A letter worth reading

I'm not crazy about politics, and this year's crop of presidential candidates leaves me thoroughly unexcited the longer the primary season drags on. However, I am taken by the reaction - media, supporters, dissenters - to every big or little scandal, accomplishment, speech and mis-speech.

Reaction to Obama's race speech was pretty much what I expected - those who support him gauged it to be one of the greatest speeches in their lifetime, and those who do not support him complained that he gave no answers and ultimately avoided the real questions which led to the speech. I don't think any ground was gained or lost.

I will say, however, that the best follow-up to Obama's speech I've come across is this open letter by Lionel Chetwynd. Agree or not with his concluding challenge to Obama, it's hard to deny the raw emotion of the letter.

(ht: Power Line)

3000 years in the making

Having just gotten to see the movie Atonement, and having read the book three months ago, I found this article by Alan Roxburgh quite engrossing. Roxburgh contends that there's no hope of properly interpreting the movie's narrative without engaging 3000 years of Western history, including Thomas Hardy, Hieronymus Bosch, and Nietzsche.

Book, movie, and analysis are all great.

Line of the day

"Some people are always going to be offended when you actually teach them what's in the Bible as opposed to what they assume is in the Bible."(N.T. Wright)

Here's to creativity

Enough whining about declining album sales. Just get fans to fund your project, and you won't have to worry about sales at all.

(HT: Collide)

A little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll

Good harmony on a great song:

Same old, same old

For all the talk of the speech’s having enabled a new and more meaningful conversation, it in fact stressed the familiar and comforting liberal tropes of white oppression and black victimhood.

Your brain on music

Most of us have our unscientific opinions about how music affects us, but this article is fascinating as it describes the discoveries scientists are making in studying the issue.

Also, here's a book which delves into the issue: This Is Your Brain on Music.

Line of the day

"He had that ferocious, orgasmic gleam in his eye of somebody who was living in the climax of his own movie." (Paul Constant)

We could call it church

This passage from Ed Gungor's Religiously Transmitted Diseases is right on:

I have a dream of being part of a Christian community where you can be honest about your doubts and fears without being met with worn out clichés or empty platitudes; a place that recognizes faith as a time-laded growth process, not the product of an “instant pudding” altar prayer; a place where you can get help today but be challenged to grow so you’re better prepared to face tomorrow; a place of intimacy, where you can know and be known; a place where it is hard not to find God; a place where finding God is as corporate as it is personal; a place where you belong whether you’re single, married, divorced, widowed, young, old, rich, poor, smart, dull, thin, fat, beautiful, or ugly; a place where you can find meaningful service, where you commit to something bigger than yourself; a place that needs you; a place of safety; a place off-limits to witches, demons, and the walking dead – the safest place in the world.

We could call it church. (Nashville: Nelson Books, pp. 50-51)

The reading does not the classic make

Perhaps you've seen this, but I'm just getting around to posting it. A graph showing the correlation between favorite books of college students (by college), and average entrance exam scores. The title of the post: Books That Make You Dumb.

What do you think? I'm struggling with Lolita as the book preference of the smartest kids.

However, I'm more inclined to believe the results of Music That Makes You Dumb, since Beethoven is by far the choice of the smartest. Also, it's amazing that the graph reveals how much mediocrity there is in college.

To speak, or not...

Some of the best speaking advice ever.

Hunting Osama

Came across this a while back: If Osama's Only 6 Degrees Away, Why Can't We Find Him? The famous 5 degrees of separation theory fades under scrutiny.

Best Writing preview

One day, hopefully soon, I'll be getting a blog going which highlights the best writing I've found on the Web. In the meantime, if you haven't already found the website for City Journal, it's a great site with some very good writing.

Here's an article to start with: The Rainbow Coalition Evaporates.

Church as restaurant

Here's a comment I came across while reading some threads at opensourcetheology.net:

To use a metaphor, if church is like a resturant, then what we are giving people now is pre-cooked, pre-digested food rather than giving people quality ingredients and asking them to take the ingredients home, invite their neighbors over, cook the food and share a meal.

Interesting thought. I certainly agree that more folks should engage in the process, and see the importance of responding to the Word of God, perhaps by cooking the food and sharing a meal.

Jesus and Paul forgot to lobby Rome

Julie has some interesting views in this post about Colorado's attempt to legalize small amounts of marijuana, which was rejected by voters Tuesday. I imagine her views will challenge many Christians, but she makes some good points when it comes to learning actual lessons from Jesus and his followers - as described in the New Testament.

Contemplating Christian

"We're not Christians, we're church people." So says Armando Heredia, a good friend who's contemplating what it means to be a Christian in our world, in our culture. Are we "church people" even close to being what Christ meant for us to be?

Irresistible

You really ought to buy this book and read it soon. The author, Shane Claiborne, is one of the founders of The Simple Way in inner city Philadelphia, and his passion for the kingdom of God is evident in every story he relates throughout the book.

There's a growing discontent in evangelical circles, a feeling from youth that we've not been handed the same thing Jesus had in mind as he lived and taught and bled and died. The Irresistible Revolution is an account showing that there are people who are following Jesus in new and amazing ways - and catching glimpses of God's glory along the way.

Missing the point again

Madonna opened her new tour this week in Los Angeles and, as usual, used multiple methods of shock and awe to wow the audience, who she knew consisted of more than just the thousands inside the arena.

Apparently, at some point in time, she was raised up on a mirrored cross, reportedly wearing a crown of thorns, as she sang her old ballad "Live To Tell." This stunt, as you might guess, infuriated certain Christian organizations, most notably the Church of England which issued a statement that included these lines:

Why would someone with so much talent seem to feel
the need to promote herself by offending so many people?

The same article quotes David Muir of the Evangelical Alliance:

Madonna's use of Christian imagery is an abuse and it is dangerous...She should drop it from the tour and people need to find their own means of expressing their disapproval.

At the risk of appearing to defend Madonna, which I'm not, I'd like to take exception at the way in which these (and other) organizations responded. It appears they didn't take the time to investigate, much less understand, the context of the cross scene.

Thanks to a wily concert-goer, you can view footage of the criticized performance, and see that it actually served a higher purpose, a purpose which Madonna can't even live up to. As she sings the ballad, three huge video screens show faces of African children, and tout statistics concerning the plight of children orphaned by parents infected with AIDS. Halfway through, Madonna comes down from the cross, and the screens show flames igniting, interspersed with the faces of children. Words from Matthew 25 appear on the screen, ending with, "What you did for one of my brothers, you did to me."

Taken by itself, the episode is powerful, and it's almost as if by coming down from the cross, Madonna is challenging Christian believers to get off their religious kick long enough to actually do something about the plight of children in Africa.

But the Church doesn't like to hear that, especially from an outsider who's such an easy target. I'm amazed at the failure of many organizations and denominations to perceive that the world is screaming for the Church to be authentic, and to truly start caring for people the way Jesus cared for people. Instead, we sit in our ivory tower of salvation singing "This world is not my home" all the while forgetting that "God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son."

Of course, Madonna can't live up to her own presentation. According to www.RaisingMalawi.com, Madonna donated $100,000 to the relief program. While that may seem praiseworthy, keep in mind that her current tour is expected to gross more than $200 million, or 2000 times the amount of her donation.

Still, sometimes the world makes better points than the Church. And sometimes, just sometimes, the Church becomes wise enough to stop being defensive about its sacred symbols and realize that we still have much praying, learning and giving to do.

Pic Share

April 29, 2006 -- Gatlinburg, TN

Which came first?

Still more about marketing the church. Brian Orme mentions a book called Get Back in the Box. In his post, he says:

In a church, the people should create the experience, or the buzz; the experience doesn't create the people.

Agree or disagree?