Recent Posts
Citizenship Confusion: Breaking the Shopping Habit“The practice of shopping as entertainment can have serious consequences for believers”
How Should Christians Think About Gay Marriage?“Our prayer is that political stances will never detract from the only message that truly matters.”
The Moviegoer: Lucky Life is Like This“Lucky Life deals with suffering, friendship, marriage, memory, death, and faith — communicated in an image-driven, poetic style.”
The Kiddy Pool: Are You Dad Enough?“Let’s shift the conversations on parenthood away from polemical and prescriptive and try to keep a sense of humor…”
Books Besides the Bible: Is Science Fiction un-Christian?“[T]he presence of humanity and the prevalence of humanitarian themes throughout the best science fiction stories is not necessarily a denial of human nature, but often an affirmation of the best in us.”
We Recommend:
Reviews of comics, graphic novels, and manga by Seth T. Hahne, CaPC’s new illustrator.
Television Features Archive
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Podcast #25: Should Christians Cast Down their (American) Idols?
Posted on April 22, 2008 | 1 CommentAbout three weeks ago, Ben and I sat down and discussed American Idol, including the morality of American Idol's infamous audition episodes, whether or not Christians should embrace and support Idol Gives Back, and more. Also, we give out our Christ and Pop Culture Awards for Voting Shows. -
The Case for Simon Cowell
Posted on April 21, 2008 | 15 CommentsDavid Dunham kicks off CAPC's American Idol week by praising honest evaluation in an age of "Idol" words. -
Forgiving Willoughby
Posted on April 14, 2008 | 9 CommentsThe recent Masterpiece Theatre version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility gave the harshest portrayal I’ve ever seen of the character Willoughby, who seduces, impregnates, and abandons a young girl. This leads me to ponder two things: (1) Why, in our era of “tolerance,” does Willoughby suddenly get the shaft?; and (2) Is it important for us, as Christians, to forgive fictional characters? -
Slings and Arrows, Smells and Bells
Posted on April 3, 2008 | 6 CommentsOver the past couple of years, with the aid of Netflix, I've been working my way through the Canadian television series Slings and Arrows. The show focuses on the on-stage and off-stage lives of the New Burbage Festival, a sort of fictionalized version of the Stratford Festival in Western Ontario. In real life and on the show, the Festival's main fare is Shakespeare, and each season of Slings of Arrows centers around a production of a Shakespearean tragedy: Hamlet (Season 1), Macbeth (Season 2), and King Lear (Season 3). -
Has Bill O’Reilly Overstayed His Welcome?
Posted on April 2, 2008 | 5 CommentsBill Reichhart on the dangers of a 24 hour news cycle. -
A Raisin in the Sun: What Happens to a Dream Deferred?
Posted on March 21, 2008 | 3 CommentsIn her debut post, Carissa Smith finds a meditation on grace alongside P. Diddy. -
The Dangers of Television
Posted on March 20, 2008 | 6 CommentsRichard Clark provides more-than-fair warning and kicks a medium when it's down. -
Is Oprah the Next Billy Graham?
Posted on March 17, 2008 | 20 CommentsIn his debut post, Bill Reichart counts the ways Oprah is set to become the next big culture-changing evangelist. -
Podcast #21: Oprah’s Big Podcast
Posted on February 25, 2008 | 12 CommentsOprah has become a true force in American pop culture, and her talk show is just the beginning. Oprah has her own magazine, cable channel, and as of Sunday her own prime time network television show. Of course, none of that is nearly as valuable or important as the influence she has on a good percentage of Americans. Forget the presidential race, Oprah is our real president. -
In Praise of Television
Posted on February 19, 2008 | 11 CommentsThose of us who believe that God creates and controls the universe must also realize that God gives us an opportunity in the medium of television that we can take or leave. The challenge for Christians is not to write off a creation of man (and therefore God), but instead to decide if it’s possible to use it for the growth and expansion of God’s kingdom.
While there are numerous dangers that come with the medium (which we’ll discuss at a later time), there are also some significant benefits that can be associated uniquely with television. -
Sin and the City
Posted on February 13, 2008 | 15 CommentsI was required to take a class called Women & Literature, in my undergraduate study. On two particular days of class we were forced to watch the show "Sex and the City" for a classroom discussion. I had never seen the show until that moment and I was appalled! It's an HBO show, so what is now playing on TBS is most definitely an edited version without the HBO version's constant swearing and nudity. Those elements, however, are the least of my concerns with the show. -
You Gotta Have Faith
Posted on February 5, 2008 | 5 CommentsHe has a brain defect, but that's not really a bad thing. This particular brain defect allows New York City lawyer Eli Stone to have amazing visions that tell him how to help others. If the story sounds far-fetched that’s okay, because it is the latest plot for a new ABC comedy. -
Who Cares About Hollywood?
Posted on January 28, 2008 | 4 CommentsI imagine a large number of people don't usually care about the Oscars, but those numbers must have increased this year. The nominees have been announced and the season is upon us, and yet this year Oscar the Grouch is probably gaining more attention (though Ben Bartlett would probably say that he always gets more attention). But it's not just the mediocre awards show that is gaining little-to-no applause from fans this year, it seems to me that no one really even cares about Hollywood at all this year. -
Is There Integrity in the Work Place?
Posted on January 11, 2008 | 3 CommentsTechnology is moving us all faster and faster into a new world. We can now get our job done quicker, more efficiently, and with greater ease. But according to Mark Saltzman, it doesn't have to work in only that direction. -
A Futurama Life is a Deprived Life
Posted on January 10, 2008 | 4 CommentsThe world of tomorrow often looks, in our minds, like a time that is far more exciting, pleasurable, and fulfilling. We look at our present struggles, our contemporary dilemmas, and we hope that tomorrow will be better. -
What’s So Great About 2008?
Posted on January 3, 2008 | 13 CommentsEven though Christ and Pop Culture is only a few months old, we've already had some wonderful conversations about popular culture and how we as believers should interact with it. To start off the year, I thought I would give my list of the pop culture events that I am looking forward to most in 2008. Over the next 12 months I hope to revisit each of these events as they unfold and as we continue to explore the way our faith speaks to every aspect of our lives--even pop culture. -
Why Vote When You Can Laugh? The Daily Show and Complacency
Posted on December 20, 2007 | 9 CommentsThat 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. -
Getting Our Bearings: A Review of “The Golden Compass”
Posted on December 12, 2007 | 10 Comments“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. -
Sesame Street: A Method to the Madness
Posted on November 27, 2007 | 8 CommentsLet’s say you want to research preschoolers, but your study requires children who are NOT able to recognize Sesame Street characters. So you, “interview,” one child. And another. And another. Nielson Media Research has shown that it will take a long time to finish your study, because as of 2004 they found that 99% of American preschoolers recognized the Sesame Street characters. -
Your Life in 12 Words or Less: the Dehumanizing Effect of Facebook Profiles, Personal Ads, and Eulogies
Posted on November 22, 2007 | 5 CommentsI like to talk. In general, I feel that I usually know what the right thing is to say to a person when they need advice or admonishment. But there's one situation where I don't know if I'll ever have the right words: when a person has lost a loved one. What is there to say that could ever come close to what they are going through? The sorrow, the questions, the guilt, the shock, what words exist that could be shaped to be commensurate to their experience? As difficult as these situations are, imagine if it was your job to summarize the entire life of a person within one or two sentences, not to offer eulogies or condolences, but to give readers or viewers a succinct statement that expressed what the person did with their life. Whenever I read of a murder, a suicide, or an accident, I try to note how the reporter sums up the life of a once living human in 12 words or less.