Tonight at Carnegie Hall the first live performance of the YouTube Orchestra will take place. The above video is a mash up of the submissions (taken through YouTube from almost every country in the internet world.) Pretty cool use of technology if you ask me! Check out more about the project here.
The Democrats in Washington get ready for a feast
While Republicans count their money and wonder who this will hurt the least
When both sides climb from their pulpits
Will they realize their both the same
They might be chanting different slogans
But their both playing the same game
And people want change
Will the poor have a voice at the table
That isn't only smoke and mirrors
Will the white man trust the black man
After centuries of violence and fear
I give my better graces to all those called to lead
But an empire's not the safest thing to leave in the hands of greed
It's time for a change
I hope my fears are foolish and better nature wins
But the way the winds are blowing
We might be paying for their sins
It's time for a change
It's time for a change
The Democrats in Washington as preparing for a feast
We are truly living in new territory! This past week saw the first ever symphony conducted by a robot. The very cute Honda Asimo conducted the Detroit Symphony to a warm response from both the audience and the musicians. This kind of thing really excites me and I am not absolutely sure why. A few years ago I heard Kevin Kelly, futurist and editor at Wired Magazine, speaking about spiritual issues facing the church. He said the most important issue we need to wrestle with is "What are we going to say when robots ask us 'am I human?'". This really stimulated me into new areas of thinking about what it means to be human. If robots acquire all the external dimensions that we tend to think of as human then it might force us to look further within to find our identity as human beings. If a robot can play or conduct music in a way that moves our hearts and spirits then what does that say about where that emotion and inspiration come from? Maybe that emotional response to music is not being communicated by the soulfulness of the musician, as we tend to think, maybe it is coming purely from within us as a response to the external sounds. It is possible that music is not carrying any emotional resonance but is simply being used (by the listener) to unlock inner realities that normally lay dormant. All of this requires more thought than I have given it so far but one thing is certain, I want my own musical robot!!
For so many years the church has been behind the curve on scientific issues: gravity, the solar system, etc. This time it seems that they want to be way ahead on the Extraterrestrial issue. Today the Vatican's top astronomer announced that "the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones." He even went on to say that it is important that, if aliens exist, we see them as children of God just like human beings. This shocked me on several levels. Who knew that the Vatican had an official astronomer and more than one! Also that the Vatican would comment or speculate on such a strange issue seems odd to me when there are so many other things to have a position on.
Texas Instruments has set a high standard on two fronts. One for developing the first bit of technology that can read a person's thoughts. They also score top honors for having the creepiest presentation of said technology. This little shows a demo where the machine, undercover as a styling turtleneck, intercepts the brains signals headed to the vocal cords and then interprets them back into the intended words. Right now it only has about 150 words in its vocabulary but things are improving quickly. We are truly living in unusual times and the rate of change does seem to be speeding up.
I have gained a new appreciation for the level of creativity that goes into creating fashion from watching this season of Project Runway. It is not the type of show that normally appeals to me but the diversity of creative expression that the designers pour out so quickly raises them a notch above the other rats-in-a-digital-cage judging shows. The above fashions are not from a lost episode of Project Runway, they are actually from this week's Paris Fashion Week. The design house Viktor & Rolf were apparently trying to make a statement about 'Fast Fashion' (the types of made in china street-level fashions that most of us can afford) The look is very surreal and one that I can see catching on in more popular (read cheaper) versions. It would be fun to walk around with an object jutting its way out of your outfit. Image the crazy possibilities!
Since I don't live in the United States this isn't really an endorsement but merely an observation. The above poster is a statement on how inspiring Obama is to creative people like Obey Giant 's Sheppard Farey. It is also a statement on the increasing role that the street art urban forms are playing in mainstream culture.
What happens when the underground becomes just another marketing platform? It seems that there is a crusader who will make sure that once something is street, it stays street. Meet Splasher a self proclaimed undoer of corporate co-opting of the graffiti and street art forms. I can understand why he (or she) may want to splash paint on the street posters of Obey Grand Wizard Shepard Fairy's work. I was reading a Q magazine a few weeks ago and saw that Shep had created some images to sell Crown Royal Bottles. It seems that this really upset Slasher and he went on a bit of a rampage destroying all the OBEY posters he could find. I am not sure I completely agree with this reaction but I do think its interesting that subcultures like street art have a certain organic self governing system. If you step too far into the mainstream then some punk will step up to give you a splash to the face.
6/20/07 - 3AM
At around 3am community members of the simple way 3200 house awoke to the sound, heat and flames of the warehouse across the street. Residents on Potter Street were all evacuated safely. By morning, it was a seven alarm fire that consumed many of the houses in the neighborhood, including the simple way's 3200 Potter Street house.
April 22 1970 saw the first celebration of an international Earth Day. Showing the growing global discussion about the environment, our largest national paper, The Tribune, ran an expanded Earth Day section. They invited some of the usual suspects from the Bahamian Activist Scene : ReEarth and others. I was invited to write 800 words about 'the spiritual dimensions of environmentalism'. I enjoyed reading the issue and most of the articles were very well done and informative! One strange thing though was a picture of Ira Einhorn. The picture wasn't too strange given that he was a speaker at the first Earth Day in Washington DC. It was the caption that was strange: "Ira Einhorn, a leading force in the 1960's hippies movement of non-violence, drugs and free love".
Here is the article that I wrote:
Who Cares about the Environment Anyway?
I want to make a few things clear right off the bat: I am not a tree-hugger by any stretch of the imagination. I would much rather be inside with the air conditioner cranked sitting in a comfortable chair than to risk the dangers of being bitten by tiny flying insects in order to ‘relax’ and ‘connect with nature’. I don’t care about the environment because I am an activist; I care about the environment because God cares about the environment. From the very beginning we see that God was deeply pleased with what He had made, so pleased that he took time to say “it is good”. As the Apostle Paul puts it, “since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made”. I want to ask a simple question as a way of reflecting on Earth Day in our Bahamas: How can a ‘Christian Nation” not be leading the charge to celebrate, protect, nurture and care for God’s creation?
In our Bahamas, we have been blessed with the richest of natural beauty. Beaches and shorelines so stunning that people fly from around the globe to soak it in. But sadly many of these beaches and coastlines, right here in Nassau, are littered with piles of beer bottles, soda cans, old mattresses, rusted out washing machines, burned out cars, fast food wrappers and the occasional broken flip flop. You can drive right now to beaches along the southern side of New Providence and see piles and piles of trash littering the coast heading into the sea. It seems like we don’t have a high value on caring for our environment. Why don’t we, in the Church, see this as a spiritual issue? Maybe the Church is not interested in environmental issues because of passages like this one from Genesis :
“"Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Maybe we feel that since we are meant to ‘rule over’ the earth we have the right to treat our environment any way we see fit. With more and more global attention being placed on environmental issues and responses coming from all places on the map, it is important for our country to reflect on both the economic and spiritual dimensions of these issues. From a purely financial standpoint, as a country that survives off of tourism, we should make the choice to cleanup and care deeply for our natural resources. If we look even deeper at some of the biblical ideas about creation, we can also see that from a spiritual point of view, caring for our environment can be an act of deep and meaningful worship as well.
If God’s original idea was for human beings to ‘rule over’ His creation, where do we get the idea that we should care deeply about it? Part of the answer is found in looking at the way Jesus talked about what it means to ‘rule over’. In Mark 10, Jesus says:
"You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and who ever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
If we are meant to ‘rule over’ God’s creation then God desires for us to do it in the same way that He rules over our lives in Jesus. Jesus comes to us as a servant and through His nurture and care for us we begin to allow Him to become Lord over our lives as well. This is an intimate picture of the way that we are to ‘rule over’ God’s creation. We are to care for it with the same level of compassion as God does and find ways to nurture and tend to it much like a gardener would tend to his treasured garden. The littering in our country suggests that we have gone way passed not caring about creation and might be speeding towards taking God’s good gifts for granted. Isn’t this a spiritual issue in our minds?
When the church begins to care about the environment as much as God cares about it, then we will see a huge improvement in the way that our natural resources are nurtured and cared for. We may even see a reduction in the unnecessary piles of trash but even more importantly we might learn a bit more about how deeply God cares for us as His children. To reflect God’s love through the ways that we care for our environment is a powerful expression of active worship that both honors God and reveals His true nature to the rest of the world. This Earth Day instead of thinking, “Who cares about the environment anyway?” lets go outside and clean up a bit of His beloved creation as an act of worship and praise!
Here's that image of Free-Lovin Ira Einhorn, murderer and genius inventor of the modern computer database architecture.
You experience a violent tragedy very differently when you actually know someone who could have been a victim. The picture above is of my friends Mark, Kim and Aidan Stern. They were in my small group until last year when they left Nassau for Mark to take a job as a professor at Virginia Tech. The good news was that Mark was away at a conference on Monday and Kim was at home with little Aidan but watching the news reports on TV took on a much more emotional nature than watching a rampage event normally. The feeling of watching this tragic event on TV was much like watching the "shock and awe" stage of the latest War in Iraq, while knowing that my friend Shane Claiborne was over there dodging the bombs. My prayers are with all of those that have suffered pain and loss from this senseless rampage. I also pray that the news media begins to use some sincerity and wisdom as they probe the details of this event without drooling and foaming at their blood-hungry-headline-hunting mouths. (I am speaking to you FoxNews!)
Copyright is one of the ideas that is being challenged at the heart of this story about EMI and iTunes signing a deal to offer the EMI catalog without digital copy restrictions. They studied the market for the last two years and decided that pirating is still an issue even though they were spending money on creating Digital Rights Managment (DRM) The whole notion that something shoud be protected against copying seems a bit naive to me. We live in a 'sampled' world. The ways that we are relating to technology have created an entirely different relationship between those that create bits of cultural artifacts (songs, paintings, etc) and those that purchase them. For instance, It is now so easy to not just enjoy a piece of purchased culture but to interact and use it to create something new. The kind of sampling that was going on in the early days of hiphop with 12 inch records has now grown into sampling of all forms of creative expression. It is just so easy to do that everyone is beginning to do it. I think this changes our relationship to art in a strange way. Because it has become so highly accesseble it has opened up new pathways of creative expression that were not possible before - think Mash Ups or even Human Beat Boxing. I think these new channels of creativity are making the average person more creative and interactive and might lead to a very different kind of culture where everyone is engaged not just a small limited number of 'creative' types. i don't want to sound Star Trekish but I think that in this kind of a future, ownership of creative works will not be an issue at all. I think we are on the verge of a creative interactive enlightenment that will leave all our current notions of art and its relationship to things like commerce completely shattered. On a side note - You should check out the video linked to the 'Human Beat Boxing" words above - it is simply a masterful beat boxer named Beardyman. Give it about a minute and then you will have your mind blown by the unbelievable display of talent.
Bono is now an honorary Sir of the British Empire. I am not well informed about all that is entailed with such an honor but I think that he now gets full access to James Bond's spy gear and two weeks a year gets to enjoy the 'timeshare' suite at Buckingham Palace. I think Bono is pushing harder for sainthood than for knighthood but, I am told that unless you are as secure as John lennon, you just do not turn these sorts of things down. I think they should open up this knighthood process in the style of American Idol and have people vote: Perry Farrel for Knighthood!
While I am not one to atack someone's belief's, I have been hearing a great deal of strange business about the celebrity-magnet Scientology lately. I was having dinner a few nights ago and a friend relayed a story about someone being trapped on a Scientology Work Ship. Their family was trying to get them off the ship and they were refused contact. Then I read this. I have always found the stories surrounding the "church of scientology" a bit too odd to be taken seriously but lately I am beginning to wonder. I think the reason that it is attractive to people is that it emphasizes technique and formula over intro-spection. The whole mystery of the human pysche is reduced to negative and positive energies. You have a very practical solution to the human problem of "too much negative energy". You hook up to this e-meter:
"The central practice of Scientology is "auditing" (from the Latin word audire, "to listen"), which is a one-on-one communication with a trained Scientology counselor or "auditor". The auditor follows an exact procedure toward rehabilitating the human spirit. Most auditing uses an E-meter, a device that measures very small changes in electrical resistance through the human body when a person is holding onto tin cans and a small current is passed through them."- Wiki
Sounds very similar to the process of psychotherapy plus the added illusion of "technology" to strengthen one's faith in the experience. I heard that recently John Travolta made the statement that Anna Nicole Smith would haved lived is she was a Sceintologist. I guess that might be true, unless of course she has a mental breakdown and has to endure a "introspective rundown". A process where a scientologist who has had a mental breakdown is forced into solitary introspection with the help of a blindfold and a mouth gag. Lisa Mcpherson had a car accident while studing to be a Scientologist at their headquarters in Clearwater Florida. Although she was not seriously injured in the accident she stripped off her clothes and began to babble. She was taken to the psyche ward of the hospital until a Scientology "away team" came and collected her. In the care of her "church", She died ten days later, showing signs of starvation, dehydration and small insect bites throughout her body. Maybe this is just something to make fun of and I may get a legal email for sayign this but : Sceintology is one of the creepiest things I have ever encountered. If you don't believe me check this out.
Today was the first of two scheduled memorial services for Anna Nicole Smith. As luck would have it, the service was held at a little Baptist church that sits about 100 yards from my fiance's office window. She was able to snap these photos from the event.
I wasn't at the service but I saw a few moments on the Tele while getting a Red Bull from the liquer store. The frist image I saw on the screen was of the two disputed baby-daddies Larry Birkhead and Howard K Stern. Right next to them in a very fly white suit was my friend , and Anna's personal dance instructor, Mervin Smith.
It has been a media circus here and it is not letting up anytime soon. We are expecting over 20,000 members o the media for the upcoming inquest into the death of Anna's son Daniel. I may have to go down to the courts one morning and break out the Vultures Go Home song one more time for the assembled media vultures.
Check out a video of the casket being carried into the church here.
I heard a reporter on tv last night say "even decomposing is 'better in the Bahamas'"!
This little picture made me smile so I had to post it so I will see it randomly years from now and laugh about it again! It has been one week and still no cigarettes. I am still feeling unwavering in my choice to become a non-smoker. The physical withdrawls are a bit more uncomfortable than earlier in the week but nothing to complain about. Its as if the EASYWAY book did some kind of hypnosis on me - and the other million sof people who have been successful in quitting after they read it.
It has been a very interesting week here in the Bahamas. With the escalating Anna Nicole drama, our Minister of Immigration, Shane Gibson, has resigned his post in after pictures of him kissing Anna Nicole Smith appeared on the front page of our largest newspaper, The Tribune. When I first heard the news, early last week, that someone had broken into the house where Anna was staying, I knew things were going to get ugly. The intial news reports all mentioned that computers and computer discs were stolen in the break in. The next morning in the paper we saw a short series of photos showing Shane and Anna almost kissing. The pictures themselves are not all that interesting. The kind that you see from almost every birthday party where the guests are celebrating with the host. The next day, Shane and his wife appeared to explain the context of the pictures and that their whole family was at the party and in the room when the "shocking" images were taken. It made little difference because a ground swell of negative energy had already began to circle around Mr Gibson and his special treatment of Anna Nicole. Lets put it this way, the average wait for a legitmate permant residency grant is about 1-2 years. Anna was granted hers in less than one month. During the upcoming elections I am sure that we will here more about the misadventures of our current cabinet ministers but the truth is I am still saddened by the whole affair. It just seems to be everywhere on TV. Maybe it is so we don't realize that over 150 people were killed in Iraq on Saturday.
You must check out The USAnti-Heroes! You may even recognize some of the heroes' alter egos. They have a very entertaining video from last year's Buy Nothing Day. The Jubilee Jester looks very familiar!
I would never have considered myself a fan of Anna Nicole Smith but, since she appeared emotionally naked in her train-wreck of a reality show, I have felt a bit sorry for her. I realize that she has used nakedness in many forms to draw the public attention that she so desperately needed but I am still saddened by her passing. She didn't seem like an evil person but simply one that was broken and desperate. So desperate that she willingly allowed the media to lead her in a dance that sucked every marrow of shame(and sensational news headlines) out of her poor choices and psychological weaknesses. She might have courted the kind of life story that could have only led to her eventual demise, but she was still a mother of a little baby girl. It seems that the fight for that little baby will get even more intense if she is the sole heir to Anna's inheritance.
A few months ago, when her son died, I wrote a song called "Vultures Go Home". We had driven to the house she was living in here in Nassau to perform the song in front of the assembled media. I really felt for the desperation for her situation and the way that the public was eating it up. Later I heard that she sold pictures of her son, taken in the hospital the night before he died - for over $600,000.
Why does the media feed off of people's pain and scandal? Why is scandal an effective PR strategy for celebrities who's lives are falling apart?
Recently I came across two articles that were a bit disturbing to my naturally contrary personality. One was about the new trend in merchandising that has shop managers rearranging merchandise in their store based on computer data of how shoppers navigate through the store. They feed the security videos through a pattern recognition program that shows them what areas of the store are "Hot Spots". What they found out was that placement of a product is almost more important than the product itself. You might have an item that sits way in the dark corners of the shop, not selling so well. Once it is moved to the "Hot Spot" it begins to sell rapidly. We are talking about all kinds of things from air conditioners to car wax. This might not come as a surprise that product placement is important, especially if you've ever bought a magazine or a pack of juicy fruit gum while waiting in line at a grocery store. The thing that concerns me a bit is that technology is being leveraged against the consumer in an invisible way that seems dehumanizing. Feeding shoppers behaviors into a pattern recognition program seems to reduce human beings to sets of behaviors that can be manipulated and exploited. I realize that all major North American retailers have been using psychological ways of manipulating the behaviors of their shoppers but this new wave seems to be a more direct avenue of coercion.
The second article represents an even deeper level of invasion. You can read about it here. Researchers from three well known universities are hooking shoppers up to fMRI machines and recording the brain wave patterns that change as shoppers make choices on what to purchase. For now the research is just in the lab but all signs would point toward some form of brain scanning eventually making their way into retail outlets. The study has shown that people have different reactions and thresholds for what they think is "too expensive". Can you imagine a future where the prices of items are scaled up to suit the reactions of consumers. When a more affluent person enters a store the prices might automatically adjust to reflect thier higher income and therefore their higher threshold for deciding when something is too expensive.
I am planning to write a few commentaries on a few TV ads that have caught my attention lately, if I can find them online. For now, Jesus wants you to curb your consumption!
A recent study has revealed that children under 10 think that being a celebrity is the "best thing in the world". God was only ranked number 10 in best things in the world. having good looks and being rich were the number two and three choices. Read more here.
The kids also gave a list of the most famous people in the world and Jesus made it to number four, outranked by Madonna, Tony Blair and Simon Cowell. Did I mention that these were kids from the UK. I would love to see a similar study with american children. One of the hopeful things is that the survey also revealed that kids would put an end to "wars" and "knives and guns". Here is the complete list of best things in the world from the ten year old universe:
1.Being a celebrity 2. Having good looks 3. Being rich 4. Being healthy 5. Pop Music 6. Family 7. Friends 8. Nice food 9. Watching movies 10. Heaven/God
I recently saw a study that showed that what kids learn up to age 7 determines a great deal of how their worldview will crystalize. Its worth taking a moment to reflect on the fact that we live in a world that teaches kids that it is far better to be famous, rich and good looking than to be healthy or to know God. In our culture Brad Pitt must be the messiah because he is off the charts on the rich, famous and goodlooking scale. If there is anything positive to find in Brad's qualities as savior it is that he is raising awareness for global poverty issues. Maybe celebrity really is the new sainthood for our post everything future?
A few months ago when Anna Nicole Smiths son died here in Nassau, it was a particularly slow news week. All the major cable news channels (msnbc, e, court tv) all send video crews to camp out in front of her house. Something about the circus seemed inhumane and so we wrote a little song! We went down to play it in front of the cameras but thankfully it rained and the crews scattered like roaches!
In the current issue of SEED magazine, they had a feature article on E O Wilson. Wilson is an intriguing character who lives at the busy intersection of science and religion. I first came across Wilson through reading his book "On Human Nature". In that book he explores the various scientific views on human nature and tries to point toward a way that religion can fit into a more humanist view of the self.
He is getting attention these days for two major areas of his work that have garnered both praise and controversy. First is his blending of the hard sciences of biology with the soft sciences of sociology into what he calls sociobiology. He is a pioneer in the nuture vs nature discussion and tends to come down on the nature side. As a child he studied the biological connections behind behaviors in ant colonies and proved that ant colonies operate through a kind of communal mind. A web of electrical networks connects the ants together into a hive mind and that determines much of their actions. Armed with these discoveries, he turned his attention to human beings. His work challenges much of what we think about personal freedom and even the impulse toward worship. He gets a great deal of heat, even from his Harvard peers, because he is a very unothodox scientist.
The idea, of his, that I find the most interesting is the concpet of Consilience or Unity of Knowledge. He describes Consilience as the synthesis of knowledge from many different specialized fields of human endeavor. In other words he is trying to unite the sciences and the humanities into one unified theory. This is interesting stuff coming from a man who has publically stated that he cannot commit things to memory. He is almost 90 and he has never learned the National Anthem or the Pledge of Allegiance. His work, at times, seems to be in a similar mold as Ken Wilber's work but his Christian background, his age and his commitment to academia make him look less like a cult figure. Here is a quote that summerizes his work :
"He defines human nature as a collection of epigenetic rules: the genetic patterns of mental development. Cultural phenomena, rituals, etc. are products, not parts, of human nature. Artworks, for example, are not part of human nature, but our appreciation of art is. And this art appreciation, or our fear for snakes, or incest taboo (Westermarck effect) can be studied by the methods of reductionism. Until then these phenomena were only part of psychological, sociological or anthropological studies. Wilson proposes that they can be part of interdisciplinary research."
I think this is the way things are headed and we are going to see something in our lifetimes that will bridge the gaps between the sciences and the spiritual aspects of human life. I don't however think that things will look the way that we expected. When neurochemistry gets to a point where certian behaviors can be eliminated through treatment, we will have to reconsider the whole notion of sin (as a set of behaviors that we do not engage in) This is just the tip of the iceburg when you look at the implications of Wilson's work. You can read a bit more here. Also Wilson has been selected as one of the TED prize winners for 2007. You can hear more about that here.
Last night Larry King Live (a show I rarely watch!) had a panel of self proclaimed New Age gurus discussing the intersection between new science and spirituality. Among the panelists was JZ Knight from "What the Bleep Do We Know?" fame. I must say that she is looking better than she did in the film, I am not sure if this is from positive thought or plastic surgery? You can watch highlights by visiting the link above.
They went into what they describe as "the secret of the universe" that you actually create your reality and bring the relationships, possessions and either failures or successes that you experience. The main point was that we need to focus more on ourselves and everything will be OK in the world. I was a bit disappointed to see the dean of Matthew Fox's Wisdom University agreeing with some of the hooey that war being spouted. While I can agree that many forms of religion tend to skip over a healthy awareness of the self, I do not believe the answer is to turn in on ourselves and become little tyrants by our own design. I just do not have that much faith in the hearts of human beings. I also think that they made some very irresponsible (and undefensible) claims about quantum physics as a support for their collective thesis. Since I have watched What the Bleep... I have looked a bit further into some of the sciences that were discussed in the film and I am convinced that the film (and last nights larry king panel) are making some bizarre and unfounded assumptions based on quantum theories that have been kicking around for almost one hundred years.
Their main point was that since molecules appear, at a subatomic level, to be in two places at once, until they are collapsed down to one location by a human observer. Then they assume that it is the actual process of observing that determines where the molecule eventually ends up. It is important to note that ALL of the scientists surrounding the first wave of these theories (Schrodinger, Einstien etc) were themselves mystics but not one of them ever suggested that these discoveries imply that "we create reality". They tended to say that these discoveries actually tell us that we may NEVER know what creates reality.
I was left with a feeling of dispair after watching the show while I considered the global implications of millions of people adopting the daily practice that the panel offered:
"Eveyday when you wake up, before you do anything, remind yourself that you are the one who bends reality to your will. You are the one who is divine. Take a moment to glory in the wonder of yourself then go out and bring that into your world"
I posted a few months ago about the Kirk Cameron ministry vehicle "the way of the master". I saaw another short piece of his show last night and I had nightmares! His mentor Ray Comfort was making a case for why they use fear as the main tactic for "bringing people to Jesus". They must be getting lots of critical responses as the whole show was focused on proving their case for why fear is "the BEST and ONLY way that people come to Jesus or God".
Comfort told a little story, after citing 2 Corinthians 5:11 in the KJV. "Therefore knowing the terro of the Lord; we pursuade men". The story went like this. "Imagine you were on an airplane at 20,000 feet and you discovered that the plane was going to drop out of the sky and crash. The imagine you discovered that there were not enough parachutes for all the people on the plane. (I know it sounds like the setup for a tired old joke but the punchline is not funny). He goes on, "Imagine that you find a parachute and that you encounter someone wihtout a prarchute just before you jump out of the plane to safety." He then asked the question, "what would be the best response to this situation?". I kid you not, he offered, as the best response, that "just before you jump form the plne you dangle the person, wthout the chute, for the open plane door so that they might feel the terror that is facing them so that they might make sure that they find a parachute for themselves." ?!?@?!#?!?
This little story was meant to put a human real life context to what Ray and Kirk beleive is the state of man but by the end all humanity and love where completely stripped from the story.
I was praying all the way through the stroy hoping that at the end he would suggest that the best response was for YOU to give up your parachute as an act of sacrificial love in the WAY OF THE MASTER.
I am not even going to diginify their website by posting another link, if you want to check out more of their bizarre reading of "the master" you can do a google search for "Jesus came to scare the hell out of you!" You might need to add some keywords like helllfire, damnation and kirk cameron!
It seems that the Bahamas has sentenced a convicted rapist to four lashes from a Cat-o-Nine-Tails (along with some prison time as well). You can read about it here.
Although the whipping pracitce seems archaic, I know a bit about the case and feel that four whacks is not enough - he should get 40!
Erik Davis continues to amazing me! At this year's Burning Man festival he gave a talk in the lecture series entitled "Pharmacology and the Post Human Self". You can get the podcast here.
Davis talks about the impact of a new story that is beginning to weave it's way into the spectrum of human myths. The new story is married to technology, particularly brain chemistry. Instead of seeing that annoyng shadow side of your personality (your addictions, your depression, your anxiety) as demons that need to be purged or sins that need to be forgiven, it is now an option to see them as simple engineering defects. You can now hack your brain chemistry and choose which states of mind will be allowed and which will be banished. He circles around this point while touching on his new book (Altered State) and the visionary culture.
Erik Davis just seems to speak my language and I love the way he thinks and presents his ideas.
I have been loving the little talks posted at TED Talks. TED is the acronym for the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference held every year in come exclusive setting. Recently they have opened the doors and began to podcast the little video lectures from some very bright lights.
The one above(Dan Gilbert) is a great exploration of why many people are not very happy. It seems that we, as humans, have a very poor ability to predict what will make us happy. It would seem that in a world of insane varieties of choice that we would be more happy. It seems that the opposite is true. When we have less choice it becomes easier for our minds to "synthesize" happiness. If you check out the TED Talks page you can see some opposing arguments (see the Malcolm Gladwell talk).
Why do we want to know "who is in" and "who is out"? I have been thinking lately about the tendancy for the church to obsess about defining the boundaries between itslef and the world around. Nevermind that Jesus life was marked by a refusal to live within the social, economic, and religious boundaries of His day. What about the obsession with boundaries makes us feel good? Is it becuase when we have the power to define the boundaries we can place ourselves on the inside and feel superior to those on the outside? Is it driven by an evangelistic obsession with "making more believers"? Is it a modern/pomo tension?
If I was forced to define a boundary between in and out, I would put it like this: "there are those who have experienced God's love and therefore are loving in the world and those that need to experience love". I am concerned that the way we engage the process of drawing boundaries is actually drawing much of the church outside of the boundary of "those that are loving in the world". 1 John says:"Those that do not love have not seen God because God is love". So if the definition of love that Paul shares in 1 Corinthians 13 is accurate then the churches need to define its boundaries is a violation of the love that God wills for His people :
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
Why do many people feel that love is an inadequate boundary? They say things like "it has to be more than that" and "you are being idealistic".
Why is there so little love in our world?
A&E films has a documentary coming out that explores fundamentalist Christian summer camp for "God's Army". Take a look at the trailer and see what you think. Are the film makers sympathetic to their subjects? Are they actually mocking them?
You can read what others are thinking here. I am scared by this video. It makes me believe that the world is actually headed to a religous world war. The lady in the video calls palestine "our enemy". The she goes and emotionally manipulates a crowded room full of ten-twelve yearolds. There is no talk of "love you enemies" but lots of military fatiques and camo facepaint. interestingly the camp that is feature in the movie is located in Devil's Lake, North Dakota. I think I can smell the sulfur in the air.
The official exorcist for the Pope has made statements that Hitler and Stalin where "obviously possesed by the Devil". In this article he mentions that during WW2 the actin Pope performed an unsuccessful remote exorcism of Hitler. I wonder what would have proven that it was effective? Does this mean that Hitler is ultimately not responsible for his murderous actions because he was possesed?
The Vatican's Official exorcist also spoke out publically about the danger of Harry Potter novels as "opening a door in children's minds for satan" , "all magic is of the Devil". Although the idea of doing a remote exorcism seems very magical to me, he stressed that there is no grey area, all magic is a turn toward the Devil.
The comments that follow the article pretty much sum up our culture's response to this kind of ancient and naive thinking:
"Oh great, another magical thinking explanation for murderous behavior. We in the Reality Based World know that both Hitler and Stalin were psychopaths and murderous criminals." and
"Now I have heard everything! If that is the case then nobody who commits a crime is guilty because "the devil made me do it." And by the same token, nobody who works hard to achieve greatness is responsible for their achievments, let's chalk that up to God. "
People who are commited to living in the real world can smell the weaknesses in this kind of thinking for miles away. The most disturbing thing about the Exorcist's statements was his belief that whole populations could be possessed. If that is the truth, then who do we turn to in order to sort out who is possesed and who isn't : oh I guess the Catholic Church!
Apparently a woman in Long Island NY embezzeled over 2.3 million dollars and spent the money on lottery tickets ?!?!? At the time of her arrest she was buying over $6000 worth of lottery tickets each week. How could she not realize that the 6 thousand extra dollars a week would have been almost as good as winning the lottery in the first place. Maybe her plan was to pay back the embezzled funds with part of the lottery winnings but she would have been much better off just using the 2.3 milion. You can read the full story here.
The Story of the Diggers is an interesting one. In 1649 a group of passioned Britons stood up for peace and common ownership of land. There message was, from my perspective, very biblical: no one should own the land and Lord it over others as a way of keeping class structures in place. They were hard against the politicians and the mainstream church of their day and it cost them. "The Diggers were harassed by legal actions and mob violence, and by the end of March 1650 their members were driven off the St. George's Hill. Despite this setback they continued their work on a nearby heath in Cobham. colony was dispersed. In April the Digger movement collapsed when a Parson Platt, the lord of the manor, and several others destroyed the Diggers'
houses, burned their furniture, and scattered their belongings. Platt threatened the Diggers with death if they continued their activity and hired several guards to prevent their return to the heath. " Check out more here. The reason I brought this up was because they had a wonderful theme song (not written until 1981) that was recorded by Billy Bragg. It has a nice folksy rebellious tone to it (which is what I love about Billy Bragg). Do a google search to find the recording - it is worth the download. Here is a taste of the lyrics:
the sin of property,we do disdain
no man has any right to buy and sell the earth for private gain
by theft and murder, they took the land
now everywhere the walls spring up at their command
I was talking last night about an ad I saw for Motorola's new Q device. I found an interesting discussion essay about the ad campaign written by Erik Davis here. He does a good job of deconstructing all of the subtle (and not so subtle) ways that we hope for transformation through technology. I have been writing reviews of pop culture elements (movies, music , websites, etc) but lately I have been thinking about the effects of technology on the human experience. This ad, and Erik's thoughts, really make me want to dig a bit deeper into the connection between tech and spirit. I have a book floating around my shelves called The Religion of Technology, maybe its calling me to give it a read.
After I re-read my last post on my impressions of Ken Wilber, I realized a few things. The first thing I realized was that I have been spelling his name wrong (Wilbur instead of Wilber). I also realized that there are many more things that I could say about Ken and His integral methodology. Here are a few more observations.
Ken's main aim is to integrate all the diverse paths of modern knowledge. Looking at the sciences (new and old) the arts (with a heavy focus on contemporary artists) religious traditions (east and west) and personal experience, He is attempting to create a large framework or map that can include it all (or at least the parts that support his own convictions) in one grand "Theory of Everything". What his map ends up looking like is a hyper-dense and complex chart called the "four quadrants". This chart is a conceptual way of locating the different points of view of any given event or idea. Basically the birth of Post Modernity has made our culture aware of the fact that we each see things from our own perspective. We each have a limited view of this overall experience of reality. What happens with postmodernity, often, is that all perspectives get flattened out because all people are equally conditioned by their culture to see things a certian way and also carry equal levels of self-delusion that further distorts our view of reality. So in the Post Modern world we are all stuck in our ignorance and social conditioning. Wilber's vision is to show that not all points of view are equal and that there are internal factors (both in an idividual and within a culture) that can actually be seen as developmental. This is where Wilber gets a lot of criticism. It is difficult to say, in a post modern culture, that certian points of view should be considered deeper (more developed, more evolved).
When you really look at his map it feels less like an integration and more like a separation. It all seems like a hyper-modern hyper-rational way of dividing the world or mystery and change into neat little boxes. I know that Ken is aware of this because I have heard him say that he is primarily wokring in a cognitive framework to explain a reality that is only fully percieved by more capacities than just the cognitive mind. All that being said, in order to work his system (or map) you have to do some rigerous intellectual work of catagorizing and conceptualizing. I feel that this whole process actually works against his stated goal of integration. What I mean is that anyoen who becomes a follower of Ken's system is likely to move further away from experiencing reality as a connected whole. They are more likely to move towards the fractured and compartmentalized reality of the four quadrants. Also their ability to put things in the correct boxes (and lines, and states and waves) will all be dependant on Ken himself. Its as if Ken is inviting people to live in his own personal world of labels and lines. The more someone tries to use his system to live more integrated the less integrated they could become.
I tend to agree with the idea that individuals and cultures actually follow a line of development. Within the church, I have seen that people approach faith, the Bible, and reality very different depending on what level of development they are at. I have found it very helpful to see four stages of development: Tradtional, Modern, Post-Modern, and Holistic. I have noticed how these different stages, when colliding together in community, create lots of tensions and misunderstandings. If more leaders understood these stages of development, then there would be less tensions within the church as new perspectives are explored and communicated.
I feel that this idea of developmental stages is key to understanding the current state of the Christian church. A large group of younger leaders have moved into a postmodern(and a few into a integral or holistic) stage. This progress is being challenged and attacked by others who are not seeing reality from the same level of depth. Sometimes this makes me frustrated but lately I am beginning to realize that it is all heading in a developing direction anyway. Yes there are tensions and battles but nothing will really stand in the way of progress. No one has gotten to the bottom of the mystery of Jesus and His teachings. He has survived (not in the same form) throughout the last two thousand years of development and will survive into the future paths.
I think it is a wonderful sign of the times that a groupd of people are beginning to focus on integration rather than division, even if the methods themselves are not yet developed to further that integration. Although I wouldn't call myself a follower of Ken Wilber, I have been stretched and even inspired by much of my interactions with his ideas. Maybe he is a prophet for our disconnected times or maybe he is the first incarnation of the Borg: You decide!
About a year ago, a friend of mine, Ron Mortoia, mentioned that I should look into the work of Ken Wilbur.(pictured above with his mini-me Stuart Davis) Ron is an engaging and deep Christian teacher and I really enjoyed his thoughts in His book Morph. So I took up the challenge and looked into the dense work that Wilbur has offered.
My first impression was that Ken himself was oddly mysterious. His shining bald head and his slightly vacant precense seemed to set him apart from the average academic. I first looked at his writings (One Taste, No Boundaries, Sex, Ecology and Spirituality) and found much for them inspiring and hopeful. For a long time I have been disappointed with the post-modern world and its tendancy to deconstruct everything to oblivion. I have been tired of seeing everything ripped apart and nothing left in its place. I really saw that happening within the Christian church at the time, so when I realized that Wilbur was offering a worldview that moved beyond relativism and post modern paralysis, I was interested.
I joined Integral Naked, the shallow end of the pool for all things Wilbur. The website was a collection of video and audio interviews with some amazing people (Larry Wachoski, Father Thomas Keating) with Ken working overtime trying to integrate their lifeworks into his grand theory of everything. It was interesting for a while but I soon began to get creeped out by the vacant look in Ken's eyes. I know this is a very subjective observation so take it with a grain of salt but he seemed dead on the inside. He would laugh and make insightful comments but he didn't seem to be fully there. I think it might have to do with his practice of Buddhism and its obsession with nothing-ness and emptyness(or he may be a robot =). As more time passed, I began to get really frustrated with how Ken always seemed to talk as if the people he was interviewing fit so nicely into his work. It seemed very arrogant and often you could almost feel the tension but no one ever really challenged him out right (except Robert Keagan from Harvard in part one of an interview that they new posted part two of, I wonder if Keagan let him have it in part two and that is why they never posted it?).
Buring this time of research, I was criticized by some quick judging fellow Christians for having a link to Wilbur on my site. I decided to overlook the fact that some people feel they have the right to legislate what people should be exposed to or not. Oh well!(I still have a link!)
Here is ultimately what I have learned from my foray into Wilbur World. There are always four points of view on any given event or subject.
1. First Person (internal) - this is my internal point of view, how I feel, think or respond to any event or subject. This is the realm of psychology.
2. Second Person (external) - this is the point of view of me from the outside responding. What kind of external response did I exhibit? This is the realm of bahaviourism and Gestalt.
3. Third Person (external) - this is the point of view of observing the society or culture. What are people doing? This is the realm of the sociologists.
4. Third Person (internal) - This is the point of view of someone else. Like the point of view of the other in any situation.
I might not have all of those perfectly correct but the general idea is that in order to have a deep experience of reality, someone must take all of these points of view into account when acting or deciding anything. Wilbur goes into tons of examples and ways that these points of view eventually integrate into a mystical state that he calls "One Taste" or Non-Dual awareness. This mystical state, as he describes it, is feeling all things at once or no longer experiencing the normal divides of Body/Mind Matter/Spirit etc.
The next step in my processing of Wilbur was to read his critics. They had some interesting things to say but mostly they attacked the very idea that mystical states exists. Many of the intellectual attacks coem from purely naturalistic rational scientists. I personally believe that mystical states exist and have experienced them myself. I realize that these states cannnot be proven and might simply be hallucinations, we simply do not know for sure but I admire Wilbur for trying to, at least, bring some concrete data to the phenomenon.
There are some other critics who observe the cultic nature of Ken's Integral community. The best two are OccultObserver and Geoffrey Faulk. I had felt similar things about how Wilbur's inner circle were acting very cultic.
A few weeks ago Ken posted a response to his critics(a type of paper that I have first hand experience in crafting) and it began a virtual storm of critics. I feel the offensive tone of his response was a way of diverting attention away from the fact that a major teacher within his community was recently charged with numerous counts of sexual assault on students and staff members. I have been watching the whole process unfold and I have come to a conclusion about the value of Wilbur's work for the Christian church.
He presents a fairly wide range of information about the full specturm of religions around the world. He shows how much clear overlap (expressed in different language) is really present within all spiritual traditions. This is very valuable from a cultural perspective to understand how the modern world is influenced by these various traditions but what really helps is being able to see the uniqueness of Christ in all of it.
In a video conversation with Father Thomas Keating, Ken is asked by an audience member "What do you make of Jesus?". His response is very interesting, given his own Buddhist convictions and deep knowledge of religious traditions. He said that Jesus is solely responsible for the idea that God Loves Us enough to reach out to us and offer us His spirit. All of the other traditions are a challenge for humans to transcend matter and unite with spirit while Jesus taught that God is wholly other and wants to involve us in a loving relationship that will give birth to our spirit. Jesus' teachings (and the New Testament) are unique, in that people's uniqueness and seperateness do not fully dissolve into God's divine spirit; therefore, people can still have a loving relationship with God because love requires an object and subject.
Essentially I am over Wilbur for the time being because I am beginning to realize that there is no New Path ahead for the world. There is only this one precious moment: now! It is only the moment of right now that overlaps with eternity. There is no new path ahead becasue ahead is an illusion. We have to learn to live in the right now not in the future.
Right now I have all I need!
A few months ago I posted a short reflection on Picasso and Cubism as a way of looking at the ongoing theological discussions and searching of the emerging church. I mentioned that I felt the viewer of a cubist painting is challenged to let go of traditional and foundational elements of perspective such as vanishing point or angle of light. What I believe ends up happening is a level of frustration and even fear begins to grip the viewer. The same thing happens when someone is thrust into a theological disscussion that seems to have the foundational elements pulled out such as authority of Scripture or respect for tradtion. Of course, these elements are still there but they are now experienced in a new way and that can feel like chaos or confusion for many people.
I have been thinking again about these sorts of things but this time I have been looking at the work of Spanish painter, sculptor and dandy gentleman Joan Miro. His work also has a postmodern quality to it that seems to stretch the sensibilities of the viewer but in a different kind of way. His objects and figures are even more abstract than Cubism but the lines seem easier to digest. It seems as if Miro has pulled back the layers of particular meaning and given us a view of the way that all of these dots eventually connect together. His paintings seem like the strange and beautiful backside of the grand tapestry of life and meaning. Each one of us is a cluster of meanings and information that eventually have to be connected for a larger(or deeper) picture to emerge.
While Picasso's Cubist works seem to cause intellectual reacts of tension and conflict, Miro seems to evoke a much calmer emotionally grounded reaction. His works seem to be little mind maps of hidden beauty and playful clusters of meaning.
Does anyone remember FireFox? The Clint Eastwood movie where he steals a fighter plane controled by the thoughts of the pilot. Scientists have made a huge leap forward in making this kind of tech a reality. For now they are only able to print out letters from the analysis of brain wave clusters. Soon they will be able to quickly measure all kinds of body language as well to discern even more of the user's intentions. This has many applications beyond making a real life version of FireFox but I have no doubt that the military has an even faster version of this interface in the works as we speak.
One of the interesting things the news article mentions is for paralysed people to still communicate and control a wheel chair. The article mentions Jean-Dominique Bauby the former editor of Elle magazine who was still able to write his memoirs , The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly, by blinking his left eye.
I think the potential applications are even stranger. Imagine in 100 years when people will be able to control their vehicles or personal computers purely by thought. Will there be a feedback problem where the machines could also begin to slightly influence the thoughts of the users?
It seems to be that human beings are becoming post-human at an amazing rate. We appear to be departing our physical bodies more and more. Moving all of our living into our minds and now extending our minds out into the world in new ways. What will happen when two people are trying to control the same thing with their minds? Will it be a matter of who has more battery power or better code in their "Reality Interface"? I think of all the Science Fiction writers William Gibson understands the potential for these types of tech in the cultural underground. His blog is an interesting read.
The last angry man has come up with an idea that is equally brilliant and odd. He has decided to only eat nutritional pellets designed for monkey's. His first test is only a week long but, if things work out, maybe we will all be abandoning our over fetishizing of food and eating like the rest of the primates.
At first his daily video postings are a combination of Fear Factor and Super Size Me but they slowing begin a discussion that circles around issues of world hunger. What is interesting is that by doing this random little experiment, he has become an internet celebrity within a week. He has been interviewed on both TV and Radio.
I like this story for a few reasons (the monkey connection and his subtle humor as he eats the crunchy pellets on video) but I also find it interesting how accesible everything is these days. Not just information but also celebrity or exposure. It makes me think of Andy Warhol's statement that everyone can be famous for 15 minutes. I recently heard an update:
"Everyone is the Messiah but you have to sign up for your 15 seconds."
Have you had too much of the little leprechaun of rockstar love? Many U2 fans (and a fair bit of people who are simply pissed off about lots of things) have been posting reflections from their Bono Fatique recovery here.
I listened to an interesting interview with Ron Harris. He has lots of things to say about the future of faith and religious belief in our modern world. Here is an insightful quote
"We need more than simply a criticism of the waywardness of our present situation. We need a positive statement of human possibility, human potential, and the spiritual experience, which takes the place of Iron Age philosophy and these bogus ideas... Ultimately we need a coherent presentation of ritual and all the other features of religion that people may still find necessary, but we need all of that to be presented in a form that does not require any unjustified belief, any endorsement of divisive superstitions.”
I have thought this for a long time. We need to push beyond simply deconstructing past models, theology or rituals and risk saying something radically new. I see far too much energy wasted within the church sorting through old systems of thought or dark ages spiritual practice. I want a new faith as much as the next guy but I still find myself taking the easy way out by critiquing rather than inventing. It is time for people to start collectively dreaming of another world rather than hiding from or warring against the one that we find outselves in.
I love how theologian N T Wright describes Jesus looking deeper within his own religious system (Judaism) and coming away with a radically new interpretation. An interpretation that intially seemed to destroy the old system but eventually proved to be faithful to it in a way that no one suspected. Jesus modeled it and The Apostle Paul worked it out from a theological perspective for His day. Todays world demands the modelling first and the theology afterwards. The emerging church seems far more concerned with sorting out the new theological sides of the future of faith but less concerned with rethinking or reinventing the core of spiritual practice.
While I was in Philly I caught a glimpse of what the phrase "Prophetic Witness" means. In communities like The SImple Way, Camden House, and New Jerusalem I saw what the future of faith might look like. I am not saying this kind of calling is for everyone but I think within these communities may be the seed of how to unite theology and practice in a radically new way. A way that speaks with authenticity to a culture that often dismisses the church as self righteous and irrelevant.
In the interview with Ron Harris he mentioned the need to see a presentation of the future of spirituality. I think it has to be the presentation of a lifestyle not simply a belief system. I look forward to processing these thoughts out some more.
Imagine for a moment that you live in one of the poorest sections of the United States(North Philly). Imagine that you have to see signs throughout your neighborhood proclaiming "We Buy Ugly Homes.com". Imagine that the first sign you see hovering over I-95 placed right on your exit is this. How would it make you feel? You might assume that it would be easy for all concerned if you just dissappeared off the face of the earth so that the machine of empire could continue rolling along.
When the Philly Mayor was asked how his city planned to respond to the mounting welfare cuts and unemployment numbers, he responded "We are building five new prisons". These are some of the tensions that I am processing since my trip to Philly. i will be putting more thoughts together soon but in the meantime check out this!
I had the chance to reconnect with a lovely and sassy nun Sister Margaret McKenna, while in Philly. I had met her a few years ago in Omaha at a conclave that Darin Petersen hosted called Basilia. At the time, I was moved by her passion and uniqueness. This time she filled in even more of the details of her adventure following Christ. In the 80's she was a part of the Plowshares Movement. They staged public symbolic actions to resist the war and the machines of empire. She was a part of an action that involved climbing onto a Navy battleship, pouring her blood onto a nuclear tomahawk missle and handcuffing herself to the missile.
After spending four months in prison she moved into the Bandlands of Philly and began a drug rehabilitation center called New Jerusalem. They bring life and joy to the depressed surroundings with things like this and this.
We had the chance to sit in on their morning bible study, led by Sister Margaret. They were studying Revelations. She kept making strong references to the use of violence and the forces of empire being the way to understand Revelations. I have never really studied Revelations but what she said made a great deal of sense and made me want to look into it more. One of my favorite things about Sister Margaret is the little sign hanging on the door to her modest bedroom. Wild Ass Sanctuary. Wild Ass indeed!
In the last few months three Starbucks have opened in Nassau. The latest is the one pictured above. It is open 24 hours a day! You can't really tell from the picture but it is actually inside of the Cable Beach casino. I guess that's a great way to keep people gambling all through the night. I am pleased that now I can get a triple espresso at any hour and people say that modern society is de-evolving. I think it is a sign of God's coming kingdom that now caffeine is delivered hot at 4 in the morning!
Our old friend the devil's fishbowl is on the way out! Click the image above to see a glimpse into the future of entertainment. Peekvid.com has an impressive lineup of television shows streaming 24/7. I like the idea of watching a show whenever I choose, sort of like a communal TiVo. 14 episodes of the Sopranos really sold me on it though.
I saw the most amazingly pimped out car at the movie theater last night! Check out the hood lamps and no less than 4 hood ornaments. The driver was a little old Bahamian man. He had a pimpin' hat on as well. I will have to look into where he got his custom pimping done. Something tells me this was a personal project!
Every quarter New Providence Community Church does a diversified service. These services usually offer three or four different types of environments for spiritual discovery. This time we all participated in restoring the dune at Orange Hill Beach. After the last hurricane(and poor road construction) the original dune was washed away. The community planted 300 or so sea grape trees and more sea oats and misc brush. Here are some images.
All in all it was a good day and great weather. Something in me wishes this could be the normal Sunday church experience. Some one commented that only the wind and waves preached a sermon this morning and I completely agree. I spend a few moments planting but more time just hanging out and talking with people. I felt a strong sense of being a part of a movement of people. It was also great to see so many different organizations and businesses partnering as well.
As a wrap up of the month long series at NPCC, this Sunday we had a panel discussion of four professional environmentalists discussing the major issues impacting our country and the world at large. We have been exploring how the power of the resurrection impacts our relationship to caring for God's new creation. The panel consisted of:
Sam Duncombe - from Re-Earth
Eric Carey - from The Bahamas National Trust
Casurina McKinney - from Breef
Elinor Phillips - from The Nature Conservancy
Check out their sites to see more info and find ut how you can get involved in the future of God's world.
You have a serious adrenaline addiction when you are so bored while hanging off the side of a 700 ft cliff that you need to set up an ironing board for a bit of Extreme Ironing. Nothing gets the blood pumping like a good half hour of domestic chores while enjoying your favorite extreme sport. "Amusing ourselves to death" comes to mind. Click the image to find out about the next ironing adventure!
A new Pro-Life campaign has unveiled a statue of Britney Spears giving birth on a bear skin rug. It is meant as a celebration of womanhood but it makes me feel creepy! Maybe I am more repressed sexually than I am williing to admit but this image seems a bit degrading. The position seems to be more about sex than about motherhood. I know that ultimately the two are connected but usually their is a none month gap inbetween. I have to give the artist and his consirators props for having the balls (oops! a sexist comment=) to deal so provacatively with the subject. Maybe if more daring Christian artists put their minds to it they could really shake up the mainstream cultural dialogue. It seems to me that much of the left vs right conservative vs liberal battleground is devoid of creative images and powerful thought provoking symbols. It just seeme like two sides of the same coin arguing about who should get the monetary value stamped on it. With images like this maybe people with be pulled into the dialgue who could apply some truely creative solutions to pull the discussions out of the gutter of recrimination that it is often mired in. Click on the image to read more including thoughts from the sculptor.
There is an interesting story in the Gospels where Jesus' disciples come to Him and say that they found some outsiders casting out demons and preaching in His name. They said that they didn't understand the methods that these outsiders were using so they told them to stop. Jesus tells them to leave these people alone saying "whoever is not against us is for us" (Luke 9:46-50)
I bring this up because it seems to be at the heart of all the criticism that this site, and my willingness to be honest about my life and thoughts, stirs up. It seems that many people have a very defined image of what a "man of God" should do, say and think. When they come across my site, it doesn't fit into this image. They are left with two options. 1. Throw out their limited and unbiblical image of what a follower of Jesus is and accept me for who I am, just like God accepts me. or 2. Hold desperately to their limited image and throw me out by judging and casting suspicion on me and my motives.
I am not that concerned that many people choose option two. Even Jesus first disciples clearly chose option two. But know this! I come into this world in the name of Jesus the Christ. I have willingly become a slave to God's word and will continue to pursue God in spirit and truth with my whole being. You may not understand or even condone my methods, thoughts or actions and outside of a personal relationship with me you may remain convinced that I am doing more harm than good. I can accept your fears and I respect the level of integrity with which you so strongly desire to please God. I am convinced that he loves you entirely just as you are.
I decided to make things easier for everyone to sort out my motives and make sure that it is easy for people to see me as a man of God in case I may be behind you at Wendys. My new forehead tattoo should do the trick!
In spite of what some cowardly anonymous posters might believe, my girlfriend has one of the strongest relationships with Jesus that I have had the pleasure of sharing. On top of that she is drop dead sexy as well - just as God made her! This is our first photo-booth picture, taken over the weekend in Coconut Grove. It was wonderful to spend time with Chris, Juan, Ben and Nikki! Got to see Ben's band Article 66 on Thursday at Tobacco Road. I haven't been to Tobacco Road since I was in High School. It was cool to see Ben rockin' out and blowing the opening band "Sad Moon" off the stage.
Note to Scrappy - thanks for having my back but some battles are not worth fighting. Lets grab some scooby snacks and ignore the insecure from now on!
I have gotten a few harsh posts in the guestbook/comment form for the site(I have deleted them so don't bother looking). Let me begin by reminding people a few things about this site:
1. If you are coming to this site to judge me, you would better use your time by reading more of the bible that makes you think you have the right to judge another person's life. You can click the image above of Vincent Van Gogh's bible to see a wonderful free online version in many translations. God love's me no matter what you think of me!
2. Anyone besides me visiting this site is a guest and should act accordingly to hurl anonymous judgments is simple rude.
3. I am very open to healthy and constructive dialog, if someone would like to engage me in a private forum such as email - hit me up here.
4. I will not water down or filter the things that I post and reflect on - get over it or go somewhere else on the internet where everything fits into your little boxes.
Having said that I am encouraged that the site has generated some modest traffic and interaction. It looks like it might be time to look into a comments section for each post rather than just the guestbook section.
Peace
A very popular mega-church's vision statement has always been "Turning irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ" Lately I have been thinking about just how irreligious the teachings of Christ are for our time. A time when choas and uncertianty reign in the public sphere. People are looking outside of themselves to find some sense of security and resolve. Some look to the government with its laws and methods of enforcing them. Some look to the economy wiht its empty promise of financial sustainability. Still many others look to religion even though, in its many forms, religion is part fo what got us into this mess and chaos in the first place. Is the goal really to engage and transform peoples religiousity? I love the little cartoon above because I think it says a great deal about how easy the externals of religion can be an avoidance of the deeper issues of discipleship. It is much easier to paste some religion onto our lives than to see our lives as truely worthless without an intimacy with God. Intimacy with God is not the same as a ritualistic observance of God. Ritual can serve to root a person's experience of God into consistent forms but it can never replace the first hand experience.
I have been thinking about the way that the bible is read and taught in many modern churches. It is very similar to the way computer software is designed and sold. The way that Microsoft relates to its applications is vvery similar to the way that the church relates to the bible. Micorsoft will not freely give out the source code to its programs for fear that people will come along and create bastardized versions of their software. This fear is shared by the church that would rather boil down the scriptures into seven transformational principles for the Sunday sermon rather than teaching people to dig into the source code themselves. When you look at the open-source software movements (linux and to a certian degree Apple) the truth is that people end up creating wonderful new applications that serve very specific purposes that will never be marketed and backed by huge corporations. They create software applications that relate to their context - see the audio recording industry and the way that new audio tools are cropping up everyday or the proliferation of open source apps for the Palm Pilot platform.
The way I see it, the scriptures can provide a context or map of reality that holds together and is true to the way things are. With that context people should be free to apply the map in their individual context without restriction. What might begin to happen is that people will come up with completely inspired applications of the Gospel that will be impossible to make into universal religious structures. People will be free to be co-creators with God. I have to give these thoughts some more time as I look for the right glue to attach my stigmata pasties.
WOW! The final season of the Sopranos snuck up on me. I have the DVD's of all 5 previous seasons and I am an avid fan of the show. At the end of every episode I get a bit sad because I don't want it to end. In spite of all the ultra-violence and depravity, I just love Tony, Pauly, Chris and the gang. I don't have HBO in my new place so I had to wait until Monday and download the new episode from BitTorrent. I was able to downlod a HDTV encoded file of the episode that plays DVD quality on my mac and iPod. If things progress smoothly over the new season, I will not have to buy the DVDs of this season! The new season really started with a bang. They worked almost all of the main characters into the first episode except Pauly. I won't give away the plot but things are really off kilter in the family. For now you can click the image above to go to the most popular Sopranos fan site Sopranoland.com
36 mafia wins an Oscar! I posted a few days ago about how much I liked Hustle and Flow and last night at the Oscars the song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won best original song for a motion picture. It was cool to see the normally dry Oscar proceeding interupted by a bit of nasty flava. Diamond Grillz and bleeped out acceptance speeches are not what you normally expect from a formal hollywood affair. I was dissappoinnted that Terrence Howard didn't win for Best Actor but I haven't seen Capote yet so Philip Seymore Hoffman might have deserved it. You can click the link about to see the whole list of winners. I was suprised that Brokeback Mountain only won two oscars. I thought crash was a decent movie but it also had lots of holes in the plot that I couldn't get past. All in all the show was decent (John Stewart is the funniest human being alive!) and I am glad that the creative power of hiphop is invading even the most sacred of industries. Keep Pimpin'
When you come across a picture or yourself with such an astounding example of our times, you just have to post it. The Naked Cowboy even has a website. Click the image to see him in all his cowboy half-naked glory.
This is how Bono talks about his faith after being honored, along with Bill gates and his wife Melinda, as one of Time Magazine's people of the year "I try to live it rather than talk about it because their are enough second-hand car salesman for God, but I cannot escape my conviction that God is interested in the progress of mankind, individually and collectively" I couldn't agree more!
If we look over the cultural landscape, it is truely interesting that in a time when religion accounts for so much violence and negativity in our world, someone who is so openly and honestly motivated by his faith in God can actually be respected and honored. I think it has a great deal to do with the changing role of ethics within the Christian faith. Rather than the well-worn and largely irrelevant issues that Christians tend to obsess over (moral codes, correct othodoxy, definign who is in and who is out), there are a new breed of believers who are embracing their faith in practical ways. Not simply intellectual frameworks of belief but in ethical action based on the real needs that are present in our hurting world. "People are no longer pursuaded by arguements but by models" Some would see this movement toward practical ethics as a compromise of absolute truth but I see it as a deeper acknowledgment of truth. A faith that seeing the world as it truly is, demands ethical action not intellectual posturing and debate. Real love, compassion and mercy must be brought to bear on the evil in our world, not simply rational and authoritative judgment. It is time that Christians let go of their positions of ethical superiority and get into the game of actually caring for the world the way that Jesus did. My brother Bono's faith reminds me that "to believe is to act" and when I read Jesus' teachings it becomes painfully clear that it is sacrificial love, not correct theology, that declares a person a child of God.
- 3.1 million people lost their lives in 2005 from HIV/AIDS
- 4.9 million people were newly infected with the virus
- 40.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS
- 25 million children will be orphans by 2010 because of AIDS
- 27+ million people have died of AIDS since 1980
What makes me so sad is that many people who read this post will be more upset by the word Bullshit than by the horrible statistics about the world AIDS crisis. The book of James says that "caring for widows and orphans" is the only true religion that is pleasing to God. So we find ourselves in a world where AIDS(the new leprosy) is making widows and orphans by the thousands everyday and the church is obsessed with nit-picking people's othodoxy and promoting homophobia. When will it end? How can so many hearts be blind and selfish? When the above picture was taken(at the NPCC AIDS day prayer vigil) my heart was hurting for the absense of the church in our modern world's greatest crisis. I agree with Bono that unless the church wakes up to this issue, history will not be kind to the memory of Christianity. If you want to read more about this issue and how you can get involved, cimply click the image above to go to aids.com.
I am in LA for the week spending time with my friend Barry Taylor. Every morning I have walked down to the local Starbucks for my daily caffiene injection. He lives in an area with an over abundance of celebrities. So far I have seen Dennis Quade and Dabney Coleman. The first night I was here Jakob Dylan was in there with his kids but I was waiting in the car. I also got to see one of my favorite directors at a screening of his new film - Land of Plenty: Wim Wenders. The lead actor in the film John Diehl was also at the screening. I will write a review later but for now just know that I am loving LA and doing my part to feed the starving celebrities.
The world has gone crazy! I was walking in Santa Monica yesterday, waiting to cross the street at a light. A homeless man came up to the girl(about 20 years old) standing next to me and asked for some money for food. She politely told him no. Then he punched her square in the face! It was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen, and that is saying alot. She went down like a sack of potatoes. What was also remarkable was that almost all of the 15-20 people standing on the corner just casually crossed the street when the light changed. I was in shock! The homeless man began ranting about how she deserved to be hit for not liking black people. This little asian man in his forties began to bum-rush the homeless guy. They had a five minute mexican stand-off with fists and vioces raised. It was chaos! I knelt down to see if the girl was OK. She was except for the blood and drool and vomit coming from her mouth. After about 5 minutes she gathered herself and asked if her lip was cut. At that point a very strange looking punkrocker had call the police on his cell. A policeman slowly walked up to the scene and calmly handcuffed the homeless man. He then threw him hard into a wall and forced him down onto the sidewalk face-first. For the first time in my life I was glad to see a little police brutality. I felt like kicking the man in the face while he was handcuffed on the ground. It was all so shocking and after a few minutes it was just depressing. As I walked away from the scene after giving a witness statement, a young hippy looking homeless kid asked me for a dollar to buy cigarettes. I gave him five!
I try not to ever get political but when you come across something like this image above you just have to say something. Yes that is infact a photomosaic of George Bush made up of images of Jesus. Who would do such a thing? I hope it was done in irony. When I watch america on TV, my feelings slide quickly from doom to dread to terror and then back to doom. The image of Jesus is being distorted in a way that makes my blood curl. All of this talk about the new supreme court justices and the religious right are making me physically ill. I guess I shouldn't be so sad, jesus should be able to stand up for himself =) But when I read Phil, George Bush is the last image that comes to my mind relating to Jesus. If you click the heresy above you will be taken to an interesting site called Theocracy Watch. A group of concerned citizens who are fearful that the religious right's agenda is world domination in the name of Christ. Talk about an oxy-moron. I have nothing deep and pointed to say, just venting my angst. "Dear Father.... Your Kingdom Come"
