in the open space: God & culture

FoxFaith has a featurette up on Saving Sarah , a film adaptation of Beverly Lewis’ The Redemption of Sarah Cain . Select the film from the sidebar , and then select the featurette icon at the bottom of the blurb about the film. The video features interviews with the actors, behind the scenes glimpses and some scenes from the film, which is due out in August, I think. Earlier this year, FoxFaith released Thr3e, The Last Sin-Eater and The Ultimate Gift , all of which did not do well at the box office (or with critics). Last fall, however, their cooperation with Gen8xion produced semi-respectable box-office receipts and some good reviews for One Night with the King , a film this blog liked too. There’s not much on upcoming films in the FoxFaith arena besides Saving Sarah ; The Final Inquiry (the drama set in the first century surrounding the resurrection of Jesus is a re-release of L’ Inchiesta ) is still in a “coming soon” holding pattern.

This weekend, I watched my TiVo’d recording of “ One If by Land ,” the latest episode of Jericho , the CBS apocalyptic drama about a small town in Kansas after a series of nuclear bombs were detonated around the country. The episode was one of the series’ better ones, and it’s got me thinking. The episode mostly centers on patriarch and former Jericho mayor Johnston Green who goes to a nearby town to look for sons Eric and Jake, who’ve been jailed for trying to sabotage its factory which is being used to make explosives and mortars for an attack on Jericho. When Johnston gets to New Bern, it doesn’t take long for him to learn of his sons’ whereabouts—or to confront the town’s dictator/sheriff Constantino (above photo), who rules his town with a ruthless and ambitious hand. Heh, I must admit I’ve become a bit enamored with Johnston Green lately. Early on, I sorta boxed him up as a flawed version of the father in the prodigal son parable , but his character has really deepened and devel

. . . but this was too much fun! Read my VisualDNA ™ Get your own VisualDNA™ Hat tip to Lorna at thisfarbyfaith .

Coming Soon posted some interesting tidbits regarding the upcoming modern day Noah story and Bruce Almighty sequel, Evan Almighty . It seems the film is the “first major motion picture comedy to Go ZeroSM and ‘zero out’ the carbon emissions generated through the production of the film.” This is right up director Tom Shadyac’s alley as, according to Coming Soon, he’s got a good track record in “giving back”: Director Tom Shadyac has long believed in giving back and is a committed supporter of numerous charitable organizations. In addition to being one of the most successful directors in Hollywood—with credits including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Patch Adams and Bruce Almighty —he is founder of bottled-water company HtoO, Hope to Others, which donates 100% of profits after taxes to charities around the world. In line with the cast and crew commitment, there’s now a website out there that offers you a couple of chances to go green yourself. You can don

From Miracles: How God Intervenes in Nature and Human Affairs by C.S. Lewis: Your rational thinking has no foothold in your merely natural consciousness except what it wins and maintains by conquest. The moment rational thought ceases, imagination, mental habit, temperament, and the “spirit of the age” take charge of you again. New thoughts, until they themselves become habitual, will affect your consciousness as a whole only while you are actually thinking them. Reason has but to nod at his post, and instantly Nature’s patrols are infiltrating.

There’s another top film list out there, this one from UK’s Church Times : Top 50 Religious Films . Here are the top 10: 1 The Mission 2 The Gospel According to St Matthew 3 It’s a Wonderful Life 4 The Last Temptation of Christ 5 On the Waterfront 6 Babette’s Feast 7 Gandhi 8 The Apostle 9 The Passion of theChrist 10 The Crucible Hat tip to Matt at Bible Films Blog , who also gives his take on the list.

And on the heels of the international trailer , here's the domestic one. Blimey, this one's good, too! For more high res versions see Yahoo . For the YouTube version above, go here . What's it doing on a God-talk blog? As I mentioned yesterday, this territory has been well-covered by other folk, so check out Redeeming Harry Potter or this book for starters.

My eight-year-old daughter was baptized on Sunday. It was so beautiful. And I was awed. Watching her smile, laugh, go under and then rise from the water was a brand new experience for me—an encounter with the Kingdom like none other I’ve stumbled on. It was a thin place . A whiff of Love. A taste of Light. Like the smell of a sea you can’t yet see or the scent of desert rain still a ways off yet sure to come. Like a shimmer of light in Lorien or a depth of green in Narnia. Something not to be grasped but simply walked in. Like a mist, only one of fine crystals of diamonds, glimmering and sure. It was so beautiful .

What you didn’t know about Bob the Tomato: Heh . (Image: copyrighted by Big Idea, Inc.)

Check out the new international trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter film. What's it doing on a God-talk blog? This territory has been well-covered by other folk, so check out Redeeming Harry Potter or this book for starters. (Image: copyrighted by Warner Bros)

Recently, I caught the tele-version of Chronicles of Riddick , the Vin Diesel sci-fi sequel which follows the Pitch Black angsty anit-hero who’s now thrust into a messianic prophecy in which he’s to fight the Necromongers, an evil empire who kill all who don’t convert to their religion. Critics pretty much panned the 2004 film (it got a dismal 28% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes ), but in spite of that (and its violence) I found it worth considering as it's loaded with a ton of God-talk. Heh, and I’m not the only one who thinks so: Kevin Miller at Hollywood Jesus impressively squeezes much more out of the film than I ever could have, and Todd Hertz’s review at Christianity Today (while mostly negative) pulls some aspects out of it as well. This time through the film, I was particularly struck by its take on religion. The Necromongers go from planet to planet, proclaiming a one-true religion and demanding that all inhabitants either convert or be slaughtered. “Converts” are lin

If you haven’t seen it already, here’s a conversation (about religion and the existence of God) between evangelical pastor Rick Warren and atheist Sam Harris over at Newsweek . Hat tip to Thunderstruck .

Over at Looking Closer , Jeffrey Overstreet posted some links to the latest spread in Seattle Pacific University’s Response on Bible illiteracy . You can test your own knowledge of Scripture in this 24-question test . Then read his article, which asks: Are We Biblically Illiterate? Does It Really Matter? as well as some opinions about that . How did I do on the test? I got 21 out of 24 right. How about you?

From Evangelism Without Additives by Jim Henderson : When you are on a mission to the missing, conversion and disciple making often get blurred, overlapping and combined like ingredients poured into a mixing bowl. That's why Jesus told us to make disciples, not coverts. Conversion is an important but small step toward discipleship. The linear, multistep sequence we think of as a normal path to conversion doesn't happen in reality, even we have a willing disciple. There are always twists and turns. Always surprises. If you are too scripted with your evangelistic expectations, you won't be agile enought to stay connected with the people Jesus misses most. . . . . When we allow people to belong before they believe, when we include them in the life of our faith community and introduce them to people they would normally never associate with, we are discipling them. Or perhaps more accurately, we're providing a context for them to engage with the Holy Spirit as he teaches th

Events and memorial observations of late got me thinking some about good, evil and why we are who we are and do what we do. Horrific events like those at Virginia Tech (or Columbine or Oklahoma City or Beslan or Nickel Mines—the list is too painfully long) not only beg deep-rooted questions about suffering and evil, but also what leads people to such a dark place. Why do they do it? How do they get to that place? Lately, many worthy ideas are being batted around on the airwaves and in cyberspace—from gun-related issues to the destructive power of depression (and that incredible essay is making an appearance again). Many of these issues desperately need discussion, examination and debate, and I’m glad to see them on the table. But, in the end, these issues—as important as they are—don’t answer my more troubling ruminations. They don’t go deep enough. Perhaps events like these—at least for me—get at a more basic truth about reality, our world and the lives we lead within it. I’m finding

Oh, Lord, who comforts the downcast, who comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort we receive, Oh Lord, move among the anquished hearts and bring your peace and love in depth and breadth beyond our comprehension. Let your people be your hands that hold and your arms that embrace. Bring forth your life in death, your hope in agony and your peace in the storms. (Image: Wikipedia Commons )

Every week, a few of us neighbors get together in the evening and spend an hour or so reading aloud the Bible and discussing what we read and how we’ve experience God’s Truth in our lives. Last week, in the wake of Easter, we took a break from our current section and read through each Gospel’s resurrection account. When we got to John, one section struck me: the part where Mary Magdalene encounters Jesus at the tomb ( John 20:1-15 Message ): Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, breathlessly panting, "They took the Master from the tomb. We don't know where they've put him." Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen clot

Well, the storms passed and left in their wake a blustery cold front which made for a very cold and windy day. We four--three of us suffering from sore throats and stuffy noses--spent most of the day huddled in front of the fire. Go figure. It's April.

I don't have much time these days (the moving thing and all), but here's a head's up to something worth reading: Check out Daniel Pulliam's analysis of a Wall Street Journal article on New, evangelistic atheism in Europe . Heh, he does one of his customary South Park tie-ins, too. If my European friends out there have a bit of time, what's your take on this?

I’m rather humbled to note that Jim Henderson’s Off the Map site picked up my post One Day, One Room on one of their blogs, Ordinary Attempts . Henderson wrote one of my favorite books read last year , Evangelism Without Additives , which gets at the heart of evangelism: you love people. Really love them. No strings attached. While your at Ordinary Attempts, check out my uberfriend Susan’s post, Cooky Lady !

Well, it looks as if this clan of current Deep Southerners is going to be moving North in a couple of weeks. Actually, we’ll technically still be living in the South, but only just barely, heh—we’ll be setting up house and home in Virginia, near Washington, D.C. I actually really love moving (except for the actual “moving” part—you know, packing, cleaning, loading the truck, etc.). While I haven’t done a ton of this pulling up stakes and putting down new ones, I’ve had my share. I was born on the East Coast, but moved to the Southwest early on in elementary school. Since then, I’ve lived in several regions of the U.S., including the Midwest, a couple of cities on the West Coast and currently the Deep South. And I’ve enjoyed every move. I enjoy forging into a new place and setting up camp, exploring the sites and sounds, tasting new foods and seeing new things. And I’ve found that each landscape (even if only subtly) seems to cultivate its own way of life, shaping the people and culture

(Image: Gustave Dore sketch of Jesus via ArtPassion.net )

Recently, I ran across Keith Strohm’s blogs (yes, he actually has more than one), and as I read through recent entries I came across this in one of his posts : What we offer the world is Truth. Not an abstract principle, or a set of equations, but rather a living Person--the Source of Life and Being Himself. In such a way, we should be conscious, then, of being possessed by this Truth, rather than claiming any sort of ownership ourselves. Amen! Too often we make our faith a principle, system or way of life (a.k.a., a religion) rather than a focusing on and trusting and living and breathing in Jesus. When we grasp—even just a little—that our trust is in a Person it begins to shake and shift and radically transform the way we live. All the rules change and that Kingdom air sinks into our very cells. Thanks for the reminder, Keith. (Image: Public domain, from Gustave Dore's Jesus at the house of Mary and Martha)

Spring has sprung. And I am reminded that it is here as no where else I've ever been, in this Deep South, that exists every shade of green in God's paintbox. It never ceases to amaze me.

From The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out by Dan Stone: We will never know abundant life until the unseen and eternal realm is home to us in our everyday experience. Until then, we will be living according to appearances, and appearances will never lead us deeper into the life of God. Only faith will. God wants to bring us to the point where we say, "I live by what God says about the things in my life--situations, people, and myself." Then we see as He does. We discern that situations are not as they appear to be, but that God's absolutes are operating in the realm of appearances. We are at rest in the unseen and eternal realm, and we experience His fullness within us. (Image: Wikipedia Commons )

The other day, I was flipping through the channels and landed on the last 15 or 20 minutes of Sci-Fi Channel's Dresden Files , an urban fantasy (as Mir nicely labels it) about private eye Harry Dresden who sees the work of the supernatural in crimes. Now, I gotta admit I’m pretty much sitting on the same couch as Mir on this one: this show isn’t the best or the brightest out there. But the closing scene of this episode caught my attention—and got me thinking some Kingdom thoughts. Dresden was talking with Connie Murphy (a police lieutenant), who is aware of but extremely uncomfortable with Dresden’s world of magic and the supernatural. She contemplates breaking her connection with Dresden because the world feels scary enough without the presence of dark magic and villains who could wield it. “I can’t live in your world because my rules don’t work there,” she says. “And I need my rules.” I was struck by this comment because I think it’s the way many of us feel. There’s the moment

The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits. --G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Image: The Grey Havens from the Lord of the Rings via Wikipedia ; copyrighted by New Line Cinema)