we are assured, God himself resides) in fact, actually tend itself to produce an effect (and affect) of religiosity? And is this why even denominational religions are turning ever more often to art practices of dance, poetry, music to engage their practitioners more deeply?

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Marshall McLuhan observed that new media initially adopt old forms, such as TV showing stage plays and symphonies or web pages mimicking paper. Above: a Baptist church on wheels, complete with a twelve-foot high belfrey.

I wonder if any of these still survive?

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A sign that the constant work & 5 a.m. nights are getting to me: I saw this and thought, what if this were worn by the natives of the Land of the Giants and Jesus had been on the Spindrift? And what if Jesus were crucified there and had to carry this USB port . . .

Order here. And don't worry--it's small on our planet.

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The earliest issues of 2600, the Hacker Quarterly explained phone phreaking--<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking#2600_Hz">hence the title</a>.

And now it commemorates the payphone's death. More or less.

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Michele Mossop, via

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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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Pop satire finds a new home when Skullphone hacks Clear Channel's digital billboards in Los Angeles.

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Via

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The Holy Trinity by Damien Hirst

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The first picture below is "DJ Lea Luna - Pretending To Be Holy & In Control of Some Unknown Something or Other . . . ." When I saw this on FFFFOUND it immediately looked familiar, and then it hit me--it's a front-view echo of the picture that Erich van Daniken claimed to depict an ancient Mayan astronaut.

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Via CrunchGear

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Via

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Believe it or not, this is an avant-garde digital art exhibit in Miami. Below, the parting of the Red Sea; Creative Review has all the images and a description of the project.

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Anton Fahlren, chief designer of Nokia phones:

"I think people think of a product now as more than just a piece of technology in their hands, but a total package of technology and functions, look and feel - they see it as having a soul, if you like," Fahlgren says.

"When you design a product, you learn a lot about the complexity of the technology and what things you have to think about from a design point of view. But, I think, it is very much the artistic side that is important to give soul to the product.

"That is the role of design and it always will be. At the end of the day, what you bring to the table as an electronics designer is that artistic soul and creativity."

HT: Core77

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One of the many fun yet useful design feature of the Mac is the Dashboard, which displays application widgets that can do, well, just about anything. Pictured above: one of a couple user-designed Islamic Dashboard widgets displaying prayer times.

And yes, it has an option to sound the Athan, the distinctive call to prayer!

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Today's story of the web is the undercover reported at the latest DefCon, a hackers convention. But that's far from the only interesting thing there. Check out the Church of WiFi, whose playful name and fun commandments also reflect a deep organic connection between electronic networks and spiritual identity. You might also want to look for the Christian hackers known as Jesus Phreaks (or Phreakers), who have been known to be there selling t-shirts.

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Applied theology transforms abstractions into action.  Earlier this week, the all-seeing Angela Gunn (of Techspace fame) transformed our offhand observation about the spiritual mission of the Harry Potter hacker into invaluable practical advice for IT professionals.  As Ms. G observes, money is not the only motive behind malicious hacks--

It's one more thing to keep in mind for anyone engaged in risk analysis -- what's worth not just filthy lucre to your enterprise's potential attackers, but worth something they might hold in even higher regard?

Excellent point, and one that further illustrates the importance of a broad-based religious literacy even for professionals who may not be religious themselves.  To keep current with all forms of security attacks (religious and otherwise), be sure to check out the blog and archive at zone-h.  (Hint to humanities & sociology grad students:  buzz-building dissertations lurk in zone-h for those who have eyes to see). 

Of course, not every religious hacker sets out to engage in illegal or destructive acts.  Check out, for example, the Christian Hackers Association and Gervase Markham's blog, Hacking for Christ.

(And while you're at it, be sure to click through the latest post in AG's ongoing reality check on the "Jesus phone."  To which I say sure, it's overkill, but maybe there's an underlying truth--after all, isn't there a spiritual resonance between His preference for using the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and Apple's decision to use AT&T wireless?)

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Will this prove to have even greater power than God's Holy PSP?

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