Running from the Law

When I was seven years old and my mother would make me go to church, about the most I ever tried was to fake being sick. However, this kid in Utah took things to a whole new level....

Another Week Ends: Tron, Club Monaco (T. Farah), Robin Wright, NRP & Disco

1. It's hard to read Hebrews 11:13 without thinking about the movie Tron:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

That said, the trailer for the new Tron Legacy premiered at Comi-con last week to an understandably positive response. It looks like we're dealing with a full-fledged sequel to the greatest movie ever made about the realities of Christian Spirituality (note: other than Xanadu and Clash of the Titans).



Other worthy trailers: Dr, Parnassus, The Box, District-9, Alice in Wonderland

2. Mockingbird's favorite fashion designer/son of a LC-MS minister, Timothy Farah (of former Jack Spade, Thom Browne, and Brooks Brother's Black Fleece infamy) has a new collection launching very shortly for Club Monaco. It's getting a lot of great press and will no doubt be awesome!

Click here to whet the appetite: SwipeLife

Tangent: Tim was nice enough/part of God's sovereignty enough to introduce me to my wife!

3. Sim sent us an article by Robert Wright (author of "The Evolution of God") from this morning's New York Times with the inspired title, "Take Me To The River (Or Somewhere Nearby)". The tagline being, "Decades after his faith in God has faded, the author considers his longing to be born again all over again." In it, you'll find he discusses a lot of familiar Mockingbird material: Read Here

"Besides, it’s the sense of sin, the sense of human frailty, the deep Calvinist suspicion of yourself, that can keep the self-dramatization in check."

4. One more thing: New Reformation Press is having a 10% off sale! It's the best place we know of to purchase simul iustus T-shirts, and our favorite Rod Rosenbladt presentation: When Good Fathers Die, It's Always Too Soon. If you like John Eldridge, Rod will take you to the next level!

5. You're headed into the weekend. You need some (Loft classic) Christian disco, don't you? "Stand on the Word" (1985) will do the trick for sure! All time re-rule:

Mockingbird's Anthem? a la Derek Webb

Derek Webb's new album Stockholm Syndrome is making quite a few headlines in the Christian music world lately. DZ tells me that he will have a review of the album forthcoming in the the near future, so stay tuned!

But I wanted to point every one's attention to the title track off of the album "Mockingbird", which dropped in 2005. DZ mentioned the album in a comment yesterday, and the name certainly caught my eye, so I downloaded it last night and now I can't get this song out of my head. As you probably guessed from the title, it could very well be an anthem for this ministry:



there are days i don’t believe the words i say
like a life that i’m not living
a song that i’m not singing but to you

there are times that i believe i’m satisfied
like an intimate connection
despite this bad reception with you

because i can’t afford to pay
for most of what i say
so it’s a lucky thing
that the truth’s public domain

and i am like a mockingbird
i’ve got no new song to sing
and i am like an amplifier
i just tell you what i’ve heard
oh, i’m like a mockingbird

and yes, it’s true that i need this more than you
like one whose name is many
have mercy, please don’t send me away

and i’ll do all i can
to be a better man
oh i’ll clean up this act
and be worse than we started

(chorus)

The Gospel for Price Is Right Cheaters

Bob gets it!

(now spay or neuter your pets)

Original Sin in the Garden...State

A lot can be said about New Jersey; people either love it or hate it, and the jokes abound on either side. I’ve been known to jump on the Jersey-bashing bandwagon every now and then, but I was pleasantly surprised by a recent New York Times article that I found to be very Mockingbird appropriate. The article, In New Jersey, Ideal Conditions for Corruption, came on the heels of a vast corruption bust involving various state politicians, mayors, and rabbis and takes a look at just why it is that NJ seems to be so infected with scandal. Long story short, it turns out that people in the Dirty Jerz really understand Original Sin! From the NY Times:

Over the last decade alone, nearly 150 of the state’s senators, mayors, county executives and council members have been arrested and charged with leaping at the chance to engage in this lowest-common-denominator crime, at times for laughably small sums of money. But the history goes back much further than that. “Everyone says it couldn’t happen to them, until it happens,” said Robert C. Botti, who became mayor of Union City in 1982 after his predecessor was sentenced to seven years for seeking bribes for school construction contracts.

It turns out Mr. Botti then rigged bids for janitorial contracts and ended up in prison for 18 months himself.

It wasn’t always like this, proud New Jersey residents say. But, in reality, it always was. As far back as the 1870s, a grand jury in Hudson County indicted two police commissioners accused of awarding contracts to fictitious groups. And by the 1970s, fraud, extortion and kickbacks had become as common as traffic jams on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The examples go on and justifications are given, but in the end, New Jersey residents seem less than surprised.

Many New Jersey residents are less impressed. In interviews around the state, several simply shrugged at the latest indictments, the third, fourth, or fifth wave in their lives. “I don’t know if I wasn’t surprised because it’s New Jersey or because it’s politicians,” said Cynthia Rose, 30, a makeup artist who lives in Jersey City. “I hate to be so jaded,” she added.

In Hoboken, where Mayor Peter Cammarano III is accused of accepting a $25,000 bribe just weeks after taking office, Stu Buchbinder, 30...predicted that Mr. Cammarano’s replacement would be equally susceptible. “Will they take bribes? Probably.” He paused. “Possibly they’ll be smarter about it and wait longer,” he said.

It is no news to these people that we are powerless to change/save ourselves by our own merit. Jersey jokes aside, sin is inherent in human nature and and at times it seems there is no other way. Reading this article, I'm reminded of the AA parable about the man who is addicted to jaywalking and though he is injured over and over again, can't stop until one day, he's hit by a fire engine. Or Romans 7. Lucky for us (and New Jersey), "Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer!!

Mockingbird: Bringing You the Gospel (pt. 8)

Carolina Liar Tells the Truth

I downloaded "Show Me What I'm Looking For" (any U2 similarities are purely coincidental?) by Carolina Liar a few months ago for free on iTunes, but didn't pay much attention to what it said until I heard it on a preview for the Time Traveler's Wife yesterday.

While the verdict is out on any intentional Christian meaning, I don't think it matters. The lyrics are pure Gospel, and even the video, depicting the singer in his best v-neck tee wandering forlorn through Atlantic City, seems to suggest this man gets his inability to fix things for himself.

The last chorus, where he turns the opening line "should have done better than this" into "I can't do better than this" says it all...

Oh, and it's really catchy. Enjoy.



Wait, I'm wrong
Should have done better than this
Please, I'll be strong
I'm finding it hard to resist
So show me what I'm looking for

Save me, I'm lost
Oh lord, I've been waiting for you
I'll pay any cost
Save me from being confused
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for…oh lord

Don't let go
I've wanted this far too long
Mistakes become regrets
I've learned to love abuse
Please show me what I'm looking for

Save me, I'm lost
Oh lord, I've been waiting for you
I'll pay any cost
Save me from being confused
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for…oh lord
Show me what I'm looking for

Save me, I'm lost
Oh lord, I've been waiting for you
I'll pay any cost
Just save me from being confused

Wait, I'm wrong
I can't do better than this
I'll pay any cost
Save me from being confused
Show me what I'm looking for…oh lord

Tony Hale Controls The World! A Mockingbird Interview [Rerun]

Last week Mockingbird got the opportunity to sit down with one of its heroes, actor Tony Hale, otherwise known as Buster Bluth from Arrested Development [far and away the greatest American sitcom since Seinfeld]. Tony was in town filming a movie and promoting his new online NBC comedy series CTRL. CTRL is made up of 10 five-minute episodes, in which Tony stars as Stuart, a typical office worker who spills iced tea on his computer keyboard only to discover that it has given him the supernatural ability to "control" the reality around him. Sort a cross between The Office and the movie Click but minus the melodrama - the illustrative implications of which are clearly enormous. Major hat-tip to Dusty Brown.



So tell us how “CTRL” came about:

Two years ago, the director Rob did a little short (CTRL Z) around the same idea and asked me and Zachary Levi (Chuck on Chuck) to be a part of it. And I really liked the concept. I love that it’s an everyday situation in an office, and the supernatural comes into that. Unlike say LOST or BSG, both shows that I love but where everything’s kind of out there already. This is more of an everyday situation where something really wacky happens. And Rob wanted it like that too. Not a lot of bells and whistles. Just that this keyboard that could literally take everything back and alter reality (Bold key, copy/paste, etc). So much power in this one little device. The short ended up winning a competition at Sundance, and then NBC approached us to make it into an online series. They asked me if I wanted to do it, and I said yes, and when Zachary couldn’t do it, Steve Howey stepped in. And he’s hilarious.

Very cool. You said that what drew you to the material was the supernatural coming into the everyday. Did that appeal to you for purely for comedic reasons?

Kind of. I like the comedic possibilities but I mainly like the surprise of it. Just this really mundane experience and than BAM!, this keyboard has magic. And also for someone who’s living a life where maybe he wishes he’d made some different choices… All of a sudden he has this power to redo everything.

They call that magical realism, right? Where there’s one device that’s supernatural but everything else is normal – Woody Allen does it a lot, like in Purple Rose of Cairo. I’ve heard him talk about it existentially, that since the sum of human knowledge has not been able to change us or save us in any way, if we’re to be helped, it’s got to be by magic. It’s a great access point for Christianity of course, and it works really well dramatically too.

Yeah, exactly. Also the series is very simple. It’s shot very simple, the music is very simple, the whole thing is very clean. No big special effects. I’m a simple-minded man after all…

Is it tough doing five-minute segments? With less time to develop the character?

Not really, I did commercials for a long time in New York. I was always impressed that they can do a beginning, middle and end in a 30-second spot (Mr Roboto). They have the ability to do that creatively. This is the same thing: a high concept in 4-minutes.

The premise of the series is such an appealing idea, such a common daydream I’d think: An undo on my computer equals an undo in life. I’m sure a lot of people have had that fantasy. I’m almost surprised that it hasn’t been done before.

People have been comparing it to Groundhog’s Day. But whereas Bill Murray had no control, Stuart has the control...

And it still doesn’t solve all his problems! That’s what I thought was most interesting. His power actually compounds his problems. I just watched the third episode where he has the first kiss with the Elizabeth character, where he gives a long spiel about how much he likes her, about how incredible she is. And they kiss, but once it’s over he presses “ctrl z” and immediately perverts the situation to make it about himself (“Bi-racial babies are beautiful!”). The moment of love is spontaneous, but when he tries to engineer and repeat it, it doesn’t work. Or at least, it’s ridiculously funny.

But it is interesting that it’s a fantasy that everyone has. And we think such a power would solve all our problems but it doesn’t. You wonder, when we do fabricate these things in our head, if we could just control this or that, then everything would be okay. If we just got this job… But universally life never works that way. It typically has to be something organic, something that you never would have thought.

It’s a brilliant illustration. Because control is our human addiction, right? Our besetting sin, if you will. But if we were actually to play God with our lives or with ourselves, (insert MJ thoughts here), it doesn't work. It actually looks like insanity. But back to the series – you mentioned at the beginning about the supernatural coming into the everyday. Stranger than Fiction has that element in it, so does Chuck. Do you search out material like that intentionally?

Haha, not really. I’m not yet at a point where I can do stuff like that. Something small like this I can, but when it comes to big jobs, I’m not at a place where I can be that choosy. But I have done a lot of stuff that has that magical realism.

So are you connecting with the material on a Christian level?

I don’t really go there initially. I kind of go for the entertainment and I like the material, and then maybe think about the spiritual ramifications more afterward. When people ask me about my faith, when they ask how can you be a Christian in Hollywood? I honestly don’t see how people don’t have a spiritual foundation in Hollywood. Because there’s just so much uncertainty in Hollywood. And to know that someone is in control of my life, that I have a Father taking care of me, gives me so much peace when things are so chaotic. If it’s all dependent on me, I’d be completely crazy. Cause then you’d just be basing everything on chance. And the business is so random already. I’d go crazy.

It’s somewhat known that you’re a Christian. Do people put pressure on you to be more vocal about your faith?

I don’t necessarily feel pressure. Maybe if I was doing Left Behinds or something. But after the material I’ve done, I’ve lost a lot of the Christian audience. They don’t even think I’m going the right path. Which I kind of prefer. If they want to make that call, that’s their prerogative, but it doesn’t bother me. If anything, I enjoy having the discussions. If somebody wants to talk about it, I love talking about it. But I can’t be in control of what people’s thoughts are about my being in the business and my material. Cause it’s so unique for each person. There’s a market for people that want to do the Christian films, and I think that’s great. I think that’s great for them. I really do, because it’s all so individual.

Speaking personally, I’ve always felt that the distinction between Christian and non-Christian material can be pretty arbitrary anyhow. I’d say that with this material (CTRL), you’re exposing such a dark part of all of us – the need to control, the addiction to it – things that are fairly compatible with the biblical depiction of human nature.

This is one thing that does frustrate me about Christians in the arts. They tend to put the art in a box of what it should be. If something has to have something stamped on it, like a Cross, to be seen as Christian art, that’s bogus.

Arrested Development does such an incredibly funny job of bringing out everyone’s mixed motivations. A web of dysfunction that also has a huge element of love in it. The characters in AD are really defined by their weaknesses rather than their strengths. I don’t want to make too much of it, because mainly it’s just an incredibly funny show, but I’ve always felt that AD told the truth about human nature.

Yeah, exactly, I think the funny stuff is based in truth. We’re all laughing at ourselves and how ridiculous we are. And one of the reasons the show was so great is that it did so across the board – they made fun of everyone, Christians included but not singled-out.

What upcoming stuff are you excited about?

I’m in the new Soderbergh movie, The Informant, which I’m really excited about. I’m in The Answer Man with Jeff Daniels which is coming out next week, I think. But I’m really excited about CTRL. I just love the idea.

I have to ask. What’s up with the Arrested Movie?

We all want to do it, but at this point, it’s a matter of lining up schedules. Supposedly Mitch is working on the script, as we speak.

Anything else?

I will say one thing, and it’s a pretty basic statement. I’ve told a lot of people in Hollywood about Mockingbird. And I've done so because it’s so based on grace. There’s such a false stereotype about Christianity and Christ in LA: the obvious things that it’s all about law and legalistic and you-can’t-do-this-you-can’t-do-that. Mockingbird has such a Grace focus and I think that’s really important. [ed. note: we did not put him up to that!]

Wow, thanks. That means a lot. Finally, what do you think of Michael Jackson? What’s your take?

I think obviously it’s a time to appreciate everything that he contributed to music. But you can’t help but look at him and think it’s sad that there’s was so much damage there. You just wish that he hadn’t have had so many yes-men around him, that he might’ve found some authentic people. I mean, we’re all damaged. It just reached a level with him where it was so apparent.

Subcontrario (In Stereo)

This is going to come off as nepotistic, but here goes – Dovecote Records released Trevor Giuliani’s debut last week, Subcontrario (In Stereo), and it is something to behold. The record is the result of an almost four year gestation and it shows. The uniformly stellar songwriting, the unexpected but always just-right arrangements, or Trevor’s gorgeous croon: I can't decide which I like best. And that’s not saying anything about the superb musicianship on display here.

A few standouts: “Big Decisions” gets things going with some inspired tempo changes and features the first of his stunning codas. Listen to the twists and turns of the breath-taking “Settled Bounds”: the violins on the chorus, the symbols on the bridge, the harmonies at the end… this is a work of art. Then there’s the carefully orchestrated bring-the-house-down catharsis of “All Night’s Rest”’s final minute – I defy you not to be moved. With “Wasting Your Town” he gives us with the summer single we didn’t know we’d been missing, and with “Van Singing” we get the meditative mood-piece. But even when he’s trying to throw us off his path, he can’t bury his gift for melody.



In the record’s one straight-ahead rock song, “Janessa”, he combines pitch-perfect humor with rock n roll guitars (a killer solo!), before sucker-punching us with one of his only out-and-out Gospel references, crying “Hold on… to Matthew 6!” There’s nothing forced about it – in fact, it’s just the right amount of clarity, bursting out beautifully from his otherwise obtuse wordplay. The closest Trevor gets to narrative songwriting comes in “Today” which again, features an absolutely brilliant final chorus. And the closing track “Predicated Ground” may be the finest moment of all – words wouldn’t do it justice. Just be sure to give it a minimum of five listens before you make up your mind.

We stay away from imperatives on this blog as a general rule, but I’m going to risk one: People, buy this record. Soak it up and give copies to all your friends. They will thank you.

Mockingbird Interview on The Internet Monk

Check out what just went up over at InternetMonk.com (one of our favorite websites ever) - a little interview with yours truly about our ministry.

heart and fish,

DZ

Judgment and the Ethic of Womanhood

A friend of mine forwarded to me a link to a blog post that stunned me. The author of the blog received an email from one of her readers. Here is a portion of the email:

“… you know God calls women to take care of the home. Proverbs 31 says: She watches over the affairs of her household.….You always seem to be on the computer or reading or studying … Maybe … God's…telling you to give it all up and be a stay at home wife. As a stay at home wife myself I know the rewards of making dinner for my husband every night and having a clean house…I see Mr. Newlywed does the cooking. That isn't really his job. ….Corinthians tells us we are not to be concerned with the matters of the world and just with our husband. You seem to concern yourself with many things outside of your marriage.…You are obviously concerned with things other than your husband....Do you even think about what he wants for the two of you?

“…sometimes what we love doesn't matter. God doesn't want women to work outside the home. Women just do it to prove themselves and show they can be like men. Why do so many women feel they need to be masculine?…I think you need to step back and think.…Don't you want to be home and watch your children grow up?...

“I'm just asking you to pray on it. You seem sensible and a good Christian. This is just my chance to preach the Word to you. Maybe even help you understand your calling. You can always email me with questions…I can help you fill your idle time with chores, volunteering, and cooking.”

There are two issues that come to the surface with this email: 1. “helpful advice” is a form of judgment; and, 2. there is a pre-determined ethic of “womanhood” being assumed. I’ll briefly address both issues.

1. While I can give the author of the email the benefit of the doubt and say, “Sure; I’m sure you meant this in love”; I cannot agree that this is what the author did in the end. Rather, an email like this cannot come across as loving because it is heavily drenched in judgment. The gist of the email: “You are not doing this...You are failing that...You are missing the mark” and, my personal favorite, “You should be godlier…more like me”. Judgment and accusation cloaked as love. “Preaching the Word” as pointing out shortcomings. Self-promotion and pride disguised as “I’m here to help.” Advice, specifically unsolicited advice such as this email, will have the opposite effect intended by the advice giver. While the giver will claim, “I did it in love, to correct your path, to set you straight”, the receiver will feel that biting wound of judgment, failure, and shame. The giver feels better, and the receiver feels worse (props to A. Zimmerman for his awesome sermon on Sunday).

2. The author of the email has a pre-determined ethic of womanhood; it is clear that there are certain characteristics that comprise what a Christian woman is: she is a stay-at-home-wife/mom, she does the cooking/cleaning, her primary concern is her husband and home, and she volunteers. Anything that strays from this “norm” is “masculine”, selfish, inconsiderate, misguided (meaning, not guided by the Holy Spirit through prayer), and insensible to the point of being a “bad” Christian.

This type of ethic isn't limited to the "Christian sphere; it's a universal experience that imposes itself on all women. I’m left asking: where is this ethic of womanhood coming from? Was woman created for the previously mentioned assumptions? Or, is there more to her creation? Is submission, in Christ, just a reiteration of the curse Genesis 3:16? Or, is submission something else completely, resembling Genesis 2:18-24? Does Jesus affirm this archaic, assumed ethic of womanhood? Or, does He do something radical by means of restoration? Is Paul promoting a stringent boundary on what a woman can do? Or, is he more progressive—though not a feminist—in his understanding of woman and woman in Christ? It is these questions that I would like to discuss in a four part series: “Are you there Jesus? It’s Me, Woman.”

A Malleable Feast?: Perception, Reality and the Cross

I ran across this op-ed piece by A. E. Hotchner in the NY times the other day objecting to how the new edition of Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, "has been extensively reworked by a grandson who doesn’t like what the original said about his grandmother, Hemingway’s second wife. The grandson has removed several sections of the book’s final chapter and replaced them with other writing of Hemingway’s that the grandson feels paints his grandma in a more sympathetic light. Ten other chapters that roused the grandson’s displeasure have been relegated to an appendix, thereby, according to the grandson, creating “a truer representation of the book my grandfather intended to publish.”

This piece goes on to decry the attempt made by these editors and others to "clean up" Hemingway's work. Here, we have a wonderful example of how the antiseptic, edited versions of people's lives are instinctively preferred to the real. Now, in Hemingway's case, one could perhaps forgive his descendants for a little bit of posthumous character resuscitation; however, the idea that we somehow need to protect others from the foibles of who we actually are---the questionable opinions, the knee-jerk judgments, the areas of unexamined blindness---presupposes that these are not the universals of the human condition, that what really unites us is our altruism, moments of selfless love and periods of insightful introspection.

In no way is this an excuse for the, shall we say, regrettable aspects of our humanity; rather, this helps understand the need for the theology of the Cross as something which, in the words of the late Gerhard O. Forde, "calls a thing what it is." Only with a proper diagnosis can we be appropriately treated; only with an acceptance of who we really are can we appreciate who we might become. This is where the Cross serves its dual function: revelation and redemption. It reveals the depth of our need--the dark places of un-edited fallen humanity--and the means and hope of our redemption.

When the library of my voluminous works are edited posthumously, I only hope that my editors, descendants, whoever, will appreciate that the very areas of my un-edited life were the ones that forced me to the Cross, forced me to proclaim this message (in some form) day after day, the ones that allows me to cry out with the Apostle Paul,"who will deliver me from this (un-edited) body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ!"

Would you buy a hot dog from an ex-con?

I want to go now. Read the full story here.

Another Week Begins: Basil Wolverton, Otaku Pillows, Dash Snow, more Mr. Fox/Wild Things and The Internet Monk

A bunch of great items, mostly from the NY Times:

1. A fascinating review of the new Basil Wolverton exhibition in Chelsea. Just so happens that the gross-out king, nicknamed the "Michelangelo of Mad Magazine" was "a devout churchgoer, [who] hoped to be remembered for his Bible illustrations, not his cartoons." His Bible illustrations were collected last year in The Wolverton Bible (ht Liz Moore). But be warned:

"Several of his end-of-the-world pictures are in the show, and they’re wild. Plagues descend on the sin-ridden human race. Bodies break out in disfiguring boils. Faces burn, shrivel and stretch into masks of fear.

In those profoundly and ingeniously disintegrative images, everything inside the body — viscera, muscles, mucus, bones, brains — moves to the outside. Heads multiply; tongues turn into noses; hands become feet. Figures become dripping, leaking containers of crude matter, like the figures of sinners and saints in Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment,” who scowl and weep and pout as they float above the pit."

2. An article called "Love in 2-D", reporting on the latest developments in otaku culture in Japan of radical fandom (ht AZ). Basically, more and more men are opting out of the dating world and pursuing "real" relationships with body-pillows of their favorite animated characters. The judgment & love implications here are obvious (see Lars And The Real Girl), and it's hard not to have some compassion on these guys. But still... it's pretty creepy:

"In Japan the fetishistic love for two-dimensional characters is enough of a phenomenon to have earned its own slang word, moe… In an ideal moe relationship, a man frees himself from the expectations of an ordinary human relationship and expresses his passion for a chosen character, without fear of being judged or rejected."

“I still like human women better,” [one of the self-described otakus] said, a wide grin forming. “But there are many men who are on the opposite side of the scale. I understand their feelings completely. These guys don’t want to push ahead in society; they just want to create their own little flower-bed world and live there peacefully.”


3. Speaking of expectations and the desire to get out from under them, "Terrible End For Enfant Terrible" gives us another sad parable about the destructive power of the Law, this time in the life and death of artist Dash Snow. New York City never delivers what it promises. The key passage reads:

"Mr. Snow’s demise could also be read as a story about New York and the tribal immobility that undercuts the city’s reputation as a celebrated home for self-invention.

“The facts are pretty simple,” said Javier Peres, Mr. Snow’s art dealer. “Dash, as a child, rebelled against his family. There was a lot of anger and unresolved baggage with the family — especially with his mother. There might have been a blanket there at times, but he thought about himself as basically being alone.”

Being alone, of course, is not the same as being free. And after the drugs, the sex, the squats, the art, the casual stance toward hygiene and formality, some basic questions linger: Did Mr. Snow ever escape the East Side pedigree that caused him so much anguish? How long does someone have to live their life before they fully possess it? Was he on an inevitable crash course from the start?"


4. As a follow-up to John Stamper's wonderful post below about children's movies, be sure to check out the gorgeous pictures on the new Fantastic Mr Fox website and the new featurette with Maurice Sendak about the upcoming Where The Wild Things Are film. USA Today of all places also has a couple of interesting articles about the former project: here and here.


5. Last but not least, something very much worth ranting about over at internetmonk.com (ht JDK). Run don't walk!

"God Does His Part, and I Do Mine." The Falsehood of Semi-Pelagianism

Hey there glossary fans! This week I wanted to look at a term that sums up probably the most prevailing perspective on the human relationship with God in the world today. It is called semi-pelagianism.

Semi-pelagianism is a mixed view of God’s sovereignty and human free will working together toward human justification. You may have heard it, or even said it, like this: “I'm meeting God half-way”, “We are co-laborers with God”, “God knocks at the door, and I have to answer”, “You need to get serious about your faith”, “Just surrender, and He’ll do the rest”, etc.

It is basically the mental compromise that we all make with the heresy of Pelagianism, which is the theological doctrine propounded by Pelagius, a British monk, and condemned as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church in A.D. 416. It denied original sin and affirmed the ability of humans to be righteous by the exercise of free will. Essentially, believing that you choose God as opposed to Him choosing you. “It’s up to you.”

It is a very easy belief to hold because it appeals to our sinful desire to be able to stand on our own two feet. We want to be able to have something to offer God. After all, it is a very uncomfortable thing to be told that we are completely helpless. So, since we want to give God His due, we allow for Him to be the one that helps us out, but we defend the idea that we have free will and a part to play in the justification tango.

The truth of the matter is that we are not free, however. This blog continually searches culture and life to show how we are in fact bound beings, that freedom without the cross is nothing more than an illusion or the result of mental gymnastics. Instead of being a tango between two capable parties, justification is more like Tom Petty's creepy, but great music video for "Mary Jane's Last Dance" in which he dances with the dead body of his love, Mary Jane. We are that dead body, and God lifts us up and brings us to life.

Check it out, and watch for the baptism scene at the end. Enjoy!

Mary Jane's Last Dance @ Yahoo! Video

Mockingbird at the Movies: fantasy, dreamlife, and childhood

Come away O human child
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
--- W.B. Yeats, by way of Steven Spielberg’s AI

“…if we’re to be helped, it’s got to be by magic.”
-- Woody Allen, by way of Mockingbird (7/21/09)

This week I’d like to talk about five movies where fantasy and dream and magic and childhood meet: Coraline, Paperhouse, The Innocents, The Red Balloon, and AI.


Coraline

This movie was just released this week on DVD. Very worth seeing.

Check out R-J’s great review of it five months ago. Now that I have seen it, I agree with him that it’s a bad movie for small kids; though it might fine for kids older than that, as long as they are prepared to be scared. (That should be a movie slogan.)

R-J and I see the movie a bit differently in other respects: he sees it as having a Message, which I don’t thankfully, since I cordially dislike all message movies. I do think it deals with real terrors, hopes, and dreams embedded in childhood.

The author of the book it was based on is Neil Gaiman, who wrote in my opinion the best fantasy novel of the last twenty years (Neverwhere).


Paperhouse
Sadly this is no longer available on DVD. But if somehow you can find an old copy, or otherwise get to see it, drop everything you can. It’s magical and wonderful and scary and touching with extraordinary music. It’s about a British girl who begins finding out that the pictures she draws somehow are linking her to a world where they are real; and where a sad boy lives. It’s also a meditation on a famous painting by Andrew Wyeth (Christina’s World).



The Innocents (1961)

An adaptation of the Henry James short story “The Turn of the Screw”, The Innocents features a stunning performance by Deborah Kerr (who plays a governess) and two child actors.

It’s an extended meditation on Ephesians 6:12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Or are Kerr’s misgivings just the projection of a fractured and troubled psyche? One of the best ghost stories ever made.



The Red Balloon (1956 – 34 minutes)

A loose adaptation of the story of the Gospel, it is about the love of a Red Balloon for a little boy.

It’s set in Paris and has almost no words (except twice where the boy calls to the balloon: “Ba-lo!” (For those of us who have a special love for Blaise Pascal, who really knew the Gospel by the way, you may be interested to know that the director cast his own son as the Boy, and his son’s real name was Pascal.)

Parts of it are really funny. And the music is truly out of this world. The end will make you happier than you’ve ever been and captures better than anything else the sense of us being claimed and chosen by Another; and bound for a Good Place far away.


AI (2001)
A lovely sci-fi fantasy adaptation of Pinnochio, originally envisioned by Stanley Kubrick and handed by him to Steven Spielberg shortly before his death.

True to its fairytale form, it has a scene where the android boy is taken out into a forest by his human mother and abandoned. The scene between the boy and the mother is possibly the most powerful moment ever created in film:


Monica: You won't understand the reasons but I have to leave you here.

David: Is it a game?

Monica: No.

David: When will you come back for me?

Monica: I'm not, David. You'll have to be here by yourself.

David: (pause) Alone?

Monica: With Teddy.

David: No. (pause) No, no, no! No, Mommy, please! No, no. Please, Mommy.
Monica: They would destroy you, David!
David: I'm sorry I broke myself. I'm so sorry I cut your hair off. I'm sorry I hurt Martin.
Monica: I have to go. I have to go! Stop it! I have to go now.
David: Mommy, don't! Mommy if Pinocchio became real and I become a real boy can I come home?
Monica: That's just a story.
David: But a story tells what happens.
Monica: Stories are not real! You're not real! Now, look. Take this, alright? Don't let anyone see how much it is. Look. Don't go that way. Go anywhere but that way or they'll catch you. Don't ever let them catch you! Listen, stay away from Flesh Fairs, away from where there are lots of people. Stay away from all people. Only others like you, only Mecha are safe!
David: Why do you want to leave me? Why? I'm sorry I'm not real. If you let me, I'll be so real for you!
Monica: Let go, David! Let go! I’m sorry… I’m sorry I didn't tell you about the world.

AI also has wonderful other characters. Gigolo Joe (Jude Law) is my favorite. He's a lot of fun and comes to be David's protector. Here are a few more quotable moments, useful in anyone's daily life:

Gigolo Joe: I'm in bad trouble.

David: My brain is falling out.

Gigolo Jane: Hey Joe, what do you know?
Gigolo Joe: Hey Jane, how's the game?

Gigolo Joe: We will ask Dr. Know. There is nothing he doesn't.

The movie is uneven in places. Spielberg doesn’t know how exactly to permit a fairy tale to exist on its own, thus his need to give awkward exposition and explain when in the future this is happening, linking it back to “real” events like IBM’s Big Blue playing chess against grand masters, or how history has traveled from the real world to this “future” time; and he runs into this same problem at the end.




In fact, this isn’t a hard-science prediction story set in the future. It’s Pinnochio, the story of the little wooden Boy who desperately needs to be loved and to be real. It’s Luther in a storm crying out how can I find a gracious God?

Thus Spielberg is at his best once the story of the Boy has begun, or when the Boy is on his perilous flight from the Powers and Principalities. (You’ll be amazed at what extraordinary magic and terror can be evoked in a brief moment with the phrase: Moon rising!)

Problems aside, this is one of the great movies about childhood and magic and aching need. It needs to be seen.

ComMOONion

Check it out, Buzz Aldrin took communion on the moon:

“In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.’ I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O’Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly. …I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.”

(Aldrin quote taken from Eric Metaxis' interview)

Good News For People With Big Problems #3 "Check Out Any Time You Like (But You Can Never Leave): Depression, Addiction and the Christian Hope"

Last night, we tackled Big Problem #3 (sub-title: The Bondage of the Will), our inability to bridge the gap between how we ought to live and how we actually live. A problem that is especially highlighted when dealing with depression and addiction. To do so, we looked at the following sources:

From Dorothy Martyn’s “Beyond Deserving”:

In speaking of the indestructibility of what lies in the unconscious mind, he spoke of “paths...laid down once and for all, which never fall into disuse” and “are only capable of annihilation in the same sense as the ghosts in the underworld of the odyssey—ghosts which awoke to new life as soon as they tasted blood.” (Interpretation of Dreams) What is it that is apparently indestructible, being resurrected over and over? Why does a habitual gambler repeat again and again his doomed enterprise, even bringing himself and his entire family to utter destruction, when all probabilities are so heavily against his succeeding? Why does a dangerously obese person continue to eat ice cream or other weight aggravating foods in quantity, right in the face of medical warnings of illness and possible early death? This list could be expanded indefinitely.

From Romans 7:15

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

From Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan:

Nick Smith: I've always planned to be a failure anyway, that's why I plan to marry an extremely wealthy woman.

From Emily Dickinson:

"Speech"—is a prank of Parliament—
"Tears"—is a trick of the nerve—
But the Heart with the heaviest freight on—
Doesn't—always—move—

From AA’s Big Book:

But my friend sat before me, and he made the pointblank declaration that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. His human will had failed. Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was about to lock him up. Like myself, he had admitted complete defeat. Then he had, in effect, been raised from the dead, suddenly taken from the scrap heap to a level of life better than the best he had ever known!

The Good News for this Big Problem is that Jesus came to "To open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." (Is 42:7) We know that Jesus is a friend of those who are bound when we hear him say (very much in the same vein as the Dickinson poem), "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Learning to hear...

I am fascinated by obscure (and ancient) Asian musical instruments...just show me someone who isn't. Yes, they provide a great score to back the garden variety Kung Fu movie, but what interests me is that the notes and chords produced by these unique contraptions are like that of no other Western instrument. In a world of mass-produced pop-nonsense that seems to repackage the same old cliché's in the form of glitzy 'it girls/boys' who churn out boring 3 chord melodies, don't we all just need a break?

Anyway, here are a few of my favorites (collect 'em, trade 'em with your friends):

1. The unwieldy Lusheng (sheng, for short) is a 3,000 year old Chinese instrument; it is like a harmonica on steroids, but its sound is completely magical.

2. The Erhu is a two stringed instrument that is essentially a mix between a violin and a tree branch. It dates back to the Tang Dynasty (7th-10th c). Hendrix, look out.

3. The Guzheng , with up to two dozen strings, is on the opposite side of the spectrum from the Erhu. It dates to 91 BC, and is featured in a beautifully choreographed scene from the film 'Kung Fu Hustle' (not for the fainthearted, but shows up about 1 min into clip).

4. And finally, who could forget the voice as an instrument? Chinese opera, as I'm told, is one of the oldest forms of the art, pre-dating its European cousin by 900 years.

What is the point of all this? It seems to me, perhaps not surprisingly, that there is a correlation between the unique notes produced by each of these instruments and the ancient message of Jesus. I accept that all analogies are a bid dodgy, but just indulge me. While Jesus' 'melody' of redemption, grace and reconciliation remains a mystery to the world, like the Chinese instruments, it is also so distinct that one simply cannot ignore it like the music of yesterday's one-hit-wonder.

Many of us have found that to listen to Jesus is also to have one's ear tuned to an entirely different frequency. It seems that, all this time, the Master has essentially been teaching us how to listen, how to hear. So we go into the world every day with ears that are hungry for the grace note; and we pray that God will allow it to echo throughout our relationships and our lives as well. Like the Chinese instruments, the words of Jesus continually transport us to a place that is both mysterious and entirely real, a place where the music never dies.

Monday Tidbits: Mr. Fox, The Hill and Wood, Kerouac on Brothers K

1. The first images of Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox were released last week! The trailer comes out next week... Stay tuned.























2. The Hill And Wood. First Charlottesville, then the world... We love these guys. Check out their recent performance:

3. An index of Jack Kerouac's colorful (and funny) one-liners about cities and states, very much worth your time, among them "this New York world of telephones and appointments", "overcommunicating America" and "California TOO MANY COPS AND TOO MANY LAWS and general killjoy culture". Then there's this recent quote of his, unearthed by our favorite Kerouac scholar:

"The happy ending of the 'Brothers Karamazov', called dull and uninteresting by some critics, is not the laughing mockery of a great genius of understanding, but rather, it seems to me the admission that though human beings do not need 'happiness' they might as well be happy. This is like God's gratuitous sunshine after a bad storm, and it is good. I say to these critics: 'Don't be assholes all your life.'"

Green Shoots and the Law of the Stock Market

Many self-respecting optimists, especially those who are econ-optimists, are proclaiming to see “green shoots” and a return to the good ‘ole days. “The stimulus has worked,” people claim and justify the economy’s coming rebound by referencing housing starts and sales, oil and gas prices or something else. The stock market goes up and morale with it and then…a piece of bad news comes….and everybody falls back to square one and the Dow falls to 7000.

An editorial in the WSJ earlier this week explored the idea that there is a difference between reality and inflated expectations. They conclude that in the long-run, reality wins.

"Like it or not, the stock market is bigger than the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury. The stock market anticipates only future profits and prosperity, not government-funded starter fluid. You can only fool it for so long. Unless there are real corporate profits from sustainable economic growth, the stock market is not going to play along. It is the ultimate enforcer."

As opposed to message of the power of positive thinking, the Christian message also states that “Reality wins.” When Christians look at the world, we don’t believe that the stock market is the ultimate enforcer, but rather the law. It may be the 10 Commandments that act as the enforcer or it could be your marriage, job or fitness level, or any part of your life where you are found wanting. Eventually, the high-fives and exclamations of awesomeness are not enough and reality wins.

The Gospel proclaims love and forgiveness in the midst of our reality and an end to the “enforcer”.

“Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4