Here are your weekend must reads. Netflix's show "Lucifer" tells the story of a wayward son desperate to be understood through the lens of a family drama and love story. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's favorite Bible story is the one about Jesus violently cleansing the Temple, a story that has anti-Jewish connotations.
In her review of the Netflix show "Lucifer," Tia Noelle Pratt, a sociologist of religion, says it's a "rare show that embraces religion and the struggles of faith."
"Lucifer" centers on Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), the devil himself, who has tired of Hell and takes a vacation in Los Angeles. The show is one-part police procedural, one-part melodrama about a charming, oversexed, devilishly handsome playboy, and one-part exploration of the dichotomy between faith and reason told through the lens of a family drama and a love story.
"At its core, 'Lucifer' is a show that manages to do something rare while treading a familiar path," Pratt writes. "It's a show about a wayward son desperate to understand, and be understood by, his father and a man who can't admit to himself that he's in love because doing so requires a level of emotional and physical vulnerability that he's not equipped to embrace. All of the happens against a rarely seen backdrop of religion and faith."
You can read more of the review here.
As Jesus cleansed the Temple dramatically and violently, it's vital to confront "money changers" hawking their wares in the "temple" of U.S. democracy today. That's what newly reelected U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told NCR in an interview, invoking her favorite biblical story to illustrate incremental annexation of sacred space.
In citing this tale, AOC lends contemporary explication, perhaps inadvertently, to a narrative with a sinister past. To early Christians, it cast "other" Jews as rejected by God, and medieval adherents leveraged it to associate Jews with money and power.
Christians should forgo phrases like "30 pieces of silver" and "the money changers from the Temple" even if they aren't invoking Jews consciously, according to Jonathan Karp, director of Judaic studies at Binghamton University, SUNY, who acknowledged that the anti-Jewish connotations arose centuries after the Bible was recorded.
"I like AOC, so I'm not singling her out," he said. "When Jews like me hear them we flinch, because we know that they have been put to insidious use."
You can read more of the story here.
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Weekend wrap-up
Every Saturday, NCR posts a Scripture reflection from either St. Joseph Sr. Mary M. McGlone or Dominican Sr. Carol J. Dempsey. In today's reflection, McGlone writes about today's feast, which has the "leave-nothing-understated title of The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe." You can sign up for Sunday Resources to receive our Scripture reflections two months in advance or sign up for Scripture for Life to get an email each Saturday.
See you next weekend,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Production/Online Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
