{"id":5048,"date":"2006-01-29T23:31:50","date_gmt":"2006-01-29T23:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/lost-rites.html"},"modified":"2006-01-29T23:31:50","modified_gmt":"2006-01-29T23:31:50","slug":"lost-rites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/lost-rites.html","title":{"rendered":"Lost Rites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I finally got around to watching last week’s Lost<\/em>. <\/p>\n

(Explanation: I usually don’t watch it when it airs because Katie has basketball practice, and doesn’t get home until around 9:30)<\/p>\n

(Yeah, let’s go into why 8th grade girls are having to hold their practice from 7:45-9:30 at night. Or let’s not, if we want me to keep my temper)<\/p>\n

(Anyway, I tape it for her, and usually wait til the next night to watch it with her.)<\/p>\n

Interesting, if not very exciting, and clearly a set-up for what’s to come. Religious imagery was once again in the forefront: British drug addict rock musician Charlies is having dreams, which involve flashbacks to childhood, Catholic imagery, and danger to Lostaway Claire’s baby. The common theme seems to be salvation. As a child, Charlie was put in a position, because of his musical talent, to "save" his family. Which he did, then didn’t, then, in the end of the backstory, as his fellow drug addict brother rock musician sold Charlie’s beloved piano so he could try to rescue his life – he did, albeit without consenting to, and at great price. <\/p>\n

So he becomes convinced that this baby is in danger, and then gets it in his head, thanks to faux<\/em> priest Mr. Ekko, that the danger lies in the fact that the baby is unbaptized. Which he spills to Claire, who is still furious with him over the fact that he is still harboring drugs in the Virgin Mary statues (told you<\/em> there was religious imagery) and, well, keeps on stealing her baby and getting found about to walk out to sea with it or something. But, a bit worried despite it all, she goes to Mr. Ekko with her questions and worries, and he promptly gives her a deeply mangled catechesis on baptism (declaring that when John baptized Jesus, Jesus was cleansed of sin), and then, in a montage, privately baptizes them – we don’t hear what he says, but we see him pouring bits of water, not just over their heads, but over their shoulders as well, in sort of a sign of the Cross.<\/p>\n

Well, the big debate is – is all the baptism stuff wrong because the writers are morons or is it purposeful? It would make perfect sense for it to be purposeful since, well, Mr. Ekko isn’t actually a priest, but a former warlord and drug runner who despite being Catholic himself, presumably would not have had much training in Liturgy 101. But then, it’s also clear that at least since coming on the island, he’s been studying the Bible – he’s full of Biblical references and stories for every occasion and his Jesus Stick is carved with Scripture verses. So you’d think he’d have run across that whole Jesus-John the Baptist encounter and grasp the basics of it.<\/p>\n

Thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I finally got around to watching last week’s Lost. (Explanation: I usually don’t watch it when it airs because Katie has basketball practice, and doesn’t get home until around 9:30) (Yeah, let’s go into why 8th grade girls are having to hold their practice from 7:45-9:30 at night. Or let’s not, if we want…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nLost Rites - Via Media<\/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\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/lost-rites.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lost Rites - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, I finally got around to watching last week’s Lost. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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