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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
RELEVANTmagazine.com just e-published and essay I’ve been working on. It’s entitled ‘Why I Don’t Care About Darfur‘. Here’s a brief excerpt:
Over the last 10 years, Africa has become chic. George Clooney has petitioned the president on behalf of Darfur. Countless movies have been made. Evan Brad and Angelina have adopted children from Africa. Madonna has recently followed suit. However, not only celebrities appear to be cashing-in on the Africa-craze.
It seems as though every time I surf a Christian website or open a Christian publication I read of a new, hot organization that is changing the African landscape. Undoubtedly, the Christian Church must rush to end human rights violations throughout the world. However, we must be very careful that we do not step over our own neighbors to do so.
Go read the rest here. Feel free to comment over there as well.
Earl
I just found out that a Queermergent blog is up and running.
If you presently find yourself wondering, “What in the world is “Queermergent” ?!?!”
Here’s a brief bio:
Queermergent is a play on the words Queer and Emergent. Queermergent is a place for those who identify as LGBTQ who are desiring a safe place to partake in mature discussions regarding the LGBTQ community of faith within a 21st Century, postmodern, emergent/emerging church context.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with their theological views, you should be very excited that something like this exists. This site provides a safe place for folks who don’t fit well into either Christian or Queer communities to find fellowship and continue their pursuit of the Christian faith.
Even if some disagree with their theology or ethic, we should still thank God that they’re pursuing. With the all-or-nothing stance many Churches take towards LBGT faith, a place for fellowship might be the only thing keeping these folks from walking away from the Christian Church and never coming back.
I tip my hat to these folks.
Earl
(HT: Zoecarnate)
This is one of those books that I feel uncomfortable critiquing. As an evangelical man, I feel as though reading this book was equivocal to eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation; as though I should just be glad to have listened in. However, eavesdropping or not, here are my thoughts on ‘Evangelical Christian Women: War Stories in the Gender Battles‘.
Dr. Ingersoll’s book is just what you would expect it to be. That is not intended in any sort of a derogatory fashion. It just means that there are no plot twists along the way.
Ingersoll’s book traverses through two primary sections: War Stories and Analysis and Interpretation. War Stories consists of Ingersoll’s telling the story of Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) and its struggle for acceptance and survival.
Ingersoll also recounts Evangelicalism’s recent transition from Biblical Inerrancy to Gender Issues as the litmus test of theological orthodoxy. She, at length, discusses the institution of Al Mohler as the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the subsequent theological shift in the Southern Baptist denomination.
Lastly, Ingersoll recollects interviews and retells histories regarding the struggles of Evangelical women. These stories stretch from discrimination against sexually abused evangelical Bible School students to overlooked and mistreated female faculty members of theological institutions to the abuse of female pastors by certain members of their congregations. All reflect the patriarchal bias and disadvantage that faces evangelical women.
The second half of Ingersoll’s book, Analysis and Interpretation, seeks to make sense of the recent (post 1930’s) resurgence of chauvinism within Evangelicalism. (For those who are unfamiliar with Evangelical history, feminism actually began as a movement within Evangelicalism. It didn’t become perceived as a “secular” or “lesbian” threat until much later. The Religious Right re-wrote Evangelical history… but that is a bit beyond the scope of our review). The Analysis and Interpretation half of Ingersoll’s book also seeks to talk about the ramifications of the gendered nature of Evangelicalism. Although Ingersoll does so skillfully, I still have some reservations.
My biggest concern with Evangelical Christian Women is that it sometimes feels too polemical. Now, granted, considering the things that Dr. Ingersoll has seen I can fully understand how one can become biased. However, while reading this book, I never felt that Dr. Ingersoll sought to empathize with the evangelical tradition. Instead the book read as a testimony to everything that was broken within Evangelicalism.
I understand that Ingersoll’s intention with this book was to empathize with weather-beaten women; to provide battle-worn women with some solace that they are not alone and to continue to fight patriarchy and dualism within the tradition. Nevertheless, acknowledgement that evangelicalism is not a closed unit would have gone a long way to open a dialog with the Evangelical tradition. Evangelicals are not only Evangelicals. Evangelicals are also republicans and democrats, carpenters and artists, athletes and academics. It seems unfair to condemn Evangelicals as overly patriarchal without a deeper discussion of the deep patriarchy that still exists within American society. After all, Evangelicals are unsurpassed at accommodating and duplicating secular culture. If patriarchy flourishes within Evangelicalism then it likely also still flourishes in American society.
With my reservations aside, I found this book to be a great read. I found myself quite moved by Ingersoll’s accounts. I found myself about to cry at some points and terribly angry at others. Ingersoll has magnificently collected and retold the stories of these evangelical women. My heart broke hearing stories of many who left evangelical churches, some leaving their faith altogether because women were denied an equal role in their communities. However, I also found myself deeply admiring many women who found strength to remain and fight for women’s rights within the tradition. Consequently, Ingersoll raises anew many old questions, causing those of us within the evangelical community to reconsider our role in the present evangelical gender crisis. Are we helping or harming the cause?
I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in evangelicalism or the intersections of gender and religion. Hell, I even recommend this book even if you are not interested in either of those things. This is an issue in the evangelical church that we cannot continue to ignore.
Earl
It’s not directly theological, but it made me burst out laughing. Although, it may just be funny because I subject myself to listening to the Rush Limbaugh program on a regular basis.
Regardless, Candorville is a great comic strip. Give it a shot on Comics.com
Earl
Philadelphia Neo-folk rockers mewithoutYou have just released the first music video off of their album that dropped last month. The album is entitled “it’s crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright“. The most interesting part is that the lead singer and song-writer, Aaron Weiss- a freegan and outspoken Christian- cites the writings of Sufi mystic Bawa Muhaiyaddeen as the influence for the album (The final track is called “Allah, Allah, Allah!” and sings about how ‘Allah’ can be seen in everything).
We’ve been a fan of mewithoutYou since Florrie and I first saw them live in 2003. Aaron came out on stage frantically waving a bouquet of flowers throughout the set. We immediately bought their newest album and rushed to the car to listen to it and read the lyrics. We were blown away at the dept and self-disclosure that Aaron’s lyrics provided.
Click to Preview the New Album
I even remember going to a show the night before Easter in 2006 where the band offered an open invitation to the crowd to file onto their bus and go to Philly with them for a Sunrise Service- AND THEY WERE DEAD SERIOUS! They wanted everyone that could fit to pack onto their bus (which is powered by vegitable oil) and drive 3 hours south to Philladelphia to celebrate the resurrecton of Jesus Christ. That is something that’s really stuck with me.
As an aside, I really appreicate mewithoutYou’s attempt to push Christian sensibilities by using Arabic to refer to God. However, rather than a Christianizing of Islamic culture I think mewithoutYou is genuinely integrating pieces of Suffi and Christian faith. I applaud their efforts and hope others take time to think about this before flippantly dismissing the band as synchronists.
Their newest video ‘The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie’ is far more allegorical; it works itself out like a story. Watch the video. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Click Here To Watch ‘The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie’
Earl
In case you were interested in more mewithoutYou:
This is the song ‘1979′ off of their third album- ‘Catch for us the Foxes’
‘In a sweater poorly knit’ off of ‘Brother, Sister’
taken from Outreach Magazine
In case you were wondering… It is garbage like this that makes me hope that I’m out of town when the rapture happens. Jesus can leave a note and I’ll catch up with the gang later.
Obviously, I’m exaggerating (well… mostly exaggerating).
However, I do not conceive how this can be considered love. No, I do not want to fund abortions. No, I do not want to fund alcohol and drug abuse. But, do you know what? I do want to help fund medical attention for PEOPLE WHO NEED IT.
I don’t care if they did it to themselves. I don’t care if they should have known better. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God loves the world so much that God responded to ignorance with love rather than justice.
Jesus said to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Perhaps we Christians need a refresher in who is our neighbor.
Earl
For those of you who are my friends on Facebook, I apologize for posting this again. However, I felt this was worth a second post. If for no other reason than it is a perfect picture of why I am opposed to both FOX News and CNN.
Here’s an edited piece from the ‘Fire David Letterman’ Rally last Tuesday afternoon:
However, this time around I didn’t redesign the blog. Instead I redesigned the whole site to make the most out of the url.
Feel free to check it out and tell me what you think: www.EarlBarnett.com
Since I’ve decided to start looking for part-time pastor positions in Columbus, GA I figured a one-stop catch-all would be a good idea. The only thing it is missing is a link to my photography (working on that).
Earl
Stay, And I Will Love Thee (2006)
This amazing piece was created by Australian artist, Ken Wong. Those of you who’ve been visiting my blog for a while probably recognize it from my ‘Artists I Love’ sidebar. However, since there are so many new subscribers, I figured it would be good to introduce the pieces and why I love them.
“Stay, And I Will Love Thee” caught my eye with its disconnected relationship between the tenderness of the woman and the seeming apathy of the octopus (I think one could argue that the woman’s love is requited). Moreover, apparently, this is a modernization of an old form of Japanese art where women engage in sexual relationships with octopi (I’m not going to link that wikipedia article).
While I find this image strangely beautiful, I cannot help but feel an aversion to the piece knowing the genre from which it stems. And that’s why I love it. For me, this piece captures an essence of beauty without letting go of its human nature. Unlike much contemporary religious art, the deeper you go in this piece the more it becomes disturbingly human. Love cannot be separated from the rest of the human experience. In the human existence, love is mingled with selfishness, domination and hate.
I feel this piece captures that relationship perfectly.
Earl
“I’ve met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, “Why?” Why did I cause so much pain? Didn’t I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness? Can’t I see how we’re all manifestations of love? I look at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God’s got this all wrong. We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens. And God says, “No, that’s not right.” Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can’t teach God anything.” ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 30
Fight Club on Google Books
Earl
This image caught my attention this morning while reading this week’s comic reviews. It is from a comic titled ‘The Unwritten’. I cannot vouch for the comic book, but this preview definitely has me intrigued.
Free Preview of ‘The Unwritten’
I just finished watching Cocaine Cowboys II: Hustlin’ with the Godmother and Mr. Untouchable. Consequently, I could not help but wonder how the Church might respond to the rise of the apparent dissipation of “goodness” American society.
Cocaine Cowboys 2
Cocaine Cowboys 2 is a documentary about cocaine trafficking in Oakland, CA in the 1980’s- 1990’s. It was released last summer as a sequel to Cocaine Cowboys, the story of cocaine trafficking in Miami, FL. Cocaine Cowboys 2 follows the story of Charles Cosby and his relationship with “the Godmother” Griselda Blanco.
If you’re interested, here’s the first uncensored 10 minutes of the movie:
Mr. Untouchable
Mr. Untouchable is the story of Harlem drug dealer Nicky Barnes. Barnes ran cocaine and heroine in NYC and was one of the first African American leaders of organized crime. What’s probably most fascinating about Nicky Barnes and his organization is that high level of intelligence. That is not to say that organized crime lacks intelligence, but I found it fascinating that Barnes often used Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ to justify his ethic and ‘Moby Dick’ to articulate the timelessness of his struggle.
Here’s the trailer for Mr. Untouchable:
Rise of the Modern Anti-Hero
Both of these documentaries seek to capitalize on the popularity of organized crime in American entertainment. Movies like the Godfather, Scarface, Donny Brasco, Goodfellas, American Gangster, Get Rich or Die Trying , Notorious, and countless others tell stories of anti-heroes. Stories where villains (drug dealers, cheats and murderers) are the protagonist. Stories where the audience sits on the edge of their seats and cheering as the gangster pulls out a grenade launcher and says “Say hello to my little friend!“. Stories where the protagonist often rises from poverty in the only manner available to him or her.
With one exception, the gangster/ protagonists in Mr. Untouchable were black. The police officers and politicians who spoke negatively of Ricky Barnes’ organization were white. Black was good and white was bad. Even the one white gangster argued that he wasn’t really white. Perhaps I’ve been deceived by skillful editing, but I don’t think that division is just on celluloid. White leadership felt the responsibility of saving the black community from itself. It even created new laws just for the sake of it’s ‘war on drugs’. Undoubtedly, the arrogance of the authorities transformed an attempt to rescue a society into an inverse struggle between good and evil. A superimposition of power transforming villains into a martyrs for the oppressed.
How then can the Church Respond?
Throughout these documentaries I found myself torn. To be honest, I love the notion of an anti-hero. That’s part of the reason I love Hunter Thompson so much. Definitions of good and evil are largely cultural, and established by those in authority- Good is what preserves the position of the powerful. Evil is whatever threatens that position of power. I love seeing that perversion of power turned on its ear. In cinema and literature, I enjoy watching evil win. If for no other reason than it reminds us that we live in a world where no one is really good. Stories of good and evil, white and black, largely overlook the big puddle of grey in which we all live.
The problem is that American society is moving/ has moved beyond the inversion of the good and evil dichotomy for the sake of changing the power structure. That puddle of grey has become idealized. Perhaps I am presupposing too much, but I would dare to venture that we are loosing the category of “good” altogether.
One can easily argue that “good” has never existed in American society as a whole. A society built on “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” has oppressed Blacks, women, Native Americans, Latinos and just about every country in the world that natural resources could be drawn from. Our failure to manifest goodness, however, does not mean that goodness does not exist.
The Church should traffic in “goodness”. It should strive to embody goodness in the world. I don’t necessarily mean that the Church should hold hands and sing “kumbaya”. However, we should vocally and perhaps physically oppose both tyrannical authorities and drug dealers. The antithesis of “drug dealer” shouldn’t be “police”. The antithesis of “drug dealer” should be “the Church”. Moreover, the Church should not only oppose drug dealers, but also an unfair penal system based in retributive violence. Drug addicts are punished rather than reformed. Our jails do not need more dealers and addicts. Our streets and neighborhoods need more fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers. As the Church, we should be willing to sacrifice our lives for the transformation and betterment of the world. Goodness cannot be legislated or wished into existence, it must be birthed from within a society itself.
While movies are fine for entertainment and philosophical exploration, I think that Christians have an obligation to oppose America’s idealizing of moral mediocrity. Christians do not necessarily need to define right and wrong or be a vocal “moral majority”. Instead, it simply needs to be a beacon of hope for the hopeless. A sign that life can be something more than it presently is. Freedom from addiction. Escape from persecution. Hope for the hopeless.
Christians have a prophetic responsibility to act as the presence of Christ the world. To allow a dissipation or a perversion of goodness into a vacuous morality of political interests to occur on our watch is a dereliction of duty.
earl
Check out the newest book by “World-renowned Evangelist” Perry Stone:
READ THE BOOK THAT SECULAR STORES WOULD NOT SELL!
After examining the content, publishers were too hesitant to offer this in secular bookstores! It may be chapter 11 that got their attention. I detail a prediction by Mohammad that the “Islamic sun would arise in the
west.” Has Islam found their man in the west?
This content was perhaps too controversial to handle, along with several other chapters in my new book,”Unleashing the Beast.” This is NOT the original book. I have revised and completely re-written this book. I included a section on the Mark of the Beast and an update on the coming Anti-Christ’s link to Islam.
Don’t order this if you are easily offended and do not want to understand the times and hear the truth!
This new book is available on our website and available from our Ministry Center by calling 423-478-3456. It can be purchased separately as Item# BK-UB2 for $15 plus shipping and handling or can be purchased as Manna-Fest Offer# SJ-76.
The Manna-Fest Offer# SJ-76 includes both the new book and a new single audio CD entitled, “America 2010:Pharaoh Rising-Mixed Multitudes-Selective Judgement on America.” This new audio CD reveals how the American leaders are moving us into the same parallel that Pharaoh did to the Hebrews, prior to the time of God’s judgement and the Hebrews departing from Egypt.
This teaching must be gotten out while we still have freedom to speak in our nation! Order from our website using the following links or write or call us using the contact information provided below.
Really?!?!
I feel like this book pitch just called me a wus.
Don’t order this if you are easily offended and do not want to understand the times and hear the truth!
Can’t you just picture professional wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage going “c’mon, are you scarred of the truth?!?! (Snap into a slim jim!)”
. Maybe it’s more like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. Either way, it is abundantly clear that Perry Stone taunts evangelicals into reading his book.
However, maybe that’s what some evangelicals expect in their prophetic literature. It’s easier to hate Muslims when someone demeans you into it.
Let’s not forget the bragging about a book not being offered in secualar bookstores. Barnes & Noble sells Mein Kampf. Mein Kampf is generally considered to rank rather well on the offense-o-meter. If the bookstore will sell that and your publisher still doesn’t want to offer your books to “secular” bookstores, it is probably because you have a book no one will want to read- not because your book is so full of offensive “truth”.
And am I the only one who sees a certain inherent racism in the association of Barack Obama and the biblical Pharoahs? How about the association of America and Israel?
And if Mr. Stone really wanted to get this “teaching” out. He’d offer a .pdf for free download rather than pitching it for $15 via mass email and selling them at everything but “secular bookstores”.
This, my friends, is the dark side of evangelicalism.
James Dobson
Pat Robertson
Perry Stone