Dr. Who: A Christmas Carol

                Dr. Who: A Christmas Carol is a retake and satire of the classic tale with a 900-year-old, time travelling, bow-tie wearing personality thrown in for good measure. Called “The Doctor”, he spirits down to serve as the lifesaving spirit of Christmas for an elderly miser. Also, he has a blue box that travels through time & space and is bigger on the inside. Minor details taken care of, Allons-y!

                Our future-contemporary Scrooge is Kazran Sardick, a peevish and empty man. The worst the world can offer, We the Viewers are led to believe, in his opening actions he withholds aid for a crashing spaceliner, condemning 4003 passengers for personal spite. The audience is made to believe he lacks empathy, mercy, human spirit. However, while furious, he refuses to strike a child.

With a blue-box-trip to Kazran’s past, The Doctor observes the violent relationship between Kazran’s father and young Kazran. To save the 4003 crashing decades later, The Doctor decides to serve as young Kazran’s better influence.

The perspective of Evil takes a generational-curse stance here. Not being shown another negative source in his life, the episode places the sins of the Father as the source of evil spread to the son. A black & white worldview character, The Doctor places himself in a place to change time.

The character arc followed by the episode attempts redemption. Using The Doctor as a Kingdom arbiter, the episode assumes promoting a life lived in joy will make Kazran a better man. This does not hold true.

 Failure occurs when the personal price of Kazran’s redemption comes from the woman he falls for as a result of The Doctor’s intervention. Well-meant intentions worked for Dicken’s ghosts, but The Doctor is a mortal agency, and never considers the cost of his actions. In fact, he absolves himself before his work begins. From the transcript Here:

DOCTOR:
There are 4,003 people I won't allow to die tonight. Do you know where that puts you?

KAZRAN:
Where?

DOCTOR:
4,004.

KAZRAN:
Was that a sort of threat-y thing?

DOCTOR:
Whatever happens tonight, remember... you brought it on yourself.

                By the end of the episode, Kazran accepts the price of The Doctor’s failure. As a Christmas story, a cheerful slant is cleverly applied, in Dickensian humor. However, the assumption of The Doctor as a godlike figure is cast into a bitter light. The conclusion asks We the Viewers “how far can we redeem ourselves?” Their answer is “to a place neither black or white, a gray between” At the end of the episode:

the DOCTOR looks up at the sky.

DOCTOR:
Halfway out of the dark.

1: Can “halfway out of the dark” be acceptable for a Kingdom citizen, or even possible? How is our fallen state a place for Christian culture to thrive?

2: The promotions for the show used the tagline “time- can be rewritten”. Will the work of others allay our responsibility in past deeds? How is our redemption not dependent on ourselves? How is it dependent?

Listener- "Wooden Heart"

      Although it was a challenge to limit myself to just one song for this post, I chose "Wooden Heart" by Listener. Listener is the musical alias Dan Smith, an Arkansas native. While he has recorded albums with a full band, he typically tours and performs alone using trumpets, washing machines and sledge hammers to make beats and interludes. His voice has a heaviness that is neither screaming or singing and is thought to be unique by most who hear it. The produced noises, however, are not meant to be the center of the performances. The lyrical content is at the heart of his live and recorded work.
    
       As we have discussed in Developing a Christian Mind, images have impacts. They can do anything from making shopping seam like a religious pilgrimage to triggering the imaginations of those who experience them. Images, however, are not always visual as Smith explores in this song.  He begins the song by illustrating the inevitable brokenness of life in this world by saying, "This war ship is sinking," but, in the same line, offers a glimpse of possible redemption by finishing the line, "But I still believe in anchors." His harsh voice chills but the background music is nearly relaxing, offering an interesting juxtaposition. The song uses imagery of boats, sailing, and tides, saying that we are all just shipwrecked parts but have the ability to, "Wash each other in tears of joy and tears of grief." He articulates well the balance of brokenness and despair in this life with the hope of redemption.
     
       While, perhaps, some of the arrangements of words that are used in this song can be perceived as cliche, Smith's work is still filled with apocalyptic details. Neither explicitly Christian or Not, the song is certainly a work of art and not propaganda. The song's integrity will not be threatened by creative interpretation,  but requires it.

      I have found the Kingdom of God peeking through the work of Listener, particularly in this song. It reminds us of our need for healing, our responsibility to one another and the sobering fact that we still need an outside force of grace to truly live ("Come on and sew us together, we're just tattered rags stained..") Apolyptic art such as this has the ability to draw in the believer and non-believer alike and being outside of typical confines of genre, this song can, and hopefully has and will, offer Kingdom glimpses to many people.

Discussion questions: Is it important to know what an artist is trying to say through their work? Or is our own interpretation more important?
Does genre labeling dictate whether or not we will give a musical artist a chance?

USA Hockey magazine

For this blog, I read the most recent edition of the USA Hockey magazine. This magazine contains everything that is currently going on in the hockey world, from new equipment to recent games around the world and even what some NHL players are doing for charity and different children's hospitals. This magazine does a really good job of bringing new and effective ways of training at all levels, along with putting some of the myths about this and that to rest. This magazine helps to shape the human purpose through consumerism and promoting healthy eating, along with camps for children to promote an active lifestyle. USA Hockey is always trying so sell you different things and for a good reason, most of the stuff they promote is protective equipment, for good reasons. They sometimes show us how we aren't perfect and that even pros go out and redeem themselves by doing all kinds of work with sick kids, charity work, and promoting the sport of hockey as a good way to live an active lifestyle.

USA Hockey magazine I believe portrays the good qualities of the kingdom of God. Although sometimes the magazine points out our flaws in violence, but for the most part it shows us the good qualities. There are stories of people getting greedy with the amount of money that they make which is not what God wants, but the stories often end with the people getting their lives back on track and doing charity work or the work of God in other forms. Every issue of the magazine has a page devoted to helping people with their struggles in the sport or life outside of the sport and they offer ways of helping the people through their difficulties.

1) Why are we able to skip an article about the good in the sport or what people are doing to better the world or the sport with ease and dive right in to an article about violence?

2) Which do you believe to be a healthier lifestyle, actively playing a sport or exercising regularly and eating healthy?

Gossip Girl

For my first artifact I decided to watch an hour of television. I chose to watch the 16^th episode in the fourth season of Gossip Girl. Gossip girl is a dramatized show that revolves all around life in the Upper East Side of New York. It focuses on many stories of multiple people - young and old alike. Through many schemes and large amounts of drama we come to learn, as viewers, how all of these characters are connected by events that have happened in their past.

This episode reveals how broken life is in the empire where we allow society to run our lives. Many characters exemplify this throughout the episode. The character of Blair earns a prestigious spot for a new internship. Her boss tells her that she needs to dedicate her life to everything fashion and society constantly tells her what she is doing isn't good enough. Through the struggle to try and please not only her boss, but society as well, Blair disappoints her mom, gets in arguments with her best friends, loses many hours of sleep and eventually ends up getting fired. Like Blair, we get caught up in what society tells us is important. For our best interest we cannot allow the empire to run our lives in this manner. We need to learn to discern what actions help us to promote the Kingdom of God and what actions do not. If we do not learn this skill we are the ones who end up suffering in the long run. Another character that shows the affect the empire has on the world is the character of Lily. To protect her daughter, Serena, Lily tells an extravagant lie that sends an innocent man to prison. She goes years without addressing this issue with her children and acts like it doesn't exist. Society has taught us that being selfish and fighting for all of our own best interests at the sake of others is perfectly okay. It has taught us that if we don’t think about our mistakes then those mistakes aren't really affecting us or the people around us. When we let the empire get control of our actions and our thoughts we become more selfish and ignorant.

Considering we are already so deeply rooted in the empire and what society demands of us, how can we work on getting ourselves out of this rut? These cases represented by Gossip Girl are a little bit dramatic, what are ways we allow the empire and society to run our lives on a much smaller scale?

The Ides of March

Recently I watched the film, The Ides of March. The movie takes us into the life of Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), a staffer on Mike Morris’ (George Clooney) campaign to become the next president of the United States. Meyers starts the movie with an idealistic dream that Morris will “fix” government as we know it, but, by the end of the movie, finds himself caught up and participating in the same dirtiness and corruption that he thought he was fighting against.

Meyers story is perhaps all too familiar to us in this day and age. We believe we can change the world, that our generation will stop this and end that. Yet, we often find ourselves compromising our values and once solid beliefs in order to gain a little power here, perhaps a little more influence over there. Soon we find ourselves sliding down a slippery slope where lies, deceit, and exploitation run rampant. We start off with a goal of redemption but often, when it’s all said and done, reflect more of the fall. That is the great power of the Empire. It takes well-meaning efforts and seduces them and twists them without us even knowing until it’s too late. The Empire capitalizes on even one slip up and uses it to snowball us into a life that no longer reflects the Kingdom of God. Meyers’ story is a perfect example. His initial ideas of change and making right the wrong are shattered when he discovers that Mike Morris is having an affair with one of the campaign aids. Meyers makes some career mistakes that leads to his firing but uses the information of Morris’ affair to effectively blackmail Morris into rehiring him and firing someone else. Meyers had become part of the system (the Empire) that he was trying to fight against.

Questions:

How do we respond when faced with a chance to increase our own power even when it means submitting to the Empire?

What are the tiny choices we make every day that lead us down that “slippery slope”?

Men's Health

My cultural artifact is the Men's Health magazine. The magazine basically consists of everything a man loves according to research. Whether it is lifting weights, new diets, living a healthy lifestyle, cologne, sex, cars, and more. However, Men's Health does a good job teaching different exercises and they bring forth the scams and lies that you have heard about your whole life.

This magazine shapes the human purpose into consumerism and trying to live a healthy lifestyle. Which, is not a bad thing. They want you to buy their special cologne, or fancy watch, or waterproof jacket. Thats the consumerism part. But, they do a good job with telling the evils like smoking, and how it is awful for your health, or drinking to much can damage your liver. Then they shows you ways of redemption, like how to get your life back on track with working out, how to cure your stress levels, and how to have a healthier body all year.

Men’s Health I believe portrays good qualities of the kingdom of God. God does not enjoy it when we smoke or get drunk, God want us to live a healthy and happy life. Men’s Health does a good job with this. Like I said, its focus is to get your life back on track. In one of the issues of Men’s Health, they teach you new ways to cure your fears and anxieties, new ways to fight depression, new ways to to be a better dad to your offspring, and finally new ways to gain self confidence and boost up your self esteem.

1. Why is it that when we open a magazine and his some ads in it, we are so quick to say this oh this gonna be stupid the whole thing is ads?
2. Do you believe that living a healthier lifestyle can rub off on your friends so they healthy lifestyle too?

The Blind Side

The Blind side is a true story based on an All American Football Player, Michael Oher. Michael Oher, also known as "Big Mike" was a homeless teenager. He stayed with a janitor who worked in an upper-class prep school. One day he brought his son and Big Mike to the school and was able to convince the school's coach to accept both his son and Mike into the school. But later, Michael was no longer able to stay with the janitor because of the janitor’s wife and is stranded in a mostly white school without anywhere to go and found by Leigh and her husband Sean. The family decides to bring him to the house and let him stay with them and is later on considered as one of the family and becomes one of the family. They not only provide him with a loving home but also the extra help in making him what he is today.

In the story we could see a glimpse of how the coach acts as a two faced individual who acts as if he was selfless but actually was selfish. In the first part of the movie he was the one to convince all the other faculty and board members to bring Mike into the school but as we keep watching the movie we later on see the real purpose of the coach. He saw Mike’s potential of being a good football player because of how big Mike was. His plan was to use Mike as a football player on his team by using Mikes anger towards the world, which Mike didn’t have. Through this we see how the coach tries to control Mike because he feels as if he was Mike’s maker since he was the one to have given him a new life by giving him a chance to be in the school. But instead of the coaches way to approach Mike the strategy that works is through the love of the new family Mike had.

Leigh the mother knew exactly what to do and with the support of his new brother and family Michael was able to be the best player the school has ever had.

This story also shows us an example of what in the book of Colossians explains a church to be: A community of loving people who are able to fill other people with the love of Christ. Leigh was a perfect example of what each one of us as people from the kingdom of God have to be like. But are we able to show Gods love like she did? And if not in her way, in what other ways are we able to show Gods love? What is your understanding of true Kingdom love?

Fringe: White Tulip Artifact 1

Fringe is a television series created by J. J Abrams,  Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Fringe follows the casework of the Fringe Division, a Joint Federal Task Force supported primarily by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which includes Agent Olivia Dunham; Dr. Walter Bishop, the mad scientist; and Peter Bishop, Walter's estranged son and jack-of-all-trades. They are supported by Phillip Broyles, the force's director, and Agent Astrid Farnsworth, who assists Walter in the research. The Fringe Division investigates cases relating to fringe science, ranging from transhumanist experiments gone wrong to the destructive technological singularity to a possible collision of two parallel universes. The Fringe Division's work often intersects with advanced biotechnology developed by a company called Massive Dynamic, founded by Walter's former partner, Dr. William Bell and run by their common friend, Nina Sharp. The team is also watched silently by a group of bald, pale men who are called "Observers". The White Tulip episode is about how Walter will finally tell Peter that he is not from this world, but that he took him from the other universe. (Walter's son died in his universe, and was unable to save him. However, in the other universe, the other Peter was still alive. Walter found a cure for saving him, and so he took the other Peter from the other side back with him to save him). The Fringe team is dealing with a case about how a man is trying to time jump back to the past to save his wife from a terrible car crash, but in the process is killing the people around him, depending on where he lands in the past.


The stories that Fringe tells about human purpose is that whoever is controlling these events does not care about human life at all. As they described in Fringe, "Whoever is doing these events is using the whole world to test their experiments". Some of the Fringe episodes deal with few to many people losing their lives because of the events, and the team has to inform their next of kin what has happened to them. The nature of evil and redemption in this series is the events that occur and even though they solve the case, each episode leaves them with more questions to answer than they started with. As they uncover more secrets, it always results in more questions. 


Fringe reveals that life in the empire is not always perfect. There are questions that we cannot answer, and yet we are not truly satisfied with that. The empire is dirty, broken, all encompassing, etc. And that is the way that things are in the Fringe series. Their universe is filled with all sorts of evil and they are trying to find out in what ways they can stop the evil events from occurring. 


Question One: Should we be satisfied with the questions we want answered, or should we always be longing for more answers even though we cannot get them?


Question Two: 
Walter: "Everything that had happened to me since, was God punishing me. I've asked God for forgiveness, a specific one: a white tulip."
Alistair: "Tulips don't bloom this time of year, white or otherwise"
Walter: "But He's God"
Alistair: "God is science. God is polio and flu vaccines, etc. If you're a man of science, then that's the only faith you will need"
There are two ways to approach how we see God. We can see Him doing miraculous things, even when it doesn't seem possible, or we can see Him as the science in the world, and how He created the terrible illnesses that hurt lives. Should we see God as both things? Or do we favor one more than the other?

I encourage you to watch this short clip in the episode. I thought it was very moving! :)
White Tulip Scene

The Matrix

The Matrix is a sci-fi action thriller that challenges the nature of reality. Neo, a computer hacker, has found evidence of “the matrix”; a computer software program that controls the majority of humans. He is pursued by Morphius, leader of the “free” people, who believes that Neo is “the one” to save all people from the false reality of the matrix. The movie is full of action, betrayal, twists and turns, and best of all a deep provoking insight that we all can observe.

In the movie, the majority of humans are “plugged into” the matrix. There are only a few “free” people who have been released from the bonds of the matrix. I believe this movie sets out to suggest to people that our society may be considered a matrix; a type of dreamland keeping us from realizing true reality. Neo has been given the role as the redeemer, to set all people free from the matrix. This appears to me as a clear reflection of Jesus being the one to save us from the empire and our own depravity and recruit us for the furthering of the Kingdom of God.

Once someone has become literally unplugged from the matrix and its false reality, they can then see the matrix for what it really is, and also see what the real world is as well. I believe this idea of becoming unplugged can be applied for us as Christians. We must become unplugged from societies bonds and expectations and the false reality that we are born into. We must then use our new found insight to discern the world which we live in. This artifact suggests that the empire has control over us and we are not truly living; we live and respond to only what has been put before us.

If you were plugged into the Matrix, would you really want to become unplugged and realize the true nature of the world (which is portrayed by the movie as a very dark, dismal, unpleasant place)? Why or why not?

What are some examples from our society that may reflect a type of matrix as shown in the movie?

"Sexy And I Know It" by LMFAO

As a way to further challenge myself with this post I blindly chose to respond to the #1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 list (i.e. the most popular songs for the week of January 14, 2012). That song, it just so happens, is "Sexy And I Know It" by LMFAO. An electro pop duo, LMFAO formed in 2006. This particular single was released on October 3, 2011 as part of their sophomore album Sorry for Party Rocking. Unfortunately, this sarcastic allusion to forgiveness may be one of its few (if not its only) redeemable qualities.

Opening with a simple and playful synthesized bass, "Sexy And I Know It" breaks early with an all too cliche' and egocentric reference to the artist's personal appearance. ("When I walk on by, girls be looking like damn he fly.") Almost reminiscent of Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy", "Sexy And I Know It" pushes the limits of conceit to new levels, driven by both the self-love and self-idolatry of the artist. What ensues can only be described as a poor attempt at hypnosis. In an effort to persuade the target audience, LMFAO includes a pre-chorus marked by a sort of repetitive mantra ("Girl look at that body,") followed immediately by a clever punctuation ("I work out.").

Building further the song continues ("When I walk in the spot, this is what I see / Everybody stops and they staring at me / I got a passion in my pants and I ain't afraid to show it, show it, show it, show it"). Finally, the line we've all been waiting for ("I'm sexy and I know it.).

Ultimately, this song tells us that healthy self-confidence is not enough. While the Kingdom vision involves loving our neighbors as ourselves and caring for the orphan and the widow, LMFAO offers a different vision for human purpose: disregard others (unless they are "ladies," "girls," or "Bruce Lee") and idolize the self. Turning a blind eye to the realities of the world, this imperial vision doesn't leave room for the oppressed or the poor and offers little to nothing in the way of restoring anything at all. The content of this song is so awful that I'm almost positive it's a joke.

While I was unable to see the Kingdom in "Sexy And I Know It," I was able to walk away with something else: the wisdom that sometimes a spade is really just a spade. My earnest intention was to discover the redemptive in this artifact. However, after just a few sentences I found myself weaving a hilarious story that the song quite obviously wasn't meant to tell (like Jesus having no shoes, no shirt, and "still getting service" or contrasting the artist's willingness to reveal the "passion in his pants" with the old song from Sunday school, "This Little Light of Mine"). Altogether, I was able to unearth just one positive attribute of the song that is tentatively and potentially apocalyptic: its dance-a-bility and the power of dance to bring people together in community.

Discussion Questions
1. What does the popularity of this song tell us about the priorities of the public? Is this good art? Why or why not?
2. Should we numb ourselves to the content of a song in order to enjoy the music?

Gladiator - Artifact 1

This movie is about a successful Roman general named Maximus who is offered the position to be Caesar by the emperor, Marcus Aurelius himself. In a series of events fueled by the jealousy of the son Commodus, Maximus was sent to die, picked up by slavers, and bought to be a gladiator in Rome. I chose this movie as an artifact because it shows how a man, who was once for the advancement of the empire, found himself having to fight to stay alive for their entertainment.  Maximus had experienced two distinct ways of life, as an esteemed general and then as a lowly gladiator, which created two perspectives on human purpose: that of a soldier for the progression of the empire and a gladiator whose purpose was to die. In the film, Marcus asks Maximus what the fighting was for, to which Maximus answers that it was for the glory of Rome. Marcus replies saying, “There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... it was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter." As a general, Maximus only saw that he was fighting for Caesar, for Rome, and for his men; that was his purpose, even if the empire’s own ruler believed that it was crumbling. As Maximus, many of us today fall into the cycle of the system around us. We align ourselves with the rituals and lifestyles of our day, in subconscious compliance to the rules of the empire. Many people believe that the system they know today will last forever, as it advertizes itself as eternal, however in most cases, it is a decaying lifestyle that often is detrimental to us. Toward the middle of the film, Maximus becomes a gladiator and his purpose is switched to amusement for Rome. He is not even expected to live, simply to entertain. This in many ways reflects the underprivileged in our society. They are often used by the empire as amusing puppets and slaves to help them influence the consumers.

Question #1- How is Maximus' initial blind following of the empire similar to how many follow modern empires?

Question #2- Why do some people, who know that the empire is failing, continue to follow it regardless?

Mad Men: Broken Images

Mad Men is one of the most successful shows on Television. The stylish drama about ad men in the 1950’s has won four Golden Globes and been nominated for over 100 other awards. The show artfully deconstructs the myth that that decade was happier or more innocent than our own by showing human lives that are nothing like the era’s advertisements would have us imagine. I watched the Season One finale, which really exemplifies a lot of the themes that can be seen throughout the season.

Some of the most prominent themes in Mad Men are those of commercialism and image. Those often go together, as Walsh and Keesmaat say in Colossians Remixed: “A society directed by the consumerist imperatives of global capitalism is driven by images with a vengeance.” One example of this is the opening credits, which show a well-dressed man jumping off the top of a skyscraper that is made up of gigantic advertisements and falling, floating almost, down into a jumbled mass of lurid squares that are all selling something. Each character in the series is selling something as well; they all hide behind personas they want to have, and no one is as they seem. A poised, beautiful housewife is an emotional wreck, a confident actress is crippled by insecurities, a little boy is a surprisingly old soul. In this episode, titled “The Wheel”, we see many of those façades come crashing down.

Donald Draper, a partner in the advertising firm Sterling-Cooper, has been living a life of multilayered lies. He is an individualist, a “self-made” man. He projects an image of suave security over his many affairs, growing alcoholism, and impoverished background. Along with his image, he has firmly bought into the religion of consumerism. In one scene he tells his co-workers, “bringing in business is the key to your salary, your status and your self-worth”

In one of the final, and often-talked about scenes, Don Draper pitches his idea for a slide projector. He will not call it, as requested, a “wheel” but a “carousel” because the word evokes childhood and simpler times. In a moving speech over soft, stirring music, Draper appeals to the nostalgia of the men as he shows slides of his own picture-perfect family. He explains that the ads will not be selling slide projectors, but pleasant memories of times past. It is a moving speech, and the look on Don’s face as he gives it shows that he is nearly convincing himself. But the truth is that his beautiful wife has recently discovered his affairs and his children are strangers. The businessmen are inspired by his speech and he makes the deal, but the beautiful image he crafted is not true. He drives home that night to find his family gone. Sitting on his steps in the dark with his head in his hands, reality makes a brutal appearance. It is nothing that was shown in the slide show.

This is an episode of brokenness. Every single character is broken. Harry sleeps in the office because his wife won’t let him come home after he had a fling with his secretary. Peggy gives birth to a baby she doesn’t want, and the father, Pete, is married to someone else. This episode does not shy away from the brokenness but lingers on it, until we too feel a pang. Draper, in fact, defines nostalgia as “the pang from an old wound”. We, like him, long for better, simpler, sweeter days. But it’s a longing that hurts because we can’t go back.

Perhaps it is because the story will continue in the next season, or perhaps it is merely the nature of the show, but there is no redemption in this episode. The characters merely change from broken beings shrouded in their own secrets to being laid bare in their brokenness for all of us to see.

But that is life in the empire: people perpetually looking for something to fill them, whether it’s a slide projector to heal their aches, or a weight-loss belt to fill them with confidence, characters look for material things to fill immaterial holes. This show gives us a unique glimpse into this through the way we see the agency blatantly, purposefully sell not products but feelings and emotions. We know, from our jaded perspective, that the “carousel” is nothing but chunk of plastic, but we can’t help hoping the purchase of one may actually, like the advertisement promises, transport us away from our problems and to a place where things are right.

1. Why, in this episode, is the past a more compelling draw than the future or the present?

2. Have we, as a culture, reduced ourselves to products that can be marketed, valued and sold?

Attention Please - Cultural Artifact #1

For my cultural artifact, I watched an episode of a Japanese television drama called Attention Please. The series is about Misaki Yoko, an energetic, tomboyish girl who desires to become an elegant, refined flight attendant. As a trainee, Misaki is very clumsy and awkward, and she often gets herself and her friends in trouble with the supervisors and the other flight attendant trainees.

The main themes of the series are selflessness, forgiveness, and the value of friends. In one episode that illustrates all of these themes nicely, Misaki's friend Yuuki is having trouble with her first aid training, and won't be able to graduate unless she can pass it. In her usual well-intentioned but mischievous fashion, Misaki helps her friend by "borrowing" the dummy used for first aid practice and sneaking off with Yuuki to practice in secret. Yuuki protests that it's not right to take the dummy, but Misaki ignores her protests and drags her along anyway. Because three people are needed to practice, Misaki also drags along her other friend Yayoi, who had plans for a date that evening, and wouldn't have gone if it weren't for Yuuki. The girls end up accidentally breaking the dummy during practice, and Misaki decides that it would be best to hide it at her house until they could fix it. On their way back, the dummy loses an arm. The short-tempered Misaki and the stressed-out Yayoi have a major fight over whose fault it was, and the two end up not speaking to each other. Tensions between the two run high for a while, and their entire class suffers for it. In the end, the two bump into each other while individually searching for the lost arm, realize they both care about Yuuki, and finally make up with each other. Calm and focused at last, the girls practice hard, and they are all able to pass the first aid training.

As I said, the episode illustrates the main themes of the series quite well. Despite knowing she could get herself in trouble, Misaki selflessly helps Yuuki with her first aid training. Yayoi selflessly joins them even though she finally got her first date with her crush. Misaki and Yayoi forgive each other for overreacting under stress, Yayoi's date immediately forgives her for not showing up, and the supervisor forgives the girls for stealing the dummy. When they finally get back to school, the friends stick together and all accept equal responsibility for stealing the dummy, even though it was Misaki's idea. Though Misaki would be a terrible role model in real life, she still teaches us some valuable lessons. If we were able to help our friends only by putting ourselves at risk or by giving up something precious, could we be as selfless as Misaki or Yayoi? Should we stick by our friends when they're in trouble, even if we are not personally in trouble, and if so, would we? Finally, are we able to forgive our friends and make amends with them despite how angry we are with them or how wrong we think they are?

Trip Lee - Between Two Worlds

Between Two Worlds is a Christian rap album released by Trip Lee in 2010. The genre of Christian rap really started to take off around 10 years ago. I started listening to Trip Lee and other artists after a friend recommended them to me, and I’ve gotten more into it over the last couple of years.

While Trip Lee’s music is catchy and has great beats, what has kept me interested and engaged in it is the great theology behind the songs. The album is certainly not just one of those consumer items labeled as “Christian” in order to sell. Trip Lee tells it like it is, and his music is firmly based in Scripture.

Especially prevalent in this album is the picture of a fallen world and the redemption that Christ brings. Prognosis is a unique song in which Trip Lee tells the state of his sinfulness through the analogy of what it would feel like to learn that you have contracted a fatal disease. At the end of the song he switches over to rapping about spiritual disease, and the utter despair we’d be left with without Jesus. Another song, Twisted, is about how fallen the world is. It’s about just how totally messed up things are. It especially emphasizes the good gifts the Father has given us, and how we’ve taken those and pridefully twisted them to honor ourselves. Yet in these songs Trip Lee doesn’t leave us in despair.  He weaves Jesus’ redemptive work into all of them. One song, The Invasion(Hero), does this especially well. It tells of Jesus as our hero, the one to redeem us and bring his kingdom into the world. There’s a great lyric from this song that I think clearly shows Jesus’ redemptive kingdom work:

The root of every need is separation from Creator
Jesus came humbly to restore us to our maker
And later He'll restore all that He made bruh, He's Jesus

Discussion Questions

1.       What are some common gifts from God that we often twist and distort as Christians?

2.       Like the fatal disease in Prognosis, how can other worldly or physical problems tell us about our human nature, and how can we link them to the gospel?

Corn... It's in our hair and in our food!

On Wednesday night, a few of my classmates and I viewed the film “King Corn,” which is a documentary that two best friends made when they found out that there were traces of corn in their hair and they wanted to further investigate. I was really looking forward to this film because I thought it would be very interesting, but unfortunately I quickly lost interest and became bored.
The two friends plant an acre of corn and then trace where the corn goes after it is made and found that a lot goes into the food that we eat every day, especially in the form of high fructose corn syrup. I liked how they traced the history of corn and how it has been harvested and how that has changed over the years. An amazing fact is that currently farmers can produce four times the amount of corn in the same area than just a couple decades ago. Increased technology and knowledge has really improved the corn industry. I was very surprised when one farmer stated that he and his family do not even use the corn that they harvest because it is such poor quality because they have to produce it so quickly because of the high demanding American society. Farmers only make the corn to send it off and make a living off of the money that they make.
In a review in the Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips (http://chicago.metromix.com/movies/movie_review/movie-review-king-corn/247658/content), the film received 3.5/4 stars. Although I did not think the film was especially interesting or funny, such as the article suggests, I would agree with the rating because of the fact that it is very informative about the corn industry and made its viewers think twice about going out to order a Big Mac or drink pop. It definitely made me rethink the foods that I eat and made me more aware of the unhealthiness of many foods that I eat that contain this high fructose corn syrup. This film really informs its viewers so they can make healthier food choices and be more appreciative of where their food comes from!

A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education

On Tuesday I attended the January Series entitled “A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education.” Although all of the January Series have been interesting, this one in particular was especially interesting to me because I am an education major. Pedro Noguera studies how schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment and spoke about school reform and the increasing achievement gap. Pedro stated that America is falling behind other countries in academic and graduation rates, which was a depressing statement for me to hear, although not surprising. This is where the idea of human purpose comes in. Organizations such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have been created to combat this decrease in American educational progress. We cannot just sit around and hope that it is going to get better on its own, because it won’t. But the problem with NCLB is that is focuses on the symptoms of the problem, rather than the causes. For example, a large portion of our society is living in poverty; therefore many students’ basic needs are not being met, but nothing is being done to help this situation.
Pedro also commented that one school that he visited had a “sick and dysfunctional culture,” including fear, blame and no collaboration among staff members. This type of culture is a direct result of sin and life of the “empire.” Many schools are broken in America and are not willing to make sacrifices to improve the situation. But, on a brighter note, one school that Pedro visited was a shining example of God’s Kingdom. The principal of the school is a wonderful woman who sacrifices her time and energy to help the school flourish, by restructuring the school, educating the parents of the students, making an after school program which goes all the way to six o’clock (which is when the shelters open) and instilling good values in the students, such as discipline, responsibility and citizenship. She also brought in many outside organizations to help her school, and when Pedro asked her who helped her do that, she replied that she did it on her own, “You think I could wait for the district to help me?” This principal’s will is encouraging to me and many others, demonstrating that where there is a will, there is a way: improving schools and increasing success really is possible, but radical changes must be made, and time and effort must be put into it.
1. How can we, as college students, do something to help improve the current education system?
2. Are bad teachers the cause of the failure of many schools in America, or is there something
else?

Blue Mountain State - Artifact 1

Blue Mountain State

For my first artifact, I chose to watch an hour of television.  I took in two episodes of the show Blue Mountain State.  The show follows three freshmen at Blue Mountain State University, as they try to deal with all the advantages and disadvantages of playing on a Division I football team.  The boys go through a lot of unscrupulous hazing and bullying from upperclassmen, but in the end, they see it as all worthwhile as they see the perks of being the most popular men on campus. 

This show tells us that we must all endure hardship to gain the final prize.  This is very much like the life of Christians.  We devote our time to God when we might rather be doing something else, but in the end the eternal goal is salvation, just like how the boys of Blue Mountain State go through difficulty and misery in order to achieve their desired lifestyle.  God put us on earth to serve him and restore his kingdom.  The characters of Blue Mountain State show no regard for laws or morals as they go out to seek a life center around themselves and not God.  In the first episode I watched, Thad the senior captain of the football team seeks out his own pleasure by putting all the new recruits through intense and demeaning hazing, meant to show the upperclassmen’s seniority of the freshmen.  As a Christian watching this show, I felt the very things that the characters were praising (sex, drugs, and alcohol) were the very things that should have been portrayed as evil.  Instead characters had remorse not over what I thought of as wrong, but of what they did when they were drunk or high.  The show glorifies hazing, sex, drugs, and alcohol as a rite of passage and that all teenagers must endure.  The college experience is portrayed as what our society has turned into.  It shows us just a part of what life in empire is like.  Fortunately not all of culture is as crazy as Blue Mountain State, but what we see is the exact opposite of the Kingdom of God.  In the Kingdom of God, we set out to please our maker not ourselves.

1.  This was the first time I have watched this show and probably the last, but is watching this kind of show, that glorifies what we see as evil, fine for the Christian mind?

2.  Should Christians be ashamed of the life being portrayed of Americans in Blue Mountain State, even if we have nowhere near the same lifestyle as these college boys?

Cultural Artifact 1 - Grey's Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy is a medical drama tv series featuring the lives of doctors in Seattle Grace Hospital. It first started in 2005 and is still going on with its 8th season. I've only been watching the series for a couple of months now starting with the very first episode of season 1. One of my favorite episode is the 5th one from season 1. This particular episode tells a story about being a responsible adult.

Meredith, the main character, realizes that she must take on a lot more responsibility when she was told that her mother, whom used to be a legendary surgeon now suffering with the Alzheimer's disease, needs to sign over all of her assets to her(Meredith). Meredith responds, "Me? Look, I haven't slept in 48 hours. I'm having my first shot at heart surgery this morning. I'm missing rounds. Are you sure there isn't anybody here or the attorney? I mean, do I really have to be the one to handle this?" and the nursing home lady said, "I'm talking about her state, her finances, her medical care. Do you really want to leave her life in someone else's hand? She's your mother!" Right at this moment, I thought about our role in God's Kingdom. God's Kingdom is already here but, not completely yet. It gives us blueprints for our lives and requires us to be good stewards. It seems like we are being Meri\ediths towards God's Kingdom and our responsibility for it. As we grow and mature in faith, we realize that there is more to be responsible for the Kingdom, and it is not always easy to be so. Therefore, we sometimes deny and avoid the responsibilities and that limits our faith to grow and mature more. After Meredith goes through her mistakes at her job, she learns that she needs to overcome fear to grow more and become more responsible. The episode ends by Meredith taking one more step forward to the responsible-adulthood by signing the papers. Just like that, I think God is requiring us to overcome the hardships that limits our faith to grow and take one more step forward to become better, mature and more responsible stewards of His Kingdom.

-What is God requiring us to overcome?

-In what ways are you trying to grow or take one more step forward?

artifact 1

Uglies is a book that was written by Scott Westerfield and was officially published in February of 2005. The book primarily focuses on outer beauty and how those who are not beautiful are 'uglies' and therefore not even acceptable in society. Tally is the main character and the book talks about her struggles in trying to understand this society. 

This very much represents what our society is slowly turning into today. The youth especially are being forced into a society that tells them that their not good enough the way they are and they have to change the way they look in order to be 'beautiful.' There are a few in the book that choose not to become pretties and runaway and these people are looked down on. In many ways, this is how our society is today. The evil of beauty is just as dominant in our world today as it was in Tally's world. People are judged today just because they're eyes are not perfect, their ears are too big, or even simply because they don't look like the super models or the actresses and actors that we see in everyday media. We are simply being taught that we are not good enough the way God made us. Life in the empire is becoming sadder and sadder and this is the harsh reality of what we are slowly becoming. In the kingdom of God we will all be made equals anyway and God loves us just the way we are because he created each and every one of us. 

What can we do to help re-shape and re-build the minds of the youth today? How can we as Christians not be sucked into a society where outer appearance is the only thing that matters and sometimes is what leads people to judge us? And how would God react to the way that some of us are slowly starting to think a little too much about our outer appearances?