Lord of the Rings

Last weekend I watched the entire trilogy of The Lord of the Rings in one day along with a couple of my friends.  These movies are based on the novels by J.R.R. Tolkein, and tell the story of Middle Earth, a fantasy world that contains creatures such as wizards, dragons, orcs, talking trees, hobbits, and much more.  The films tell the story of a hobbit named Frodo and his quest to destroy the ring of power, thereby saving Middle Earth from evil.  A character named Sauron created this ring and the world can only be at peace again once it is ruined.  While Frodo attempts to complete this enormous task, numerous battles between the two opposing armies take place and the struggle between good and evil is constantly shown.

 

Qualities of the Empire are very evident throughout each of the three films.  The characters of Sauron and Sauromon are generally used to represent evil, along with the armies that each of them controls.  Even though the story takes place in a setting other than our world, and seems to have happened many years ago, we can still see concepts that apply to the Empire that we face today.  Issues such as power and oppression are frequent in the movies.   The ring represents power, and everybody who comes across it is greatly tempted and lured in by the strength of it.  Sauron never stops looking for the ring and thirsting for this power.  In addition, this power leads to oppression.  The evil characters in the story oppress numerous people in an effort to gain the ring.  Other qualities of the Empire that can be seen are violence and individualism.  Violence is frequent in these films.  There are numerous battles in each of the three movies and countless people and creatures are killed.  Individualism exists primarily on the evil side of things.  Betrayal is common and there is almost no sense of selflessness among these people.

 

Although there are many Imperial issues in The Lord of the Rings, we can also find quite a few Kingdom issues to combat these.  One of the primary qualities of the Kingdom that shows up is imagination.  It undoubtedly took an incredible imagination to create these elaborate stories, and the fact that J.R.R. Tokein was able to do so has allowed countless people to take joy and delight in them.  Another encouraging theme is hope.  Often times in the story, the good army, consisting of humans, dwarves, and elves, seem outnumbered and defeat looks inevitable.  Even in these circumstances, however, there is a sense of hope.  At one point, a young boy tells the character Aragorn that the men have said that a battle is hopeless and they cannot win.  Aragorn responds by telling the child, “There is always hope.”  Two other important Kingdom qualities are community and love.  The group of people sent to destroy the ring is referred to as the Fellowship of the Ring.  This fellowship is a great example of community.  Each person in it looks out for the others and a couple of them even sacrifice their own lives for the greater good.  This closely relates to the theme of love, as can be seen in the friendships of people like Sam and Frodo and even the romantic relationship between Arwen and Aragorn.

 

As a whole, I think that The Lord of the Rings does much more to build up the Kingdom of God than it does to support the Empire.  A few years ago I read J.R.R. Tolkein’s biography and was able to see some of his motivations for creating this trilogy.  Although violence is frequent throughout the books and films, Tolkein explains that he is really trying to symbolically portray a struggle between good and evil.  In the end, good wins out triumphantly.  Because Tolkein was a devoted Christian, many people even speculate that this trilogy was an allegory and each thing in it symbolized something Biblical.  For example, the ring could represent sin and the character Frodo is each of us.  Some people even saw Aragorn as a Christ figure since he became a king at the end of the story, or possibly even Gandalf since he died and was able to come back to life.  Nevertheless, I think that these movies embody many of the important aspects of the Kingdom.  The qualities of the Empire that we can see in them are used to portray evil more than anything else.  This evil is destroyed at the end of the story when Frodo successfully destroys the ring and redemption is brought to Middle Earth.

Sports Illustrated

I always enjoy hearing about sports and the top stories that are currently happening in professional and college athletics. Sports Illustrated is a good magazine to keep updated on what is happening. It provides stories, stats, gamcaps, etc. It is a monthly issued magazine and features a honored individual or team on the cover each time it is issued.
Sports Illustrated tends to show how athletes are just created better than we are. They can do unbelievable things, and their bodies were just created more powerful than ours. Human purpose is to perform and be honored in their magazine for the achievements in their game/match. They are to be money-making machines that provide entertainment to people who can't play as well as they can. The empire can effect them athletes and this magazine in this way so it portrays how "successful" these people are in the empire's terms.
It shows both the kingdom and the empire in its contents. Like I said before, it provides many examples of the empire and how to fit into it by being successful and powerful through athletics. It portrays sports as a God and to be honored you have to be able to participate at a high level in these sports. It also has many advertisements that are postioned in the magazine to get our attention in a sneaky way. They have a bacardi advertisement that shows the "fun" about it, but I find it interesting that the drink responsibly message is so small. It also had many cigerete advertisements which can become an addiction and a god over us. These advertisements control us and are a huge part of our empire. However, it also shows the kingdom as well. There are a few stories that provide examples of athletes that are attempting to subvert the empire. In this issue, Julius Earving (Dr. J) shared his story about his poor relationship with his daughter who throughout her life denied him as her father. He recently called her and he has begun to try to form a relationship with her and become a better dad. This shows a amazing athlete just trying to become the father God is giving the chance to be.
Sometimes I feel while reading Sports Illustrated that athletes can do whatever they want and "sin" is not even present in their lives. Even though is completely false, it is the approach that the magazine takes to portray the athletes. They are super-beings that don't need anything or anybody to be successful. There are exceptions within the magazine but the majority of it portrays a message of empire.
I enjoy reading Sports Illustrated but after reading it through the mindset of the kingdom, I am going to be more careful not to be fooled by the messages of the empire within the pictures and words of the magazine. It's amazing how much empire is packed into one artifact, but obviously there is good that can come out as well, and we have to be able to discern the good out of the bad.

Rolling Stone

Today I read one of my favorite magazines Rolling Stone; it was the newest issue with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. I find it very interesting to read about a variety of artists and entertainments and then how the public responds to them and what reviewers have to say about their work. The magazine covers politics and other issues as well. The magazine like many others has many advertisements everywhere and the artists featured in the magazine also gain publicity too.  One article I read that went with what we talked about in class one day was an article dealing with the price of online music lowering in response to piracy. This tied into class well and reminded me of what Ken Heffner said about the music industry needing to change with the problem of piracy.

The magazine shows quite a bit of the empire. It glorifies artists and sets them up to easily become idols. It is not a bad thing to learn about the people that make your favorite music but this magazine provides a lot of information that we really do not need to know. It glorifies people and makes them seem greater than “normal” people. It also shares the experiences of artists and their involvement in drugs and heavy partying, which also seems glorified even if the magazine does not intend to do this. The whole magazine also tries to sell you things in the straightforward advertisements but also in the articles as well. The artists in these articles are either being praised for their work or their work is being called a little “under par.” In either case the magazine tries to make readers buy Artist’s music and see the movies that are out to see if the reviews in the magazine are accurate. The magazine also had an article about a dangerous Schizophrenia drug was marketed towards misbehaving kids and made sixteen billion dollars as well as a lot of problems for the kids taking the pill. So the magazine addresses some tough issues dealing with the evil of the empire as well. 

Joyful blindness

On Tuesday 20th, I went to see the Blind Boys of Alabama. I have to admit that two days before the presentations I had no idea who this Southern Gospel group was. But I knew they had won a Grammy so I went to youtube.com and listened to some of their music. I loved it! I decided to buy my ticket and go. The concert was beautiful. The Blind Boys of Alabama definitely know hot to put into music their emotions and feelings, and what is more meaningful: they know how to transmit the message and capture the audience.

While I was sitting (the first half of the concert), the first thing that assailed my mind was that the Blind Boys of Alabama are certainly blind. But in their blindness appear to be the most joyful people I have ever seen. I could actually feel that joy running all through my body. The second feeling that came into my mind was that there are thousands of things to be happy about, but most of the times we don’t see them. And yet the Blind Boys see them, and perhaps more clearly than we do. And third, this thought stuck into my mind: How are we affecting the lives of other surrounding us? What things are we doing to create an atmosphere of freedom?

I have to admit that while watching them singing I was feeling completely useless. God has given me everything I need and yet I am not even close to show the joy the Blind Boys embodied.

CHANGELING

A powerfully moving masterpiece by Clint Eastwood, "Changeling" is a movie about true events in Los Angeles in the 1920's era. Christine (played by Angelina Jolie) is a single mother whose son has gone missing. After months and months of painful searching, Christine begins to lose hope. Just as things are starting look bad, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) claims they have found her son Walter. They made a huge mistake and brought the wrong boy but they still insist beyond a doubt that he is her son (even though he is 3 inches shorter than the real Walter Collins, and is also circumsized.)
Through a long run of injustice, Christine is thrown into a psychotic ward where she is allegedly imprisoned and mistreated for being an unfit mother and "crazy." But she soon finds out that she (and many others) in the mental ward are not there because they are insane, but because they are making trouble and "embarrasing" the LAPD. The doctor at the institution (likely under the pay roll and influence of the LAPD) says she can go only if she signs documents that takes the blame away from LAPD for their mistakes -- but she won't sign them.
This heartbreaking story gave a great example of what one woman with little power or significance changed the fabric of an entire city, achieved retribution for injustice and also got rid of a lot of corruption in the police force. It is a story of perserverence and not giving in to bullies (the LAPD and a system that made women far less significant). Christine never gave up, even in the face of torture and possibly death.
She lived in an "empire" that gave the message that made people in power always right, and not to challenge authority -especially if you are a person of little influece; women. In a time where it was possibly dishonerable and certainly dangerous to stand up to people who did not want to be challenged or embarrassed.
This truly displays how things should not be in the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of God there will be equality, not a society where men of power and influence trample everyone else. There will be justice and forgiveness rather than a blatant mistreatment of power. Things in L.A. are not as they should be, but these true events tell of a person of little power or influece who changed the very oppressive and unnacountable police department of L.A.

Rock Star by Nickelback

Rock Star by Nickelback
I recently listened to the song “Rock Star” by the Canadian band Nickelback. The single comes off of their very successful album All the Right Reasons, released in 2005. The song speaks of the desires to have everything a rock star has; from “a bathroom I can play baseball in” to “a king-sized tub big enough for ten plus me,” he is willing to do anything and everything, including cutting his hair and changing his name to achieve the life of a rock star.
This song certainly seeks to further the ideas of the empire. The goal of human life is to be rich and famous. You need to have all there is to have, from fifteen cars and a load of drugs, to playboy bunnies and limitless credit cards. The life of the rock star is exalted to the point of being the best way to live one’s life. There is no such thing as sin; you should simply do whatever you want to please yourself. We don’t need to be redeemed from anything; we just need to be wealthy. This philosophy certainly goes hand in hand with that of the empire. This life is self-gratifying, but also seductive. It does not tell you the dangers of living such a life. Pleasing yourself comes first, and they could care less about pleasing others.
As I did a little research about this song, an interesting question came up. Is this song a satire? Is Chad Kroeger, the lead singer, criticizing the lusts and desires of his own profession? I certainly don’t think so. He was once on the show MTV Cribs flaunting his wealth; why then would he satirize himself when he sings of “a brand new house on an episode of Cribs”? And the band certainly has lived the life of the rich and famous, so why make fun of them? Even if it was a satire, I don’t think the majority of the American public would understand it. I certainly wouldn’t think of the song in that way. Most Americans would think of this song not as satire but as a kind of truth. Existentialism is all that matters; if you aren’t squeezing every drop out of life you are not truly living. These rock stars certainly are living the life; why shouldn’t you?
Overall, this is kind of a sad song. It is sad that young boys and girls will listen to this and think this self-gratifying philosophy is the path for them. All that this song does is advocate greed, materialism, and lust. This song glorifies the life of the rock star, but that is not where true happiness originates. Only through a relationship with Jesus Christ will we be truly happy. After our hearts and minds have been transformed, we can live a life of service unto others, caring for the needs of the poor and lifting up the downtrodden.

Ada Bible Service

Today I went to Ada Bible, which is located in Ada Michigan. It is considered a "Mega" church with over 6,000 members and 5 services -1 on saturday and 2 on sunday at the cascade campus and 2 at the North Campus all preaching the same thing. The sermon saturday at the cascade campus is recorded and replayed at the 2 services at the North Campus. The church got so big that it had to make a saturday service and just this summer open another campus on the north side of town. The most unique thing about Ada Bible is that at each service at the Cascade campus you can either watch the whole sermon and music "live" or go to a video venue. 

The concept of watching a sermon on a video may seem odd, and it seems odd to me, but it has become more acceptable in this day and age of television. We can sit in front of a television screen for hours on end, so a sermon at church is nothing new. I don't think that this concept could have been pulled off years ago, but it is now more acceptable.

Today I went to the cascade campus at 11 o'clock with some of my 2nd Bolt friends and we went to the "live" viewing. The idea of watching the sermon on a video screen did not appeal to us.

The sermon was very interesting to all of us. The sermon was on Proverbs and all of its "wisdom advice." We looked at 5 verses that talked about how to work. The sermon did not talk about anything "religious" or "spiritual" but rather that we should all work hard. Each verse that we looked at seemed like they could have been spoken to us by our parents or grandparents and did not seem appropriate at church. It also talked about managing our finances which is nearly irrelevant to all of us who give all of our money to Calvin anyways.

At the lunch table we all started talking about why they would give a sermon about working hard. Yes, everyone can use a sermon about working harder and we can all work harder, but is that really something that should be preached? Not only that, but it is a 4 week series on it. After much discussion we weren't sure if Ada Bible was conforming to the empire and giving advice that the people want to hear, or if it is part of the kingdom because it is in the bible.

Ada Bible does a lot of things right, but it is changing the standard for all Christians, giving sermons in mass numbers and losing the "church" aspect. It seems that community is lost at Ada Bible, but I don't know how they would fix it.

Twilight: Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Empire?

Twilight is a novel that I thought I would never read because it never caught my eye at the bookstore. I didn’t even know what the story was about because I never read the summary, and I thought I wouldn’t like the book, but when I went back home for Christmas break I met my cousin and she told me to read it. She said it was a really good book. I knew there was a movie on Twilight, so I was a little curious why many people seemed to like Twilight, but that was all it was, curiosity. Curiosity wasn’t enough for me to go out and purchase the book. Later I was at the airport and I kept bothering my sister if I could go and buy a book at the bookstore near the food court. She agreed, so I went and looked around. I was searching for a book that would last for about five to six hours on the airplane ride; a book so fat and thick that it would last longer then the ride back to school. I didn’t find that book, so I just purchased a book that seemed a little bit interesting. But when I was about to leave the bookstore I saw Twilight: it was thick and fat and it might be interesting, so my sister and I returned the other book and bought Twilight. To my surprise it was a really good book, very interesting and hard to put down, but even though I thought it was interesting and a good book I kept having doubts whether this book was a good book. I had doubts on whether the book was written well, whether I liked the characters’ personalities, and whether it was promoting good values, but I shoved my doubts aside because then I had to question why I kept purchasing the author’s next book to the Twilight series. The conclusion I came to is this: I do like the idea of the story (except the part where it’s too focused on the romance), but not how it is written, I don’t really like how the characters are portrayed, and I don’t think Twilight promotes very good values. I believe this novel cries out for the empire and despite all of this I somehow end up liking this book.

Twilight is a love story where the main characters are Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. In this story evil is seen in the nature of the vampires. They are seen as monsters by the Quileute people of La Push because they hunt humans and drink their blood, but the Cullen’s are different they do not harm humans by drinking their blood instead they are more civilized and live among the humans which is not part of their nature. To live among the humans the Cullen’s drink the blood of animals. I see this as an attempt for redemption for what they are. The one who began this way of life was Carlisle because he became a vampire by accident and his father was an Anglican pastor due to this he felt guilty of what he became, so in the beginning he tried to destroy himself, but his many attempts of suicide did not work. Later he came to a realization that he doesn’t have to drink the blood of humans; this way he won’t harm them. This is his way of repenting for what he became. Carlisle also believes that vampires might have a soul and can go to heaven, but Edward doesn’t believe this; he thinks they will not be able to go to heaven. So the idea that vampires can go to heaven makes me think that redemption can be reached to people that seem completely evil and have no redeemable quality about them. This makes me think that everyone, even beings who are seen as too evil, can go to heaven if they believe in Jesus as our savior and believe in God.

In the novel, it is revealed that life in the empire is superficial and that life is about the individual. I say this because Bella and Edward seem like superficial characters because Bella is always preoccupied with Edward’s beauty and how he’s like a god, and Edward is very arrogant and flaunts his good qualities to Bella. She always thinks she is unworthy for him; this makes me think that the author thinks girls need to be physically beautiful and look like a model to be worthy of love. The novel gives off values of the empire; values that can be sold easily to the consumers such as beauty and idolatry. I think idolatry is a value the novel is supporting because Bella is making Edward into her idol; she mentions that she wants to become a vampire and doesn’t care what might happen to her soul if she can be with Edward forever. She cares more for Edward then her self spiritually. She cares more for him then going to heaven. Her heaven is being with Edward.

Twilight in a sense is a bad book for Christians because it teaches the values of the empire. The novel supports the empire instead of the Kingdom of God because it sells the ideas and desires of the empire. This novel is trying to capture our imaginations to read what the empire says is a good book. When I read the reviews on the back of the book it said things like “A New York Times Editor’s Choice” and “A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year,” but I think this is misleading because when I went to Amazon it had reviews with one star and not all the readers liked the book, but there were some who really liked the book and gave it five or four stars, but I think those people’s imaginations are still held captive by the empire. I am not certain if I like the book; I do seem to like parts of the story, but this makes me think that my imagination is held captive by the empire. If I read the novel a few years later again maybe I won’t like the novel, and then I will be free from the empire.

The Devil Wears Prada

Over the weekend I watched the Devil Wears Prada. This movie is about a girl that wants to be a journalist. She needs to do some other work before she can do this. Andrea (Anne Hathaway) gets offered a job to work for a very big clothing designer. At first she just doesn’t fit in to this new type of lifestyle, but soon she figures out ways to start fitting in. She changes her image, look, and some of her relationships.
After viewing the movie I think that this artifact is trying to display that in order to be happy or get where you want to get you need to do anything possible so that you can fit in. I think that it shows that the human purpose it to simply be able to make other people happy and do what you need to get far into this world. I think that a lot of people get so worked up over such petty little things. I have a lot of friends who just care about their clothes and the way that they look. Life has so much more to offer than stuff that only betters your image. We are created in the image of God, not in the image of designer clothes and mass amounts of makeup. Media, music and magazines have such a big influence on young girls of today. I know that in my case whenever I see a new beauty product or gorgeous model I try to improve my self-image.
There are some examples in this movie that prove that this is an empirical artifact. One example would be when image takes a turn for the worst. She begins to make the empire more important than her boyfriend. She begins seeing clothes as more than clothes but as fashion. She is also willing to do anything to make her way in the empire.

Shawshank Redemption

Over the weekend I had the chance to view the film, Shawshank Redemption. This is not the first time that I have seen it but it is one of those movies that contains so much that you pick up on different things each time. To be brief, this film is about a man named Andy Dufresne, who was wrongly convicted of killing his wife, and along with her another man. The consequences were two life sentences back to back. This movie follows his life through his time at prison and a brief period afterward, meeting some interesting people along the way.

It is easy to the empire being portrayed in movies that are based in a prison. In a large building filled with convicted criminals in which many develop a "me first" mentality in order to survive. The depictions of attack, and preying on new-comers as well as those who show any signs of weakness. The fact that sin has entered the world is not something that we can deny and we certainly have to have rules put in place that does attempt to limit acts of law breaking. The empire strikes the beliefs in many people in the prison environment that they have to be hard asses within the prison and have a self centered personality. 

This movie does with no doubt show the ideas that parallel the kingdom as well. As Andy carries on in his journey knocking off the years of his sentence, he runs into some interesting people. The fact that relationships develop within this story is a key thing that reflects the kingdom. A long time resident of the prison "Red" becomes Andy's closest pal. "Red" is one of the prisons inmates who gets different things from the "outside" and supplies them to the inmates in exchange for smokes. Red and Andy's relationship shows how they work together to learn from each other to survive in Shawshank. 

Two parts of this movies stuck out to me while I was watching. The first was the same clip that we ended up watching during our class early on. This was where Andy had the chance to play music into the speakers for all the inmates to listen to and enjoy. Although the music was played in Italian, there was a feeling of warmth and most definitely imagination. Each person had the chance to react to the music in there own way and take out of it what they wanted. To me this way of listening to music that was demonstrated in this film is one of the best ways to really appreciate music.

The second part was where Andy and Red were sitting down outside in the dirt, Andy wraps up a conversation by saying. "Get busy living, or get busy dying!" this line sticks out to me in this film is because of the practicality of it. To me this line is saying that it is our duty to go out in the world and make things happen. We can not just sit back and watch the world go by. As Christians, this is what the Kingdom requires of us.