Alex
Mary Poppins as a Christian Social Justice Educator
Posted on: 03/17/2010 18:35
As I am building Accessiblechurch.ca. I am trying to do so using tools that make the ideas and content accessible to as many different people as possible.
Accessiblechurch.ca is not intended to be a complete resource on making your church accessible. I am trying also to demonstrate that there are existing free resources on the Internet that congregations can use to improve accessibility.
Some of the most common disabilities are learning disabilities and developmental disabilities. These sometimes make reading difficult, and even if one is able to read, sometimes it is difficult to understand certain ideas or challenges through text. So by example I want to encourage people to use other materials on the internet along with the Bible and other religious educational material's in their teachings. A Child, teenager,or adult with or without certain challenges can benefit from information presented in different ways. Literature has long been a way to present moral ideas. However Tolstoy, Dickens and others can be a bit too much of a challenge to read due to time and other factors. Children's literature does a good job when time and other challenges exist. As does popular music.
So on every page of accessiblechurch.ca I am trying to include YouTube videos, pictures and other art to show people how these resources can be used to explain certain concepts in Christianity that relate to disabilty and inclusion in accessible ways.
I have one page on social justice and accessibility. http://sites.google.com/site/accessiblechurch/social-justice.
Relative to the other subjects covered on accessiblechurch.ca, there are tons of videos and stories and music available that can be used to explain and encourage discussion about social justice.
As a result I am creating a new website dedicated to Social Justice Multimedia.it is just a beginning to put things that I come across. The idea is not that these specific videos or stories are at the winds that you can use in Christian education, but that you can use this method to teach. Getting people to watch videos especially short videos, and then using them as a basis for discussions on certain Christian ideas might work for some people. Most of the examples I use are from my youth. However you can use different types of videos and music that are applicable to different age groups.
The new website can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/socialjusticemultimedia/. On the homepage of this website I have put three videos from Mary Poppins. I have also included webpages of stories like the Happy Prince, and the Selfish Giant. and Buffy Ste Marie's Universal Soldier. Go to the website to see them. Here is the one on Mary Poppins.
Mary Poppins as Social Justice Spokesperson
In the Video Feed the Birds, Mary Poppins is showing these kids an alternate viewpoint about values from the one that their father had. She explains to the children that there are some things that other people do not see. Like the woman who makes a living selling crumbs for people to feed the birds at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. She explains that even people who are good and that we love (the children's father) do not see things, and that it is not because that they are bad, but just unable to see.
In the movie the father works for a bank and represents traditional capitalist values, empire and modernity. Things need to be practical, measurable, and "real"
Whille Mary (The Nanny) is showing the kids that values like caring and imagination are important.
The father disses Mary values because they do not represent anything real or of substance, like money in the bank. However the next day the kids go to the bank with their father and see the women selling bird feed in the video Feed the Birds.
In the video Federal Fiduciary bank, the boy decides he wants to give her some money to buy crumbs to feed the birds, instead of investing in the bank. In the Video, Bank Stability, an argument pursues between the boy and the bank chairmen, which causes people to believe the bank is in trouble and causes a rush on the bank. Threatening it's ability to stay afloat.
Demonstrating that the capitalist (money is real)system is no more real then Mary's values, and only exists because of peoples belief and support of it.
However Mary does not diss the fathers values, she is just pointing out that it is an incomplete view of the world. Imagination, fun, relationships, love, social justice and religion must also be included in one's world view. The film also points that not only is the fathers viewpoint is incomplete, but that it ignores the fact that the system that he believes in, only can exist because of imagination, right relationships, and values that include trust and honesty.
A similar argument is put forward by Catholic Theologian Dan Finn, in his book The Moral Ecology of Markets, Assessing Claims about Markets and Justice. However Mary Poppins is more accessible, then Dan Finn.
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Kinst
Posted on: 03/28/2010 16:23