Friday the 13th, time for some lucky links:
The Roman Catholic Church in America is Protestantized?
Is Benedict conducting a “witch hunt” among nuns?
If you haven’t heard of ACTA, you may want to start paying attention to this proposed treaty that threatens to ruin the internet.
Apparently “hell houses” used to scare teenagers to Jesus are a North American thing, Pete Rollins is fascinated.
Lastly: Don’t try to steal from these guys.
The hell houses strike me as the 21C equivalent of passion plays… nothing new really…
I suppose in the sense of what cultural role they fulfill. On the other hand, it is not unheard to study the old passion plays in literature classes as examples of medieval theatre – I’m not sure anything done by the “hell house” set belongs in the Western literary canon in quite the same way. I think Rollins was more fascinated in part because it has no analogue in religious practice where he is from. It’s sort of like how there were Catholics in my old neighbourhood but they did not do what the Catholics in my current neighbourhood do – parade icons up and down the street so the faithful can come out and affix money to them.