Arrested Development

Ask anyone with half a brain and a netflix account, and they'll tell you that Arrested Development is by far the most well-written TV comedy to ever grace our eyes and ears. A telling of one family and their issues that stem from the family's deep-seeded and inherent greed. What Arrested Development teaches us is that evil comes from greed, and greed from a lack of both intelligence and family-based priorities. Redemption is found in actions that stem from honesty, integrity, and selflessness. The idea of redemption is one of the most key themes within Arrested Development, as Michael Bluth, the middle son and protagonist of the series seeks to undo his fathers actions that brought the family company and the family itself. After watching any episode of this genius comedy, I can't help but wonder, what one of the seven deadly sins would bring my family to ruin, and am I doing anything to prevent that from happening?

Friends

       For my second cultural artifact, I chose to watch an hour of Friends. This is a show in which six friends all live together or close to each other and hang out all the time. They each go through their ups and downs, along with lots of comical moments thrown in there.
       This artifact doesn't tell very much about human purpose. From what I watched, the main thing it said was that humans are meant to live in community. They are supposed to be with and love people. All the characters show this very well and continue to live with each other, even if they are mad at each other. I think that watching this show makes me realize few things about evil. I realized how often sex is referred to and actually happens in a lot of tv shows and movies. Not only is it Joey, the friend who "dates" lots of women, but every single of the friends in the show have had sex before they are married. I also noticed how all the women in the show that Joey "dates" are beautiful, but very skinny. Actually, almost all the women in the show are skinny. The redemption comes when they are in community. They give each other support and try to help each other do the right things, not only in the episodes that I watched, but in all of them.
        Why are there no people of color in the friend group shown? Why is it socially accepted that sex before marriage is okay and can be shown to the younger generations of the world?

The Majestic Mountains

The television show Planet Earth, made by Discovery Channel, may as well be the best made educational and entertaining show on the features of this earth we are living on. I just recently saw an episode that focused on the mountains. It explained how it formed, showed the inhabitants of different mountains and how they adapt to the harsh living conditions of the place. The narrator, David Attenborough, mentioned that people often talk of conquering a mountain, and yet in truth they have not. “We are only visitors,” David said.

At first, if you’ve never seen Planet Earth before, it may sound boring but it is quite the opposite. This show teaches us to admire the nature that God has created. It is telling us about His creativity and His power and His attention to detail. It shows all the variety of mountains, plants and creatures that God has given us. But at the same time, this show demonstrates how all of creation has fallen; Pumas are trying to maim other animals for food and even male bighorn sheep fighting against each other as a proof of who’s stronger and a competition to decide who gets the female. Climate change has been changing the life of the different animals residing in the mountains. These mountains sometimes hold our violence and other people’s riches since drug trades often take place in mountains, where there are no eyes that spy. Even our attempts to conquer the highest of mountains, Mount Everest, show our fellness, in that these attempts highlight our desire for personal glory. We long for the recognition that comes with being able to scale that treacherous mountain.

With all the majesty of the mountains and the adorableness of the different creatures, it makes you wonder what it will be like in the new earth and heaven. If the natural landscapes we have now are already breathtaking, how much more when Jesus comes again?

But until then questions arise:

What are we personally doing to care for nature?

How can we prevent the extinction of endangered species?

Cultural Artifact 2: The Great Gatsby (Book)

The Great Gatsby is a classic novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story is about Nick, the narrator, and his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby fell in love with Nick's cousin, Daisy, back during their teenage years. Ever since then Gatsby has been trying to find a way to contact Daisy and succeeds once he meets Nick. Daisy and Gatsby's reunion is full of emotion as all the old feelings have been drudged up. At the same time, Daisy's husband, Tom, is having an affair with a gas station attendant's wife named Myrtle. As Daisy and Gatsby's affair becomes more serious, Tom begins to take notice. At a luncheon with Tom, Nick, Daisy, and Gatsby, Tom realizes that Gatsby is deeply in love with Gatsby. After a fuss Daisy realizes her devotion to Tom who makes her drive back to their home with Gatsby as a way to prove that he (Tom) has complete control over Daisy. Daisy is driving the car when she accidentally hits Myrtle. Eventually Myrtle's husband avenges her death by killing Gatsby in his backyard.

The nature of sin in The Great Gatsby is evident in the affairs that Tom and Daisy have; both of them are rich and feel entitled to being able to do whatever they want. The nature of sin is also seen in Gatsby's life. Gatsby has these extravagant stories that no one knows if they're true or not, so some people hate Gatsby while others love him for the lavish parties that he throws. The parties and stories are used to cover his insecurities and to make himself seem better for the Daisy. Within Gatsby and Daisy's affair there is sin on many levels because of the sexual aspect of the relationship, as well as Daisy being interested in Gatsby because of his acquired wealth not because he is a good person. Redemption can be seen in Gatsby because of his only motive for living is to win Daisy's heart. Even though this is a shallow reason for living, it makes the reader pity Gatsby and want him to win because he's the underdog. Nick is redeemed when, at the end of the novel, he returns back West because of the amount of corruption within the socialite life. Nick understands that life is valuable and emotions are not to be trifled with and doesn't want anything to do the life that he was living in the East.

This novel reveals many things about the Empire. The main point about the Empire in the Great Gatsby is that the Empire sucks you in and spits you out worse off. The Empire wants you to consume its goods mindlessly like the people that were "friends" with Gatsby did. All of Gatsby's "friends" were there to drink all of his booze and do outlandish things at his parties, they didn't care about the emotions and deeper aspects of Jay Gatsby, just that he had money to spend on things of the Empire. The Kingdom is shown in The Great Gatsby within Nick who is the moral compass of the group of characters. He tries to make things right between everybody, and after failed attempts, leaves West Egg to live a life that he can be proud of in the Western United States.

1. Is Gatsby ever redeemed during the novel?
2. Is Daisy at fault for  Myrtle's death, or it is simply a coincidence that her husband's lover was the people she hit?
3. Does Nick succeed at being a moral character?

Redeeming a Sinful World

“Princess Mononoke” is a story of a prince, Ashitaka, who, in a battle with a demon, is cursed and is forced to go find the cure for the curse through the nature god. On his journey to find the nature god, the prince encounters Princess Mononoke, a girl raised by nature, who is at battle with civilization. The civilization is led by Lady Eboshi who is industrializing a town and destroying the nature around it. A man named Jigo then comes into the conflict and enlists the help of Lady Eboshi in finding the nature god and beheading it, so that he may gain the reward set on its head.   

It is very easy to say that this story is opening up the discussion on what humans are doing to nature; that humans are so caught up in creating new weaponry that they completely forget about the gods around them that take care of the nature. I would argue that the story is more a story of redemption. The main civilization shown throughout this film is the village of Iron Town. Iron town does exactly what it sounds like; it creates iron. This town is led by Lady Eboshi who shows the first glance of redemption through her choice in workers. Lady Eboshi does not hire a bunch of men to work her iron mills; she hires women out of whorehouses to create the iron and lepers to create weaponry out of the iron. Redemption also shows its way into the story through the main character, Ashitaka. Ashitaka is on a quest for healing. On this quest he runs into the conflict between Iron Town and nature. When Ashitaka runs into the leader of nature side of the conflict, Princess Mononoke, he immediately falls for her. When Princess Mononoke decides to attack Iron Town, Ashitaka is forced to break up a fight between Lady Eboshi and Princess Mononoke by knocking both of them out. He then proceeds to carry Princess Mononoke out of Iron Town, getting himself shot on the way out. The Princess, in seeing what he has done for her, gets him to the center of the forest where the nature god dwells where Ashitaka finds himself healed by the waters of the nature god. Later in the story, Jigo and his men march on the dwelling of the nature spirit and behead the nature god. The body of the nature god goes on a rampage to find his head, to which Ashitaka and Princess Mononoke go out and take back the nature god’s head from Jigo, restoring order to the world. In returning the nature god’s head, Ashitaka is healed of his curse and the world is filled with new growth. As you can see, redemption is the main premise of this story as Ashitaka redeems himself of his curse and the world is redeemed by the Ashitaka’s sacrifice.

Question 1: What is our role in taking care of nature?

Question 2: What lessons come out of this film? What did you learn?

Question 3: One of the other themes of this movie is “sin” invading the world. How is “sin” portrayed in the characters of “Princess Mononoke”? What affect does “sin” have on the characters?  

Undercover Boss: Cultural Artifact #2

In Undercover Boss an owner of a large corporation works inside their business. The executives disguise themselves as someone unrecognizable. Lower level employee's take time to train their executive meanwhile the executive observes smaller details inside the manufacturing process as well as the employee's personal lives.
I watched a episode starring one of the biggest names in golf, Taylormade as well as the companies CEO (Mark King). Mark is a divorced 53 year old with two daughters ages 16 and 20. During the beginning of the episode, Mark spent time doing homework and talking with his youngest daughter. I could see how much Mark valued his daughters and how important family was to him despite being divorced. He expressed optimism towards his past divorce because his past marriage brought his two daughters into existence. I think family is too often taken for granted amidst the chase for materialistic things. Despite being the CEO of a large corporation, Mark still kept his family as his top priority through ending his day at 5 every evening to invest his time in his family. Divorce is always viewed as a bad thing in society, but good came from Mark's past relationship. Mark brings redemption to his family by creating relationships with his daughters and maintaing a family despite the loss of one member.
One of Mark's employee's dropped out of college at 19 to help fight his uninsured mom's financial battle against skin cancer. When Mark discovered the sacrifices his employee made for his family, he was hit hard. Mark choked up and shed a tear as he imagined what it would be like for his own children to sacrifice their future for him. Later on the employee was in shock when he found it he was training his very own CEO. Mark recognized a need in someone else's life and he provided financial resources for his employee to go back to school as well as paying for his mother's medical bills. Cancer presented itself to a mother, and Mark helped to redeem a family after a large financial loss.
    1. Corporations are often times too large to know their employee's personal lives, but how can they show appreciation towards all levels of employee's in their business?
    2. How can God's kingdom be advanced through customer satisfaction between a company and a consumer?

Cultural Artifact 2 | The Words

This weekend I watched The Words, originally shown at Sundance Film Festival; a romantic, mysterious and suspenseful drama about a young writer by the name of Rory Jansen, played by Bradley Cooper, who finally achieves his life goal of finally writing a book that a printing house will publish. The only catch is that he didn't write it; instead he found it hidden inside of an old briefcase that he finds in an old antique shop. As his eminence rises and his novel skyrockets in the bestselling ladder, the truth haunts him when the elderly, original writer confronts his actions.

Typically I'm not one for romantic movies, given that they’re unrealistic and entail foreseen events that are idealized for the 21^st century couple. Instead, The Words captures problems that every writer, publishing house, suffering relationship and distressed pasts undergo.

Redemption plays a glacial role in this movie. Lying and guilt transform into content, demanding viewer interaction with the morals involved. Through layers of history interpretation, the culture of the two faded into more of a “let it be” mentality between Rory and the nameless “old man” (the original writer), played by Jeremy Irons. The old man at first comes off as threatening, like Christianity seems to most people, but with time and workability, the words he was writing, for the woman he loved counted for the both of them, for both of their losses. I believe that this movie connects with the class because of the cultural pull-strings that the empire inhibits upon us to steal anything that is inspirational to us and call it our own, instead of making things our own for God’s kingdom, as Crouch asserts in chapter one, page 25 of Culture Making, “Culture is not just what human beings make of the world, it is not just the way human beings make sense of the world; it is in fact part of the world that every human being has to make something of.”

1. Does enlightenment sometimes provide irrational decisions?

2. In The Words, Rory had gone months with writer's block and printing houses denying him the approval of publishing his work. Why do we sometimes feel entitled to sin when things seem impossible?

Macklemore Is Poppin' More Than Tags

Macklemore (Formerly Professor Macklemore) is the stage name for Ben Haggerty. Haggerty is an American rap artist who has been releasing music since 2000, but whose popularity has risen significantly in the last few years. His most recent and most popular single "Thrift Shop" has almost 60 million hits on Youtube. Macklemore is an artist who boldly creates music regarding issues such as consumerism, homosexuality, and the destructive mass media culture America lives in.

I would like to bring to light  Macklemore's song, "Wings" because its lyrics have to do exactly with what we have been examining in class- the dominating consumerism culture within America.

Here is the link to the music video:
Wings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAg3uMlNyHA

"Wings" is a real life throwback told through the eyes of Macklemore as a child growing up in the 90s. The lies of the empire that name brand logos are what define us and that in order to be cool and fit in one must succumb to the price tags of the most expensive commodities are experienced first hand as young Macklemore lets his Nike shoes become his very identity. Macklemore gives voice to one of the ironic foundations of the empire, that when we buy things in order to "stand out" and be "our own person" what we are really doing is simply verifying that the empire has captivated our imaginations. This realization is prominent in lines such as

"I'm an individual, yea, but I'm part of a movement
My movement told me be a consumer and I consumed it
They told me to just do it, I listened to what that swoosh said"

The kingdom is ever present in this work as Macklemore grows up and the song begins to be told through his current eyes; Macklemore challenges everything about the culture around him. He admits that he feels "strangled by these laces" and the oppressive consumerist mindset of the world surrounding him. He mocks the media who suggest that he isn't allowed to crease his shoes or even take them out of their box for fear of dirtying them.

I think the most prevalent display of the Kingdom in this song is found in the lines:

"But see I look inside the mirror and think Phil Knight tricked us all
Will I stand for change, or stay in my box
These Nikes help me define me, but I'm trying to take mine, off"

Macklemore is downright treasonous when he names Nike's founder as an agent of the empire and after wondering to himself whether he will dare to take a stand and make a change in his life, symbolically declares that he wants his Nikes off. Macklemore wants his imagination liberated.

Macklemore suggests that in America we are raised as slaves to the empire of consumerism. He talks about his first-hand experience with the pain that obsession with commodities causes. He challenges the motives of the corporations selling us our "dreams" and goes so far as to call one of them out by name. He admits his on-going struggle with prioritizing "stuff" over what is really important in life. Is this not exactly what we have been doing in class? Macklemore is not a Christian, but I think God is nevertheless working in him to give voice to the Kingdom.


Why do you think Macklemore singles out the Nike corporation in his attack on the consumerist economy in America?

Do you think that God uses non-Christians to bring light to his Kingdom?

Why do you thing Macklemore begins this song through the eyes of a child? He also uses a children's choir to sing the chorus of this song, what impact does that have on the meaning of the song? What impact does it have on us, the listeners?

Cultural Artifact 2- Crash

"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something." Do we feel this way? Do we really feel at all? Do we operate on prejudice, ingrained in our sense of morality?

The movie Crash provides a beautiful narrative of a 36-hour struggle of hate, disgust, prejudice, heroism, forgiveness, fear, love, sacrifice, and discrimination. The star studded cast of the film tells the stories of officers of the racially motivated L.A.P.D, the white district attorney of Los Angeles, a black detective, a black film director, a Persian shop owner, and a Hispanic working-class lock repairman. In a twist of fate decisions are placed before each character depicting how we shape our lives and the lives of others by our hermeneutic. This powerful film won the 2005 academy awards for best picture, achievement in editing, and best screenplay, as well as 50 other awards and 74 nominations. 

In this movie great pain was shown by all of the characters. Because of this, lives were saved and lost at the same time. We were shown that indifference to equality on any level is avoidable for only so long and that motivations really do matter. But it is the result of the crash between volatile cast that cuts to the core of the humanity that supersedes us all. It is such that is a resultant of referencing the Kingdom of God, the singularity and universality of morality. Power, raw and to some degree, infinite in scope is shown to us in both the good and the bad. We are shown that we always have a choice and that those choices always matter. The praxis of each character was never simplistic, it provided questions for examining our heremeneutical foundation and how it came to be. It is for this that the Kingdom is being called in this film, there is a calling to view specifically human beings with equality regardless of what we consider contingent circumstances. 

John Mayer: Continuum

A lot of people turn to music when they want to express their feelings in a stronger way. Released on September 9, 2006, Continuum is John Mayer's third album. Containing many nationwide hit songs such as "Waiting on the world to change," "Gravity," "Vultures," and more, this album showed a change in John Mayer's work as this album was thought to be more of a blues and soul compared to his previous albums of pop-rock. Although some of his songs in this album reveals life through the kingdom of God, most of his songs reveals life through the empire. For example "Waiting on the world to change" reveals about life in both ways. John Mayer and his friends have awakened and are able to see things from different perspectives. They know that the government controls power by using the military to enforce certain things and uses the media to bend the truth and hide their doings. However, what they fail to do in this song is to take action. Instead they are at a distance staring at the world and waiting for the world to change. Even though they have become aware of the empire, they are still trapped in the system, feeling powerless to make a change. One of his other songs, "Your Body is a Wonderland" reveals life through the empire. This song is mainly about him having sex with his girlfriend. What's sad about this song is that it shows that in order for songs to sell better it has to attract people. Our society has become one that we are attracted more to the empire and by the empire here I mean sex. Sex was created by God to be a good thing but the empire has distorted it. This has become apparent in us because as we hear the word "sex" we feel at least a little bit of discomfort. This album reached 2nd on the U.S Billboard 200 chart, but it never reached 1st because it got impeded by Justin Timberlake's album FutureSex/LoveSounds, released at the same time. I remember this quote from this movie called "the Chronicle." In this movie when one guy tells the other that he didn't ever have sex, the other guy says to him "how can you be this cool?" Sex has become distorted so much in our society and in the U.S. particularly that a stereotype has been established among teenagers that you can't be "cool" without having sex. It has become strange to not have sex. I remember in Biology class when studying diseases, seeing the statistics of sexual intercourse happening between students in an average American public high school. It was crazy how it turned out. It wasn't strange for someone to have had sex with at least 3 or 4 different people. It is easy to say the John Mayer speaks to people with differing intensities. Although some of his songs don't have a particular meaning, there aren't many artists who are able to point out problems in society like John Mayer does with songs like "Waiting on the world to change".

Discussion questions:
1. What kind of music do you listen to and do you ever think about the lyrics and the song's meanings?

2. Is it even possible to produce music that reveals life through the kingdom of God that the general audience will find it attractive? Why or why not?

Simple Times | Joshua Radin

                The album Simple Times is Joshua Radin’s second album, released in September of 2008. He is a singer/song-writer who sings acoustic and folk rock music; I consider his music to be very real and organic, both the style and the lyrics. The melodies are complex and catchy enough to be interesting, but simple enough to not feel over-thought or over-processed. The eleven tracks reveal a great variety of emotion and are very relatable to the listener. You grieve over the loss of love, you sympathize with the recipient of the difficult truth, you rejoice because of the birth of a new day, you revel in the beauty of true friendship, and you reflect on the past—all through simple and deep poetic lyrics.

                The most popular song, “I’d Rather Be With You” tells the story of a guy who realizes that his best friend is the girl he’s been looking for his whole life. This brings to light the beauty and excitement of finding love, a truly wonderful thing. God made humans who had a need for companionship, and when a bond is formed it is captivating and charming. On the other hand, there are 7 (out of 11) songs that talk about love— both finding and losing it. Our society is very romance-centric, we fixate on love and it affects the way see ourselves, each other, and the idea of love as a whole.

                The song from which the album title is taken is called “We Are Okay.” This song caught my interest for the first time because of its nods toward the themes we’ve been discussing in class. The first stanza says, “We are grown but cannot see/ Lost our world of make believe/ Simple Times now seem so far/ [The world] used to be in my backyard.” In his own way, Joshua Radin talks of being part of this system that the world operates by. They lost their sense of imagination and innocence; simple times faded away as they grew older and saw the reality of the world. He goes on, “But, we are okay, we are alright/ We sing very loud/ …/ Close our eyes, close our mouth/ Yeah, we shut our eyes though we're in doubt.” They are not going to let this get them down, even though they aren’t sure what happened or where they’re going. Their plan of subverting the lack of imagination is to sing, and he later mentions trying to do creative things again. They may not be able to gain back the time they lost, but they try to remain positive and transform their actions to bring about the change they long for.

A few questions that crossed my mind:

• Is our view of love distorted as a people? Are we too centered on romance that we cannot focus on anything else? Is this “romance” that society presents to us even a true representation of the beautiful process of two people finding each other and falling in love?
• Are simple times really so far in the past? Or have our eyes and minds just been opened to the pain and suffering in the world as we got older?

The hope in the midst of imperfectness (Cultural Artifact 2)

The movie Mary and Max is a ‘claymation’ – animation made out of clay – film of Adam Eliot. The story was based on the true account of friendship between Adam and his pen pal, who lived in New York. For almost 20 years, Mary and Max had been exchanging letters each other, telling about their life stories, which sometime would made them encouraged, and sometime the letters would drive them to tragic depression and disappointment. One thing that they have in common is the fact that they are both social outcast. Mary Daisy Dinkle is a friendless eight year old girl, with her only ‘friend’ rooster Ethel. Her mother is an alcohol addict, and her father works in factory during most his day. She has brown eyes and birthmark on her forehead that looks like poo. Max is a 44 year old Jew, who has Asperger’s syndrome (sort of mental disorder), and his different way of perceiving the world around him puts him in socially disabled person. Max loves chocolate hotdog and attends Overeaters Anonymous, which is his only social interaction. He’s particularly frustrated with the people who litter on the streets. He believes that they should be heavily fined, but it’s only his thought that nobody cares.

 

In fact, there are no characters portrayed as ‘normal’ individuals, and the movie is filled with irony, depression, and human flaw. Adam, in his interview, says, “the reason my films are dark is because life is dark, my films are a reflection of life and if you don’t have the dark, the light has nothing to compare itself to, the light has no meaning.” He focuses on flawed human nature, and how imperfect we are – but we tend to judge the social out casts as if they were more imperfect.

However, it is love and forgiveness that give colors in the midst of Mary and Max’s monochromatic life. In the society, where disadvantaged and weakness are oppressed, they both find that the love is the true power that connect and sustain the relationship. The letters they exchange is the sign of hope that makes them yearn for true love and relationship with people. Max and Mary know that human beings are imperfect. Not all the letter gives them joy and happiness. Because humans are imperfect, some letters disappoints and hurt each other. However, we can forgive them. In the letter, which Max wrote to Mary, he said “I would have to accept myself, my warts and all, and that we don't get to choose our warts. They are part of us and we have to live with them. We can, however, choose our friends, and I am glad I have chosen you.” What Max meant by choosing friends meant that we always can choose to forgive and be friends, despite the imperfectness, which could hurt us.

There is a hope of relationships in love and forgiveness. And I believe this reveals one of the features of God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom is about embracing the imperfectness with forgiveness, and it is sustained by love, and this is what Jesus did. The society tells us that imperfectness must be discarded and separated. Yet, Mary and Max’s story tell us that we should embrace it with love and forgiveness in order to restore the relationships with each other. 

What does it mean to love your neighbors as yourself? Do love will eventually require self sacrificing? 

What is true forgiveness? What does it mean to forgive one another?

The New Normal? Hopefully...

I recently watched a show called "The New Normal". It aires Tuesday at 9:30pm on NBC. The premise of the show is based off of the three main characters, "Blondie" played by Georgia King, Andrew Rannells as Brian and Justin Bartha as David. Brian and David are a happy gay couple living in L.A. The only thing they still want is a baby. They meed Blondie, a single mother who has run away to L.A. from her overbearing grandmother (but she follows them there). Brian and David find Blondie from a surrogacy program Blondie agrees to be the surrogate for Brian and David's baby because the money will help with her dream to go to law school. But as the shows progress, Blondie, Brian, David and Shania (Blondie's daughter) become more of a family. The episodes from this season tell stories and show the preparation everyone involved is taking before the baby comes. I think one of the biggest eye openers in the show is the type of characters created. We have Brian and David, who are in a relationship and aren't afraid to show it, Blondie, who is running away from her super conservative grandmother Jane, and Rocky, who is Brian's African American assistant. The diversity of the characters is helpful for the viewers to keep an open mind and help them connect to the real life as well. Homosexuality is still something that most Americans find "hard to talk about" but I do believe that shows like The New Normal and Modern Family are trying to show Americans that its good to talk about it and there is nothing really different about it. I think this show is crying out to the kingdom so that people all over the world will know about "issues" facing us in the future, especially with homosexuality. I think this show is redemptive to the point that it is making aware differences in American and around the world that may be "new" to some people. Some of the problems that happen in the show are exactly what happen to real people. In the episode I just watched, Brian and David try their hand at being parents when they send Blondie to a spa for a week, while they watch Shania. Human purpose is to love one another,  just as you would want to be loved. God made us all different. But we all live in His image. If a person is different it doesn't give you the right to treat them differently.  The kingdom of God will accept everyone who loves God above everything else. Whether the person is straight, gay, bisexual, black, white, of African decent, loves movies, loves books etc. The empire seems to think that if your not a certain way or keep up with the cultural norm then you don't deserve what others have. This is wrong, and shows like The New Normal are trying to fix that.

Questions:

Would you say that America, or even Calvin College is trying hard enough to understand homosexuality? What is something that you would do to get more information?

Do you believe that the Kingdom of God is everywhere? (In everything and every person?)

Escape to Web-Print

The Escapist is an online magazine, which according to their visitor’s page

“is dedicated to providing readers with the highest quality journalism covering interactive media, games, and the culture behind them.”

            Five days a week it froths, covering internet-related news with opinion columns, video editorials, and irreverent reviews & humor.

            Examining their layout, their offerings to the ten-second-website-viewer are: news in their industry (at the time of writing, condemnation for the SOPA act, with some coverage of the major developments in Video games), columns and videos from their employees, and advertisements for their sponsors. With bonus content available for personal information or credit card subscriptions, the joy of commercialism is in the layout, indeed!

            Their perspective is Empiric while also subversive. A sum of parts, individual authors present conformative pieces with others present in apocalyptic style. The editorials tend to take a taciturn tone, such as The Tao of Leveling, a pseudodeep attempt to tie spiritual principles to life pursuits (don’t forget how faithfully reading the Escapist can only help you level up!) The language-tied-to-gaming in the article is vague-as-theology, with no prescribed objective. However, an understanding of the medium presented (specific: the Role-Playing-Game) must be acquired to understand it in full.

            Contrasting, anything Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw does. His take on Role-Playing-Games is more a flaying of them. Someone who sits in the video-game corner of the site and dissects anything served to him, his appeal for content in the face of postmodern game design is phrased

“Surely every game is a "simulation" of something, whether it be flying a World War 2 fighter plane or finely slicing the buttocks of minotaurs.”

            Take that, Nihilism!

            With regards to the Kingdom, The Escapist is a magazine. It exists to create and distribute content with a profit motive. As a community, it may attract individuals beyond the pale of the consumerist fold. It can serve as a sanctuary or an effigy-burning ground. It’s not the best example. I find satire in the system a sign of the roots of Apocalypse. Something could grow.

   

1: Churches often demonize publications for not fostering “the Kingdom”. What role can the media-distribution system play in the Christian narrative? What roles does it play already?

2: What is the Apocalyptic aspect to Escapism? Where can we find, ironically, a non-escapist aspect to it?

Dancing With Dinner

       I recently attended one of the lectures of the January Series entitled Dancing With Dinner. The speaker was Joel Salatin, an alternative farmer who was in the film Food Inc.  In his lecture Salatin talked about how we as Americans have lost our love and respect that we once had with food and the way that we grow food.  He told us about the earth friendly and natural ways that he grows food on his farm, how he still had that intimate relationship with the stuff that he puts on his table every meal.

       Since we watched Food Inc. just yesterday, it is easy to see how this topic ties into our class.  In God's kingdom, humans are stewards of the earth, meaning that they take care, provide, and sustain the resources that are entrusted to them.  In the kingdom of the Empire, anything goes along as you can make a quick buck off of it.  This means that cows are grown faster, pumped with antibiotics, and crammed together in a tight space just so we can get cheaper more convenient beef.  The same can be said for chickens, pigs, and any other animal that can be turned into a product. This heinous food cycle has become the dominate way of life in our society today, those who try to oppose it are quickly dealt with by the Empire or deemed to insignificant to be a threat.  However, recently there has been increasing movement against this status quo.  We need to focus on alternative ways to feed ourselves, shop at our local farmer's market, avoid mega-stores, and be more conscious about what we put into our body.  

What are you doing in your life to combat our corrupt food system?

Do you still have respect for what’s on your dinner table?

Paper Heart

I have chosen Paper Heart for my second cultural artifact blog post. Although the quirky 2009 film has the look and many intentional implications for being a documentary (visible cameras, etc.), the film is actually a fictional story about the making of a documentary. This film was directed by Nicholas Jasenovec and stars Charlene Yi and Micheal Cera.

The premise of this film is that Charlene Yi is traveling around the country to either prove or disprove the existence of romantic love, as she does not believe in it. In so doing, she meets Micheal Cera and the two begin to develop a relationship. The film is lighthearted and fun the whole way through.


This artifact comments on everyday occurrences within the context of relationships--from the first meeting, to the development of friendship. In this case, the relationship is presented in a realistic, down to earth way. This film emphasizes the importance of community and friendship, as well as imagination. When taking a further look into this film, I am left wondering why the word 'love' is only used (with one exception) in the generic and romantic sense. The fact that believing in love, or not, depended on researching and interviews the romantic love shared between two people, and not another ultimate example of love did not leave much room for faith. The one time a different 'type' of love is explored is in one scene that takes place in a biker bar, where the bikers discuss the role of love in friendship. Overall, it was a look at the developing romantic relationship between (as fictional versions of themselves) Micheal and Charlene as well as young and old couples 'interviewed' throughout.
     One way that this romantic comedy broke the cookie-cutter mold of the genre is that there is no personal catastrophe. No one is a damsel in need of being 'saved' by love, and no one had to give up something for the sake of monogamy. Rather, it is a story of two equals spending time together and (slowly) learning to love each other. While I do believe that expressing love without an example of ultimate love through Christ is, ultimately, missing the point, this is a more honest look at human interaction than has been presented in past films of its type.


 1. Why does our society idolize dysfunctional relationships in films?
 2. Why do people treat each other differently when they know they are being watched? Is this a positive thing?

Paper Heart directed by Nicholas Jasenovec (Lakeshore, 2009), DVD

Teen Vogue/Artifact 2

The second artifact I chose was a teen vogue magazine. It is similar to a Vogue magazine, but specifically made for teenagers(the name of the magazine is pretty self explanatory). The magazine focuses on fashion and celebrities and offers information about the latest entertainment and feature stories on current issues and events. Usually the cover has a photo of a recent celebrity along with make up tips and things about the celebrity.

The stories that Teen Vogue tells about human purpose is that even though we are made in God's image, there are products that make you look more beautiful. In the magazine, there are millions of ads that catch our eye, including name brands and beautiful models. It's hard to go through a magazine like this and not get caught up in the fashion or make up that's in it. Even though this magazine may seem like another way to sell advertisements, they do include serious issues as well, in the issue I read it had an article on smoking and what it can do to your body. However, it was only a couple pages long, while the rest of the magazine still covered make up and fashion.

Teen Vogue reveals about life in the empire is that there are things in the world that we tend to get pulled into and believe that we must have a certain product to make us feel good about ourselves. The magazine shows pictures of different models, and then has several pages with similar clothes that they are wearing, and how much it would cost to buy them. It seems that every day there is some new trend going on, or a new line of clothing or make up has just come out, and we have that urge to immediately go out and buy it because we know everyone else will already have it. It's difficult to fit into society, or the empire, without having the latest thing that's out there because then you feel left out and not on the same page as everyone else.

I personally don't wear make up at all, and the most I'll wear is just a touch of mascara. For me, make up just isn't a big deal. I don't see why I need to change myself when I'm perfectly happy with the way I look.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why do we feel the need to fit in with the rest of the world?
2. Do we ever ask ourselves "Do I really and truly need that?" before we buy something? Or do we automatically buy it because it's what everyone else has?

Supernatural

The second cultural artifact I have decided to choose is the show Supernatural. Supernatural first aired september 13, 2005. The Story is about two brothers named Sam and Dean Winchester. The episodes are about these two brothers as they hunt demons and other monsters that are of the supernatural, hence the title. This show portrays evil in hell is not locked by heaven anymore. Demons and monsters are on our world. The human purpose as we know is to live in Christ’s image, but on this show the human purpose is to be destroyed by the demons. Evil is always around the Winchester boys. I think that they are not being influenced by the empire, because the empire wants the perfect American life. You go to school, get a job, get married, have kids. But This life can never be for the Winchester boys. They know what is actually out there. and their destiny is to fight of the evil. Dean has always struggled with religion he does not believe in god, and if he did he calls him a “big kid with a magnifying glass, and i’m the ant.” But in the later seasons dean is a mess he keeps reliving all of his horror that he has done in his past, what he has seen, he prays to God for redemption to cleanse him, to ask for help. In the later of the episodes they interact with angels and these angels are angry with the Winchester boys, because they stopped the apocalypse from happening when it was supposed to. The angels also say that God has gone away. they do not see him anymore, almost as if he had given up. But i believe something extraordinary is going to happen. I sometimes feel that a lot of us feel that way. When we are in need and something that we ask for does not happen, or when we are in despair, we feel like god has gone away and doesn't care about us. but we know as Christ followers that is simply not true. God is always with us. This show does a good jib of showing the evil the good and the redeemed in our world today.

1.Do we sometimes feel that God has left.

2. How can we fight the evil in our own life's.

Dinner Dance Partner

For my second cultural artifact I attended the January Series lecture on Tuesday, where I was enlightened and humored by owner of Polyface Farms, Joel Salatin. After hearing this lecture, watching Food Inc. in class yesterday, and now reading more about this alternative farmer, I have thought a lot about food and where it comes from. In his lecture Tuesday, Joel addressed the issues of food and how it is viewed in society today. He claims that we have "pulled away from the dinner dance partner" and that it has been replaced with McDonalds, Tyson, Kraft, Taco Bell... and so on. We now view food as mechanical versus biological. We see soil as inert, something that holds up the plants, but really soil is full of a living community of microorganisms that support life. The disrespect of the soil has also turned to the disrespect of animals- we want them bigger, fatter, faster, and cheaper. These distorted views of God's creation goes even further, where our view of humans becomes the same as that of the animals and creation.
Joel Salatin has committed his life to a "land healing ministry." He claims, "I am a caretaker of creation; I don't own it." He believes it is his responsibility to step into creation as land stewards and redemptive embassadors and embrace it as a dance partner. We need to appreciate our invisible dependent creation. This statement is so applicable to many aspects our lives. This includes the invisible microorganisms in soil, the invisible trillions of cells in our bodies, to the invisible God that created the universe. We don't realize the tremendous power and creativity of our Maker until we study what he has created. We are called to take care of this earth and enjoy it in its natural original beauty. This is what God called us to do, he cares about His creation. In the words of Joel Salatin, "God is interested in the pigness of the pig."
Studying this cultural artifact has sparked an interest in this topic of caring for creation. There are many practical ways, that we as Christians, can participate in a system that does good and allows us to participate in the Kingdom.

Discussion Questions:

• In what ways does the distorted view of creation and animals extend to our view of other humans?
• Where else in creation do we witness the amazing design of our Creator?
• What are ways we can be stewards for God's Kingdom?
  

Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow is no stranger. Over the past year, Americans have become very familiar with his face, his style, his stats, and also, his faith. Some fans are refreshed by the character that Tebow brings to the NFL – namely, his outspoken and unforgiving belief system otherwise unfamiliar to the game. Still, others exemplify great disdain for this Evangelical, questioning the legitimacy of his faith and ridiculing his over-the-top antics. So what's apocalyptic about Tim Tebow?

For one, there's no questioning his ability to play football. Many sports fans will disagree with me, arguing that ultimately quarterback (insert name here) is better than Tebow. I don't wish to argue that and seeing as I don't know much about the NFL you're probably right. Nonetheless, Tebow is a professional at what he does, a title that cannot be stripped from his talent insofar as he continues to play. The point is, this quarterback can and is pushing his body to its limit. Throwing a ball 80 yards into the hands of another player involves a technical set of skills. As we admire Tebow's ability to QB we are offered a very unusual and unique glimpse of God's image. In addition, Tebow is very involved with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, spending entire days with mentally disabled fans and their families. Argue all you want, but the fact is that this celebrity hasn't completely checked out, yet. Tim Tebow is an apocalyptic figure in more ways than one.

However, that's not the end of the story. Ironically Tebow's very public attempts at spirituality are what make me less convinced of his sincerity. In fact, after all we have learned in this class, that Tebow has to nerve to thank God for defeating another team in the middle of a stadium and a career literally fueled by the empire (consumerism) seems a bit hypocritical. The Jesus of the NFL is a Jesus who doesn't care about the poor. The Jesus of the NFL is a savior of "our sponsor." The Jesus of the NFL is more concerned about signing $11 million contracts than helping the homeless man outside the stadium. If Tebow wanted to send a Kingdom message he could start by being a voice or reason during lockout season (an exceptionally terrific example of consumerism and greed). With the type of power he has, Tebow could be an incredibly influential voice and Christian example in calling the Empire into question, particularly in his job-field. I guess all we can do is keep waiting for that to happen.

Thus, with a grain of salt and a measure of grace, I have to conclude that Tim Tebow may not be as good a role model as society has dressed him up to be. While I applaud his volunteerism and commitment to the Gospel(s), it seems like he is stuck in a pickle between the Christ of the poor and the Lord of the market. In an attempt to squeeze in both he has diluted one and the expense of the other. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to watch how he continues to integrate his faith throughout the rest of his career.

Discussion Questions
1. Do you think the act of "Tebowing" (bowing your head and taking a knee in prayer) is appropriate in end zones? What does such an intentionally public act reveal about Tebow's motives (for better or worse)?
2. Do you think cultural icons of faith should announce their religion publicly? Do we need to label Tebow "Christian" in order to appreciate the good that he does?