• The Super Bowl is a big day for religious tribalism. Some professional athlete is going to make a big play and then, after the game, will thank God or praise God for the outcome. Although such statements involve a theory of divine providence that can’t withstand sustained consideration — one that’s neither logically nor biblically defensible — the evangelical Christian subculture is happy to look beyond that to celebrate the statement, the athlete, and the game itself as a triumph for our tribe. Yay Tebow!
This year’s Super Bowl might seem of particular interest to the white evangelical tribe, since one of our own is the star of the big half-time show — CCM star and former Red Hill Records artist Katy Hudson. She’s since adopted the stage name of Katy Perry, but the enduring influence of her strict white evangelical upbringing is still pretty clear to anyone who has ever belonged to the subculture that helped to shape her.
So, will white evangelicals be celebrating when one of their own takes to the world’s biggest stage at half time? Will this be lauded as subcultural vindication the same way that those athletes’ God-thanking comments will be? Not quite.
“Katy Perry will be doing the halftime and it will be complete maximum evil,” said Christian-brand radio host Jan Markell. Markell also claims that Perry “said she sold her soul to the devil,” apparently not picking up on the fact that Perry said that as a way of making fun of sanctimonious frauds like Jan Markell.
• And speaking of sanctimonious frauds and the big game … The white slavery panic of the early 20th century gave us the Mann Act. We don’t need a re-run of that, or, as Tara Burns puts it: “No, there’s no uptick of sexual slavery around the Super Bowl.”
• And here’s yet another angle on sanctimony and the Super Bowl, from XKCD.
• Super Bowl Sunday Nice Time: Nearly 400 church groups participated in this year’s Souper Bowl of Caring — a big ol’ canned food drive that piggybacks on the annual hype of the big game. This year they’ve collected more than $400,000 for local hunger charities.
• And speaking of feel-good charitable hooks that capitalize on Super Bowl hype: Captain America and Star Lord have an entertaining side-bet on the big game.
• Finally, for millions of viewers, today’s big event is just as much about the ads as about the game itself, so here are a couple different takes on some of the traditional (in more than one sense) stock-characters from those ads. First, from Mike Lacher at McSweeney’s, “I’m the Cool Wife in a Snack Dip Commercial“:
Hello, husband’s friends! Thanks for coming over to watch The Big Game! I like all of your specifically-colored-yet-purposefully-unbranded jerseys. Let’s go, Our Team! Me, I don’t wear one of those jerseys. One of those jerseys would be too darn big for me! Almost big enough to fit over my fat, stubbly husband! Ha. Ha! Ha. No, the only thing that complements my effortlessly curly hair and shimmering doe-eyes is a little cotton T-shirt matching Our Team’s dominant color with tiny little stripes on the sleeves that match the accent color. It’s cut just tight enough to make clear that I am a Pretty Hot Girl but loose enough to remind you that I am primarily a Cool Wife. …
And this bit from Saturday Night Live:
Enjoy the game, and may you all be safe at home.
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