Justifying Fashion for the Church

Often in Christianity we have to categories. Those things that are sacred, and those items that are secular. Recently I have been seeing more and more how this dichotomy is dangerous and even harmful to the Christian church. There are many perfectly good enterprises that are given up in pursuit of a life that is only sacred.

God created a world for us to enjoy. We are called to follow Christ wherever we are at. Are plans are to be committed to the Lord whatever they are so long as they are in the character of Christ. When looked at this way, there is a great deal of life that is free to be enjoyed that is normally considered secular.

Fashion for example. I have had the past had a great deal of difficulty spending money on anything related to clothing. I am more than my clothes and none of it will fit me for very long anyway. I never knew what to do with my friends who invested in a hundred dollar pair of pants, or three hundred dollar shoes. We are very quick to judge this as a waste of money that could be given to the poor.

But, even a slight comparison to our other judgments will find this lacking. Do we judge the individual who spends three hundred dollars on a ski trip? Or buys a car with leather seats and A/C instead of a minimalist design with no power windows or air conditioning. Do we judge the one that remodels their kitchen? I have never heard of that. These are all things that are ‘expected’ as normal and good. But the judgement is arbitrary.

Furthermore, I categorize fashion and clothing as one of the arts. How we dress and present ourselves can be as much as a form of art as a canvas. Matching colors, styles, seasonal clothes all with your particular body type in order to convey an image is an art. Especially if that dress conveys an image of your personality in line with who you are. I would be curious to see a fashion guide based on personality.

Finally, how we present ourselves is important in ministering the gospel of Christ. Just as overtly expensive clothes can make those who are less ‘fortunate’ feel bad, so too cheap of clothing can cut off certain peoples. If you want to minister to the wealthy or LA and Hollywood culture, you had better dress like it. Clothing can also spark conversations.

Use your money wisely, and follow Christ. In some cultures, it is considered rude not to wear your best. We are the ones that have to look at you all day, not you.

Light and Darkness

I often like to think of life in poetic themes. One of the themes that I find myself coming back to is one of light and darkness. Light, is everything good and right in the world. Laughter, hugs, love, coffee, candy, sunshine, rain, swimming, and relationships. Darkness is everything wrong and broken in the world. Hunger, tears, pain, death, wrath, jealousy, and conflict.

As often as I have moments of brilliant Dead Poets Society inspired expressions of good in the world, I have a love affair with the darkness. My sister and I both do. No one else in our family, does. Not our parents, grandparents, or any of our cousins. We love the macabre. Dark comedies, antiheroes and just plain dark material. Edgar Allen Poe, The Mysterious Geographical Explorations of Jasper Morello, and any number of other authors that kill their darlings.

My sister and I have very different reasons for our love affair with the darkness (definitely an affair). I don’t entirely understand why for my sister, but for me it is because to ignore it, and not give voice to it is deafening to my soul. I am all too aware at every given moment of the sadness and despair that everyone carries with them. Hurts, betrayals, loss of loved ones, and all sorts of wickedness, all leave a mark people.

I see these marks in their eyes. I see it in the way people walk, I hear it in cracks in voices, and I see the tears that it causes. I don’t forget it. I remember the hurt and pain I have seen in others. The only way I knew how to deal with this is to turn it into stories. Dark and macabre. To help people tell their painful stories. To listen to tails of darkness, and then share my own.

Marvels Agent’s of Shield is the best show I have ever seen that shows us how we are supposed to react to evil. In the beginning of the series Colson follows faithfully with SHIELD’s modus operandi of keeping secrets and only telling what needs to be known, begins to change and has faith in people to handle secrets.

Rather than hide the truth from Skye, Colson tells her of all the people who have died, and all the chaos that has happened around her. As we watch her respond, Colson narrates for us, “The world is full of evil, lies, pain, and death and you can’t hide from it. You can only face it. The question is when you do, how do you respond, who do you become?” How do you respond? Who do you become?

Over-stimulation of Imagery

Using images and symbolism in order to engrain a new way of thinking into our heads is one of my favorite approaches. It works better than just telling yourself to do something. It also is a lot more interesting and can become very creative. For example, imagine a samurai, in full garb and sword drawn surrounded by enemies. He is however next to a koi pond and cherry blossoms are flying through the air. He is not in a tense fighting stance, but standing calm and relaxed, and smiling slightly. Now that is peace in the midst of chaos. Be the Samurai. Don’t stress, don’t prepare once the battle has started, just do.
Depending upon your ability to imagine, and your familiarity with the concept of peace in chaos, this could be a very good image to bring to your mind in the middle of stress. Pictures carry a lot more weight than words at times, and bring in one more of the senses in order to try and connect the person we want to be with the one that is.
Images are also used for creating passwords. Imagine a tree, next to a boulder, next to an oddly bent light. The password is ‘tree.photon?’ where the light is shaped like a question mark. Now this could be made as complicated as you like.
However, this method is becoming weaker and weaker. As you go throughout your day you are going to run into countless images. Many will be normal, billboards with a face on it, but others will be odd drawings or graffiti. The problem that poses for us is that it makes each individual image more difficult to remember. The brain naturally partitions things as important or unimportant, as standing out or plain. The more images you have running through your head, the less any one of them can take up significance or stand out.
Using images to spur us on towards success, becomes less and less effective. I have no application, just an observation. I am sure the over stimulation of images has other affects, but I can’t think of any at the moment. Do you have any ideas?

Redeeming Black Friday

Black Friday does ruin the classic ideal of Thanksgiving being a nice meal with friends and family for those that begin lining up at stores at 5pm on Thursday evening. However, I do not want to give the impression that those who do such things are horrible stuff focused people. Besides many people, including one of my cousins, love the rush of trying to find the deals. It is their “sporting” hunt. Rather than shooting birds, they try and nab the deals. So for the shopping lovers, here are a few tips on how to redeem the shopping holiday.

First, when you are out shopping smile and say hi to others. It is amazing how something as simple as a smile and “hello, how are you doing?” can change a random persons day for the better. You can even step it up by asking, “who are you buying for?” and following that up with, “what do you think they will think of the gift?”

Second, be thankful. Thanksgiving is about being thankful. It used to be thankful for not dying and having food. Now we can be thankful that we do get to buy stuff. You should remember that there are people who are less fortunate than you and donate to Operation Christmas child or some other holiday giving, like buying a goat for a village through World Vision. But, you should also be thankful for the stuff that you do have. Denying the blessings that you have received is not the best way to remember or help those who don’t have the same blessings. Enjoying them is.

Third, have fun with the process of thinking of others and buying them gifts. Get creative. Think of ways of gifts that will make memories.

Finally, while you are in the checkout line standing in line after line, think of funny stories to tell or memories from seasons past. Sharing stories is one of the most powerful forms of connection and hope (if you tell it well). Be vulnerable, give it a try.

Borderlands and GenXers

Borderlands and the Broken Generation

Borderlands is the number one selling first person shooter published by 2k games. It is set apart by its cartoon graphics and the world record for most types of guns in a game, over 17750000. It also offers one of the most disappointing endings to any first person shooter ever. However, this is representative of the normal life of generation Xer.

Generation X age range from teens to those in their thirties. This generation is characterized by self-indulgent narcissism, high expectations, laziness, poorer living standards than the previous generation and broken dreams. The average 20-30 year old expects to be making 75,000 a year right out of college. The actual average income of all adults included is 52,000. They hope and expect for more, even though they believe that the world is getting worse and worse. We have been trained by Hollywood and mass media to expect a standard of living that is just not reasonable. Then when we get into the real world, our hopes are dashed as we try and fight the rats for our food in tiny disheveled apts. Or live at home till we are in our thirties.

Borderlands is about a group of treasure seekers that are looking for a mysterious vault that supposedly contains untold riches and power. You spend hours of gameplay on countless quests, doing favors, killing villains, earning new guns, and gaining pieces of the vault key. When you finally get to the final boss, which takes all of five minutes to kill, you are rewarded with weapons. Weapons that are pitiful in comparison to the ones you already have.

However, this sets up the stage for the second borderlands. There is rumor that there is a second mysterious vault still hidden on the planet of Pandora. A new set of adventurers go forth to find this vault, while interacting with the characters from the previous game. After dozens of hours of gameplay, saving lives, fighting back against Handsome Jack who wants to kill all vault hunters, and saving the world of Pandora, you are able to open this second vault; the vault finally comes with the reward of more crappy weaponry.

The game developers are pointing out that the end result of all of the efforts of pursuing our dreams and fighting for riches results is disappointment. There is no great prize at the end. There is merely the fun of the journey there. So you might as well go back through and play the game all over again, which is an important part of the game. Don’t worry about lame endings, just keep killing the psychos, and riding the meat bicycles.

Marvel: Agents of Shield

Marvel Agents of Shield

Marvels Agents of Shield is not what I expected. I admit that I so loved Marvel’s Avengers, and believe it to be a masterpiece that I fully engage myself in, therefore my expectations were a bit skewed. I was hoping for the deep questions posed by such television series as Lost and Heroes. These series ask questions about what makes us human, how do we connect, what are we willing to do to survive, how far are we willing to go to protect those we love. The audience is shown the heart, emotions and internal struggles of most of the characters.

Why I expected these questions I do not know, because neither the Avengers or any of the other Marvel films ask these deep questions. They are concerned with how people change, and overcoming great obstacles—“simple” themes of life. Agents of Shield shows us good verses evil. The question that it may be raising is, “how do we deal with evil?” “How do we deal with people doing wrong that are doing wrong mostly because of their situation?”

The reason I say, ‘may be raising,’ is because the main character Agent Coulson seem to already have it figured out. He is a Captain America type character who is already good and has a moral compass that points him to always seek the third alternative that works everything out well. The questions aren’t worked out by characters that are struggling with internal conflict with good and bad responses to tough situations. Coulson knows what to do and does it.

I applaud the show for two things, with a caveat. The first is that they do make a very simple portrayal of good and evil. There is the good guys and the bad guys. However, it also blur both evil and justice. The bad guy of the pilot is simply caught in a bad situation and is not in control because of a biomechanical device. We never see justice enacted in response to him killing someone.

The second point I applaud them for is that Coulson brings compassion and grace to those that need it. His life mission is helping those who are in need. He is the good guy through and through.

In all the series does capture the idea of old comic books. There were good guys and bad guys, things were simple. The only complicated thing was figuring out how to stop the bad people without anyone, including bad people, getting killed. Modern comics deal more with difficult choices that must be made. It is like the difference between The Brady Bunch and Modern Family. Though fun and entertaining, placed next to the more dirty down to earth modern t.v series, Agents of Shield, seems to be lacking depth.

Iron Man

Iron Man is the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, is the most popular character of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the character that brings the most attention to the Avengers. I attribute this to the fact that he is the most relatable character of the Avengers. He has a long list of character flaws that make him the most human of all of them.

Unlike Captain America who has a near flawless character and motivation for all of his decisions, or Thor who is a demi-god, and the radioactive Hulk, Tony Stark is completely human and makes decisions like any normal human would. He is selfish, egotistical and at times moody. Even in the moments when he makes the heroes choices, he makes those choices off of a very real very tangible human motivation—anger, revenge, desperation, fear of death, and love.

Black Widow and Hawkeye, although they do seek revenge in the Avengers against Loki, are also portrayed as doing it out of duty and training. Captain America makes his choices out of a seemingly God given desire to always do the right thing for no other reason than that it is right. Captain America may be our ideal, but Iron Man is the one we relate with. Which begs the question, should he be a hero that captures our imagination?

As a comic book fan, I say yes. As a Christian, I still say yes, so long as we know the direction he is heading. The story that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is telling of Tony Stark is one of growth and change. He moves from the first movie as a selfish narcissist with many moral and relational failings, to one that has hope and a purpose for his life that motivates him to press on towards good.

Although we see his character flaws plainly, I do not believe that is what captures our imagination when we watch him, that is not what influences us after the film is over. What influences us is his victories and his sacrifices. In the first movie his heroism is out of recklessness, anger, desperation and a love for Pepper. In the second, it is out of an idea that that is what heroes do. In the Avengers we see him finally grasp on to doing good because it is the right thing to do as he risks getting trapped in the worm hole.

If we pattern our lives after this pattern and movement towards good for the right reasons, then we have caught the good in Tony Stark. The character defects are there, raw and in your face. But those make him more tangible and a better example of overcoming personal issues more than any other marvel movie to date. To the Christians, I say do not forget, that there is not one Biblical character who did not have serious moral issues other than Christ, and many of the worst (Sampson) are in the Hebrews hall of Faith.

Captain America as Ideal

Captain America the leader of the Avengers is idealistically my favorite Marvel hero, however, as the epitome of a hero for us to copy he is also the hardest to relate with. Captain America embodies all of the values of character that we should strive for, but can become an unreachable standard. He is willing to take a beating for what is right, he takes care of those who are less fortunate than himself. He quickly takes risks on his life for others. Even as a wimpy asthmatic that is continually turned down from military service Rogers before he takes part in the experiment that makes him Captain America, he wants to fight bullies.

Culturally, people do not relate with Captain America as much because of his near perfect character. We often relate more with those who are flawed, like Tony Stark in Iron Man. Christians often also see a standard of perfection that we believe we cannot attain because of our sin. It is true that we cannot attain perfection here on this earth, but Captain America: The First Avenger does not teach us to reach for perfection, but goodness.

As Christians watching the movie, we can see in him the character that we should be striving for as followers of Christ. We are not taught in the films that we can be perfect, but that we should be good. In the seen before his procedure, Dr. Abraham Erskine tells him, not to be, “a perfect soldier, but a good man.” When questioned as to why he would choose the scrawny Rogers, Dr. Erskine responds, “why did I choose someone weak? Because a weak man knows the value of strength, the value of power. And he also knows compassion.”

In these few words the Dr. is speaking in line with the life we are to live as followers of Christ. We are to live well and do good for Christ. We are to live humble lives of sacrifice. As Christ humbled himself and understood meekness, so should we. We are supposed to be willing to give of ourselves to stop evil and promote good.

We will never be perfect. We won’t be perfect soldiers or followers of Christ, but we by the power and faith of Christ do good and can be good men and women. As we build our crowns, they may be broken, but crowns none the less.

Humor and What We Watch

Here is a conversation I have had with multiple unrelated people.

Me: “So how was the guest speaker?”

Person who must not be named: “Good”

Me: “What was it about?”

Person: “Uhm, well. The Christian life… and such.”

Me: “What about it?”

Person: “Uhm, well I don’t really remember.”

Me: “Then how do you know if it was good?”

Person:“It was funny. J”

A comment that I used to make about programs like, The Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother,

Me: “I know it’s pretty crude, I don’t recommend it.”

Good friend: “Then why do you watch it”

Me: “I know I know, but it is sooooooo funny!”

The UnHoly Grail of Humor

Last post I talked about choosing what we watch and how it affects our mind. Everything in culture affects us, whether we like it or not. So why do we as Christians often allow ourselves to watch or be around negative influences? Often times the excuse is humor. “It is so funny!” is used to justify why we watch material that is on the edge, at best. “There is nothing funny out there that is clean.” Is claimed as an excuse; a really poor excuse at that.

Is humor worth spoiling your mind? My answer is no. When we laugh, we are more likely to remember what was said. Also, we let our guards down as to what is said. We laugh; we don’t critique. Because our guards are down, we just subconsciously learned something. Now it is not that one joke can’t just be a joke. A joke may be harmless, I will be quick to point that out. But often, when it comes to television programs, it is never just one joke. The humor on television programs usually remains fairly consistent in their content. That way viewers know, to some degree, what to expect.

All I mean to say here is that when you are choosing what to watch and what not to watch do not let humor influence your decision. If a program is unwholesome, it is unwholesome; humor doesn’t make up for it.

Also, remember that there are plenty of programs that were funny without being crude just a few decades ago. Gilligan’s Island, Green Acres, The Munsters, I Dream of Genie (I am talking purely humor and ignoring her choice of garb at the moment), The Adam’s Family and others. Hollywood primarily produces movies and series that make money. If we as Christians want more comedies that are not crude, then we need to not watch ones that are crude. May, just maybe if all 246 million Christians in the United States[1] only watched good movies and television shows, just maybe Hollywood would change. Will you put your money and time where your faith is?

[1] Note, I don’t find this number very accurate or convincing. The 64% that claim being affiliated with a church (9% less than the 246 million listed) seems a bit more accurate.

What We Watch

Part of engaging culture as Christians is finding out how culture affects us, and acting counter culturally to that. A second part is making sure that we are not partaking in culture in such a way that it hinders our Christian walk. Everything we listen to, watch, and read will affect how we think. How we think will affect our actions.

Subtly, the culture you engage will begin to infiltrate your mind, for better or for worse. For instance, in the short documentary by Jean Kilbourne
, Killing Us Softly (warning, mature content), Jean shows how even just the advertisements that we visually consume can affect every ones views of women, both the way men view them, and the way women view themselves.

She draws strong correlations between the advertisements in a society and the number of cases of eating disorders and self image issues. She shows how consistently in advertising women are presented as sex symbols, victims, prey, objects, and finding value in their relationship to men, not on their own. Where there is no mass media, there are drastically lower numbers of eating disorders.

Advertisements also affect how we think about manhood, womanhood, parenting, children, ethics, morality, sex, vacations, rights, and more. Therefore, we must be careful as to what we consume. Now, we may not be able to avoid all billboards, commercials, and Facebook advertisements, but we can choose what television shows we watch.

The television series, The Big Bang Theory, Community, My Name Is Earl, Friends with Benefits, How I Met Your Mother, and others all devalue the importance and sacredness of sexuality. Sex is a commodity, sex is cheap, sex is between any two consenting adults without repercussion (At least in the movie, Knocked Up, the movie is about a pregnancy after foolish choices). On a short note, our society does not understand sacredness of any form, and certainly not when it comes to sex.

My primary point though is that whether we like it or not, these shows are going to affect how we think and therefore how we live. Is it then worth it? Is it worth it to watch programs that consistently portray life contrary to biblical principles when there are many other good shows that do not. One could watch, White Collar, or Sherlock

(BBC. Really, you absolutely need to watch this, if you gain one thing out of my blog I hope it is that you watch the BBC Sherlock starring, Benedict Cumberbatch), or movies like, Valkyrie,
, Howl’s Moving Castle any from the Marvel Universe and others.

I am not saying that we cannot watch anything that contains ideas contrary to Scripture, (each denomination would, in their opinion, need their own Hollywood!) but we must be careful and we must remember that self control, and personal sacrifice are part of the Christian walk and more important than our own entertainment.