The Golden Ass

Index to my blog series on how aspiration to desire for the heights of the figure of the porn star take the place of the presence and rule of the risen Christ. Medusa was a half divine figure whose stunning beauty was capable of "turning men to stone." That's why, when we see Medusa the Porn Star at work (particularly in the shaping of my male desire), we also see things that are inhuman. We become what we behold. After the male hero of the story dominated her, she was regarded as a monster. That's why Jesus was disfigured beyond recognition.

"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

…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

Medusa The Porn Star, Jesus the Risen Star, Part 1
How we continue to enact the story of Medusa, beginning to take the story of Medusa from an abstracted myth to our daily life and embodied sexual desires.

Medusa The Porn Star, Jesus the Risen Star, Part 2
Continuing to weave the story of Medusa together with our lives, particularly how the violence and brokenness of our sexuality was told to us generations ago in a myth we generally dismiss as being foreign, alien, and irrelevant to us.

Porn Star The Medusa, Risen Star The Jesus, Part 3
How the "objectification" of the Porn Star as an extension of the lifeless, fragmented, bloody body of the beheaded Medusa. She's really just a girl who desires intimacy and relationship. The risen Jesus to Thomas, breaking the image of an impossible fantasy with the invitation to intimate trust: "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side…" - John 20: 27.

Porn Star The Medusa, Risen Star The Jesus, Part 4
On how Jesus bears the trauma inflicted upon Medusa by our jealousy and rage that arise out of our reaching for disordered desires for false fantasies, for idols. "In the past few years we have had a huge increase in intimate partner rape of women from 14 to 80+. The biggest common denominator is consumption of porn by the offender. With offenders not able to differentiate between fantasy and reality..." And on the woman's temptation to embody the figure of the Porn Star / Medusa: "[I]f he wants to hit me, tie me up and stalk me, does that mean he loves me?" - Growing Up In Pornland