EMERGENT CHURCH?

Interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Linda Morris. What are your thoughts?

They're all god movies, in mysterious ways!

The internet has become almost like a 21st-century church or temple, says a Sydney academic.

Disenchantment with organised religion has given rise to spiritual movements inspired by cinema and books and promulgated on the World Wide Web, says Adam Possamai, president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religions and a sociologist at the University of Western Sydney.

The futuristic Matrix trilogy and the Star Wars franchise - of which the final chapter, Revenge of the Sith, was released at midnight - are part of a phenomenon of "hyper-real" religions that draw on old religious symbolism and works of popular culture.

The internet is like a place for worship, but instead of pews, followers, mainly teenagers, congregate in chat rooms.

Star Trek, the Matrix trilogy and Star Wars, even the Harry Potter films, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are more than pieces of cinematic or television escapism, Dr Possamai says.

Their stories of spiritual drama, littered with a religious subtext of good versus evil, "chosen ones", prophets of doom and a benevolent universal power, mean they are a source of inspiration for "seekers".

Dr Possamai said the Matrix trilogy had spawned "Matrixism", a so-called movie-based religion that claims 300 adherents and has as one of its tenets a belief in the prophecy of "the One".

The Jedi Knight movement, which has a quasi-spirituality of the Force and an ethical code, promotes ancient techniques for developing the self such as meditation, yoga and shamanism.

The neo-pagan network of the Church of Old Worlds claimed to be inspired by Star Trek and the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein , he said. The Passion of the Christ had been used as a rallying cry by organised religion and many Christian groups had embraced popular culture by creating comic book heroes and virtual bibles.

"Hyper-real religions are a simulacrum of a religion partly created out of popular culture. They have been underground since the 1960s but are becoming more mainstream, due to the advent of the internet," said Dr Possamai, whose book on the subject has just been released.

"We live in a consumer society where popular culture is becoming more commercialised. As society becomes more consumerist I expect the hyper-real religious phenomenon to grow, but to what extent I've got no idea."