I appreciated Greg’s sermon yesterday (Psalm 139) and his comments on abortion in our culture. As individual Christians in our culture, we need to give thought to our roles in society with particular attention to the issue of abortion. While driving to work this morning, I happened to hear a tragic account of Chinese provincal authorities forcing abortions on women even late in their pregnancies (7-9 mos.) One couple that was interviewed was identified as a Christian family who were pregnant with their second child. They were forcibly taken to the hospital where the wife’s pregnancy was terminated by lethal injection. You can hear the whole story at NPR. We should be advocates for cultures of life not only in the USA but also throughout the world. Kudos to NPR for running the story.

Last week, John Canzano, a sports columnist for the Oregonian posted about an article he read in the Washington Post. I read Canzano’s blog because it is found on an Oregonian webpage devoted to all things Trailblazers (as in struggling NBA basketball team). This post, however, had nothing to do with basketball. The Post piece was about famed musician Joshua Bell who, for an hour, dressed up as a regular guy and played a $3.5 million violin at the L’Enfant Metro station in Washington, D.C. during rush hour. It was a test put on by the Post to see what would happen. Would people stop and listen to arguably some of the finest music ever written performed by one of the finest musicians in the world or would they pass by as if he wasn’t there?

Canzano entitled his post, “Just settling an old epistemological debate” and proceeded to ask, “Would a guy who makes $60,000 an hour and sells out the most popular performance venues in the country, playing an instrument valued at $3.5 million even draw a crowd? Is beauty really measurable?”

You’ll have to read the article, “Pearls Before Breakfast” by Gene Weingarten to find out what happened. It is very interesting.

A few days later, Amy Lauger, at Common Grounds Online blogged about the same article. She sees in Bell, the virtuoso who left the ornate symphony halls for the humble surroundings of lowly L’Enfant Plaza an allusion to the incarnate Christ who left the glory of heaven and became ignoble man. Her article is entitled, “Just a Street Musician?” It, also, is worth a read.

I skimmed that article and I, too, thought the college students at Third provided a counter-example.  As for me, I began college a non-Christian and was living college for myself.  That meant pursuing a college degree for economic gain.  In high school I had a postcard on my mirror with a picture of a Malibu mansion on the waterfront and three hot sportscars in the driveway.  The text on the postcard read, “. . . justification for a higher education.”  That sums up how I began college.

Thankfully, into my first year of college Christ intercepted me.  Though my Christian growth was slow, too slow, I realized that the message of that postcard could no longer justify my own college experience.  Financial gain could not satisfy the deepest longings of my heart.  For me, this journey ended with a call to pastoral ministry a few years later.  For others, the pursuit of a career in mathematics, economics, law, homemaking, sports, medicine may be exactly how God has designed them.  Either way, if Christ is not our ultimate goal, our chief end, narcissism is inevitable, isn’t it?

It’s probably not the best etiquette to interrupt a conversation with my first post. But I wanted to have a brief discussion about the upcoming Oscars.

Whether you’re an avid movie watcher or just an occasional “kick up your feet” one Friday night a month kind of guy or gal, you can’t avoid the buzz being generated around this Sunday night’s Oscars. The Oscar is the highest reward given each year in the motion picture industry. The members of The Academy of Motion Pictures nominate and vote for all the films, actors, actresses, directors, scores, costumes, etc. you’ll see Sunday night. Well, I think it’s helpful for Christians to pause this week and assess what’s going on in this industry. It’s also helpful to set a standard for what we as Christians can say is a “good” movie.

But let’s remember a few basic principles. First, movies are a form of art, and with any form of art there is a certain standard, albeit rather subjective, for what is good, poor, and just plain bad. Even if it’s an overtly “Christian” movie with Christian content, unless it meets a quality standard assumed by the industry, then it can be bad. Dorthy Sayers wrote:

A bad play is a bad play, and though, like some bad statuary and abominable stained glass, it may assist the prayers of the faithful, it will do nothing to convince the world at large that the Christian religion is worthy of intelligent consideration. And I am not altogether sure even about the faithful: does bad art really do for them anything that good art would not do better? (Laura K. Simmons, Creed Without Chaos, quoting Sayers from “Playwrights Are No Evangelists”, 133)

Her quote is spot on. I believe the same can be said of movies. (Now Sayers was no movie critic, but she was a playwright; thus, she’s not far removed from a screenwriter.) Second, the movie industry is our modern day storyteller, and with every story there is a point to be made. Therefore, don’t assume there’s “no point” to a movie. Some even make the point that there is no point. It is here where I think we as Christians need to be mindful movie viewers and seek to understand and biblically analyze the point.

Also, the means of making the point matters so content matters. Remember a five-minute scene could have taken four hours to film and another two to edit. A movie crew doesn’t spend all that time for the fun of it and the money. Time is spent so all the emotion and context driving the point can have the it’s full impact on the audience. (Just watch the extras from Return of The King. There is a twenty-second scene, tops, when Sam, Mary, and Pippin are at the dock watching Frodo sail to the Grey Havens. That scene took over an hour to film.)

Some of you may remember reading The Bridge to Terabithia as a child. I remember reading it and loving it. Not growing up in a Christian family, I was not encouraged to notice, nor did I notice on my own, that the book does contain Christian overtones. In this interview the author, Katherine Paterson, discusses her view of writing as a Christian, including the fact that she had no intention of The Bridge to Terabithia being a Christian tract. Nonetheless, she explains how Christianity informed her writing:

I think C. S. Lewis said that a book cannot be what a writer is not. Who you are informs what you write on a very deep level. You reveal yourself whether you intend to or not. So you don’t signal that you’re a Christian; you write the story as well and as truthfully as you can because that’s how you glorify God, and you have to be true to the characters and who they are and how they talk. If it comes from a person who has a Christian hope and a Christian knowledge of grace, then I think hope and grace are going to infuse my work—not that I put them in, but because I can’t help having them there.

Reading this interview makes me want to go back and read the book. I admit, I’m a little disappointed it is being turned into a movie. As captivating as the big screen is, it is not the same as being lost in a book. Of course, I don’t need to go see the movie, but still . . ..

Bruce, imperfect examples can still be examples.  Though I don’t know enough about Irwin to draw any serious comparisons to Cousteau, I wouldn’t presume to say that because Irwin did dangerous things he loved nature any less.  Perhaps he thought that was the best way, in the 21st century, to get the next generation excited about nature.  Nor am I  prepared to say that because he did stupid things he didn’t display an obvious passion for God’s creation.

As far as the Kairos rebuke, as far as I can tell, the journal is rebuking only those Christians who take “little delight” in God’s creation.   I certainly don’t think that is a rebuke to every believer, but it is a challenge to every believer to ask himself the question, “What does it look like for me, as someone who knows that God created the world, to appreciate it?”  I trust we won’t do something Irwinesque, but perhaps it will remind us that men who swim with stingrays and feed alligators don’t have the market cornered on enjoying or appreciating nature.  We are actually the experts here since we know Who made them all.

Frankly, from what I do know about Irwin, I think the Journal made a decent jump.  Again, I don’t think examples have to be perfect to work.  I will say that those who watch Irwin (including the author of the quick take) would disagree with your assessment that Irwin was more interested in danger than nature.

As for football, I leave it to you and Keith to hash it out.

Aaron and Keith have done a good job bringing life to our blog by commenting on some recent events, both far and near. Thanks guys. I can’t help but reply to some of the recent comments.

First, the case of Steve Irwin’s death is certainly sad. He leaves behind a wife and two very young children. He died in a needless accident wrestling with a creature that, while not the most dangerous he had ever encountered, was certainly not your barnyard variety of critter. It strikes me as strange, Aaron, that Steve Irwin’s model of connecting with the natural world would be held out as exemplary to children and to Christians. I find it quite the contrary. I have never watched Steve Irwin’s programs, but it sounds as if the thrill of danger was as much or more a part of his “show” than nature. This wasn’t Jacques Cousteau who was motivated by his delight of nature. This was a guy who loved and marketed danger as much as nature. So to me it is like wanting to motivate my kids to ride a bike by having them watch a guy race down I-65 at a 100 miles an hour on a motorcycle without a helmet. I would like my children to like nature, but not necessarily scorpions as playthings. This is the same guy who held his baby in one hand and a dead chicken in another hand over a crocodile in 2004. I take some umbrage that this kind of behavior should be held out as a rebuke to me and other Christians. I think that because the world has lost any sense of meaning about the natural world that it takes the thrill of danger to arouse interest.

And Bro. Keith. For the record, I have nothing against football. I find it entertaining at times. I have something against saying that it is the greatest sport. Your only defense to me about it is that the players have to learn a handbook of over 100 plays. How hard is that? Play#1, run into each other at full speed. Play #2, run into each other at full speed, but slide at the last minute. Play #3, run into each other after having made a quarter turn. Play #4, run into each other after having run 20 paces. 100 plays equals 100 variations on the theme “how to run into each other” while the one person who has the brains figures out how to get the ball to the other end of the field. I think this local guy who was injured should take this as an opportunity to do well in his classes this fall. Maybe he will get into a better graduate school as a result. If he still wants to wear tight pants and have contact with others, he could try out for ballet.