EDITOR’S NOTE: We end this year by each taking a look back and picking our five best posts, explaining both their importance to us and to the world we currently live in. Clicking the banner images will link you to each post, so as 2015 comes to a close join us in remembering how far we’ve come, but also how far we still have to go.
Somewhere in our collective history someone decided to depict God as a bearded, old human, dwelling in the clouds above. The trend caught on and has been going strong for the past couple millennia. As ubiquitous as this portrayal of the almighty has become, we argue that this imagery is the root of some of the worst theology (and art, music, and video) out there today, and how problematic it’s become for both the believer and non-believer alike.
Few images have so perfectly captured the abject and hellish misery of war than this year’s photograph of the body of Aylan Kurdi- only 3 years old. A would-be refugee from the ongoing conflict in Syria, Aylan and his brother drowned after an overcrowded boat capsized during a desperate attempt to reach Europe. The photograph evokes the deepest feelings of sadness for the dead and sympathy for the living- but crucially missing from the emotional equation is anger. Read on to discover why pity for refugees simply doesn’t cut it.
In June of this year gay marriage was legalized. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move– in many parts of the Christian community, anyways. With our Facebook feeds swiftly filling up with more doomsday prophecies and lamentations a bible warehouse, we decided to call these folks out on their vicious hypocrisy.
In spite of this year’s massive victories for LGBT rights, the war is far from over, and is being fought in, of all places, the public bathrooms of Houston, Texas. As non-traditional concepts of gender identity emerge and take hold in this country, we must ask ourselves “How far should go to meet the needs/desires of the individual? What accommodations can and should be made?”
None whatsoever, we argue.
Not with unisex bathrooms as a handy solution.
The controversial subject of capital punishment is hardly new to this blog, but the sentencing of Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in May provides us with yet another example of how broken and backwards the death penalty is. Read on to discover just how imperfect and unjust capital punishment is to the victim, the perpetrator, the survivors, and society at large.
It’d be impossible to survey the cultural battlefield without seeing the tragic carnage from the violence that’s marred this year- both at home and abroad. Although we continue to live in an increasingly safe and peaceful world, our collective reaction to wars (or mere rumors of wars) hasn’t been pretty, especially as we continue to respond with the same xenophobia and petulance that’d mark a more tumultuous age. Nevertheless, the strides made- particularly in the areas of gay rights- can’t be ignored and most certainly shouldn’t be overshadowed. And to shed light on it all- the good, the bad, and the downright weird- will be your intrepid correspondents here at Culture War Reporters.
See you next year.
Culture War Reporters 