Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

Today power social medialite Michelle Phan ignited a debate on religion on Facebook after she posted a photo captioned “Simple Beauty Tip: Ask God to fill your heart with the Holy Spirit, then you will see a glow:”

Michelle, a video spokesperson for Lancome, is famous for her youtube makeup tutorials. At the time of writing her post garnered 2,400 likes and over 700 comments, already at a significantly higher volume than usual. Almost immediately, comments began to pour in regarding the religious tone of her post. Here is a small sample:

• Michelle, you have thousands and thousands of fans, surely you don’t think they’re all Christian…?
• I’m not religious, but this is still a pretty picture. The eye makeup is simple but it really glows.
• r u serious?
• What if you dont believe in god? then you can stay ugly for the rest of your life?
• err no dont try and turn your fans into christians
• omg, stop talking about god all the time, there’s a lot of your fans that don’t believe in god…
• Eh, but what if you’re Atheist?
• god doesn’t have to be “real” god all the time. god can just be you .. ask yourself to fill your heart AND your soul with the holy spirit
• Whether or not any of her fans believe in God, she’s free to express her own beliefs and opinions. Incidentally, this makeup is so simple and gorgeous!
• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not in what religion you believe..
• Theres nothing wrong with promoting your beliefs on facebook. if you dont like her belief then dont go to her page. She dedicates her fame to the Lord. I like her even more for it! you go Michelle!!
• ‎”for the fool hath sayeth in his heart there is no god” you guys are fools.
• just because you don’t believe in God doesn’t mean other people can’t talk about him. geesh. If you don’t have something nice, don’t say anything at all. Thanks Michelle for the reminder ♥
• I love the fact that you show your faith! Girls need someone faithful to look up to like you!

After this batch of relatively mild back-and-forth, Michelle replied:

It doesn’t have to be about God, for those of you who are not familiar with the Holy Spirit, it’s really just filling your heart with good spirits instead of negative spirits. I’ve been cleansing my body of negative energy. It can really affect your outer beauty. I’ve been praying and striving to become a better person. Beauty starts from within.

This didn’t placate her readers, who continued the tirade:

• No offense Michelle, but not all of us are Christian, or even religious. I myself am agnostic, and I understand your opinion on the matter.. But I don’t think this beauty tip is relevant to everyone and I think it might even be offensive to some for you to include your own personal religious beliefs in your communications to fans. You look gorgeous however.
• Wow talk about rude. If anybody truly understood what she meant then they wouldn’t be offended. I don’t follow religion but I know what she means cause my mom says it all the time. It ain’t about converting it is called she is extrememly happy about her faith and isn’t ashamed to say it. She ain’t trying to convert ya so stop cryin. And no it doesn’t mean that if you don’t follow god that you’ll stay ugly, it means that the glow she has can’t be done by makeup alone. Everyone is beautiful the question is if you think and allow yourself to be beautiful and not show your ugliness which is really the negative emotions you display. Michelle flawless as always. I understand what the statement was.
• I also glow after I read the Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey :] We all glow in our own special ways ♥
• what god? christian one? muslim one? Jewish one? Buddhist? Hindu? Greek gods? Romans? I think its really bad to talk about religion as not everyone has the same.. and some have none ;]
• It’s okay for Michelle to talk about her religious beliefs. Ever heard of freedom of speech? Obviously her religion is a big part of who she is and she wouldn’t be Michelle Phan without it. So just let her be who she is. Her displaying her religious beliefs doesn’t mean you have to do anything about it or change yourself.
• Holy Spririt is THE Holy Spirit. You can’t say it’s just positive engery when you blatently mean something else.

Michelle replied again:

Also, religion is a way of life. It’s my way of life. If I can’t talk about my faith and my love for God, that’s like asking me to hide the love I have for my mother. I am who I am because of my faith, and I cannot repress that.

The discussion continues:

• I completely agree. And just to clarify something, Christianity is a…relationship not so much a religion. Yea we have worship…”customs” but those are all done to glorify God. But mostly, christianity is about having a personal relationship with God. :] I can totally see the glow, btw.
• Thank you for your boldness. Guys its not about religion its about Christ following. Theres a HUGE difference and Michelle doesnt have to cater to everyones beliefs . Im thankful that in this country we are not persecuted for being Christians
• Absolutely gorgeous but it sounds like christian propaganda…
• I suppose one should respect religious outerings and all, but at times it gets a tad annoying, I guess, especially for viewers who don’t believe in God. But you are undenieably beautiful, inside and out, and If you feel your religion has caused that, you should be able to say that, I suppose.
• Nah, I think honestly a good foundation will do that trick. But hey, I wouldn’t say it’s Christian propaganda. Just merely a fact: Some hearts glow brighter with God. Others, as I said, just need a good foundation and some of that Aloe water. :3 I myself will take the latter.
• I read a few peoples words and I think that the issue is the beauty tip… but if you ain’t liking it then you are no better than the people who critize her. She is a US citizen and has every right to express her love for her faith. Why the hell are you guys nitpicking? Some fans….
• You can proclaim your faith, but you don’t have to use your fame to try to recruit people. It’s offensive. I don’t agree with a lot of Christian beliefs, one of them being that they (Christians) think everyone should be Christian.
• Man, you people always bug her when she says something about her religion or about God. If she talks about her love for spirituality or whatever else, the others start complaining ’cause she’s offensive. If she would start one day posting about her love for Satan you would all be offended. If she would say: Fuck Buddhists, others would feel offended, then again. This is her Facebook, you all know Michelle for her artistic talent. So what if she’s religious? In a world where people are afraid to speak about their beliefs and opinions, I admire her for saying it the way she feels.
• Michelle you are a brilliant make up artist and every time you post a picture thats all I can think. I have no religion, I could care less about what you believe. My only thing is… I might believe you were glowing from positive energy if you weren’t wearing the make up :] All I can see is you wearing make up and I think “bloody hell, she’s done another fantastic job, she’s a very skilled make up artist” So huzzah to you and your skills!
• It’s so amazing to see someone highly respected that isn’t afraid to say they believe in the living God. It isn’t exactly something that makes you popular and most are ridiculed for their faith. This is why you will always be number one Michelle! You stay true to your beliefs!
• Just curious, is this a joke in bad taste? There is no basis for the claim that you make.

I’m not offended by the Christian sentiments in Michelle Phan’s caption. The real problem with the statement is that it’s nonsensical. First, the language is church-speak. Rather than explaining her thoughts in simple English, Michelle is resorting to the abstract and meaningless cliches of faith, filling your heart, and the holy spirit. The use of “Christianese” is effective spiritual illiteracy, and poorly communicates the intended message.

Second, the idea that you can improve your physical beauty by improving your relationship with the Christian god is bollocks. The statement is either unprovable or not worth demonstrating scientifically. You can take a look at these studies on prayer to cement your notions that faith will not have a physical effect on your well-being. If accepting the holy spirit could make you radiant/beautiful, it would be easy to demonstrate, and everyone would immediately take it up. After all, according to Christians, it’s quite easy to do, and costs you nothing.

Finally, Michelle Phan is a commercial entity, a fashion brand in herself. Much like the legal separation of church and state we enjoy in the United States, commercial entities which are orthogonal to religion should avoid making religious statements. Regardless of your faith, you should not be comfortable with Coca Cola or Lancome running Christian-themed advertising or partnering with synagogues to sell their products, for example.

A mature response from Michelle Phan would be an apology for the caption, explaining that it was inappropriate to her professional role, or nonsensical in its logic and application of modern Christianity.

The upcoming videogame LittleBigPlanet (LBP) for the Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) console has received an unexpected blow to its release schedule. During the final review process, Sony Entertainment discovered that two verses from the Qu’ran were included in Little Big Planet’s background track. The verses are found in the early portions of this song, and to Western ears are utterly innocuous:

1- In the 18th second: “كل نفس ذائقة الموت” (“kollo nafsin tha’iqatol mawt”, literally: ‘Every soul shall have the taste of death’).

2- Almost immediately after, in the 27th second: “كل من عليها فان” (“kollo man alaiha fan”, literally: ‘All that is on earth will perish’).

I was curious as to why “we Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Quran deeply offending” and I came across this Yahoo Answers thread which tries to explain that “music is haram for believers of Islam.” I don’t find any of the answers convincing. Putting aside–for a moment–the question of whether music itself is acceptable to a Muslim, there merely remains the issue of why Sony Entertainment, a global company, would harm its own videogame release by giving into the demands of religious socio-terrorists.

It’s clear to me that merely offending a subset of people is not a good reason to give up creative direction, freedom of speech, or any of the other Western ideals. It’s also not a particularly good business decision. A product which satiates the myriad desires of every interest group, which pleases everyone, that offends no one is a product which has thus had every innovation stripped from it.

Little Big Planet is a family-oriented game where players control a Sackboy to play and explore the game environments, create their own content, and share creations with others around the world. It hardly merits a religious challenge over the inclusion of text into its soundtrack.

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Sarah Palin, after winning John McCain’s VP nomination, has been in the news a lot these days. Photoshopped and real pictures showing her in her beauty pageant glory days have been flooding the web, while incriminating Youtube videos exploit her poor camera performance and public speaking ability. Everywhere I look, no one can take her as a serious contender for the Vice Presidency.

But that’s not why I think Sarah Palin sucks. I don’t care about her looks, her messy personal life, or her pregnant teenage daughter. I care about what she’s done, and what she’s willing to do, in office.

Sarah Palin: Eminent Domain

Sarah Palin, while mayor of Wasilla (1996-2002), decided to build a $15M multi-use sports facility as her legacy. However, when the city failed to close the $125k deal on the land where she wanted it built with the Alaska Nature Conservancy, they went ahead and began to build anyway. On someone else’s land. Sara Palin then invoked Eminent Domain law to sue the developer who held title to the land, Gary Lundgren, who eventually won the court case, and settled with the city to the tune of an additional $1.7M.

Sarah Palin sucks because she is willing to try to steal private property from its rightful owners for her own good.

Sarah Palin: Book Bans

According to Time, Sarah Palin, “asked the library how she could go about banning books” because some of her constituents believed they used “inappropriate” language. Sarah Palin also threatened to fire the librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, for not giving “full support” to the mayor.

Update: the following list of books Sarah Palin wanted banned, courtesy of Liveleak, looks similar to every other list I’ve seen of books the Christian right has wanted banned.

Update 2: The above list is a complete fabrication, a copy-paste job of an older list of books banned over time. Some fact checking shows that books late in the Harry Potter series are on the list, which came out after Sarah Palin’s inquiries into book-banning. The truth of the book-banning incident is apparently a rhetorical inquiry into how the librarians would react were she to issue the order… still scary…

Sarah Palin sucks because she is willing to censor anything that doesn’t fall into her narrow set of beliefs.

Sarah Palin: Creationist

According to The Lang Report, Sarah Palin in 2006 said in a gubernatorial debate, “Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of education. Healthy debate is so important, and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.” In spite of courts having (fortunately) ruled that teaching creationism is a violation of the separation of Church and State, electing someone with Sarah Palin’s beliefs will inevitable continue the Bush legacy of eroding America’s scientific prominence.

Note that the education arena is not the only area where Sarah Palin’s policy may have been shaped by her religious views. Her Pastor Kalnins believes in the “end times” or “last days,” and that Alaska may soon “be the refuge” for those fleeing the apocalypse of the world. These beliefs are absurd.

Sarah Palin sucks because she’s willing to compromise educational policy for her own personal religious beliefs.

Sarah Palin: Homophobe

I’ll submit the following quotation from The Bilerico Project, which lays out the facts fairly well:

Palin said she’s not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay, but that she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment. Elected officials can’t defy the court when it comes to how rights are applied, she said, but she would support a ballot question that would deny benefits to homosexual couples. “I believe that honoring the family structure is that important,” Palin said.

Sarah Palin sucks because she believes homosexual couples are inferior to heterosexual ones.

Sarah Palin: Racist

Sarah Palin’s attitude towards native populations living in Alaska, or black Barack Obama, indicates that skin color matters to her. The LA Progressive article Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean” sheds some light:

“Sambo beat the bitch” may be everyday language up in the bush. Whether it – and the outlook, politics and worldview Palin reflects when she says such things in public – should be part of a presidential campaign is another thing altogether. The comment says as much about McCain as it does about Palin, and it says a lot of things about Americans who overlook such statements (as well as her record) and vote anyway for McCain.

Sarah Palin sucks because she refuses to treat those she views as different as her equals in politics. America is a complex country, full of differing cultural groups and interest; only a president sensitive to the variety of man can successfully navigate the American melting pot.

Sarah Palin: Anti Sex Education

Sarah Palin oppose the “right to choose”, and advocates abstinence-only sex education. The Huffington Post quotes her saying, “The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.” This is a problem, because abstinence-only sex education is futile and ineffective, and has been thoroughly debunked. Reading statistics like “by age 18, about 71 percent of U.S. youth have had sexual intercourse” would lead one who cares about America’s youth to teach them safe-sex, not tell them a “no sex” message that will be ignored.

Update 3: For the other side of the story, you should read Newsweek’s great Sliming Palin: False Internet claims and rumors fly about McCain’s running mate story. Although I feel many of their anecdotes are just trying to muddy the waters, no issue in politics is black and white either, and this certainly deserves the “fair and balanced” treatment. Isn’t life just shades of gray?

Update 4: Check out what Matt Damon thinks of Sarah Palin: