SHORT FEATURE: FRENCH FRIED STAR WARS

While we’re still on the subject of musicals (I’ll get that review of Voyage Of The Rock Aliens out soon, I promise), I might as well post this video which is currently making the rounds on the Internet.

I can declare war on France for this, right? It has to be covered somewhere in Just War Theory. If not, it should be. And do we need any more proof than this video that dancing IS NOT appropriate for all subject matter.

That’s why Pope Benedict XVI, then writing as a Cardinal, explicitly stated in his book Spirit Of The Liturgy that “Dancing is not a form of expression for the Christian liturgy. In about the third century, there was an attempt in certain Gnostic-Docetic circles to introduce it into the liturgy. For these people, the Crucifixion was only an ap­pearance. Before the Passion, Christ had abandoned the body that in any case he had never really assumed. Danc­ing could take the place of the liturgy of the Cross, be­cause, after all, the Cross was only an appearance. The cultic dances of the different religions have different pur­poses—incantation, imitative magic, mystical ecstasy— none of which is compatible with the essential purpose of the liturgy of the “reasonable sacrifice”. It is totally absurd to try to make the liturgy “attractive” by introducing dancing pantomimes (wherever possible performed by professional dance troupes), which frequently (and rightly, from the professionals’ point of view) end with applause. Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. Such attrac­tiveness fades quickly—it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation... Liturgy can only attract people when it looks, not at itself, but at God, when it allows him to enter and act. Then something truly unique happens, beyond competition, and people have a sense that more has taken place than a recreational activity. None of the Christian rites includes dancing.”

Anybody who argues otherwise should be forced to watch this video one time for each bead on the rosary as penance. Oh crap, wait, we’re against torture aren’t we?