- - James Bay Culture Blog #6 - -

Blasphemy.

Obscene.

No other words can describe the kind of monster who attacks our sanctuaries of Faith! The churches of James Bay are under attack from vile anarchists and agents of depravity.

For example:

Do you know that adorable little Church down at the corner of Niagara & Medana street? It's called the “Saint James Mission of Christ Church Cathedral.” Very cute, historical little building that conjures up the hobbit-like ideals of Anglo-Catholicism. Although, of course, you do not have to be a member of this one particular sect in order to fully appreciate the fact that these “anglicans” are among the ancestor-tribes of our current Victoria community.

That's why I was SHOCKED to see this place desecrated by a crude smear of filth! For most of 2008 A.D. that sidewalk out front has displayed: NO GODS, NO MASTERS. And it has one of those little rebellion circles around the letter “a.”

“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...”
-W. B. Yeats

Of course, I could be overreacting.

Just a little. Maybe.

I'm so darn passionate about the spirit of our region that I get carried away. James Bay takes possession of me -- quite literally. But I eventually calmed down and started, as usual for my peculiar temperament, to become deeply intrigued by the situation. With enough deep feeling you cannot help but become devoted to the many levels of meaning in James Bay.

My own curiosity began to grow. It started to throb with interest, and so I became slowly willing to let go of my usual opinion about public graffiti. You know, I even started to take a strange pleasure in the juxtaposition of viewpoints that was involved. Church vs. Anarchists.

In fact, I reasoned, there is no better source of vibrant cultural energy than a public-subliminal conflict of Value Systems. Such “stand-offs,” which pit perspectives against each other, have the power to open a portal to the hidden soul of a community.

Listen, “No Gods, No Masters” was the provocative motto used by a woman named Margaret Sanger. It was the slogan of a magazine that Sanger published starting in 1914, called The Woman Rebel. Her articles promoted a radical feminist-libertarian position that freaked out conservative dogmatists. Actually, the U. S. Postal Service banned these magazines. They were reactionary against Sanger's shameless advocacy for Women's Rights, the decriminalization of abortion & sex-education for children.

Perhaps... the person responsible for the graffiti was an admirer of this Sanger. Quite possibly, this pavement scribble was an act of madly drunken passion on behalf of an elderly, but virile, James Bay lady who had stumbled out into the cool night air to vent her political idealism on cement sidewalk and let “those damn punk kids” take the blame.

That's probably what happened.

In order to get to the bottom of all this business, I realized, we would have to try visualising this conflict in the form of a buxom, all-female, mud-wrestling competition and this blog is your ticket to the show!

Let's get READY TO RUMBLE:

ANNOUNCER: “In the left corner (the corner of Niagara Street & Medana), weighing in at a colossal 2000 pounds, AND sporting a hot pink “Jesus Still Cares!” bikini-top is the Virgin Mother of Western Culture: the CHRISTIAN CHURCH! Her opponent, dressed tonight in a mauve, one-piece, 1920's bathing suit is arch-Feminist crusader and staunch anti-religionist MARGARET SANGER...

This is what I was imagining. It filled the expanse of my mind as I was rounding the corner of Medana street to discover – the battle was already over! The Church made a pre-emptive strike by spray-painting over the words with industrial grey paint. Another bold aesthetic choice by the Christians! Sorry, Magaret. The war is finished. Your message, and the really fascinating “stand-off” that it represented, have been suppressed by agents of the Church. Very sinister stuff.

So now the ONLY PLACE in the world where the truth still exists -- about this ground-zero authentic cultural engagement – is the one source which had the foresight to investigate and document the situation:

This blog.

You're welcome.

Value's Test: Do James Bay's Churches still reflect James Bay's Ideals?
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