Alt Wire is a morning digest of links and information collected and explained by a different guest blogger every weekday. Today’s guest isGeez editor Will Braun.
Religion is an awkward topic. But heck, it’s kinda fun to squirm a bit every now and then. So here’s some of the irk and the smirk of religion in a (partially) post-religious age.
Super-powered religion: California artist Mark Bryan sees tanks in the shape of churches and steeples built of missiles. (And his online gallery is clean, attractive and easy to use.)
I believe in Lego: It’s part art, part snark, and part straight-up Word of God. With a Lego set to die for, Brendan Powell Smith has masterfully created Lego dioramas of over 300 Bible stories. The stories-with titles like “Massacre of the Peaceful, Unsuspecting People,” “Bestiality,” and “When to Stone Your Children”-are conveniently rated for nudity, sexual content, cursing and violence.
I Married the Pastor: He leads a small Bible Belt church; she likes pedicures and “magazines with pretty pictures.” This is her take on things. This blog is a satirical, endearing, and delightfully vain insider’s look at the daily life of the faithful.
My favorite televangelist:Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping tap into the genre of televangelism to warn of the coming “shopocalypse.” If you’ve never seen anyone exorcise consumerist demons out of a Wal-Mart cash register, check it out.
Eccentrification of the world: Determined to “imagine something beyond televised teenage angst,” members of The Winking Circle have pretty much rendered boredom obsolete. With spiritual undertones, these young folks from the little town of Uxbridge, Ontario have chosen positive action over passive entertainment. Their art bikes, music, gardens, art cars, and films demonstrate a creativity unencumbered by sophistication or caution. I love these guys.
Bio: Will Braun is the editor of Geez, a quarterly publication that offers out-churched and over-churched souls some “holy mischief in an age of fast faith.” In a recent article entitled “A month of under-stimulation,” he chronicles his experiment in trying to reduce his addiction to the internet.
Previous Alt Wire Guests:Regan Hofmann, Josh Breitbart, Andrew Lam,Jessica Valenti,Jessica Hoffmann,Noah Scalin,Rinku Sen,Paddy Johnson,Melissa Mcewan,Fatemeh Fakhraie,Joe Biel,Anne Elizabeth Moore
