Body Parts
News and views on the work of Christ's Body
 RSS
Paul
Asay

» BACK TO BODY PARTS MAIN

Posts Tagged ‘movie’

We Sorry Christians

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

I ran across a pretty interesting article in Esquire magazine written by Shane Claiborne, head of The Simple Way ministry.It was sincere, hip and unflinching in its criticism of “religion gone bad.” I agreed, I think, with everything he wrote. Yet, in a roundabout way, it caused me to again ask a pretty critical question of the faith we share: Is an unpopular faith necessarily a bad faith?

But before we get into all that, here’s a very quick recap of the column.

Claiborne begins by apologizing on behalf of all Christians for “the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.”

At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, “I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ.” A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here is a bit of an image crisis, and much of that reputation is well deserved. That’s the ugly stuff. And that’s why I begin by saying that I’m sorry.

And then he comes with the equivalent of a written altar call — pretty gutsy, really: 

I want to invite you to consider that maybe the televangelists and street preachers are wrong — and that God really is love. Maybe the fruits of the Spirit really are beautiful things like peace, patience, kindness, joy, love, goodness, and not the ugly things that have come to characterize religion, or politics, for that matter. 

You can’t do justice to Claiborne’s thoughts in a couple of reprinted paragraphs, and I’d love it if you checked out the column yourself. But what the guy said resonated with me.

“The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination,” Claiborne writes. His sentiments, truth be told, aren’t all that new anymore: Don Miller, author of “Blue Like Jazz” and a number of other wonderfully written Christian books, comes from a similar place. Dan Merchant, creator of the entertaining, Michael Moore-esque doc “Lord, Save Us From Your Followers,” does too. All three believe that Christianity has a public relations problem — and that problem is, essentially, us.

 

I agree. I know lots of Christians who aren’t particularly good ambassadors of faith. Some are so embarrassing that, in my weaker moments, I kinda wish they’d either wise up or move on to a different religion so I — and we — wouldn’t have to keep apologizing for them.

But truth be told, I’m one of the worst examples of how a Christian should behave. I’m selfish, sinful, hypocritical and, as the previous paragraph clearly illustrates, not always that forgiving. For someone who supposedly gave his life to Christ, I have a hard time even giving up a parking space sometimes. I have a lot to apologize for.

But apologizing for the entire Christian faith? Man. It’s a great line, and I think it sparks some respect from those who have been hurt by the Church or Christians … but it still feels a little presumptive.

But my bigger question is this: Isn’t Christianity, in some ways, supposed to be polarizing? Isn’t Christianity’s biggest barrier to worldwide acceptance really … the faith itself?

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!” reads Luke 6:22. The Bible, particularly the New Testament, is filled with references to persecution. The Scriptures tell us that persecution, really, is part of the gig. This doesn’t give Christians license to be jerks: But it is an acknowledgment that Christianity, at its core, is as counter-cultural movement as there is. It’s powerful. It’s dangerous. And some people will find it pretty icky, no matter how much we reflect its beauty.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m completely on board with Miller and Merchant and Claiborne. I think Christians often don’t represent Christ very effectively. We sometimes wield our faith with all the gentleness of a cudgel. But when we read Claiborne, we should keep our eyes on the true faith as represented by Jesus — just as Claiborne says we should. We should not mistake relevance with popularity. We should apologize for what we’ve done wrong — but stand firm for what our faith is, without reservation, without apology.

We should remember Jesus in all things: His kindness and boldness. We should teach, care for the sick, love our enemies, turn the other cheek.

But we should also be willing to turn over a table or two when the circumstances call for it.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in culture, social issues | Permalink

Look Out, Hollywood

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Clap_Clapboard_BlankSome Christians are pretty excited that, over here in America, it looks like we might be seeing a bit of a surge in Christian-tinged filmmaking. But, according to Christianity Today, we’re far behind the curve. Nollywood — shorthand for the burgeoning film industry in Nigeria, Africa — is churning out faith-tinged films by the score. About a fifth of the nearly 900 films churned out by Nollywood in 2006 — almost 200 films — were considered Christian.

Not that even Christians there are uniformly thrilled. Sounds like Nigerian believers have many of the same discussions we have here: Are we transforming culture, or are we being transformed by it? Are we tools for Christ? Or are we using Christianity as a tool to sell more stuff? 

 While Nollywood looks remarkably Christian compared to Hollywood, some Lagos pastors and film producers think Nigeria’s film industry is full of idolatry and social evils and don’t want their ministries associated with it. In 1995 the National Film and Video Censors Board tracked almost 200 G-rated movies and few others. By 2005 over 1,300 movies rated 18-and-older were outpacing G movies by 6 to 1.

“Half of the Christian movies are not done by faith-based organizations, but by directors who want to take advantage of the strong religious inclinations of Nigerians to sell [movies],” [Nigerian arts and culture reporter Obidike] Okafor said. “The others do it to promote their faith.” 

I’d be interested to see a Nollywood produced movie. Would you? Have you?

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Africa | Permalink

Hope: Our Precious Gift

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

preciousI had a chance to see “Precious” yesterday — a riveting, heartbreaking, inspiring film you’ll probably hear something about come Oscar season. 

I won’t say much about it now. But I’ve been chewing on some of the themes for several hours now, and I did want to just touch on one of them.

“Precious” is about a 16-year-old girl (called Precious) saddled with a world most of us would find unimaginable. At an age when most girls’ lives stretch before them in a ribbon of promise, Precious’ life seems stillborn. She’s given birth to one baby — a child fathered by her own father — and is pregnant with another. She’s overweight, illiterate and (she thinks) wholely unlovable. Her mother abuses her in every possible way. 

Hers is a life, it appears, without hope.

“Hope” is a deceptively glib word for most of us, I think. Hope is central to us as Americans, to us as Christians. It’s practically part of our DNA to hope — to imagine that, with hard work and faith and love, we can be anything, do anything, achieve anything. We are an optimistic people, at our core, firm in our belief that we’ve been set aside for great things. And, as such, we’ve gone great things.

But for many people around the world — for many people in the United States — the word “hope” represents an outlandish ideal. For people like Precious, poverty and abuse isn’t a horror as much as it’s a way of life. For some, reading a restaurant menu is as unreachable as the moon, and moving out of poverty is as laughable as setting up shop on Neptune. 

Hope. 

It’s not hard to give someone hope: Food. Education. Opportunity. Yet for a staggering number of people, those small gifts are hard to come by. Yesterday, the United Nations World Food Program announced that another 200 million people joined the ranks of the hungry over the last two years. That means that about 1 billion people are undernourished.

“One out of six people in humanity will wake up not sure that they can even fill a cup of food,” said Josette Sheeran, executive director for the program. “We have to make no mistake that hunger is on the march.”

Imagine, 1 billion people, living on a cup of food or less. 

My daughter — about the same age as Precious — is working on a paper dealing with John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. In her paper, she quoted Kennedy: 

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required — not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

But Precious didn’t convict me as an American — that we should be sending more aid to nations untold. Rather, it convicted me as a Christian. The Christian Church, as fragmented as it is, could still be the most powerful force on earth, if it wished to be. To paraphrase Kennedy again, it is in our power to abolish human poverty. It is in our power to bestow hope.

Thousands of Christians give hope to people every day, every minute. But we could be doing still more. We’re called to live our lives in radical love. We’re called to give hope to people around the world and across the street. And yet so often, we — I — ignore the need and go about our lives.

Living our lives as Jesus would have us live them is hard. Yet that is what we’re called to do. Our lives are not our own, we’ve been told. We’ve been bought with a ransom, and that ransom gave us hope. It’s fair and fitting we should do our upmost to give hope to others, giving freely of our time, our talents, our money, our passion. It’s time to show the world what it truly means to be Christian. It’s time to show the world what hope’s all about.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Body Parts | Permalink

Would You Share Your Pew With a Zombie?

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

zombielandDon’t look now, but the world is being overrun by zombies. Again.

We’ve seen this sort of thing before. Ever since “Night of the Living Dead” was released in 1968, we’ve experienced periodic zombie infestations — though nothing resembling an actual zombie apocalypse as of yet — and we’re in the midst of one of the most serious. They’ve invaded modern publishing, classic literature, many of our streets and, with the release of “Zombieland” tomorrow, they’ll take over our theaters. Again.

It certainly stands to reason that zombies would’ve attracted a certain level of scholarly interest, as well. Italian physicist Davide Cassidy tells us that, if pursued by a zombie horde, your best bet is to seek sanctuary in a mall, rather than, say, a deserted farmhouse. Canadian researchers have learned that, if zombies were spawned by the typically depicted brain-eating infection, humanity as we know it would almost certainly cease to exist, no matter how slowly the zombies walk. There’s even a Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency – something I missed when checking out C-SPAN during the budget hearings. But the agency has a Web site, which means it must be legit, right? 

But obviously, an onset of a zombie apocalypse would have some serious theological implications as well, and I wish some wise theologian would ponder them. But since no wise theologian would likely discuss such a scenario, I’ll ask you. Let me ask you a few quick questions: Remember, I’m just interested — there are no wrong answers … though some could potentially leave you more open to being perhaps a zombie appetizer.

1. If you saw a few zombies shambling down the street, would you …

a) Marvel at the wonder and diversity of God’s creation?

b) See the zombie as a sinner, as we all are, in need of love, support and perhaps aggressive counseling?

c) Assume that zombies are inherently evil and thwack them with a baseball bat?

2. Would the existence of zombies suggest that …

a) We’re officially in the end times, when we’re told the dead will rise again?

b) The afterlife is far more complex than we imagined?

c) We best stock up on shotgun shells and gas for the chainsaw?

3. The moment you see your first zombie, what would be your first thought?

a) “I can’t wait to hear Richard Dawkins try to explain that.”

b) “Oh, I hope it’s not somebody I know …”

c) “Man, I forgot to pick up the dry cleaning.”

4. If a zombie asked to attend church with you, would you …

a) Gladly agree, encouraged by the zombie’s interest in faith?

b) Agree — but perhaps call ahead so that one of the cry rooms might be reserved for the zombie, thus avoiding any embarrasing urges the zombie might have to snack during the sermon?

c) Suggest he just stay home and watch cable?

Post your messages down below.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Entertainment | Permalink

Medium is the Message

Monday, September 14th, 2009

 

An 8 mm camera. Photo by Holger Ellgaard

An 8 mm camera. Photo by Holger Ellgaard

Another book to put on my ever-growing list: “Flickering Pixels,” by Shane Hipps.

 

In a recent post, The Evangelical Outpost takes a quick look at the book: It sounds as if Hipps has brought to life a subject that few of us think much about but most of us should: How the media we use to digest and distribute our faith affects our perception of the faith itself. As the Outpost author states:

It has often been said that while the Gospel message will never change, the methods used to present it must change in order to make it feel immediately relevant to new audiences.  Christians have used countless methods, both conventional and unconventional, to communicate the Gospel:, movies, breath mints, billboards, T-shirts, toys, video games, flannel boards, comic books, and, in Francis of Assisi’s case, even poverty.  On the surface, this makes sense – different methods are saleable to different groups, and it’s important to communicate the Gospel effectively.

Unfortunately, Christians often assume the methods used are unimportant as long as the Gospelmessage remains unchanged.  In 1967 communication theorist Marshall McLuhan announced, “The medium is the message.”  In other words, the various media we use to communicate are not neutral – they are a message in themselves, and that message inevitably changes the content you intended to convey.

The example given in the post is how Paul’s epistles were practically filler for much of the Dark and Middle Ages: Few people could read, you see, and most folks got lots of their biblical knowledge from the local cathedral’s stained glass windows, which naturally made concrete stories all the rage. But Paul experienced something as a renaissance during — well, he Renaissance: As believers pocketed more schooling, Paul’s scholarly letters came in vogue, with the result that Christianity became a little less about story and a little more — well, stodgy.

I had never thought — at least not very deeply — on how the media might affect the faith: I simply assumed that, as long as the message is being expertly conveyed regardless of medium — books, music, movies — the core would come through.

But what if someone refused to actually read the Bible and instead got all his biblical knowledge from, say, movies? Not only would he see a lot of Charlton Heston, it seems like he’d also get a steady dose of CGI-ready stories: Noah’s Ark, Moses’ Exodus, John’s Revelation. The poetry of Psalms would never make it on screen — certainly not effectively. Meanwhile, musicians could make some outstanding albums just using the Psalms. But they might not be able to use, say, 1 and 2 Kings quite as effectively.

Which makes me wonder … what sections of the Bible seem made for this hyper-fast, hyper-wired world of ours? Is Proverbs the biblical book of choice for the Twitter age?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Entertainment, media | Permalink

Harry Potter and the Christian Debate

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

515PAWDZTEL._SS500_I saw “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” yesterday.

I was reviewing the movie for the Christian media discernment center Plugged In. The review won’t be posted until the film’s officially released, but when it is, you can check the review out here. But I’ll give you the short version: Sure, it has some problems, but  it had some good stuff, too. Technically, it was the best adaptation of the bunch, and it’s refreshing to see a teen on-screen who’s into duty and responsibility and sacrifice — not very sexy words in this day and age.

Harry Potter has always posed a puzzle for Christians. Many had problems with the books as they were first released, only to find out that J.K. Rowling filled them with scads of Christian symbolism and subtext. Some embraced the series’ ruminations on good and evil, trial and sacrifice. Others fretted over all the magic and wizardry at play.

For its part, The Vatican likes the new movie. What are your thoughts? You a Harry Potter fan? Do you wish he — and the whole phenomenon — would just go away?

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Entertainment | Permalink