Category: Culture

July 4

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So its Empire Worship Day here in the USA. Now I really don’t have an issue with the idea of a national holiday (Holy Day???) and I generally enjoy the bbqs, ice cream socials, and fireworks. But generally this day is a day of idolatry. Even in our churches pledges are said to a foreign god, hymn are sung to a temporal entity, and our citizenship to this country is promoted far above our citizenship to the Kingdom of God. (this article is a must read each year at this time). So this year it was refreshing for the first time in recent memory not to have to engage in idolatry just because I wanted to attend church around July 4. I will not be attending the local fireworks fest where last year the Rebel flag seemed as prominent as the US flag. I will not be twisting the truth and thanking the troops for my freedom to not have to wear a burka. I will continue to be offended by the “If you can read this in English thank a Vet” and the “Does my American Flag Offend You? Call 1-800- LEAVE THE USA” bumper stickers I’ve seen recently. I will try to avoid the worst displays of civil religion and propaganda. Sure I’ll watch the fireworks (not like my neighbors haven’t been setting some off every night for the last two weeks…), maybe even cook some slab of meat out on the grill but I won’t check my mind, my beliefs, and my values at the door in patriotic fervor.

But I will take the historical perspective and reflect on the Declaration of Independence. It’s interesting to read the full thing (not just the first part) where all the grievances against King George are listed. It’s hard to tell which George they are being leveled against and not so hard to understand why our presence isn’t welcome in Iraq (ht- Benjamin Ady). Included in the list as to why the USA engaged in violent revolution against this tyrant are –

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Happy Fourth of July.

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We Don’t Serve Their Kind Here

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Okay serious rant to follow (Karen – here’s the terrible two “no’s” and stubborn independence you mentioned…). What is with our country moving towards more and more discrimination. Entire groups of people are being banned from restaurants and public places. Reminiscent of the days of segregation, signs are being put up banning a certain demographic from eating or swimming in certain places. But instead of signs proclaiming “Whites Only” or “No Colored People Allowed” these signs state “No Children Allowed.”

Apparently as the baby boomers kick their kids out of the house and more and more people are choosing to not have kids, they don’t want to be bothered by other people’s kids. They would rather not have to interact with that segment of the population and so are pushing for mandates and rules to protect themselves from children. I understand laws that prevent children from entering strip clubs or R rated movies, but this is going too far. It started in restaurants, private establishments that could discriminate as they choose. Then there were subdivisions (gated usually) that barred anyone under 18 from living there (and often even visiting). But now apparently public beaches in Illinois are banning children to meet the baby boomers’ demands for comfort. If this PUBLIC beach had put up signs banning women, or Mexicans, or Muslims there would be huge public outcry and an avalanche of lawsuits. But the ban on children is being met with praise and thanks for the opportunity for the self-center to not have to deal with that pesky and annoying minority – children.

And that is what children are – a voiceless minority that is generally despised because they are not adults. I’ve become increasingly annoyed by the death glares I get if I bring my toddler into certain stores or restaurants. I’m sick of always being seated in the far back corner by the kitchen in restaurants. But to be denied access because baby boomers are living up to their label of being the “me generation” is just too much. And this isn’t happening behind closed doors either. I’ve heard earfuls from empty nesters and the childless (usually bitchy bitter women at craft fairs) about how much they hate children. Stories of how they would spank strangers’ children because the mom obviously wasn’t going to give the kid the walloping they deserve for crying in a store. Or telling me that all restaurants should ban children or at least parents refrain from exposing other people to their children by eating out. As one lady put it, places like McDonald’s exist if parents insist on eating out with kids. So abuse of children and encouraging childhood obesity are better options that making a self-centered adult spend time in the presence of a child.

My response – GET OVER YOURSELVES! Stop being self-centered jerks. Life is not all about you. Stop discriminating against children because you are too lazy to understand them or too selfish to care. Just FYI – I’ll will continue to take my child out to eat and to play at the beach and no I won’t hit them if they get too loud. I will not give into segregation and will do my best to be an advocate for the voiceless.

(amazingly enough I agree with Al Mohler on this one. Age segregated communities, churches, or societies are not healthy)

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Headlines for the Week

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Headlines of interest from this past week, or basically what my news feeds give me and I actually click on. Yes I am part of the uninformed masses… –

CNN – 100-foot Andes Lake Disappears – apparently the 5 acre, 100-foot deep, glacial lake disappeared between March and the end of May. Weird.

MSNBC – Rampaging Squirrel Injures 3 – Opening sentence – “An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.”

BBC – Alcohol banned in Aborginie areas – I’m sorry, but no matter how bad the issues are, this isn’t racist how?

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Why Care?

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On Sunday morning this past weekend at the Jubilee conference we got to “worship” with spoken word protest poetry (you can find some of it here). One line that really struck me was, “our arms are raised, but our fists are open.” We raise our hands in worship, a symbol of our close connection to God and the depth of our personal piety, and yet we don’t raise our fists in protest of the injustices in the world. We are too lazy, too wrapped up in church events, or too afraid to get involved. Our “worship” is all about us and not about others. I am reminded of the passages from Isaiah where we’re told the kind of worship God desires –

Isaiah 1:15-17

When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;
wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,
learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

Isaiah 58:6

This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.

So while I am encouraged that the Emerging Church is becoming more and more aware of these issues, universal action still seems a long way off. I still encounter people who debate whether not not we should attempt to right the wrongs of the world. Or those that tell us not to get bogged down on the big issues, just focus on your everyday life. Or those who say all we need to do is pray and not have anything to do with politics ever. My response is that we need to get up off our knees and put our prayers into action. But how do we motivate people? Why should people care?

In a session this weekend one presenter listed the reasons why people should care about Debt Relief. I find these interesting and wonder if there are any more that can be added to the list.

    1. It’s a moral issue and as people of faith/conscious we should care for others. We should be moved to effect change and love our neighbor. But if that isn’t enough to motivate us, there are a few other reasons –

 

    1. Health concerns. If indebted countries continue to slash funds to heath services so that they can repay debt, disease will flourish. There has already been a significant rise in easily treatable/preventable diseases as a direct result of the reduction in doctors, nurses, and clinics. But there is also the potential (and we are seeing the beginnings of it) for deadly diseases to proliferate which will effect the whole world. If other countries can’t handle epidemics of TB, Avian flu, and AIDS the whole world will pay.

 

    1. Environmental degradation. As countries that are forced to spend 80% of their budget on debt repayment scramble to find alternate sources of income, the environment is laid waste. Forests are clear cut, unsustainable crops are planted, pesticides are dumped into the environment, chemicals are dumped into rivers instead of disposed of properly. This destroys ecosystems and will result in a completely unlivable landscape down the road. Where will all the people go then or whose aid will they live on then?

 

  1. To get the politicians (the ones in the position to affect change – i.e. clean up the messes they have made) to care, it takes the voters letting them know that care care. If the politicians know that they will face consequences if they don’t listen to their constituency, then they will work for change in order to save their own butts come election time.

What could you add to the list? Is it bad to focus on the natural consequences that will effect us personally if the plight of the other isn’t enough to move us to action? I would love to hear your thoughts.

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Yes, I am a Nerd

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A few fun blog things today.

Nerd test – How Nerdy Are You (HT – Songs of Unforgetting) –

I am nerdier than 79% of all people. Are you a nerd? Click here to find out!

And to prove that I am indeed a nerd –
Trekkie Test

NerdTests.com User Test: The Trekkie Test.
What does it mean? You know Trek, and you love it. You may not dress up in uniform every day, but you’re dedicated to your series, or two, and happy with being entertained by it.(make that 3 series that I love, and yes I have dressed up in uniform and been to conventions)

Here’s to hoping that the new JJ Abrams Star Trek series actually happens. I mean JJ Abrams and Star Trek – two addictions in one, its got to be good right!

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Diversity, Variety, and Vision

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While driving around in my car today, I was listening to the radio. I generally have it tuned to the Chicago station The Mix. Up until recently it hasn’t been much of a mix station, just a “today’s hit music” thing. I had to tune to one of Chicago’s many “we play anything” stations created in the last year or so for a better mix. But I noticed today as I heard a Carrie Underwood country song being played that the variety has increased. Not that there is a huge variety of indie or say folk music being played, but the stringent genres are beginning to blur. Generally I like this, I enjoy the variety (not that there is ever any excuse to have to listen to Justin Timberlake, but that’s a different issue entirely). I personally like variety on the radio and in the blog world and at church. But this contradicts what the “experts” tell me I should like.

Read any expect advice on how to have a good radio station, or blog, or church and you will hear the same thing – pick a target audience and stick to that audience. I read that if I want my blog to be read I need to only talk about one thing – politics or theology or social justice or entertainment or family. Apparently people only want to read a blog for one thing and one thing only. Same thing with church. I’ve read advice that tells churches never to have blended services. The advice reasons that since no one ever listens to both rock and country music or both classical and pop, they won’t attend a church that forces them to worship two different ways (as if there are only two ways…). It’s all about marketing and dividing ourselves into smaller and smaller interest groups.

But I personally think that advice has serious issues. Perhaps there are people who are so immature that they can’t listen to a variety of music or put up with a personal post on a blog that usually deals with technology or cope if their church uses organs (or guitars or lectio divina or whatever). Is the point really to cater to the myopic and the immature? Our culture is moving towards greater diversity in areas such as these. The radio stations play a greater variety, multicultural expressions in cuisine, decor, clothing and philosophy are mainstream, and the lines between politics, religion, and family are obviously beginning to blur. Why be controlled by the opinions of those who can’t get over themselves? I am more interested in staying true to a vision and reaching a more open-minded group of people than I am in compromise for the sake of marketing.

Perhaps this is all excuses – why I like the radio stations I do, why I blog like I do, why we do church like we do – despite what the “experts” say. And perhaps the attempts to appreciate diversity and live holistically won’t work or succeed (as the general definitions of such things go), but at least we can say that the vision wasn’t sold out to marketing strategy. But I don’t think its just me either.

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Cultural Commentary

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A couple of fun things I came across that make a interesting points.

This was in today’s comics. I found it amusing as someone whose car is covered in bumper stickers…

Then I found this on Facebook. It reminded me of this editorial I had recently read in the Chicago Tribune.

In The ’60s, Students Conducted Sit-Ins…In 2007, We Make Facebook Groups!

A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more persons nonviolently occupying an area for protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. Sit-ins were first widely employed by Mahatma Gandhi in Indian independence movement and were later expanded on by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and others during the American Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960s, students used this method of protest during the student movements, such as the protests in Germany. The Young Lords in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood used it successfully a full week to win community demands for low income housing investment at the Mckormick Theological Seminary.

In a sit-in, protesters usually seat themselves and remain seated until they are evicted, usually by force, or until their requests have been met. Sit-ins have been a highly successful form of protest because they cause disruption that draws attention to the protest and by proxy the protesters’ cause. The forced removal of protesters and sometimes the answer of non-violence with violence often arouses sympathy from the public, increasing the chances of the demonstrators reaching their goal. Sit-ins usually occur indoors at businesses or government offices but they have also occurred in plazas, parks, and even streets.

A sit-in is similar to a sitdown strike. However, whereas a sit-in involves protesters, a sitdown strike involves striking workers occupying the area in which they would be working and refusing to leave so they can not be replaced with scabs. The sitdown strike was the precursor to the sit-in.

Sit-ins were an integral part of the non-violent strategy of civil disobedience that ultimately ended racial segregation in the United States (Wiki).

Today… Students’ main strategy to oppose certain decisions and change is to create a Facebook Group. How times have changed…

The personal element is gone. More people are reached through technology, but we are not forming communities that care for each other as we care for a cause. I can just click “Add Cause” to my Facebook or add a link to my blog, but I rarely gather with those who are passionate about actually doing something about those causes. That’s part of why I do my best to go to conferences and gatherings, it builds a more personal community. I can read all about debt relief and sign any number of petitions (and encourage all of you to do the same), but I think I will get a much wider perspective after I attend the JubileeUSA Grassroots Conference here in Chicago next week.

As much as I love blogging and online communities, being able to build relationships and share common passions is vital (and yes I’ve formed some great relationships from people I first met online). This whole issues reminded me on some of the lyrics from Jesus Christ Superstar where Judas (from the afterlife) asks Jesus “why’d you choose such a backward time And such a strange land? If you’d come today You could have reached the whole nation Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.” Reaching the whole nation in one fell swoop wasn’t the point. The point was to build relationships with a group of committed followers who then could spread the message of hope of the Kingdom of God. Sure preaching and feeding 5000+ caused a stir and an emotional high for some, but it was less effective than the day to day wandering around with the disciples. That’s what we need more of these days imho.

Just some thoughts. And yes, I am completely aware of the irony of using the medium of a blog to say these things. But sometimes when the kid is already in bed and all the local coffee shops close at 4 PM, this is the only available community. (which brings up the issue of the potential for those with very restricted lives – stay-at-home-moms – to actually get involved in anything, but enough rambling for now…)

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Ethical Consumption

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I have spent a very large amount of time this past week surfing the web for sites on ethical consumption. I’m writing a separate piece about the why behind all that, but it has been an interesting adventure. And I’ve found a lot of really cool sites.

What is ethical consumption you might ask. It starts with me the consumer admitting that while I want to avoid rampant materialism, I am not going to be one of those people who move off the grid and have a zero impact year or something (as my last post explored, for most of us ethical living can’t be an all or nothing approach). I will need to buy stuff from time to time. So given that, I want to do so ethically. That means I ask the hard questions – where has this come from? what is its past, present, and future effect on the environment? is it harmful to my physical or psychological health? and were the people who made it treated humanely and paid a fair wage at all stages of the process? It is a lot of stuff to weigh as one makes a purchasing decision and it is a lot harder than the culture of convenience we are used to.

There are many people who think that ethical consumption is not only hard, but that it is impossible economically. That to buy with one’s values contradicts the laws of economics. That’s why the t-shirt displayed above made me laugh as I stumbled across it this past week. My thoughts – One – do the “laws of economics” really matter in light of environmental chaos and injustice? Are people really so callous to favor economic theory above creation care and human rights? (don’t answer that…) and Two – in the law of supply and demand it is the consumer who creates the demand. We demand that we want ethical options (environmentally sustainable, healthy, and fairly traded) and the supply will increase. But it takes us actually doing it, being ethical consumers not just blogging idealists, for that to happen.

One of the cool sites that I discovered this past week that helps make it happen is the New American Dream. They are a great resource site for living ethically. The new dream is to live consciously (feel more alive and aligned with your values), buy wisely (use your power as a consumer to create change) and make a difference (let your actions speak for themselves – then speak up anyways). I’m going to have fun exploring their site and using their resources.

Ways to shop ethically are out there, sometimes it just takes a lot of time and effort to find them. I’m toying with the idea of trying to start a blog or something where people can pool resources about stuff like this. A place to review products, share shopping links, give environmental research updates and other fun stuff. What do you think? Worthwhile? Doable? Wanna help?

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Watch Your Mouth? Offensive Language and Christianity

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Andrew Jones has an interesting post up about offensive language. He writes about recent offense that has been taken by the usage of certain words and then delves into the history of what offends. He proposes that in premodern times people were offended by words that were “excommunicatory in nature – offensive words were religious terms that threatened punishment and damnation.” In modern times it was “words that cause most offense affront our personal and private sensibilities. These offensive words are normally associated with private body parts, bodily functions of a toilet nature, and sexual relations.” In our postmodern times “it is exclusionary language that causes most offence. Marginalizing people due to their race, gender, disability or status is about the most offensive thing you can say.” He then mentions the bible passages that refer to offensive language including “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Eph 4:29.

Call me a stereotypical postmodern, but I understand the pre- and postmodern views on offensive language, but just can’t justify the modern. Biblically if the point is not to use the Lord’s name in vain (which referred to making flippant curses or oaths) or not to tear anyone down, the modern sensibility just doesn’t fit. In fact the modern approach does just the opposite – instead of building people up, modern bans of “offensive language” exist to exclude and ridicule. Most of the language that is offensive under the modern sensibilities (bodily and sexual references) is called vulgar. While we have come to perceive of “vulgar” as anything bad, dirty, and lower, it was originally just a term of derision used for the lower classes. So anything associated with the poor, uneducated masses (including their language) was considered vulgar and inappropriate for civilized folk.

So usage of terms that implied that one didn’t subscribe to classism, racism and the like became taboo. Proper people don’t use the germanic/anglo language of the poor (shit, fuck) they use the latinate language of the rich and powerful (excrement, fornicate). Over time the taboo took on mythic dimensions. Certain words came to hold almost magical powers. Say a certain word (incant this spell) and you have sinned (cursed yourself to hell). I doubt that most Christians actually stop to think about what sort of theology they are promoting when they insist that just saying “fuck” is a sin.

The fact that for most Christians it’s okay to use language of hate and derision (making fun of homosexuals, women, and other religions), but its sinful to say certain “vulgar” words displays a seriously messed up theology in my opinion. We are told to build others up with our language and encouraging language of hate while forbidding the language of the poor achieves the exact opposite. So label me as just being postmodern, but I see the more constructive (and biblical) option to be to avoid language that excludes, tears down, and ridicules. So I really don’t care if someone drops the “f-bomb” but I won’t abide “you throw like a girl.”

So it has nothing to do with wanting to be hip and cool or selling out to the culture if I choose to use a word that for a certain period of English history was considered taboo. It has more to do with actually considering my theology of sin, understanding the call to love my neighbor, and living accordingly. But that just pushes the walls of the box a little too far for most people…

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Running the Numbers

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I recently came across an amazing art collection that takes a hard look at our consumption. Chris Jordan Photography is a must see site – go there right now. He has posted a few of his photographic series there. One is a haunting look at post-Katrina New Orleans. Another is entitled “Intolerable Beauty: A Portrait in American Mass Consumption” and the newest one is “Running the Numbers: An American Self-portrait.” This last one is the most amazing and disturbing. He writes –

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

The art is stunning and the numbers are scary. It truly is a portrait of our consumption and waste. Hopefully a visual image of the aftereffects of our actions will cause us to stop and think every now and then. Here are a few of the images. They are hard to get the sense of in the small jpeg forms. On the site you can see the full image as well as partial and actual size zooms.

Plastic Bottles – Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.(zoomed)

Cell Phones –
Depicts 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day. (zoomed)

Plastic Bags – Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds.

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