Star Spangled Jesus

What concerns me is some would see nothing wrong with this video. And it is apparently is not a satire:



For more, read:

Profoundly Disturbed on The Fourth of July: God, The Flag, and The End of America
by Bob Hyatt
Our call to worship this 4th of July weekend was This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land. After the Color Guard presented the flag, we stood, said the Pledge of Allegiance and then sang The Star-Spangled Banner. Our worship set included The Battle Hymn of the Republic, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful and God Bless America. We even finished the service by asking the congregation to sing along with Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA (“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free…”).

And through the whole thing I couldn’t help but think how moving it was with flags draped from the ceiling, how well-done the music sounded with the drums beating a military cadence throughout… and how incredibly wrong that we were doing any of it.

Churches throughout America this year celebrated the 4th of July weekend with similar patriotic anthems, displays and pledges. These services have taken on an increased importance to many congregations, particularly since September 11th as we have struggled to make sense of tragedy as people who believe in a God Who is In Control. There has been a renewed stirring of national pride. We have put flags on our bumpers, right between the little silver fish symbol and the One Nation UNDER GOD sticker. And if, on the anniversary of our nation’s independence, we want to wax a bit patriotic in church, is there anything wrong with that?

Yes, there is.

CONTINUED: here

confessional boxes are inevitable

I heard Leonard Sweet comment on how prophetic U2's ZOO TV tour was.

One way was this video confessional, where fans could confess their sins, and the clips were shown to the whole crowd before the encore.

A heads up/warning...this is real and unedited...so what else could it be but rated R.


A few years later, Bono sang "talk shows (are) confession."
Fifteen years later, is that ever true. Zoo TV has become reality.

Or reality TV.

Or this:


In January 1991, I was living in Chicago doing my last seminary internship a few blocks from Oprah's studio. The topic that day...with a ton of seminarians in the audience was "Guys who sleep with two girls."

Could it be that most folks are ready to confess and or/offer themselves voyeuristically at the drop of a hat?

Public confession of sin has long been a hot topic in the church..what would an emerging version look like?

Reminds me of Donald Miller's story here:
Lotsa Naked People & The Campus Confessional


Later addition: The Wall Street Journal just published:
Confession Makes a Comeback

If you push confession out of church or culture, the other will inevitably rise up and meet the need.



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Life imitates art imitates life: Fly shades

Life imitates art...or the other way around? Like most theology, physics, the Kingdom itself... and U2isms, it may work either way.

The photo on the left is not Photoshopped. It is what it appears to be: a fly wearing shades.

The photo on the right...though Bono may have later wished it was....is undoctored. It's the U2 frontman in full 90s disguise as "The Fly," one of his characaters/personas/alter egos of the Zoo TV era (gazing at his most extreme persona: Mr. McPhisto)...complete with what he always called "Fly shades."

No word if the scientists were partly inspired by Bono, who (as usual), came first!

The story of the real fly's 2 milliometer-wide glasses is here.
The story of U2's Zoo TV era is here.

Bono's Fly was eventually redeemed (or something like that). A Vertigo Tour program jokes (?) of the song "Love and Peace Or Else": "It's like the Fly went to the seminary to become a priest and ended up in this song."

related:


"the media is the antichrist"


postmodern phone call from hell

Blessings of %$$ Profanity

"Blessings of Profanity" has long been one of themost popular items on our church forum. I knew Mac was preparingf an article in response; it is now up (see the 8/7/07 post. Check it out here,
and enjoy all the &$$##!! articles there.

By the way, Ole Anthony (whose "X rated Bible Study" is a free download at the Wittenburg Door)says:

Taking the name of God in vain doesn’t mean saying “g-----n.” At the 1975 National Religious Broadcasters Convention I told the audience taking the Lord’s name in vain had nothing to do with cussing. It meant taking the slightest bit of glory for yourself. None of the early believers called themselves Christians. They called themselves People of the Way. They were too humble to put the name of Christ on their own flesh. I posed a question: “Can you imagine the Saul of Tarsus Evangelistic Association?” That was the last time I spoke at a national Christian meeting. (Ole Anthony...read more)

My OT prof has even written on this for Billy Graham's Decision magazine:


What Does it REALLY Mean to Take The Lord's Name in Vain?
by Lawson Stone

Modern Church Time Saver

Surrational Art Faith and Images

Faith is surrational.

I first heard that word from apostolic artman Mark Deraud, who offers:

The new generation, some say, is actually a new creature, is wired differently than mom and dad. The new generation appreciates and processes knowledge and "truth" more visually and experientially than we do. The difference is so profound yet so sublime that we literally have trouble experiencing the difference so that we might adjust to the new reality.
We just can't understand why the teaching of propositional truth, so compelling to us modern, though august creatures of the Enlightenment, is not so compelling to the post-modern believer. Having relied on teaching as experience, I suspect we are very suspicious of actually experiencing "wisdom", or "love", or "transformation" that transcends our humanity and are quite intimidated, especially our teachers, of making propositional statements that assert with any certainty, that transcendence happens and can, and should,here and now be experienced. link

Another artist uses the "surrational" word for his montages:

creative fusions of elements that draw us irresistibly to look again at what first appears unbelievable. Boundaries dissolve miraculously; the impossible becomes seductively tangible. But the logic of his images is exact, reasoned - in his own term, "surrational". Although his work shares the recursive wit of Rene Magritte and M. C. Escher, Mutter never relies simply upon ironic effects. link

Sounds like faith, Kingdom and church to me.

"The aim of modern faith was knowledge, especially scientific rationalistic knowledge, and the path to knowledge was through the question. This explains why Christians in the West became more interested in beliefs about prayer than prayer experinces and practices. This also explains why the nation that most embodied Enlightenment values and rational culture became the nation of fascists and genocide"

Sweet, "The Gospel According to Starbucks", p. 172

Mark again:

The next generation is longing to experience God and His heart of love in ways that are not found in many traditional Sunday morning services. Experiencing God and expressing that supernatural relationship in fresh, new creative forms could be the wave of the future for evangelism and touching the hearts of those who are in crisis. Suicide and depression are real issues facing young people today, and we know that Christ is the only way out.

The Church needs creative answers and tools for this new generation, that can point them to the inner life in Christ, in order to find true liberty, healing and fulfillment. Art, symbol and image are tools that God wants to use to accomplish this goal. link

Church is Not Porn

U2's "Babyface" (lyrics)...play it above...just put a quarter in the jukebox... captures a lot of what I mean by our pastoral propensity to sexualize everyone/everything if not prayerful/careful. We of all people need to follow the rabbis, and elevate (read all about that here)..or watch it below.




Related:

CS Lewis on masturbation

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Centerfold:Aphrodite 'Video Cafes':TalkingHeads ,Whipped Cream, Graven Images The Reduction of Seduction: Part 2: Gleaning from Family Systems Theory Inspiration of Scripture: Images over words