Christ and Pop Culture

It’s time for everyone’s favorite game: fill-in-the-blank. You finish this sentence: “This year I am going to ________” or perhaps this one, “This year I am going to be a better ______” or, finally, “This year I am going to stop ______.” Perhaps you’ve made that statement recently, or at least heard it made by others. It’s the time for “New Years Resolutions.” That time of the year has arrived when we all make promises we know we won’t keep.

That time is again upon us when car, make-up, and insurance commercials are momentarily sidelined to make way for content-less, image-shaping, political advertisements; when millions of bumpers across this great land will be drafted in an attempt to create the illusion that a candidate has wide-spread support.

MTV isn’t really known for profound thought about life, death, God and philosophy, but Fall Out Boy has brought those concepts to the braindead masses. In this episode, David and Rich discuss the implications of such a surprisingly profound band, and also share their top 5 most profound rock songs.

He is the all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipresent being, who rewards the good and punishes the bad. He is mysterious and beyond our comprehension. He is both transcendent and immanent, and we feel His presence in special ways around this time of year. Wait…I’ve lost myself in my own introduction. Are we talking about God or Santa?

The Coen brother’s latest film, No Country for Old Men, has been released to almost unanimous praise by film critics, making it a strong contender for film of the year. The film is an adaptation of a novel by Cormac McCarthy, an author known for his unremitting violence, esoteric dialogue, and dense descriptions–preoccupations shared by the Coen brothers in many of their previous films.

“When Polar Bears Attack” is not the name of a new Fox Television reality show, rather it is the only remotely interesting part in an otherwise confused, tiresome, and overly-hyped film. The Golden Compass directed by Chris Weitz, was billed as another Lord of the Rings type fantasy epic film, it falls far short, however.

Christmas is, “in the air,” for a longer period each year. This time around, I started hearing Christmas songs before Thanksgiving week! However, even Christmas cannot compare to the length of time we spend talking about politics, especially in a presidential election year.

Christmas is more than likely the most diluted American holiday. Some see it as a celebration of family and friends, others prefer to use it as a time of giving, some unabashedly look forward to receiving, and Christians demand that our fellow Christmas observers acknowledge that Jesus is the real “reason for the season.”

Dr. Francis Schaeffer was the prophetic voice of the 20th Century. He forewarned the Christian community of both postmodernity (before it was called postmodernity) and the real issues behind secular humanism. He was a brilliant man whose wisdom, epistemological skills, and grasp of the history of philosophy made him an awesome asset to the Christian community. He was a noted speaker with a worldwide ministry until his death in 1984.

The concept of spending time with and getting to know people is as old as humanity, but recently that concept has been turned on its head. All of a sudden, it is claimed, we have the ability to relate to one another without even being in the same country. With the advent of various communication devices, most notably the internet and its accompanying breakthroughs, the concept of “virtual community” has become a commonly acceptable notion.

I work a part-time job in a non-Christian environment. I am the only believer in my immediate work station, and I can think of only a handful or so of professing believers in my whole building. This can sometimes give me a unique voice in certain conversations, and because of that I get asked lots of questions. Some of the question are of a contentious nature, while other questions are purely out of curiosity. Recently my partner asked me one of the latter.