in the open space: God & culture

Susan Britton—who is one of the most incredible women walking this planet and a very dear friend—spent the night in downtown Sacramento with several hundred others to draw attention to Uganda’s “night commuters,” children who leave their villages each afternoon to walk miles to cities and towns to sleep in order to escape abduction. (If you are unfamiliar with the crisis in Northern Uganda, see World Vision’s short synopsis or see here .) The Global Night Commute , sponsored by Invisible Children , occurred in over 130 other cities across the nation as well. See GoogleNews and YahooNews for coverage in the press (mostly city-wide newspapers or television stations). Susan, who just turned 60, is a gifted novelist and former journalist and lives with the heart of Jesus. She gives me great hope and promise of what life can be like if you surrender yourself to God. Early this morning, she wrote about her experience in an e-mail: If I had to use one word to describe our demonstration it

Last Thursday, ER aired “ No Place to Hide ,” the second of three episodes set in Darfur. “ Darfur ” (the first of the series) aired March 2, and the last one (“ There Are No Angels Here ”) airs May 4. These last two episodes appropriately bookend the scheduled April 30 demonstrations in cities across the nation aimed at drawing attention to crisis in that region of Sudan. (For more info on those demonstrations, see SaveDarfur .) What’s the big deal about Darfur? As I’ve outlined before on this blog , millions in Darfur are living in horrible conditions after being driven from their villages, livelihood and homes by the civil war in Sudan - often by the Janjaweed, an Arab militia recruited from local tribes and armed by the government. Many live in squalid conditions in Internal Displaced Person (IDP) camps, and hundreds of thousands are effectively cut off from aid because of the region’s remoteness. Tens of thousands have already died of starvation and disease while those who live i

Invisible Children is reporting that there are currently over 53,000 people signed up to participate in the Global Night Commute . One of those is my friend, Susan Britton . She’ll be marching and sleeping with hundreds of others in Cesar Chavez Park in Sacramento, California--and, if all works right, she's planning on sharing her experience on this blog. (My city isn’t participating, so I’m living vicariously through her.) What is the Global Night Commute ? Tomorrow night (Saturday, April 29) thousands of people will camp in U.S. city streets to draw attention to Uganda’s “night communters,” children who leave their villages each afternoon to walk miles to cities and towns to sleep in order to escape abduction. If you are unfamiliar with the crisis in Northern Uganda, see World Vision’s short synopsis . Essentially, rebel leader Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army terrorizes northern Uganda, fueling its forces by abducting children and forcing them to be soldiers, laborers and s

The Washington Times posted a story this morning I found very interesting: Church a way of life in Dixie , which reports on a recent Gallup Poll about church-going in America: The South contains eight of the top 10 states with the most frequent churchgoers in the nation, according to a Gallup Poll analysis of more than 68,000 interviews conducted in the past two years…. With 58 percent saying they attend religious services once a week or almost every week, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina residents are tied in first place -- followed by Mississippi at 57 percent, Arkansas and Utah tied at 55 percent, North Carolina and Nebraska tied at 53 percent and Tennessee and Georgia tied at 52 percent. The national average is 42 percent. The article then delves into how church-going is part of the culture in the South—to which I can whole-heartedly attest. Moving from California to the Deep South was a definate culture shock. But, as I’ve told many of my friends in both places, I quickly fo

Here are some more films to keep your eye on as possible God-talk generators. Preaching to the Choir ( Currently playing ). Starring Eartha Kitt, Ben Vereen, Patti LaBelle, Tichina Arnold, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. This comedy/drama is about two estranged brothers—one a preacher and one a hip-hop star—who are forced to reconcile when the hip-hop star flees California for his Harlem home. The film’s website boasts: “Through the intersection of gospel and hip hop, east coast and west coast, the sacred and the secular, Preaching to the Choir weaves a story of unconditional love and redemption, a story of community.” It’s apparently playing in many areas of the country, but not here. Sigh. The King ( May 5, limited release ). Starring Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt. This heavy drama debuted at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and appears to be scheduled for release in America, albeit limited. William Hurt stars as a minister who’s confronted by a young Latino man who claims to be hi

Since Google launched the DaVinci Code Quest on Google , my hits have more than doubled, ack. So, let me help you out. If you’re here looking for answers to the Google Quest, try: GoogleFact blog Warped From the Pipe DaVinciQuest blog But if you happen to be looking for answers to life, try: Power to Change ReJesus Your Destiny, Your Choice Christianity Works And if you’re looking for answers about the DaVinci Code , try: Five Big questions from the DaVinci Code Catholic Answers Mark Roberts’ DaVinci Code Resources DaVinci Code’s Wake-up Call God’s speed on all your quests.

Here in the States, we are one season behind on the BBC’s regenerated Dr. Who series, which began again in 2005. Heh, I remember ditching homework in college to watch reruns of the Fourth Doctor (and my favorite) with that incredibly long scarf and that head of uncontrollable curly hair. Two decades later, it took me awhile to get back into the Doctor’s campy (and, admittedly, sometimes really stupid) world, but I’ve gotten hooked again—especially after a recent episode. In The Long Game , the show throws a punch at the world’s media conglomerates and the journalists they employ. Thousands of years in Earth’s future, the media is controlled from Satellite Five, a massive orbiting space station that fuels and controls 600 news channels. The (Ninth) Doctor grows suspicious, but can’t get any help from the station’s journalists, who are more concerned with climbing the corporate ladder (almost literally) than asking questions or digging for truth. He’s eventually captured by the Editor,

Invisible Children announced via e-mail today that they will be on the Oprah Winfrey Show tomorrow, Wednesday, April 26, to talk about the April 29 Global Night Commute (when thousands of Americans will camp in U.S. city streets to draw attention to Uganda’s “night communters,” children who leave their villages each afternoon to walk miles to cities and towns to sleep in order to escape abduction). According to their e-mail: Ten million viewers, who did not know about Invisible Children, will be hanging on her every word. Needless to say, we are BUSY preparing, and again completely ecstatic. If one percent of Oprah’s viewers were to join us - we will have over 100,000 (plus our 40,000) committed to commute on April 29th. And you KNOW how we dream big. Apparently, it was Invisible Children supporters that helped this happen: You can stop calling and writing her letters, and emails now. (We are blown away at how many of you wrote on our behalf- without our prompting. So were they.) N

Andrew Jones (who wrote one of my most favorite reflections on the house church movement, My Gripes About the House Church Movement , posted over at Third Day Churches ) has listed 11 Characteristics of the Church Emerging on his Tall Skinny Kiwi blog (which you really should visit--more than once--if you haven’t already) as suggested by pastor and author Doug Pagitt (for more on him see an interview with Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal ). Here they are: 1. A Kingdom of God focus - join the Kingdom of God wherever it finds it. 2. Pursue faithfulness to God through new practices, structures and understandings. 3. Tend to have a hopeful and positive view of God's engagement in the world - we should find the activity of God in the world and join it. 4. Committed to loving God and loving neighbor and loving enemy in real ways in this world. 5. Deeply connected to the story of God and the Bible. 6. Living with the guidance of the Holy Spirit - not culture or understandings 7

Here are few sound-bites (blog-bites?) from God-talk I've run across out there: 1. Invisible Children’s Global Night Commute (when thousands of Americans will camp in U.S. city streets to draw attention to Uganda’s “night communters,” children who leave their villages each afternoon to walk miles to cities and towns to sleep in order to escape abduction) is but a few days away (April 29)—and it's picking up momentum in the media . Kudos to Chuck Colson for drawing attention to it this week . (He also wrote a column last week about the genocide and violence occurring in Darfur, urging people to call or write their Senators and Congressmen; visit the link for more info.) 2. If you can’t attend the Global Night Commute , then consider signing World Vision’s online declaration “deploring the abuse of children forced by rebels to become soldiers, in northern Uganda. The signed declaration will be presented to the Bush administration, Congress and the United Nations.” They're

The long-awaited (and now hyper-hyped) DaVinci Code comes out in less than a month. Opinions are oozing from magazines, newspapers, bookstands , television specials and daily news shows. Not much new can be said about the film—secular, Christian or otherwise—that hasn’t already been said. (I'm planning on compiling a comprehensive list of these resources and posting them here, hopefully in the next week or two.) But over the last several months, Christian commentators (like Scot McKnight , Mark Roberts and others ) have uncovered some larger, underlying issues that I'd like to highlight here. Rather than particular topics regarding the novel or film, these are more general concerns exposed by The DaVinci Code phenomenon—and they pose problems we Christians must address. Many of us don’t know our faith’s history. One of the major focuses of Christian experts is aimed at confronting the abundance of errors in The DaVinci Code regarding church history, doctrine and the Bible.

If I keep renting movies off Christianity Today’s Top 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2005 , I’m going to have to start buying tissues in bulk, ack. But, I must admit, Millions and Dear Frankie (another off that list) are the best films I’ve seen in ages. They both deal poignantly with painful themes, but both also leave you with abundant hope and release and celebration that comes with life’s sorrows, pain and complications. Millions is a British film about two young brothers, Damian and Anthony, who try to figure out what to do with over a quarter of a million English pounds (on the eve of the euro changeover) that literally drop out of the sky. But the story is mostly about Damian, a boy of powerful, simple, matter-of-fact faith in a world blinded to it by its own self-interest and desire to conform, among other things. This is most exquisitely emphasized by Damian’s ability to see and talk to saints with hovering, glowing halos above their heads. I’m not giving away anymore of the p

Multiple sources (like Ireland Online , the UK’s Telegraph , and Cinecon ) are reporting Variety’s scoop (available only to subscribers) that Legendary Pictures (who brought us Superman Returns and Batman Begins ) is bringing John Milton’s 1667 legendary poem to the big screen. According to the sources above, Variety (which originally reported the story in October 2005) says Scott Derrickson ( Exorcism of Emily Rose and Hellraiser: Inferno ) is attached as director as well as co-writer with Stuart Hazeldine (the two will be working off a script already penned by Byron Willinger and Phil DeBlasi). Vincent Newman Entertainment and Legendary Pictures are producing the film. The project is described as “epic in scope and size.” This is, to say the least, an intriguing project. In August 2005, Derrickson—a self-confessed Christian—sat for an interview with Christianity Today prior to the release of Exorcism of Emily Rose , which he directed. (The film was listed on CT’s Top 10 Rede

Here are the early reviews on United 93 , the film chronicling in real time the experiences of air traffic controllers, military personnel and the passengers of the 9/11 plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The film will release nation-wide on April 28. All three reviews listed here advocate seeing the film, dismissing any notions that it is exploitive or unnecessary. However, none of them delve into the faith issues in the film. The only talk on that I’ve seen has come via GetReligion’s Terry Mattingly (see here and here ). But it’s early, and there will be more reviews. Variety’s review says of the film: “Taut, visceral and predictably gut-wrenching, United 93 , Paul Greengrass' already much-debated look at Sept. 11, trades in some emotional impact for authenticity, capturing the overwhelming sense of chaos surrounding that day's harrowing events. The result is a tense, documentary-style drama that methodically builds a sense of dread despite the preordained outcom

I stumbled upon Stephanie Simon’s work late last year, when I read her November 2005 LA Times article, Offering Abortion, Rebirth . The article was incredibly well-written and well-crafted, at once informative and disturbing (if you haven't read it, do so). While she drew some fire from both abortion advocates and opponents, she drew praise from journalists, like GetReligion’s crew (read here and here and here ). Since reading that piece, I’ve read everything she’s published since. What makes her so good? Besides her incredible skill, she is knowledgeable about and takes faith seriously—and that will get her noticed by this blog. Today, the LA Times published another Simon piece, this one on immigration. While it's not as powerful as the abortion article, it is worth the read. In Faith Shapes Views at a Church of Immigrants , Simon gives us a glimpse inside the views of a Laredo, Texas Pentecostal church when it comes to immigration. I almost hate to excerpt it, as I think

A graphic novel review by Michael Fielder provides a bit more history and info on The Fountain , a film this blog is following for its theme on the quest for eternal life (which could potentially generate God-talk). Apparently, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has been trying to get this film made for several years. After its first incarnation collapsed (originally starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett), he put his vision on paper in the form of a graphic novel . In the novel, the story is a bit more fleshed out: His story concerns a pair of doomed lovers thrice incarnated, first in the 16th century royal court of Spain, from whence the Queen's warrior-champion Tomas undertakes a perilous journey to the New World to secure a Mayan relic ahead of the throne-usurping, Rome-backed Inquisition; then, in the present day, when a geneticist works feverishly to find a cure for his wife's brain tumour; and finally, in the future, 40 years hence, when an astronaut and the ghost of his heart&

The next column ( Where is wisdom? ) in a 13-week series I’m writing for Mennonite Weekly Review is online. It begins: An average bookstore is filled with books claiming to know how to get the best life and solve the world’s problems. The range of worldviews, philosophies and religions claiming to have the answers seems endless. As Christians, however, we know there’s one book where we find true understanding and knowledge on how to live this life and relate to the people and world around us. That book includes a collection of proverbs written by a wise sage who leads us to the only place perfect wisdom is found: God and God alone. To read the rest, go here .

As I browse the Web, I often run across interesting sites or articles but I don’t have the time to write up posts on all of them. So, here’s the first post of many that will point you to places where I’ve found God-talk worth a look. 1. A Worthy Message is an interesting blog I ran across while perusing the comments section of a GetReligion post . If you are interested in the emerging movement or simple church stuff, you’ll probably find this blog worth returning to. (Also, I must confess, I was inspired to start “God-talk Miscellany” by his “Just Browsing” series.) Give the blog a visit. 2. Action Institute (whose self-described purpose is “to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles”) posted an entry on their Power Blog on the Michael Luo’s NY Times article, Evangelicals Debate the Meaning of ‘Evangelical’ (which I blogged about earlier here ). I like Power Blogger Jordan Ballar’s insight that evangelicals tend

The NY Times published an interesting article yesterday: Evangelicals Debate the Meaning of ‘Evangelical’ by Michael Luo. Luo opens with the idea that evangelicals are experiencing a fracturing of sorts: “old fissures are widening, and new theological and political splits are developing.” Luo deals with the political splits first, rightly observing (though a bit simplistically) that evangelicals are splitting on issues like global warming and immigration. For context, he turns to Dr. John C. Green of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, who separates evangelicals into three camps, traditionalist, centrist and modernist: The traditionalists, characterized by high affinity for orthodox religious beliefs and little inclination to adapt them to a changing world, bear the closest resemblance to what has been labeled the Christian right, whose most visible spokesmen have been figures like the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the television evangelist Pat Robertson . . . Centrists, he said, m

I recently ordered and received one of Invisible Children’s bracelets . The bracelets are hand-made in Uganda to raise money for children suffering in the northern part of that country. Invisible Children uses the money raised to put children through school and create jobs in an unemployable war area. This particular bracelet is named after Innocent: “an academic, a soccer player, a dancer, a leader, a Night Commuter.” The other bracelets (each in a different color) represent different children, giving “a name and a face to one of the many effects of this 20-year-long war.” And this, in particular, is what I like about this organization—putting a face to the crisis. Too often, it’s easier to look at crises like these as “issues” rather than seeing the people in them. As Christians, however, it is imperative that we, like Jesus, see people and not just issues. Invisible Children helps us do that. If you are unfamiliar with the crisis in Northern Uganda, see World Vision’s short synop

Another column from the 13-week series I’m writing for Mennonite Weekly Review is online. This one ( Wide Open Spaces ) focuses on several chapters in Ecclesiastes: Many of us harbor the illusion that we have a great deal of control over what happens to us. Inevitably, however, something crushes that deception: a sudden illness, a car accident, a natural disaster, the loss of a job, someone’s death, a war, a terrorist act. Then we remember what little control we actually have over our lives, those we love and the world around us. Ecclesiastes’ Teacher reminds us of that, too. But he also points out that Someone is in control. And that has an enormous impact on how we approach and experience life’s seasons and turns. To read the rest, go here .

I’ve discovered a few more upcoming films promising God-talk. Silence . This Martin Scorsese project—apparently being adapted from the Shusaku Endo novel—has been talked about for awhile by multiple sources (most recently Christianity Today’s History & Biography ). Back in November 2005, Variety —which labeled the film as "Scorsese’s Japan-set passion-project"—described it as “the martyrdom-themed tale of two 17th century Portuguese missionaries who return to Japan to minister to Christians, who've been outlawed.” Interestingly, Scorsese has a Roman Catholic background (Endo was Catholic). Couple that with the faith that laces Scorsese’s films, and it will be, to say the least, an interesting project. But the story is not for the weak of heart. It is full of anguish, betrayal and suffering. If you don’t mind being spoiled, see either this article from Theology Today (a publication of Princeton Theological Seminary) or this one from Commonweal for more about the di

Earlier this week, thousands rallied in demonstrations and protests across the country to draw attention to the 11 to 12 million "illegal immigrants" or "undocumented immigrants" (whichever term you prefer) living in this country. Legislation in the Senate appears stalled, but I’m heartened by the discussion this is fanning among people, especially Christians. Not only does it raise an awareness of the issue, but it causes us to really examine and discuss how we are to live out our faith. Christianity Today came out with another editorial on the issue that, imho, encourages us to look deeper into what elements come to play when we discuss issues like immigration. Blessed is the Law—Up to a Point responds to criticism from readers on CT’s first editorial, Blessed Are the Courageous (which, in honor of full disclosure, I found right on ). Managing editor Mark Galli (who, when I met him years ago at an Evangelical Press Association dinner, seems a real down-to-ear

The slow pace at which the world is moving to stop the death and violence in Darfur and northern Uganda is utterly maddening. While world governments loiter (or, at best, slowly plod), men, women and children are being raped, killed and herded into refugee camps as a result of a bloodbath that world governments can stop—if they act. A recent NY Times op-ed ( Fiddling While Darfur Burns ) expresses this frustration well. It’s opening sets the tone for the short editorial: “It is enormously distressing to watch the sausage-making that passes for the world's attempt to do something about the carnage in Darfur.” The editorial exposes what’s holding things up (U.N. “dawdling” and “diplomatic cover to Sudan” by some Security Council members) as well as some of the things being accomplished (like the Bush administration’s push on the U.N. and an upcoming April 30 rally in Washington), but the last word is one of infuriating aggravation: “Rwanda should have taught us all something; it&#