This shows an Iraqi celebration of Christmas in the streets of Baghdad, a public celebration sponsored by the Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior. The wall between church and state demolished.
We came, we saw, we conquered. USA!
A quick note to those who are still reading: Lately I’ve run out of things to talk about. I probably did so before I stopped posting. I’ve just been reading my gift card purchases from Half Price and B&N, relaxing around the house, soaking in some classic horror movies (like, Bela Lugosi classic), going to family events, and letting my mind wander. It’s been nice.
I can’t give any promises concerning any level of increased postage here, but it’ll probably gear back up. Who knows? I’ve got some stuff to say about nature and my emerging relationship to it, and probably a word or two about politics, film, religion – the usual brew. Right now, though, I’ll point you in the direction of two excellent blogs which are picking up their activity once again. You’ll see them on the right-hand side: Like Leaves and Kings, and Peer Pressure is Forever. Good stuff, both. Good people.
Hope your Advent was good, and your Christmas even better. Time to make some sweet resolutions!
Talk to you soon.
I’m a big fan of Facebook. Who isn’t? It’s a strange collection of all the things we’ve grown up loving as kids (“Hello! My name is…” etc.) to kitch we’ve grown to admire as adolescents (“Bumper Sticker,” funny pictures, movie quotes), and things we treasure as adults (political statements, joining groups that express how prick-ish we can be, etc.).
However, I can’t resist the urge to think of it as a fascinating statement on the status of 
the 21st century American psyche. It is a comforting, and discomforting, expression of our need for community. Also, in the absence of community, it helps us express those urges which fill the void: voyeurism and exhibitionism. One of the most popular groups on Facebook these days is called “30 Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night,” and consists simply of pictures – self-posted! – of young women drinking and partying. They are void of nudity, as is anything on Facebook; but the impulse to binge drink (while underage, no less) and post the sordid results for the world to see begs the question of the intentions of these individuals. During my orientation this year at law school, we were repeatedly reminded of the permanence of these things. We were reminded that your school officials and future employers can easily access these files, and make decisions concerning your future based on what they see there. But all of us, somehow, cannot resist the urge to expose ourselves to others, and watch closely as others expose themselves to us. Be it through drunken pics of ourselves, or our feelings, or preferences, or causes, we put it out there, hoping people notice.
Is it because we don’t have the time to to share these things with the people we enjoy being around? Or do we not have the temerity to express these things in real time? Whatever it is, it’s a perfect expression of our culture. A popular venture starting in Manhattan is voyeuristic/exhibitionistic architecture, in which a design firm based in L.A. built/is building an apartment complex that is nearly all windows, leaving it up to the inhabitant how much he or she wants to pull the curtains closed. So far, it’s been relatively popular.
Today, in the 21st centruy, this is where we are: we use technology, which separates us from each other, then we try to use it to pull us back together. Internet pornography, MySpace, Facebook, and, yes, even this very blog(!) are our own ways of trying not to connect with each other, but rather re-connect with each other, in depths of intimacy which we cannot achieve oftentimes in real time.
How is it working so far? What do you think?
Here’s one take on the Facebook phenomenon. Those of you hip to Facebook probably can empathize with this poor chap. To an extent, at least.
Oh no, we’re not done with Advent yet! My good friend Drew wanted to stop by and throw in a few words of his own about this interesting season. It’s good stuff, and perhaps more centered and focused than my own thoughts were. I’m telling you, Christmas is not as easy to write about as you may think it is!
So, without further ado, here’s Drew, with a surprising word for us today. Enjoy.
♦ ♦ ♦
Hope: The surprising word of Advent
By Drew
To piggy back off what Clint has been saying about Advent I wanted to share the peculiar experience I had over the weekend. I tend to be – no let’s be honest, I am – a pessimistic, cynical person. Thus, I tend not to put a lot of stock in hope. Hope is one of the feelings that I find most difficult cultivate. In a world where war wages, people starve and the Church has become nothing more than another American business, I do not find many things to be hopeful in. However, as a Christian I feel compelled to be hopeful, our savior is amongst us and the in-breaking Kingdom is all around. So, when I was overcome with hope during Church on Sunday while the first and Second Advent candles were being lit you can imagine it was a strange feeling. I would like to share the scripture that was being read while the lighting of the Advent candles was taking place.
Isaiah 11:1-10 (English standard Version)
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 But with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples-of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
In a time when consumerism, over consumption and the like are being shoved in our faces at every turn it is refreshing to finally be confronted with something that actually has some meaning attached to it. Something that when meditated on, can help us see the true meaning of this season and connect us to something bigger than our HD T.V.’s and SUV’s. I pray that in this wonderfully hopeful Advent season that the cry of our hearts would be that one day we will all meet in the field where the Lion lays with the Lamb and the Ox grazes with the bear. Amen.
♦ ♦ ♦
. . . and what does it mean to wait?
In the larger sense, to wait is to speak a dangerous word to the entire American “thing.” It means that I’m learning to curtail my desires for quick and easy graitifications. As the pastor pointed out, this is what Christmas has become: we go out and we shop. If we want something, we go out and get it. No waiting required. And yet, the lesson of the historical church teaches us a belief in this season, a certain frame of mind. Since this sermon coincided for me with my recent obsession with Sufjan Stevens’ Songs for Christmas, let me illustrate that frame of mind with lyrics I’ve posted here before. The song is called “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!”
That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!
Going outside
Shoveling snow in the driveway, driveway
Taking our shoes
Riding a sled down the hillside, hillside
Can you say what you want?
Can you say what you want to be?
Can you be what you want?
Can you be what you want?
Our father yells
Throwing gifts in the wood stove, wood stove
My sister runs away
Taking her books to the schoolyard, schoolyard
In time the snow will rise
In time the snow will rise
In time the Lord will rise
In time the Lord will rise
Silent night
Holy night
Silent night
Nothing feels right
This beautiful song expresses that strange feeling of hope, of a difficult expectation. When he say “in time the Lord will rise,” I think we all feel it with him. In time, in time he’ll come. And if we can feel that, then we know what the Advent is all about.
More traditionally, the spirit of Advent is perfectly captured in the wonderful Christmas song (also covered by Sufjan!) O Come O Come Emmanuel. Here’s the lyrics.
O Come O Come Emmanuel
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
We have to put ourselves in the place of “captive Israel,” a nation of people held under the saelf-righteous boot of the Roman Empire and longing for the King they’ve long expected. The people of Israel dared to hope that God would come to them, and this season we do the same – more specifically, we hope and pray for the arrival of “Emmanuel,” or “God With Us.” So, if we’ve experienced that feeling that God is nowhere near us, then we know the Advent season. We know what it feels like to begin losing hope in those things which we’ve always trusted. This is a feeling that happens, and this Advent season, we are to dwell on that feeling.
So, what’s the good news? As the Nazarene pastor pointed out, it’s two-fold, and not too cheap: First, we are not alone in desiring Christ’s return. For two thousand years Christians have experienced the feeling of Advent in their anticipation of Christ’s return. And, we can draw upon their faith to help us secure our own. I really wondered if this Nazarene pastor was audaciously opening the door to veneration of the saints! I thought it was pretty cool. And second, God does arrive, though often (as with Christmas) in ways we would not expect and never on our timeline. Oh, how I’m resisting the urge to mention the film Magnolia right now, I’ll just have to let it slide!
Advent teaches us to wait. Waiting is not good for America’s consumer economy, because as soon as we begin waiting, we start buying less. “Black Friday,” that cornerstone of the American economic calendar, begins to look to us as a different shade of black. The frenzy of big-box retail shopping madness appears unworthy of our time. And all of this occurs right alongside our admission that we are impatient people. We don’t like to wait. But if we are serious about Christmas, we must learn that we cannot enjoy it without first experiencing the waiting. We light but one candle each week, just waiting, when theo world would have us light the whole damn thing at once. Waiting, not for fantastic gifts under the tree, but for Christ’s strange appearance in our lives, an appearance which disrupts and disturbs. It is an appearance that unsettles us, like the prophet’s voice Carlo mentioned in his last post. That’s the Advent season.
I’m learning to wait.
The strangest thing happened to me this week. I went to an evangelical church during the advent season that actually talked about the Advent.
The first note of surprise at this particular evangelical church ( a Nazarene one, no less!) was when the pastor began his sermon by referencing “the reading for today.” What? Don’t tell me you actually think what the historical church has to say about this holiday is more important than your own mangled thoughts! Did I make a mistake? Did Renee and I slip into an Episcopal church by accident? Needless to say, I was intrigued.
The intrigue continued throughout the sermon as the pastor laid out the church’s historical lesson of Advent, and how that relates to our behavior in today’s society. If you’re confused at my amazement, then I should give you a little background on my past church experiences.
The church Renee and I came back to after I returned from college was the one in which I spent my entire adolescence. There, the annual theme for the “Christmas” season (note: not “Advent”) was its prized “Hush in the Rush” musical, which was replete with the usual Christmas kitsch, and an admonition that this season (which, we would be reminded in more recent years, is under assualt by godless heathens) is busy, so busy, but that’s good, and it’s also good to come into church every so often as a quiet respite from the storm.
This is church as I knew it. This is Christianity as escape.
Christianity as a tool of the American system. Christianity as a buoy for the consumerist economy. This is the religion of wants-as-needs-as-defined-by-Madison-Avenue. Although this religion speaks words of war about defending this holiday - because it is all about Christ, they remind us – they forget how the Christmas which they accept as being all about shopping and buying and rushing and spending and stressing is really the Christmas they’re defending, the one which has nothing to do with Christ at all. And isn’t it funny that they’ll vociferously defend their right (privilege?) to be told, “Have a Merry Christmas,” in what of all places? Retail stores!
We’ve come to a point in the Christian experience of America where we fight for our right to bathe our rabid shopping in a holy light. We want our cashiers to bless us on our way out of a place where we spent money we can’t afford to spend on people who don’t need the stuff we just bought them. We are such a religious people that we cannot do our things without a scent of sacred-ness, and rightfully so. But what’s troubling is when we light up the lines of our favorite television/radio pundit to complain that we didn’t receive our Christmas benediction on the way out of our holiest of temples, that place which has exacted the greatest sacrifice we could give (our savings), and now our shopping (worshipping) is being sullied (persecuted) by secular meanies (the unclean, the them).
There is another way. There has to be another way. And I caught a glimpse of it when this Nazarene pastor said these words: “The world says to instantly gratify. This Christmas season, it is telling you to buy, buy, buy. But we, as the church, have always celebrated the Advent season, and observed it with lighting but one candle each week, to give you a different message: Wait.”
Just, wait…
So in this time of great busy-ness, my good friend Carlo has responded to the need and provided us with another excellent post. This one extends a little further on the theme he began with in his Johnny Cash post: 20th century American music and the Old Testament prophetic imagination. Enjoy.
♣ ♣ ♣
Forsaking dignity for grandeur: Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and the prophetic imagination
So after the handsome “man behind the curtain” of this blog put my post about Johnny Cash up, it got me to thinking. He said that my criteria for music was “would the Old Testament prophets have like it”, and to a large degree, I think he’s right. So when I was driving home from the quiet, one room record store I discovered in a place called Ravenna, Ohio, which is about an hour south of Cleveland; and after having purchased some high-fidelity singers on low-fidelity records, I couldn’t help but think of what the OT prophets would have thought about my expenditures.
I was driving home itching to spin the black circle and thinking about two of my most recent finds; an old record by the great female jazz singer Billie Holiday, and an old best-of record by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. I was thinking about two of my favorite songs by them, one called “Strange Fruit” by Holiday, and the other, “Study War No More”, by Jackson. And then (yes i’ve heard its bad form to start a sentence with ‘and’, and also to put in a useless parenthetical that disrupts the flow but screw you anyway) I got to thinking about Isaiah and Amos, two of my favorite prophets…the only two I’ve read a little of…don’t let me ever fool you by the way. I was thinking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. too. Mostly I was thinking these things because I had recently read part of a book by the great Jewish theologian, Abraham Heschel, who marched with Dr. King in Selma. Heschel was a so-called expert on the prophets of old and had keen eyes to spot the prophets of new.
Abraham Heschel defined the Old Testament prophets speech as “rarely cryptic, suspended between God and man; it is urging, alarming, forcing onward, as if the words gushed forth from the heart of God, seeking entrance to the heart and mind of man, carrying a summons as well as an involvement. Grandeur, not dignity, is important. The language is luminous and explosive, firm and contingent, harsh and compassionate, a fusion of contradictions. His tone, rarely sweet or caressing, is frequently consoling and disburdening; his words are often slashing, even horrid – designed to shock rather than to edify. The mouth of the prophet is “a sharp sword”. He is “a polished arrow” taken out of the quiver of God.”
When I think about hearing Dr. King shout and yell his sermons and speeches from old newsreel footage I understand exactly why Heschel saw him as a prophet. That being said, I want to reiterate something from my last post. The theologian John Wesley said that the majority of people’s theology comes in the form of the worship music that they sing. So as I am sitting in my usual chair listening to Mahalia Jackson and Billie Holiday I realize that this would have been the exact kind of music that was both accessible and popular to Martin Luther King as he was growing up. Billie Holiday was recording from the 1940’s to the 60’s, and Mahalia’s career was on a similar timeline, if I may be a bit vague.
So Heschel goes on to talk about the structure and intention of a prophet’s speech, and my mind starts racing. He says that “the prophet is sent not only to upbraid, but also to ‘strengthen weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.’ Almost every prophet brings consolation, promise, and the hope of reconciliation along with censure and castigation. He begins with a message of doom; he concludes with a message of hope. His essential task is to declare the word of God to the here and now; to disclose the future in order to illumine what is involved in the present.”
“There it is!” I say to myself. Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit” was possibly the first overtly anti-racist song ever recorded. And (hehe), in typical prophetic style, Billie Holiday is the last person you would expect to be the voice of God’s emotions. She was discovered in the music industry by someone who saw here singing at the whorehouse where she was forced to work and slave, having been sent away by her family.
Mahalia Jackson’s song “Study War No More” was not a new theme or sentiment to gospel music but I like it, and anyway this is my post. Here are the lyrics to Holiday’s song. Jackson’s song is pretty easy to understand, but you really have to read the lyrics of Holiday’s as well as listen to it.
I’ve got no questions or discussion points because I don’t feel like thinking of any. I just wonder…perhaps we need to take a closer look at the kind of leaders the Christian church is raising and at the kind of so-called worship music we are singing. I can’t help thinking that we lost something somewhere, or maybe it was stolen. Oh, by the way. A little irony perhaps. The song, “Strange Fruit”, was written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx.
“Strange Fruit”
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
You’ll have to reach back into the past with me to recall this one, but back in March I wrote a certain post. I had only been a-bloggin’ for about a month at the time, and decided to recount the strange enjoyment I derived from an evening spent at Reynoldsburg’s finest, the Brice Outlet Mall. There I partook in some inexpensive cinema, wondered around that seemingly lifeless remnant of a bygone era in America mall-building, and remembered many a trip to this same mall I used to take as a kid. Somehow, a local free-lance writer got a hold of that post while in the process of doing a piece for Columbus Monthly on the mall, and asked me for an interview on the topic.
What resulted from that encounter was a fascinating conversation we shared about this strange place. This month’s edition of Columbus Monthly has her piece about it, and if you live anywhere within the Columbus area (especially on the east side) you should pick it up and read it. It’s a fascinating article about the role this place plays in today’s Columbus. I love it, and that’s not only because I’m quoted in it – which was weird and really cool to see, especially since I apparently get the last word (Ha ha!). I’ll probably come off as a little “anti-change” to some people, but I can tell that wasn’t her specific intent. Actually, I quite like how she puts it. It’s a great piece, a joy to read, and I couldn’t be happier to have been a part of it.
The article, like the rest of the magazine, is not available on the web. You might as well pick up a real physical copy of it, and I’m sure that the Victorian Secret model on the cover won’t hurt!
For those of you who have noticed the crisp chirping of crickets here over the last week, yes, I’ve been a little blog-lazy. Here’s my unsolicited list of excuses:
So anyway, I say all that to say this: You’ll probably not get the same regular production from me the next couple weeks that you came to expect in the last few months, so I thought I’d just let you know. I’m not sure how much busier it will be than it is now – maybe over break I’ll be a blog fiend, or maybe I’ll be out apprenticing under nature, trying to learn something I can’t learn anywhere else. Right now, I’m leaning towards the latter, but that doesn’t exclude this thing here necessarily. We’ll see where it goes.
In the meantime, get in that strange state of mind called the Christmas spirit. If you need some help, listen to Sufjan Stevens doing “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Here’s some Sufjan Stevens lyrics, but you’ll need to put them with the music. Beautiful song.
That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!
Going outside
Shoveling snow in the driveway, driveway
Taking our shoes
Riding a sled down the hillside, hillside
Can you say what you want?
Can you say what you want to be?
Can you be what you want?
Can you be what you want?
Our father yells
Throwing gifts in the wood stove, wood stove
My sister runs away
Taking her books to the schoolyard, schoolyard
In time the snow will rise
In time the snow will rise
In time the Lord will rise
In time the Lord will rise
Silent night
Holy night
Silent night
Nothing feels right
——-
Happy Christmas season, everyone!
His name is Reverand Ken Hutcherson. He pastors the big fat Antioch Bible Church - 3,500 strong - in Redmond, Washington, corporate home of Microsoft. And, according to his own confession, he’s capable of becoming Microsoft’s “worst nightmare.”
To borrow a mixed-mashed phrase from McLaren, Campolo and Steven Curtis Chapman: welcome to the next Great Adventure in Missing the Point.
Rev. Hutcherson is sick and tired of Microsoft pushing their pro-gay agenda in his face – well, that’s how he describes it anyway, when they supported homosexual-friendly legislation. Now he’s threatening to buy up a bunch of their stock and force them to change their policy towards their homosexual employees, which apparently he finds WAY TOO friendly. Equitable treatment under the law? What is this, America?
He claims they’re making him “submit” to their worldview, whatever that means. Here, he describes his struggle against them.
I told them that you need to work with me or we will put a firestorm on you like you have never seen in you life because I am your worst nightmare. I am a black man with a righteous cause with a whole host of powerful white people behind me.
Ok, so the good Reverand and I agree on a few points here. In the spirit of cooperation and Christian humility, let me start with those:
With so much agreement between us, you ask, what could we possibly disagree about? Perhaps it is this: That Christ, at least as I understand him, would teach us to cringe at such attempts to advertise to the world our faith by actively limiting the political rights of certain people because of their sexual orientation. Is this the people, of whom they say, you will know them by their love? It seems today, we instead prefer to be known by our rigid commitment to our absolute moral justifications of reality. But I’m sorry, I guess I missed that verse in Sunday School. Is Hutch’s vision of the engaged church in line with Christ’s dreams for us as the agents of His Kingdom? It’s hard for me to believe so.
I could be wrong, and I’m always open to that possibility. But Hutch’s work seems more Crusade-ish than Cross-like, more Inquisitional than incarnational. What are your thoughts?
 | Ganry19 on guest authors |
 | Mark84 on guest authors |
 | Ornactura on I’ve Got Your Braveheart… |
 | AmidoLobdub on I’ve Got Your Braveheart… |
 | purgenx on I’ve Got Your Braveheart… |
