A Few Thoughts on District 9

Have you seen it yet?! A highly creative alien-flick with some of the more blatant Gospel themes in recent memory... definitely my favorite blockbuster of the summer. Here are six somewhat spoiler-free thoughts on the clearly very awesome theology at work (ht Jacob, R-J, Mr. T):

1. The film is set in a Johannesburg, a modern day Nazareth if ever there was one, and even opens with a defacto census.

2. In keeping with the Nazareth theme, the vehicle for the redemption of the Prawn species is the least likely of candidates, a dim-witted goodie-goodie (human) bureaucrat named Wikus. Isaiah 53:2-3 anyone?

3. Compassion with "the other" only occurs definitively and effectively via incarnation.

4. The Holy Spirit-driven process of sanctification has never been illustrated more, um, elaborately. In the case of Wikus, the left hand truly does not know what the right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3!); in fact, the unregenerate nature works actively to destroy the regenerate one.

5. Then there's the imputed vs. infused righteousness debate, which is played out on the screen in the form of Wikus vs. the Nigerian gangsters. The Nigerians believe that by eating alien flesh they will turn into aliens themselves, and hence be able to use alien weapons. Naturally, this doesn't work. Wikus on the other hand is "covered" in alien righteousness, beginning a process of transformation over which he has absolutely no control.

6. Finally, the ending has Second Coming written all over it. Tim Keller has an excellent sermon series about heaven where he talks about how our beliefs about the future go a long way in determining the way we live in the present, "you are what you hope for" being the refrain. Look no further than District 9!

[BTW, those with sensitive stomachs will probably not enjoy District 9 - the gore-factor is rather intense]

THE FIVE TOP SINGLES OF ALL TIME - Paul Zahl

My friend Ray Ortlund sent me a mix of 957 rock 'n roll singles.

I listen to it every morning when I run. Ray's inspired mix seems to cover just about every top-forty hit that was ever made.

Today I got to number 957. Then it hit me!

Here are the top five singles of all time.

I know you're going to have your b-list, everyone is going to have their own b-list.

You're going to definitely protest and say, 'What about "I Fought The Law (And The Law Won)" by the Bobby Fuller Four, and "Ninety-Six Tears" by ? and the Mysterians, and "She's About a Mover" by the Sir Douglas Quintet?'

You'll be absolutely right.

But here's the list, as I see it, on the basis of Ray's amazing compilation of almost 1000 hits, and there's just one little word, of interpretation, at the end.

The list is in reverse order.

Number Five: Can't Buy Me Love (The Beatles)

Number Four: Have I the Right (The Honeycombs/Joe Meek)

Number Three: I Can't Explain (The Who)

Number Two: Louie, Louie (The Kingsmen)

Number One: Don't Bring Me Down (The Animals)

What makes a Top Five Single:

It's got to be short, sincere, and funny.

It's got to have a good tune, and you have to want to dance to it.

Like a good sermon.

Wilder wrote three-minute plays, to suit his chosen style of compression. Kerouac couldn't get publishers to publish his novels because they were 'too short'. Like The Subterraneans and Visions of Gerard. Tolstoy's 'gospel parables' were almost never more than five pages, and one of the very best of them, "Esarhaddon, King of Assyria", is just three pages. Joe Meek the Genius compressed everything!

Compression and quality is what we are looking for. Fichte said there are so many words out there that there ought to be a tax on them, to diminish their number by statute.

These Top Five Pop Songs fit the bill. They are sermons in sound.

Oh, and finally:

Please any pleasure you receive from listening to these songs, please take it, convert it into a blessing -- a 'seed' as the television evangelists like to say -- and send it to Mockingbird. These guys are the sweetest voice on the web, and they are... drowning for lack of help. They need you. They need us. Don't bring them down.

FREEDOM (Part 1): Luther

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1)

This the freedom with which Christ has set us free, not from some human slavery of tyrannical authority but from the eternal wrath of God. Where? In the conscience. This is where our freedom comes to a halt; it goes no further. For Christ has set us free, not for a political freedom or a freedom of the flesh but for a theological or spiritual freedom, that is to make our conscience free and joyful, unafraid of the wrath to come (Matt.3:7). This is the most genuine freedom, it is immeasurable...For who can express what a great gift it is for someone to be able to declare for certain that God neither is nor ever will be wrathful but will forever be a gracious and merciful Father for the sake of Christ? (LW 27:4)

O Lost: Wolfe's Angel and The Buried Life

I was lost on a recent trip to North Carolina when I stumbled upon Wolfe's Angel, the marble angel that is regarded as the inspiration for the title and much of the underlying symbolic theme in Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel.

Wolfe's father, W.O. Wolfe, was reputed to be a reprobate and drunkard, but a master stone-cutter. His masterpiece was this monument, which stands in Oakdale Cemetary in Hendersonville. Young Thomas watched his father carve it in 1905.

Here's how Wolfe described the angel in the novel:

...by the door, he put the heavy simpering figurine of an angel...it had come from Carrara in Italy, and it held a stone lily delicately in one hand. The other hand was lifted in benediction, it was poised clumsily upon the ball of one phthisic foot, and its stupid white face wore a smile of soft stone idiocy.

Wolfe was not regarded as an overly religious man, in fact some of his more famous quotes could be regarded as anti-religious, but in Look Homeward Angel there is at the beginning perhaps one of the greatest (non-biblical) descriptions of our plight as fallen humanity:

. . . a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces. Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? O waste of loss, in the hot mazes, lost, among bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When? O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.

Mockingbird at the Movies: True Stories

The last six years have been an amazing time for documentaries.

I am not thinking of the Usual Documentary. That is a movie about important issues you ought to care about: global warming, AIDS, Iraq, the Bush Presidency, the war on terror, the curtailment of civil liberties, genocide in Africa, Columbine, abortion, homosexuality, Iraq, big tobacco, the food industry, the capitalist exploitation of XXX, Iraq, etc..

Or it's a movie about an important person you should care about (famous athlete, rock star, Hollywood celebrity, or historical figure). Or it's a movie about Science or Nature, which everybody should care about.

Don't get me wrong: those movies are great in their own way, and some amazing stuff of this sort has been made in the last 6-7 years too. For example, in the famous rock star category, I was personally crazy about "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster." In the Iraq meets Famous Person meets the War On Terror (three categories for one) I liked the miniseries "The House of Saddam."

But the Usual D is not what I want to talk about today.

What I am thinking of here are movies that are ultimately about people, often families, and their friends, children, and enemies -- all people you wouldn't normally have heard of outside the movie being made. They are ultimately movies that are just like a great work of fiction -- with the unexpected virtue that the stories really happened.

Strolling backward in time, they are:
* Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008)
* Surfwise (2007)
* My Kid Could Paint That (2007)
* King of Kong (2007)
* Deep Water (2006)
* Murderball (2005)
* Born Into Brothels (2004)
* Capturing The Friedmans (2003)
* My Architect (2003)

Like any standard documentary, all of these movies appear at first to be about a subject: steroids, surfing, modern art, arcade games, and so on. But very swiftly you get drawn in and realize that's not what they are really about at all. They are in fact stories, often incredibly gripping, about people and their joys and fears and hopes and suffering; their quest for identity and meaning; and most all the way that Judgment and Love, law and grace, play out in their lives.

God bless, and have a good time at the movies.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Is it a documentary about steroids, or a poignant story about three brothers? One of my favorite movies of the last few years.





Surfwise

A movie about a family of surfers: father, mother, eight boys, and one daughter, all living in a 24-foot camper during the 60s and 70s.








My Kid Could Paint That

A young girl becomes the darling of the media and the modern art world, who then turn on her.

Fascinating movie not only about art but about childhood and parenthood.






King of Kong (2007)

Lovely movie about two guys duking it out over the right to be the best Donkey Kong player ever.

Here's a Mockingbird thread about this movie from January 2009, along with two really fun clips.





Deep Water (2006)

Based on the true story of Donald Crowhurst and the 1969 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race round the world -- alone -- in a yacht.

A movie about ambition, love, and an abyss of madness and loneliness that threatens to engulf this man.

Beautiful and touching and frightening.



Murderball (2005)
Documentary about quadriplegics who play full-contact rugby in Mad Max-style wheelchairs. More truly a movie about rage, grief, brotherhood, forgiveness, one-way love and implacable law.

















Born Into Brothels (2004)

"A portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes.

Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, gives each of the children a camera and teaches them to look at the world with new eyes."





Capturing The Friedmans (2003)

One of the best movies of the last 10 years. True story of a family disintegrating under charges of sexual misconduct.

Not since The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter has there been such a close examination of witch hunts and community self-righteousness.





My Architect (2003)

Partly a movie about the great 20th century architect Louis Kahn, but in truth really a touching meditation about the man's son, who is searching for his father, "my architect."

Nice quote from the movie: "How accidental our existences are, really, and how full of influence by circumstance."

Reflecting on Grace

Recently, I have found myself reflecting on grace. As I have been preparing for my upcoming marriage (9/26/09), finished seminary, moved from Pittsburgh, PA, to Charleston, SC, and started the process of thinking what will be next, I have been asking myself what is grace? While thinking about this unique gift from God, I have come to the conclusion that grace is perhaps one of the hardest lessons for us as humans to learn about and accept from God.

Our bound wills do not allow us to accept the notion of grace. The thing about grace, is that it sounds like something that is too good to be true. We live in a world where the pursuit of excellence and perfection will only do (academics, sports, music, etc.). As a result of never fully measuring up, we rebel and we try to fix our wounds with the drug of our own choosing. All in all, we pick something that we feel we can ultimately have total control over. In this vicious process, any idea of grace is lost as we try to gain control. Thinking about Romans 7 here...

The way I see it, there are two major misunderstandings of God's unfailing grace. Some of us are 'do-gooders' and show our ignorance of God's grace by working hard trying to earn it, while others of us show our misunderstanding by thinking that God's grace is inaccessible to us. The latter of these two is where I find a lot of my generation struggling with.

The human mind is a powerful thing, and it is perhaps the chief manipulator in telling us how unworthy we are. Moving back to Charleston has allowed me to become reacquainted with old friends who all seem to be approaching the 30 mark. Most of them are unmarried, over-educated, and suffering and/or recovering from some sort of addiction (drugs, work, sex, you name it...) as a result of trying to self-medicate the let downs in life.

Needless to say, this has lead to several interesting conversations as they know I have just finished seminary and am preparing for a career within the church. Most proclaim to believe in God and most even proclaim to be Christian - though choosing not to attend church. As I have asked the questions "what does the Gospel mean to you?" and "what is grace?," the answers have been interesting. Often times neither of the questions are answered and I hear about the pain and suffering, the guilt and depression, and the anxiety and fear, my friends are experiencing in their lives. As I try and redirect their focus to their faith, I hear more times than not that they know they cannot be good enough for God, so they despair of ever having a closer (and dare I say personal, thanks ++KJS) relationship with the Lord.

I find my own self identifying with the same thoughts and feelings of those of my friends. It is all too easy to allow my mind to slip into the same patterns that lead to destruction. Romans, Ephesians, and 2 Corinthians speak the loudest to me when I find myself slipping back into the rut. It is becoming clearer to me that the road ahead does not get easier. Life isn't perfect. But because of the cross, we are able to have faith in the Lord and experience the true and great gift of God's never-failing love towards us. As a result, we find that through love we are able to follow the 2 great commandments that St. Matthew writes about in his gospel text.

Below is a beautiful hymn written by Julia Johnson who totally gets what grace is all about for those of us who need to be reminded that grace is not too good to be true, but that it is too good and completely true.

Grace, Grace
Julia Johnson

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured
There where the blood of the Lamb was pilt

chorus
Grace, grace, God's grace
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace, grace, God's grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin

Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold
Threaten the soul with infinite loss
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold
Points to the refuge, the mighty cross

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! there is flowing a crimson tide
Whiter than snow you may be today

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace
Freely bestowed on all who believe
You that are longing to see His face
Will you this moment His grace receive?

"Liar, Liar Pants on Fire!"

I just stumbled across this article on Newsweek.com entitled "The Truth About Lying", which takes a look at our current culture of lying. It offers a tough diagnosis (DZ actually posted about the same book that this article references last week. Check it out here). It exposes how we don't even recognize when we're lying any more, and how we think that lying is easier, "and in some ways it's almost more acceptable."

Here's an excerpt:

We are a culture of liars, to put it bluntly, with deceit so deeply ingrained in our psyches that we hardly even notice we're engaging in it. Spam e-mail, deceptive advertising, the everyday pleasantries we don't really mean—"It's so great to meet you!" "I love that dress"—have, as Feldman puts it, become "an omnipresent white noise we've learned to tune out." And Feldman also argues that cheating is more common today than ever. The Josephson Institute, a nonprofit focused on youth ethics, concluded in a 2008 survey of nearly 30,000 high school students that "cheating in school continues to be rampant, and it's getting worse." In that survey, 64 percent of students said they'd cheated on a test during the past year, up from 60 percent in 2006. Another recent survey, by Junior Achievement, revealed that more than a third of teens believe lying, cheating, or plagiarizing can be necessary to succeed, while a brand-new study, commissioned by the publishers of Feldman's book, shows that 18- to 34-year-olds—those of us fully reared in this lying culture—deceive more frequently than the general population.

Yikes! I'm 30! I cheated in high school! This is me!

Isn't it disturbing that we don't even recognize many of our statements as lies? We just see them as being courteous and polite or even worse, we think they carry some sort of theological significance like "imputation". Man, we are very skilled at self-deception!

This is the perfect evidence to the fact that we do not believe in the cross most of the time. We lie because we still think that we live under the Law and therefore compensate. We try to

smooth the edges a little bit here and there with some small "untruths". But, before we know it we have effectively split from who we really are. We get so compartmentalized that we can't even remember "the way we were". This is when it is the hardest for us to ever hear the Gospel. You can almost hear the "ping!" of God's words bouncing off of our self-made fortresses of lies. The giant facades that we think are our safety actually block out all light from ever getting into where we really live.

Thankfully, the cross is true despite our unbelief, and God has not left us in our self-made prisons. Sometimes it seems He orchestrates our entire lives for that one break-down moment, where even the smallest bit of light begins to shatter our dark worlds, and, as a result, it's as if we begin to breathe for the first time.

"Are You there Jesus? It's Me, Woman.": Order, Submission, and Headship

This is part "four" in a four part series. For the introduction to the series, first part on creation, second part on the fall, and the third part on Jesus, click here , here , here and here, respectively.

In the previous post of this series, we looked at Luke 10:38-42 and the reality of the restoration of woman to God. We can now evaluate (or re-evaluate) submission and headship derived from Paul and his letters.

The Created Order. Man is not completely man without the creation of and the initiated relationship with woman (Gen. 2:18-24). Though he was man prior to the woman’s creation, it was not until her creation that he was able to know that he was man—man in relationship with woman and, by experience of this relationship, in relationship with God. The same holds true for woman—without the creation of and received relationship with man, woman is not woman. It takes a Thou to emphasize the I. “You are; therefore, we are; therefore, I am” (Les Fairfield). So, is there inherent hierarchy implied by the order of creation? The order of the relationship between man and woman is both inequitable [dissimilar] and non-interchangeable [‘A’ and a ‘B’, not an ‘A’ and an interchangeable, equal (similar) second ‘A’] (Barth III/iv 168). “A precedes B, and B follows A. Order means succession. It means preceding and following….[but] it does not mean any inequality between those who stand in this succession…”(III/iv 169-70, emphasis mine). In terms of A and B, A not being greater than B in value, we see that A is not truly A without B and vice versa. B follows A, not because it is inferior but because A was/is first.

Submission. The emphasis on submission within the NT (1 Cor. 14:34; Col. 3:18; Eph. 5:21, 24; 1 Tim. 2:11; Tit. 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1) is not “…to be conceived on the analogy of the relationship between subject and prince, subordinate and superior, or chattel and owner…” (Barth III/iv 172). In fact, “In [Eph. 5:22] there is no absolute decree enjoining women always to take, or to be bound to, an inferior place. On the contrary, the call to [submission] is qualified…by the overarching exhortation which calls for mutual [submission]…” (Marcus Barth 621). A woman submits not because of man’s authority, but because of Christ’s authority; both submit to this same authority. “It is not saying too much to comment that in so far as man in his sphere is obedient to the direction of the same Lord of the same [authority] he ipso facto

subordinates himself to woman” (Barth, III/iv 172). As both submit to Christ’s authority, both man and woman submit to each other—Love flows into love flows into love. A woman so overwhelmed by the Christ inspired love of a man will love in response. Much like the woman in the Song of Solomon “…awaits her lover’s coming and the ever-new experience of his love with fear and trembling¹” (Marcus Barth 649-50)².

Headship (1 Cor. 11:2-16)³. Commonly, the word translated as “head”, “headship”, or “male headship” is defined as “authority”—and, in some circles, defined as “source”. However, there is a third way to look at the term “head” (and its related terms). Head contains the notion of “that which is glorified”. When looking at the relationships Paul uses in verse 3⁴—Christ the head of man, man the head of woman, God the head of Christ—one may notice that one part of the coupling is the person/being that is glorified and that the other part is the agent by which the glorification occurs (i.e. woman glorifies man, man is glorified by woman). This glorification is not the realization of a selfish desire for glorification by the one in detriment to the other. Rather, there is mutual reciprocity within the relationships (Thiselton 804). As one is glorified so is the other part (Thiselton 804). In other words, to take the example of Christ as the head of man—Christ is not glorified out of selfish motive, but to the contrary, his glorification is inseparable from his own sacrifice. In the same way, the other relationships enumerated in this verse are inextricably linked to a sacrifice made on the part of the party being glorified.

In Ancient literature, head was often applied to the most honored or prominent part (Keener 92; also, Barth III/iv 173-4). One could even use the terms: preeminent, foremost, and synecdoche (representative) for a whole for the translation of head, “The public face is linked with responsibility and representation in the public domain, since head is both the part of a person which is most conspicuous and that by which they are most readily distinguished or recognized. These aspects feature more frequently and prominently in first-century Greek texts than either the notions of ruler or source… (821, emphasis Thiselton’s). Each of the secondary (not inferior) parts of the relationships glorify their corresponding primary parts “by which they [the secondary aspects] are most readily distinguished or recognized” (Thiselton804). Knowing Jesus, we know God; knowing woman, we know man; knowing redeemed man we know Jesus. If head is translated in this way, there is reciprocity and mutuality between the two parts of the relationships (including man and woman), rather than subjection as manifested in the curse. In this passage, Paul draws his audience back to the Garden of Gen. 2 and proclaims: As it was then, so it is now…again.

She watched as he approached her from across the room. When he neared, he extended his hand to her. She stood still and didn’t respond. He smiled and asked, “Will you?” She looked inquisitively at him and, slowly, put her hand in his. He gently wrapped his fingers around hers and pulled her toward him. The music played in the background; they started to move. Slowly. She felt awkward at first pulled up against him participating in a motion, nearly unfamiliar to her; he seemed to know what to do and guided them both. She followed and eventually picked up the beat and the rhythm, familiarity of this interaction returned to her mind and heart. She had done this before. She raised her head from starring at her feet to look into his eyes. Their glance interlocked and they began to move as one…as if they were truly one. She smiled and let her head dip back and laughed as he twirled her. It had been years, but they were once again dancing.

A Few Quick Mid-Week Links: Dylan, Holcomb, Stillman and Ebert

1. Bob Dylan has just announced his first ever Christmas album! The full tracklisting has yet to be revealed, but it has already been reported that "Christmas In The Heart" will feature at least one sacred tune, his version of Phillip Brooks' "O Little Town Of Bethlehem". It hits stores on October 13th and will benefit the charitable organization Feeding America.

2. Our very own Justin Holcomb, now of Mars Hill Church out in Seattle, posted an inspiring little anecdote of grace over at Common Grounds Online entitled "The Inverted World Of Grace". I like to think of it as his tribute to the best show on tv right now, Friday Night Lights.

3. As a follow-up to our recent interview, check out the piece on Whit Stillman over at Slate, "When Preppies Became Yuppies". Reminder: The Lincoln Center screening of The Last Days Of Disco happens tomorrow!

4. Finally, a remarkable story of addiction and recovery, from the least expected of sources, film critic Roger Ebert. I especially recommend the final portion, where he defends AA from its critics(!).

August Playlist

Can't seem to shake this britpop/MJ/Mott the Hoople kick... Enjoy:

1. Eliza - The Color Bars
2. I Wish I Was Your Mother - Mott The Hoople
3. Safe In My Garden - The Mamas & The Papas
4. All The King's Men - Wild Beasts
5. Your Control - Crooked Fingers
6. Hot Patootie Bless My Soul - Meat Loaf
7. Oogum Boogum - Brenton Wood
8. Holy Spirit - Limousine
9. Night Time Lover - LaToya and Michael Jackson
10. The Miracle - Richard Ashcroft
11. Dream Another Dream - Rialto
12. Made Of Stone - The Stone Roses
13. Not The Only Person - The Rumble Strips
14. Mary Jane's Last Dance - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
15. 21 Guns - Green Day
16. Trouble - The Jayhawks
17. Everything's Ruined (acoustic) - Fountains of Wayne
18. Dead Man Walking - Ian Hunter
19. Promise - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
20. All Things Must Pass - Yim Yames

Interesting Quote from Alfie Kohn

From the prominent author/education expert's 2001 book Punished By Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise and Other Bribes (great title! ht Ethan Richardson):

"Letting [students] know their performance is going to be evaluated is sometimes said to provide 'accountability'--a buzzword in both the public and private sectors--and to push people to do their best. Once again, however, control backfires. When people think they will be evaluated, their intrinsic motivation suffers--even if no reward is offered for doing well, and even if the evaluation turns out to be positive. Performance too, declines, especially on tasks demanding creativity. In fact, anytime we are encouraged to focus on how well we are doing at something, it is less likely that we will like the activity and keep doing it when given a choice."

Richard Rohr

I'm reading Richard Rohr's recent mainstream classic: Everything Belongs. He's sort of the other Brennan Manning, a Franciscan monk with a mystical bent, but also dripping with a "theology of the cross" train of thought (note: for what it's worth, I know a few folk personally who have been helped tremendously by Rohr).

Here are a few nice quotes:

"How do you make attractive that which is not? How do you sell nonsuccess? How do you talk descent when everything is about ascent? How do you talk about dying to a church trying to appear perfect? This is not going to work (admitting this might be my first step)."

"First there is the fall, and then there is the recovery from the fall. But both are the mercy of God."

"The great and merciful surprise is that we come to God not by doing it right but by doing it wrong!"

"Although we have a 'merit badge' mentality, prayer shows us that we are actually 'punished' by any expectation of merit and reward...Experiencing radical grace is like living in another world."

On Transformation: "But law does not give life; only the Spirit gives life, as Paul details in Romans and Galatians...When a student comes and says, 'Should I pull out the weeds?' Jesus says, 'No.' He says to let them both grow together until the harvest (Matt 13:29). Then, at the end of time, he will decide what is wheat and what is weed. This idea has had little effect on Western moral theology. But we are a mixture of weed and wheat and we always will be. As Luther put is, simul justus et peccator...The only true perfection available to us is the honest acceptance of our imperfection."

Green Day (again) - "21 Guns" and Christianity

Do you know what's worth fighting for,
When it's not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?
Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside? You're in ruins

Chorus:
One, 21 guns,
Lay down your arms, Give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky,
You and I

When you're at the end of the road
And you lost all sense of control
And your thoughts have taken their toll
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul
Your faith walks on broken glass
And the hangover doesn't pass
Nothing's ever built to last, You're in ruins (Chorus)

Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire?
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone

When it's time to live and let die
And you can't get another try
Something inside this heart has died, You're in ruins (Chorus)



At first glance, such a song seems to be quite opposed to Christianity. Those who look for forgiveness (a crucial tenant of Christianity) are called liars. Yet on a more basic level, Green Day speaks honestly of what it means to be truly human and in doing so has coincidentally struck to the core of Christianity.

First, those who live by their own strength do not find life, but death and destruction ("Did you try to live on your when you burned down the house and home?"). Autonomy is a false hope, as St. Paul says, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out" (Romans 7:18). Or as Jesus said, "Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Within the album as a whole, it could be said that the wreckage of the character, Christian's life is cause by his struggle for independence.

And more clearly, Green Day sees death as the birth to love. In death, the barrier of self is extinguished to create love. (I love how how in the video the guy and girl stand estranged from each other. As he picks up the remote to turn the TV on, death invades and destroys the TV screen.) In the verses of the song describe a life that is marked by disappointment, loss, and despair. And yet in the ruins of life Green Day does not advocate trying harder and pressing on, but giving up the fight and dying -- "one, twenty-one guns, throw up your arms, give up the fight"). Such a passivity in face of death is the confession: "There is no health in us." This does not breed more despair but love -- "one, twenty-one guns, throw up your arms into the sky - you and I." In death one passively finds love.

Similarly, Christianity understands humanity as caught within the matrix of death as produced by sin and its servant, the law (1 Cor. 15:56). In the face of death, the solution is not to fix what is wrong (self-help, etc.) or find comfort in the supposed pleasures of life (fantasy football, iphone apps, a good book, being nice etc.) -- all of which are projects of self-justification. Instead of fighting death, we passively accept death's work as the just penalty we deserve. Paradoxically, this confession is the birth of faith in Christ's death and resurrection. As St. Paul says, "through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:19-20).

Steven Pinker on Romans 2:14-15

In his fascinating op-ed in yesterday's NY Times, "A Grand Bargain Over Evolution", Robert Wright quotes the well-known experimental psychologist Steven Pinker:

“There may be a sense in which some moral statements aren’t just ... artifacts of a particular brain wiring but are part of the reality of the universe, even if you can’t touch them and weigh them.” Comparing these moral truths to mathematical truths, he said that perhaps “they’re really true independent of our existence. I mean, they’re out there and in some sense — it’s very difficult to grasp — but we discover them, we don’t hallucinate them.”

History Is Made At Night - An Interview with Filmmaker Whit Stillman

Good Times! - Whit Stillman’s The Last Days Of Disco makes its long-awaited DVD debut this Tuesday 8/25 in an exquisite edition from the Criterion Collection. The final (and some might say finest) entry in his “doomed bourgeois in love” trilogy, Disco received nowhere near its proper due when it was released in 1998, getting swallowed up instead by a media-fabricated “disco revival” (an especially tragic fate for a film that’s not really about disco) and left to wallow unreleased while studios bickered over the rights.

A supremely touching and frequently hilarious story about young professionals coping with love and work in NYC in the very early 80s, the term “romantic comedy” would almost apply, if that label didn’t carry all the associations it carries these days. Very few stones are left unturned: identity, romance, free will, advertising, the importance of group social life – it’s all here. Not to mention the most inspired discussion of Lady And The Tramp ever committed to film (once Stillman’s sense of humor grabs you – and it doesn’t grab everyone – you will never turn back).

Watching it again, one realizes how much Disco represents the culmination of Stillman’s style: the inimitable dialogue, the superb ensemble acting, the use of music, the endearing snottiness of Chris Eigeman, the astounding eye/ear for detail, etc. Call me a super-fan, but I cannot think of another movie of the same era that manages to pull off being both tasteful and honest, humane and ironic, smart and emotionally accessible. I can certainly think of a number that have knocked it off.

The good news is, this release actually does the film justice! Criterion have knocked it out of the park once again – surprise, surprise - presenting Disco with the same care, precision and charm that Stillman brought to the film itself. The transfer is gorgeous and the extra features are a revelation. Of course, for our purposes, it should be noted that this movie features not one but two Protestant hymns (“Amazing Grace” and “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind”). As in all of Stillman’s films, religion hovers around the edges, bubbling up sympathetically in moments of crisis but never in the hysterical or patronizing way that lesser directors employ it. I had the opportunity to speak with Whit recently about Disco, biographies, church and a number of other subjects.


It’s been ten years since The Last Days of Disco. What happened when it was first released?

An interesting thing. We were released by Gramercy pictures and it was a bit of an uncomfortable situation. In theory Gramercy had the right profile for this kind of film, but they were kind of collapsing and didn’t have much money. The fellow who was going to distribute it came in, and said, ‘I think we should change the title. It’s not really about disco, and people are going to be disappointed if they come in thinking that.’ We were just shocked. We felt like the title was the best thing we had going for us. And then later I saw all the grief we got from journalists about the disco era and this and that – all the focus on this one really unimportant detail. The film is about the characters and the story. It’s about New York, it’s about apartments, it’s about jobs. Not this journalistic obsession with disco. So when the executive said we should change the title, I thought he was crazy. But in retrospect, he was probably right. And for foreign releases we thought a lot about using the original sub-title, “History Is Made At Night”, which I think would have been a good title, as it was a great 30’s film directed by Frank Borzage and had an approach and romanticism that we really admired.

It seemed like a real mistake that everything about the film was being related to a style of music. That wasn’t the heart of the film. Then later, someone told me that that same distributor wanted to change the title of every film he gets. A compulsive title-changer, and often to very bad titles. In any case, when the film came out in the States, we didn’t really do what we had to do as far as connecting to an audience. It seemed like it was a hit in the big cities and then didn’t pan out in its full distribution.

It’s a very detailed movie, the kind that benefits greatly from repeated viewings. I would guess that you would be pretty excited about a DVD release after all these years. It seems that of your three films it gets the shortest shrift.

It’s really surprising what a difference it makes. I thought the film was pretty well available on TV and lately it’s been available in other ways. But it’s great having a DVD come out. And associated with that there’s been these screenings. [Important: come join us on 8/27 for a special screening at Lincoln Center. Or 9/1 at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY! Whit will be on hand at both events.]

It must have been heartbreaking to lose those scenes with Jimmy stealing Des’ secret diary/Last Testament [included as deleted scenes on the DVD].

At the time we were under the gun in the editing room, so to lose anything was just, ‘hallelujah, we lost something'.

I remember reading the wonderful “novelization” of the film [that you wrote] and Jimmy Steinway's line about Brutus in the final cab ride made much more sense to me in the context of those scenes. Seeing it on screen was really great. I love that Des is eating cereal. It rings very true. Can we expect any more novels from you?

Yes, I think so. At a certain point, it becomes impossible to make films and you have to head in another way.

As one of the special features on the DVD, you read the epilogue from the novelization, “The Moon Worshipers”. What made you choose that chapter over the “Cocktails at Petrossian” one [which narrates a reunion of the characters 17 years after the events of the film]?

We had already done the “Petrossian” chapter for audible.com. And when we read through it, there was a lot of performance of different characters, and I found it awkward in my own voice to quote Jimmy, to quote Des, to have their dialogue. It seemed better to have the Jimmy voice as a monologue in his account in that final chapter.

The bias against advertising executives that is depicted in the film, I thought it was funny in the commentary when you confirmed that it was true (Mad Men notwithstanding). Where does that come from?

There are two aspects. I had a friend who was this cool guy, very stylish and fashionable. He had a good friend who was doing the party design at Studio 54, so he was completely on the inside. As a result, he had that experience of being called upon constantly by the ad agency he worked for to get out-of-town clients into the club. There were people like that, who had some angle for getting folks into the club; they were popular but it became a worrisome obligation for them.

Another aspect of the advertising thing, which we get into a bit in Barcelona, was that I had one friend who was in advertising and really was interested in it. He’d quote all sorts of things: Rosser Reeves, Unique Selling Proposition - what’s the USP for this product? - a lot of Jimmy Steinway is based on his experience. I had another friend who had the experience of getting jobs out in Dallas or Atlanta and came to realize that once your career is out of New York, it’s very hard to come back. Which was part of the idea for Jimmy Steinway’s trajectory. Would you have preferred to have the Cocktails at Petrossian chapter [on the DVD] rather than the final one?

Personally I prefer the one you chose, the final one – mainly because I find the stuff about Hungarian Calvinism so funny and touching. But I do think people would be curious about that interaction between Des and Jimmy.

I think the chapter that we read has more serious content. It’s more serious stuff.

I’ve looked and looked and there’s no book named The Lean Years: Hungarian Calvinism in Crisis [referenced a number of times in the novelization], is there?

There is and I own it. I was really obsessed with that book. I found the idea of Calvinism in Hungary so fascinating. There’s a whole neighborhood in New York, the Yorkville area, which has a real eastern European feeling and was very anti-Communist. I kept seeing that book in windows and I finally did buy it. I just found it so evocative. Even though only the cover was in English and the rest was in Hungarian.

I also prefer the final chapter for that priceless line, “I’m sure there are some cute Huguenot girls out there”.

When I was in France I had sort of an experience of that. I love those French Protestant churches. They’re really great. There’s such an austere, lovely feeling in those churches. And I knew socially from Harvard some French Protestants and found it interesting how they would almost invariably marry American, Canadian or German Protestant women. They would never find those cute Huguenot girls.

Jansenism was one of my father’s obsessions when I was growing up, and as kids he would drag us to all these Huguenot churches when we were on vacation. The nostalgia of seeing something that has ended – is it a stretch to say there’s a similar thing with the disco era?

When we are younger we’re overwhelmed by nostalgia but as you get older you actually become less subject to it. And I think the idea of things dying and ending and all that, when you’re younger you see it just in sad ways – but then you come to see it as part of the process of dying and renewal and good things come out of that. I hate it when people think they should cater to and play along with whatever is trendy and dominant. They’re sycophants without realizing that things that are trendy and dominant are ephemeral too. Max Beerbohm had a wonderful remark, “It distresses me, this failure to keep pace with the leaders of thought, as they pass into oblivion”. And it’s so true.

The Last Days of Disco depicts young people trying to form their identities in some way. Some are forming them based on things that are trendy/silly and some on things that are more substantial. Do you think New York exaggerates or amplifies that identity search?

I remember coming back to the city and seeing how people were interacting socially, and it was a really poisonous atmosphere. It’s well illustrated in a movie set in LA, Swingers - maybe it’s a Los Angeles/New York phenomenon - where there’s all these things about how a guy couldn’t call a girl immediately, that he had to wait three days. And if a guy called a girl, she couldn’t call him right back, etc. My gosh, that’s poisonous for people getting to know each other in the right way.



What are your current influences? What are you watching now that you’d recommend?

I think if you’re working in one area, it’s good to be influenced by another area. If you’re making movies, you shouldn’t be looking at other movies for inspiration. Unless it’s movies from a radically different era or epoch or country.

The great influence is the great things in the world. The most appealing thing to read is good biography, and I think you always should avoid going by subject as opposed to quality of treatment. So if there’s a book written about a subject that you’re interested in, but it’s written by an author whose understanding is flawed, it’s better to avoid that and go to the good book written about something of some value, though it may not be precisely your interest. It’s a little like when you go to university, do you take the courses you’re interested in or do you find the great teachers and follow their courses? I would go with the great teachers.

So if you can ever find something that is a great author on a great subject, then you’ve struck gold. Boswell’s life of Johnson would be that. Johnson was so profound and so great, so perceptive, so devout. And he’s so wrong-headed in a very funny, enlightening way. He could be contentious of Americans in a very bigoted way, and yet we can get energy and stimulation out of that. You can get it from Evelyn Waugh too. All of his dislike of Americans and contempt and all his prejudices are all part of the amusing parcel. We can enjoy his deprecation as much as some moron’s praise.

What is your favorite Evelyn Waugh?

My favorites would be Scoop and Put Our More Flags. The maximum of his very silly stuff. I like Brideshead and Sword of Honour a lot too.

Any more biographies to recommend?

Robert Conquest’s life of Stalin. People should also look at the big biography of Mao that came out in the last five years. It’s impossible to read that book straight through, it’s just too appalling. But it completely demystifies the cult of Mao. It’s important to know how inhuman they were in their evil. I think so often people try to put their violence in the context of their ideology, when I think you really have to put their ideology in the context of their violence. The violence is there and comes first. The hatefulness is there and the violence comes out of it.

The casting of Disco is so incredibly perfect. How important is that to you in making a movie?

It’s absolutely terrifying. You can spend years on something and get it pretty close to where it should be and then you can throw it all away by having the wrong cast. And it was one of the great things about working in the old independent film business, that your people were not so well known and their contracts were pretty open and it was kind of under the radar so there could be recasting and changes without people getting hurt. Without it hurting people’s reputations. We actually had a major recasting early on in the shoot (it’s obliquely mentioned in the commentary). The freedom you have for recasting and changing things in independent film is very important. If something doesn’t work you can make a change. Which we did in both Metropolitan and Disco.

I read an article that you wrote for the Wall Street Journal a while back where you talk about church-going and focus on the services of the late Dr. Maurice Boyd [ed. note: read it now!]. Care to comment?

A lot of us discovered Dr. Boyd at the 5th Ave Presbyterian Church [in NYC] and loved him and the services he conducted. His orders of worship were immaculate. He kept refining the services, making them better and better. And he’d say that it was the first time that he’d had things just as they should be. I remember when I interviewed him for the “Suffering Sundays” piece about the pain we go through on many Sundays when we have go to a church that we don’t really like, and we have to put up with it. And the difference in finding someone who both is eloquent and insightful, with a completely uplifting sermon and service. I asked him why there was no sign of peace, and he said, “I find it embarrassing and awkward, I leave it out”. He was really pretty scathing about it. And I just find that so true. I find it false and embarrassing. There’s so many things in churches now which are so much the opposite of where we should be. He had the courage completely to do it exactly the right way.

That’s very, very rare.

And he paid a price for it. It was wonderful while it was happening. I think he retired in 2007. And it’s really a shame that there are some people who are really very good and have great things to say, but will be surrounded by a service of worship that’s so mediocre and off-putting.

So that you want to come in late to avoid the awkwardness and leave early to avoid it again.

The traditional service we’ve been handed down is so beautiful and so wonderful. And the fact that people think they have to dumb it down or corn it up, it’s so disrespectful.

Last two questions. Is there any hope for Barcelona on Criterion?

There’s a lot of hope. The more noise we can make the better. They’re negotiating with Warners. It’d be great because then we could have the boxed set.

Is there anything you can tell me about upcoming projects? I keep hearing about Jamaican Gospel churches? Do you have any comment?

Well, that’s the one that I hope will happen. But there’s another one that’s in pretty good shape too. I need to get a website up so we can collect money from would-be investors. I think it’s really important to develop a network of investors in the right kind of independent film. They can do very well as investors and we can make some really good films. We shouldn’t go through the industry. It’s much better to do it yourself.