Archives for category: reconciliation

That Dog Won’t Hunt

November 2, 2007 //

Duane Chapman, better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, had his show suspended by A&E after he went on a racist tirade which was recorded by his son and published by the National Enquirer. Read more over in this article, Dog N-Bombs Himself into Hiatus. Here is a quote from this conversation:

I’m not taking a chance…not because she’s black but because we use the word n—er sometimes here. I’m not going to take any chance ever in life of losing everything I’ve worked for 30 years because some drunken n—er heard us say n—er and turned us into the Enquirer magazine…I’m not taking that chance at all never in life. Never..

On his show, Duane comes across as a tough guy with a soft heart. After tracking down lawbreakers and bail-jumpers, he’s always ready with a hug or a kind word of advice. Of course, it’s nothing new for the people/characters on reality shows to be very different from their on-camera persona, but Chapman’s rant still stands out for its defiant racism.

In his public statement, Chapman offers a marginally better apology than the usual non-apology, “I’m sorry if I offended anyone.” He does acknowledge that he offended people and expresses remorse, but still attempts to explain away his actions: “I was disappointed in his choice of a friend, not due to her race, but her character. However, I should have never used that term.”

In the end, more disappointing than one reality star’s private racism is the response of many people. In the email talkback segment of one cable news show, viewers’ opinions ranged from “get over it” to outrage that anyone was offended by this incident at all. Is there more resentment brewing underneath the surface, or are people just more willing to express it?

Well, in any case, we can probably expect to see Dog back on the hunt in a month or two — just ask Don Imus.

Categories communication, controversy, race, reconciliation, sigh

NYWC 4: The Electronic Gospel

October 22, 2007 //

Being in town meant that I would not be missing our Sunday at church. While there is a definite downside to not getting away for the weekend, I could sense how God was using the words spoken through Francis Chan and Doug Fields to enlarge my heart further for my students. Maybe it was nothing revolutionary for them — I’m sure I still managed to lull them to sleep during the sermon today — but I’m praying that, by the grace of God, my love and prayers for them would ever increase.

* * * * *

After a full day at church, I hustled over to the Town & Country and caught the Q+A part of Shane Hipps’ first seminar. I chatted briefly with him and wandered with him over to his next seminar (which turned out to be a good thing, because I never would have found the seminar room on my own. I’m really bad with maps and have managed to get lost several times this weekend) which expanded on several of the ideas in his book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, which I highly recommend.

One of the most important things Shane discussed was the oft-referenced idea, “The methods change but the Message stays the same.” This speaks to our efforts to adapt new ways of bringing the timeless, eternal Truth of the Gospel to different peoples and cultures. Unfortunately, though the sentiment is sincere and well-intentioned, it is also false.

As Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium is the message.” Shane did a fantastic presentation of McLuhan’s life, thoughts on media and the future and how this impacts us as followers of Christ. We must be clear-eyed about the ways in which the media we use — and not only Media Shout or MySpace — fundamentally alters the message we are trying to convey. I saw this illustrated at every general session — although I was often sitting only several yards from the speaker, I found myself (and saw most of those around me) watching the giant screens rather than the actual person in front of us. Shane gave a great quote about this: The screen always wins — it’s almost a creepy, bizarro take on “Love Wins” but it’s so true.

Although this seminar was very much about our current media culture, Shane was really addressing worldviews. And, even to take a step back further from that, Shane was addressing the forces at work that shape our worldview. Another McLuhan quote is helpful here: “We become what we behold.”

The printing press ushered in an age of linear, sequential, uniform, repeatable thinking as normative. And, in the modern world, we find this repeated in unexpected places — from the assembly line of cars and cookies, to the orderly, linear pews in our churches, to reducing the entirety of the Gospel into a sequential formula (e.g., Repentance of sins + Acceptance of Christ = Salvation to heaven).

However, the world in which we live changed long before the advent of the internet. Shane argues that the invention of the telegraph, photograph and radio began a dramatic shift in how we see the world. The telegraph, or “Victorian Internet,” broke the relationship between transportation and communication. The photograph recalls the stained glass of the Middle Ages — consider the difference between seeing the printed words, “The boy is sad” versus this photograph of a sad boy. The words are rational, linear and left-brained; the photo is intuitive, non-linear, right-brained — qualities that describe the shift toward postmodernism.

* * * * *

I will interact more in the future with some of these thoughts. Shane’s seminar today triggered quite a few thoughts that I’d like to work through — especially regarding the built-in fluidity and ability of Asian Americans to navigate between and through different cultures. He was extremely gracious in fielding all manner of questions, and taking time out to chat with me a bit before leaving to catch his flight. It was interesting to listen to the line of questions that people raised afterward — questions about doctrine, defending our faith and jumping straight to the “take-home” revealed their linear, sequential, rationalistic mindset.

* * * * *

I’m getting packed up just in case we need to clear out of here because of the wildfires raging around here. Please keep us in prayer.

Categories advertising, asian american, church, community, design, emerging church, faith, ministry, postmodern, prayer, preaching, race, reconciliation, tech, youth ministry

NYWC 2A: The Story

October 20, 2007 //

I missed the second half of today’s NYWC because our family went up to Disney for their annual Mickey’s Halloween Treat night. If you have the chance to go, it is lots of fun — games, crafts, dancing and, of course, tons of candy. In any case, that’s why these are my reflections from Day 2A at NYWC.

The running theme throughout the convention is “Storyline” and the YS team has done a fantastic job so far in pulling together the idea that we are all part of God’s larger meta-narrative story. I love that in the room where we meet for the general sessions, they have even played with the way we sit — kind of an “in the round” experience. I was half-expecting one of those U2 circular-type stages where Crowder could run a circuit through the crowd :)

For me, Joe Castillo’s artistic presentation of the Creation story was totally new and unexpected. I can be kind of a cultural Philistine when it comes to art, but my heart was definitely moved by his “SandStory” presentation. Joe has a SandStory video clip of the Passion on his site, which will give you an idea of what this was all about. Marquis Laughlin presented a powerful monologue from the book of Revelation — what a voice! If I had a voice like his, I would talk all day long (not that I don’t already!). I love the fact that to kick off the first general session, we were immersed in the beginning and the end, so to speak, of The Story.

* * * * *

I’m a sucker for old-school punk rock. I grew up skateboarding to Minor Threat and The Pogues, so getting to hear Flatfoot 56 for the first time today at the general session was really nice. I mean, seriously, how can a band with a bagpiper not put a smile on your face? I really appreciated the video clip in which Tic interviewed them and they had a chance to share their heart. They are reaching kids who might feel utterly rejected by the church by literally meeting them where they are — for example, opening for Irish-punk heroes Flogging Molly. I commented to the bagpiper afterward that this probably isn’t their usual crowd, but he smiled and said they knew this wouldn’t necessarily be their typical audience but that they still had lots of fun performing.

* * * * *

Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil gave a stirring talk which used The Lion King as an extended metaphor for reclaiming our identities as the people of God and our role in pointing youth back to their true heart and calling. It will probably take a couple of days to interpret the scratches and doodles I wrote in the dark in my notebook, but I will share soon about some of the great things Dr. McNeil shared about the global story in which we, and our students, find ourselves.

* * * * *

As I’ve said before, I’m a big fan of the David Crowder*Band. And, from what I could see today, it appears that so are most of the 4000 or so of us gathered here this weekend. From the opening quarter-note hoedown clapping of “Undignified” to the really green keytar and the exhortation that our singing was “pretty” but need to be much louder, it was classic Crowder — which is to say, the man really has a knack for leading groups of people into the presence of God. The Super Mario synth jam and the (somewhat frightening) video of Crowder as Mario were bonuses.

Singing “Remedy” this afternoon was particularly powerful for me. I think people who have criticized the Remedy album for being too simple have missed the point. I think David has always been an incredible lyricist — pushing the boundaries of our imaginations in corporate worship — and his skill has only grown over time. He evokes so much through so few words. Those of us in ministry (or who have suffered through the “sermon that never ends”) know that it is much more difficult to preach a meaningful short message than it is to drone on & on for an hour.

These words came to life as we sang:

Here we are / Here we are

The broken and used / Mistreated, abused

Here we are

Here You are / Here You are

The beautiful one / Who came like a Son

Here You are

So many of us in youth ministry are hurt, wounded and weary. That’s why I appreciated Marko’s words about the “holiness of wasting time” so much. We need to be honest about our brokenness, not hiding it by working even harder. But it’s not just a story of our brokenness; rather, as we view our frailty and limitations, “We lift up our voices / We lift up our hands / To cling to the love that we can’t comprehend.”

Categories asian american, communication, design, faith, indie, music, postmodern, race, reconciliation, youth ministry

Reformergamissionavegematic!

October 17, 2007 //

It might be a postmodern tendency (or just the unleashing of my inner nerd after finally watching Transformers last night) to redefine words and ideas by combining them in unexpected ways. For example, hybrid words like ginormous have made it into our consciousness, and the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (for fun, try out words that don’t fit nicely together — like, “gi-huge” or “hu-big”). Even the holidays are not safe, as we learned from The OC (but, seriously, don’t call it “The OC” — I kind of like the ring of “The Orange Curtain” myself) about Chrismukkah — I have gone the distance with what I believe to be the ultimate end-of-year celebration, Christmahanuramadanakwaanzafestivuskah (Please forward all royalties from these greeting cards to me).

Mo Rocca is a fundit and this guy used to be Bennifer. Seriously, we love hybrid words. Even music is not safe, as Danger Mouse showed us by giving the mashup mainstream exposure (what do you get when you combine The White Album by The Beatles and The Black Album by Jay-Z? The Grey Album, of course).

Fear not, mainliners who are interested in postmodern theology — presbymergent is here! And we haven’t forgotten you either, reformergents.

Actually, I think there is great value in contextualizing and reconfiguring words & ideas. Information is no longer static or easily boxed into a single category [h/t: David Park — I think I should just put quotation marks around every post you write and then link it!], so it makes sense that we would hybridize theological words & phrases. While I know it probably drives some word purists (and hardline whoevers) nuts, this process must not necessarily rob these words of their original meaning. The use of multiple tags by bloggers for a single post might be a helpful analogy — just because an article is about “worship” or “community” doesn’t make it less of either. In fact, this interconnectedness of ideas gives a greater depth to each.

Word hybridizers, roll out!

Categories church, communication, community, emerging church, faith, hope, ministry, postmodern, reconciliation

Cowards.com

October 11, 2007 //

After reading this article about a series of nooses being hung all around the nation, apparently in response to what is happening with the Jena 6, I am saddened, disgusted and frustrated. Nooses, really? Our culture is digressing in troubling ways. I get the same sinking feeling that Eugene Cho wrote about recently, in his post Racism Sucks, about the vast difference in media coverage between crimes committed against white and black people.

There is so much hatred lurking just beneath the surface. People are so quick to pin the blame for the difficulty in their lives on someone else — it’s always “their” fault, whoever they might be. What is particularly infuriating about these noose incidents is the disgusting cowardice of these perpetrators. Like the Klansmen who hide behind masks, these people sneak around as they attempt to inflict terror on others.

I am reminded of an ugly incident that occurred during my seminary days. Several non-white students received racist, hateful rants scrawled across the message boards on their doors. Although the seminary convened a task force in response to these incidents, the perpetrator was never caught and the matter was essentially swept under the rug. Looking back, I wish I had taken a stronger stand in pursuit of justice instead of allowing the seminary community to act like nothing ever happened. Princeton is a wonderful community in many ways, but very proud and set in its ways — during my time there I encountered many people who were shocked to find that not everyone shared their worldview and that, in fact, their perspective was not normative for everyone else.

We are often guilty of perpetuating the culture of self-centered entitlement — Jesus died just for you, our church is all about your needs, etc. — instead of self-giving servanthood. This sense that someone, everyone, owes me only breeds resentment and violence. May Christ break this sick, self-perpetuating cycle of privilege and selfishness.

Categories asian american, church, controversy, frustration, race, reconciliation