Johnny Cash Recordings Set for Release in May

When Johnny Cash began his American Recordings with Rick Rubin in 1993, he was told that it would be a project in which he could record his songs simply--just his voice and his guitar. This is something he always wanted to do. In the early 70's, he had recorded some of the songs he knew as a boy, stories, etc. at his home in Hendersonville, TN. His son, John Carter Cash, seems to think that he shopped these to his label at the time, Columbia, to be produced, but Columbia wasn't interested. Apparently, these recordings are now set to be produced and sold beginning May 2006. The recordings will be called Personal File. If you're interested in more you can read about it here.

Consumers or Citizens? Common Preference or Common Good?

This article is a helpful and sobering reminder about technology--especially internet technology. Here's a couple of insightful quotations. In the emerging "technoculture," as Reed Johnson (the article's author) calls it, the idea of man as consumer tends to matter more than the idea of man as citizen. Many of the technologies of this emerging culture are internet related. Johnson emphasizes that new internet search technologies might lead to nothing more than the mere consumption of what one already knows and prefers (which is quite anti-liberal in the truest sense of the word liberal) and thereby leave little room for the common good in the conscience of the individual:

"The tailoring one's universes to one's tastes creates a sort of self-imposed ghetto of tastes," says Albert Borgmann, a philosophy professor at the University of Montana who has written extensively about technology's social effects. "It can put you in touch with lots of people, but they're all your kind of people."

Its champions love to compare the Web's advent to the invention of the printing press. But what made Gutenberg's machine revolutionary was as much about what he printed — the Bible — as how he printed it. If he had published a list of his favorite songs or anguished confessions about his breakup with his girlfriend, he and his remarkable machine might not have had quite the same cultural impact. Americans tend to embrace new technology easily — cars, television sets, the atom bomb — and postpone reckoning with the costs until decades later. Smart search engines and personal networking software are highly useful but, in and of themselves, politically and morally neutral.

AND

The late social critic Christopher Lasch, author of "The Culture of Narcissism," took a darker view of whether market-based consumer empowerment can enhance citizen empowerment."When half the eligible voters do not even bother to vote," Lasch wrote in a prescient 1981 essay, "students of public opinion — journalists and academics alike — turn to 'culture' as the only field in which individual preferences still seem to matter. By redirecting their attention from public policy to consumer tastes, however, they unavoidably help to sustain the illusion that people can initiate sweeping changes without resorting to politics, merely by exercising their right to make individual decisions as consumers of goods, services and ideologies."

I have not read Christopher Lasch, but I would like to. I have heard a few scholars who know his writings well talk about his thought and views of more recent forms of American democracy.

As Johnson says, search engines and personal networking software (or devices i.e. blogs), which are replacing the need for broadcasted news and information, are neutral. They don't necessarily lead to change--or good change at least. They may merely allow for the creation of sectarian tribes, each filled with persons interested in a certain common thing, who join forces for no other reason than to discuss the thing they're really interested in. Consequently, the old understanding of civilized man as a citizen of a corporate body set on furthering the common good is replaced by the understanding (which is really more like an assumption) of man as a consumer joined together with other consumers by their common preference--and then there's another group of consumers with their common interest, and another, and another, and so on. This sounds less like a society governed by the rule of law and concerned with liberal democracy and more like tribalism.

There's much to be gleaned in this article, and I would like to get a better grasp on the crucial details involved with this issue.

Thomas Kinkade: Angel of Light

This post is especially for my wife. She has questions about Kinkade's art (as we all should). I'm convinced that Kinkade is delusional. This article from the LA Times proves it. If you read it, pay careful attention to his justification of public urination and the comments by adoring fans claiming that he is a contemporary Leonardo da Vinci, etc. In fact, here's just a sample. When Kinkade was acccused of acting inappropriately toward another woman at one of his signing parties, he had this to say:

"But you've got to remember," he said, "I'm the idol to these women who are there. They sell my work every day, you know. They're enamored with any attention I would give them. I don't know what kind of flirting they were trying to do with me. I don't recall what was going on that night."

I am not intending to smear Kinkade's name but something must be said. Who says things like the quotation above? This man should be exposed for what he is and held accountable not only for mocking the Church and the name of Christ but for his megalomania and lame, unimaginative art!

40 Million Frustrated Bachelors by 2020

You really should check out Arts and Letters Daily (see the link to the left). A prof at UD first introduced me to it a couple of years ago. There are links to all kinds of good articles written on a wide range of topics from politics to literature.

This article is unsettling. What happens when a society, with a policy of only one child per family and a penchant for boys, is introduced to ultrasound technology? This is what countries in Asia are dealing with now--20 years after the introduction of the ultrasound. There aren't enough women for all the twenty-something bachelors and things have been looking pretty grim. The article points to the implications this has not only for Chinese society, for instance, but also on its relationships with other countries.

Should the West Apologize for Dante? Shakespeare?

I found this article at Arts and Letters Daily re: free speech and the traditions of the West in light of the Danish cartoon brouhaha. It's an provocative piece written by a man originally from Pakistan and trained in Koran schools. In fact. here's Ibn Warraq's (a pseudonym "traditionally used by dissidents in Islam") bio:

Born in 1946 in India and raised in Pakistan, Ibn Warraq was educated in Koran schools in Pakistan and later in England. He currently lives in the United States and writes under the pseudonym Ibn Warraq, a pen name traditionally used by dissidents in Islam. He is the author of the best- seller "Why I am Not a Muslim" and the editor of "The Origins of the Koran" and "The Quest for the Historical Muhammad."

I am mostly intrigued by a Pakistani defending Western culture.

“Everyone should have a blog. It’s the most democratic thing ever.”

Is this the kind of democracy I am for? Maybe blogging's not such a great idea.

Scot McKnight on the Emergent Movement (EM)

I've found a judicious and informational article on the Emergent church by North Park (not in Dallas but Chicago) Seminary prof Scot McKnight. He does a good job of highlighting the EM's (Emergent movement--I've found out it's not "EC"--Emergent church) admirable qualities, while also presenting some items for concern. From McKnight's evaluation, I realize it is not only EM's "chronological snobbery" and the fact that they mainly attract young, white, middle class folk (though the "movement" has spread to Asia, etc.), but also their refusal of dogma, or defined statements of faith. They claim to hold to the early church, ecumenical creeds but nothing else (from what I understand). But, as McKnight points out, creedal statements of belief have been a part of the church since the beginning when the Shema of the Old Testament was naturally incorporated into worship.

Lent, Protestant Evangelicals, and Time

Here is a quotation from D.H. Williams, an ordained Baptist pastor who taught for many years at The University of Chicago (Catholic), regarding Tradition/Church history and the Holy Spirit:

"It is time for Protestant evangelicals to reconsider much more seriously the work of the Holy Spirit in the whole history of the church. This will mean that we will understand the ministry of the Spirit not as a privately emerging force in individuals as much as the primary Actor in the church's actus tradendi, the living transmission and acceptance of the apostolic message in the body of Christ. It is through this corporate and 'horizontal' process that our individual ('vertical') encounter with the Holy Spirit is shaped and nurtured. Following the way of discipleship cannot function as Christian discipleship in isolation from the guidance which the Spirit has provided through Spirit-led men and women in the church's past. A dizzying array of options are available for anyone who seeks privatized or small group spirituality, and some of these closely mimic Christianity. But only through Scripture and the consensual Tradition will the believer be enabled to find spiritual living that is within the shelter of the orthodox faith of the church" (from Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants, pp. 69-70, boldtype mine).

I am including this quotation in today's post because, of course, today is the beginning of the Lenten season. And historically, Protestants, being those who tend toward suspicion when it comes to tradition, often make little of seasons like Lent--seeing them as vestiges of a Catholic-dominated past from which we wish to escape. But we were created in time (see Gen. 1--"seasons" come before the creation of man) and seasons are helpful to us. We, however, live in a culture that attempts (largely due to consumeristic agendas, etc.) to smear the distinctions between times and seasons (24hr. businesses, and so on). Nevertheless, we cannot escape our creaturehood, and it seems to me that the more we attempt to live apart from creation and reject the undulation of time and the necessity of seasons, the worse off we are.

Here's a link to a helpful guide for Lent from Christ Church (Episcopal) in Plano, TX.

C.S. Lewis on the BBC

Justin Taylor, who's co-written at least one book with John Piper, has these great links to C.S. Lewis reading some of his writings in his most recent entry at his blog. I believe excerpts can be heard of Lewis giving one of his broadcast talks, "The New Men," from "Beyond Personality" (which later became part of Mere Christianity) and giving an introduction to his book The Great Divorce. Enjoy.

Contextualizing Oedipus

Interesting story from Reuters about a new hip-hop version of Oedipus Rex. I think the image on the left here is from the time they tried to make Oedipus easier to digest during the early 80's: "Oedipus and the Masters of the Universe!" http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=musicNews&storyID=2006-02-27T192646Z_01_N27356274_RTRIDST_0_MUSIC-ARTS-HIPHOP-DC.XML

Actually, this is not the first time Oedipus has been adapted. I once watched a version of Seven Against Thebes done as a black gospel church service called The Gospel at Colonus in a class I took on tragedy and comedy. Morgan Freeman plays the messenger/preacher and The Blind Boys of Alabama fill in as Oedipus. Maybe there's something to say for it. Here's an interesting story about Lee Breuer, the adapter of Gospel at Colonus, where he equates the catharsis in Greek tragedy with something similar found in Pentecostal church services. Breuer's comment about attention spans lengthening when one is surprised is worthy of note. Greek tragedy (and other writers such as Flannery O'Connor) employ such "surprises" normally called a "reversal" that definitely draw you further into the story.

Are You Emergent? Part 2 and Chronological Snobbery

To continue the thought of the previous entry, I think it is also the optimism the Emergent group has for the present "postmodern" age that is concerning. Their optimism does not seem that dissimilar from the optimism of those believers in modernism. Were not many Enlightenment philosophers very self-conscious about their ushering in a new and glorious age (this is not meant to be only a rhetorical question)? I guess the difference lies in the moderns seeing their period as a time to free themselves from Church authority while the Emergent crowd sees these "postmodern" times as friendly toward a pre-modern Christianity (which I am sure has a view to one facet of the truth) that could help reinstitute Church authority. Nevertheless, I think it is the self-reflective language that is bothersome. It smacks more of activist language and the language of "movements." Becoming aware of yourself doing something (sleeping, etc.), makes it very difficult to do that thing. Isn't such self-awareness a result of Enlightenment thinking--as C.S. Lewis calls it in a quotation below, a kind of "backwash"... Descartes's "I think, therefore I am"?

I found the following quotes relevant to what the Emergent church is attempting to accomplish. C.S. Lewis, who is known for his quotation re: "chronological snobbery" (see below), also has these things to say about the adhering to the outlook of one's time. In his “Transmission of Christianity” essay Lewis says, "The sources of unbelief among young people today do not lie in those young people. The outlook they have—until they are taught better—is a backwash from an earlier period. It is nothing intrinsic to themselves that holds them back from the Faith." In other words, it's not something inherent in younger people that prevents them from believing; it's the residue left over from previous ages--in our case, modernism. The assumptions of modernism still play a subtle role in the "zeitgeist" of our time--no matter how much we claim we live in a new epoch. I was able to find this quote at the C.S. Lewis Foundation website where there is a good article by Art Lindsley (I don't know who he is) that discusses Lewis's idea of snobbery of the chronological kind. In the following quotation Lewis speaks of his idea of chronological snobbery in relation to his conversion to Christianity:

"In the first place he (Owen Barfield) made short work of what I have called my 'chronological snobbery,' the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively) or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood. From seeing this, one passes to the realization that our own age is also 'a period,' and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions. They are likeliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions which are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack or feels it necessary to defend them" (italics mine). This age will pass away (just like the last one) and, though it may be unfashionable to put it this way, God's Church--which is the pillar and the support of the truth (I Tim. 3.15) (and not the philosophies of postmodernism)--will still be around.

Jesus is My Homeboy

Alright, this has already been posted as an entry at http://purgatorio1.com. My apologies to Marc of purgatorio. But, I had to post this for those who don't know about purgatorio.com. If you grew up, or are familiar with, Christian pop culture, you will find Marc's blog to be quite the entertaining site. Here's something I found on purgatorio that is sure to have a lot of pull with our teens (tongue firmly in cheek): http://teenagejesus.com/jesus.htm. Is he with a harlot or a mime? What up, J.C.!

From teenagejesus.com: Who was teenage Jesus?
The bible says nothing about Jesus from the time he was 13 until he was 28. Its pretty clear, though, that Jesus experienced the same challenges that any child would face while growing up.

DeGarmo and Key, Crumbacher, White Heart...

I found this photo and thought of my friend Dave S. who, whenever we try to name the most obscure Christian rock bands we knew as kids, he always, with fondness, remembers Crumbacher. This seems to be from a sort of farewell/reunion concert given in California. Whoa.

Are You Emergent?

I am doing some reading on the Emergent church (EC). There are some aspects of this movement I can appreciate and would even acknowledge. Their critique of the "modern" church's use of Foundationalism's categories (e.g. false dualities sprung to life from the thinking of Descartes) is well taken. What I am having difficulties grasping is why a new "movement" is necessary. If you take a look at Ecclesia's website (an EC in Houston), there are some attractive things (to me, at least): liturgy, the church calendar, prayers, etc. But why not go Anglican or Roman Catholic? These valuable practices come from these traditions. I have a hunch the issue boils down to cultural relevancy, which always must be handled carefully. I am not necessarily against being relevant, or contextualization, but where do the older saints fit into this new movement? It just seems these churches are predominately younger people who are college-educated and have a decent amount of discretionary money. Don't get me wrong; I am young, college-educated, and well, I actually don't have a fair amount of extra funds laying around. But, compared to much of the world, I do, and I do not see how this movement's concern with being "missional" (evangelistic or evangelical must be old and outmoded terms) differs too much from what many "traditionally"-minded folks are doing--except the need to be relevant. I am open to correction.

Lastly, It could be argued that Luther's reform movement--beginning as it did with Luther employing the latest Renaissance learning--breathed into the emerging Protestant body the breath of the age in which he lived. Assuming that to be true, I wonder what the Emergent movement is attempting to breathe into us? I don't mean this as an alarm to rouse us to arms against a conspiracy. I am only concerned with Emergent's quick (hasty?) adherence to postmodernism--the spirit of the age.

Here's a link to an old article that gives Brian McLaren's position on what it means to do Emergent evangelism and a reply by Duane Litfin. Litfin makes a good point about Emergent's myopia: "We've been here before." http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/011/14.42.html

The Vatican on Muslim Rioting and Violence Against Christians

This is an interesting article I found today on yahoo. The Monsignior who says that it's time to refrain from turning the other cheek has a good point.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-02-23T214704Z_01_L2369100_RTRUKOC_0_US-RELIGION-VATICAN-MUSLIMS.xml&archived=False