Book Review and Newsy-Type Stuff

WARNING! This will be long, but there's a lot to share.

I'll start at the end of the weekend, since it's fun to think like that. I finished reading Sex God by Rob Bell on the bus ride home from church. I liked it better than Velvet Elvis. It even beat the catchy title of the first one. It doesn't rhyme, but if you put those words together, people will read it.

The gist is that people use sex as a search for a lost connection. Due to the Fall in the Garden of Eden, we are disconnected from everything-the world, God, each other. So even sex points to a need for more than what we have.

It was also helpful to hear many of the references God uses that are actually wedding language. Marriage is great, and should be an example of unity, but it is a temporary thing that points to something greater. Good book.

The best part is, a book entitled Sex God makes the point that we think too much about sex. Brilliant.

Before I finished the book, I enjoyed Bible study and lunch with the college group in our church. Beka and I talked about going to India this Saturday for Spring Break and answered "I don't know" to a dozen or so questions. We're going to find out information about a possible mission trip for our school to go on in the future. We'll have the answers in a couple of weeks.

In Bible study we interrupted our lesson about Moses to discuss the morning sermon. Our pastor mentioned the joy of the resurrection. I underlined the passage in Romans before he preached, and wondered why we seem to have more of the morbidity of the crucifixion in us minus the aforementioned joy of the resurrection. When I asked about prayer requests, one group member said she wanted the joy of the resurrection in her life. I hadn't yet mentioned it. I said that probably goes for all of us, so in the middle of the lesson we talked a bit about what that looks like. Eventually we got back to the water turning into blood. It waited patiently.

Saturday evening we saw a good show on the Discovery Channel about a maximum security prison in Utah. Neither the guards nor the prisoners milked the show for sympathy or publicity. I was shocked about how honest they all were. A prisoner was crying because he would be let out of prison eventually. He was literally covered in tattoos , showing loyalty to a gang for survival. He pleaded, "Who will accept me like this out there?"

Some prisoners calmly explained how they attacked guards. It's what they do. The guards explained some of those attacks with a flat, emotionless, "That wasn't pleasant."

The part that broke my heart was the silent acceptance they all seemed to have of their "roles" in life. I'm a violent criminal, so I have to be violent. I'm a guard, so I'm going to be attacked. The second one makes more sense, but it doesn't lessen the sadness.

It ended with a man being released. "(Bleep) this place", he cheerfully exclaimed as he strolled out, hoping he'd be able to "make it". I'm a sap, but I hoped he might.

That afternoon we went bowling and ate pizza with 20 people from a church, a handful of students from our school, and eleven kids ages six to fourteen from an orphanage. The younger ones enjoyed rolling the bowling balls, and once we got them to learn the concept of taking turns, the chaos was controlled. It was a lot of fun.

One older kid, about fourteen, didn't want to bowl. He watched some TV and got bored with that as well. I played rock, paper, scissors with him a few times, and he smiled. He kept winning.

At first he looked like he was going to wander out of the bowling alley. I tried talking to him a bit and reminded myself to bring some cards next time we do something like this.

The woman who runs the orphanage said the kids need help learning English. I asked if a group from our school would be any help. They would. Hopefully we can get some concrete dates worked out. I'll remember some games next time.

Those Who Don't Learn From History Fair...

I had the opportunity to judge part of a History Fair at our school a while back. When I was done forgetting what I learned about Lewis and Clark, Ben Franklin and friends, I went upstairs to see what my ELD students did for their class projects. One in particular caught my attention in the First Grade room. Their theme was "If Jesus came to my house."

I enjoyed reading the sentences next to the little cardboard houses. Most of them talked about playing with Jesus, watching TV with him, or (my personal favorite) teaching him to dance ballet. They'd hang out with Him and share what was important to them.

One student's sentence broke my heart. "If Jesus came to my house I'd show Him my Bible and tell Him I'm a Christian." Jesus, I believe in You. Please get off my back.

The sad part is, it sounded so grown up.

Knights and Samuri

Christian books are coming out these days about knights and samuri. From the premises, I'm guessing they are being positive about both. Again, I believe spiritual warfare is real, but I don't like misinformation and romanticism.

Is anyone asking whether they were the good guys or the bad guys?

The Samuri were oppressive, and from the context of history I could guess many knights were. I don't need to learn how to do that.

Braveheart, Gladiator and Last of the Mohicans (Apparently)

If I wrote a sequel to the book I would never write (The Power of Semantics), Romanticism and Religion would probably be another one. I touched on this with music in an earlier blog, and I almost considered leaving it at that. Then I watched Godtube.

Check out the soundtrack on the video below.



I'm not saying spiritual warfare isn't real. I'm just saying it's not Braveheart, Gladiator, or Last of the Mohicans. Those films are entertaining because they are not realistic.We wouldn't be able to watch them if they were. We've romanticised war and forgotten how ugly and brutal it can be. Then we get shocked when we stumble in sin, or when conflicts rise in our lives. Can't I just yell "Freeeedom" and wait for the movie to end?

Knights and Samuri are next.

Book Review #5

I'm usually wary of pastors writing books. It's not just pastors so much as anyone not designated as a writer per se. It's the reading snob in me. But in my defense, many of the books I tried to read in the past were in dire need of an editor. Listen, editors out there (who for some bizarre reason would be reading this). You won't go to hell for telling a pastor, "You made your point ten pages ago. Move on." At least, I think you won't.

The latest book I read, Velvet Elvis, was written by a pastor. And it's written well. I'm still mulling over a lot of the ideas, but even if I disagreed with them it was an enjoyable read.

Velvet Elvis is one of a few books I've read lately comparable to C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. It's an attempt to show us all the layers we've added, how we missed the point about what it should really be. It's Mere Christianity 2.0, or something like that.

The advantage to this one is historical background on Bible times. For example, why could hearing about Jesus' resurrection not be a big deal at that time? Because many people had already claimed to have died and risen again. The biggest difference to be seen was in the lives of His followers.

One part that convicted me said having a Christian in the neighborhood should be a good thing for the whole neighborhood. Not a picketer, whiner or complainer, but a positive influence. Ouch.

Honesty in music

I just saw Once last night. I can't remember the last time I was that drawn in to a musical. None of it felt silly (unless it was meant to, like in certain places) or unnatural. It actually made the story richer and more believable. I would sum it up in one word: honesty.

The main guy is a street performer who sings his heart out. In the day he sings "established" songs. At night, he sings what he wants to sing.

He sings songs he wrote with emotional honesty. The lyrics are mostly about unresolved feelings, so there's lots of honesty in them as well. "You lied to me," "You left when times were hard," etc. It shows an honest struggle as opposed to the garden variety "you make me happy" posing of most popular music. That's why I can't stop listening to it or singing it. The honesty resonates.

I saw Once last night. I thought about it this morning when I was reading the Psalms.

Psalms were songs. I reminded myself of this when I read chapter 74. Especially the parts that said "my enemies surround me", "we have no prophets", and (my personal favorite) "take Your hands out the the fold of Your garment and destroy (our enemies)". Take Your hands out of Your pockets, God. People sang this when they worshiped. We'd be looking for lightening if we sang something like that.

I'm not saying music we sing doesn't ever seem honest. There's a time and a place for the praise as well, and even the rough passages come back to praising Him. But what about the hard times? Why do we skip that, even when God Himself through writers of the Bible didn't?

Morality and Politics

The link below shows some interesting (and some disturbing) perspectives on global warming.


http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/doortv/baptist-global-warming

I never thought I'd say this, but here we are.

Way to go, Southern Baptists!

Book Review # Something or Other

I just finished Buck Naked Faith by Eric Sandras. He compared the Christian life to a bonsai tree. It looks like the real thing but shows no natural growth. Unfortunately, Christians try to look like imitations of the real thing when there's no actual growth. Since I had recently been to a bonsai farm, the picture resonated with me. Bonsai farming is a beautiful art form, but I wouldn't seek shelter under one of those trees.

The most convicting part of the book would probably be the issue of appearance. No one wants to admit struggles or ask tough questions because others might think they don't have it all together. We don't, so we're terrified of vunerability.

We should only care what Christ thinks, because our relationship with Him alone will give us roots and produce growth. Why do we insist on settling for less?

Morality and Manners

I get a newsletter from Chrisianity Today movies which I usually enjoy. The discussions and reviews can be insightful. But every now and then I scratch my head and say, "Okay. What?"

The latest one was about foul language in PG movies. Apparently, moviemakers are seeing a rise in ticket sales for PG movies without aforementioned language. The author of the newsletter applauded this.

This is without commenting on the fact stated elsewhere in the newsletter that violence and sexual content had no negative affect on sales. So a character can shoot at people and say double entandras as long as he or she says "gosh" and "heck" the whole time. At least our priorities are in the right place.

It's nice that we don't want children saying bad words, but is that really a moral issue? I grew up believing that "shut up" was swearing. Since I thought using naughty words was the ultimate evil, I grew up to be polite in that respect. But I still got angry and tried to punch people out when I got frustrated. (Thankfully, I wasn't that good at it.) Which one was the bigger issue?

Manners are good, but they also help us whitewash the exteriors so we look good. Are we doing this with our speech as well? Why doesn't it extend to our actions?

I guess what I'm trying to say is, what the #&^$%&@*^%&@% happened to our moral compass?

Sometimes, even the Onion gets it right

Novelists Strike Fails To Affect Nation Whatsoever

Food Fight

The video I found below is a Eurocentric history of war as told by our nations' foods. It's creative if more than a bit disturbing. Of course, most of it is about the hamburgers.

Kids are not idiots

Despite pronunciation issues, this child sounds quite precocious. WARNING! She kind of curses.

Value if Fiction 2: Movies

I know why churches want to show movies. As I said in the previous blog, stories resonate. I remember movies I saw in church ages ago. I wish I could forget, but that's a different story.

Three movies I saw last week reminded me of this. Lars and the Real Girl, There Will Be Blood, and For Your Consideration. The first and last reminded me of the church (how it should be and how much of it tends to be, respectively). The former was a community striving to help a troubled young man even when it meant acknowledging his imaginary friend.

The latter had interviewers asking actors "What have you been doing lately?" When the actors began to talk about their lives, they were cut off with "It was a rhetorical question." It was funny and sad, especially since something close to that has happened more than once in my life. Why do we ask "how are you" when we don't expect an honest answer?

There Will Be Blood is a frightening picture of greed and evil and the connection between them. We watch an oil tycoon slowly slip into madness.

All three movies and countless others could be discussed in churches. But we'd never see them there. For better or worse, I couldn't say. We just wouldn't.

The Value of Fiction 1: Writing

I started writing a story today. I'm not sharing it to boast or even to promote it in any way. None of that is interesting, really. How it makes me feel is.

I realized how much I missed writing stories. It's the same reason I enjoy reading novels (or great non-fiction books that read like them) and short stories. It's why Devil in the White City or Life of Pi resonate more than A Purpose Driven Life. There's a power in storytelling.

The ideal "sermon" for me would probably be reading a parable or a narrative from the Bible and sharing about it. There's even value in short stories and books, but I wanted to give credit where it's due first.

Does anyone remember explanations from Sunday school classes (childhood to present)? I'm sure they gave them, but those aren't the parts that stick.

Maybe it's the "show not tell" aspect of writing for me. But I'll take vivid images over explanations any day.

This World is Not his Home

Larry Norman, the quintesential Christian hippie, passed away. His song "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" was a family favorite. "Some Said He was an Outlaw" and "Shot Down" are current favorites. He had a great balance between simple and profound.

I'm posting some quotes below from an interview he had in the 70s with the Door magazine. Enjoy.


I would drop 80% of all the music off all the labels if you want Christian music that represents Christ. In fact, not much music really represents Christ's glory or even His message. But unfortunately, there's a lot of Christians in the record business and they need a lot of artists because they need to sell a bulk of records or the company will go under.

I once got Paul McCartney's autograph. I felt so stupid. It was after we were talking for about twenty minutes and we were having a nice chat. He'd known about some of the music I'd done with my band and he accepted me on a musical level because he liked the record. Then at the last minute, as I realized I was going to go someplace, I thought, "I've got to get his autograph. I just have to. After all, he is a Beatle." So I asked for his autograph and he was very visible disappointed. It was like, "Oh, I thought that we were both people." I was so embarrassed that while he was signing it, I didn't even want it.

Some groups go so fast through their repertoire that there's not much chance for the Holy Spirit to slip in there. And sometimes it is very manipulative. Americans like to be entertained. If I've learned anything from, doing concerts, I've learned that. They don't really want to be reached. The majority of people on the majority of nights don’t want to be reached and they don't want to be touched because that means they'll have to change. There're always those special nights when everybody just wants to fall on their face because God has been there, for some reason, He decided to attend the concert in a mighty way. But most people want a nice time and maybe a little bit of truth and wisdom that they can put in their pocket. When they get bored they can take it out and decide whether or not they want it. But any time you accept truth, you have to change. You have to make room for it and I don't think people like that. I've alienated many an audience by telling them exactly what I knew I had to speak.

I may not know that many of his songs, but I'm starting to become a fan.