two Buffy quizzes
David Buckna
slightly from the print versions in the Herald, to ensure the accuracy
of the Buffy quotes.
---
The Calgary Herald
June 7, 2003 Saturday Final Edition
Observer/Faith & Reason; The Pop Gospel; Pg. OS10
Buffy a morality play
David Buckna
For The Calgary Herald
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a parable, a postmodern morality play in
which Buffy is a Christ figure, her Scooby Gang is the church and the
vampires and demons represent the variety of temptation and moral
hazards we all encounter in life." -- The Door magazine, on the Buffy
the Vampire Slayer TV series
1. In Season 1's premiere episode, who gives Buffy a case containing a
cross and chain?
2. Buffy's Watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), explains:
"This world is older than any of you know . . . For untold eons,
demons walked the earth, made it their home, their hell. In time, they
lost their purchase on this reality, and the way was made for mortal
animals. For man. What remains of the Old Ones are vestiges: certain
magicks, certain creatures . . ." What biblical passage suggests
Lucifer walked the earth before Adam and Eve were created?
3. In the Season 1 finale, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) dies. The
Master, an age-old vampire, tells Buffy: "You still don't understand
your part in all this, do you? You are not the hunter. You are the
lamb."
Where does the Bible suggest the same image for Jesus Christ?
4. Spike (James Marsters) overhears another vampire say: "When I kill
her, it'll be the greatest event since the Crucifixion. And I should
know. I was there." What is Spike's reply?
5. Who played Jenny Calendar, Sunnydale High School's computer science
teacher?
6. In Season 3, Buffy descends into a hell dimension and leads her
fellow captives to freedom, lifting a gate leading back to our
dimension. What does this echo in the account of Jesus Christ?
7. According to the Buffy Monster Book, what "is literally the first
evil to have existed on earth, the precursor to all subsequent forces
for darkness in the world?"
8. In the Season 3 finale, Angel is poisoned. What does Buffy tell
Angel to do, in order to save his life?
9. In the Angel spinoff series, Angel and company seek guidance at an
otherworldly karaoke bar named Caritas. What does "caritas" mean in
Latin?
10. When Buffy is asked by a girl on campus, "Have you accepted Jesus
Christ as your personal saviour?" What is Buffy's reply?
Answers
1. Angel (David Boreanaz) -- a vampire. In a later episode, when Angel
and the cross-wearing Buffy kiss, the imprint of the cross is seared
into Angel's skin. Though Angel knows the cross is around Buffy's
neck, he bears the pain to kiss her goodbye.
2. Ezekiel 28: "You were in Eden, the garden of God . . . You were
blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness
was found in you . . . Your heart became proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to
the earth . . ."
From The Dictionary of Biblical Literacy (1989): "A symbolic view of
the initial fall [of angels] appears in Revelation 12:3-4 where the
dragon (Satan) 'drew a third of the stars of heaven' (angels) and
'threw them to the earth.' This shows Satan has his own angels,
presumably the demons (Rev. 12:9)."
3. John 1:29, where John the Baptist exclaims: "Look, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world!" After Buffy is revived, she
throws The Master through the library skylight, then goes to a dance
with her friends.
4. "You were there? Oh, please! If every vampire who said he was at
the Crucifixion was actually there, it would have been like Woodstock
. . .
"I was actually at Woodstock. That was a weird gig. I fed off a flower
person, and I spent the next six hours watching my hand move."
5. Robia La Morte. Earlier in her faith journey, La Morte explained,
"I was in my car and said, 'God, you know I love you, but I don't get
the whole Jesus deal. I don't understand it. I don't know if I believe
in it -- it just doesn't make sense to me. If this is really the truth
-- if this is really what you want me to believe, you're going to have
to show me signs.' "
A few seconds later, a biker gang encircled her car, with crosses on
the backs of their helmets, and jackets proclaiming: "We Ride for
Jesus." Fans claim La Morte's favourite books are the Bible and The
Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.
6. In the day between his Friday death and Sunday resurrection, Jesus
"went and preached to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:18-20).
7. The First Evil, "the chaotic or evil entity that opposes the
orderly goodness of the Powers That Be; it is the darkness that is in
constant combat against the light." According to the Bible, Satan is
the source of all evil. The New International Version of the Bible
most accurately translates the Lord's prayer, "deliver us from the
evil one" (Matt 6:13).
8. Buffy tells Angel: "Drink me!" echoing Jesus's words, "Whoever eats
my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day" (John 6:54).
Buffy: "Angel, listen to me. Sit up. You're gonna live. You have to
live."
Angel: "What do I..."
Buffy: "Drink? Drink me."
Angel: "No."
Buffy: "It's the only way."
9. Love, charity or mercy. "Caritas" is the word Augustine used to
describe the love of the faithful for God and neighbour, and God's
love for humanity. In the karaoke bar, a lounge-singing demon named
Lorne (a.k.a The Host) can psychically read the destinies of Angel and
company -- but only if they sing first.
In a www.breakpoint.org article, Roberto Rivera writes, "The show is
the story of Angel's struggle to atone for the evil he has done -- a
struggle made all the harder by the fact that, just as with us, being
remorseful doesn't mean that Angel has lost his capacity for evil."
10. "You know I meant to, and then I just got really busy." While some
Christians may view Buffy's reply as offensive or sacrilegious, others
contend the Buffy writers are only critiquing the almost empty cliches
of modern Christianity.
Toronto priest John Pungente, who heads the Jesuit Communication
Project, argues that Buffy tackles modern-day religious complacency
with raw, unmerciful wit. Says Pungente, "It's been a long time since
I've seen a TV show that has so many positive values to offer to
people, provided you don't take it in the
literal sense . . . I think Buffy is the closest we're going to get to
the realities of teenage life. Even though we get a weekly dose of
vampires and monsters, they're the point. Because metaphorically
speaking, that's teenage reality."
Visit www.TheDoorMagazine.com/archives/buffy.html for more info.
Knowledge level
0-1 kindergarten
2-3 primary
4-5 intermediate
6-7 secondary
8-9 college/university
10 As wise as Solomon
GRAPHIC: Photo: (Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar).)
Copyright 2003 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global
Communications Corp.
All Rights Reserved
Note: To obtain permission to publish in any print or online format,
contact David Buckna at (dabu...@direct.ca) or (solo...@look.ca)
===
The Calgary Herald
June 14, 2003 Saturday Final Edition
Observer/Faith & Reason; The Pop Gospel; Pg. OS10
Words from the book of Buffy
David Buckna
For the Calgary Herald
1. In 2000, the Parents Television Council ranked Buffy the Vampire
Slayer as the third-worst show on TV. What was Sarah Michelle Gellar's
response?
2. In which Season 4 episode do vampires take over a church and hold
the congregation hostage?
3. In the Season 5 finale, just before Buffy dies a second time, she
says: "I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I
have to do. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care
of each other. The hardest thing in this world . . . is to live in it.
Be brave. Live . . . for me." To whom does Buffy say this?
4. In a Season 6 episode, where does Buffy think she was existing for
147 days?
5. Upon her return, in that same episode, Buffy confides to Spike: "I
was torn out of there. Pulled out . . . by my friends. Everything here
is . . . hard, and bright, and violent. Everything I feel, everything
I touch . . . this is hell. Just getting through the next moment, and
the one after that . . . knowing what I've lost. They can never know.
Never."
What theologian wrote in his The Shaking of the Foundations: "The new
life could not really be a new life if it did not come from the
complete end of the old life"?
6. Todd Hertz (www.christianitytoday.com) of the Season 6 finale:
"Hatred, vengeance and witchcraft turned Willow evil, but (a friend's)
unconditional love showed that no sinner is beyond grace." What
friend?
7. During the closing moments of the Season 6 finale, what song is
heard?
8. Who said on CBC Radio's Ideas (Jan. 20, 2003): "Buffy's calling is
to serve mankind, and it connects her to a greater good. And I think
that I certainly struggle to feel connected to something larger than
just our daily existence, and Buffy's plugged into it. And I think
that idea of destiny, and serving God in a way" -- Sarah Michelle
Gellar, executive producer Marti Noxon or series creator Joss Whedon?
9. Vancouver Sun TV critic Alex Strachan writes, "The eternal question
at the heart of Buffy was that if you were given the power to save
your friends, a power that also exacted a terrible price, would you,
like Buffy, use that power for good and suffer its price in silence,
or would you, like the demons,
surrender to your more base instincts?" How does Jesus phrase the same
challenge in the gospel?
10. In the Season 7 finale, Buffy leads the Scooby Gang and the New
Slayers into the Hellmouth for a final battle with the Turok-Han,
during which Buffy's right side is pierced with a sword. Who pierced
the side of the dead Jesus Christ while he hung on the cross?
Answers
1. Gellar: "We're like the most religious show out there! We're more
religious than 7th Heaven! We're Greek mythology -- we answer the big
questions! They just make me laugh so hard. I say, 'Come debate me. I
want to see you bring your arguments to my face. Because you will lose
so quickly.'"
2. Who Are You? One vampire says: "He (the Lord) was supposed to be
here. He gave us this
address. Well, we'll just have to start killing off His people, see if
He shows up." Who shows up is Buffy.
3. Her "sister" Dawn. Buffy's words are reminiscent of Christ's to his
disciples, "A new command I
give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one
another"
(John 13:34).
4. Heaven. In the After Life episode, Buffy tells Spike, "Wherever I
was, I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all
right. I knew it. Time didn't mean anything. Nothing had form, but I
was still me, you know? And I was warm, and I was loved. And I was
finished. Complete. I don't
understand theology and dimensions . . . or any of it really. But I
think I was in heaven. And now I'm not."
5. Paul Tillich (1886-1965), one of the 20th century's foremost
theologians. Among his best-known works are Systematic Theology: Vol.
I (1951), Vol. II (1957) and Vol. III (1963).
6. Xander (Nicholas Brendon), who tells Willow (Alyson Hannigan):
"You've been my best friend my whole life. If we are all going to end,
where else would I want to be? . . . I know you're in pain. I can't
imagine the pain you're in. And I know you're about to do something
apocalyptically evil and stupid . . . It doesn't matter, I'll still
love you . . . I love you, Willow." Hertz continues: "Moments like
this explain why Christians such as myself watch Buffy the Vampire
Slayer."
7. Sarah McLachlan's The Prayer of St. Francis, which begins: "Lord,
make me an instrument of your peace/ Where there is hatred, let me sow
love." McLachlan's song Full of Grace is heard at the closing moments
of the Season 2 finale, Becoming: Part 2.
8. Marti Noxon, who continued: "I mean Joss (series creator) is a
rabid atheist, but interestingly his work is full of yearning for
belief. The show speaks to people who also have that yearning."
9. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for
his friends" (John 15:13). Buffy's tombstone reads: "Buffy Anne
Summers, 1981-2001/ Beloved sister/ Devoted friend/ She saved the
world/ A lot."
10. "One of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a
sudden flow of blood and water" (John 19:34). In freeze-frame, the
shadow of a cross is visible after the sword enters Buffy's side.
For more study, visit the Web site
www.tvtome.com/BuffytheVampireSlayer
For comments or suggestions, e-mail: solo...@look.ca
Knowledge level
0-1 kindergarten
2-3 primary
4-5 intermediate
6-7 secondary
8-9 college/university
10 As wise as Solomon
GRAPHIC: Photo: Herald Archive, courtesy, UPN; Buffy (Sarah Michelle
Gellar)
uses power for good, but pays a price.
Copyright 2003 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global
Communications Corp.
All Rights Reserved
Note: To obtain permission to publish in any print or online format,
contact David Buckna at (dabu...@direct.ca) or (solo...@look.ca)
Philip Chien
news:5ff8dc2e.03061...@posting.google.com:
> Note: The following versions of my Buffy quizzes have been modified
> slightly from the print versions in the Herald, to ensure the accuracy
> of the Buffy quotes.
>
> ---
> The Calgary Herald
>
> June 7, 2003 Saturday Final Edition
>
> Observer/Faith & Reason; The Pop Gospel; Pg. OS10
>
> Buffy a morality play
>
> David Buckna
> For The Calgary Herald
>
> "Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a parable, a postmodern morality play in
> which Buffy is a Christ figure, her Scooby Gang is the church and the
> vampires and demons represent the variety of temptation and moral
> hazards we all encounter in life." -- The Door magazine, on the Buffy
> the Vampire Slayer TV series
<snip>
Somehow I found this more pityful than amusing - trying to find religion in
a television series which goes out of its way to scorn religion.
Philip Chien
(richer than Solomon for *not* knowing the religious answers to the
questions in a quiz which was more about the Bible than "Buffy the Vampire
Slayer")
Don Sample
<nob...@nowhere.com> wrote:
> Somehow I found this more pityful than amusing - trying to find religion in
> a television series which goes out of its way to scorn religion.
When has /Buffy/ ever gone out of its way to scorn religion?
--
Don Sample, dsa...@synapse.net
Visit the Buffy Body Count at http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Arnold Kim
"Don Sample" <dsa...@synapse.net> wrote in message
news:150620032318207156%dsa...@synapse.net...
> In article <Xns939BEB5D489A4...@127.0.0.1>, Philip Chien
> <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
> > Somehow I found this more pityful than amusing - trying to find religion
in
> > a television series which goes out of its way to scorn religion.
>
> When has /Buffy/ ever gone out of its way to scorn religion?
I think it's gone out of its way to raise an eyebrow at religion, though.
Arnold Kim
Mattia Valente
You say that like it's a bad thing...
Mattia
DarkMagic
"Arnold Kim" <ki...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:bcjelt$54v$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
I think it's gone out of its way to raise an eyebrow at the non-thinking,
non-questioning religious zealots of the world, those who have little, or
no, tolerance for others who don't conform to their doctrines and their
veiws of the world.
The original poster is absolutely correct that BtVS teems with religious
imagery and association. Joss Whedon has acknowledged as much.
Interesting, that Marti Noxon, of all those who suffer from hoof in mouth
syndrome, should so accurately describe the way that Whedon deals with his
angry athiesm in the Buffyverse.
--
Shannon
Giles: I used to be a highly respected Watcher. Now, I'm a wounded Dwarf
with the mystical power of a paper doily."
>
Certic
It seems to have done its best to skirt around religious issues, beyond the
necessity of admitting that in the Buffyverse, there are divine and/or
infernal beings. It's all rather in the air and no religion's doctrine
appears to be correct - for instance it's not Christian because there's more
than one god, and there are good witches and a sufficiently strong vamp can
ignore the holy stuff, but on the other hand an individual's capacity to do
good rests with their soul and not their capactity for reason, so it's not
pagan either... Buffy cosmology seems to resemble most that of HP Lovecraft,
and that only very vaguely.
--
It hurts sometimes more than we can bear.
If we could live without passion, maybe
we'd know some kind of peace.
But we would be hollow.
Empty rooms, shuttered and dank...
Without passion, we'd be truly dead.
Alex Wright
dimensions?
Do all vamps on Buffy get burned by crosses or is it just those with a
Christian upbringing? Do Stars of David work? (Of course the problem
with religious symbols it that anything is probably a religious symbol
for someone).
"Certic" <P...@winwaed.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<bcl1gj$92v$1$8300...@news.demon.co.uk>...
Major ChrisB
"Alex Wright" <kingal...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:fa22b67c.03062...@posting.google.com...
> Aren't most of the gods demons anyway? Or annoying people from other
> dimensions?
> Do all vamps on Buffy get burned by crosses or is it just those with a
> Christian upbringing? Do Stars of David work? (Of course the problem
> with religious symbols it that anything is probably a religious symbol
> for someone).
>
I've always had a theory that the cross thing is more psycological and some
sort of curse.
think about it, vamps have been hard for humans to kill, perhaps easier to
capture, they might not have known about stakes and they certainly wouldn't
have had holy water. Perhaps as a punishment to vampires in the BC days the
only known way to kill a vamp was sunlight so, a vamp was captured at night
and crucified and left hanging from a cross untill the sun came up....thus
dusting the vamp.
Someone of religious prevelance, some high priest or something could have
decided that rather than having to crucify the vamps that the symbol of the
cross would be a sign of death and a threat simmilar to pointing a gun at
someone, a curse on crosses could cause them to have the effect of sunlight
burnign the vampire.
While I'm sure it's never going to get as details as this in any kind of
vampire lore in a show or a movie it's a valid reason why the crosses are
symbols of danger to vamps long before it was a catholic/christian symbol