Thoughts from a Faith-Based Summit

I had the opportunity to attend Variety's Family Entertainment and Faith-Based Summit. A few thoughts:

There was a heated discussion about appropriate children's entertainment. View #1: kids need pure escapism – singing, dancing, carefree gumdrops and rainbows. View #2: it is imperative to show children that good triumphs over evil.

Escapism is nice. After a day of stress and struggles, we all need a little bit of that sort of entertainment. And singing and dancing can be good for the soul, especially for the young 'uns.

Still, a quote attributed to the GK Chesterton resonated like church bells signaling noontime. "Fairy tales don't tell children dragons exist. Children know dragons exist. Fairy tales children dragons can be beaten."

Next came the horrific truth that there are young children whose dragons crawl into their beds at night.

They need to see good guys win, and evil vanquished. They need something to hope for. They need to know the devil's already defeated.

 ***

A man asked whether mega churches are having an adverse affect on faith-based media, with parishioners choosing the church for entertainment instead of a movie theatre.

A panelist rightly noted that mega churches help Christian-based media by steering congregants to movie openings, etc. After all, one can go to the movies Saturday night and still make it on time for church Sunday morning. That's what 11am service is for, right?

More bothersome is the idea of mega church as entertainment. No doubt it is for many, but it shouldn't be. I hope most do not intend to be.

Unfortunately, I've seen smaller churches under the delusion that becoming a mega church will "take them to the next level in Christ." They try to buy the trappings, using suspect membership counts get a bigger loan to buy more expensive marble for the new foyer.

And then there are some who use Christ as a pretense. He's a 4pt font footnote compared to the hillside they've emblazoned with their name.

Is this you? Is this your church? Your pastor? You know God doesn't look at outer appearances, right? Seriously, stop quoting I Samuel 16:7 and start living it. You're hurting the people.

***

This same man also felt most people his age (30s-40s) see themselves as spiritual, not necessarily Christian. He basically said we prefer to be called spiritual.

Of course, there are some who think of themselves as spiritual, but not Christian. Spiritual in both a general and an (often somewhat vague) specific sense.

Others believe Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior; that when he died, he reconciled us to God, and when he came back to life, he granted us the opportunity to live forever. Spiritual in a general sense, but Christian in a specific sense.

Still others are Buddhists, or practice Kabbalah, or are Tao. They are generally spiritual but specifically Buddhist or Kabbalah or Tao.

In other words, he didn't speak for me.

Silver Tongues

If I speak with a silver tongue

Convince a crowd but don't have love

I leave a bitter taste

With every word I say

-- from Proof of Your Love by For King & Country

Whenever I hear this part of the song, I think of politicians and aggressive salespeople.

To Sandusky Defense Witness One

Dear Defense Witness 1,

Please tell me you didn't lather the kids when both adults and children were in the shower together.

Please tell me you felt the kids were capable enough to soap themselves.

You must've known the idea of a group shower - of being completely naked and physically vulnerable amongst relative strangers - was a bit frigtening for the kids. It's a daunting concept for most of us. Please tell me you made the environment as safe as possible, for child and adult alike.

Please say something that doesn't sound like you condone abusive behavior.

I'm looking at you like Caesar from Rise of Planet of the Apes.

Sincerely,

A Sandusky Thought

In 1998, Jerry Sandusky and a boy used the equipment in the Penn State weight room. Though the boy was not sweating, Sandusky insisted they take a shower. He hugged him tightly, saying, "I'm going to squeeze your guts out!" He lathered the boy, and held him around his waist, his front to the boy's back.

The child was 11 or 12 years old. There was an investigation, and the case was closed.

In 2009, a teenager's mother told his school he had been sexually assaulted by Sandusky. A grand jury was convened to investigate the allegations, and in 2011, Sandusky was (initially) charged with 40 counts of abuse. (Twelve counts were subsequently added.) He waived his right to a preliminary hearing; a trial date was set for June 2012.

And here we are.

Sandusky's OJ moment came in 2011, before the completion of the grand jury investigation. In a last minute telephone interview, Bob Costas asked him if he was sexually attracted to boys. It took sixteen seconds* for Sandusky to say the word "No".

Ever hear that Richard Pryor bit about a child responding when he gets caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do? Like playing catch inside or running in the house? A lamp is knocked over and broken. The child is confronted. Huh?   What?   See, what had happened was…

*******

I have no doubt Jerry Sandusky is a child molester with a preference for 11-12 year old boys. I may not know much about men. But I am confident lathering a boy and give him a bear hug from behind is not part of their definition "horseplay". Teenagers farting into couch pillows and forcing their younger cousins to breathe it in? Horseplay. Thirty-eight year olds showering with their nephews and lathering them up? No.

Here's the crazy thing that came to mind as I stewed through all of the news reports: if Jerry Sandusky repented of his sins and turned to Jesus, God would forgive him.

I know, right? What kind of God would dare give him a second chance?

The God Christians believe in. God's love for people is one nation under a groove- so wide, so deep, so vast – you can't get away from it. He loves everyone. He offers salvation to everyone. EVERYONE.

Alright, I've lost some of you. Go ahead, click on over to that website that makes you giggle. Thanks for hanging in this long – it was a pleasure to have you! Don't even worry about trying to understand the last few paragraphs. Go enjoy the rest of your day/night. Check back for a new post when you feel up to it.

The rest of you – lemme try to break this down:

God loves everyone. Even people we think are monsters, like child molesters and sociopathic serial killers and tyrannical dictators.

He wants to hang out with us, but He can't. Despite being omnipotent, He can't be around sin. And we're drenched in sin. Even that sweet little old lady whose gossip influences the opinions of her social circle. We're like a teenager just discovering aftershave. Ooo-eee that smell is strong!

Now, if we pay the penalty of sin, we could hang out with God. It's like paying off a debt. Only the payment is death. Literally. And even then, we might still be in debt.

So, Jesus came and paid our debt; when He died, he paid our debt**. Everyone's debt. Sweet little old lady gossips and monstrous child molesters alike.

Then, He conquered death.

Easter? Biggest day on the Christian Calendar. Bigger than Christmas. Yes, you couldn't have Easter if you didn't have Christmas because you gotta be born to die. But it is Easter – the celebration of Jesus conquering death – that is the foundation of Christianity.

It's an invitation extended to Jerry Sandusky. To his victims. To townsfolk and university alumni. To those who have been shaken by the continually unfolding revelations. To Everyone.

Come, believe in Jesus. Come, be reconciled to God. Come, receive the Holy Spirit. Come, be transformed into your fullest potential. Come do things you couldn't imagine, things you could not do in your own strength or using your good looks, or your genius skills. Come. Let God Blow. Your. Mind.

* as timed by Rosie O'Donnell

** Thank ya', cuz!

On Racist Imagery

A while back, there was a brouhaha over billboards that were cropping up in Oakland. Found in black neighborhoods, they featured the image of a baby. At the top, the words, BLACK & BEAUTIFUL. At the bottom a web address for an anti-abortion group.

The complaint? The ads were racist.

Wait, what?

How is calling a black child beautiful (on billboards in black neighborhoods, no less) racist? How is affirming what continues to be denied in "mainstream" culture, demeaning?

It's not. There is nothing racist or demeaning about declaring a black child to be beautiful. There is nothing racist about affirming a black child's value and preciousness. And there is nothing racist about declaring there are too many black children aborted.

According to this article article, the abortion rate for African-Americans is significantly higher than any other US ethnic or racial group. Naturally, the anti-abortion group who sponsored the billboards is appalled.

The detractors seem to be less so. Perhaps I missed it, but none of those who speak against the billboards seem to affirm the value of a black child. They speak of poverty and instability and inadequate contraceptive access and inconsistent contraceptive use and how abortion is one piece of the larger health care puzzle.

That's all well and good. But can we agree that there are too many black babies being aborted?

I have no idea what methods the group advocates for reducing the number of abortions in African American communities. And I don't know how abortion fits into improving access to quality health care in impoverished neighborhoods.

What I see are people getting up in arms about someone calling a spade a spade.

The Bloomberg Ban

Okay. I actually read an article about what New York City Mayor Bloomberg is proposing. And no, I don't agree that certain entities should be prohibited from selling specific size beverages.

However

What I would like to see are labeling standards for drinks.

At my local Regal Cinema, a small drink is 32 oz. Clearly, management fell from a planet of giants where toddlers average 7'6". Because here on Earth, 32 oz is not a small drink.

Even 7-11 calls its 30 oz drink a Big Gulp.

When I order the child size (12 oz), I'm offered an 'upgrade'.

"For just $0.75 more you can have a small."

"No thank you. I prefer to avoid the searing pain of a bladder threatening to explode. Child size is fine."

On second thought

Maybe mandating that the largest drink size must be no more than XX oz is not such a bad idea. At least for the movie theaters, anyway. They way they're pricing and sizing things, two people probably split a small drink, instead of each person having a drink of their own. They're letting change slip off the table.

Wouldn't that be something? Instituting a law that forces companies to make a little more money? Shameful.