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Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." (Is.30:21)
Browsing All Posts filed under »Culture«
The Medium And The Light | Notes & Review
Marshall McLuhan. The Medium and the Light: Reflections on Religion. Gingko Press, 2002. (224 pages) Introduction For many hundreds of the years covered in his investigations, the antagonists were clergy. And their debates concerned not simply this or that idea or doctrine but rather the very tools of intellectual endeavour, the nature and seriousness of philosophy […]
The Medium Is The Message | Transcription
April 2, 2013
(The following transcription is from all three parts of the “Monday Conference.”) Q: When you say the “medium is the message” does that leave any room at all for criticism of individual, say, television programs? MML: Or content. You see, it doesn’t much matter what you say on the telephone. The telephone as a service […]
Technopoly | Notes & Review
March 16, 2013
Neil Postman. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Vintage Books, 1992. (222 pages) Introduction …the argument is not between humanists and scientists but between technology and everybody else. (xii) First, technology is a friend. … Second, because of its lengthy, intimate, and inevitable relationship with culture, technology does not invite a close examination of […]
TED | Keith Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money?
March 6, 2013
The global economic financial crisis has reignited public interest in something that’s actually one of the oldest questions in economics, dating back to at least before Adam Smith. And that is, why is it that countries with seemingly similar economies and institutions can display radically different savings behavior? Now, many brilliant economists have spent their […]
The Book of Mormon | Review
December 23, 2012
Book of Mormon, Broadway Musical. For starters, and for the religiously devout, this musical is offensive, raunchy, crude, irreverent, obscene, and offensive (yes, I said “offensive” twice). It is not for those who take their religion too seriously, so caution is advised for those who may not want their beliefs or convictions poked and prodded. […]
The Ultimate Medium | Notes & Review
November 14, 2012
http://shanehipps.com/films/the-ultimate-medium/ That is the deepst truth, right there. Who we are as a person is ultimately the message. Not just your words, not just your thoughts. Who you are as a person. That is the message. Let’s explore the medium of “you.” 1. You have a body. Do not underestimate the power and the importance […]
Peanuts, Beer and Letting Go | Notes & Review
October 18, 2012
http://shanehipps.com/films/peanuts-beer-and-letting-go/ The implications of “The Hidden Medium” for preaching. The homily during the Middle Ages was in Latin. Most people spoke the vernacular, but Latin was the scholarly language. A Latin homily was not something to get new insights. You listened to the sounds, almost like music. With the invention of the Printing Press, everything […]
The Hidden Power | Notes & Review
October 17, 2012
http://shanehipps.com/films/the-hidden-power/ (all quotes below are from Marshall McLuhan unless otherwise noted.) Christianity is fundamentally a communication event. Have you ever heard: The METHODS change but the MESSAGE stays the same? I need to take a wrecking ball to that assumption. Because, in fact, the MEDIUM is the MESSAGE. Our conventional response to all media, namely […]
The Hunger Games | Review & Reflections
September 28, 2012
Admittedly, I have yet to read the books (calling to me from my Kindle). After seeing the movie, it is understandable how this story has become challenging to many in the faith community. The oppressive regime of the capitol, the despair of poverty juxtaposed to wealth and opulence, and young people being “forced” to kill […]
Stop Stealing Dreams | Review & Notes
July 7, 2012
Seth Godin. Stop Stealing Dreams: What is School For? Seth Godin, 2012. — VIA — This free book has 132 entries of thoughts, insights, questions, provocations regarding education. Written in blog-entry-sized bites, you can easily read an entry and let it simmer for a while. Hopefully, you’ll read several that will transform what you actually […]
Teenage Brains
May 4, 2012
Published: October 2011 Beautiful Brains Moody. Impulsive. Maddening. Why do teenagers act the way they do? Viewed through the eyes of evolution, their most exasperating traits may be the key to success as adults. By David Dobbs, National Geographic Although you know your teenager takes some chances, it can be a shock to hear about […]
The Hunger Games & The Gospel | Notes & Review
April 9, 2012
Julie Clawson. The Hunger Games and the Gospel:Bread, Circuses, and the Kingdom of God. Patheos Press, 2012. (149 pages; 3930 Kindle locations) One Hand Clapping – Julie Clawson’s website Introduction: Let the Games Begin Although not explicitly “Christian” books, the themes explored in The Hunger Games are the same ones Christians have wrestled with since […]
TED | Sherry Turkle : Connected But Alone?
April 8, 2012
Just a moment ago, my daughter Rebecca texted me for good luck. Her text said, “Mom, you will rock.” I love this. Getting that text was like getting a hug. And so there you have it. I embody the central paradox. I’m a woman who loves getting texts who’s going to tell you that too […]
This Gay & Age
March 10, 2012
PBS POV project, “This Gay & Age” by Morgan Wilcock Watch This Gay and Age on PBS. See more from PBS Online Film Festival. Below are a couple quotes that highlight key elements of the discussion and debate.: Just ask yourself…if it’s true, that sexual orientation is innate and God-given, then what does it mean […]
TED | Bryan Stevenson: We Need to Talk About an Injustice
March 5, 2012
http://www.eji.org/eji/ | http://jjie.org/founder-of-equal-justice-initiative-greeted-standing-ovation-at-ted/76755 Bryan Stevenson spends most of his time in jails and prisons and on death row. He’s a lawyer, and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. So he’s found it very energizing at TED, and wanted to start by pointing out that there is a distinct identity here. Things said here have a power […]
Milk | Notes & Review
February 25, 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_%28film%29 Here is the closing line of the movie: If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door… And that’s all. I ask for the movement to continue. Because it’s not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power… it’s about the “us’s” out there. Not only gays, but […]
The 1% Better | Technology & Progress
January 29, 2012
In his book What Technology Wants Kevin Kelly makes an argument that Technology is producing “Deep Progress.” Here is an excerpt from my notes and review: — But the steady stream of good things is relentless as well. …I think there is evidence that on average and over time, the new solutions outweigh the new […]
Zion & Babylon
December 30, 2011
Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. The modern man learns in order to use.” (God in Search of Man, 34) My blog is really not for blogging, but more for study, and many posts are in the Greek vein. This post is in […]
The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture | Notes & Review
December 21, 2011
Shane Hipps. The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, The Gospel, and Church. Zondervan, 2005 (176 pages) …every innovation is an amputation as well as an extension. – Brian McLaren (from the Forward) INTRODUCTION This is not a book intended to argue that the church needs to engage culture. Rather, it assumes […]
What Technology Wants | Notes & Review
November 27, 2011
Kevin Kelly. What Technology Wants. Viking, 2010. (405 pages). http://www.kk.org/books/what-technology-wants.php. Video: http://www.qideas.org/video/what-technology-wants.aspx 1. My Question Should we allow human cloning? Is constant texting making our kids dumb? Do we want automobiles to park themselves? But as my quest evolved, I realized that if we want to find satisfying answers to those questions, we first need […]
Siri & Hermeneutics
October 13, 2011
Apple has announced it’s new voice controlled “personal assistant” for the new iPhone 4S saying,… A lot of devices can recognize the words you say. But the ability to understand what you mean, and act on it; that’s the breakthrough with Siri. - Scott Forstall The parallels with hermeneutics seem profound. A lot of Bible […]
Deep Church | Notes & Review
September 5, 2011
Jim Belcher. Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional. IVP, 2009. (233 pages) This book is written for those who are caught in between [emergent & traditional]. They are unhappy with the present state of the evangelical church but are not sure where to turn for an answer. (13) …this book is written […]
Fall From Grace | Notes & Review
August 14, 2011
http://www.fallfromgracemovie.net/ Baltimore Sun (12/4/2007) The Hollywood Reporter (12/3/2007) Kansas City Star Review (9/14/2007) Variety Review (6/26/2007) Director, K. Ryan Jones named Emerging Artist of 2007 by Kansas City Star (4/29/2007) eFilmCritic Review Lawrence Journal-World: “Southern audiences react to KU filmmaker’s ‘Fall from Grace’” (3/16/2007) Austin Chronicle Review (3/16/2007) Cinematical Review (3/13/2007) Austin Chronicle: “Looking More […]
Evangelicals Without Blowhard
July 31, 2011
Brilliant, on so many levels. The entire article is copied below. July 30, 2011 Evangelicals Without Blowhards By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF IN these polarized times, few words conjure as much distaste in liberal circles as “evangelical Christian.” That’s partly because evangelicals came to be associated over the last 25 years with blowhard scolds. When the […]
100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books
June 19, 2011
The 100 greatest non-fiction books After keen debate at the Guardian’s books desk, this is our list of the very best factual writing, organised by category, and then by date. The greatest non-fiction books live here … the British Museum Reading Room. Art The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes (1980) Hughes charts the […]
The God Who Wasn’t There | Notes & Review
June 4, 2011
http://www.thegodmovie.com/. NR, 2005 Writing notes and a review for this film is somewhat,…uh,…paralyzing and, well, a bit insipid. So, I guess I won’t. If you want to read a review, see the Full Review by “Answering Infidels”, and the Christianity Today interview. In addition, Ben Witherington’s review of The Jesus Puzzle, and Taking the Jesus Puzzle […]
Clear The Room
May 20, 2011
Every now and then a company comes along that speaks more to the human spirit rather than to the human urge. And every now and then we need to be inspired by its message and commitment. http://www.advertisingforhumanity.com/ Clear the room. Start with your employees. Your smart, wonderful employees. Get rid of Blake in the corner with […]
To Die In Jerusalem | Notes & Review
March 28, 2011
http://www.todieinjerusalem.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayat_al-Akhras http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Levy To Die in Jerusalem follows Avigail Levy–Rachel’s mother–in her search for answers and reasons behind the suicide bombing of Palestinian Ayat al-Akhras that killed the two of them on March 29, 2002. While the primary narrative is through the Israeli experience, the producers did give voice to the Palestinian/Muslim perspective and contrasted […]
TED | Sheryl Sandberg: Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders
January 2, 2011
Sheryl Sandberg: Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders While we’ve made advances, there are still too few women in top positions of leadership. How are we going to fix this? I’m convinced that women are dropping out. However, today, I want to focus on we, as individuals, the messages we need to tell ourselves […]
TED | William Ury: The Walk From “No” to “Yes”
December 3, 2010
Find The Eighteenth Camel There is this Middle Eastern story of a man who willed to his three sons his 17 camels. To the first son 1/2 of the camels, to the second son 1/3, and to the third son 1/9. 17 doesn’t divide by any of those numbers. Conflict arose, and they decided to […]
Race To Nowhere | Notes & Review
December 3, 2010
http://www.racetonowhere.com/ Some QUOTES and SENTIMENTS from the film: Many of the symptoms our kids are experiencing–headaches, stomachaches, depression, etc.–are stress-induced. Much of what we are doing in education is “de-humanizing.” “Some of the pressure is real.” Our systems have not adapted to the changing demographics. Much of the depression and anxiety that they feel in […]
Trembling Before G-d | Notes & Review
December 2, 2010
http://www.filmsthatchangetheworld.com/site/ http://www.tremblingbeforeg-d.com/index2.html As with other independent films/documentaries (see http://vialogue.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/for-the-bible-tells-me-so-notes-review/), this one portrayed a variety of testimonies and stories of various LGBT people within Orthodox Jewish communities. As with other productions, the emotional humanity of the suffering is juxtaposed with the cold and seemingly heartless ideals of the conservative fundamentalists. Also, however, as with other productions, […]
Why Youth Are Devalued in American Culture
November 20, 2010
I’ve been working with youth in various capacities for about 20 years. Throughout that time, it has baffled me why our culture has neglected to see youth & children of the highest importance and value. After years of this–what I’ll call a “cultural incongruity “–I would like to journal some of the reasons why I […]
China’s Lost Girls | Notes & Review
November 10, 2010
National Geographic, 2005 Lucy Ling follows a group of American families to China and captures the key moments of their adoption process illuminating the unforeseen effects of China’s one-child policy coupled with ancient traditions and social constructs along the way. Some of them being, prioritization of boys as they are the parents’ “social security.” prioritization […]
God in America | Notes & Review
October 14, 2010
http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/ Online you can watch the entire program, read original documents, download study guides to each program, and read the entire transcript. As always, I commend PBS (Frontline and American Experience) for their excellence. This is the ending statement of the last installment from Stephen Prothero: This is this great conversation we’ve had from the […]
American Teen | Notes & Review
September 26, 2010
http://www.americanteenthemovie.com [PG-13] — VIA — A bit voyeuristic, this documentary may be more accurately entitled “White Mid-Western American Teen.” I mean no disregard to the producers or the subjects of the film by that qualification, but simply as an observation regarding the geographical and cultural locale of teens involved in this film. There are some […]
TED Talks Worth Talking About | Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation
September 23, 2010
http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html There are 9 billion people coming our way. Dancers have created a whole global laboratory online. Kids in Japan are taking moves from a YouTube video created in Detroit, building on it within days and releasing a new video, while teenagers in California are taking the Japanese video and remixing it to create a […]
Book of Eli | Notes & Review
September 13, 2010
The Book of Eli [R]. Perhaps I am reading way too much into this, but this one main interpretation came to mind: ESSENES. From what we know of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes — the Jewish separatist sectarian group that built their community in the desert on the north shore of the Dead Sea […]
Radical Evolution | Notes & Review
September 10, 2010
Joel Garreau. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human. Broadway Books, 2005. (384 pages) http://www.garreau.com/index.cfm Prologue: The Future of Human Nature Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood. - Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn This […]
Modify | Notes & Review
August 3, 2010
[NOTICE: Extremely Graphic] Modify. [NR] 2005. I’m extremely fascinated by human behavior…all of it. By perusing this blog, one will discover that I am a person of faith, which may seem as if to conclude that movies and documentaries like this are “off-limits.” To the contrary; they must be “within the limits,” for they, too, […]
As A Driven Leaf | Notes & Review
July 17, 2010
Milton Steinberg. As A Driven Leaf. Behrman House, Inc., 1939. (480 pages) This is a historical fiction story of Elisha ben Abuya, based upon historical records, but pieced and crafted together by the author with some elaborations and dismissals. Thus it is “intended as a novel, not a biography.” (478) I picked up this book […]
Toy Story 3 | Review
July 17, 2010
http://disney.go.com/toystory/, [PG] — VIA — The ability of Pixar to tell a story in a digital art form that is becoming more perfected with each passing day results in this compelling sequel. I am continually amazed at how objective bits and bytes can communicate so clearly emotion and feeling so as to be compelled that […]
Lord, Save Us From Your Followers | Notes & Review
July 16, 2010
Dan Merchant, http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/, [PG-13] See also the book by the same title. — VIA — I wasn’t sure how this film was going to turn out. I suppose the title and the packaging led me to believe that this was going to be yet another cynical look at religion, an outcry against the hypocrisies of […]
TED Talks Worth Talking About | Ken Robinson on Bring on the Learning Revolution
May 26, 2010
Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution! TED, February 2010. Picking up from his 2006 talk, … I believe there is a second climate crisis which is as severe, which has the same origins and we have to deal with, with the same urgency. This is a crisis, not of natural resources, but a […]
TED Talks Worth Talking About | Adora Svitak: What Adults Can Learn From Kids
April 28, 2010
Adora Svitak: What Adults Can Learn From Kids. TED: February, 2010. Adora’s website. Here is the entire transcript of her talk: I want to start with a question. “When was the last time you were called childish?” For kids like me, being called childish can be a frequent occurrence. Every time we make irrational demands, […]
Hiking The Jesus Trail | Notes & Review
April 1, 2010
During the end of March, 2010, my wife and I and a few friends hiked “The Jesus Trail” from Nazareth (נצרת) to Capernaum (כפר נחום). The founders of the trail have also a published book (guide) available for purchase. Anna Dintaman & David Landis, Hiking the Jesus Trail: And Other Biblical Walks in the Galilee. […]
Ray Comfort and the “Special Introduction” to the Origin of Species – Why?
December 1, 2009
The web is full of links and information regarding Ray Comfort’s “Special Introduction” to the Origin of Species passed out on University Campuses all across America on November 18, 2009, Darwin’s 150th anniversary of the original publication (Darwin born February 12, 1809 and Origin was published November 24, 1859). Here are a couple highlights, several […]
This American Life – Bait and Switch
November 18, 2009
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1325 Act 2. “Bait and Switch” for Jesus. Provacatively entitled “Raw Sex” Jesus says to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, and they’re going to hate you, just like they hated me. So, you have this kind of Biblical imperative to spread the word to those who don’t want to hear it. […]
Charter for Compassion
November 13, 2009
http://charterforcompassion.org/ The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put […]
A Wonderful World in Abu Ghosh – Armstrong and Islam
September 10, 2009
My wife and I are visiting our friends in Israel (ישראל), and they live in a little suburb of Jerusalem (ירושלם) called Abu Ghosh (אבו גוש). Resonating outside the window right now is the Muslim call to prayer being sounded over the sound system of the local minaret, and at the same time is a […]
April 26, 2013
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