Sunday, May 05, 2019
Medusa The Porn Star, Jesus the Risen Star, Part 1
…if indeed you have TASTED that the Lord is good. As you come to him, A LIVING STONE rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves LIKE LIVING STONES are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:3-5
"Fear opens the door of death, and through fear of death, we become slaves of our own desires...When we turn creatures into gods we also seek to TURN STONES TO BREAD, rather than living by the BREAD OF LIFE (John 6: 25-59) that comes from God." - Doug Harink on 1 Peter 2: 1-3 [bold type added]
Depiction of Medusa, 2014, by Ronnie Ray Mendez
Medusa was a mythological, divine female figure associated symbolically with primordial, fertile, creative forces of the earth. She was purported to have a terrifying beauty. In Ovid’s Roman version of her story, at her origin she was “stunningly” beautiful, becoming an object of desired aspirations of men. She thus roused many suitors to competitive jealousy. Does that sound familiar to real life?
Porn stars are generally GIFTED with such beauty, too. Aspirations and desires shaped into and by jealous competition are most often and habitually left unfulfilled. Then what? Porn stars (even often seek to) become known as our idols, celebrities of a sort, the objects by which we reach upwards to a treasured and sacred place where such desires are vicariously fulfilled at a distance on magical, transparent STONE screens. But promises given by the terms of a contract written by the STONE-cold hand of death are, in the land of mortals, not usually fulfilled. We might say that Medusa is the ancient, primordial archetype of the contemporary, consumeristic Porn Star.
Medusa was also known as a kind of MONSTER with the capacity to turn men into STONE. Porn tends to paralyze men into a disordered CONGLOMERATE MASS of emotional immaturity, turning us into something less than human, perhaps even MONSTERS. So, what I’m telling here is more of a male story. I doubt, though, that females will find no place in the story or find no value in it. In fact, as I began to tell it previously, one woman thanked me and opened up about her own (more on that below). So, it’s primarily my story, but I recognize it everywhere. This is Part 1 of a 4 Part blog series. This post is more about Medusa the Porn Star. Later, I will expose more about Porn Star the Medusa.
********************************************************************************
In prayer, pain, and suffering throughout the course of my life – but especially in the last year or so – God has been teaching me that the mishappening of such above noted misshapen desires are and can be transformed and re-ordered towards a more properly human, cross-shaped, mutually-sacrificial, life-giving love. This transformation is happening for me in and by worship of and fellowship in the One who TURNS STONES TO BREAD, the one who ascended and will never fall but who will, instead, faithfully and, as promised, return home.
One of the most pivotal and powerful moments of my time at the Missio Alliance Conference recently – SEE LINK HERE for their website - was a conversation over an informal time of drinks and fellowship with friends in the courtyard of the hotel where theologian, pastor, and star professor David Fitch was staying. (Per my point above about rising and falling, he would laugh at my calling him a star professor, btw)
My friend Matt Tebbe shared how, in relationships - he was using the example of relationships that belong to the sexual order in marriage - one person or party always wants or desires something more so or to a greater degree than the other. This means that we are always and forever, in relationships, presented with the opportunity and reality of confronting and facing our vulnerability before others and before God. He shared how and that the ways we have of "covering over" that vulnerability and weakness with illusory mechanisms of control and power are so manifold and all-pervasive as to be dizzyingly blinding to their very presence in the first place.
********************************************************************************
In the story of the power of Medusa, arising out of our aspiration to beauty, our jealous competition, and our mechanisms of control that cover over the vulnerability and sensitivity of our flesh, the male god of the power of the chaotically raging sea - Poseidon - rapes her. Further, as a sign of the nature of the violation, he does so inside the Temple of worship to the equally beautiful female goddess of temperance and Wisdom.
Reflecting the ancient male telling of the story, Medusa’s image was then transfigured into that of a terrifying MONSTER, and her hair became that of curly serpents. Keep in mind here the dark, serpentine hair of many Mediterranean beauties. Their hair of shadows turns mysteriously in the wind that blows from the Mediterranean Sea. This is the particular embodiment of female beauty, GIFT, and mystery that gives context to this ancient Roman poetry and mythology. Upon casting our gaze upon her figure, we find Medusa to have – in addition to these serpents for hair - wings, along with mesmerizing, ever-moving eyes. According to the mythology, if - in seeking her beauty or wanting to draw too close to her creative powers - we fix our gaze upon her, we are immediately TURNED to STONE.
Remember, I am most primarily telling a male story of false worship - of what happens when we try to fix, affirm, and “cast” or “TURN” life sustaining bread, so to speak, into STONE. A living gift of a beautiful woman is not primarily an overly-sexualized object of for the male gaze to “TASTE and see that it is good.” “Beauty evokes desire,” as David Bentley Hart says, but disordered desire does not evoke beauty. Being MOVED by awestruck wonder in the face of the goodness of a GIFT is different from being TURNED TO STONE by jealousy and rage.
********************************************************************************
A while back, ABC Religion and Ethics published an article called “Growing Up in Pornland: Girls Have Had It with Porn Conditioned Boys” – SEE LINK HERE - that talked about how, on the one hand, porn shapes and (dis)orders boys and men and their desires and, on the other hand, renders young girls and women somewhere between confused and fed up.
A female friend of mine named Kari spoke up. She thanked me for sharing and opening up space for conversation on the topic, which she saw as desperately needed. She senses a deep need for men to become more whole, human, and able to relate to their own emotions and to women. She said this:
Kari has many other stories. She had a best friend of four years who was male. Romance entered the picture. Instead of a mature conversation where each was able to share how they felt, “he freaked out, lashed out, cut me off, and started abusively accusing me of things...” She had a friend of seven years who wanted a date. When she said she had to think about it, “He lashed out abusively, he demanded what he wanted.” There seems to be a pattern here.
********************************************************************************
When we are reliving ancient traumas that are ever on the threshold of our memories by the very nature of the chaos or abyss over which the spirit moves that in every moment of creation, we don’t simply move past or on from such bloodshed, violation, and fear. As we “get our wants on the Table,” the faithful One can invade our bloody world with his forgiveness and shape, form, and re-order our desires towards His own faithful love that he demonstrated to us “while we were yet sinners.”
So, I believe that it’s only at the Table of Grace where fellowship is and can be reborn in a space of openness, tenderness, care, and forgiveness. This is a new kind of dominion governed by the One who TURNS STONES TO LIFE-GIVING BREAD, the One in and by whom being “stunned” is to be moved by a wondrous gift rather than paralyzed by the chaotic abyss of Poseidon’s sea. This is the Table where He is present in our midst as we come face to face with one another and share in deep fellowship together the “BREAD of the presence.”
1 Peter 2:3-5
"Fear opens the door of death, and through fear of death, we become slaves of our own desires...When we turn creatures into gods we also seek to TURN STONES TO BREAD, rather than living by the BREAD OF LIFE (John 6: 25-59) that comes from God." - Doug Harink on 1 Peter 2: 1-3 [bold type added]
Depiction of Medusa, 2014, by Ronnie Ray Mendez
Porn stars are generally GIFTED with such beauty, too. Aspirations and desires shaped into and by jealous competition are most often and habitually left unfulfilled. Then what? Porn stars (even often seek to) become known as our idols, celebrities of a sort, the objects by which we reach upwards to a treasured and sacred place where such desires are vicariously fulfilled at a distance on magical, transparent STONE screens. But promises given by the terms of a contract written by the STONE-cold hand of death are, in the land of mortals, not usually fulfilled. We might say that Medusa is the ancient, primordial archetype of the contemporary, consumeristic Porn Star.
Medusa was also known as a kind of MONSTER with the capacity to turn men into STONE. Porn tends to paralyze men into a disordered CONGLOMERATE MASS of emotional immaturity, turning us into something less than human, perhaps even MONSTERS. So, what I’m telling here is more of a male story. I doubt, though, that females will find no place in the story or find no value in it. In fact, as I began to tell it previously, one woman thanked me and opened up about her own (more on that below). So, it’s primarily my story, but I recognize it everywhere. This is Part 1 of a 4 Part blog series. This post is more about Medusa the Porn Star. Later, I will expose more about Porn Star the Medusa.
********************************************************************************
In prayer, pain, and suffering throughout the course of my life – but especially in the last year or so – God has been teaching me that the mishappening of such above noted misshapen desires are and can be transformed and re-ordered towards a more properly human, cross-shaped, mutually-sacrificial, life-giving love. This transformation is happening for me in and by worship of and fellowship in the One who TURNS STONES TO BREAD, the one who ascended and will never fall but who will, instead, faithfully and, as promised, return home.
One of the most pivotal and powerful moments of my time at the Missio Alliance Conference recently – SEE LINK HERE for their website - was a conversation over an informal time of drinks and fellowship with friends in the courtyard of the hotel where theologian, pastor, and star professor David Fitch was staying. (Per my point above about rising and falling, he would laugh at my calling him a star professor, btw)
My friend Matt Tebbe shared how, in relationships - he was using the example of relationships that belong to the sexual order in marriage - one person or party always wants or desires something more so or to a greater degree than the other. This means that we are always and forever, in relationships, presented with the opportunity and reality of confronting and facing our vulnerability before others and before God. He shared how and that the ways we have of "covering over" that vulnerability and weakness with illusory mechanisms of control and power are so manifold and all-pervasive as to be dizzyingly blinding to their very presence in the first place.
********************************************************************************
In the story of the power of Medusa, arising out of our aspiration to beauty, our jealous competition, and our mechanisms of control that cover over the vulnerability and sensitivity of our flesh, the male god of the power of the chaotically raging sea - Poseidon - rapes her. Further, as a sign of the nature of the violation, he does so inside the Temple of worship to the equally beautiful female goddess of temperance and Wisdom.
Reflecting the ancient male telling of the story, Medusa’s image was then transfigured into that of a terrifying MONSTER, and her hair became that of curly serpents. Keep in mind here the dark, serpentine hair of many Mediterranean beauties. Their hair of shadows turns mysteriously in the wind that blows from the Mediterranean Sea. This is the particular embodiment of female beauty, GIFT, and mystery that gives context to this ancient Roman poetry and mythology. Upon casting our gaze upon her figure, we find Medusa to have – in addition to these serpents for hair - wings, along with mesmerizing, ever-moving eyes. According to the mythology, if - in seeking her beauty or wanting to draw too close to her creative powers - we fix our gaze upon her, we are immediately TURNED to STONE.
Remember, I am most primarily telling a male story of false worship - of what happens when we try to fix, affirm, and “cast” or “TURN” life sustaining bread, so to speak, into STONE. A living gift of a beautiful woman is not primarily an overly-sexualized object of for the male gaze to “TASTE and see that it is good.” “Beauty evokes desire,” as David Bentley Hart says, but disordered desire does not evoke beauty. Being MOVED by awestruck wonder in the face of the goodness of a GIFT is different from being TURNED TO STONE by jealousy and rage.
********************************************************************************
A while back, ABC Religion and Ethics published an article called “Growing Up in Pornland: Girls Have Had It with Porn Conditioned Boys” – SEE LINK HERE - that talked about how, on the one hand, porn shapes and (dis)orders boys and men and their desires and, on the other hand, renders young girls and women somewhere between confused and fed up.
A female friend of mine named Kari spoke up. She thanked me for sharing and opening up space for conversation on the topic, which she saw as desperately needed. She senses a deep need for men to become more whole, human, and able to relate to their own emotions and to women. She said this:
“Most men I've known in a dating context are abusive, liars, deceitful, aggressive, and defensive…I have several examples of kind male friends who suddenly TURNED on me aggressively when romance or sex entered the picture. And other examples of men who paint themselves as emotionally evolved, then TURN on you when you express that you’d just like to be friends. This literally happened last week. He was so sweet and kind and even told me that if I just wanted to be friends he'd be fine with that. But when I told him that I did just want to be friends, he became COLD AND DISTANT…”Does that sound a bit familiar in relation to the story of Medusa? Her friend TURNED COLD LIKE STONE, perhaps? Kari’s friend was, perhaps, aroused by a beauty he found mesmerizing and by its associated creative, fertile power. Maybe he was aroused to competitive aspirations shaped into jealousy of many other suitors.
Kari has many other stories. She had a best friend of four years who was male. Romance entered the picture. Instead of a mature conversation where each was able to share how they felt, “he freaked out, lashed out, cut me off, and started abusively accusing me of things...” She had a friend of seven years who wanted a date. When she said she had to think about it, “He lashed out abusively, he demanded what he wanted.” There seems to be a pattern here.
“These people who said they cared about me had NO INTEREST IN TRUE INTIMACY, in knowing about how I felt, what I wanted, who I am, which is so so so sad. And they are people who uphold an image of being emotionally mature. It’s MONSTROUS. Why aren't more men looking at their behavior and getting the help they need to grow? Why do they think it's ok to abuse women? Why do they want to be like that? Every woman I know has stories like this.” [emphasis added]Kari’s friends were also, then, perhaps shaped and governed by the chaotically raging violence of Poseidon’s sea. Perhaps the rape of Medusa is a primordial one in which we all participate when men “lash out abusively, demand” and “abuse” women with no apparent interest in the actual WARMTH AND INTIMACY of human relationship. What’s really going on here? Men don’t actually lack desire for true relationships, so why does it often seem so far off?
********************************************************************************
When we are reliving ancient traumas that are ever on the threshold of our memories by the very nature of the chaos or abyss over which the spirit moves that in every moment of creation, we don’t simply move past or on from such bloodshed, violation, and fear. As we “get our wants on the Table,” the faithful One can invade our bloody world with his forgiveness and shape, form, and re-order our desires towards His own faithful love that he demonstrated to us “while we were yet sinners.”
So, I believe that it’s only at the Table of Grace where fellowship is and can be reborn in a space of openness, tenderness, care, and forgiveness. This is a new kind of dominion governed by the One who TURNS STONES TO LIFE-GIVING BREAD, the One in and by whom being “stunned” is to be moved by a wondrous gift rather than paralyzed by the chaotic abyss of Poseidon’s sea. This is the Table where He is present in our midst as we come face to face with one another and share in deep fellowship together the “BREAD of the presence.”
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