testostercone

Even with the Cowboys in training camp, the Dallas/ Fort Worth area has been talking about the Rangers. Sure, a lot of it has to do with the fact that they have the fourth best record in the Major Leagues, and that they just won a series in LA against the Angels behind Derrik Holland's 3-hit complete game shutout. But a lot of the buzz has also to do with Josh Hamilton's night in a bar this past January.

The two-time All Star slugger - whose year has been derailed by injury, surgery, and a seemingly endles

This might be the beginning of something great, or it might be one of those things history looks at and sees "what might have been". What do you think the response is going to be? How does this come across to those not Orthodox or Anglican? Tell me what you think.

It's great to hear the recent rumblings of jurisdictional unity here in North America, but it is by the sweat of those Orthodox Christians working on the ground that not only is the cause of unity furthered, but the purpose of unity is realized.

Some time back on the Illumined Heart my Godbrother Turbo Qualls interviewed Fr. Moses Berry about his life and the upcoming film about his journey.  Please watch the promo, and consider donating to a unique film about a wonderful man and his powerful God.

It  is an incredible thing to visit the incorupt body of St. John Maximovitch in San Francisco.  The nearness of such an incredible man is a shock to one's system.  It's like having cold water splashed on your spirit; you realize what is possible, what is near, and how dark you yourself are.  All this while experiencing hope, joy, and love.

I've had similar shocks from visiting monastics lately too.  Last month the elder Dionysius visited St. Seraphim with Metropolitan Jonah.  He came with some of  his spiritual children, whose love for mankind were apparent, and whose tenacity and devotion to God were tangible.  And I do mean tangible - the air was thick with it.  We were blessed to have a small dinner with the group of them, and to ask the elder questions.   For about an hour we sat at his feet - the Metropolitan, the Dean of a Seminary, a couple priests, and a couple families.  I have little more to say about that, except that it was loving and holy.

Nowadays there's a distrust of monasticism, and for that matter, of holiness. I don't claim to be an expert, but now that I have gotten to know the monks and nuns that walk among us, I find myself extremely reliant upon them.  The ones that I have met, I trust like an infant trust his mother.  I get this sense to from the books I've read, like The Mountain of Silence,  from the writings of the contemporary elders, and from the enlivened faces of my friends when they return from trips to monasteries.

In a time of scandal and fear, my experience cries for trust and obedience.  

If you are like me, you  often hear people talking about "impacting" or "changing" culture. While this all seems fine and good, I'm not sure what exactly we are trying to impact and how what we are doing is going to do that.  It seems that when we speak of "culture" we are not talking about culture at all.  The rallying cries, the money, and the effort to impact this thing we call culture is doomed to fall short of any substantial goal because we are not talking about something substantial whatsoever.  Real cultural change is in our hands, yet we carelessly fixate on a conception of "culture" that is vapid and unsubstantial.  At best we dress up a manikin as if it were the real thing.

This misconception, the Vapid culture, begins with a connection to the idea of “pop culture”.   Our use of the word "culture" isn't directly talking about "pop culture": we don't use it the way that sociologists do.  We aren't talking about studying contemporary sociological trends, slang, and documenting how we go through life.

Rather we speak of it as a conglomeration of ideas, themes, and values that are consumed through direct or indirect media sources.   This is what I mean by the Vapid culture.  These ideas, themes, and values are in part created by the crafters of media: ad men, TV producers, news organizations, and all the professionals that conservatives commonly vilify. While I believe that mass media banally plays to our consumeristic passions (and can consequently be harmful to us), it is far too simple for us to respond by blaming the “pagans” who deal with the media sources. Both rally cries of “embrace media and the culture of today!” and “reject the consumeristic lies and secular messages!” are unhelpful and insufficient; moreover they bespeak of our own immaturity and fascination with our passions.  

What drives professional media?  For the most part, if it sells the media will channel it.  Make some news, and you've impacted the Vap

Yesterday the Pitsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl.   It was the feast day of safety Troy Polamalu's patron saint, St. Tryphon.

Yeah, I was rooting for the Cardinals, yeah my dad bet me a dollar and I lost.  Kurt Warner is a great man and good football player, but I have to feel good about Troy Polamalu.  Few safety's are as fun to watch, and few men are as excellent an example.

Despite what your opinion is of politics these days, you have to recognize that the past month has revealed the difference between certain people groups.  Namely, Mediawood and Rednecks.  It's not news that Hollywood is the American equivalent of Aristocracy, but this rather infamous Matt Damon video takes the cultural divide to another level.



It is one thing to recognize a difference of values, worldview, or policy between culture groups, and a whole other thing for a privaledged people group to see themselves as the only ones fit to lead.  When I first saw this video I thought I saw Damon's point - do we really want your average hockey mom leading the country due to a comedy of errors?  I remembered Peter Sellers' Being There, where an idiotic gardener becomes a powerful political and cultural guru by uttering general truths about his gardener.  Not exactly how I want the election to be run.

Damon is obviously overlooking the blatant fact that Sarah Palin is not an average hockey mom - she's an above average hockey mom.  But the issue isn't "average" vs. "above average", since pretty much anyone who excels in the political limelight is above average.  What's wrong with hockey moms?  What's wrong with gardeners?  Is it that they are uninformed? Is it that they aren't capable decision makers?  Or is it that they are hockey moms?

Lest you think Damon is the lone celeb lashing out against Palin: Pam Anderson recently told her to "suck it", and Lindsay Lohan called her a "narrow minded, media obsessed homophobe".  What Damon reveals is the metropolitan conception that those who are not metropolitan are simple, uneducated, and altogether other to them.  Consequently they ignore such folk; adding the occasional ridicule.

What Mediawood seems to forget is that our country is not about rising from simple, rural roots to move to the enlightened metropolis, thus transcending the simple rural life; but about maintaining the simple rural life in the political

Joss Whedon, along with his brothers, have created an instant internet phenomenon. The quirky creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" just opened up shop at "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog", and demand has overloaded servers and crashed the website. I've only seen a couple minutes, but it's obviously in the same vein as "Once more with feeling", the musical episode of "Buffy".

I finally managed to get Jon Foreman's latest solo offering "Spring and Summer" (whose music I insist on purchasing as soon as I can). "Spring and Summer" is a two EP set that marks the completion of a four EP series each consisting of six songs for each season. While Foreman's band "Switchfoot" has always offered honest songs centered around the Jon's Christian life, his solo albums have given us a much more intimate look at his struggles and conviction. Several of the songs are simply Psalms and scripture set to music ("White as Snow", "Your Love is Strong", "The House of God Forever") , often offering consolation to his darker thoughts and realizations ("The Cure for Pain","Learning How to Die", "Lord Save Me from Myself").

As you can surely tell by the song titles, Jon's not trying to be too subtle here. Surprisingly I don't find his work too obvious, crass, or blunt. Indeed, I find it refreshingly to the point and courageously sensitive. When I listened to "Summer" for the first time, one not-so-subtle song stood out to me. This song is called "Instead of a Show", and it's hard to imagine it not offending just a little bit of you. It's rather - strident. I've heard this sentiment echoed poorly; bemoaning hypocrisy is rarely a symptom of spiritual health, but this song toes the line.

And no wonder, it's based on Amos 5:21-24 and Isiah 1:11-31. What we need is Christian worship, full of love and life for the world.

When I first heard this story I was working at school. I told my students, and they laughed at the situation; calling it bizzare. I told the teachers and they chuckled sadly, because the reality of this story is rather sad. In reality, this sort of behavior is debilitating.

This story is a prime example of taking a stand for something to the point of being counter-productive for your cause. Whenever Christians do something like this (say about media or movies) they get jeered at, called ignorant, and place an obstacle in front of the eyes of those looking into Christianity. They hurt their own cause; they damage the place of their cause in marketplace of ideas.

I'm not one to woos out about what I believe religiously. But when I'm around a table with a bunch of men with a task at hand, I suffer ignorant, false, and offensive statements about my Church and my God.

Are these men ignorant, stubborn, self-involved? What do they hope to gain by this absurd behavior? Do they take themselves seriously, or are they grandstanding in order to make a point?

Rod Dreher cleverly and fittingly revamps a Monty Python skit to describe Hillary Clinton's campaign.  Nice work Rod.




 

Frequent readers of this blog (aka Trenna) know that I really love St. Nicolai Velimirovic, who rasied an army, survived Dachau, preached the gospel, and wrote poetry.  Today, March 18th, is his feast day.  Memory eternal!