In memory...

Changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (2Cor 5.10)

Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom 7.24-25)

STOP MAKING SENSE PLAYLIST

 Same as it ever was...

1. This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)- Speaking in Tongues
2. Houses in Motion- Remain in Light
3. (Nothing But) Flowers- Naked
4. And She Was- Little Creatures
5. Swamp- Stop Making Sense (Live)
6. Wild, Wild Life –True Stories
7. Girlfriend Is Better- Speaking in Tongues
8. People Like Us- True Stories
9. Papa Legba- True Stories
10. Road to Nowhere –Little Creatures

Another Week Ends: Andy Pettitte, Stop Signs, Ypsilanti Christs, LOST, William Styron

1. "When Did God Become A Sports Fan?" over at CNN is an interesting look at the how's and why's of professional athletes invoking God in pursuit of victory (ht DG):

They are selling their goodness, and their brand of faith, to a captive audience, says [William J. Baker, author of Playing With God], who describes himself as a Christian. "I don't think it's the right place and it's not the right gesture," says Baker, a former high school quarterback. "It's an athlete using a moment to sell a product, like soap."


What many of these pious athletes are also selling is an evangelical, winner-take-all gospel, Baker says. "There are many similarities between the athletic and the evangelical take on life," Baker says. "Both are competitive, capitalistic. It's good guys versus bad guys. You have winners -- people who are saved -- and losers -- people who are going to hell."


Mike Sweeney, a devout Roman Catholic who plays baseball for the Seattle, Washington, Mariners, doesn't accept that view of faith. "If I'm facing Andy Pettitte on the Yankees and I'm praying for a home run, and he's praying for a strikeout, I don't think the result is going to show who has greater faith," Sweeney says. Sweeney says athletes can sometimes reveal more about their faith when they fail.

2. A sympathetic interview with writer Tullian Tchividjian (yikes!) over on Justin Taylor's Gospel Coalition blog about his book Surprised By Grace. The whole interview is worth reading, even though the first question sort of says it all:

Is the gospel a middle ground between legalism and lawlessness?

"This seems to be a common misunderstanding in the church today. I hear people say that there are two equal dangers Christians must avoid: legalism and lawlessness. Legalism, they say, happens when you focus too much on law, or rules. Lawlessness, they say, happens when you focus too much on grace. Therefore, in order to maintain spiritual equilibrium, you have to balance law and grace. Legalism and lawlessness are typically presented as two ditches on either side of the Gospel that we must avoid. If you start getting too much law, you need to balance it with grace. Too much grace, you need to balance it with law. But I’ve come to believe that this “balanced” way of framing the issue can unwittingly keep us from really understanding the gospel of grace in all of its depth and beauty."

3. Over at Slate, Tom Vanderbilt asks the question "Is It Possible To Design A Better Stop Sign?" First use or not, the situation seems to confirm some of our suspicions:
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LOST and the Death of Nuance (*spoiler alert!*)

LOST is one of those shows that has captured my mind and heart, and so when it ended this past week after a six-year-run, I was sad. But I was also glad. And I was glad because of the ending. I loved the fact that after six years, all was made right. Sinners are penitent and forgiven, the dead are resurrected, fathers and sons are brought together, lovers are reunited, the crippled are healed, and ‘Christian Shepherd’ opens the doors to Paradise in a church where all are seated and awaiting redemption. And then celestial light pours into the nave, drowning out all the smiling faces. THE END. I mean, wow!

Now, not everyone shares my appreciation for how LOST ended. And I would agree with some of the criticisms, like: why didn’t they tell us what the Island was all about (I mean, is it Atlantis, some weird Egyptian outpost, etc.), what’s with Jacob and the Man in Black, what was that ‘light’ at the center of the Island and why was it rather ‘lamely’ corked? I understand these criticisms. But it seems that the main protest regarding the final episode is that it was not true to what we’ve known of LOST these past six years. After all, the show has been about mystery, ambivalence, nuance, conflict, complexity, loose-ends, surprises, and dizzying plot lines. And LOST’s gloriana-conclusion seemed to be too neat, too predictable, and too redemptive for some devotees. Too much celestial light!

And yet I think that LOST ended rightly—at least from a Christian perspective. We Postmoderns are known for many things, but chief among them is our cynicism. We have spent our whole lives deconstructing the realms of politics and religion and family and government until we resign ourselves to the fact that there are no happy endings, ever. We balk at movies with credits set in front of sunsets and wild horses and pretty castles. We know that life doesn’t work that way. After all, every relationship, every community, every church, is constantly compromised by the ambivalence of murky reality.

But Christians have an eschatological expectation. In fact, we have ‘a sure and certain hope’ that one bright day, nuance will be entirely outshone by the returning Christ. We look to a grand moment when full restoration will drown every bit of partiality and complexity; when, as St. Paul wrote, Christ will fill all in all.’ This is Christianity’s final word, and it is entirely uncompromising, bold, and bright. And in its own way, LOST captured a glimpse of eschatological hope, and it did so with near-Christian clarity. And isn’t that refreshing? I mean, while we expect nuance in front of this ‘gray rain curtain’, don’t we actually want, hope and yearn for something better? Something clearer? Something unflinchingly good? Well, those things are on the way. So, Amen LOST! Drown that nuance, and our cynicism with it! Bring on the celestial light!

Why Oil Spills Don’t Happen to Rich People

Author and documentary filmmaker Jamie Johnson, (yep, from the alpha-family who created all that baby shampoo), has made something of a career by talking about the world he knows best...the upper 1% of American society. Street cred and generations of trust funds aside, one of Johnson's recent articles in Vanity Fair sheds new light upon the oil spill which has affected an already beleaguered Louisiana.

'The situation in the Gulf Coast is truly tragic,' he writes, 'but you wouldn’t likely be seeing it if the wealthy Northeastern population lived there. The rich are able to protect themselves, while others are left undefended.'

This tale of two seaboards illustrates how 'grace', as defined by the world, often pays deference to Lazarus rather than Dives. Yet this is also why a Gospel which is no respecter of persons will always be relevant; not because it pours forth condemnation like the Law, but because it sheds atoning blood to stem the tide of guilt completely.

Charlie Bit Me

Most of you have seen this profound meditation on our irresistable need both to sin and to self-destruct. Watch it again anyway, cause it's FUNNY.


Charlie Bit Me was ranked by TIME magazine as the best viral video of all time.

Count It All Joy!

Grace In Addiction: AA on Weakness and Spiritual Growth

Two more small excerpts from our new publication Grace In Addiction: What The Church Can Learn From Alcoholics Anonymous. To order your copy, go here. And for two more previews go here and here: 

The first of the Twelve Steps requires the “admission of powerlessness”; the addict cannot gain access to sobriety without traveling through that ugly door. To quote Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, “The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our society has sprung and flowered” (p. 22). In a practical sense, this means that the addict who is not in a state of despair about his or her plight needs to be made to feel worse if they are ever to find lasting sobriety. It is sometimes said in AA that “a person doesn’t attend AA in order to stay sober; they attend in order to remember that they are drunks.”

In theological terms, this tells us something about God: He is a God who meets people in their weakness, not their strength. He is a God who saves people from themselves. Rescue is the thrust of the Bible and the heart of the Christian Gospel. Sadly, this simple catch-22 – that the only way you can find God is if you desperately need Him – stands in direct opposition to the widespread, even dominant notion in today’s churches that spiritual life finds its origin in decision-making/virtuous intention/choosing God. There is some talk in churches of God as redeemer, but there is also an enormous amount of talk of God as teacher, friend, inspiration, coach, etc. In AA there is only one thing: God is who you need to save you. And if you do not find him, you are in serious trouble – in exactly the way St. Paul talks about or the way the jaywalking example illustrates.

---------------

AA rejects the notion that spiritual growth is ever ultimately fueled by virtue, insisting that all sanctification is born out of continued need. A classic line from the Twelve & Twelve posits: “Pain [is] the touchstone of all spiritual progress” (p. 93-94). In sobriety, attention is always focused on those areas where holiness seems to be lacking, whereas little to no attention is paid to perceived progress. The need for help also creates and fosters the desire to pray. Without struggle, the believer would never need to pray, but with continued weakness, there always remains an open channel of prayer and trust in God as the deliverer and counselor.
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Two New Arcade Fire Tracks!

Two new Arcade Fire tracks are streaming online. You can find them here.

Weds Afternoon Rock N Roll: When New Order Played Baywatch

In keeping with JAZ's pool party mix, here's one of the more surreal pairings of the last 20 years. New Order chose to stage their Top Of The Pops performance of "Regret" - one of my favorite songs of theirs - on the set of Baywatch. Hasselhoff himself makes an appearance, just before Peter Hook's incredible bass solo:

From "A Point Of Age" by John Berryman

Slow spent stars wheel and dwindle where I fell. 

Physicians are a constellation where

The blown brain sits a fascist to the heart.

Late, it is late, and it is time to start.

Sanction the civic woe, deal with your dea,

Convince the stranger: none of us is well.

We must travel in the direction of our fear.

Nothing but Misconceptions Between You and Your Calvin

This comes to us from our very own resident Mockingcalvinist, Michael Cooper. We thought that we would take this day to remember one of our other favorite Reformers, John Calvin. . . not that we had a choice, mind you:) Enjoy!

On May 26 the Church of England commemorates John Calvin as a saint of the church. Not much reason to celebrate, some might say. Let's have a parade for the Karl Rove of the Reformation, the more sardonic might suggest. B.G Armstrong pretty much sums up the picture John Calvin evokes in the minds of many:

"Except among his followers, he has been portrayed as a cold, unfeeling, and calculating man, who imposed his stern will on helpless or cowed people. He is seen as the proponent of an austere and joyless religion of fear and constraint, and of a vengeful and arbitrary omnipotent God who treats human beings as puppets, demanding of them servile obedience, yet severely punishing the slightest deviation from his strict moral code. "

Calvin is seen in stark contrast to the "kinder and gentler" Luther who, except for his rants against the papists, is viewed as a jolly beer drinking German peasant good ol' boy friend of sinners, while Calvin assumes the role of a pinched up parsing FRENCH LAWYER (enough said) ready to pound the poor Christian with a good whack of the law to keep him in line. Armstrong correctly points out that "Such a legalistic and negativistic religion, popularly attributed to Calvin, is a ridiculous caricature that recent scholarship has only begun to correct. "

So, this being Calvin's "day" so to speak, I thought that I would give you a little "Calvin sampler" , and let you be the judge of whether Jean Calvin had an understanding of Jesus as the friend of sinners, even Christian sinners:

"Surely, with good reason the Heavenly Father affirms that the only stronghold of safety is in calling upon his name. By so doing we invoke the presence both of his providence, through which he watches over and guards our affairs, and of his power, through which he sustains us, weak as we are and well-nigh overcome, and of his goodness, through which he receives us, miserably burdened with sins, unto grace; and, in short, it is by prayer that we call him to reveal himself as wholly present to us. Hence comes an extraordinary peace and repose to our consciences. For having disclosed to the Lord the necessity that was pressing upon us, we even rest fully in the thought that none of our ills are hid from him who, we are convinced, has both the will and the power to take the best care of us."

and

"But 'assurance' I do not understand to mean that which soothes our mind with sweet and perfect repose, releasing it from every anxiety. For to repose so peacefully is the part of those who, when all affairs are flowing to their liking, are touched by no care, burn with no desire, toss with no fear. But for the saints the occasion that best stimulates them to call upon God is when, distressed by their own need, they are troubled by the greatest unrest, and are almost driven out of their senses, until faith opportunely comes to their relief. For among such tribulations God's goodness so shines upon them that even when they groan with weariness under the weight of present ills, and also are troubled and tormented by the fear of greater ones, yet, relying upon his goodness , they are relieved of the difficulty of bearing them, and are solaced and hope for escape and deliverance."

This is not to argue that Calvin had no flaws, or that he had it all figured out, or that he was not a severely "cracked vessel" just like the rest of us. But with all that said, I for one still have to say, on this May 26th: Thanks be to God for our dear brother, John Calvin.

"Better Than a Hallelujah"

As a Christian, I often feel the heavy weight of putting my best foot forward no matter what is happening in my life. Because I believe in Jesus Christ, I should always be happy and praising God at every moment. The problem is, it's not true; I don't feel that way all the time. In the midst of sorrow and suffering I want to throw my bible rather than read it; I want to cry rather than praise; I want to scream "why?!" rather than give thanks. Even after about six years of biblical and theological study, when I'm hit with sorrow and suffering my heart still breaks, I still cry out and weep and, some times, even doubt.

But these emotions are not signs of disbelief or unfaithfulness.

Rather, they are the desperate and honest cries of a broken heart. Cries that demonstrate my humanity and my deep need for something bigger than and beyond myself. In sorrow and suffering, I am backed into a corner, all my abilities and strengths rendered useless. I am broken. I am needy. I am helpless. In sorrow and suffering, I fall down before the Cross and plead for help and am made fully aware of my finitude and my inability to do anything else.

Mockingbird's Poolside Pop Mix

Here's a mix of jams to enjoy while you sit by the pool this summer.

1. D Pulse - Velocity of Love
2. Wave Machines - Keep the Lights On
3. Sare Havlicek - White Russian (Lazy Summer)
4. Phoenix - Holdin' On Together
5. Al Usher - Lullaby for Robert
6. Woolfy - Odyssey
7. Bell X1 - Flame (Chicken Lips remix)
8. Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone
9. New Young Pony Club - Talking, Talking
10. Love International - Airport of Love
11. Air - Surfing on a Rocket
12. Vastkustska Ryggdunkarsallskapet - Don't Dub Around Here No More
13. Plastilina Mosh - Barretta '89
14. Jolly Music/Erlend Oye - Radio Jolly/Prego Amore (Acapella)
15. Ahmed Fakroun - Yo Son (Prince Language edit)
16. Parallel Dance Ensemble - Turtle Pizza (Yam Who rework)
17. Mike Francis - Survivor

Rooted: A Theology Conference For Student Ministry

A quick plug from mockingfriend Cameron Cole for the upcoming Rooted Conference this summer in Birmingham, AL This conference gets the Mbird-endorsement 110%:

One of the more powerful sermons I heard during college had the repeated question, “”Is Jesus enough?” In this context the question about Christ’s sufficiency related to whether the crucified Christ is enough for our justification, sanctification, and satisfaction. The Mockingbird world firmly answers that question with a resounding, “YES!” Sadly, the world of student ministry often answers that question with a qualified “No.” 

So many youth and college groups build their ministry around entertainment, emotional highs, moral directives, and feel-good messages, but with little concentration on the full Gospel. This methodology reflects a theology that states, “The Gospel is not enough. It needs additives and flare.”

Rooted: A Theology Conference for Student Ministry proclaims that the Gospel not only belongs in student ministry, the Gospel forms its only center. Rooted is a conference dedicated to discussion of the Gospel in the context of student ministry. The conference will discuss a way of ministering to students that involves building authentic relationships, proclaiming the great news of the crucified Christ, and depending on the Holy Spirit- not our programs- to move. 

Dates: Tuesday, August 10 – Thursday, August 12, 2010

Cost: $150 (before June 1) and $200 (June 1 forward). The cost includes conference admission and dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Register at www.rootedconference.com.

For Whom: People ministering to students, including youth pastors, college ministers, teachers, coaches, and volunteers.

Host: The Cathedral Church of the Advent, located in downtown Birmingham, is a church emphasizing biblical theology and the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Keynotes:

The conference brings together excellent keynotes and workshop leaders from church ministry, academia, and counseling.  

Ashley Null- Olympic games chaplain, Guggenheim Fellow, Cambridge professor

Brian Habig- pastor and founder, Downtown Presbyterian, Greenville, SC; former RUF minister at Vanderbilt and Mississippi State

Angel Richard- Executive Team, Synergy Women’s Network

REGISTER TODAY!

Guilt, Willpower and Self-Sabotage - According to Jesse James

I didn't catch the interview on Nightline, but these sobering admissions from Sandra Bullock's ex are undeniably powerful (ht MM):

“When I was doing it, you know, one, I knew it was horrible, it made me feel horrible,” he said. “And two, I knew I would get caught eventually, and I think I wanted to get caught … It was me trying to self-sabotage my life.”

I "took a pretty amazing life and amazing success and marriage ... and threw it away by my own hands," he said.

James said despite his desire to spend his whole life protecting her and his children, he managed to hurt her most.

“I think [I am] the most hated man in the world, now,” he said.

Sounds about right...

"Okay I am ready to close the pool, it's been open since May 1. Seriously how much beer can they drink, 1 keg last night, 2 kegs today, I think they all skipped church to party at the pool."


Source: A random search for 'skipped' and 'church' (while I was bored) on youropenbook.org

The Danger of Discipline: Bridge on the River Kwai

After a post on Inglorious Bastards, I thought I'd continue the thread of movies that use WWII as a backdrop to explore some of life's tougher questions. And since MB contributor Aaron M.G. Zimmerman had my copy of Bridge on the River Kwai for about a month and never got around to watching it, I thought a quick note on the Oscar winner "Best Picture" of '57 would be fun for him and anybody else burned out from American Evangelical notions of pietism and discipline. [Spoiler Alert!]

Alec Guinness won an Oscar in Kwai for his role as Colonial Nicholson, a British officer whose stiff upper lip and penchant for order were unshakable, even in the context of a Japanese POW camp. No matter what happened to him or his unit during war, two things were non-negotiable: order and discipline. The infamous scene where the ragged soldiers enter the POW camp whistling a march and forming ranks has been parodied and honored in plenty of movies since (see Breakfast Club, Spaceballs, see the trailer below). In his attempts to maintain order and discipline amongst his troops in the POW camp, Nicholson ends up out disciplining, out ordering, and out persevering the Japanese Colonial in charge of the camp. Throughout the first half of the movie, Nicholson becomes a hero of the film.

But by the second half, something goes wrong. The discipline and order of Nicholson become, well, neurotic. In an ironic plot twist, Nicholson volunteers to head the construction of the titular bridge, which the POWs had been haphazardly piecing together and sabotaging for most of the film. He and his unit redesign the bridge, form ranks, and for the good of discipline and order, begin to seriously tackle the construction of the bridge.

Thus, the movie's chief irony.

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LOST finale quick hit

So much to say about the LOST finale, but for now a quick quote on LOST's deeply religious ending:

(*WARNING*: Spoilers below)

From Jeff Jensen, of EW:

"I was so moved by Jack’s heroism and sacrifice and the glorious significance of ending where he began, as well as that Doubting Thomas allusion there at the end. (You caught that, right?) (Oh, and appendix scar my ass!) I thought that Hurley was a surprising choice for the new Island guardian–and I loved that Ben had a role as his No. 2. The “resurrection” of John Locke rocked my face, and one of the many moments that had me dabbing my eyes was watching Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson play their last duet together. I loved Ben’s contrition. I loved Locke’s forgiveness. I loved it when Ben told him to stand up and walk again, and Locke did."

And this was before the finale, but I think it's safe to say that Jensen's comparisons between LOST and C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" are pretty spot on.

Another One From James Gould Cozzens

This one comes from his Pulitzer-winning 1948 WWII novel "Guard of Honor." This time with a Romans 8:20 vibe:

"Conceited men proudly called their shots and proceeded to miss them, without even the comfort of realizing that few attended long enough to notice, and fewer cared...  courageous patience overdid it and missed the boat; good Samaritans, stopping, found it was a trap and lost their shirts, too -- everyday incidents in the manifold pouring-past of the Gaderene swine, possessed at someone's whim, but demonstrably innocent -- for what was a guilty pig, or a wicked one? --  "

Another Week Ends: Perfomance Reviews, Zimmermania, Godzilla, Reasonability, WASPs, Hipster Xianity, Arcade Fire

1. A fascinating piece over at NY Times titled "Time To Review Work Reviews?" Filled to the brim, as one might imagine, with Law-related gems (ht SZ).

Annual reviews not only create a high level of stress for workers, [Dr. Samuel Culbert, clinical psychologist and author of the new Get Rid Of The Performance Review!] argues, but end up making everybody — bosses and subordinates — less effective at their jobs. 

Mark Shahriary, president and chief executive of Lucix Corporation in Camarillo, Calif., said he stopped doing performance reviews after witnessing the emotional havoc they created for workers at his previous job. “People confuse the review with who they are,” he told me. “If they get a review saying, ‘You’re not effective at work,’ they would hear, ‘You’re not effective as a person.’ ”

It's hard not to think of David Brent here... Perhaps we should send Dr. Culbert a copy of Judgment and Love?!

2. Our very own Aaron Zimmerman has a great book review up over at Christianity Today, "Cross-Cultural Manners." Bravo, AZ! Mockingbird even gets some love... Check out his humdinger of a conclusion:

"Only an understanding of God's grace can make American Christians—with their money, status, and power—able to humbly approach a Ugandan (or Chinese or Ukrainian or Peruvian) pastor with a willingness to listen and learn. Grace is what breaks Western habits of paternalism and colonialism. And God's grace is what will ultimately bring people of every nation together in the worship of Jesus Christ."

3.  The genius of the internet strikes again with the Godzilla Haiku blog (ht LM). A few noteworthy examples:
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I Pray For You

Ever wondered what Christians really mean when they say they are praying for you?

Hope this song makes your day.

The New Yorker on Modern (Re-)Interpretations of Jesus

This one comes to us via mockingfriend Davis Gouldin:

For all you New Yorker readers out there, I'd like to recommend an interesting (though unsurprising) article in this week's issue entitled "What Did Jesus Do?".  The premise of the article is a familiar one: to strip away all the tradition and fairy tales of Christian tradition, and get back to who the historical Jesus really was. In typical New Yorker fashion, the author, Adam Gopnik, pays homage to the usual suspects (Richard Dawkins, Bart Ehrman), while also admitting that these guys basically "write the same book over and over" (true). 

All that aside, here's what I found interesting: after taking away all the apparent contradictions and unbelievable parts (the virgin birth, the resurrection, Jesus claiming to be the Son of God), the author, and everyone following his train of thought, hits an impasse.  How do you connect the Jesus who one moment preaches a message of death and doom to those who don't repent with the one who dines with the lowest of the low the next? There's a pretty wide canyon between the judgment he often espouses and the love that he even more often shows.

That gap is bridged, of course, through Paul's exposition of Jesus' life and teaching that occurred a few years later, where it becomes clear that Jesus preaches both a stern message of the Law's severity and the overwhelming forgiveness of the Gospel, which is all accomplished when the two intersect on the cross.

This gap remains open, however, when you strip away theology in its entirety, beginning with Paul, as Gopnik does in his article (he describes theology as little more than people coming out of a below-average movie trying to fill in its many plot holes together).  This is pretty much where the article wraps up, and it left me with a question: if we dismiss minds like Paul who expound on what the Gospels say because we don't trust them, why should we throw them out in favor of a new theology that creates more questions than it answers?  Why should we trust 21st century western thinkers to interpret the Gospels over those who lived in the time and culture of Jesus?

Glenn Miller-based Religious Ceremonies: A Clip From Whit Stillman's Barcelona

Reason number 1001 to love the films of Whit Stillman - if this doesn't convert you, nothing will:

Purchase Barcelona here.  Then write Criterion an email petitioning for a deluxe version.  And then pray that a new film would materialize soon.

Take Heed! (A sermon from Frank Limehouse)

I have the privilege of leading a little "book club" at Holy Cross, Sullivan's Island.  A few weeks ago we began reading/studying Gerhard Forde's juggernaut "On Being a Theologian of the Cross", a book that cannot be recommended highly enough. In trying to elucidate/introduce people to the theology of the cross (as opposed to a theology of glory), I've been pulling from all over the map. Last night, for example, the notes included many passages from Scripture, plus excerpts from Melancthon, Tyndale, Grace in Practice, Fitz Allison, A. McGrath, not to mention portions of OBATOTC.

We closed by reading the first two thirds of a brilliant sermon preached by Frank Limehouse this past March 7th, at the Advent in Birmingham, AL. It made a great impact on the folks in attendance, and I was struck once again by its creativity and depth. It needs to be shared, and here follow two excerpts, a link to the full text, and the mp3:

In the verses assigned to us this morning, Paul talks about the ancient Israelites in the wilderness, God's own chosen people, how they had fallen and the destruction they brought upon themselves. Paul said all that had been recorded, not just for historical purposes, but for a warning. Therefore he proceeded to give them this solemn admonition, a famous verse of biblical wisdom, “Let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

That surely runs counter to the wisdom of Mr. Worldly Wiseman. We live in a culture and an age when everyone is supposed to uplift their strengths and affirm themselves. It's just a part of the self-esteem fervor that has swept this country. I don't mean to completely belittle that, because there may be some good in it, but we just live in a time when self-affirmation is considered the smart thing to do ad nauseam and it is not biblical wisdom.
The classic example from television is Stuart Smalley, no kin to Craig. He's the ridiculous character on Saturday Night Live from years ago. To begin his mornings, he used to look in the mirror and say to himself, “I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me.” And then he would go out and completely blow it, make an idiot out of himself.

The essence of the modern psychology of self-affirmation is so very different from what we prayed in today's old Anglican collect:
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Charcoal and Grace: The National's "High Violet"

Other than Vampire Weekend's "Contra" and maybe Spoon's "Transference" (I have not yet heard The Hold Steady's latest), not much music of the Pitchfork variety has blown my mind in 2010. In fact, for one who dishes out way too much money on music, if you looked at my credit card bill, I’ve actually saved some money this year.

With that said, I’ve been anticipating The National’s latest for some time. Worried that it wouldn't match the brilliance of 2007’s “Boxer,” I came to it with high expectations-usually a recipe for disappointment. Fortunately, this five-piece from Brooklyn has put together their best record yet. Few albums in these digital days deliver the satisfaction of a truly complete album- this is one of them.

If you’re new to The National, understand that it takes three-to-four spins to appreciate Matt Berninger’s distinctive baritone, but once you’re hooked, there are few voices in indie rock that compare.

Most of the album is haunting and dark. Fishing for meaning in indie rock is always dangerous, but suffice it to say, themes of insecurity, fear, depression, and failure are effectively communicated through both the music and lyrics here. I’m also going to advance the argument that the overall progression of “High Violet” reflects a bit of a Law and Gospel paradigm, where death is very real, but so is redemption.
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Women, Food and God (and Oprah)

If you've been paying attention, you know that last week Oprah Winfrey announced that she's never dieting again. Her decision was apparently prompted by reading the book Women Food and God by Geneen Roth. I tend to tune out Oprah when it relates to anything religious or self-esteem-y, so I was definitely surprised to find some powerful (even familiar) ideas at work here, and ones that are by no means restricted to the fairer sex. From a post on the topic over at That's Fit:

Roth firmly believes that your relationship with weight is a disguise for your relationship with yourself. 

"We turn to food when we are not hungry because we are hungry for something we cannot name. A connection to what is beyond the concerns of daily life, something sacred. But replacing the hunger for a divine connection with Double Stuf Oreos is like giving a glass of sand to a person who's dying of thirst."

The more you recognize your inner problems, anxiety or discomfort, the better your relationship will be not only with food but of course with your soul.  You'll be happier, and the weight will fall off more naturally. "You keep trying to feed yourself with that which cannot feed you," Oprah said. "I turn to food because if I deal with whatever it is I have to deal with in the moment, I'm going to fall apart."

Her words reminded me of a passage from Who Will Deliver Us? that Drake highlighted a while ago, about the Gospel in relation to the "assimilation of negativity":
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Texas Church Plans Record-Breaking $115M Renovation

Really?!

General Booth Enters Heaven

The following, by Vachel Lindsay, is a poem tribute to "General Booth," the founder of the Salvation Army. It's a wonderful picture of a heaven filled with the blind, lame, and despised.

(BASS DRUM BEATEN LOUDLY)

Booth led boldly with his big bass drum-
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)
The Saints smiled gravely, and they said, 'He's come.'
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)
Walking lepers followed, rank on rank,
Lurching bravos from the ditches dank,
Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale-
Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail;
Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath,
Unwashed legions with the ways of Death-
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)

I

(BANJOES)

Every slum had sent its half-a-score
The round world over. (Booth had groaned for more.)
Every banner that the wide world flies
Bloomed with glory and transcendent dyes.
Big-voiced lassies made their banjoes bang;
Tranced, fanatical, they shrieked and sang-
'Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?'
Hallelujah! It was queer to see
Bull-necked convicts with that land made free.
Loons with trumpets blowed a blare, blare, blare,
On, on, upward through the golden air!
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)
[CONTINUE READING]

Bart Ehrman and the Rashomon Effect

I recently caught part of the March 31 debate between Bart Erhman and Craig Evans on the reliability of the Gospels. While listening to Dr. Ehrman drone on in his typical, dated, liberal textual criticism of the Bible, something struck me: Dr. Erhman has completely ignored the Rashomon effect.

Dr. Ehrman's argument is basic (and more than a little sophomoric): that the Gospel writers contradict each other in some of the things they record Jesus saying and doing, and so these discrepancies mean that none of the events recorded in the Gospels can be trusted. But Ehrman was apparently never exposed to Akira Kurosawa's 1950 cinematic masterpiece, Rashomon, or he would understand exactly why those discrepancies exist.

In Rashomon, a concrete event is recorded through the eyes of four different eyewitnesses (see the connection already?). The event that occurs is a crime: the murder of a man and the rape of his wife in a forest grove. As the story unfolds, each witness gives a different account of what occurred because each is drawing from his or her own human perspective.

[CONTINUE READING]

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: Home

Paul McCartney was dead-on, 'Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs / And what's wrong with that? I'd like to know...' I say this because I have been unable to stop listening to a particular love song since hearing it for the first time yesterday (thanks to NPR's 'All Songs Considered').

In fact, 'Home' became even more appealing after I read the following blurb about the band's lead singer on Wikipedia.
After breaking up with his girlfriend, moving out of his house, and joining a 12-step program for addiction, Ebert began work on a story about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe. According to Ebert, Sharpe "was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind...but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love." Ebert later met singer Jade Castrinos in Los Angeles. In the summer of 2009, as Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Ebert and Castrinos toured the country with a group of fellow musicians in a big white school bus.

From James Gould Cozzens' By Love Possessed

An incredible quote from James Gould Cozzens' novel By Love Possessed (1957) with a strong Luke 12 feel: 

"In a careful review of worries of their lives, most men's finding must be, neither that there was nothing to worry about, nor that worry couldn't be on occasion, a valuable, profitable exercise, but that all or nearly all those fervid past anxieties of doubt or anticipation had been to no purpose.  You so seldom worried about the right things.  Over evil that never happened the heart sank most often and the spirit sickened.  Evils actually come to pass, evils that a timely worry (if conceivable) could have prevented or eased, befell you as a rule without warning, not bargained for, as a sudden dirty surprise." (p. 498)

Liquid Mountaineering

Call me a man of little faith, but this is obviously fake. But still genuinely funny/clever... (ht F&G). Which might be more of a miracle, considering that it was made by a bunch of Germans:

Balm For the Soul: Sandra McCracken's Feast Or Fallow

This one comes from mockingfriend Ben Dehart:

“We cannot afford to lose these old hymns, they are full of the Gospel…” Basil Manley (1891)

Every December Paste Magazine publishes a list of their top fifty albums of the year. Each year I scan the picks searching for the worthy successors to Led Zeppelin and U2. Needless to say, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

2008 was like any other year. I found myself nodding in agreement with some of their selection, shaking my head in dismay at others, and completely ignorant of most. But as I reached the end of the list I saw a write up for a Sandra McCracken, referred to as the better half of Derek Webb.

Being a fan of the last few Webb albums, I decided to give her album “Red Balloon” a spin. Since then, I’ve been hooked. While by no means Robert Plant’s, her voice has a more transcendent feel, one that Paste reviewer Jason Killingsworth calls “cloud-splitting.”

Her latest release, In Feast or Fallow has been advertised as a collection of ancient and modern hymns. When I first heard this I was skeptical. It reminded me of the eight thousand mediocre-at-best “worship projects” that have been released by every faith-based artist in the past few years.

Fortunately, Sandra has once again proven that she should not be classified along with the other CCM artists. After one listen, my unwarranted fears were laid to rest. In Feast or Fallow is a beautifully written cohesive collection of earthy songs with Cross-centered lyrics. Music one might actually want to sing in church, the car, or the kitchen. As the album progresses the songs only get better as “Give Reviving,” “This is the Christ,” and “In Feast or Fallow” make this album truly great.

Vertical hymns that address real fears are often the best of church music. This fifteen song collection succeeds where many others have failed.

Here is Sandra at her best with an acoustic version of the title track. Enjoy!

P.S. In Feast or Fallow is available (legally) for $3.85 through Amie St.

Pretty In Pink -- revised?

As longtime readers of this blog may remember, more than one Mockingbird contributor has a fondness for the late film director John Hughes. See for example R-J’s piece here…. Or Sean Norris’s piece here…. or just do a search for HUGHES and see all of them.

Something happened this weekend (more on that in a minute) that made me decide to raise my hand today and admit that I too fell in love with a JH movie when I was younger, less jaded, and more hopeful. It was Pretty In Pink with Molly Ringwald. (Spoilers ahead….)

Pretty In Pink is a loose adaptation of two archetypal stories: Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. It has Cinderella (Molly) in poverty, the wicked stepsisters (the high school equivalent of cruel wealthy sorority girls), the handsome wealthy prince (Andrew McCarthy), the midnight ball, and even the closeup of Molly putting on her foot the beautiful slipper; it has Romeo (Andrew McCarthy) and Juliet (Molly) and the warring families of the Montagues and the Capulets each trying to tear them apart.

One of the reasons Hughes’ movie touches audiences is because he is using such deeply emotional source material. But he and the screenwriter also add a character of their own, and make the story different from either C or R&J. And that is the character of geek supremo Duckie, who’s been in love with Molly’s character for years and can’t tell her (wonderful performance by Jon Cryer).

Now… what happened this weekend was this. I saw an article over at Cinematical that revealed that John Hughes originally had a different end in mind for the movie, but changed it based on bad audience reactions in test screenings. The funny thing here is that the movie as it was released does indeed have one brief dreadful moment at the end, and I was sure that this was what I was going to read about. But no! The one thing that is indeed terrible isn’t mentioned at all – and instead it sounds as though John Hughes originally contemplated a different way to screw up the end.
[CONTINUE READING]

Possible Answers To Prayer - Scott Cairns

Your petitions—though they continue to bear

just the one signature—have been duly recorded.

Your anxieties—despite their constant,

relatively narrow scope and inadvertent

entertainment value—nonetheless serve

to bring your person vividly to mind.

Your repentance—all but obscured beneath

a burgeoning, yellow fog of frankly more

conspicuous resentment—is sufficient.

Your intermittent concern for the sick,

the suffering, the needy poor is sometimes

recognizable to me, if not to them.

Your angers, your zeal, your lipsmackingly

righteous indignation toward the many

whose habits and sympathies offend you—

these must burn away before you’ll apprehend

how near I am, with what fervor I adore

precisely these, the several who rouse your passions.

An Interview with the Writers of LOST

A few MB-related highlights from a recent New York Times interview with LOST writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. If you are interested in the show at all, the interview is worth the full read.

On their literary influences:
"One of the things that we completely own is that in many ways “Lost” is a mash-up/remix of our favorite stories, whether that’s Bible stories from Sunday school or “Narnia” or “Star Wars” or the writings of John Steinbeck. Carlton and I both had to take philosophy classes when we were in college, and we talk about philosophy, so when certain ideas started to present themselves on the show, we just wanted to let the audience know that these philosophers are in our lexicon as storytellers."

On the final season’s religious emphasis:
"We view each season of the show like a book in a series, and so last year was the time travel book, and that story had a beginning, middle and end. This season is significantly spiritual. We felt the mission of the final season of the show was to bring the show full circle. And that if we were going to be discussing what was really important to us, which was how do these characters’ journeys conclude, that journey is a spiritual journey."

On the most important theme of the series:
"If there’s one word that we keep coming back to, it’s redemption. It is that idea of everybody has something to be redeemed for and the idea that that redemption doesn’t necessarily come from anywhere else other than internally. But in order to redeem yourself, you can only do it through a community." [Note: As seen below, there's a bit of a paradox here that's probably worth exploring...]

On the show “Constant” in season four:
"Nobody can do it alone. Desmond was unhooked or lost, he was a castaway bopping around through time, and his only possible salvation was finding the woman that he loved and telling her so and saying, “I need you to rescue me because I’m lost.” This fundamentally tapped into every single theme of the show."

If you haven't already, check out Ethan's great write up about LOST.

George Costanza on Double Lives

John 17:20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you."

Another Week Ends: More Shore, Facebook Happiness, DFW, Marriage, IMonk and The National

1. John Shore's follow-up to his Huffington Post piece, "How My Wife Took The News Of My Sudden Conversion". It should be noted that Mr. Shore published a book in 2007 with the killer title: "I'm OK-You're Not: The Message We're Sending To Non-Believers And Why We Should Stop". Along those lines, it's worth taking a look at his post "What Non-Christians Want Christians To Hear".

2. Fascinating report from the San Fracisco Chronicle about behavior on Facebook and LinkedIn. Turns out both networks employ scientists whose sole job it is to track and analyze our behavior... With a particular focus on happiness:

"You can have a very statistical picture of how the happiness of an entire population of people is changing over time," said Marlow, 33. "We might not be able to really detect your happiness very well, but when we add all those up, we get a very clear picture of what the entire country is feeling."

The index shows the happiest days are holidays like Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day and Easter. Sporting events, such as the Super Bowl and World Cup soccer matches, generate peaks and valleys. Michael Jackson's untimely death caused a "very negative" day, [Cameron Marlow, manager of the "data science team" for Palo Alto's Facebook Inc.] said.

Becoming engaged makes women less happy. "Maybe this is the effect of having to plan a wedding,"  Marlow said. "While the process of being engaged is stressful for women, once you're married, then in general, you're less negative than you were before. But if you're a man, then something else changes, it increases the negativity. These fit the gender stereotypes so perfectly that it's almost uncanny."

3. As you wait for your copy to arrive of David Lipsky's new book "Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace", be sure to read the ongoing discussion among the critics over at NY Magazine. They discuss the "St. Dave" phenomenon at length (I'm not convinced). I was especially interested to find out that when asked about his Top Ten Favorite Books, DFW turned in this list, giving C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters the top spot, and Stephen King's The Stand number two! Its seriousness has long been debated, with the final verdict being that it's the genuine article, i.e., not meant to be sarcastic or (ht Hammer) ironic.

[CONTINUE READING]

Wilson - Daniel Clowes

Everyone's favorite misanthropic graphic novelist Dan Clowes (Eightball, Ghost World) is back with a new book, Wilson. I'm sure it's a blast! Just kidding... But this little preview is priceless:

The Geschichte of Robin Hood: Story and History

Another installment from our good friend in Berlin, Jonathan Mumme, of "Take a Theologian to Work Day" fame, that is inspired, in good Mockingbird fashion, by the release of the (seemingly) bi-annual remake of Robin Hood. Enjoy!

With some British foresight Matthew Parris host of BBC Radio 4’s “Great Lives” invited Clive Strafford Smith to put forward his choice of a great life for the April 14^th program. So a month before Russell Crowe would bring him to the silver screen the human rights lawyer (re)introduced Robin Hood to the BBC listeners. Chosen as the hand of justice fighting for the wronged, the impoverished and the underprivileged, Robin Hood’s is for Smith the best of all personal sagas. Only one small catch for the self-described “biographical series”: Robin Hood never existed.
 

This breaking of an unwritten rule (only real people as subject of biography), though proving a glitch for the BBC, may have flown with the Deutsche Welle (German Wave). In German “Geschichte” does double duty, covering both “story” and “history”. 

A tale told or a record of past of events – it’s all Geschichte. Wherever we classify him Robin Hood’s Geschichte appears to have some staying power. With over 100 TV and movie appearances Crowe will take his place in the ranks of Errol Flynn, Sean Connery and Kevin Costner, and Ridley Scott beside Mel Brooks. It all begs the question, why does Robin Hood keep coming back? Perhaps it is the little Marxist in each of us – the masses finally sticking it to the Man. Or perhaps Brooks was right and it’s just men in tights. 

There is however some solid honesty in hunting for the best biographies in fiction. History only presenting us with a pool of broken persons can only give us blemished heroes. If you are looking for an ideal life, best to find it among those who never lived. With the rest of us the story is at best a very mixed bag. Clive Strafford Smith joins the ranks of G. E. Lessing, who told us that something like faith can’t be grounded in the contingent truths of history but only in the necessary truths of reason, and Bultmann, who could deliver Easter faith without a resurrection, the Easter story without the history. More recently Umberto Eco (Baudolino) and the film “The Brothers Bloom” indicate that we can’t pull our story-telling and our biographies apart anymore. Reality is what you make it; the history is the story you tell. The critical space is in our heads; the decisive words, those coming out of our own mouths; our lives a mix of truth and lie (if they still exist), our histories our own self-spun stories.
[CONTINUE READING]

Mockingbird: Bringing You The Gospel (pt 14)

The Theology of Centralia, Pennsylvania

Centralia, Pennsylvania. Never heard of it? I hadn’t either, until I borrowed a copy of Weird Pennsylvania, a new book which explores the bizarre stuff that happens in our beloved Commonwealth. Recently, Centralia has created quite a buzz. In fact, the recent horror flic, Silent Hill (roughly based on the same-titled video game), was inspired by the town of Centralia.

Centralia is a small town located about an hour east of Philadelphia. In the 1960's, Centralia was a fairly happening place and had over 1,000 residents. But during the 60's, something terrible happened; the immense coal depositsl under the burgeoning town caught fire. And to this day, fifty years later, the blaze continues to rage, sometimes just thirty feet beneath the surface. Smoke still rises from the buckled concrete, most of the trees are dead, and the decaying homes remain vacant. Only 11 people remain in the town.

So what can we learn from this odd, near-ghostlike town in Eastern PA? Well, theologically speaking, Centralia is a picture of what Christians call Original Sin.

When many Christians talk about sin, they are really talking about behavior (cheating, being mean, lusting, taking staplers from work, etc.). Such folks are--in Centralia-speak--concerned with cracked asphalt, dead forests, and emptying houses. And these people think a great deal about how to deal with these persistent problems. The solution is a Remake Centralia Campaign, with proposals to fill up the steaming cracks in the streets, uproot the dead trees and plant new ones, and start flashy advertising campaigns to get people living in Centralia once again. All the while the hidden fires continue to rage.

But when people equate sin with bad behavior, they make a tragic mistake. In the 15th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus talks about the nature of Sin with people that believed that if people could purify their behavior, they would become holy and God would bless them because of it. Here's what Jesus says about this perspective:

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