Prayer in the City

During the climax of the 1984 film Ghostbusters, our heroes Egon Spengler, Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore arrive outside the Manhattan apartment building where Zuul awaits them for a final confrontation. Upon exiting the Ecto-1, they find a large crowd of supporters cheering them on. A sizable portion of the crowd is religious. Rabbis, priests, pastors, and nuns pray and cheer as the Ghostbusters enter the building. After the Ghostbusters succeed in defeating Zuul, the religious figures share in the city-wide celebration. The movie is a celebration of New York City, and these religious figures help make up the cultural setting, giving the film its New York sensibility. We tend to overlook this today. By 1984, of course, the unique religious culture of New York was in decline, but many of the original audience likely remembered how the city used to be -- and for some still was -- a major religious center.