{"id":162,"date":"2009-09-19T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-19T07:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/may-the-force-of-jesus-be-with-you.html"},"modified":"2009-09-19T07:06:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-19T07:06:00","slug":"may-the-force-of-jesus-be-with-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/may-the-force-of-jesus-be-with-you.html","title":{"rendered":"May the force of Jesus be with you"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another reminder, from the Georgia Bulletin<\/a>, that priests aren’t that different from the rest of us. They can be geeks, too: <\/p>\n

Among people costumed as Star Wars storm troopers, bare-chested Spartan warriors and Superman, there stood Father Bryan Small in his black and white Roman collar.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cWhat character are you supposed to be?\u201d he was asked.<\/p>\n

The laugh was on Father Small, 35, who for four years has served as the chaplain at the Catholic Center at Emory University and Agnes Scott College. He was not in costume, but in his typical priestly clerics.<\/p>\n

With \u201creal geek pride,\u201d Father Small participated in two panels at the annual Dragon-Con convention that draws some 50,000 people to Atlanta for the Labor Day weekend. It is a four-day blowout for lovers of sci-fi\/fantasy stories and movies to gather.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a chance to meet extraordinarily intelligent people, some of whom are people of faith and many who are not. The latter often feel shunned by organized religion and I think it\u2019s important to bring the discussion to a less polarizing place,\u201d he wrote by e-mail. <\/p>\n

Father Small, who was ordained in 2002, has been a longtime enthusiast of the genre. Let\u2019s just say that with the supernatural TV drama \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer,\u201d Father Small has seen all seven seasons.<\/p>\n

Pop culture shouldn\u2019t be ignored, he believes. The church needs to be engaged to uncover the worthwhile nuggets because it is the environment that many Catholics live in, he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pop culture is a snapshot of what the thoughts, hopes and fears of a particular society are at any given moment. How can we preach the Gospel or ever hope to evangelize in a vacuum?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

In 2008, he was asked to sit on a panel between \u201cbelievers\u201d\u2014that would be people who believe in UFOs, paranormal activity, telekinesis\u2014and \u201cscientifically-minded skeptics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a priest on the panel adds \u201cpaprika in the mix,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

Father Small was asked to explain the biblical event of the Exodus when there is no archaeological record of what is described as hundreds of thousands of people wandering in the desert for 40 years.<\/p>\n

His response was the Exodus likely wasn\u2019t a one-time event, but something that occurred over the course of centuries.<\/p>\n

It was \u201ca bit more sublime than Charlton Heston would have us believe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This past Labor Day weekend, Father Small sat on a panel with four others exploring the religious and spiritual themes of the popular science fiction shows, \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer\u201d and \u201cSupernatural.\u201d It drew an audience of about 50 people.<\/p>\n

The shows have obvious religious overtones with story lines of characters undergoing a loss of hope and then finding a purpose in life, he said. There are themes of sacrifice, death and resurrection, he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out more at the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another reminder, from the Georgia Bulletin, that priests aren’t that different from the rest of us. They can be geeks, too: Among people costumed as Star Wars storm troopers, bare-chested Spartan warriors and Superman, there stood Father Bryan Small in his black and white Roman collar. \u201cWhat character are you supposed to be?\u201d he was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-and-that","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\nMay the force of Jesus be with you - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/may-the-force-of-jesus-be-with-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"May the force of Jesus be with you - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another reminder, from the Georgia Bulletin, that priests aren’t that different from the rest of us. They can be geeks, too: Among people costumed as Star Wars storm troopers, bare-chested Spartan warriors and Superman, there stood Father Bryan Small in his black and white Roman collar. \u201cWhat character are you supposed to be?\u201d he was…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/may-the-force-of-jesus-be-with-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-19T07:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SrS8E6zkwJI\/AAAAAAAAGNo\/mPAuSVUEeeU\/s320\/20090917-08.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"May the force of Jesus be with you - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/may-the-force-of-jesus-be-with-you.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"May the force of Jesus be with you - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"Another reminder, from the Georgia Bulletin, that priests aren’t that different from the rest of us. 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