Medium Post #1

After reading about religion and pop culture, my overall sense was that in the modern era religious meaning has become less concrete and can have many different forms. In the past two centuries, we have seen a gradual departure from any single religion, at least in the U.S. In the beginning of the article, one particular quote furthers this point by actually stating that we can find religious meaning in secular activities that are often considered meaningless. Tendencies in everyday life can be compared to religious rituals and media can be likened to a reflection of common values, not all dissimilar from scripture. Popular culture is only successful to the degree to which it can meet the desires of its audience, which in turn sheds light on the audience itself. In this sense, the article attributes religious qualities to Disney, in which common morals and lessons are presented in different stories. I understand the argument made by the authors, but I slightly disagree with their interpretations. From what I gather, they view secular activities as having a religious component simply because they have purpose or regularity in our lives. That point of view, at least in my mind, comes from the idea that meaning is tied solely to religion and that if something has meaning, it has a religious component. As an agnostic, my opinions on this article may be skewed, but I personally derive meaning from my life knowing that what I do is important to me. I do not consider any aspect of my life religious, but I do consider it meaningful, and I firmly believe those two points should not be conflated.

In both podcasts, I noticed a lot more similarities than I did differences. There was a clear distinction between institutionalized religion and personal spirituality, which I thought was very intriguing. This came up more specifically when talking about the church’s role in conformity of minority groups, especially within the black community. One important aspect that was highlighted more in the first podcast was the role and power of black women and black trans-women. I thought it was inspiring to hear Shakira King talk about the spotlight on black women in the BLM movement. This is a significant departure from the Civil Rights Movement, when black women worked more behind the scenes. In comparing the two articles, I would say the central focus of each was different. One article examined American religion and its role in popular culture and the other provided the tools and recommendations for approaching religion as a holistic study. However, there were similarities, the most important of which being this general idea that religion is diverse in its meaning and is thus very hard to pin down in a single definition. This allows for a lot of interpretations, one of which I slightly disagreed with in the previous paragraph.

Now I guess I’ll say a little bit about myself. I’m a sophomore intending to major in biochemistry. I really want to work with genetics in my profession and plan on getting a DNA tattoo during fall break. I volunteer with the Hamilton Fire Department and have been a firefighter for about 3 years now. I ran track and cross country starting in eighth grade and was on Colgate’s Track team last year. Thinking more in terms of this course, I mentioned before that I am agnostic and like to think of religion as some inherent product of human nature. In terms of BLM, I would like to be more active and outspoken in general, but often I feel like there are issues other than police brutality that aren’t talked about enough. Since this class can evoke a lot of opinions or emotions, I think an ideal learning environment would allow everybody to share their thoughts equally and often.