Judgments of attitude

Last night I saw the movie "Babel," and it was one of those that you had to sit through the whole thing in order to understand what it was all about. For about the first 75% percent of the movie I mostly saw four separate stories (which I figured had to tie-in together by the end) from three different parts of the world. As I was discovering the process of putting the stuff together I realized how it really underscored problems with American perceptions of this time (specifically this decade under the Duuh-ble-U Bush administration).

The first story highlighted a Muslim family in Morocco, and how the two sons were testing out a recently-purchased rifle's shooting distance on a passing bus. I'm guessing they both thought they missed it.

The second story was about a couple young American children who were baby-sat by a foreign guardian of sorts (turns out she was Mexican but I didn't realize that right away). They had gone to a wedding in Mexico (with another guy driving them), and had a little run-in with the border police on the way back that prompted him to strand the woman and children in the desert. This whole episode challenged the whole illegal immigration and deportation issue.

The third story highlighted an American couple on a journey through Morocco on a tour bus. The wife got hit in the neck from a bullet, and the whole search for a potential terrorist was on, thus challenging the whole American vs. Muslim nation relation issues.

The fourth story took me the longest to understand. I was able to connect the first three pretty quickly, but the fourth was set in an Asian country (I later learned it was Japan) where a deaf-mute girl had suffered from her mother's suicide. Even ten (?) years later she was still suffering, and she acted out in several different scenes trying to get attention. Apparently her father had recently sold a rifle to a Moroccan merchant, but I didn't really "get" that until about 4/5 through the movie.

Terrorism and immigration have been two problems that the US government has been trying to "fix" but without any success. I think the greater importance is to understand when and how to judge. I can understand the impulse to prevent an excess of immigration from Mexico (which is undeniably a huge problem), but it's too harsh to send back those who have become legal citizens. It is also understandable to search extensively for anyone who would try to harm tourists in North Africa and the Middle East but at some point we have to realize that sometimes these incidents were purely accidents, and it is not worth it to make an otherwise innocent person undergo torture for some mistake.

"He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly." Luke 1:52

I think Mary's song was also meant for those powerful and lowly in attitude as well as position.

Logic and Reason

This week in Electronic Music we've been learning how to play with the program "Reason." It's pretty cool (although hard until you understand how to work with it). Most of my homework assignments have been to create a sound (first using additive synthesis, then using subtractive synthesis, and now using a combination of filters, sound envelopes and modulators to create even more complex sounds. My project for next Monday is to create a piece based on the sounds that I create this week, and if I'm not mistaken I will have to take the sounds I created on "Reason" and create a song on "Logic." Crazy, but kinda fun.

Jesus would be appalled at mainstream American "Christianity"

I sat down and read the Bible for the first time in my life tonight. After FCA (during which I was inspired to read the Gospel of John while the speaker was talking) I grabbed the Good Book and steamrolled my way through the first nine chapters (I still have twelve to go), and was expectedly amazed at some of the stuff Jesus said.

"You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (John 5:39-40)

"How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God?" (John 5:44)

"If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did." (Jesus, in response to the unbelieving Jews contesting that Abraham was their father--John 8:39-40)

"If God were your Father, you would love me ... I did not come on my own, but he sent me." (Jesus, in response to the same Jews flip-flopping and saying that God was their father--John 8:42)

...and so forth. In another instance the Pharisees challenge Him by bringing forth a woman who had clearly committed adultery and asked him to judge her. Instead of saying anything, He writes in the ground, clearly using a tactic to ignore and distract them from trying to trap him. He says, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8: 7) He promptly resumes writing in the dirt, after which they leave. Then, when Jesus is alone with the woman, He forgives her. That's powerful. He could have forgiven her in front of the Pharisees, but as "it is not his time yet" (quoted several times in the first nine chapters of John) he would have been arrested and killed. Jesus was smart. Instead of "man"-ing up to them (which apparently any mainstream Christian who would put himself on a pedestal would do--Pat Robertson reportedly boasted he could legpress some 1,000 pounds during the Sunday morning service!) Jesus ignores them. He know what the right thing to do in this situation. He just chooses to do it out of the spotlight. That is brilliant.

Clearly I haven't gotten to the good parts of the Gospel yet--Jesus will give His body and blood as everlasting food at the Last Supper, wash His disciples' feet, and die on a cross so to save all of mankind, past, present and future. Aside from these things, one of the lesser things that amazes me most is after He performed a miracle to make enough food to feed 5,000 people, he goes into seclusion so the believers couldn't crown him King (John 6:15). It's kind of funny how when I go to Selah, FCA and TNBS, they always sing and talk about Jesus the King. In terms of putting Him in a position relative to the rest of us it is an OK thing to do, but given that Jesus didn't want to be an earthly king of a community or a nation I have a problem with other people in today's world trying to do just that. Throughout the US churches (and tele-churches) are proclaiming Jesus as King of America, and their preachers preach the dominating masculine Christian American example that make the world "right" (I use quotes because the word itself has been tainted by the anti-Left).

Ben Folds' "Jesusland" takes note of the commerically-driven Christianity that has pervaded much of America. In an article written by Adam Smith, Folds explains the satire in his song: "It does no good for the teachings of a great man to put it across billboards and political campaigns. If that's your first exposure to [Him], it's a negative exposure. Just using the name Jesus implies for some weird reason that we are talking about politics. Last I remembered those were two separate issues. There's politics and there's religion, and to some extent they have to live in each other's backyards, but I think everyone agrees that the two are overly linked at this point. They're uncomfortably linked."

[Speaking of links, here's the one for the article that I got the quote from. Note: since it's a page from an online message board it may not appear one the page at some point, so please use the link while it's still good... and remember to scroll down until you reach it] http://www.thesuburbs.org.uk/Board/index.php?topic=3969.0 ["http://www.thesuburbs.org.uk/Board/index.php?topic=3969.0"]

Folds goes on about what he wanted to convey from "Jesusland," and as I had mentioned in an earlier post, it is ironic in that he depicts the Jesusland of American consumerism, which is exactly what Jesus doesn't want us to do! He is known to have told several people to give up their possessions and follow Him. He clearly can't stand the Pharisees because they think they are living the pious life and leading all humanity by example as to how to live, and they clearly put themselves up on a pedestal in the process. In this case, humility clearly goes out the window, and it's the same case with the Religious Right. They live by the letter of the law (the Law should be whatever's in the Bible, literally) and for their own self-interests, and THIS is how they tell people to live. Something like: "Put your trust in the Bible and everything that is good for American consumption and commercialism. And killing Muslims is a bonus." (OK, I made that last part up) But one thing I would convey to all who live literally by the Bible and want to force it on everyone is to read John 5:39-40 (actual words by Jesus). Since Jesus says that what He tells people is more important that what other people say, His words should be the focus, rather than, say, what Paul thinks someone else thinks Jesus said, or what an angel might have said once in Revelation.

Anyway, I'm aware this post is turning into a rant and a sermon into one, but in a way I'm getting "fired up for Jesus" just like everyone else in mainstream American Christianity. Getting down to it, I see our Messiah as both fully human and fully God. But, when I pray I don't say "Dear God and Jesus," I just say "Dear God," automatically including Jesus into the introduction because He is God. He wants to be opened to everyone's hearts, and not only American hearts, but everyone in the world. He wants us all to believe in Him, and believe that He was born and died on the cross to save us from sin. That's the only thing we really need to take away from it. Everything else is anyone's business, and we should learn to accept it. We all really believe in God; it's just how we believe in Him that bothers a lot of people, and it shouldn't.

Back to reading the rest of the Gospel of John.

Lani Land, or the place of the Ole Grail of broomball

Yesterday I went to a place called "Lani Land", a place that St. Olaf spiritual groups go to for retreats. Situated about 5-10 miles south of Northfield, it's a plot of farm/woodland with a pond owned by Lon, who set the place up specifically for these retreats. Lon had been seriously injured very many years ago, to the point that he might not have lived. However, not only did he survive, but he got worker's comp as a result, and spent it on a plot of land that he would fix up to be a place of fun and worship. Historically I've gone down there with FCA, but this year Thursday Night Bible Study decided to take charge in these trips (it helps that Dave-O, the TNBS leader, is close friends with Lon).

Yesterday was full of broomball, ping-pong, prayer/discussion sessions, and group bonding specifically for glorifying God (it was a men's retreat). It was mostly an up-and-down day where I felt tested by Him in some way or another. Towards the end of the first round of broomball, my team was suffering through the second straight defeat and after I had missed a penalty shot that my team needed in order to stay alive, I tossed my stick to the side of the rink. Right afterwards we had headed inside we watched a video on the "four faces on manhood" (whatever that was) and engaged in small group discussions about how they apply to us. After a while my group went from discussing the aforementioned subject to how they deal with struggles in their relationships and how they have to keep talking about God and how He affects their lives. I couldn't really join the discussion myself because I've never had a girlfriend, but I kind of enjoyed listening in because they had talked about the necessity of God's presence for keeping their relationships strong (or mending in times of weakness, etc).

In spite of having some early struggles in the day, I was caught up in the positive vibe that emanated from everyone in the group. Aside from Lon and Dave-O, I got to meet a few new people, and re-connect with some old friends Nick and Jake (and Tex, Steven and Chandler stopped by for a bit), and it helped turn my disgruntled state of being into something much more positive. I had no idea how spiritual/religious one of the guys in my group I had known since early freshman year was until yesterday. I kind of felt bad when I found out Paul had only been a part of the group only recently because he hadn't known about it. He had been "on the jock floor of Hoyme," which wasn't necessarily unlike my floor in Kitt (it wasn't jock, but full of non-spiritual people), but somehow I knew about FCA midway through first year whereas it took him till soph year to realize that these groups actually existed at Olaf.

The end of night was probably the most uplifting for me. After my team, previously 0-2 in the "season," turned it around and won the playoffs in an utterly unlikely fashion (basically Dave-O just told me to play defense full-time instead of occasionally wandering up the ice to help on offense), we went in for the final worship service. While we were singing and praying I had closed my eyes and was looking upward. And almost immediately I started seeing something being etched in my vision behind closed eyelids. Unfortunately I didn't allow enough time for the message to come through, but I'm convinced that God was trying to help me and tell me to do something that would be wonderful. I'm not sure what the message was, but I'm sure it said something like "Love," followed by a several vague letters. I think He was trying to tell me to maybe be there for someone or help. I know from a previous TNBS meeting the speaker explained to us that one way that God answers people's prayers is that He sends other people as messengers, and I think that He was trying to use me as a messenger of some sort.

Anyway, the vision (however aborted as it was) triggered memories of what happened to me in the same room about two years ago. It was my first time to Lani Land, and I just started going to FCA. It was another retreat, very much similar to this one (the lone exception being that it was co-ed), and at the end of the evening we had a two-hour worship service. I didn't know any of the songs, but it was still a new experience for me, and looking around I was seeing the positive spiritual vibe that was present in the room. I started closing my eyes, and lo and behold I saw kind of a glowing circle with a vague vision of a face. It took me a few seconds, but I deduced that the image of God had appeared right on the backs of my eyelids. When I realized it I was pretty amazed. After all, I had spent about a year away from church due to some unfortunate circumstances. Soon after I saw the image (it was kind of cloudy so I couldn't see any facial features) He started clapping in rhythm with the song that everyone around me was currently singing, so I imitated it. And then soon after the image kind of disappeared, and something else had just occurred to me. Knowing the state of my spirituality at that point, God was telling me to talk to a trusted friend about the joys of knowing Him. I wasn't sure who to talk to, but then a name was etched in the same spot behind my closed eyelids that God's image previously appeared.

The exact details of the event just described are a little hazy, since it has been two years, but I remember later feeling compelled to step up in front of the throng of worshippers and talk about... something... The worship service consisted of singing and various random people getting up and speaking about God influenced their lives, or talking about a particular Bible verse and relating it to themselves. So I tried to base it off of the same kinds of ideas that they expressed. But the other key thing was to talk to a friend, which I foolishly would delay till much, much later.<br /><br />So anyway, that's probably why I always seem to go through some spiritual struggle and some form of triumph every time I go to Lani Land. Technically the place doesn't really have all that many activities to do, but the way I think of the place focuses more on the vibe of the group and the fellowship that I share with the other people who go there for the retreats.