Thursday, May 28, 2009

Jesusland

IDK why but I never can get enough of this song. As you may see on the right and down, I've been listening to Ben Folds Presents University a Cappella. Below is the UNC Loreleis performing their version of the song. Hauntingly beautiful and really refocuses the song on the lyrics.


The original song is a beautiful video and song of juxtaposition in our faith, the USA, morals, priorities, and such. There is something that rings so true in this song every time I hear it! Here's the link to the original Ben Folds video!

Your thoughts?

Monday, May 25, 2009

Unlikely Disciple (Review)

In The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University, Kevin Roose sets out on a fantastic adventure to try and understand the religious right culture by forsaking a semester at Brown University and trading it for a semester under-cover at Liberty University. Here's a video preview of the book:


Now that you have an idea of the premise, let's get into the book. This book is one of the most engaging and fun books that I've read in a long time. I can almost promise that you will see this again in my end of the year book superlatives! I was able to read this book in two days, and was genuinely sad when I had to close the final page.

Being raised far more to the left, Kevin goes to Liberty with an open and curious mind. I also went to a Christian University (Campbell U.), which is by far a lot more secularized and less strict than Liberty, but I experienced a lot of the atmosphere that Kevin encounters in his book. The book brought up a lot of funny memories for me about the Christian culture that was prevalent on my campus. Yet like my own experience, he finds there is a wide variety within the student population. Not all of those he encounters all within the restraints of the typical "Liberty stereotype".

Why read this book? Well, it is a fascinating experience from Kevin's point of view. The people he meets and the experiences he has is captured in his wonderful writing style. Most people I have read or talked to that have read the book wished it was double the length. He is that engaging! But what he does best is re-humanizing the most conservative (both religious and politically) and Fundamentalist in our society. Because of his open-minded approach and his willingness to understand, he captures that there are people behind these ideologues that belittle elections and morals to that of homosexuality and abortion. How well does he succeed in this? He has one of the final interviews with Jerry Falwell before his death, and surprise; he's not evil incarnate as many people think! Kevin even has a great insight at, while not agreeing with him, understands why people like and follow him. He captures what distinguishes him from others that have been lumped together with Falwell like Haggard and Bakker.

I think that many people I have interacted with online and in person that would be considered liberal or postmodern have fallen into the same vices that plagues the other end of the spectrum. We have forgotten that there is flesh and blood behind these ideas that we might fervently disagree with. Even more, we've forgotten that there is a story and a journey for each individual that has gotten them to where they are. Let's face it, each side is probably missing something in the whole God, faith, and religion department. For instance, Kevin finds something vital and important in prayer.

Liberty changes him, but does not convert him. In his own words he states after his experience,
"Everything I did, even [back] at Brown, took on a new aura of openness. I began to tell everyone in my life exactly how I felt about them at all times. I poured my hear out at every available opportunity. I grabbed at transparency like an addict grabs at a crack pipe" (p. 314).
Roose acknowledges his own spiritual growth from his friends at Liberty, but sadly most of them could not celebrate this growth upon his revelation that he had been under cover. Why? Because they had to place him from the "saved" to the "unsaved" category again according to their binary thinking because he had never said the "sinners prayer".

There are a lot of great issues about faith and beliefs/ideals that are explored in this great book! Kevin sets out to see if there is a way to bridge the "God Divide", and found that perhaps it is possible. However, one has to wonder if the only way he was able to be a bridge was because he went in as "one of them", was accepted as someone who thought like they thought, and only after they had ALREADY accepted him and he came clean they couldn't just dump that relationship. Do we really have to pretend to think like each other in order to build relationships that transcend our differences? If so, there is something fundamentally wrong with us as human-beings!

Yet perhaps Kevin shows us all hope! This is a MUST READ book! You won't regret it at all! Yes, sometimes it feels a little choppy in the editing process, but his stories are amazing, humorous, and full of transparency. Get this book, sit back, and enjoy the ride!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

My Feel-Good Post

Coldplay's Viva La Vida, is a song that has so much depth to it. Every time I listen to it, it sparks new thoughts and better understanding. I ran accross this video of an elementery school singing the song and it brought a whole new depth to the meanings of the song. Plus it's cool to see these kids get into it! Check it out!



UPDATE:
There seems to be an error on the YouTube Video posted above, I'll leave it up in case the error is fixed, but here is a slightly different version of the same group practicing. Longer but it's cool hearing the second half of them singing without the music.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Jesus Interrupted (A Review)

I am one of those people who likes all of Ehrman's popular writings and this
entry into his library is no exception. One reason that I like his popular writings is that he can take complex ideas and translate them so that it is accessible to the masses. If you were to put this book together with Misquoting Jesus and you basically have a crash-course of a New Testament Intro/Survey Class.

And this is Bart's purpose for writing. He wants to bridge the gap between Biblical academia and the pews. In his purpose he succeeds on a level that I think is unmatched by any other scholar. Is his scholarship debatable? Yes! He even lists critics (including website addresses) of the most respected critics of his previous book. I agree that there is a huge gap between the academic world and the Church world. I also think it is important that people step in to bridge that gap. Ehrman has a way of engaging the reader with sometimes complicated material and helps them to grasp onto these (many times for the audience) new thoughts and ideas. This is not a book that many Sunday School classes would use, so it raises many questions for the average reader about the Bible and perhaps the "faith" they are being sold in their churches.

This brings me to Ehrman's overarching purpose (why he writes what he does), which shows up beautifully in this book. Ehrman not only wants to engage the masses with Biblical scholarship, he has always enjoyed challenging the "inherited faith" of his students and many Christians in general. He believes (and I happen to agree), that a faith that has not been challenged and avoids the intellectual complications and enlightenment that can come from being exposed to Biblical academia, is not an "owned faith". So, on this, Bart succeeds in his book as well! So well in fact, that he gives you tons of information about things that are at odds with each other (or itself) in the Bible, and then leaves you to figure out what to do with it. He gets a lot of heat for doing this (deconstruction with no reconstruction), But I have to respect that he considers his audience to be intelligent people. For Ehrman, the fact that they do not know these things about the Bible has more to do with the teachers and leaders than it does the laity.

Most people know that Ehrman is a self-proclaimed agnostic. This is one reason he receives the amount of criticism he does. However, he does admit that reviewing the discrepancies (most of which he considers inconsequential, but are rarely pointed out anyway) is NOT why he is agnostic. In fact he goes as far as to say that 2 possible reactions that someone could have after initial exposure to these discrepancies is to 1) reject their faith, or 2) climb back into a hole and ignore their existence. He cautions against both of these outcomes and considers them an unhealthy reaction. This helps keep the framework of Bart's purpose intact. You can disagree with his scholarly view, but the challenge from there is to then continue to search and form your own opinions. He never comes across as arrogant in his writings, and in fact gives the reader access to other scholarly views in the notes. I think that these are huge reasons that his books succeed in the mass media.

So I believe that Jesus Interrupted is a successful book in the Ehrman library, but does it have any negatives. I would have to say that my views are more wishes than negatives. I wish there were more references to other scholars to back up his claims. He uses the phrase "many scholars" and "most scholars", but never truly names them, even in the notes. Although he names a few alternate sources for alternate views, most of the notes reference a previous work of his own.

The second wish is that, while I agree that there needs to be a bridge built from the world of academics to the pews, I think that there also needs to be a little more "spirituality" in the academic circles. It is way too easy to take the human/sacred element out of Christianity. However, I can't claim this as a negative since 1) that is not in Bart's purpose, and 2) I would think Bart would consider himself unqualified in this department. Being an agnostic, I think that he would claim that there are others far better at adding back in the spiritual element after breaking down the New Testament.

So what does one do with Jesus Interrupted? I think that one must use it as a primer for further research into the Bible and what else is out there. Just like a NT Survey class, you don't get everything that is out there from one teacher and one sitting. However, this book is meant to open up a whole new world simply by looking at something that the majority of his readers will be very familiar with. Just like most entry level Div./Seminary students who are taught these same views, there will be a lot of "How did I not know that?" and "Why have I never seen this?". This book is best used as a springboard to launch one into seeking out more about what the academic world has to say about the Bible and, through those people, work towards bridging the gab between the classrooms and the pews.
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For a different perspective see:
Ben Witherington Detailed Review Post: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Also more reviews on Ooze Viral Bloggers

Monday, May 04, 2009

"The Shack" Comes to the Triangle

I know many people I talk to about William P. Young's The Shack, ask about his personal experiences that led to him writing the both widely beloved, and widely criticized book. Some know that on the Audio version, there is an interview with Paul, and he gives some insight to his inspiration and experience.

On the front page of today's N&O, there is an article entitled Author's Journey Grew Into Spiritual Therapy (click for full article). I post here some answers into the author's insight and background for all those who have asked or are simply curious.

AND a shout out to my man George Fuller for getting a quote in print... You're my hero George!
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...in Young's case, "the great sadness" that led him to his proverbial "shack" was childhood sexual abuse followed later in life by an extramarital affair.

For Young, who grew up in New Guinea as the son of missionary parents, God was a punitive presence in his life whom he could never fully please. For years, he said, he masked his true self, hiding his secrets from everyone, including those he loved.

On Jan. 4, 1994, his wife, Kim, told him she knew about his affair. He resolved to finally confront his demons, a process he said took 11 years, including nine months of intensive psychotherapy.
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This was Young's real-life "shack" experience, but read the full article to get background on the book's own journey and how it is affecting people in my area!

Enjoy

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Quotes of the Week

I keep a collection of good quotes all nice and neat in moleskine journals, but there's been two this week that have really made me laugh...and well... I just like sharing.

1)Kevin Roose: The Unlikely Disciple
The closest I came to consistent faith was during my senior year religion class, when we learned about the Central and South American liberation theology movements and I became briefly convinced that God was a left-wing superhero who led the global struggle against imperialism and corporate greed. Sort of a celestial Michael Moore. (loc.162-64 -- That's Kindle Page #'s for the laity)
2) From our Bible Study Discussion Group tonight: talking with a life-long missionary to Zimbabwe
QUESTION: Don't you think we've over-focused on "getting people saved" and aren't their higher needs that need to be met than that? I mean like getting people clean water is saving them in one sense....

MISSIONARY'S ANSWER: Yeah! I mean you can't win a dead soul!
3) I like the quote by itself, but the cartoon added has it's own thought-provoking message

Art by jon birch @ From ASBO Jesus

Shared with love,
j