Archive for September, 2005
Friday, September 23rd, 2005
Going on holiday without a laptop makes it possible for me to get stuck into a novel or two. So this last week I finally got around to reading Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code“.
The basic premise of the novel is that the Holy Grail is not a cup but is instead the secret royal bloodline formed by Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Robert Langdon, an American symbologist, works with Sophie Neveu, a French cryptologist, to uncover the secrets of the Priory of Sion. Along the way they team up with English Grail specialist, Sir Leigh Teabing. Sophie’s grandfather, Jacques Sauniere, a curator in the Louvre museum, is killed at the beginning of the story. But his presence is felt throughout as Langdon and Neveu uncover the clues he has set in the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. We also follow the story of Silas, an albino member of Opus Dei who is ensnared in a plot to discover the Holy Grail.
Putting aside any qualms about historical accuracy, I enjoyed the book as a stirring thriller. Not as cleverly told as someone like Frederick Forsyth or Robert Grisham. But I finished the book in one day.
Dan Brown has pages dedicated to The DaVinci Code at his site, www.danbrown.com. Doubleday/Randomhouse, the publisher, has an interactive site dedicated to the book and its yet-to-be published sequel.
[eminimall products="Da Vinci Code"]
I’d seen the Channel 4 documentary on the non-fiction background to Brown’s work of fiction. “The Real DaVinci Code” was presented by Tony Robinson. It has a micro site at Weird Worlds.
It’s clear that Brown has stringed together a number of speculative theories about the feminine side to religion, the family of Jesus and the Templar Knights, not to mention the role of many well known artists and thinkers throughout the ages. Despite the gaping holes in the evidence and logic of it all, Brown has the knack of making fiction seem believable.
The DaVinci Code is currently in production as a movie directed by Ron Howard, filmed in France (including The Louvre) and England (Lincoln Cathedral). It should be a hit, with Tom Hanks as Langdon, Audrey Tatou as Neveu, Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing, Alfred Molina as Opus Dei Bishop Aringarosa, Jean Reno as detective Bezu Fache, Jean-Pierre Marielle as Jacques Sauniere and Paul Bettany as Silas. The movie opens on May 18 and 19 in 2006, and has a trailer online at Sony’s Da Vinci Code site.
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Friday, September 23rd, 2005
We’ve just spent a few days down south in Maclean - Australia’s Scottish town in northern New South Wales, Australia.
It was almost like being home in Southland, New Zealand. Much of the area around Maclean, on the Clarence river, was settled by Highlanders driven from their land during the Highland clearances. Around the streets today you can see evidence of the tartans of Scotland. The street signs are in English and in Gaelic. Power poles are painted in the various Highland tartans. There are three poles in MacLeod colours, one in the yellow of Lewis and two in the Ancient colours of MacLeod of Macleod.
The town is full of traditional buildings. There’s the Free Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia) which has been in continuous use since 1867. It originally held worship in two languages: Gaelic and English. The Methodist church established in 1890 is now the Uniting Church. And then of course there are the Presbyterian, Baptist (1907), Salvation Army (1901) Anglican and Catholic (1890) churches. The cemetery is divided into Anglican, Methodist, Salvation Army and General. I didn’t see the Presbyterian and Catholic sections.
We were there at the right time to attend the annual art and craft festival which gave us a chance to meet a few of the locals. I had a chat with the Special Emergency Service volunteer about the history of flooding in Maclean. And with the local woodturner who spinned a few yarns with another tradesman on their involvement in the local building industry. The time to go back is Easter when Maclean hosts the Highland Games.
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Sunday, September 18th, 2005
Tonight I’m talking with Logan Uniting on the topic of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. I’ll be part of a team of three which means I don’t have to worry about sex and drugs! We have 15 minutes to explore an engagement with rock music. Thus the posts this afternoon on backward masking, Hell’s Bells, and Steve Turner’s approach to imagination and the arts. We’ll look at a couple of music video clips to start with. And then consider the assumptions we bring to our engagement with popular culture. Are we called to live in a parallel universe? Or in this world? When Paul talks about the ‘world, flesh and the devil’, what’s he talking about? Why do we talk about ’secular music’ and ‘Christian music’? We’ll touch on the backward masking stuff for interest’s sake. And then finish off with Romans 14. The connections between the environment of Rome and the popular culture scene of the 21st century.
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Sunday, September 18th, 2005
Steve Turner, poet, author and musician, has some very helpful things to say about rock music.
In his book, “Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts“, IVP, 2001, Steve begins with what he learned from Francis Schaeffer at L’Abri.
“Evangelical Christians traditionally had taken redemption as their starting point to anything. Had the artist been reborn and was the artist singing, writing or painting about being reborn? For Schaeffer, creation was the starting point. Everyone was made in God’s image and those blessed with artistic gifts couldn’t help but display that original image in some way. This perspective confirmed what I had instinctively felt for some time - that a lot of art created by Christians was bad and a lot of art created by non-Christians was good. It was a possible for a well-loved hymn to be bad art and a painting by an utter reprobate to be good art. By making truth the sole criterion, Christians had often diminished the importance of human endeavour in the arts, and in doing this had deprived themselves of a wealth of cultural experience.”
Now this I find helpful. Steve’s able to get us beyond narrow definitions of ‘good and bad’ music. He makes room for the roles of imagination, creativity and excellence in exploring the development of popular culture. Only difficulty is that many Christian commentators use this set of criteria to look down their noses at music which appears to be too simple or common.
Steve has also written “Hungry for Heaven: Rock ‘n’ Roll & The Search for Redemption“, 1995, “A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song“, 1999, “Amazing Grace: The Story of America’s Most Beloved Song“, 2003, along with biographies of Cliff Richard, Van Morrison, Jack Kerouac, Johnny Cash and Marvin Gaye.
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Sunday, September 18th, 2005
Darren Wright suggested I check out Reel 2 Real’s video, “Hell’s Bells: The Dangers of Rock ‘n’ Roll” as an example of Christian anti-rock music propaganda from the end of the 1980s.
I’ve found the home of Hell’s Bells, and even the transcript! It’s all online at Reel2Real Ministries. Here’s the blurb from the distributors, Art of the Covenant:
“After opening with an engaging apologetic on the power of music and the nature of man, Hell’s Bells examines the ideas of key satanists and occultists and looks for their parallels within the world of secular rock music. (Surprise, they’re virtually everywhere!) It then contrasts these “vain and evil imaginings” with the teachings of Jesus. By the end of this absolutely captivating video (multitudes of lost people have watched it out of interest, curiosity, even a desire to rip it apart!), the viewer has seen and heard the gospel forwards and backwards and knows that ultimately there are only two types of people (the lost and the redeemed) and two paths to go on (the path of self (satanism) or the way of the cross). Tens of thousands have been saved through this video! “
What strikes me about this approach is the black and white dualism at its heart. Of course, if we believe that music can only serve God or Satan we end up with a paranoia about ‘worldly music’. If we set out to look for examples of environmental concern in rock music we’d find it. If we set out to find political messages we’ll find them. Rock music is really an expression of popular culture and so has the capacity to reflect the diversity of spiritualities, ideologies and ethical standards that are held around the world. It seems to me that the Hells Bells approach sees salvation as rescue from popular culture. To become a Christian in this mindset is to be sucked out of the world and dedicated to redeemed blandness. It’s a worry.
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Sunday, September 18th, 2005
I’m speaking on rock music tonight. Thought I better check out what people are still saying about backward masking. It’s a lot easier to check it out now that we can just play our mp3 files backwards in Audacity or Soundforge. Means we don’t have to ruin the stylus on the record player!
Anyway I found Jeff Milner’s Backward Masking Page - a selection of reversed mp3 clips. I’ve marked my opinions on the interpretations of these songs backwards. The ones I’ve marked Bogus would need the gift of interpretation of tongues to get the suggested lyrics. :>)
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven (BOGUS)
John Lennon: Imagine (BOGUS)
Beatles: I’m So Tired (BOGUS)
Yoko Ono: Kiss Kiss Kiss (BOGUS)
Eminem: My Name Is (MAYBE)
Pokemon Rap (BOGUS)
Pink Floyd: Empty Spaces (YES DEFINITELY)
Queen: Another one bites the dust (BOGUS)
Britney Spears: Hit Me One More Time (BOGUS)
Weird Al Yankovich: Nature Trail to Hell (YES DEFINITELY)
Eagles: Hotel California (BOGUS)
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Sunday, September 18th, 2005
I’ve just posted on ASB’s “Ira Goldstein” NZ advertising campaign at Duncan’s TV Ad Land. I was in New Zealand for a year of the campaign - long enough to develop a sense of affection for the Jewish American banker who’s sent to New Zealand to spy on the upmarket entrepreneurial bank.
ASB started out as Auckland Savings Bank, a bank focused on the Auckland community. In the 1980s the Auckland Savings Bank parted company with the Trust Bank group to forge its own identity beyond Auckland. In 1987, the year of the sharemarket crash, ASB forged its identity with colours of gold and grey. In 1989 ASB found a partner in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. ASB opened branches around New Zealand and led the way with innovation in the areas of Saturday trading, phone and EFTPOS banking. Robert the Robot, an ‘amiable slightly droll robot’, introduced the public to ASB’s services.
In January 2000 ASB introduced New Zealand to a new character, Ira Goldstein, a banker on a mission from New York. He was in NZ to check out home loans, investment advisers, business bankers, rural bankers and eventually branchless banking. See it all at Duncan’s TV Adland.
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Saturday, September 17th, 2005
We’re watching the NZ Election results with interest. It seems New Zealand is torn between the choice of a consumerist National Party and a politically-correct Labour Party. Neither of the leaders of the two major parties is what I would call ‘people savvy’. Helen Clark does have the benefit of two terms of experience in leadership and is less prone to the gaffes to which Don Brash is prone. With Mixed Member Proportional Voting though the power to form a government will rest in the ability to work with the minority parties.
The results are being updated every two minutes at www.stuff.co.nz. Earlier tonight it looked as though National had 53 seats and Labour 46. Now, with 93 % of the polls in Labour has 50, National 49, New Zealand First 7, Green Party 6, Maori Party 4, United Future New Zealand 3, Act New Zealand 2, and Jim Anderton Progressive 1. The Maori Party have clearly made some progress, taking four electorate seats. Winston Peters may well miss out on Tauranga, by a small margin, but is likely to stay in Parliament as NZ First has managed over 5 percent of the NZ vote.
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Saturday, September 17th, 2005
I’m doing a bit of research for a colleague I met at Synod this last week. He’s interested in making some connections between faith and community among Australian veterans of the wars in Vietnam and Borneo.
First port of call was Bill Mahedy, author of “Out of the Night: The Spiritual Journey of Vietnam Veterans”. Originally published in 1997, it was republished with a foreword for the Iraq war by a small publishing house, Radix Press.
On his own site, “Out of the Night” Bill has published an article, “Spiritual Recovery for Combat Veterans: The Spiritual Boot Camp“. It’s in the form of twelve steps of spiritual recovery from combat related stress and is the first page of a 28-page booklet of exercies and reflections.
Bill also recommends:
Delores Kuenning, “Life After Vietnam: How Veterans and their Loved Ones Heal Psychological Wounds of War“, Marlowe & Paragon, 1991.
Jonathan Shay, “Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character“, Scribner, 1995 and Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming, Scribner, 2003
Uwe Siemon-Netto, “The Acquittal of God: A Theology for Vietnam Veterans“, Pilgrim Press, 1990
Bill’s Twelve Steps to Spiritual Recovery
(Twelve Activities of the Spiritual Boot Camp)
- We admitted that we were powerless over the memories, emotions, attitudes, thoughts, bodily reactions and spiritual pain resulting from combat.
- Having undergone a conversion experience into a world of violence, we came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to peace of soul, peace with others and peace with God as I understand him.
- We made a decision to turn our anger, guilt, resentments, shame and fear over to God and to commit ourselves entirely to God’s loving care.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, including all we had done in combat, leaving out nothing we had done personally but not accepting responsibility for what we did not do personally.
- Admitted to ourselves and to one other person the exact nature of our past wrongs and our present tendencies to do evil, asking God to forgive our past sins and remove our defects of character.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed and become willing to make amends to them all either directly or indirectly, insofar as this is possible without harming others or ourselves.
- Having admitted our tendency to play God in our judgments of others and of ourselves, and now submitting our judgments to those of God, we now forgive all others any offenses they may have committed against us, we forgive ourselves and accept God’s forgiveness of us.
- Having entered into a deeper spiritual state, we surrendered ourselves completely to God, letting go of our hidden hatreds and desires for revenge and also of our guilt over the unintended consequences of acts we performed in good faith or in ignorance.
- We began to exercise a specific and detailed discipline of trust, whereby we gradually came to trust ourselves, trust others and to trust that God would restore to us our power to rejoice, to give thanks, to praise and to enjoy.
- We began to enter into the silence and the still waters of our souls in peace rather than in the isolation and loneliness of fear, spending time in quiet prayer and in sharing what we have discovered within ourselves in prayer and worship together with others.
- We committed ourselves to completing the final mission of a combat soldier: becoming bearers of peace, prayerfulness, happiness and rejoicing , resolving to go behind the enemy lines of fear, mistrust, selfishness, greed, hatreds which surround us in our culture, confident that, as warriors of peace, we will overcome these barriers using the weapons of peace, mercy and kindness which we have been given.
- Where before we were infected with the contagion of violence, we will now spread to others the contagion of peace which we have received, planning our mission carefully, including all those within the ambit of our lives.
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Saturday, September 17th, 2005
Ruth, one of my sisters, has just sent me an email with the full text of an article by Bill McKibben, American environmentalist.
The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong
Harpers Magazine, August
“Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that God helps those who help themselves. That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans (most American Christians) are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.”
McKibben is concerned that there are several competing creeds for American Christians. One of those is the belief that figuring out the schedule for the End Times. He points to www.raptureready.com, Tom DeLay’s apocalyptic policies, and the writings of Tim LaHaye. More concerning to McKibben is the soft-focus, comfortable suburban faith being promoted by mega churches serving the needs of individual consumers rather than communities.
McKibben reflects on Rick Warren’s ‘you-focused’ Purpose Driven Life as still having the potential to help people connect faith in Jesus with radical mission and ‘other-focused’ lifestyle.
Bill McKibben, a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, is the author of many books, including The End of Nature and Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America’s Most Hopeful Landscape. He lives with his family in the Adirondack Mountains, New York State, and is a Sunday School teacher in the local Methodist church.
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