Jesus is a friend of mine

Announcement!

After getting on a roll where I was going bloggy, bloggy at least one a week, I've been floating on the outer edges of the blogosphere.

But I can explain if my head's been elsewhere.

Sara and I are getting married!

New website is up at http://www.steveandsaraw.com/

Including a new wedding blog.

Thank you, thank you!

Quick hits:
* I present to you last week's Story of the Week -- a pheasant chasing a tractor. I kid you not. No one prepared me for that one in journalism school.

* At the TV station, we ordered up a big controversial story just in time for the November ratings period. It's the story of a 25-year-old teacher who fled to Mexico with her 13-year-old student. Pretty weird, and pretty sensational. Not necessarily a lot of substance, but when us TV folks find a story like this, we latch on.

* Interesting article on a subject I was wondering about. How Shyness Became a Mental Illness. I hate these ads that try to make people feel they need drugs to cope with life. Just because I tend to be introverted doesn't mean something's wrong with me.

* Had an interesting discussion yesterday with my youth pastor/history teacher/all-around-smart-guy friend Matt. It was about giving birth at home, something he and his wife did. We talked about making pregnancy a medical condition to be treated, a commodity in a sense. Interesting philosophical discussion too of why Nebraska allows home birth, but does not allow midwives to be present.

* Can you believe we'll have a new president in less than a year? I have no idea who I'm going to vote for. That's not for a lack of looking. I just don't know.

* Our church surveyed us last weekend, as the church begins the search for a new senior pastor. I'm glad they're seeking input. And while such an exercise is certainly useful, I hope it doesn't dictate what the search committee does. I'm confident it won't. It's like teaching to the test. The kids all look like they know what they're doing, but aren't well rounded. I hope we don't search to the survey. What people think they want could differ greatly from what God wants for them.

All righty... that's it for now. Hopefully if I throw a dozen topics in a post, something will stick. Discuss away.

Top 10 Influtential Works of Art Since 1900

So my friend Matt & his college/career group at church came up with a list. Many, I'm a sucker for these.

Top 10 Influtential Works of Art Since 1900.

1. The Great Train Robbery

2. MTV

3. The Wizard of Oz

4. Monopoly

5. Super Mario Brothers

6. Sesame Street

7. Woodstock

8. Oklahoma

9. Walt Disney Land

10. The Lord of the Rings

10a. Star Trek

Others mentioned but left off the list:

Superman, Saturday Night Live, The Honeymooners, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Star Wars IV, Breakfast Club, Three paintings by Picasso, Four Freedoms by Norman Rockwell, American Gothic by Grant Wood, Schindler's List, 1984, The Late Show, Sgt. Peppers, Elvis's Sun Sessions, Johnny Cash's Live From Folsom Prison, West Side Story, Nirvana's Nevermind, Playboy Magazine, Fallwater by Frank Lloyd Wright, The Simpsons, Citizen Kane, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Survivor, Led Zeppelin IV, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, and others.

Now, my list. I don't necessarily disagree with a lot on that list. It's a good starting point. Here, though, are some additions and explanations:

Execution of a VietCong Guerilla - I'd chose either this or the shot of the Flag at Iwo Jima. Photography as art and journalism at the same time. Film (and video) may be the 20th century's most prominent art form, but photography needs to be recongized on this list.

Zapruder Film - The leader of the free world killed, and it's captured on film. Plus it ushered in the era of the citizen journalist. The average person could create their own multimedia presentations, leading to home video, leading to Bob Saget narrating clips of men getting hit in the crotch.

Wizard of Oz - A cultural landmark. A huge movie for color.

Star Wars - Darth Vader is universally recognized. Everyone knows the quotes. "May the force be with you". "I am your father." Ushered in the special effects blockbuster.

The Simpsons - Postmodern sitcom that deconstructed earlier shows like "Ozzie and Harriet"

Great Train Robbery - first film that showed what the medium was capable of. Bridged the gap between low and high culture, leading to our current pop culture world (something that's bigger than the medium of film itself). Lead to Citizen Kane, etc. While you could pick another early film (like The Jazz Singer, Battleship Potemkin) this would be my choice.

1984 - "Big Brother" is fully ensconced in our cultural lexicon.

I Have a Dream - Wordplay is an artform. Delivery is an artform. This is those at their highest.

LOTR - what do I need to say? Huge influence on music, books, movies. Even the Beatles at one time talked about making a movie of it.

Coke bottle - mass marketing as pop art. How very modern.

White Christmas - The song, not the movie.

All Your Base Are Belong to Us - introduction of the internet meme.

Run DMC - Walk This Way. Brought rap into the mainstream. Rap is inherently postmodern, borrowing elements from other genres then recontextualizing them in a new form. Rap borrows from jazz, rock, pop. the blues, disco, etc. The latter part of the 20th century saw a rise in this kind of art. Take something old, twist it into something new. You could say that's a lot of what we see on YouTube. Take something from pop culture, spin it into something new.

Warhol - soup cans are iconic.

West Side Story - representative of the great American musical, the only true innovation American theater has brought to the centuries old artform

Cars - Model T, the '56 Chevy, the Vette, the Mustang. Cars are designed; They are works of art, and worshiped for their aesthetic appeal, in addition to their other qualities.

Hockey Tournament

I'm exhausted. Muscles I didn't know I have ache.

We've been playing hockey at church for about 7 or 8 years now. We play a weekly pick up game that lasts about two hours.

Last night we played a tournament. It started about 6 and I didn't leave until close to midnight. It was fun though.

Last night felt like one of those God things. Everyone got along, no one got too hurt. That's pretty much a miracle for a bunch of teenagers.

I'm proud of these guys for playing hard, but not getting nasty. The guys wer ealso very encouraging to each other.

I've got special affection for a kid named Brian. He plays goalie, and does a pretty good job. You can see him in the black gear towards the center of the picture. His team came in second. They came a couple of goals short of being our tournament champs. He made some nice saves. Especially when you consider he can't use his legs.

We have to carry him and set him in the net.

That's because Brian usually gets around with the use of braces. Brian suffers from cerebral palsy, I believe. He doesn't talk about his disability.

The other kids help him put his goalie gear on. Kids then give him a lift, and position him in net. They bring him water, and are generally encouraging. I don't think anyone pities the guy. Rather, they show compassion and try to bring the best out of him.

That's the body of Christ at work, in a bunch of sweaty, often frustrating teenagers. God moves in mysterious ways.

Yeah, an old shot. Don't know that I've ever blogged it before. It's a punk kid at an outdoor church service that he didn't really wanna be at.

NEW! Now caring 400% more for women than men!

OK, that's not my church's new slogan. But the reality of the budget ledger shows we do spend four times more on ministry stuff for women than men.

I'm not sure what that means.

Maybe the women are more organized and have more events. I know they had a big winter retreat this past weekend with food, guest speakers, music, etc. They schedule more events so need more money.

So maybe it's an indictment of the men, for not doing more formal activities. Although, men are surely well represented in our co-ed ministries.

Do churches know what to do with men? I'm not sure.

I'm not sure I know what to do with men at church. The Promise Keepers fad has subsided. We don't want big retreats at church. Our church has sponsored hunting trips for men, or trips to baseball games. The latter would be more my speed.

We talked about this at a small group at church the other day. Have men abdicated their place in the church? (And I mean Church in the universal sense, not just my local body). Or to some extent, is the church responsible for not engaging men?

More questions than answers, I know. But that's what I do.

There's something cool about seeing a deserving family move into a new home of their own. This family is not only paying for a new home, but they helped build it through Habitat for Humanity. Yes, Habitat families do have a mortgage to pay. It's cheaper than most homes. But it's not a free house by any means. They put in hundreds of hours working on the home. And this weekend they got the keys. I'm proud to say I helped put the siding on the home, with the kids from chuch. Just hope it stays up!

You, a leader in the faith community can meet Sylvester Stallone, yes Rocky, today!

The marketing team that told Christians it was their duty to support The Passion and Narnia now wants you to believe the new Rocky film is a Christian event not to be missed.

And today, you can join Sly on the phone (12:30-12:50 Pacific Time), or so an e-mail tells me.

Motive Marketing said, "Sly would like to take some time to talk to you about the faith and values that run through the Rocky films, and share with you about his upcoming movie, Rocky Balboa, the final chapter in the Rocky story (yes, Stallone himself gets back in the ring!)."

Space is limited! (Although, it's a phone call? Huh? This is quite the PR drivel here.)

Here's what Stallone himself is saying, as he shills himself out to the "faith community"

"In Rocky, if he's just a fighter, then it's just a boxing story, and I told the producers in the beginning, 'It's not a boxing story; it's a spiritual journey. It really is about a man that has been chosen to accomplish a role, to be an example for other people.' "
Interview with New Man Magazine

"If you don't have a great relationship with God, you can go off the deep end. The Christian foundation of life is really the perfect ideal which one should base every decision they make on, because it comes from a sense of kindness, a sense of giving, a sense of fairness, and it avoids everything which I'm exposed to every day in my particular industry which is greed, and avarice and jealousy and bitterness . . ."
Interview with Catholic Digest

They've even found pastors to sell this thing to their churches.

"Life is hard, and faith can help us to face some of those challenges and issues in our past and you see Rocky do that throughout the movies but particularly it comes to kind of a peak in this movie and it was exciting to see."
Jud Wilhite
Senior Pastor, Central Christian Church
Las Vegas, Nevada

"I guess if there's one theme that stood out for me was the whole idea of self esteem. And how important that is to be formed in the family, first of all, and then, if it gets lost along the way, that it can be regained. And that's a good message for people to know, and to hear that there's always hope."
Sister Rose Pacatte
Daughters of St. Paul

So you're telling me I should load up the church van and get the kids to see a movie about... self-esteem? Uh, yeah, great. I'm sure kids will jump at that change to see a 60 year old guy get whipped in the ring so they can share a heart-warming message about self-esteem.

They've even got a website (www.RockyResources.com) offering fodder for Rocky-based sermons.

Ah finally, at the end of the e-mail to faith leaders like me, the caveat I've been waiting for:

Though this is not a religious film, we believe there are many themes ("The Heart of a Champion," "Fighting the Good Fight," "Recovery After a Fall," etc.) that relate to faith and values. But don't take our word for it - listen to Sly himself explain how he has woven these themes into his movies.

I hope this one's down for the count.