Cultural Artifact - Jayesslee

Jayesslee (link) are two twenty-three year old identical twin sisters, Janice and Sonia Lee. They are Koreans who are currently living in Australia and are both pursuing music. They do not have an album out (yet), but they have many videos on their youtube channel and are a very talented duo. I think that these two show the human purpose of giving all glory to God. At the beginning and end of their songs they always say "be blessed" and they are not afraid to express their faith. I think that they are a wonderful testimony because of the songs they sing and of the short message they say before their songs. It is also obvious that they have become more popular lately and they are really thankful to God for it because they recognize that their amazing musical talent comes from Him. They reveal the Kingdom of God in a way that shows that God gives everyone a spiritual gift, no matter what it may be, and when we use it to glorify and testify His name, we will be greatly blessed. They also reveal that we can be witnesses anywhere and bless others through anything, in their case, it's through music on youtube.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are your spiritual gifts that God has blessed you with?

2. How can you reach out to others through simple activities?

The Godfather

The Godfather
The original film The Godfather, the first movie in a 3 film trilogy, takes place in the 1940’s in New York City shortly after the conclusion of World War II. One of the main characters, Vito Corleone, runs one of the most prestigious, yet deadly Mob gangs of New York City (as well as the United States) along with his sons Michael, Santino, and Fredo. Early in the movie, Vito meets with Virgil Solazzo, a “top narcotics man”, to discuss a possible business partnership. Skeptical of the proposal, Vito declines the offer citing political and financial risks to his “family”. In spite of rejecting the offer, Vito insists that his decision was based purely on business and political savvy, rather than personal feelings. Feeling bitter and angry, Solazzo partners with the Tatagglia family, a rival “family” of the Corleone’s in New York City. The Tatagglia’s attempt to assassinate Don Vito, but were unsuccessful. With Vito recovering in the hospital for an extended period of time, Santino takes over the family and orders a series of violent attacks in response to the assassination attempt on his Father. Amid the violence, Santino is assassinated and Michael takes over the family business for the duration of the film (and the rest of the trilogy).

Overall, the film has a variety of elements from the Empire, but also promotes a variety of virtues and values that are consistent with the Kingdom. Concerning the Empire, the film has a plethora of events that occur as a result of the desire for vengeance. Throughout the film, violent vengeance was referred to as promoting “justice” or in other cases, “They hit us first, so we hit ‘em back.” The empire tells us that vengeance is almost always justified if somebody treats you poorly or hurts you in some way. In many ways, the empire insists that bad things happen to people who deserve it. The kingdom, however, insists that mankind ought to bless his or her enemies regardless of how poorly they may have first acted. Concerning vengeance, Romans 12:17-22 says, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. On the other hand, the film has a variety of moments that promote positive values that are consistent with the kingdom. Specifically, Vito Corleone emphasizes the importance of providing for one’s family, having mutual respect for others, and valuing genuine friendship.

Questions

1) As a society, do we value frienship or family the same way as many did during the 1940's ?

2) Though the film takes place in an entirely different time period and social environment, is it safe to say that certain principles and virtues will always be cherished and valued ?

Origins of Symmetry

For my second artifact, I decided to listen to the album Origins of Symmetry by Muse. Muse is an alternative rock band from England; the album was based on the book Hyper Space by Michio Kaku, which mainly debates metaphysical questions. I think Muse, like the bands named in David Darks book Everyday Apocalypse, while being very anti-religious, can have glimpses of an apocalyptic worldview. The band’s music is very intense, and the whole album seemed to have a creepy, sort of chilling demeanor. Also Matthew Bellamy’s voice (who is the lead singer) went into falsetto quite often, adding to the impactful style of music that Muse produces.

Through listening to Origins of symmetry I immediately picked up that the lyrics suggested a lack of faith, and a sort of hopelessness towards the future. For example, songs like “Hyper Music” spoke to me with lyrics that asked, “Who’s returned from the dead? Who remains?” and put a sour taste of helplessness in my mind. Other songs on the album, such as “New Born” and “Dark Shine”, have a very depressing feeling, and almost bitter. The song “Space Dementia” is referring to the feeling of being complete alone, or total isolationism. The songs that rang apocalyptic to me most were “Plug in Baby” and “Screenager”, which both question technology and calls attention to the apparent disconnect and isolation between communities of people due to computers and other gadgets. Muse seems to be saying people hide behind technology, and replace companionship with machines. Through these songs and others on the album, I would say that Muse values human relationships. They aren’t Christian, and by observation I think that they believe redemption comes from interpersonal relationships, and ultimately yourself. The album reveals many issues of the empire. Isolation, depression, loneliness, hopelessness, envy, and longing (which is specifically addressed in the song “Bliss”) are all addressed. Though the band calls out these exasperating feelings, they do not offer any solutions to fix this brokenness in the empire.


Discussion Questions:
1) What are possible solutions to the problems addressed by Muse about the empire? As Christians, should we have a different perspective?

2) Would you consider this band apocalyptic? Why or why not?

The REAL? Housewives of Orange County

The Real Housewives of Orange Country are anything but real. They are a group of currently 5 women who live in Orange Country, California in exclusive gated communities. They are all very rich and really don’t do much during the day except for Vicki who owns her own real estate company. The cameras follow the woman around as they interact with each other, the salon, their kids, the nail salon, their husbands and the mall. They love their Botox and tanning salons. Beauty and money is the most important thing in their life right now.

The lifestyle they live and try to live is, bigger is better. They are all about is how much money my husband or man in my life make, so I can do whatever I want. They set up this standard for each other and each tries to top it just a little bit. For example, Gretchen has said before, “you need to shave EVERY day; they always need to be silky smooth”. The scary thing is people may watch not just for entertainment as I do, but they may begin to think this is the way we should really be. These are the things we should strive for, the gold of the empire. Some people call it keeping up with the Jones.

I am absolutely not saying that everyone shouldn’t be rich, but not once have I seen these women, at least on camera, given back to ANYBODY. Not in service, not in monetary gifts and definitely not in kindness. They say they are just honest woman and will call you out. Being honest is fine; but doing it to be rude and stick it to the other person is what they intend to do and cover it up by saying I was just being honest.

Jesus calls us to give to the poor, to speak kindly, to not put things of this world first. It doesn’t look like this show is getting those items across. Lynne says, “It’s not about how much money you have, it’s about how good you look spending it”. First of all, that totally contradicts itself, but more importantly, that is the idea of culture today. Maybe not to the drastic measures that these ladies make it out to be but the Kingdom is not on the pedestal, Lip plumper is.

Questions:
What can we do to make sure our earthly things are not becoming more important to us than our work for the Kingdom and God?

What example can we set to those who want to follow the RHOC?

Family Guy: Apocalyptic, or Nihilistic?

After reading David Dark's thoughts on The Simpsons, I was interested to watch The Family Guy with new horizons. Dark proposed that The Simpsons was a kind of contemporary piece of apocalyptic literature, similar to the biblical book Revelation, in disclosing what N.T. Wright calls the "cosmic significance" of everyday events. We are invited to take a more heightened, alert perspective on people and facets of our everyday lives, and have a renewed perspective.

The Family Guy is notorious for its slap-stick humor, fast pace and cutaways, and taboo jokes. I've always loved the show, and thought of it as something of the "next generation" of a show like The Simpsons. The show follows an average dysfunctional family and watches as chaos ensues. The father is the stupid simpleton (Homer), the children Meg and Chris don't like their family (Bart & Lisa), and the mother Louis is a guiding figure (Marge). I had never been a huge follower of The Simpsons, so I figured this was probably just the next itineration of the similar idea. So after reading David Dark's analysis of the Simpsons as an apocalyptic window into culture, I was excited to see Family Guy as much of the same. I was wrong.

I seem to remember in class us discussing that David Dark had come to Calvin College, and discussed this very point. If I recall correctly, the significant difference that Dark himself noted with the Family Guy in particular was a distinct lack of love. Rather than the show being a kind of amplified caricature of people around us, and showing redeeming qualities of such characters, the Family Guy definitely seemed strictly interested in the tearing down of characters without redemption.

In the episode I watched, Meg wants to attend college, but doesn't have a strong enough extra-curricular portfolio for her application. She decides to write an article for her high school paper. Her father Peter thinks the article is boring, so secretly swaps it with a more sensational story of his own making: "Luke Perry is Gay." Perry finds out and files a lawsuit, so Peter tries to lure Perry into a gay pose with him to take a photo, to redeem Meg in the situation. In the end, Perry decides to do an interview with Meg, to which the episode closes with Peter's moral of the story: "Things work out if you do whatever you want and don't worry about the consequences."

Perhaps there are some redeeming qualities of the show: a strong demonstration of a father's sacrificial love, for example. But it's certainly a bit of a stretch, and it's a thin observation at that. On the whole, I think Dark's analysis rings true: the characters are more bent on hurting and humiliating one another without remorse, than striving for something more. While the show does indeed play on caricatures and stereotypes, rather than lovingly redeeming them, they serve as surrogates for racial and prejudiced jokes.

Augustine wrote in De Doctrine Christiana that people may variously interpret the scriptures, and some may even interpret them wrongly. But as long as the ultimate product is love, that is a relatively safe place to be. While The Simpsons perhaps strikes this balance, The Family Guy seems to not be interested.

Avatar

Well I went out with some of my friends on Saturday and saw Avatar in 3D at Rivertown Crossings Celebration Cinema. Both a wonderful mall experience and film experience at the same time. I didn't get around to shopping as my trips to the mall are usually go in, get my items, pay, and then leave. I am not big on trying on clothes or commenting on how cute the clothes look. Anyways, I went to the 5:30 showing. Several weeks after the movie's release, the movie theatre was still packed! Since there was five of us and we wanted to sit together, we had to take the seats in the very front of the auditorium (don't ever sit there unless you want neck problems). From the very start of the film I don't think I was ever let down. If the story line ever failed to intrigue me I instantly became enthralled in the animations. The $350M budget must have paid of since the movie has grossed over $1,000,000,000 worldwide, if not $2B. My friend, who is huge into movies with constant action was let down. I harassed him that just because you had to look a little deeper into the plot, that it didn't make it a bad movie. The graphics were phenomenal! I was amazed at the wonder of this new world, "Pandora", that they created. It was amazing how we could be sucked into this world and how beautiful it was. Plants lit up, creatures flew, and the world they created was amazing.

Through all of this I was just reminded how amazing our God is and how amazing the abilities are of the people he created. Hundreds of people spent hours and hours creating, directing, casting, and animating this film. It just blows my mind how complex God made us humans that we took what this world had to offer and made it into so much more. God's world is absolutely marvelous and it just amazes me the splendor of it all. But he lets us be so creative with our minds to the point that we make up entire new worlds in these movies along with new creatures and a new way to live. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who has not seen it yet. It is a great film!

How does God feel about us creating other worlds when he has provided us with a beautiful one right in front of us?

Why did God create so many stars and planets when creating the skies to have them unreachable by human beings?