Lent is coming...

Lent begins on February 25th and I am preparing to give something up for the duration of the 40 days of Lent. I don't observe Lent every year, but most years I find some spiritually compelling reason to let go of something in my life. I have given up various things over the years like certain foods, beverages, blogging, etc. But what I feel spiritually compelled to give up this year is going to present a really big challenge for me.

For Lent this year I plan on giving up...the news.

As any of you who read this blog know, I love news, politics, pop-culture, and current events. If I have to choose between watching 60 Minutes or SportsCenter, 60 Minutes wins hands down.

Since the election and inauguration are over it's time to regain a sense of balance in my life. I have come to realize the the world doesn't hinge on me checking the DrudgeReport, The Huffington Post, or The Daily Beast five times a day!

I have become too distracted by these things, and my Spiritual growth has suffered because of it. I hate admitting that, but it's the truth. So, for Lent I am giving it up, and re purposing the energy of my thoughts to that of Christ instead of Politico.

I am clearing out my internet bookmarks, un-DVR'ing the Nightly News, and suspending the news podcasts I listen to on my commute to work. This is going to be tough, because the news is everywhere you look in NYC. Just standing in line at Starbucks you get the major headlines of the day from the newspapers laying around.

When a person observes Lent Sunday is typically a day of sabbath from your fasts. So I have limited my consumption of news on that day to reading the NY-Times weekend paper that I get (and hardly ever get through).

So here's how you can help. What books, movies, music, or articles have you been reading lately that have helped you to reflect about your spiritual walk. It doesn't have to be explicitly labeled as "Christian" material, but I welcome that as well. And just so you know I have already read The Shack.

For Kids, No Escape from Porn Culture

Here's the opening paragraph to an article in Newsweek magazine dealing with pornography and it's affects on children:

The idea for a book about porn culture came to Kevin Scott the day his daughter decided she absolutely had to have a Bratz-doll pony. For months, the 5-year-old had begged him for a Bratz doll—clad in spike heels, fishnets and miniskirt, enormous puppy-dog eyes protruding from her oversized head. Her sexy look seemed a little too sexy for a preschooler, so he and his wife bought her a different doll, which she was happy with. Except that a few months later, Bratz came out with Bratz Babyz. "If Bratz had looked like Barbie hookers, these looked like baby hookers," Scott says. Again, he convinced his daughter that My Little Pony was just as cool—and for a moment, the conversation ended. Until, of course, the Bratz came out with Bratz Ponyz. And then, says Scott, an English professor at a small college in Georgia, "I realized porn culture and I were in a death match for my daughter's soul."

Parents, if you aren't careful you may find yourself behind the eight-ball in teaching your kids about a Godly view of sexuality even at the age of five. And if you believe you can wait until your kids are 10, 11, 12, or 13 to talk to them about sex then you may as well just forget it. By then you will be only doing damage control.

In talking to young children about sex it's important to take the initiative to start the conversation and appropriately give them the information they ask for regarding sex and sexuality. If you can do that then you will be ahead of the game with your kids because they will trust your word and be more likely to share with you their questions and curiosities as they get older.

With regard to pornography, hats off to Wake Forest for hosting a "Porn Wars' Symposium" in hopes of getting students to take a serious look at how this $20 billion industry is affecting men, women, and children in this country. I will keep an eye out for any podcasts from the symposium on Wake Forests iTunesU page.

The Disconnect

Over this last year through Levi's school, and deepening relationships with families we have met there and at the playground I have been struck with a stereotype and prejudice that I seem to have. I have found myself feeling a sense of surprise at the people we know that have zero religious adherence or belief in any God whatsoever but have the same sense of values with regard to marriage, family, work, and community service that I as a religious person has.

Should it surprise me that people are morally centered and selfless without the motivation of faith as the key component for that moral outlook? Faith is at the heart of everything I do. My failures and successes often directly correlate to my spiritual grounding in Christ. I have been thinking a lot about my reactions and assumptions regarding "lost" people, and how I am supposed to "save" them. I mean it's much easier for me to think about a "lost" person as having a life that is totally screwed up rather than a person whose ethics and morals might rival my own.

I have been re-evaluating what it means for a person without faith to come in contact with Jesus through my relationship with them. For the down and out's what Jesus has to offer seems much easier for me to articulate. Forgiveness, love, hope, eternity, moral structure, faithfulness, grace etc. And if I am being honest if that person rejects Jesus it's easier for me to take since their lives are mess up so they haven't hit bottom yet.

But I find it a lot more difficult to articulate the need of Christ to a person who has developed their values and ethics outside of the framework of faith. I wonder if these people might feel the same way about me as I feel about them. I wonder if they think, wow he's a Christian but he seems like a pretty decent, open, and accepting guy.

Being clear, I know Jesus is much much more than just a nice moral or ethical framework for living life. Christ is the embodiment of the word and truth of God. He lived, taught, and showed the breadth and depth of God's love for his children and his longing for them to turn from themselves and turn to Him. But knowing and articulating this is a lot easier than imploring it on other people.

Out of Touch

I wanted to include a key part of the discussion Tony Campolo had with Kara Powell of Fuller Theological Seminary.

"You asked me earlier what books I was writing. What we [Campolo and Mary Darling associate professor of communications at Spring Arbor University] are very fascinated by is how much mystical experiences with Christ transform young people into ardent social activists and into evangelists. We have to recognize that we need More than just a social conscience youth worker who has a program. We need for young people to be invaded by the Holy Spirit and inwardly motivated. I really do believe that the Holy Spirit is a transforming force in peoples lives, and that when the Spirit of Christ is alive in people, they become very aware of injustices. They become very sensitive to the needs of the poor and oppressed. And I don't want the church to simply become another social activist group. I want it to be filled with people who are imbued with the Holy Spirit that has sensitized them to the injustices in the system and to the sufferings of the poor. Increasingly we are finding that as we nurture intimate spirituality, that one of the consequences is not this 'me and Jesus' thing where Jesus becomes my boyfriend. But a process where by Christ becomes a motivating force within people that drives them into ministry to needy people."

I feel completely disconnected from the Holy Spirit in the way he is talking about. I am not just referring to my current level of spiritual zeal. I mean I have never really interacted with the Holy Spirit in such a manner. How the heck am I supposed to know how to teach it or create the mystical experiences he is talking about for myself and the teens I lead? It's a lot for me to think about.

Ouch, Truth Hurts

From an Interview with Tony Campolo by Kara Powell, director of Youth Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary. Full interview via iTunes here.

I find most youth workers haven't a clue as to what macro economics is all about and how macro economic factors influence the poverty, and create the poverty in third world countries. They don't understand why third world peoples are angry with America...They hate a powerful country that is able to control international trade in such a way as to increase poverty in third world while it aggrandizes itself. Those insights into how things operate on the macro level and how macro factors in politics and in economics in third world countries and in our own country foster poverty are totally beyond the comprehension of most youth workers and that's a very sad thing indeed...

That means that in reality what is generated is pity, instead of anger. They should be angry at what is being done to these people by forces that are beyond their control...

I think [youth workers] need to know that young people don't know what's going on in the world...They [teenagers] have become so overly nationalistic under the auspices of the religious right that they cannot see anything wrong with America...The reality is that of the twenty two industrialized nations the United States is dead last in the proportion of it's national budget it assigns to helping the poor and the third world...

Kara Powell: What would you say to the youth worker, who isn't just dealing with kids who are nationalistic but parents who are [nationalistic][Campolo interrupts]...

Campolo: Point blank, I am not impressed with youth workers. I find that they don't know what's going on in the world. That youth work becomes a matter of fun and games. When I go the National Youth Workers Convention I get more depressed every year. Because what I find is what the youth workers are really interested in is techniques. They don't want to deal with issues. They don't want to deal with the hard nosed facts of what is going on in the world. And when anything is said that causes questions to be raised about the role of the United States in fostering third world poverty, literally, this is literal, they get up and walk out. And when youth workers are that way I don't see much hope for kids. As a matter of fact I think that MTV may do more to help kids be sensitive to the needs of what is going on in the world than youth workers. If you are asking me, who is turning more people onto poverty, it's Bono of U2, rather than youth workers. Youth workers are pressured into maximizing big turn outs at the youth gatherings at their churches. That doesn't usually come by making them sensitive to the needs of the poor and the oppressed.

Dove - Onslaught

The ad above is the second film produced by ad agency Ogilvy & Mather out of Toronto for the Dove company. Their first ad was Evolution which most everyone with even the slightest addiction to YouTube has seen.

Bob Garfield an ad critic at Advertising Age has an interesting write up on the 'Onslaught' ad (read here). In the first part of the review he states that the 'Onslaught' video should win an Oscar. It's perfectly lives up to it's title (which I agree). But then he brings up the hypocrisy of the creators of the ad. Apparently Ogilvy is the U.S. agency for Barbie, Slim Fast, and AXE Body Spray (which are some of the most sexist and sexual ads you will ever see). Check out this video to see the visual extent of the hypocrisy?

But does the hypocrisy matter to you? Like Bob, I choose to believe that all those involved with the Dove ads are sincere in their motivations. But is the ad's power diminished for you because it was developed by a company that participates in some of the same things it's railing against?

Being honest, the 'Onslaught' ad just hurt my heart, and not just for little girls, but for boys too. Conceptually I understand how bombarded our kids are with this stuff, but presented like this I get the overwhelming nature of the problem on a very visceral level. For me the fact that an ad for AXE Body Spray and the Dove Ad comes from the same company doesn't diminish the truth of 'Onslaught'. If anything I admire the company even more for making an ad in which it impugns it's own work and speaks, with some authority, about the danger of this kind of marketing. I guess what I am saying is that I don't need someone to be perfect in order to illuminate truth. Truth still stands and the truth in 'Onslaught' is exactly what the title says. Our children can and will have their identity shaped and molded by the onslaught of the beauty culture, and left unchecked by parents and adults who know better, the consequences can disastrous.

Fraggin for Jesus?

It's not very often that the New York Times does a front page story on youth ministry. But with the release of Halo 3 two weeks ago and the subsequent "Halo Events" that popped up at churches all over the country the Times was compelled to find out how a violent video game could be used to advance the teachings of the 'prince of peace' - Jesus Christ.

The Article does a pretty good job of trying to sort out the gray areas that youth ministry travels in when it tries to co-opt cultural touchstones for its own evangelistic ends.

The church has a long history of latching onto trends in pop-culture and co-opting them to attract visitors. For this incarnation teens come and play video games for an hour then there is a message followed by more video game playing, food, etc. I am sure that youth ministers attempt to use a Halo illustration in their lessons, and you can bet those illustrations wouldn't jive with the message of Jesus or even real life for that matter (it's a video game). I bet the moderately self-aware teen picks up on the inconsistency.

Personally I am skeptical of the effectiveness of events like these. It's true that kids (guys particularly) who might not normally come to a church would show up in droves for a night of Halo 3 on big screen TV's with free food, and 16 multiplayer networking. It's also true that games such as Halo do create community and foster social interaction that could potentially lead to relationships forming between a church going teen and a non-church going teen. This is why in principle I am not opposed to video games being available to kids who come to youth group.

Here's my problem, when you make "Halo 3" a front and center aspect of your event then you better have a great explanation (my bias is there isn't one) as to why it's effective for the church to illuminate Christ through the lens of a violent, 'Mature' rated video game. And that's my problem with it. Using "Halo 3" to illuminate Christ just doesn't mesh and YM's are diluting themselves if they think it does. Besides it's just lazy. To have an event centered around Halo 3 where you can throw a sermon in the middle of it and say it's 'evangelistic' is what gives YM a bad rap as a profession, because that's easy. There is nothing creative or engaging about an event like this. It's completely slanted to the 13-30 year old male demographic (hmm you think that's why YM are so eager for a Halo event as opposed to 'The Hills' watching party for girls...which by the way would present way more opportunities for Jesus talk than Halo). I can envision a scenario where some of these guys brow beat their skeptical Elders by inferring that the church would be 'out of touch' if it wasn't doing something like a "Halo 3" night. That's a lot of pressure to put on church leaders who don't understand youth culture and have a sincere desire to be relevant to young people.

I personally feel conflicted about creating a space in the youth group that embraces video games. Spend anytime around a junior high boy and you know how OBSESSED they can be with these things. And I know plenty of high schoolers who spend hours and hours each day playing video games. With the balance so out of whack for many guys in how they manage their video game playing, I don't think I want to contribute even more playing time for my teens. Our group doesn't have a gaming system and we won't have one for this very reason. I do invite some of the teens to bring their systems to a lock-in or something because Lord knows surviving a lock-in takes every tool you can muster. But on the whole I believe that kids need a break from the stuff rather than having access to it at church. When it comes to events, I don't think that the church needs to ride the coattails of "Halo 3" or any other hot item to capture the imagination of young people. Instead it needs to illuminate a life whose excitement and purpose isn't contained within the confines of and X-Box or PlayStation.