Monthly Archives: March 2008

YouTubesday

YouTubesday: The Power of An Illusion, The Myth of Race

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Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch the first part of the PBS series, Race: The Power of An Illusion, with a group of folks from our church. It’s an incredible video series that I truly believe every person should be required to watch at some point in their lives.
I can’t seem to find any clips from the first section that I saw yesterday, but I’m going to include just one from the whole documentary to give you a taste of the information you’ll hear about.

You can probably find the series at your local library, just take a look.

“White by Law”
this clip summarizes two contradicting cases regarding the law of naturalization and race,

Takao Ozawa v. United States

and
United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind

Blog

Darn 500 Errors… I think I fixed it…

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If you’ve commented on the blog recently, You’ve probably been confronted with a Error 500. Never fear, your comment has still posted, it just didn’t send you back to the page.

Anyways, I was going to post, but with limited time, I’m going to try and fix these errors today. Hopefully you’ll know the results soon.

I think I fixed it. Please do me a favor and comment below, let me know if you are able to comment without it going to a blank white page that says Error 500

Peace.

Devotional thoughts

A Violent God and Redemptive Violence

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(These are thoughts in progress, stuff I haven’t considered before but a friend pointed out yesterday.)

As you might know I think the idea of redemptive violence is a myth, that you can not bring redemption and good through violent acts (good guy kills bad guy, all live happily ever after). I began to come to this understanding as I was reading my bible, particularly Jesus’ words and life, and couldn’t reconcile that with the ideas of war and violence in general accomplishing peace.

What I hadn’t thought about until it was pointed out yesterday to me, is how much of our theology espouses the idea of Redemptive Violence through the role of God (The Father, rather than Jesus). The idea that God is violent and vengeful and had to kill somebody for their sins, but fortunately Jesus took our place. It’s a theology of redemption coming through a violent act, at least on the part of God killing Jesus.

Anyways, I’m not sure what to do with these thoughts since so much of my own understanding of theology, Jewish culture prior to Christ coming and then what I see Jesus saying and living; all of it begins to conflict and create tensions.

I guess I just share that to put it out there and point out what I’ve been thinking about recently on a theological level. I haven’t developed any complete thoughts on the idea. There is a book, The Nonviolent Atonement, that was recommended that I’ll probably read sometime in the coming months before I try and make any major revelations…

What I Read

Book Review: Playing for Pizza, by John Grisham

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Okay, this is a lame book to review in comparison to the other books I’ve been reading, but it’s the book I read, so here’s the review. Playing for Pizza is one of John Grisham’s more recent books. It’s not in the mystery/law thriller category. I think he’s probably worked into his book writing deal that every once in a while he can write a book he wants to write that doesn’t fit the genre and they have to publish it. I guess you can probably do that when your John Grisham.
I used to read his books back in high school, my favorite was The Client, though I can’t remember if the move was any good or even close to the book. I remember also reading The Chamber and really not liking it. John Grisham’s books have always been easy to read, that’s why I picked up Playing for Pizza, because I needed an easy to read book. I finished it in just a couple of days.
I didn’t really like the book that much to be honest. It’s basically about a football player who ends up getting cut from his NFL team and going to play for a club team in Italy, which really do exist. There weren’t any real twist or surprises to speak of. Grisham likes football, the other off-genre book he wrote, The Bleachers, is also about football, but I liked it a lot more.
And finally, I’ve got to tell you a funny story related to John Grisham books. So, back when I had graduated from high school and was doing an internship in Chicago, I stopped by a friends house and he let me borrow a book, The Hobbit. Now, unlike many, I hadn’t read or known about The Hobbit or The Lord of The Rings series at all growing up. I didn’t know them to be famous or important literature at all. About a month after borrowing the book I realized I didn’t really like it. I didn’t like the way the plot developed, how there was this terrible situation of eminent doom and then all of the sudden some creature just flies out of the sky and saves the day, it was too random. Anyways, I brought the book back to my friend. While returning the book, another friend asked me how I liked it and I said I didn’t really. Actually, what I said was

“I don’t really like Tolkien’s writing style, it’s too random. I’d rather read an exciting John Grisham Novel.”

“You Dare Compare The Greatest Fantasy Writer of All Time to a dime-a-dozen mystery writer?! Shame On You!!”

After then being scolded for a few more minutes, I went back home, The Hobbit still in hand and finished reading it. But I still like a decent John Grisham novel now and then.

(note: Quoting might be slightly inaccurate, but it was that intense.)
(note: I don’t read the mystery thriller novels anymore, unless they don’t have redemptive violence)

Being Dad

This Is How It All Begins

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Diaper

Adbusters Magazine is awesome, this page is from their recent issue about ‘cool.’ I think they nail on the head one of my fears about raising my child in this consumeristic society with this little piece. The text at the bottom reads:

Even before your baby is born, a diaper arrives on your doorsteps, courtesy of Pampers. Once he opens his eyes, his childhood will be a whirlwind of logos and ads. School will be themed with endless commercials from sponsors. His heroes and role models will encourage him to buy products. By adolescence, he will have lost most of his original thoughts and emotions; he will look for cues from the marketers who have been with him from the beginning of his life to decide how he is to look, act and feel.

One might think this is a bit of an exaggeration, but I don’t think it is. I know my own life is telling of the influence of branding on me, and even when I try to avoid being ‘branded’ my choices are at the least affected by it (even if I’m purposefully choosing the opposite). Adbusters always gets me thinking on a different level then I generally consider. They call everything into question.

So, what is the solution for us parents and us as individuals fighting the system ourselves? Imagine a new system.
I think this quote, from another page of Adbusters issue on Cool nails it on the head…
cool

“I want to live in a world where nothing is cool, where things actually are as they appear. That would be extraordinary. I want food and a living environment that are not part of some suit’s strategic vision. Cool has betrayed all of us. I want reality.” – Jessica Masse, Maine, USA

Blog

Fickle Internet and Awesome Babies

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Once again, I’m slacking on posting. Fortunately, it’s not because I and the kiddo are sick, indeed we’ve been in great spirits and have been out enjoying the beautiful Minneapolis weather. Also, Mindy has been off for a bunch of days recently so we’ve enjoyed the almost mini vacation exploring our city. It’s been sweet.
At the same time, our internet service has been sub-par. I’m going to call them out on this one and just say that USI Wireless, who has been hired to provide wireless internet service throughout the city of Minneapolis, has done a horrible job thus far. I won’t go into all the details, but I will say that I have spent far too much time on the phone with them and far too much time with no internet to feel happy with the internet service I am paying for. Hopefully they can work out all the kinks, but in the mean time they have done a pretty poor job of treating their customers kindly. The service is considerably less expensive than any other service around, but you should still get Internet if your paying for Internet. (that’s my rant).

Since I’ve been slacking on the substantive posts, I figure I should update you on other rather introspective things…

  • Spring is just around the corner. The kiddo and me are preparing for all day hikes, bike rides, bus trips and other city explorations. Any other stay-at-home dad’s out there?
  • Giving Up, the novel I wrote and am working on self-publishing, should be available to order from Amazon.com in the next couple weeks. I’ll let you know when it launches. For now, here’s a sneak peek at the front and back cover.
  • My next book/writing project is to send some children’s picture book manuscripts off to some publishers, Lord willing I might become a published author just in time for the kiddo to read my book.
  • I’m still well on track with the book a week in 2008 goal. If you have any book recommendations let me know.
  • We reached our goal of 20 people participating in the Economic Stimulus Giving Spree. Feel free to join in still and prepare to share your story about how you gave the money away.
  • Lastly, I use wordpress for my blog, and it’s been acting up a little lately. Not sure quite what it is, and hopefully the whole thing won’t breakdown, but if there are any experts out there, I’d appreciate your help. Is everyone able to comment okay?
YouTubesday

YouTubesday: Somewhat Related to Shane Claiborne

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I was going to call this collection random too, but I realized as I was posting videos I’d seen recently on others blogs, they all had some connection to Shane Claiborne.
Since I heard him speak yesterday at Bethel, I figure we might as well call this all some what related to Shane.

Cobalt Season (Ryan Sharp playing here did a lot of the artwork for Claiborne’s new book, Jesus for President) in the studio. (ht. Work of the People)

I think I’ve posted this before, Money Drop, I think it was the first big media event involving Shane Claiborne was involved in. May this event be an inspiration to your Economic Stimulus Check Givers! (ht. Godgrown)

Cool DVD worth checking out about Anti-Consumerism with Shane and Tony Campolo

And this isn’t related but I thought it was a good video by Sara Groves (ht. What is the Kingdom?)

Money & Stewardship

Nothing To Talk About But Buying Stuff

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One of the things reading The Paradox of Choice made me aware of is how much of our conversation is about buying stuff. We talk about what we are thinking of buying, be it house, car, electronics, friends share their opinions of their own house, car, product or the other ones they tried when shopping themselves. Or, we talk about things we already purchased, whether we are happy with it or not, the deal we got, the money we saved. I don’t know how much of our actual conversations as a society consist of this kind of talk but I would estimate it to be 30-50%, is that too high?

Fortunately, not all conversations have to be about stuff, but I think we often find we don’t have anything else to talk about. I think there used to be the saying that Religion and Politics were Taboo subjects, because they where controversial, and so you should avoid talking about them. I wonder if the realm of taboo subjects has greatly expanded, that it pretty much includes everything except for buying stuff. Well, I guess it includes the weather, TV shows and sports, but other then that most surface level relationships and conversations never seem to get deeper then that.

Q: What’s your estimate of how much of your conversations in total is talking about Stuff and purchasing stuff.

Devotional thoughts

Joyfully Accepting The Confiscation Of Your Property

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“You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.” -Hebrews 10:34

I talk a fair bit about giving things away, living simply, sacrificially giving and living in a way so that others needs are met. I’m no where near the place I would like to be in that endeavor but I hope that I am making strides. However, verses like this spur me on and point out how far I have to go in my effort to follow Christ.

I’ve had a number of things stolen from me in my life (mainly bikes) and I must say, that for me, there is a marked difference between my stuff being stolen and me freely giving it to someone. Much of that difference is in my attitude about the situation and what my focus is on. I’m fascinated by the attitude and focus of the Hebrews written about above, who joyfully accepted losing their stuff. I am amazed by what a testimony that is to where their treasure and joy lies, even now reading it 2000 years later, I can’t imagine the testimony that must have been to those taking their property and others watching their decisions to choose love, community and fellowship over worldly possessions.

When I really start to reflect on this stuff, the persecution that they endured, the persecution people endure today (The Heavenly Man), and the lack of persecution I feel I’m encountered with in my surroundings, I’ve recognized something about it. I think I’ve tended to think in very pure terms about the persecution of the early church. I have a tendency to think that the persecution they received was very clearly because they where following Jesus:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

However, I don’t think it was always as pure a case as we tend to think of it as. Jesus wasn’t crucified because he was the messiah and the Roman’s knew they had to fulfill the Scripture, he was killed for creating political unrest. The disciples likewise probably did not simply experience persecution because they choose to claim themselves as Christians, but also because of the actions and life choices that their following Christ lead them to.

I say all this to simply just acknowledge that I have a long way to go to be in a place where I can follow Christ to the degree that I’m willing for it to result in people taking my stuff and me being joyful about it. And I’m not at the point yet where I clearly understand that choices I make to follow Christ might result in persecution that might not have anything to do explicitly with what religious allegiances I have.

(for some reason I don’t think a lot of this made much sense. Oh well.)

What I Read

Book Review: The Heavenly Man

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The Heavenly ManLast week I read the book, The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun. I’ve heard it recommend a handful of times as a telling story of China, modern day miracles, the persecuted church, and one man’s incredible testimony to God’s faithfulness. I found all that and more.

I want to be completely honest in this, but please don’t take offense at what I’m about to say. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was encouraging and challenging in many ways. However, I also at times, got tired of reading it. Brother Yun is constantly being beaten within an inch of his life, thrown in prison, and persecuted. I’m not saying it was okay for me to feel bored of reading about persecution, just that I did. It’s amazing to think that people have endured such intense and long lasting persecution even new.

I’ve subscribed to Voice of the Martyr‘s magazine for a number of years. For the past couple years in Nashville I was just getting emails, and I honestly wasn’t reading them, but fortunately a good friend at church was always making efforts to remind others of the persecution going on in the world and encouraging us to pray. This book was another challenge to “Remember those in chains as if you yourselves where in chains.”

I’m going to make an effort to read, remember and pray for my brothers and sisters in chains for the Gospel.