News bloat

The above image is from a recent TED talk in which Alisa Miller (CEO of Public Radio International) gives a presentation discussing Why we know less than ever about the world. The map shows “the number of seconds that American network and cable organizations dedicated to news stories by country in February of 2007.” You can clearly see that the United States and Iraq are totally bloated, and far outweigh the news coverage of all other countries.

At the conclusion of the presentation, Alisa says, “The real question: Is this distorted worldview what we want for Americans in our increasingly interconnected world?” I submit that it is not.

Click here to view the presentation (It’s only 4:30 long).

This begs the question: Where do you get your global news? I get mine from the BBC News website, and I occasionally watch the BBC World News on PBS.

• An article in Newsweek called The Dumbest Generation? Don’t Be Dumb refutes the idea that Generation Y (anyone born from 1983 — 1997) is the ‘dumbest generation,’ as Mark Bauerlein suggests. A highly recommended read; there’s some really good stuff in this article. “Gen Y cares less about knowing information than knowing where to find information.” 05/26/2008

Interview with Michael Kelly, author of “The Tough Sayings of Jesus II”

I was recently given the opportunity to read and review a new curriculum put out by LifeWay called The Tough Sayings of Jesus II. The ‘Leader Kit’ that I received comes with a CD containing music that accompanies the curriculum, and a DVD with a bunch of great videos as well. I can personally vouch for the quality of the curriculum; not just because I received it as a gift, but because I think highly enough of it to use it next school year with my youth group.

Below you’ll find an unedited interview with the author of the curriculum, Michael Kelly. My questions will appear in italics. Thanks to both Michael and Bill Seaver for the opportunity.

JAKE BOUMA: Thanks for the interview opportunity, Michael. I loved this book, and plan on using it next school year with my own students. Anywho, could you give the readers a bit of background about yourself?

MICHAEL KELLY: Glad to hear it, Jake. Me – I grew up in Texas where my parents still live and I met and married my wife. We moved from Canyon, TX to Birmingham, AL where I went to Beeson Divinity School. After that we moved to Nashville where I am now as a writer and editor. In the meantime, we had 2 kiddos – Joshua, 4, and Andi, 1.

JAKE BOUMA: What was the impetus for this particular curriculum?

MICHAEL KELLY: It’s interesting to me how many times in my church experience that I’ve heard sermon series that skip or gloss over some of the difficult passages of Scripture. Like how many times have I heard that we’re doing a sketch of Romans, and we hear a talk about the victory of Romans 8 and then I turn around and we’re offering our bodies as living sacrifices in Romans 12? What? It’s like Paul didn’t intend to write those 3 chapters in between. Same thing with the gospels I think. We like a picture of Jesus where among other things, He’s “nice.” So we gravitate towards those passages. But that leaves us with an incomplete and mishapen view of Jesus and doesn’t allow us to examine the fullness of what He taught and lived. So I wanted to write something that engaged people at alot of levels – emotionally, intellectually, as well as spiritually.

JAKE BOUMA: I’m currently reading Dallas Willard’s “The Divine Conspiracy”, and in it he says, “Strangely, we seem prepared to learn how to live from almost anyone but him [Jesus]. We are ready to believe that the ‘latest studies’ have more to teach us about love and sex than he does, and that Louis Rukeyser knows more about finances.” What I appreciate about this curriculum is that it doesn’t fall into this trap. What lead you to believe that the sayings of Jesus DO teach us how to live?

MICHAEL KELLY: Kudos to you for reading Dallas – one of my favorites. I appreciate you saying TS doesn’t fall into that category. I think for Jesus, every moment was spiritual. It seems to me that one of the things He continually tried to emphasize was that every moment is truly a “God” moment when you are walking with the Lord. So I think the distinction we draw between “theology” and “application” is laughable to Jesus in some ways – what is theology if it’s not applied? And what can truly be applied that is not theological? So Jesus has much to say about recognizing the “God-ness” of ordinary moments in time.

JAKE BOUMA: Do you think that youth are in some ways more receptive to hearing the message of this book? Why or why not?

MICHAEL KELLY: I think as a whole emerging generations want the unbiased and unapologetic truth, so Jesus is a natural fit, when we indeed embrace everything He has to say. People everywhere, students especially, want a faith that engages their whole person. I believe people will rise to that challenge.

JAKE BOUMA: Did students play any role in the process of writing/editing the curriculum?

MICHAEL KELLY: I do speak at a number of retreats and conferences throughout the year, and one of my favorite and most challenging parts is engaging in discussion with the folks who are there. Listening to people talk you get the sense that they aren’t just looking for behaviorism; they’re really searching for a deeper walk with Christ. That encouraged me a great deal to try and write for that kind of reader.

JAKE BOUMA: I enjoyed your movie metaphor, where you talked about how many leads in contemporary movies are morally ambiguous. Can you unpack this for the readers and its implications in ministry?

MICHAEL KELLY: Sure – I think I mention Superman in the book, and superheroes are a good example of this. The first Superman movies showed a hero without flaws. He always did the right thing; always knew what that was. But since some superhero movies have been relaunched, like Batman or Ironman for example, you see the good and the bad of the hero. They’re still the hero, the protagonist, but you watch them struggle with their actions. You see the humanness to them. Another good example of this is the biopic genre of movies, in which the protagonist is revealed to have flaws just like everyone else. It’s an interesting comment on culture and its leanings I think in both a good and bad way. The good is its more authentic. And in some ways, more biblical. The Bible doesn’t hold up people as perfect; we bear witness to their sin as well as their faith. But it might be bad because it’s reflective of the idea that there really are no good guys any more, because there really is no good or bad any more; it’s all relative.

JAKE BOUMA: Finally, what’s next on your plate? Any forthcoming books or projects you’re working on? Feel free to shamelessly plug anything! Thanks again for taking the time to answer some questions for the readers.

MICHAEL KELLY: Just a few things – Still travel to do speaking gigs, and am working on a deal to take Tough Sayings I and Tough Sayings II and put them together into a tradebook for more wide distribution. Hopefully that’s going to happen soon.

The Divine Conspiracy

I’ve been meaning to read Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy for a while, and I finally started reading it about a week ago. The book has been amazing so far, but chapter two, entitled Gospels of Sin Management, has absolutely blown my mind. Rather than blabbing on about it, I’m just going to post a few extended quotes that rocked my world. Enjoy.

“We get a totally different picture of salvation, faith, and forgiveness if we regard having life from kingdom of the heavens now — the eternal kind of life — as the target. The words and acts of Jesus naturally suggest that this is indeed salvation, with discipleship, forgiveness, and heaven to come as natural parts. And in this he only continues the teachings of the Old Testament. The entire biblical tradition from beginning to end is one of the intimate involvement of God in human life — or else alienation from it. That is the biblical alternative for life now.”¹

“The sensed irrelevance of what God is doing to what makes up our lives is the foundational flaw in the existence of multitudes of professing Christians today. They have been led to believe that God, for some unfathomable reason, just thinks it appropriate to transfer credit from Christ’s merit account to ours, and to wipe out our sin debt, upon inspecting our mind and finding what we believe to be a particular theory of the atonement to be true — even if we trust everything but God in all other manners that concern us.”²

“Strangely, we seem prepared to learn how to live from almost anyone but him [Jesus]. We are ready to believe that the ‘latest studies’ have more to teach us about love and sex than he does, and that Louis Rukeyser knows more about finances… Where we spontaneously look for ‘information’ on how to live shows how we truly feel and who we really have confidence in. And nothing more forcibly demonstrates the extent to which we automatically assume the irrelevance of Jesus as teacher for our ‘real’ lives… We do not seriously consider Jesus as our teacher on how to live, hence we cannot think of ourselves, in our moment-to-moment existence, as his students or disciples. So we turn to popular speakers and writers, some Christians and some not — whoever happens to be writing books and running talk shows and seminars on matters that concern us.”³

“We who profess Christianity will believe what is constantly presented to us as gospel… And those in the wider world who reject those gospels will believe that what they have rejected is the gospel of Jesus Christ himself — when, in fact, they haven’t yet heard it.”⁴

There you have it. Chew on those quotes for a while… I have been for the past several days. What are your initial thoughts? Drop a comment and let me know. Also, has anybody else read the book? Is the rest of the book as amazing as the first two chapters?

1. Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998. 47. ↩
2. Ibid., 49. ↩
3. Ibid., 55-57. ↩
4. Ibid., 58. ↩

• 7 Pleasurable Ways to Improve Your Reading Ability. “3. Learn to read in depth, stay on the same subject for a while. If you are familiar with the subject you are reading about, you will understand better. Do not just read short articles. Commit to books. Stay with one author for at least one book. If the subject matter is new to you, you should even try to read a few different books or articles about the same subject, before you move on. This way you will meet the same vocabulary and ideas often, helping you to learn. You will also be able to get deeper into the subject and your reading confidence will grow.” 05/19/2008
• I have been a fan of the ESV bible translation for a long time, which is why I’m pumped for the release of the ESV Study Bible later this year. Download the Introduction to the Gospel of Luke (PDF, 1.1mb) and see for yourself. More samples. (ht: ESV Bible Blog) 05/15/2008

I’m going to seminary (kind of)

Well folks, I’m going to seminary. Or, rather, a seminary course is coming to me, thanks to the interweb. I’ve been accepted into the TH434: Readings in Postmodern Philosophy/Theology online course at Northern Seminary, which I heard about via Emergent Village.

The class is led by David Fitch and Jeff Holsclaw, and it runs from June 30 — September 14. The course description is provided below:

This course surveys several major thinkers in Postmodern Continental Philosophy as well as an assortment of theological responses to postmodernity. The course aims to introduce the student to first hand encounters with the thinkers that are shaping the theological mind of today in response to postmodernity. The student should come away with a basic understanding of the formative philosophical issues facing current Western theologians and church practitioners. The student also will be prepared for further reading and engagement with philosophical writings that are setting the course for so much of the post­Christendom West.

It won’t be an easy ten weeks, but it will certainly be illuminating. I pray that this is only the beginning of a long journey.

• In light of the Myanmar cyclone, First Things has republished “Tsunami and Theodicy” by David B. Hart which was originally written as a response to the 2004 tsunami.

  And while we know that the victory over evil and death has been won, we know also that it is a victory yet to come, and that creation therefore, as Paul says, groans in expectation of the glory that will one day be revealed. Until then, the world remains a place of struggle between light and darkness, truth and falsehood, life and death; and, in such a world, our portion is charity.

  05/09/2008

Toilet theology

When I was growing up, a few things were consistent: Velveeta® Shells and Cheese, quiet tables, and Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.

The Bathroom Reader series is designed specifically with reading while sitting on the toilet in mind. According to the Wikipedia article, “Their volumes contain information on subjects such as quotes, dumb criminals, palindromes, anagrams, urban legends and hoaxes, failed inventions, the history of everyday things, and accidental discoveries, as well as articles on pop culture and ‘celebrities’… Throughout the books, there are what the BRI calls ‘running feet’ — short fun facts on the bottom of each page.”

All of this is to say that I was conditioned from a young age to read in the restroom. I don’t remember too much religion or theology in the Bathroom Readers, but that’s where A Theological Miscellany: 176 Pages of Odd, Merry, Essentially Inessential Facts, Figures, and Tidbits about Christianity comes in.

A Theological Miscellany is the perfect theological commode companion. Among the “176 Pages of odd, merry, essentially inessential facts, figures, and tidbits about Christianity”, you’ll find Famous Physically Disabled or Handicapped Christians, Church Announcement “Bloopers”, and Reformers Before the Reformation, among many others. I picked up my copy at Half Price Books for a scant $4.

If you can’t go number two without reading about the Holy One, this is the book for you. Plus, it’ll surely start some conversations when you have guests over.

Flickr + God

The photograph below is considered the most interesting image tagged with “god” on Flickr.

God and Automobiles, originally uploaded by g. s. george on flickr.

The photographer, Geoffrey George, writes eloquently of his thoughts about the photo:

This is the memorable and ironic view that greets every motorist traveling south on I-75 towards downtown. Thousands of these motorists are surely suburban GM workers on their way to work every day, and the irony of this chance alignment is hopefully not lost on them. In the background, the Renaissance Center, Detroit’s tallest building and GM World Headquarters. In the foreground, St. Josaphat, a 105-year old still-functioning relic from Detroit’s heyday. Detroit is the Motor City, but the sins committed here cannot be forgotten or forgiven–from the hundreds of murders every year to the construction of a freeway system that divided and destroyed vibrant and working neighborhoods. Hopefully this image will one day have different associations.

For me, it is a powerful view that is quintessentially Detroit. I’m sure it’s been photographed hundreds of times, but the balance and contrast between Detroit’s largest and most infamous glass skyscraper, a struggling community church, and the freeway that cut a swath across the city and acted as a runway for white flighters provides me with endless fascination. I hope you will find it equally stimulating.

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