Our housemate Aminah read this poem to us tonight (not without some difficulty, given the punctuation) and it struck me as particularly convicting in the context of our class. Enjoy...
Totally like whatever, you know?
By Taylor Mali
In case you hadn't noticed,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you're talking about?
Or believe strongly in what you're saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?
Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know?
Declarative sentences - so-called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like, not -
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It's like what I've heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?
What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so, like, totally . . .
I mean absolutely . . . You know?
That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like . . .
whatever!
And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness
is just a clever sort of . . . thing
to disguise the fact that we've become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since . . .
you know, a long, long time ago!
I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.
21 January 2010
Soon-Chan Rah and Church Structures
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I went to hear Soon-Chan Rah speak about ‘The Next Evangelicalism & the Changing Face of American Christians’ as a part of the January series. Soon-Chan Rah is an Asian-American Pastor who served as the founding senior pastor of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church in Massachusetts-an urban, multi-ethnic and post-modern generation church.
One point he made, that I found very interesting, was about the structure of churches. He divided church structures into two basic categories: marginalized and mainstream. He described marginalized churches as being a typical Midwestern church with slanted/arched ceilings, similar to that of the bottom of a boat (but upside down). He then talked about how that was related to Noah’s Ark, but how maybe that wasn’t a positive thing. It gives off the message that yes, the world is condemned and destroyed, but here in the ark/church, we’re safe from all of that evil. We can create ‘Christian’ music, art, and shirts that are just rip offs of secular things because we don’t care about the world. And we don’t care about the world because we are safe in the ark. That was a crazy thought for me, because my home church is an ‘ark’ structure and I really liked it growing up, and going to churches that weren’t like that made me very uncomfortable, but maybe that’s why. He then described the mainstream churches as ‘movie theatre churches’ because of how their sanctuaries are set up like a movie theatre. He talked about how mega-churches are beginning to look more like malls than churches (similar to the conversation in class we had yesterday) with all of their bookstores, food, coffee shops, and play areas. He believes that these churches are being mainstreamed into the world. There’s a lot of thinking that Christians today need to be doing about what the church should look like. And as we think, we should keep in mind all of the people who meet in store front churches because that’s all they have.
Of course, he covered many other points about the church as well, such as multi-ethnicity in the churches and such, but in light of our class discussion yesterday, I thought this would be an interesting part of his lecture to talk about, besides the fact that I’m already way over my word limit, oops...
Questions:
Following up on yesterday’s conversation, what are some other thoughts people have in light of ‘mega-churches’ and whether they’re good or not? Does it matter if they have stadium seating or not?
And also, what do people who, like myself, went to small, ark-shaped churches think about them? Are we behind the times? Or does the structure of the church even really matter?
One point he made, that I found very interesting, was about the structure of churches. He divided church structures into two basic categories: marginalized and mainstream. He described marginalized churches as being a typical Midwestern church with slanted/arched ceilings, similar to that of the bottom of a boat (but upside down). He then talked about how that was related to Noah’s Ark, but how maybe that wasn’t a positive thing. It gives off the message that yes, the world is condemned and destroyed, but here in the ark/church, we’re safe from all of that evil. We can create ‘Christian’ music, art, and shirts that are just rip offs of secular things because we don’t care about the world. And we don’t care about the world because we are safe in the ark. That was a crazy thought for me, because my home church is an ‘ark’ structure and I really liked it growing up, and going to churches that weren’t like that made me very uncomfortable, but maybe that’s why. He then described the mainstream churches as ‘movie theatre churches’ because of how their sanctuaries are set up like a movie theatre. He talked about how mega-churches are beginning to look more like malls than churches (similar to the conversation in class we had yesterday) with all of their bookstores, food, coffee shops, and play areas. He believes that these churches are being mainstreamed into the world. There’s a lot of thinking that Christians today need to be doing about what the church should look like. And as we think, we should keep in mind all of the people who meet in store front churches because that’s all they have.
Of course, he covered many other points about the church as well, such as multi-ethnicity in the churches and such, but in light of our class discussion yesterday, I thought this would be an interesting part of his lecture to talk about, besides the fact that I’m already way over my word limit, oops...
Questions:
Following up on yesterday’s conversation, what are some other thoughts people have in light of ‘mega-churches’ and whether they’re good or not? Does it matter if they have stadium seating or not?
And also, what do people who, like myself, went to small, ark-shaped churches think about them? Are we behind the times? Or does the structure of the church even really matter?
More dollars = more votes
Aaron sent in a link to this article about a recent Supreme Court decision to overturn a 20-year-old law limiting the amount of money corporations can spend on independent campaign advertising. This change gives corporations more latitude to produce advertising that encourages you, the voting viewer, to choose the candidate who's more likely to advocate policy that will be good for the corporation's own bottom line.
Roberts' assessment is based on several assumptions: that a corporation is just one more equal voice in "vibrant public discourse," and that its opinion won't drown out you and me; that corporations are equal to people as the "foundation of our democracy"; that a large corporation's buying power doesn't represent a serious imbalance of power. Makes me think of the guy at the public debate in The Corporation who says the idea of voting with our dollars is great, but if you have more dollars, you get more votes.
For me, this all calls to mind the question The Persuaders was asking about the political language work of Frank Luntz. Are they attempting to more clearly articulate what people really want and need or are they just trying to figure out how to get us to desire what they want to sell us, as if it was our idea? With this court ruling, it's going to be even more important for each of you to be asking this question when it comes to politics.
SARCASM ALERT: It's a good thing our Supreme Court is populated by such noble champions for our poor, underprivileged, multi-billion dollar businesses.
[Chief Justice John] Roberts, in a separate opinion, said that upholding the limits would have restrained "the vibrant public discourse that is at the foundation of our democracy."
Roberts' assessment is based on several assumptions: that a corporation is just one more equal voice in "vibrant public discourse," and that its opinion won't drown out you and me; that corporations are equal to people as the "foundation of our democracy"; that a large corporation's buying power doesn't represent a serious imbalance of power. Makes me think of the guy at the public debate in The Corporation who says the idea of voting with our dollars is great, but if you have more dollars, you get more votes.
For me, this all calls to mind the question The Persuaders was asking about the political language work of Frank Luntz. Are they attempting to more clearly articulate what people really want and need or are they just trying to figure out how to get us to desire what they want to sell us, as if it was our idea? With this court ruling, it's going to be even more important for each of you to be asking this question when it comes to politics.
SARCASM ALERT: It's a good thing our Supreme Court is populated by such noble champions for our poor, underprivileged, multi-billion dollar businesses.
Upside Down Campaign: Make Affluence History
From the founders of the subversive Geez Magazine comes a campaign to Make Affluence History. Check it out for practice ideas--generally or related to your final project. With a mission to create "holy mischief in an age of fast faith," Geez will require you to be ready to discern between what's tongue-in-cheek and what's sincere--think The Simpsons, but more overtly and consistently aimed at the follies of Christianity.
Mall Post
One of the only places in the current human society which people in all walks of life participate is the mall. Commodities and items are made by people in countries who will never walk the halls of the religious sanctum. Corporations produce the product, involving countless middle men, and advertisers make the product appealing. The consumers are brought together under specific corporations, catering to their personal preferences, uniting them under their ‘scene’ (Indies, punks, high class, blue color, even ‘christianity’ and Christianity). These people would never meet in most of their everyday lives because each ‘scene’ has a culture of their own. The mall is a place where stuff is sold and everyone believes they need stuff to a certain extent. Every thing and every one is connected through the Mall. And they, we, are all still able to rub shoulders with each other without thinking or communicating to what is in front of them.
Guido Beach
The television show Jersey Shore has swept the nation collecting millions of fans and tons of attention. The show features four guys and four girls who live on the jersey shore for an entire summer. Mike, "the situation," DJ Pauly D, Ronnie, and Vinny are four self obsessed East-coasters who love to drink and have sex with girls every night. The female portion consists of Angelina, Jenni, "J-wow," Nicole, "Snookie," and Sammi, "Sweet Heart" who are equally as obsessed with their appearance and individual needs.
When I first watched the show I was not surprised that MTV had produced another filthy reality show. I continued to watch and I was astonished at how ridiculous the characters were acting. I found that was laughing at how absurd and totally worldly their mind sets were. I began to enjoy the show as an exaggeration of the evil world that we live in. Everything they were saying was incredibly stubborn and illogical They represent everything that is wrong with this world and the empire that controls us. The entire cast from Jersey Shore are products, or children of "mother empire." They live lives full of sin and self fulfillment. I would like to believe that MTV is hosting this show as a form of comedy rather than drama but I don't think the world is that fortunate. Instead, millions of teenage Americans will take this show seriously, adore the characters and replicate the purely self destructive lives which are portrayed on this sad show. Discussion Questions,
1.) What do you think about the messages that this show is giving to American youth?
2.) Do you think this show is a distinct development of the empire?
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