Naked and sacred
Religion, the topic famously never to be uttered in polite society, is back in the spotlight with a new multimedia show that brings a humorous and multicultural look at sex, death and desire.
The show’s creator, filmmaker John Simmons, hopes exploring the world’s contrasting approaches to deeply held traditions will encourage a fresh look at religion and spirituality under siege by modern science.
We’re right in the middle of something that could be as important as the Renaissance; the world was flat and virtually overnight it wasn’t flat, he said.
They’re now coming up with ideas of how the universe works, like quantum physics, that take away from the idea of this god sitting up there telling people what to do.
But Simmons doesn’t want to tell people what to do or think either, rather promote discussion by highlighting traditions most closely associated with religion, like the ways they handle death.
Look at Mexico where they celebrate death, it’s a carnival, a celebration of life with mariachi bands in Grim Reaper outfits marching down the street, he said.
Or in Africa, if someone is dying you speak to them about it, making sure they’re prepared. But in the West, all we do is stick machines on them, deny death, always clinging to hope.
Our relationship with death is one of avoidance, so there’s no education around death, we have no language for it.
Sexuality on the other hand isn’t something we lack a vocabulary for, either the religiously celebrated or the religiously shunned, Simmons said.
One part of the show includes a man discussing his pornography addiction -“ he goes back to when he was a child, the only time you can truly be shocked, he said.
His addiction is based on that moment, that revelation of seeing what these adults were doing.
In comparison some sexual traditions can be celebrated by religions.
The funny thing about something like Tantric sex for example is that everybody knows about it but nobody knows about it, he said.
Everybody mentions Sting, that he can shag for 10 hours, but who wants to pump for 10 hours?
Everybody comes out with their own version of it, but it goes back to a pre-Christian matriarchal system where we revered women.
Simmons said the systematic oppression of female sexuality was a symptom of how religions were failing modern society.
Religion hasn’t worked because it doesn’t move forward. Anything that you rediscover, whether it be Tantric sex or Jesus, has to be placed in a modern place, he said.
It’s rolling around the floor dying, it doesn’t know what to do -“ you’ve only got to look at gay priests or female priests.
Simmons said one of the reasons why people turned away from religion is that priests and people purporting to be acting on behalf of God are not as pure as originally thought.
But the show doesn’t take sides, Simmons said, with similar problems in other religions’ traditions.
People have a romantic idea of Eastern religions, but the caste system forces some people to clean toilets all their lives -“ it’s just a way for the ruling class to control the population.
Simmons hopes a multicultural understanding will challenge the way people have relied on religion to justify oppression or violence.
Like the man who shot the abortion clinic doctor in America, who did that in the name of religion, you can use it by saying, -˜God told me to do it.’
You only need to see the rise of fundamentalism in the West to see it’s back on the agenda, he said.
The fact that Richard Dawkins’s book The God Delusion is still on the bestseller list proves that people are polarised, but it’s difficult to place yourself in that debate if you’ve never experienced it for yourself.
Sex, Death & Desire shows on 20 and 21 April, 8:15pm at The Studio, Sydney Opera House. Bookings are available on 9250 7777 or www.sydneyoperahouse.com/thestudio.
