Post #706 by Swanky on Mon, Apr 15, 2002 8:37 AM

I don't know about you, but Kiliki and I bow down and worship and regularly sacrifice to our Tiki Gods.

Sure, it's a bastardization of the Polynesian religions, but we are very serious about it. If they would teach us the proper way, we'd do it. Instead we "worship the Coke bottle we have found." :wink:

The American Indians don't often collect their own items. They want them out of museums so they can burn it. That's their tradition. But people collect it and it's in museums.

Very little that anyone collects is collected in context. But it is usually done with care and respect.

There are a lot more things to complain about than Laverne and Shirley. Go to Party City and look at the big plastic tiki masks, etc.

It's culture. If it gets wrapped up in religion too, that's not the point. It's folk art. We can't draw a sharp line and say that only cultural icons that are non-religious are acceptable.

Granted, it might make us concerned if crucifixes were popping up as quaint props in Hindu homes, but they would be right beside O'Charlies signs and other ephemera and clearly would not be in context.

It's one thing to pee pn Jesus/Moai's, but it's another to pee on Jesus and McDonalds and Coke. One is a religious image, the other is an American Cultural hodge podge.

In the 80's, there were Christians who were concerned about the use of Jesus as fad jewelry. And that was justified. it was a stab at religion.

We aren't doing that in our tiki worlds. And there are planty of crappy images of Jesus right here in America that the conservative can get bent about. We bastardize our own religion.

The issue is the thickness of one's skin and context. Am I going to Easter Island and peeing on the stature during a religious service, or enjoying a Mai Tai at Trader Vic's?