Issue44_DigitalIssue_NEW-V2

INDIE ICONS SHE & HIM | K-OS | THE NOISETTES | THE GREGORY BROTHERS | OUR 7TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

god. life. progressive culture.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

2010 who is the real

NEW MUSIC GUIDE 10 Daily Choices with Global Impact p. 64

denzel washington on god

The rock Icon, Producer and Almost-Priest Comes Clean

p.44

Truly helping haiti

What is the right strategy for lasting recovery?

p. 46

p. 40

the faith story behind guinness

There’s more to the legendary beer than you think now printed on recycled paper

p. 58

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2527 4 63696

ISSUE 44 | Mar_apr 2010 | $4.95

9

“Moving, empowering, compelling, provocative.�

-Publishers Weekly

The new book from controversial author Sara Miles

Only a freak would love the unlovable “Sara Miles is amazing, a wild, unique, funny Christian ... I love her work.”

-Anne Lamott, author, Traveling Mercies and Grace (Eventually)

“One of the most inspiring books I’ve ever read.”

-Rob Bell, author, Velvet Elvis; pastor, Mars Hill Bible Church

Sara Miles offers a fresh, fully embodied faith that sweeps away the anxious formulas of religion to reveal the scandalous power of eating with sinners, embracing the unclean and loving the wrong people. Jesus Freak is her inspiring book for undomesticated Christians who still believe, as she writes, “that Jesus has given us the power to be Jesus.”

Available Wherever Books Are Sold

Would you like to see yourself as GOD sees you?

GOD. LIFE. PROGRESSIVE CULTURE. RELEVANT magazine March/April 2010, Issue 44 Yes, it’s paint. And it was fun.

EDITOR, PUBLISHER & CEO Cameron Strang > cameron@relevantmediagroup.com Editorial Director | Roxanne Wieman > roxanne@relevantmediagroup.com Associate Editor | Ashley Emert > ashley@relevantmediagroup.com Associate Editor | Ryan Hamm > ryan@relevantmediagroup.com Editorial Assistant | Alyce Gilligan > alyce@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Writers: Jason Boyett, John Brandon, Don Chaffer, Francis Chan, Julie Clawson, Jordan Green, Adam and Christine Jeske, David Johnson, David Kinnaman, Carl Kozlowski, Julian Lukins, Stephen Mansfield, Brett McCracken, Bonnie McMaken, Jessica Misener, John Pattison, Sara Sterley Print Design Manager | Amy Duty > amy@relevantmediagroup.com Senior Marketing Designer | Jesse Penico > jesse@relevantmediagroup.com Junior Designer | Justin Mezzell > justinm@relevantmediagroup.com Photographer | Raychel Mendez > raychel@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Photographers: DuckDuck Collective, Denny Renshaw, Lisa Johnson, Michael Labica, Lilja Birgisdottir, Autumn DeWilde, Taea Thale, Stephen Berkman, David Swanson, Jon Warren Contributing designer: Angel A. Acevedo Digital Manager | Tim Dikun > tim@relevantmediagroup.com Audio/Video Producer | Chad Michael Snavely > chad@relevantmediagroup.com Systems Administrator | Josh Strohm > joshs@relevantmediagroup.com Programmer | Casey Morford > casey@relevantmediagroup.com Web Production Assistant | David Barratt > david@relevantmediagroup.com Chief Operations Officer | Josh Babyar > josh@relevantmediagroup.com Director of Channel Development | Philip Self > philip@relevantmediagroup.com Director of Strategic Development | Josh Loveless > joshl@relevantmediagroup.com Account Manager | Michael Romero > michael@relevantmediagroup.com Senior Marketing Manager | Hemarie Vazquez > hemarie@relevantmediagroup.com Field Coordinator | Sarahbeth Wesley > sarahbeth@relevantmediagroup.com Marketing Assistant | Richard Butcher > richard@relevantmediagroup.com Finance Manager | Maya Strang > mstrang@relevantmediagroup.com Executive Assistant & Project Manager | Theresa Dobritch > theresa@relevantmediagroup.com Fulfillment Manager | Rachel Gittens > rachel@relevantmediagroup.com

“I love this book!

With disarming honesty, she shows us how to get real with God!” —Joanna Weaver, author, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT Michael Romero (407) 660-1411 x 125

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RELEVANT Issue #44 March/April 2010 (ISSN: 1543-317X) is published 6 times a year in January, March, May, July, September, and November for $14.95 per year by RELEVANT Media Group, Inc., 1220 Alden Road, Orlando, FL 32803. Periodicals postage paid at Orlando, FL, and at additional mailing offices.

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Available wherever books are sold.

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CONTENTS ISSUE44 MAR_APR 2010 | RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

8 10 12 24 26 28

First Word Letters Slices The Pulse: An Ode to the Record Store Reject Apathy: We Can’t Forget The Drop

The Noisettes & The Gaslight Anthem

32 You Are Here Saving the world in your own backyard 36 She & Him

M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel on what it takes to be in harmony

40 On the Ground in Haiti

A Q&A with Steve Haas, the vice president of World Vision, U.S.

44 Denzel Washington How his beliefs drive his film career 46 Jack White

He’s played a lot of roles, but who is the real Jack White?

52 Knowing God’s Will What if we’re getting it wrong?

56 2010 New Music Guide

The good, the bad & the glo-fi

64 Everyday Justice

10 lifestyle choices that can help others

70 God and Guinness

How the faith of Arthur Guinness inspired the vision for his beer

76 A Bitter Pill

Birth control is a matter of life and death— so why aren’t we talking about it more?

80 Remembering Communion

What “drink my blood, eat my flesh” really means

88 Recommends THE SOUND OF SIGUR RÓS’

JÓNSI BIRGISSON

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We’ve created current, gorgeous websites with the easiest, most intuitive content management system ever invented. Clover is all beauty and all brains, and created specifically for ministries.

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INSPIRE... holisticAlly relAtionAlly missionAlly

Practical ways to connect the Church to its true mission and purpose.

A new approach to creating influence and lasting change.

AvAilAble At bookstores nAtionwide

Guidance for church leaders on their path toward a missional congregation.

FIRST WORD

In Dog Years, We’d be 49 > Cameron Strang

T

his issue marks the seventh anniversary of RELEVANT. (Well, in print. Our full history actually goes back a couple years earlier online.) I’m not really one for sentimentality, but seven years is a significant milestone for an independent magazine in a rapidly changing media environment—not to mention one that straddles the very tenuous line between sacred and secular markets.

In 2003, naive and optimistic, we set out to be a voice of what God is doing in and through our generation, and it’s been amazing seeing the various ways that has played out since.

Back then, it was groundbreaking (and controversial) for us to acknowledge God could actually be moving in culture, and not only inside the walls of the Church. A magazine with a Christian worldview advocating being in the world, yet not of it, or looking at the spiritual hunger and beauty in culture, was enough to get us banned from more than one conservative retail chain.

In 2003, books like Bob Briner’s Roaring Lambs were paradigm-shifting. Today, it’s a commonly held worldview that Christians should be living intentionally, even dangerously, in the world rather than merely retreating safely in the Christian ghetto.

And that’s just the beginning. We’ve seen the move to authenticity. And to social justice. And to sacrificial, outward faith. Things look very different today than they did when RELEVANT first rolled off the presses.

We’re in a remarkable time. God is moving like never before, stirring our generation to a radical, selfless faith. Greater things are in front of us than behind. And as things continue to change, RELEVANT will be there—giving voice to the movement, spotlighting world-changers, asking hard questions, seeking the best way to live out our faith in an ever-changing world.

Frankly, I can’t wait to see what the next seven years bring.

8 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

In the Pipeline RELEVANT has been around for seven years, but we’re far from standing still. Here’s a preview of some of the new things we’re rolling out this year:

* RELEVANT iPhone App

Several of us on staff are admitted Apple junkies.

So, we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our seventh anniversary than to launch a RELEVANT iPhone app. It has daily articles and news from our website, select print articles and full access to podcast archives, including live band performances and interviews. It’s available now in the iTunes app store (search “RELEVANT”), completely free.

* RELEVANT.fm

As a magazine, we’ve always had a complicated relationship with music. On one hand, it’s so influential in our lives and culture that we want to cover it, but on the other hand, we’re not a music magazine. Music fans want more music coverage than we can deliver in the print mag, so with our anniversary issue we’re launching RELEVANT.fm, a one-of-a-kind online music station featuring an eclectic mix of fresh, substantive music, in-studio performances and exclusive interviews. It’s streaming right now 24/7 at www.RELEVANT.fm.

* Reject Apathy Coming to Print

This winter, we launched RejectApathy.com, an online magazine focused on whole-life issues and sustainable Christian social action. The response has been so strong that we’re bringing Reject Apathy to the print magazine in a unique way. Starting with our May issue, it’ll be a stand-alone mini-mag within the bigger issue of RELEVANT.

*

RELEVANT College Guides

In January, we launched three online guides to help people find the right higher education fit and thrive while there. We’re now publishing these undergrad,

grad and seminary college guides twice a year, and starting with the next editions (late summer) they’ll be in print as well as online.

* All-new RELEVANT Podcast

We’ve been podcasting since 2005. In that time, the show has evolved from random non-sequitor nothingness, to actual content (i.e., live performances and interviews) combined with random non-sequitor nothingness. Well, we went and got ourselves a producer, and things are getting pretty spiffy. Check out the new season available now in the iTunes store.

* Mobile Magazines

We’re already Kindle/Nook addicts, and it’s looking like we’ll be iPad addicts, too. So it should be no surprise that this year you’ll see digital versions of RELEVANT on those devices. We don’t plan on print going anywhere, but digital formats open up a lot of multimedia possibilities, which is pretty exciting.

* Neue Magazine

In February, we debuted a magazine for church leaders and innovators called Neue (pronounced “new”) focusing on the ideas shaping the future of the Church.

Since we’re all affected by where Church goes, Neue is our contribution to a very important conversation.

Leaders, check it out. There’s more info on page 73.

* The Rebirth of RELEVANT Books

From 2001 and 2006, we published more than 80 book titles—and even have a few we’re really proud of. We stepped back from publishing books for a number of reasons, but this year RELEVANT Books is coming back—albeit looking quite different from before. Some exciting stuff is in motion. Stay tuned.

CAMERON STRANG is the founder of RELEVANT. Connect with him at Twitter.com/CameronStrang and Facebook.com/CameronStrang.

HOPE FOR CREATION A Live Simulcast Event

On The Eve of Earth Day 2010

Join the worldwide, interactive conversation.

One night. One message. The Church united.

APRIL 21

Take the next step. www.blessedearth.org First 100 schools or churches to register receive Blessed Earth’s new 12-part video series (from the makers of NOOMA) featuring Dr. Matthew Sleeth.

ENTER CODE: RELE

COMMENTS, CONCERNS, SMART REMARKS > Write us at feedback@RELEVANTmagazine.com

LETTERS I’ve been a fan of Zac Levi’s since Chuck’s beginning, so I was so excited when I heard RELEVANT was featuring him on the cover. Jeremy Cowart did an awesome job on the photography, and the article [“The Real and Surreal Life of Zac Levi,” Jan./Feb. 10] was even better than I’d hoped. It revealed a side of Zac I was glad to hear about, and validated my support for him and his work. This article might be one of my favorite RELEVANT articles ever.

—Tiffany nelson / via RELEVANTmagazine.com

What is the deal with you trendy people? Just so you know, one of the greatest bands ever called it a day last November, and you guys didn’t even blink. Not a word. Just so you know, the band was Delirious?, not that you care.

—Jay Upp / San Dimas, Canada

Wow, the article on Zac Levi is really awesome.

In this day and age, it seriously takes guts to be a Christ-follower in many places—granted, we have it good compared to places like the Middle East or North Korea—but to stand for the truth that is God in an environment like Hollywood can be so full of either difficulty or compromise. I’m glad he seems pretty solid in his convictions, and unapologetic about his relationship with God and what that looks like as a celebrity. God bless you, bro.

—Brenda Linares / Sydney, Australia The feature “Looking Ahead” [“Bringing 2020 Into Focus,” Jan./Feb. 10] was eye-opening. It really helped set my eyes forward and remind me to keep making progress. I’m seeing what God’s doing through people, and what that is going to look like in 10 years is awesome!

—Chris Starbird / Champaign, IL I was less than enthused by the fatalistic portions of “Looking Ahead,” which seem to put all of the responsibility on mankind to save the world from certain doom (famine, climate change and the like). Yes, we ought to be good stewards who “care for God’s Earth,” and yes, we should be generous with what we have.

But shouldn’t we also remember that it is, after all, God’s Earth? Is not the Earth His, and everything in it?

—Kevin Mason / Monument, CO I started reading RELEVANT my senior year of college in 2007. Over the years I’ve suggested this mag to everyone. So thank you, RELEVANT, for the past three years. It’s been a crazy journey, but God’s used you to keep me sane and to keep me hopeful.

—Katie Carl / San Francisco, CA

10 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

We care, we just tend to focus our music coverage on bands that, you know, are still together.

Regarding the item about “Reversing Course With Native Americans” [“Slices,” Jan./Feb. 10], the smallpox blanket incident is a lie. It never happened. The massacres perpetrated by Indian tribes upon white settlers is overlooked, while instances of “European violence” are twisted into genocide-like proportions. Thanks for helping to rewrite history, RELEVANT. —Michael fischer / Philadelphia, PA A friend recently gave me a copy of Relevant, describing it as an “edgy” Christian magazine (or words to that affect). Having been surviving on a diet of magazines aimed at 40-something housewives (precious as they are), I was delighted to find a publication with features aimed at twentysomethings.

—David Symington / Belfast, N. Ireland Actually, 40-something housewives are our target demographic, too.

Thank you for the article on Donald Miller. It confirmed the suspicion I’ve had since I read Blue Like Jazz ... I really just want to have coffee with Donald Miller. He seems like a guy you can easily have a conversation with on pretty much any subject. He makes you think about things you normally wouldn’t have, or in ways you wouldn’t have thought, but he does it in a way that makes it seem like you’re part of the conversation. And sometimes he points out completely obvious things without making you feel like an idiot for not having thought it, and without making himself look like a know-it-all.

—Kevin Switzer / Colorado Springs, CO We’ve had coffee with Don. None of that is true.

RELETWEETS Here is some of the online scuttlebutt we’ve seen about us recently, in 140 characters or less. (And if you didn’t know, we tweet every day over at Twitter.com/RELEVANTmag.)

Enjoyed the article in @RELEVANTmag about @ZacharyLevi. House churches are really filling a niche in 21st cent.

Xianity. —@thedaveone The “Bringing 2020 into Focus” article in the new @RELEVANTmag was both insightful and extremely well designed! —@tanyaelshahawi

@RELEVANTmag The article on 2020 was both objective and brilliant. Worth reading at least twice. Great job!

—@samjessup Reading the latest issue of @RELEVANTmag and I must say that every year this thing gets better and better. Props to @cameronstrang and crew. —@Jeffreyworthen Owl City and Vampire Weekend articles in @RELEVANTmag—love it!

Subscription = great Xmas gift from @annahammond and @benhammond!

—@sarahhammond

Loved the article in @RELEVANTmag about @OwlCity. It made me respect Adam Young even more than I already did. —@_anna_95

Currently at church using the WiFi to read the current issue of RELEVANT magazine online. Slow Internet/ computer isn’t helping.

—@JZimmah

slices

a bi-montHly look at life & culture

The Faces of a YouTube Sensation

Andrew The folk artist of the group is finishing a concept album based on the Song of Songs. Sexy!

Michael The brains behind the AutoTune madness. Thank him for the infectious Kanye West and “Charlie Bit My Finger” remix.

Evan He plays on the worship team at church, and appeared on a hipster hymns compilation.

Meet the Gregory Brothers

Soul singer (and Evan’s wife), Sarah has her own band and sounds fantastic Auto-Tuned. visit TheGregoryBrothers.com for more

Photos: Denny renshaw

Sarah

You may not have heard of the Gregory Brothers ... but you have heard them.

12 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

the subway and he said, ‘Hey, I want to talk to you about your posse singing in the Welcome Wagon Choir.’”

“Yeah, we go to his church,” Evan chimes in. “Sarah [Evan’s wife] and I play roles in the music ministry [at Resurrection].”

And how did a group of singers who sing soul and “church” music find themselves singing in Auto-Tune all over YouTube? Well, for that we can thank Michael, who interned at a music studio in New York. “After the rappers

and up-and-coming divas would go home, I would stay in the studio and work on some parody projects. I thought it would be really funny to reimagine the [2008 Presidential campaign debates] as a musical,” Michael says. That was the beginning of a YouTube phenomenon that’s managed to attract the attention of everyone from T-Pain to Jimmy Kimmel Live, and of course, millions of online viewers. Just as long as they never release an Auto-Tuned Welcome Wagon album.

relevantmagazine.com

Not only are the Gregory Brothers the family foursome behind the hilarious YouTube hit “Auto-Tune the News,” they appear as members of the Welcome Wagon Choir on 2008’s Welcome to The Welcome Wagon. And, as it happens, they’re Christians who enjoy making all kinds of music.

“All four of us were in the Welcome Wagon Choir,” Andrew Gregory says. “I saw Vito [Aiuto, pastor of Resurrection Presbyterian Church and half of The Welcome Wagon] on

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[RELEVANT]

[slices]

Q&A with Peter Jackson

Director of The Lovely Bones With Easter just around the corner, thoughts naturally turn to heaven and the Resurrection. After all, Easter is the beginning of Christian hope and the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. But what is being hoped for?

What does the Resurrection look like?

Obviously, no one can really know ... though it isn’t for lack of trying. The afterlife has been a topic of searching forever—just think about The Odyssey.

And it’s not like the question of “what happens after we die?” stopped with the ancients. Peter Jackson recently took a break from portraying fantasy worlds and delved into fantasy of another kind—the afterlife. His look at life after death in The Lovely Bones is cinematically beautiful, if a little confusing. We asked the director about his thoughts on heaven and what it was like to try and “create” it.

Culture Jackson on set with Saoirse Ronan

Q: A:

Did the movie affect your own view of the afterlife?

Where does Susie, the main character, go after her murder and death?

I personally think it has made me believe in the fact that there is a form of energy inside us that continues to survive after death. Science and physics tells us energy cannot be destroyed, so it has to go somewhere. It doesn’t evaporate.

Susie doesn’t know what’s happening to her. She’s literally confused and now she finds herself in the in-between, which is essentially the world of dream, of subconscious, of this confused state, and she has to start to put the pieces together like a mystery.

“I personally think [The Lovely Bones] has made me believe in the fact that there is a form of energy inside us that continues to survive after death.”

This movie is really more about the afterlife than the death itself. Why is that? Was it intentional to avoid Susie’s death?

We wanted to make a film teenagers could watch. So it was important for us to not go into R-rated territory.

The movie we did make, we wanted it to become something that was almost like a mystery of what happens when you’re in this world of the subconscious, the world of the afterlife. There’s a positive aspect to it in that Susie’s immortal and saying there is no such thing as death.

In making this movie, what did you discover about people’s need to believe in an afterlife?

How did you go about “creating” heaven, knowing so many people have their own ideas on what heaven is?

We didn’t want to make a film that cast judgment on people’s religious beliefs because that wasn’t at all the motivation for making the movie.

We didn’t create the in-between being Susie’s subconscious for that reason. To us, it wasn’t about her existing in a world that had some form of religious control around it.

She is disconnected from her body for that period, and she is in this weird hallucinogenic state.

There’s a golden light ... which I shot in a deliberately clichéd recognizable way so people get the idea that heaven is there.

That golden light represents where Susie and everyone else moves on to.

The idea is you can put whatever you choose into that golden light and if you are religious, then obviously that’s what you put in there. If you’re not religious, you can imagine something else. If you don’t believe there’s anything there at all, then probably it’s not the movie you should go see.

Heaven in Hollywood The Lovely Bones is only the most recent Hollywood version of heaven and the afterlife.

Here are a few other notable movie interpretations of life after death.

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey

What Dreams May Come

Sixth Sense

Corpse Bride

The main character imagines journeying down to hell to reclaim his wife from the devil.

The title characters take trips through both heaven and hell. It’s alternately dumb and offensive.

Chris Nielson dies to find himself in a heaven made of his wife’s paintings ... but his wife is missing.

A young boy can see and talk to dead people.

Bonus: a dead Mischa Barton puking.

It’s Tim Burton’s view of the Land of the Dead. It’s also a love story. So, yeah.

It’s weird. And great.

14 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

relevantmagazine.com

Deconstructing Harry

[slices]

Seven Spring Break Alternatives Spring break trips are so predictable. You see it on MTV every year—the same people in the same swimsuits with the same sculpted abs head to Cancun/ Miami/Panama City/Bahamas/[fill in the blank] for a week of excess and fun in the sun. And while there’s something to be said for escaping cold climates and relaxing on a beach, we think you can be a bit more creative with your break this year. With that in mind, here are seven spring break alternatives we think will be both fun and beneficial, to you and others:

1

life 1

2

3

SAVE THE WORLD (Or at least try to make it better)

GET THEE TO A MONESTARY (or Nunnery) Monasteries

STALK SUFJAN

This is probably the easiest thing to do with your break. Find a place you can serve, in your community or around the world, and serve. That could mean doing something like cleaning up a park across the street to building a school in Uganda. Just find something to do and do it—it really is that simple!

and convents are great places to recharge your spiritual batteries—and you don’t need to be Catholic.

You can rest, enter into the spiritual rhythm of the community and use the silence to talk with God. To find one nearby, check out: http://www.osb.org/ retreats/index.html. Most will accept any donation.

3

4

This year, don’t just take a road trip; make it a themed road trip. Specifically, a musical one. Head to Brooklyn and stalk Sufjan, The National, The Welcome Wagon and any other hipster bands. Take a trip to the Southeast and do a country music tour.

Head to the Northwest and remember the early ‘90s when grunge was king. And, of course, the driving playlist is the key to the whole trip.

Fast, be quiet or do lectio divina The choice is yours.

2

4

“LECTIO WHAT?” UNPACKING AN ANCIENT PRACTICE

5

We all have great intentions about practicing spiritual disciplines during our everyday lives. We all want to take time to pray intently, to be silent and listen to God, to fast or any other number of disciplines.

This break, use the pause in your regular schedule to start cultivating a life of discipline—pick one to begin practicing. Build up your activity during your time off, and then carry it into your everyday life.

5 Live on $2 a day Everyone hears the statistics about what the world’s poorest live on. But now, make the statistic a reality. This works best with a group of friends, but see if you can live on $2 per day. Obviously this doesn’t include expenses like rent or utilities, but you’ll be surprised how hard it is to just eat on $2 a day.

Lectio divina is Latin for “holy reading.” It’s a fancy way of saying you’re letting Scripture wash over you through deep reading and meditation. Here’s how to engage in this ancient discipline:

6

16 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

6

7

PROTEST SOMETHING

Prepare Yourself for Cocktail Parties

Pick something you’re passionate about to protest. Go protest the death penalty or abortion on the steps of the Supreme Court. Protest torture at the School of the Americas in Georgia.

Protest the victims of religious persecution by contacting your political representatives.

Finally experience the films, books or music you know you’re “supposed” to. Rent all the Hitchcock films, read some Dostoevsky or form a real opinion about Chopin.You’ll be surprised how much you actually enjoy the classics— and you’ll feel really smart.

relevantmagazine.com

• Lectio: Read a passage slowly and repeatedly.

• Meditatio: Meditate on the passage you’ve read, thinking deeply about its meaning.

• Oratio: Let your heart respond to God. • Contemplatio: Simply rest in the quiet peace of God. Listen for His voice.

7

IN HOURS IN GIGABYTES IN WORDS (THOUSANDS)

0 ...

0 ...

0

1 1 10

2

3 10 30

20

4

[slices]

Average American Consumption of Media per Day 5 20 50 4.91 HOURS

40 11.75 GBs

TV

45,100 WORDS 2.2 HOURS

RADIO

.10 GBs 10,645 WORDS .73 HOURS

PHONE

.01 GBs

PRINT

.01 GBs

COMPUTER

.08 GBs

5,269 WORDS

DEVICE

.60 HOURS 8,659 WORDS 1.93 HOURS

COMPUTER GAMES

27,122 WORDS .93 HOURS 18.46 GBs 2,459 WORDS .03 HOURS

MOVIES RECORDED MUSIC

3.30 GBs 198 WORDS .45 HOURS .08 GBs 1,112 WORDS

TOTALS 11.80 HOURS

tech

33.80 GIGABYTES

100,536 WORDS

Bits and Bytes

Mmmmm ... Electronic media is so tasty.

“There are always gains and losses to innovations.The gains are obvious.

It’s the losses that are more subtle.

When these technologies are consumed in excess, we become less present to those physically near, and more present to those far away. We also learn to trade depth for breadth in relationships.” —Shane Hipps

According to research done by the University of California at San Diego, Americans consume 3.6 zettabytes of media per day outside of work. What does that mean? It works out to 1.3 trillion hours—an average of nearly 12 hours per day per person. Because different media deliver different amounts of bytes, check out the graph above to see how it breaks down on a daily basis.

The new decade is bringing with it some exciting new technologies. Not the least of these is wireless electricity. Yes, wireless electricity. That thing Nikola Tesla already allegedly invented. Marin Soljacic, a professor at MIT, has developed a magnetic coil that transmits electricity through the air as a magnetic current that can power electrical devices wirelessly. The technology is entirely safe, as magnetic fields pass through humans without causing any harm (that we know of yet), and—obviously—has some pretty profound implications for the future of electrical devices.

Somewhere, Ed Begley Jr. is patiently sitting in his sad little electric car, waiting for these things to come on the market.

18 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

Misc.

ESPN plans to launch a 3D network on June 11, coinciding with a World Cup soccer match. So now when you’re watching the game with your friends, it might be harder to tell if your stomach is upset from the buffalo wings or the 3D effects ...

Digital Revolutions

Flying cars! Just kidding, it’s way more boring.

Tech watchers Digital Media Buzz have released their top digital trends for 2010. Among some of the more interesting predictions are that Facebook will replace personal email. Rather than sending an email through a Google or Hotmail account, DMB predicts people will just send personal messages via Facebook. Also, they predict new software will replace the need to register for new sites, immediately entering registration details across several sites. Perhaps the most frustrating prediction is that websites will use more Flash elements, meaning you'll have to sit around waiting for someone's lame motion graphics intro to load just to get on a website. What a cold, dystopian future we face.

digital revolutions photo courtesy Duck duck Collective | relevantmagazine.com

It’s Electric!

a generation in desperate pursuit of God DO YOU SEE 2 0 2 0 ?

JUNE 24-26, 2010

JULY 15-17, 2010

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faith

Five Tips for Keeping Lent Lent—those 40 days of abstinence leading up to Easter—is an ancient practice associated with the Church’s liturgical calendar. Yet, it’s also a practice that’s regaining popularity even outside orthodox traditions. Why? Partly because liturgical practices of all kinds are making a comeback, but also because of the sense of significance Lent lends to the Easter season. It offers us a time and space to reflect on Jesus’ life and death, to deliberately ponder God’s incarnation and His grand plan of redemption, and to participate in that sacrifice—even in a small way. So during this season of Lent, when you’re tempted to give up on giving up, here are a few tips for keeping your fast.

1 DO IT IN COMMUNITY Everything is better with friends, so share your experience of fasting with others.

Do Lent together as a small group, or with your roommates. Challenge and encourage one another as the season grows longer and harder.

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Know that the discipline is worth it.

REMEMBER WHY YOU’RE DOING IT.

Replace the activity with a spiritual discipline.

Keep the Feast Day.

Yes, there all sorts of significant spiritual reasons to participate in Lent, but the discipline itself is no small thing. The act of self-denial builds character and focus.

When the chocolate is particularly tempting or the day is just demanding coffee, take a few minutes to remember.

This is when Lent gets good—if it’s just easy, there’s no point. The wanting is itself a reminder of the fast, so take it as a prompt to remember Easter, to remember what God has done.

This is particularly helpful if you’re giving up an activity—like TV or video games.

Use the extra time to add something to your life: prayer, Bible reading, a reflective nature walk, journaling or simple silence.

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Traditionally, during Lent the fast is broken on Sundays—Feast Days. Each Sunday is meant to be a mini-Easter, a celebration of the Resurrection. So keep the Feast Days and break your fast each Sunday—it acts as a weekly reminder of the hope we all live for, made even more meaningful by the hardship of the fasting.

Papal Staples

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Mozart. However, the Holy See also threw in a few surprises. Among some of the more interesting picks are “Uprising” from Muse, “He Doesn’t Know Why” by indie darlings Fleet Foxes and—perhaps best of all—”Changes” by Tupac Shakur. We cannot shake the mental image of the pontiff cruising the streets in a low-rider Popemobile with Tupac blaring out of his subwoofers.

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The Vatican recently released its list of favorite songs, streaming the tunes on its MySpace (MySpace? Seriously?). Having apparently painstakingly studied High Fidelity’s rules for making a perfect mixtape, the Papal posse put together an incredibly eclectic musical smorgasbord. There are a few obvious choices: A track from Pope Benedict XVI himself, some Italian opera and a touch of

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social justice

HIV Immigration Ban Lifted The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have lifted the ban that prohibits the immigration of individuals who are HIV-positive. While their visa requirements may be a bit stricter, this is the first time foreign nationals with HIV have been permitted into the U.S. since 1987. The removal of the ban accompanies plans for the U.S. to host the annual International AIDS Conference in 2012, and is expected to encourage and improve efforts in the research and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

Microfinance on a Macro Scale

Evidence continues to show microfinancing institutions are making gradual progress in eliminating poverty, by providing loans to individuals in small-scale business. World Vision has established VisionFund International, their microfinancing subsidiary that helps to manage the funding of various microfinance institutions. “Individuals and whole communities are better able to escape grinding poverty when microfinance is included in a well-conceived, holistic development strategy,” says Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, U.S. However, while the market for microfinance is estimated to be between 1.5 and 3 billion people, only 3 - 5 percent of microfinance needs are currently being met. Fortunately, World Vision isn’t the only organization working to meet these needs. Kiva, a micro-lending website, matches lenders with people who can purchase business supplies with their loans. According to the Kiva website, they’ve distributed $110,671,610 in loans from 631,345 lenders. And World Relief has loaned money to more than 90,000 people and says “loans of just $50-$75 can launch an individual on the path to economic self-sufficiency, spurring entrepreneurial ideas.”

After it was discovered that an H&M store in New York City was destroying unsold merchandise, H&M’s corporate offices said the store will now ensure all of its unsold goods are donated to charities ...

Misc.

Britain’s 2030 Food Plan Revealed The new plan means smaller portions, more fair trade.

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labeling systems, encouraging smaller portions, and increased consumption of fair trade and free-range products. Some critics of the plan say it is too belated and doesn’t fully address the impact of meat and dairy production. While it will take a great deal of technology and

policy to fulfill these goals, it is a step toward a more deliberate and efficient food security system in the UK.

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The British government has presented a Food 2030 plan that will attempt to tackle a number of agricultural, environmental, economic and cultural issues by employing a “healthy food code of conduct.” Initiatives include providing more land for people to grow their own food, improved

About 300 homeless people are living in the tunnels and drain system underneath Las Vegas, surviving off of the excess and garbage created by those above ground.

Something to think about next time you’re on the Strip ...

Latin America produces 75% of the world’s organic coffee, but since 97% of Starbucks customers are satisfied with the pesticideladen stuff, it’s pushing organic farmers there out of business.

Apparently, that whole “healthy” and “good for the environment” organic thing was just a fad ...

THE PULSE

An Ode to the Record Store > Don Chaffer

E

ar-Responsible Records was in a strip mall in Olathe, Kan., at the corner of 151st St. & Mur-Len Road. Ear-Responsible Records. The name was perfect. It suggested the wild life, good music and bad puns. Such a combination was bound to be life-changing. And it was.

I don’t remember how I came across the song “Blowin’ in the Wind” during high school. Probably it was on a record I found in my parents’ wooden Record Cabinet (the one in the living room that smelled like books, talcum powder, perfume, old plastic and magic). My parents not only had a Record Cabinet. They also had a Giant Stereo Cabinet flanked by two Three-Foot-Tall Speakers. That’s what you did back then. You had a big stereo. Now, people have All-In-One Entertainment Systems with two-inch speakers hidden in the wall so no one can tell where the music is coming from.

When I dropped the needle on “Blowin’ in the Wind,” though, it picked me up and shook me around until my teeth rattled, and after it was over, I had to know more about it. It was written, it turns out, by a fellow named Bob Dylan. So, I got out the Yellow Pages, looked up “record stores” and went to Ear-Responsible Records to buy a Bob Dylan tape.

I pushed open the front door, which stood betwixt two giant promoposter-bedecked storefront windows. As the door opened, it dinged a bell. The bell drew a glance from the two guys behind the counter. The guy on the left was That Guy. You know him. I think his name was Nicky.

He always wore black, heavy metal concert T-shirts: Mötley Crüe, Van Halen, Iron Maiden. Nicky had been laughing with the owner of the store before I came in, but when I arrived, they stopped. It was just the three of us in the little store that afternoon, and we were all quiet.

“May I help you?” said The Owner. The Owner wore a tidy beard. He was thin, he moved slowly and he spoke softly. He was nerdy looking, but he owned a friggin’ record store. I never doubted him.

“Yeah. I heard this song called ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and I wanted to …”

“Oh. Bob Dylan,” he said. “This way,” and he walked me to the spot in the cassette bins where the hand-markered plastic label board read: “BOB DYLAN.” They didn’t have the one with “Blowin’ in the Wind” on it, but there were an awful lot of other Bob Dylan tapes there. I flipped through the options as he returned to the counter and resumed, much more quietly, his conversation with Nicky. I don’t know how long I stood in front of that collection of those 10 or 11 cassettes, but eventually I decided on one called Slow Train Coming. I liked the cover. It had a guy working on a railroad with a pickaxe. The pickaxe looked like a cross. I liked that. I laid my decision on the counter. “Nicky, ring him out,” The Owner said. Nicky and I avoided eye contact, talked as little as possible,

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and when it was over I owned a Bob Dylan tape.

Once home, I turned on my boombox and dunked my head under the proverbial water: I had a woman / down in Alabama, Dylan skreeled.

(Sure, ”skreeled” isn’t a word, but have you ever heard Dylan sing on that record? It kind of begs to be described with a made-up verb, doesn’t it?) She was a backwoods girl, but she sure was realistic / She said, “Boy, without a doubt / Have to quit your mess and straighten out / You could die down here / Be just another accident statistic” / And there’s a slooooow … Slow train comin’… Up around the bend. Good night! What is this? It took me a while to appreciate it, but that record became like a best friend to me. It changed my life.

I bought only a few more records at Ear-Responsible, but I think I can remember almost every one of them. They included: The Neville Brothers, Jackson Browne, Sinead O’ Connor, U2 and, when Bob Dylan finally emerged from his late-‘80s slump, I bought the swampy album that did it, Oh, Mercy, on the day it came out. Well it’s rush hour now / On the wheel and the plow / And the sun is goin’ down upon the sacred cow.

The store must have closed down a few years later. I don’t think The Owner even got his store far enough to suffer the indignity of the Napster Revolution.

Who knows why? Small businesses are hard to sustain.

Record stores were great. They were these little temples where you celebrated your love of the mystical reality known as music. I’m not going to argue they were better than the Internet, nor that buying at a store is superior to the ways in which people find, listen to and enjoy music now. That argument is a fool’s game. Who can say? Let the historians decide. But I will say I am sad over the loss of the way I experienced music. Don’t get me wrong: I like my computer and my iPhone. I like the random connections.

I like the speed, the access, the laser-quick accidental discoveries digital music provides, but I miss Nicky and The Owner.

I wish I could go back there tonight, and lay one last purchase on the counter. If I could, I think I’d choose something so absurd—Barbra Streisand, maybe—that Nicky’s professional demeanor would finally

I wish I could go back there tonight, and lay one last purchase on the counter.

Don chaffer and his wife, Lori, started the band Waterdeep more than 15 years ago. Their new album, In the Middle of It, is available now.

PULSEREJECT APATHY

We Can’t Forget > Julian Lukins

W

ithin hours of Haiti’s cataclysmic earthquake on Jan. 12, CNN had established its nerve center at the international airport in Port-au-Prince.

Soon, BBC, Reuters, The Associated Press and a gaggle of major media outlets were reporting directly from the disaster zone.

Overnight, Haiti—and its capital, Port-au-Prince—had become the focal point of the world’s media glare. TV and Internet scrambled for images of suffering and devastation; reporters clamored for heartwrenching stories; press photographers vied for that elusive shot that could win them the Pulitzer Prize.

Haiti, insignificant for so long, was suddenly feeding a media frenzy.

But eventually the story gets old. The public has had enough depressing images of death and destruction. The media, too, grows bored with the saga. The TV crews go home, the reporters file their swan song story and the photographers snap their final frame.

For the media, the most dramatic of reality shows has ended. But for the people of Haiti—and the swarm of relief and development agencies working in shattered Port-au-Prince and its environs—the show goes on.

After a catastrophe of this magnitude, the disaster response phase can last several months—possibly three to six months in Haiti’s case.

The first phase of any response centers on the most vital needs, such as rescue, urgent medical care, food, water, tarps and medicines.

As demonstrated in quake-ravaged Haiti, getting essential supplies into the hands of the most vulnerable immediately after a disaster can be a huge logistical challenge. Depending on multiple factors—location, environment, transportation, local capacity and so on—it can take days to begin food and water distributions on a large scale, set up and supply field hospitals or bolster existing medical facilities, and provide temporary shelter for the homeless. Relief teams often have to use their ingenuity to cope with crises on the ground at a moment’s notice— circumstances that can change from day to day, even hour to hour.

Once the immediate crisis is under control, perhaps months later in Haiti’s case, the next phase of recovery can begin. The majority of what happens next gains only snatches of press attention, if any.

During the recovery phase, ongoing medical treatment and health care is often a core activity, along with trauma counseling and providing temporary housing or shelter in the worst-affected areas.

Local churches are integral to the success of the recovery phase.

They are a ready-made relief force, made up of local community members who know the needs in their neighborhoods better than anyone else. They also have local connections, are trusted members of their community and can mobilize others and build community support.

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“The local church is the greatest force for transformation that the world has ever seen,” says Sammy Mah, president of Baltimore-based World Relief, an aid organization working in Haiti.

As time unfolds, the next phase opens up: rehabilitation and community development. This phase might not begin until a year or more after a major disaster such as the Haiti quake. Once it gets under way, however, rehab and development can continue for years—perhaps seven years or more in Haiti.

Haiti, and especially Port-au-Prince, will essentially need to rebuild from scratch. Rehabilitation will likely include quake-resistant housing and clean water projects, community health, hygiene and nutritional programs, livelihood restoration and disaster mitigation (preparing communities for future unpredictable events).

Long-term development hinges on relationships between aid agencies and the communities they serve—relationships built on trust and mutual respect. The local people must understand what to expect, so unrealistic expectations are not dashed. It is also vital that aid agencies can carry out their pledges and commitments.

Eventually—and as difficult as it may seem at times—the darkness in Haiti will give way to glimmers of light, shafts of hope. The time will come for Haiti’s own people to take over the institutions and programs that have empowered them to rebuild their nation from the ashes of Jan. 12, 2010.

The goal is to leave Haiti—for the best reasons. For World Relief, the story ends once sustainable, locally run, indigenous institutions are in place—working with local churches as part of the community fabric.

It might sound like wishful thinking, yet it’s happened time after time over the past 65 years in many countries recovering from devastating natural and man-made disasters—Bangladesh, Nicaragua and Kosovo, to name a few. These countries have their struggles, but tremendous strides have been made due to the local people and the local church.

Is Haiti forgotten? Not so long as the Church is around. And, as we know, that’s going to be a very, very long time.

The story gets old. The media grows bored. But for the people of Haiti, the show goes on.

Julian Lukins is a writer with World Relief and a former daily newspaper journalist in the UK.

To hear more emerging artists, check out The Drop at RELEVANTmagazine.com

THE DROP

Website:

thenoisettes.com

Hometown

London, England

For Fans of:

Diana Ross, Florence + the Machine

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It’s cliche to say a band can’t be “pinned down” to any one scene. But, in the case of The Noisettes, it simply has to be said because, well, it’s true.

On their latest album, Wild Young Hearts, you’ll catch hints of everything from disco to electroclash, from psychadelic rock to doo-wop ‘60s girl groups and everything in between. The band’s influences are all over the map, and most notable is how comfortably they flit between genres.

That, and the voice of lead singer Shingai Shoniwa, which veers from pop diva to smoky jazz singer in the same song—and to hear her tell it, her eclectic abilities and The Noisettes’ impossible-to-categorize sound comes about as organically as possible. “I was studying theater in London and Dan [Smith, lead guitarist] was doing music,” Shoniwa remembers. “We became friends and after school I got bored of retail so I joined a cover band [with Dan]. We had an eclectic mixture of covers—Hendrix, standards, Diana Ross, Deep Purple.

We used to throw in an original at whatever crazy gig we were playing, and the original stuff went down really well.

“Me and Dan always wanted to make exciting pop music that broke down any scenes,” Shoniwa says, “because we’ve never been to any scene. I was the kid who went to a heavy metal club wearing stilettos.”

It’s this varied backdrop that lends The Noisettes their ability to craft a pop song out of a crazy number of influences without being captured by any of them. “We never say, ‘We’re going to make [this] genre.’ You make the music that’s the best backdrop for the lyrics. Music has evolved so much, I don’t want to go backwards. It’s all about pushing it forward, not plagiarizing someone else’s style. Music’s not supposed to imprison people;

Michael Labica

THE DROP

Website:

gaslightanthem.com

Hometown

New Brunswick, New Jersey

For Fans of:

Chuck Ragan, Bruce Springsteen

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“I don’t listen to a lot of new bands,” says Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon. “There are bands that are talking about what they know about, and bands that talk about what they don’t, and bands that are just talking.” This should hardly come as a shock to fans of The Gaslight Anthem, a blue-collar rock foursome from New Jersey.

The Gaslight Anthem occupies a strange slice of rock history—they possess a very modern punk attitude (complete with sleeve tattoos), but sing driving rock songs with the earnestness and intensity of a young Bruce Springsteen. Fallon wears a Social Distortion T-shirt when performing, but also sports a ‘50s motorcycle jacket and sings songs about high-top sneakers and an America that may or may not have ever existed.

“It was an honest time, and people had a better sense of themselves, their work ethic, their country and their families,” Fallon says. “[Now it’s more about], ‘Media, please me now.’ It’s not really going to get you anywhere.”

Throwback thinking is evident in The Gaslight Anthem’s music. They make straight-ahead rock-and-roll that isn’t heard much today—think similarly Boss-influenced The Hold Steady—rolled up with blues, New Wave guitars and basslines. And, of course, songs about occupying a time period filled with “classic cars and movie screens.” “[I’d say we’re influenced by] James Brown, Diana Ross, The Clash and all these old blues guys,” Fallon says.

After the success of 2008’s The ’59 Sound, The Gaslight Anthem is poised to make an even bigger impact

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YOU ARE

HERE Everyone wants to save the world, but is that really necessary?

By Adam and Chrissy Jeske

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Every six seconds, a child dies of hunger.

Nearly 5.4 million people killed in civil wars in the Congo over the last decade.

More than 150,000 people killed in the Haiti earthquake.

The world is filled with bad news and desperate situations. The natural response is to want to do something, to go and help. To make a difference. To save a life.

Sitting in your cubicle or your lecture hall or your bedroom, life as you know it can seem so ... well, meaningless. Especially when you compare your life with the lives of those who are in need. After all, when so many people are dying every day, crunching numbers on a computer screen can seem like such unimportant stuff.

Have you ever noticed, though, that those desires to “go and help” always involve going to faraway, exotic lands where life is totally different from here? What is it about our desires to just do something that inevitably take us away from home, away from our (boring) jobs and into desperate and horrific situations demanding a hero?

Is there a dash of escapism mixed in with our altruism?

Perhaps a bit of a savior complex combined with our compassion?

Stop running If you’ve ever sat eavesdropping in a hostel for twenty- and thirtysomethings chasing their dreams in off-the-beaten-path spots like Zambia or Ecuador, between bites of cornmeal mush, chicken meat and fried bugs, you likely witnessed something like this: “We had over 200 refugees come in last week,” one young man brags, ahem, reports.

“We were up all night feeding them and distributing vaccines.” A tennis match of extreme and ever more desperate situations ensues: I smuggled Bibles across three checkpoints, I prayed with a family whose home had been destroyed by soldiers, I read stories at an orphanage, I held a woman’s hand while she died of AIDS, I dug a well in a village a hundred miles from the closest city.

Missions abroad can become an attempt to disconnect from anything and anyone familiar, as if by escaping the ordinary, life will automatically become extraordinary.

But what are we running from? Behind the banter of good deeds is a common desire to prove something not just to others but to ourselves. We all want to be different, to see evidence we’re not just another number out of the 6 billion on Earth, to know we’re really alive. But is flying the 9,000 miles to Zambia and feeding starving children the best way to go about meeting those inner needs?

For many in our generation, television and movies and the Discovery Channel have created a need in us for extreme experiences.

Add to that the ease with which we can take short-term mission trips abroad (now a standard for all youth groups), and our culture’s emphasis on the big and heroic. It all leads to an inevitable disappointment with “normal” life.

We sometimes think only of Pakistan or Zambia or Bolivia as fertile ground for “going out and making a difference—really living.”

But heroism belongs at least as much in the little town or big city where you grew up as it does in wild and daring exotic locations.

It’s not by chance God used that word, neighbor, in His second greatest commandment—“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39, TNIV). Neighbor.

That means the people on your beaten path.

If your path happens to lead to Ghana or the Philippines, by all means serve God and love people there. More likely, though, your beaten path looks more like an ugly brick office building, your 15-year-old car and the friends you see every Thursday.

If you can’t be extraordinary in your ordinary life, with your own neighbors, even the hairy-backed ones who take out their trash in their boxers, it’s highly unlikely you’ll amount to much—no matter what baby orphan you’ve kissed.

So stop. And know the people on your path.

Get in the know We are a transient people, people addicted to newness. New media, new fashion, new stories, even new friends. But connecting to those who live, work, worship and play near us requires learning to listen, to stop looking for the new and to become even more familiar

with the already familiar. One of the reasons travel often does have the effect of bringing people into deeper living is that people in Latin America, Asia and Africa are often far better than North Americans at listening to people, and in visiting them we can learn from them how to listen. I have an entire book’s worth of stories that came from just sitting and listening to people talk—from noticing what incredible stories were hiding behind common and often quiet faces. The stories are from people in Africa, but there is no ordinary person on any continent. Everyone has a story worth hearing, opinions that will challenge yours and ideas that touch on the profound and the divine.

If you asked most pastors today what they would like from the committed Christians in the congregation, one of the things you would probably hear would be a call for people to get to know each other deeply. Do you know the people in your church, your neighborhood and your city? Have you really listened to them or committed yourself to knowing them beyond the surface level?

Churches need people who are not just there to sing some nice songs, hear a funny sermon and head out afterward for coffee with friends. Hang out with people from every generation. Get involved in a small group where people actually get to know each other and masticate on God’s words, or if you can’t find one, grab a couple people and form one.

Need ideas to get started? Play all-church hide-and-seek (from toddlers to grannies).

Have choir practice in a nearby park with a picnic afterward. Do hip-hop dance in a retirement home. Organize a beach volleyball tournament. Get some friends together to decorate the church building. Or toilet paper the church (it will get people in the neighborhood to notice you!). Stage an allnight prayer event for local and global issues.

Organize a Read Through the New Testament Day—read the whole thing out loud! (it takes about 18 hours)—and make sure you all bring some good food to share and notebooks to write thoughts and questions in. Have a chili cook-off. Make a point of building community.

Don’t just commit yourself in your church— dig in to your neighborhood. Invite over your neighbors, even the weird ones. Especially the weird ones. Run for a position in city government. You could be the coroner in some

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There’s plenty you can do to change the world from your own 50 square miles of beaten paths. places! Organize your first annual neighborhood block party. Make a standing weekly Ultimate Frisbee pick-up game time. Join the Rotary Club. Find out if there is some communitysupported agriculture near you and take a bunch of people along to volunteer and get some great fresh food out of it, or just be the drop point for people’s weekly delivery. Help out with a 4-H club, Scouts or other non-churchrelated kids activity. Join a parade planning committee. Go without electric lights in your home for a month and have people over for candlelit dinners or poetry reads. Buy a pizza and take it to the park where the people who sleep on the street hang out. Eat with them.

All these things avoid the “holy huddle” mentality that plagues a lot of U.S. churches.

It will mean you can’t expect people to be at church seven nights a week for worship, choir, Bible study, youth group, kids’ club, men’s ministry, women’s fellowship, missions night, finance committee and whatever else. But when we are engaged and connected in the life of our place, we can really know and be known by the people we seek to serve and reach with good news. Don’t wake up one day and realize you can’t remember the last time you had a friendly conversation with someone who didn’t use the words “Praise the Lord!”

Do what you do, and do it well When the people came to John the Baptist and asked what on earth they should do with themselves now that they had been dunked in a river and heard about a Messiah on the way, he didn’t tell them to go off and volunteer in an Ethiopian refugee camp. He told them to give away their extra food and shirt (keeping just one, if you want to try that!). He told government people and soldiers to stop cheating people and accusing people falsely.

But he didn’t tell anyone to quit their job. So what would he tell you to keep on doing? How

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could you do what you do, and do it better?

Perhaps you complain about your job all day to your coworkers, come home and complain about it to your roommate. Maybe you keep thinking of things to say to your classmates about Jesus, but you’re scared to death they’ll sound weird, so you just make little awkward apologizing comments about going to church (which do in fact sound weird). Talk about Jesus and praying and church like they’re normal.

Maybe there’s someone who drives you crazy at work, or someone who is just so fun to laugh at behind his back, always talking about his stapler. Challenge yourself to treat computer geeks, homosexuals, boozers, coupon-clipping ladies and horribly muscular bodybuilders all the same. Because you know what? There are very few people who actually are “normal.” So abnormal is normal. Act accordingly.

Probably even more challenging than living well in your work is to live well in your own home. Love your wife or husband or roommates. Respect them. Be considerate and submissive to them in little ways, like doing the chore they hate doing and asking for forgiveness when you are a jerk. Romance them in simple ways (unless they’re your roommates).

Speak highly of them to others. Honor them throughout life. War on the maxim, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”

While you’re overhauling your daily life, take time to examine your spending habits. Stop caring about money—that will make you radical indeed. Maybe you make far more money than you really need, but because you never make a budget, you spend it on new rims for your car, lattes, Wii games, jewelry, jerseys, shoes and subscriptions to magazines you don’t read. Make a budget that includes giving away money, and stick to it. Thank God you don’t have more of it to stress you out. Surprise someone by buying them a meal or a shirt or a car. Stop being afraid of what everyone else

is afraid of, like being alone or not having the coolest stuff. Look how God takes care of the dandelions and the pigeons—surely He’ll take care of you, too.

Rest, don’t vegetate. Ask yourself what you do to turn off your brain, and cut back on it.

Turn off the television and the computer more.

Stay sober more. Go for walks. Sit outside at night. Read for three hours some afternoon.

Paint. Plan ahead to have a retreat day. Head for nature. Pray. Sleep enough (but not too much, if that’s your vice).

And I promise you, there’s plenty you can do to change the world—the world that’s in other countries, even—from your own 50 square miles of beaten paths. There’s a myth that it’s lame to send a check to Food for the Hungry or Compassion instead of going across the ocean to hold some person’s hand while they are dying. Sending that check may actually have a much greater impact than spending the money on your own plane ticket. Support the people and organizations you believe in financially and in prayer. Find ways to directly support small community organizations, local churches or seminary students in low-income spots around the world. Let someone else be the hero. If we say we believe in prayer, aren’t our prayers from a North American home just as effective as prayers while we’re off visiting a foreign land?

Or if you want to learn about another country, raise money for a plane ticket for someone from one of those exotic countries to visit your church and community.

We Christians are supposed to be “little Christs,” the ones who follow Jesus. The tough news is, it’s not going to be any easier or more fulfilling if we magically teleport ourselves to new circumstances and surroundings. We need to keep walking with Jesus in the day-to-day wherever we are. That’s where it’s hard. That’s where it’s most extraordinary. 3

a.) be an olympic broadcaster

b.) study in L.A., D.C., France or Oxford

c.) serve among the poor in Uganda

d.) meet the best friends I’ll ever have

e.) All of the above

www.asbury.edu

She

Him

Indie icons M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel on what it takes to be in harmony

by Robert Ham

36 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

If there were any concerns floating around that She & Him would simply be another musical vanity project for a well-established actress—in this case, (500) Days Of Summer star Zooey Deschanel—they were quickly brushed aside in 2008 with the release of Volume One. The fine collection of ‘50s and ‘60s AM radio-style pop and country tunes was bolstered considerably by the dulcet vocals of Deschanel combined with the straight-laced production of her musical collaborator, M. Ward.

The pair is gearing up for round two, with Deschanel and Ward releasing Volume Two this March. As the title suggests, the new album is a continuation of both the Brian Wilson/Phil Spector-inspired production style that marked the first album, but also exhibits growth—especially noticeable in Deschanel’s singing and songwriting. RELEVANT caught up with the duo in some rare downtime between projects to speak about the new album, their working methods and how an episode of MTV’s Cribs unexpectedly offered some lyrical inspiration.

Now that you’ve proven yourself, do you feel like some of the pressure is off with this new album? Or is there more pressure because Volume One was received so well?

ZD: I guess I am sort of philosophically opposed to the idea of being under that sort of pressure. I want people to like it, of course, but I write songs for myself as an outlet of expression, so that’s my first and most important goal.

It’s always helpful to keep it in mind. She & Him is, first and foremost, sincere.

MW: We’ve never really felt any kind of pressure to dispel myths that may or may not be there. We’ve always just been focused on the music. When you have focus on your projects, it allows you a certain sort of tunnel vision and it allows you to block out things that don’t matter, things like reaction.

Was that a concern of yours when you released the first record—that it would be considered simply a vanity project?

ZD: Well, it’s simple. It wasn’t and isn’t a vanity project, so I didn’t concern myself with people who would believe something other than the truth. I already had to struggle through my own timidness to put out the first record, and I wasn’t about to let anyone’s prejudices get in the way. She & Him songs are generally very optimistic, and I try to keep my attitude that way as well.

MW: We’re making music together because we love to make music and there’s always going to be haters out there. I can understand certain people having second thoughts about buying a record from somebody who doesn’t make it their living making songs or performing songs. But I think if you just listen to the record, it’s surprised a lot of people. People don’t expect good songs to come from people who haven’t made a name for themselves in songwriting.

Taea Thale

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 37

“We both love the roles we have in She & Him.”

multi-tracked vocals, so when we went into the studio, we decided to do the same. All of the tracks are my voice and there are something like 20 tracks of just vocals. I wanted it to sound like a string section.

—M. Ward

Autumn Dewilde

The track ”In The Sun” feels a little more rocking and driving than anything in your past. What made it different?

ZD: My demo for that song was a bit slower, and Matt suggested we use a beat reminiscent of the Bee Gees when we went into the studio.

I was surprised at how well it worked—I had originally written it with a slightly more complex chord progression, but I made it a little more simple when we decided to rock it a bit more. It’s fun to work with Matt because he will bring ideas to the table that I never would have thought of that bring out different qualities in the songs. It’s very exciting to see.

Were you surprised at how well the record was received?

ZD : We made the record to please our tastes, so I guess I figured there must be other people like us out there and concluded that the record would find its audience. When it did, it was a treat to watch it happen.

MW: I guess I was pleasantly surprised. But I didn’t think it was shocking or anything because I knew the songs were great. We made the songs the backbone of the production and the backbone of the publicity, and to a certain extent I think the name of the project and the title of the record lent themselves to people just listening to the songs instead of getting carried away with who’s making the songs.

How have you found the time to record a new She & Him album amid all the other projects you’ve been working on?

MW: It’s definitely tricky, but we just made it a priority to make space in our calendars ideally when we’re in the same town anyway. So if I need to go to L.A. for a week for an M. Ward project or a Monsters of Folk project, I’ll just make it a point to spend an extra week in L.A. working on songs with Zooey. She did the same thing with coming here to the Northwest. I think it’s easier than it sounds and it looks.

How do you two write the songs together? Do you share ideas via email or just when you get together?

ZD: I write the music, so I will usually record a demo with piano and a lot of back-up vocals and some sampled drums. I email the song to Matt who then thinks about production ideas. We then chat about what we think it should sound like. Sometimes the songs end up being very close to how the demos sound, and other times the instrumentation and sound completely changes in the recording process. Matt has really impeccable taste so if he has an idea, I am always keen to try it.

MW: She sends me a lot of songs, and I come back to her and say, “This song is finished; I feel that this song will fit in with the overall vision of the production.” It’s a very precise and very smooth running machine.

We both love the roles we have in She & Him. There’s also a more choral element to a number of the songs on Volume Two—”If You Can’t Sleep” in particular. What inspired that?

ZD: I have been a harmony enthusiast since I was a child, singing in choir and with friends growing up. I always put a ton of harmonies on my demos. Arranging vocals is one of my absolute favorite things to do. I had recorded a demo of “If You Can’t Sleep” that was all my

38 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

Some of the songs, like “Sing,” seem to have very pointed lyrics. Is that one about someone specific?

ZD: It’s not so much about anyone specific. I was watching TV and Master P was showing MTV his house and his ceiling was gold-plated, which I thought was funny. It’s more about the way I feel watching TV alone in the middle of the night than anything or anyone in particular.

How much of yourself do you put into your lyrics? Do you worry about people attributing lyrics to certain aspects of your life too much or is that just the nature of the beast?

ZD: Some of the lyrics are personal, some aren’t. Some are stories; some are about other people I know, but [I change] around the perspective. The one thing I can say is that the lyrics are not usually what they seem. The obvious answer to their origin is almost never the real answer. I had a friend ask me about a song on the last record called “This Is Not a Test,” whether it was about being an actress. But the real answer was that it was about pioneers on the wagon trail to Oregon and California during the Gold Rush.

There’s an effortless feeling to your music—does it feel that way when you’re making it, or does it take some time to get worked out?

ZD: It definitely flows very easily. I love working with Matt. He has great taste and he’s an exceptionally musical person.

MW: It really is pretty effortless, and we have just a mutual admiration for what we love to do. “Effortless” is a great word for it.

Does it make your job that much easier knowing Zooey is going to be handling the songwriting and Matt the production?

MW: I think—if I can use a sports analogy—when you know the position your teammate is playing, it gives you freedom. Having the knowledge that this person is playing this position, and I’m playing the other position—it makes the ball move faster. I love the songs and I love working with Zooey’s voice. If you have great songs sung by a great singer, it makes my job easy. You don’t need to rely on tricks or wizardry to make the songs sound good. I’m working with great ingredients.

So, will there be a Volume Three?

ZD: I certainly hope so!

MW: I think it’s safe to say there will be a Volume Three. a

On the Ground in

HAITI World Vision, U.S., Vice President Steve Haas on what Haiti needs now—and in the future

by Roxanne Wieman

Jon Warren/World vision

As the weeks since Jan. 12 have passed, the spotlight on the aftermath of the devastating Haiti earthquakes has begun to dim. Yet, the needs of the people affected by this tragedy are just as urgent as ever. Steve Haas is the vice president of World Vision, U.S., a branch of the relief and development organization that has been active in Haiti for over 30 years, and has much to say about the past, present and future of this people in peril.

Having worked in Haiti for so long, how would you describe the nation and the people who live there?

You’ve got a country whose average income is $520 a year. As you think about that, you say, “Wait a second, that’s less than

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$2 a day.” And that’s average. You’ve got a country that already is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere that sits in the shadow of the United States, and so the longings of a life that is not spent in abject poverty is certainly there. But then you’ve also got the largesse of kindness that is often

distributed inappropriately. You’ve got a lot of dependency issues and people expecting to be rescued at some point from the situation they’re in. All of that [makes] working in Haiti very difficult.

But in some of my conversations before the earthquake took place, we were hearing of tremendous successes in the areas in which we were working; where people were really kind of reclaiming their area, where clean water was being instituted, where the education facilities and the way in which we were working with the local governments were getting kids a good education, where jobs were [becoming] sustainable. People were actually seeing

literally next year we’ll be reporting on how everything is going to be rebuilt? No, we’ve got to remember that we’re still doing some rebuilding in the tsunami zone, and that was more than five years ago. This is a category three disaster on a colossal scale, a complex humanitarian disaster.

What are the major needs of Haiti?

their future brighten in a way that they had dreamed about. And I just have to tell you, as you see those positive trajectories beginning to happen, and then you see the devastation and human toll taken in this earthquake, it’s very unsettling.

Based on their history and what’s going on there now, how do you think Haiti will look in the future?

I think the Haitian people themselves are an incredibly patient and resourceful people. They also have a tremendous amount of resolve.

Obviously, this is a massive setback. But again,

I get back to the resiliency of these people.

They are going to rebuild. They are going to join together neighborhoods. They are going to try and reclaim their families. The one thing that is incredible about Haiti, if you talk to anyone who has ever been there, it’s the sense of family. It’s the sense of relationship and the roots that go deep. They’re a very spiritual people. Unfortunately, a lot of the stories that are currently coming out are of the mix of religions, but there is also a vibrant Christian faith that you see in many of these neighborhoods. I think you’re going to see this country come back. Is it going to be quick? Is this going to be a process in which

We tend to look at relief in terms of phases.

What absolutely grabs your attention and hopefully motivates response is what we call our emergency phase. You’re going to see the distribution of food, non-food items, water, sanitation, hygiene, emergency health and nutritional issues, counseling, emergency shelter. The logistics and communication that are needed to begin to put these things into place and to build institutions around them are going to be supreme.

Then you’re going to see social community recovery. We realize kids have gotten the horrific brunt of this, in their separation from parents and the psychosocial trauma involved. So, you begin to see the need for child protection, social health protection, counseling and even trying to get them involved in some form of basic education so that things begin to be more normalized. And this can often go from six weeks to six months after a disaster.

And then, from about six months to 12 months after the disaster, we’re going to be actively working on small business recovery.

You’ve got to get these people back to work.

They can’t just be in this receiving fashion for too long because then you begin to create forms of dependency. Agricultural recovery is going to be needed, certainly within the urban area of business. All of that needs to be put back into right order. Alternative livelihoods need to be created for the population. These last two phases, as we think of them, are infrastructure rehabilitation. This is where you begin to get into things like permanent shelter, health infrastructure, telecommunications and transportation. These kinds of things can go on long after the disaster, but you still need funds for that.

What kind of cooperation have you seen between aid agencies there?

There’s been tremendous participation amongst different agencies. In fact, I don’t hear of any squabbling. The great difficulty right now is just the backlog of stuff, trying to get appropriate relief supplies into Haiti at this time. We’ve got to remember, there’s one runway into Port-au-Prince. And the

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 41

number of family members they have lost.

On staff, we have 800 people on the ground.

Many of those are on the front lines dispensing relief, and many of those have family members who they’ve lost. Many of those are dealing with their own personal emotional issues as they’re dispensing aid. Well, at some point there’s a breakdown. There’s a need to grieve.

These are people who need to be on our hearts and minds. We need to be prayerful.

And that’s why, as we begin to develop plans, we’re looking at short, medium and long-term plans with responses to some 25,000 families just in Port-au-Prince alone.

Where do we go from here?

Jon Warren/World vision

backlog of relief supplies we need to get in is certainly extreme. And then you’ve got the roads as they are. They’re not made for a major distribution of resources. So you’ve got long hours, long wait times and still overwhelming numbers of people in trouble. Combine that and the concentration of complex structural change, loss of life and people who have been severely injured. This may be one of the more complex human disasters we’ve ever dealt with.

In some ways, it feels like the generosity and interest invested in this crisis has been unprecedented.

Why do you think that is?

Just look at the geographic proximity of Haiti to the United States. I’m talking to a number of pastors, a number of friends, who have literally jumped on airplanes and within the morning are at Port-au-Prince airport. So, one: it’s very, very close.

Two: you’ve got a great deal of mission activity that has been in Haiti. I don’t know if there’s a church that I’ve been in during the last three or four weeks that does not have either some missionary, or friend of a missionary, or cousin, or uncle or somebody [with] some legitimate connection with the nation of Haiti.

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When you have the familial connection, when you have the ministry connection, when you have the geographic connection, and you have the ability to very, very quickly beam up images, stories and needs from that country, then I think you’ve got something that does play on the heartstrings of most Americans.

That’s a good thing. That’s also a hard thing, as everyone wants to respond physically by actually trying to get into the country. Right now, unless one is actually a professional in a sector that is desperately needed, all that’s going to do is gum up a very narrow key-hole in which everything is being fit through.

How do we keep Haiti’s needs in our hearts and minds as the media fades and the disaster seems less urgent?

When we talk about disasters, it’s so easy for us to have this mentality that as long as the media is playing and I’ve got that story, then that must still be real. But at some point Anderson Cooper goes home. At some point, CNN starts turning off their lights, and news editors don’t see this as the key story, but maybe [for] page 8, page 10, page 15.

These people are still going to be dealing with the emotional trauma of what they have gone through, as well as grieving for the

When you have something that is overwhelming, I often relate it to bodysurfing. When you see a big wave coming, and you know you’re going to be obliterated by it, often you just duck. You dive into the wave, and the wave goes over you.

There’s this sensation of having just let it pass.

We don’t want to do that with this particular disaster. We want to be able to ride the information in such a way that we can actually do something appropriate at the appropriate time. If you don’t want to let this one go soft, and you want to make sure this is an issue that’s in front of you, then make a commitment right now that you’re going to go to these places where the information is being held, and that you’re going to make it a regular practice.

I know there are prayer gatherings all over the country, [people] coming together and just saying, “Hey, this is really important to me and I need to make this a center focus of what I’m about.” Well, God will honor that commitment as we continue to lay this before Him. We are often being told by those who are on the ground, “Will you pray for me?” The needs are great, and we know we have a Lord who takes care of us. And I think we can certainly do that, even if we’re not giving finances or resources. We can spiritually be in these peoples’ corner. a

Take Action Complete restoration for the communities of Haiti will be a work in progress for many years to come, and is impossible without the continued generosity of others. Keep talking about it. Keep praying. Keep giving. Stay connected with the faces, the stories and the needs of those in the midst of this crisis.

• rejectApathy.com/Haiti • WorldVision.org/Haiti • WorldVisionACTS.org

“The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow.”

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Genesis 12:3

– Abraham Lincoln

CUFI on Campus equips tomorrow’s

leaders to speak up on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, ensuring

American support for Israel throughout the next generation. Christians United for Israel is a national organization of

Christians speaking up with one voice

in support of Israel. In just a few years, CUFI has grown to become one of the

largest Christian grassroots movements in America and the largest pro-Israel

If you are a college student interested in learning more, apply for a CUFI on Campus Scholarship to Washington DC! Scholarships to the CUFI Washington Summit cover the entire cost of registration and hotel, and up to $250 of travel costs!

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organization in the world.

www.cufi.org/students-relevant or email us at cufioncampus@cufi.org

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The Faith of

Denzel Washington

How the actor’s beliefs drive his film career

by Carl Kozlowski

44 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

Denzel Washington has long been one of Hollywood’s most known Christians, infusing each role he’s portrayed in a nearly 30year career with an extra layer of depth when dealing with moral or ethical choices. Here, Washington discusses his beliefs and how his faith brought about his unique approach to acting.

The billboards for The Book of Eli said “Believe.” Believe what?

My father was a minister for 50 years in the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ. We prayed about everything and said, “Amen, God is love.”

I thought “God is love” was one word! It took me a long time to learn what that really meant, and I don’t care what book you read or what book you believe, if you don’t love your fellow man, woman, person, then you don’t have anything.

I’m going on Broadway in March to play in Fences, and I was up last night because I have to read with kids after I leave [the film set]. I was up ’til 3 in the morning and turned on the TV. As soon as I turned it on, there’s this documentary: Different Books, Common Word. It was about Muslims and Baptists in Columbia, Tennessee, and Orange, Texas, and in New Orleans. There was a Baptist minister who was helping poor folks in New Orleans. A group of Muslims opened their stores and fed them when the Baptists ran out of food. Then there were some

Muslims who hooked up with Baptists and went to Baptist churches, and [the] Baptists went to the Middle East with the Muslims.

how does that idea of interfaith dialogue impact Christians?

Fundamentally, all of those [different religions’] books say God is love. You have to love and treat your neighbor as yourself, and that’s the fundamental lesson.

I was raised Christian, I believe Jesus is the Son of God, I’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit.

I know it’s real—my cheeks blew up and my mom said, “That’s the purge,” and she walked me through it. It almost scared me off it and sent me in the other direction. I didn’t know what was going on, and it’s taken me many years to come back around.

I’m on my third time now through the Bible.

I’m looking at my big house and all this stuff, but you can’t take it with you. The Egyptians tried, and they got robbed. So I asked, “What do you want, Denzel?” And I was reading Proverbs, so I prayed for a dose of wisdom and understanding. I can’t get any more stuff, any more successful, but I can get better, learn to love more, learn to be more understanding and gain more wisdom. That’s where I’m at [today].

How did your faith background affect your decision to act?

Here’s a true story from March 27, 1975: I’m sitting in my mom’s beauty parlor. I’m looking in the mirror at the woman behind me and she keeps looking at me. I was kicked out of school to take a semester off, so I was just sitting

around the beauty parlor each day.

Every time I looked in the mirror, this lady was looking at me. She said, “Somebody give me a piece of paper.” And she said, “Boy, you are gonna travel the world and speak to millions of people.” I was a dropout of school at the time. But she wrote prophecies and she wrote “28,” and I don’t know why—I’m born on the 28th, my wife and firstborn son are too, but I don’t know what that means.

My mother wrote “preacher” for her and I wrote the date, so all three of us had written on that paper. Later on, she left and I asked who that was. My mom said, “That’s Ruth Green, and she’s known to have the gift of prophecy.”

I jokingly asked if she knew I was going back to school. But that summer I was a counselor at a YMCA camp in Connecticut. I had taken one acting class just to get an easy B, but someone asked if I wanted to be an actor and I said, “No, I want to be Jim Brown.” That fall I returned to school, transferred and started in the acting program. Years later I asked my pastor, “Am I supposed to be a preacher?” And he said: “You already are. Aren’t you talking to millions of people?”

I’m not saying I’m a preacher. I don’t know.

But it’s been interesting that I’ve tried to bend even the worst of roles like Training Day; I wrote “the wages of sin is death” [on my hand] and I said, “In order to show him live in the worst way, he has to die in the worst way.” So I had [a] whole community turn on me and then get blown away. Then Malcolm X had hatred for his father’s death, but saw Muslims of all races and started to change before his death. I always try to turn and use a script. a

Telling a Deeper Story

Cry Freedom

Glory

Malcolm X

Fallen

The Hurricane

Training Day

This film focuses on Steve Biko (Washington), a South African civil rights leader killed for his beliefs.

Washington’s portrayal of a soldier in an all-black unit in the Civil War earned him his first Oscar.

This film about the fiery civil rights leader delved into X’s faith and earned Washington rave reviews.

A supernatural thriller, a cop (Washington) chases a demon who kills. Fallen is both scary and thoughtful.

A boxer (Washington) is sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

A powerful film about prejudice.

Washington’s roughest film, it deals with the actions of corrupt cops—and the consequences.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 45

THE MYTHOLOGY OF

What’s real? What isn’t? We take a look.

by Jessica Misener

46 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

“I think it’s boring to be myself,” Jack White says.

Well, that’s easy to see. Just try to find a person who has already embodied more “roles” in life than Jack White. Guitar icon. Rock innovator. Performer. Producer. And at one time, he even nearly became a priest. Yet, it’s his three very successful bands that the 34-yearold multi-instrumentalist is best known for, and somehow he manages to be in each of them simultaneously. Each projects a totally different image: the childlike, primary-colored madness of The White Stripes, the earthy porch-stomping of The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather’s stormy Goth-blues.

“In all my songs, I take on roles and play characters. It’s a unique way to explore ideas and decisions I might not think or make in real life,” White says.

He’s not an actor and these roles aren’t fake ... maybe they aren’t even “roles,” really.

These are people and caricatures White really wants to be—fully and intensely—if only for a time. And, if only for a time, these are the characters he is.

Remember as a kid when you wanted to be a cowboy, an astronaut and a doctor? Or in college when you wanted to major in 10 different things? At some point along the way, you had to pick one. We all have to.

But Jack White doesn’t.

Jack White doesn’t have to decide who he is.

Like Johnny Depp. Like Bob Dylan. Like David Bowie. Like Picasso. Jack White joins a long line of artists who—because of their fame, their intense creativity, their hard work—get to be whoever they want to be. He gets to be all the things he wants to be; and he gets to be all of them at the same time because, frankly, he has a record contract. And his own studio. And his own label.

“I never take it easy,” White declares in “I Cut Like a Buffalo,” the third single—and what he calls his most personal song ever—off the first album from his third band, The Dead Weather (got that?). A rare glimpse into the mind of the busiest man in rock music? Perhaps, but it

remains a mystery how much of the real White we get to see in each slashing of an instrument and in each rashly composed note. He himself might agree.

“It’s a really interesting philosophical debate to decide how much of yourself you want to be when you get up in the morning and when you’re in front of other people,” White says.

A really interesting philosophical debate?

Yes. But one that also begs the question: Just how much of the real Jack White is left? Is there even a real Jack White underneath all those characters?

The Philosopher-Priest White grew up in a sprawling Catholic family, the youngest of 10 children (a psychological study for its own day). Both of his parents worked for the Archdiocese of Michigan, and White, who served as an altar boy in his youth, contemplated the priesthood in his teens. When he found out his guitar amplifiers might not be welcome at a seminary, however, he balked.

“I feel strongly connected to God,” White says. “My roots are Catholic by default.

I can take elements from Buddhism or other religions and see the similarities and differences in those, and learn from those, but at the end of the day, I don’t care as much about man’s interpretation of religion. What I care about is what God tells me directly.”

He’s expressed interest in the writing of

Carl Sagan, the American astronomer who frequently wrote about the interplay of religion and science, and this past November, White announced his label would be issuing a version of Sagan’s narration of “A Glorious Dawn” on vinyl. He also popped in to a philosophy society meeting at Trinity College in Dublin for a surprise lecture and Q&A about his more reflective pursuits.

White says his interest in philosophy, particularly that of Karl Marx, is driven by his perspective on sociology and his experiences in various communities.

“In all my songs, I take on roles and play characters. It’s a unique way to explore ideas and decisions I might not think or make in real life.”

“If I were living in isolation by myself, I wouldn’t care as much about other people, but I think there’s a communal aspect to why we’re all put here together. The prevailing attitude in America today is so ‘survival of the fittest.’

We’re all about being out for ourselves instead of being out for our family. It all comes back to how you look at others and how you look at life on a very direct level.”

White might also be one of music’s deepest thinkers. Spiritual allusions in his music are prevalent and cryptic, including the New Testament-quoting title of the Stripes’ 2005 album, Get Behind Me Satan. Lyrically, they run from the jarringly punitive (If you’re testing

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 47

God, lying to His face, you’re gonna catch hell, on “Catch Hell Blues” by The Stripes) to the mysteriously tender (You know why you love at all if you’re thinking of the Holy Ghost, on “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”).

The Traditionalist If White is one of music’s deeper thinkers, he’s also one of its most traditional. In today’s era of digital recording technology and corrective mechanisms like Pro Tools and Auto-Tune, White innovates in a paradoxical way by reviving the music vehicles of old. His deep-rooted love of blues has been evident since the nascent influences of The White Stripes, and he’s not shy about promoting it, for example, in playing the Stripes’ cover of Son House’s “Death Letter” at the 2006 Grammy Awards. White says he counts early 20th-century blues guitarist Robert Johnson as his personal hero. He also waxes inspirational on his fondness for analog recording and for vinyl.

“I don’t think vinyl should be an old technique; it should be a current technique.

Engineers thought digital technology was making things better, but it wasn’t. It was making it easier, but that doesn’t always mean better,” White says. “Most teenagers unfortunately don’t know the difference.

No one’s sat them down and said, ‘Here’s a vinyl record, now listen to the same thing on an iPod.’ That’s a shame. I think parents should relate that to their kids and show them different options.”

White does own an iPod, more for reasons of portability than preference.

“When I’m backstage in Germany, I’m not going to whip out my turntable. But is that format the way people should revere music and respect music? I don’t know, but I hope not.

“The culture of free music is bad for artistry.

People think it’s no big deal to download one or two songs illegally, but if you walked into Kmart and just stole one or two things, it would still be a crime. It’s especially bad for young artists who are just starting out and can’t afford to lose the income stream that comes from legal downloads.”

The Garage Rocker So how did a kid growing up in a Catholic family in inner-city Detroit—who found himself in love with old blues music—catapult himself into the forefront of rock innovation and entrepreneurship? Being plunged into the spotlight was something White didn’t anticipate. As a teen, he got his start in music as a local drummer, playing gigs in the underground scene while apprenticing at an upholstery business with family friend and

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fellow musician Brian Muldoon. White and Muldoon—whom White credits with exposing him to punk music—formed a guitar-drums duo called The Upholsterers. White played in various acts after that, but it wasn’t until he met bartender Meg White in the late ‘90s that he settled into a band—Meg on drums and himself on guitar, calling themselves The White Stripes. They played around Detroit until White felt the scene too stifling.

“The garage rock scene didn’t really know how to relate to us, once we started selling more records. Eventually we had to leave our hometown,” he says.

Built on a raspy axis of punk, blues and feverishly sparse instrumentation, The Stripes released three albums in the early 2000s: a self-titled debut album, De Stijl and White Blood Cells, all to critical acclaim. Yet, it wasn’t

Brendan Benson was the best person doing that in Detroit at the time. That brought me to a different level of the craft.”

Though not as commercially successful as The White Stripes, their first album, Broken Boy Soldiers, spawned the hit “Steady as She Goes” and has sold almost half a million copies, and in 2008, the bluesy follow-up, Consolers of the Lonely, launched a successful summer touring run.

The Producer Not content to remain merely in the band, White formed his own record label in 2001.

Based in Detroit, Third Man Records is built on his principles of traditional recording techniques. It has a new home—and its first physical one—tucked away in an industrial area of downtown Nashville. The monolith

“It’s a really interesting philosophical debate to decide how much of yourself you want to be when you get up in the morning and when you’re in front of other people.” until their fourth album, Elephant—recorded by White in London using antiquated equipment— that they ripped into the mainstream, driven by the success of the thudding and spooky anthem “Seven Nation Army.”

The Stripes moved to Warner Brothers for 2007’s Icky Thump after putting out five albums on smaller labels. Altogether, they’ve sold more than 12 million records and picked up a handful of Grammys.

“In a lot of the songs, the characters are not me,” White says. “The White Stripes is probably the most personal music to me, because the songwriting was so completely mine.”

The Vaudevillian In 2005, still in the heat of White Stripes popularity, White formed a second band, The Raconteurs, in his new home of Nashville.

Other members included indie singersongwriter Brendan Benson and Greenhornes members Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler.

The band produced a rustic sound that was part Beatles-esque pop, part Zeppelinstyle howling and every bit warm rock ‘n’ roll straight-shooting. With a fuller cast of supporting musicians, White says he was able to focus on what he really enjoys.

“The Raconteurs for me was my chance to explore songwriting,” White says. “I had never written songs with another person before, and

features a recording studio—where White produces Third Man’s albums, all of which are pressed on vinyl—a darkroom and photo studio, production and distribution offices and a small performance venue.

The pangaea of Third Man is an apt vehicle for White’s rushed recording process. With him, there are no rumblings of album rumors, and there’s no PR-driven marketing buildup, simply because there’s no time. Albums are recorded in days and shuttled to shelves weeks later. With this slapdash gestation period, there may be a misplaced note here, a mangled chord there; but White prefers to keep the rough edges.

Third Man recently began a subscription service called The Vault, designed to target listeners who want fresh and in-depth content from the bands, but who disdain the MySpacepage method of music promotion in the digital age. Subscribers to The Vault receive limited-edition, often tri-color LPs and memorabilia, and can also log onto a private website where they can read blogs and poetry

by White and see exclusive video content.

The Wild-Eyed Southern Gothic It’s at Third Man that The Dead Weather, White’s band yanked together with Kills ingénue Alison Mosshart after Mosshart sang guest vocals at a few Raconteurs

Autumn DeWilde

The White Stripes RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 49

David Swanson

The Dead Weather

shows, first took the stage. Together with Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence and Queens of the Stone Age guitarist/keyboardist Dean Fertita, they released their debut album, Horehound, in July 2009.

White’s many projects—including producer credits, album releases, heck, even brand new bands—tend to come barreling into the industry ether with no warning. The Dead Weather, for instance, played a surprise gig at what was ostensibly a party at White’s Third Man Records headquarters, and within months they had released an album and trekked out on tour.

“The Dead Weather is a really heavy sound,” White says. “The music is a dynamic type of blues that I’ve been wanting to play for a long time, but I needed more people and a different energy on stage. I feel like we’re a really explosive live band.”

At a show in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, The Dead Weather saves “Buffalo” for the encore.

White usually takes a literal backseat in the outfit, perched behind a drum kit, but for this track he assumes the leadership role everyone seems to thrust upon him. “You should try to take it easy on me, ‘cause I don’t know how to take it,” he sings behind a sheath of dark hair, pulverizing the drums and the microphone while frontwoman Mosshart takes a subtle step to the sidelines.

And it’s when White finally comes forward and straps on his guitar for the murky blues of

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“The prevailing attitude in America today is so ‘survival of the fittest.’

We’re all about being out for ourselves instead of being out for our family.”

“Will There Be Enough Water?” that the crowd cheers the loudest.

At the show’s end, White pulls the band together for a bow, whispering a word to Mosshart, and darts offstage, away from the spotlight and presumably back to his unceasing list of side projects.

The Impossible-to-Label Soloist Aside from his trio of bands and his label, White also oversees a dizzying list of solo projects. In 2008, he teamed with Alicia Keys to write “Another Way to Die,” the theme song to the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. He recently represented his generation of musicians in the Davis Guggenheim documentary It Might Get Loud, alongside Jimmy Page and the Edge, where the trio talked shop and wailed away on their guitars on a soundstage. As a producer, White has put

together Loretta Lynn’s 2004 album Van Lear Rose and is reported to be working in the studio with the Rolling Stones for their next LP. He is constantly signing new acts to his record label (recent bands include the Dex Romweber Duo and Dan Sartain), and this year, he released a single of his own, “Fly Farm Blues,” which was written in 10 minutes on camera as a challenge by the Loud producers.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Star of the Decade White himself has amassed a host of accolades, from being listed at no. 17 on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time” to most recently being named “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star of the Decade” by London’s Guardian newspaper. He takes them all with an overwhelming dose of humility.

“It’s embarrassing to be a guitar player,” White says. “Rock and roll can mean various things. When I hear rock and roll, I think of The Sonics or Little Richard, so I’m not really sure how I want to be labeled in the business. It is definitely interesting to meditate on where I fit into the music scene. I’m grateful to be recognized for being part of it.”

White says he was both pleasantly surprised and taken aback by his sudden catapult into the spotlight.

“Fame is a strange thing, because all of a sudden the rules change, and nothing applies to you like it did to other people,” he says.

“You go out to a restaurant and people are watching you eat, and paparazzi can come up and insult you to your face, and for some reason that’s allowed. You can develop all manner of complexes, all the way up to agoraphobia. Suddenly you have all these problems that you have to keep to yourself.”

and a daughter, Henry and Scarlett.

For his hectic schedule and all his work in the industry, White finds grounding in his family and their perspective.

“Trying to balance your life is a giant puzzle.

My wife and children are always on my mind; it’s a whole different lifestyle than when I

“I don’t care as much about man’s interpretation of religion. What I care about is what God tells me directly.”

Modest as he might be about his musicianship, White’s blues-soaked guitar playing, at once staccato and sludgy, is the crux of his compositions. He scampers octaves with the help of a DigiTech Whammy Pedal, sometimes dialing down low to create a rumbling bass tone—like in the famous riff from “Seven Nation Army”—and at other times leaping up to a high register for one of his squealing solos. Though he’s flirted with vintage Montgomery Airlines and Fender Telecasters, his deepest relationship is with American manufacturer Gretsch, who designs custom guitars for him. They added a third pickup to his copper Double Jet, among other customizations, and produced a sleek series of white and gold instruments that The Dead Weather subsequently used on tour.

was living on my own in my 20s. I’m looking at life from my son and daughter’s angle, and that reminds me of what’s important.” He also perseveres by remembering the rich and responsible debt of his craft as a musician.

“As songwriters, we’ve taken over the

creative process from the writers and the poets who lived 100 years ago,” he says. “Pop music has responsibilities on its shoulders it doesn’t even understand.

“There’s a message underlying everything you create. There has to be, or there’s no life to it.”

The Real Jack White All these roles. All these worlds. Is it a carefully cultivated persona? Is Jack White, like Bob Dylan before him, attempting to construct his own mythology?

Or is Jack White, in the end, just being himself? Giving life to various facets of his personality—living a hyper-authentic life ... the one we all kind of long to live?

So, is there a real Jack White? Yeah. There is. It’s all these characters—from the priest to the vaudevillian to the producer. They are the real Jack White. A

The Homebody

Stephen Berkman

As tremendous as White’s professional involvement is, it’s his personal life that often makes headlines. He’s perhaps as well-known for his eccentricities as his sparse garage sound: his obsession with the number three; his strict red, black and white dress code for The White Stripes; posting video footage of his 2003 finger surgery online.

But for all that, White says it’s his wife and children who give his life the most meaning.

“To be with my kids every morning is such a blessing. It makes you start life all over again.

It’s the best type of fulfillment, to see God in their eyes every moment you spend with them.

The way they look at life is so innocent.”

Of course, White’s romantic and family life has often been the focus of curiosity. First, there was his relationship with Stripes sidekick Meg White, whom White still calls his “sister” even though years ago the Detroit Free Press produced a divorce certificate that revealed her to be his ex-wife. After a much-publicized romance with actress Renee Zellweger in 2003, White married Karen Elson, a redheaded British supermodel he met on the set of the Stripes’ video for “Blue Orchid,” in 2005. The couple now lives in Nashville, where Elson manages a vintage store, and they have a son

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“I Just Wish I Knew God’s Will…”

We’ve all said it—but what if we’re getting it wrong?

By Francis Chan

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How many times have you heard someone wonder about “God’s will for my life”? I know I’ve longed to know it for my life. But now I see it as a misguided way of thinking and talking.

There are very few people in the Scriptures who received their life plan from God in advance (or even their five-year plan, for that matter). Consider Abraham, who was told to pack up his family and all his possessions and start walking. He didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know if he would ever be back. He didn’t know any of the details we consider vital (e.g., his destination, how long the venture would take, what the costs/rewards would be, whether he’d receive a 40I (k) or health insurance). God said to go and he went, and that’s pretty much all he knew.

A lot of us need to forget about God’s will for my life.

God cares more about our response to His Spirit’s leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today’s decisions.

It is easy to use the phrase “God’s will for my life” as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. It’s much less demanding to think about God’s will for your future than it is to ask HIm what He wants you to do in the next 10 minutes. It’s safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day.

God wants us to listen to His Spirit on a daily basis, and even throughout the day, as difficult and stretching moments arise, and in the midst of the mundane. Instead of searching for “God’s will for my life,” learn to seek hard after “the Spirit’s leading in my life today.” May we learn to pray for an open and willing heart, to surrender to the Spirit’s leading with that friend, child, spouse, circumstance or decision in our lives right now.

To say we are not called to figure out “God’s will for my

life” does not mean God doesn’t have purposes and plans for each of our lives, or that He doesn’t care what we do with our lives. He does. In both the Old and New Testaments He tells us this is true. The key is that God never promises to reveal these purposes all at once, in advance.

Nowhere in Scripture do I see a “balanced life with a little bit of God added in” as an ideal for us to emulate. Yet when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives. People who have, in a sense, asked Jesus to join them on their life journey, to follow them wherever they feel they should go, rather than following Him as we are commanded. The God of the universe is not something we can just add to our lives and keep on as we did before. The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is not someone we can just call on when we want a little extra power in our lives. Jesus Christ did not die in order to follow us. He died and rose again so we could forget everything else and follow Him to the cross, to true Life.

You don’t need the Holy Spirit if you are merely seeking to live a semi-moral life and attend church regularly.

You can find people in many religions doing that just fine without the Spirit. You only need the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help if you truly want to follow Jesus Christ.

You only need the Spirit if you desire to “obey everything” God commanded and to teach others to do the same (Matthew 28: I8-20, NIV). You only need the Holy Spirit if you have genuinely repented and believe. And you only need the Holy Spirit if you understand you are called to share in Christ’s suffering and death, as well as His resurrection (Romans 8:I7; 2 Corinthians 4:I6I8; Philippians 3:I0-II).

If you truly believe and have turned from the way you were headed and joined a different Way of living, then you desperately need the Holy Spirit. You know you cannot live this Way without the Spirit in you.

God is still real and moving, but at some point we have to respond and act because of what God’s done.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 53

God cares more about our response to His Spirit’s leading today in this moment than about what we intend to do next year.

Repentance means saying: “Jesus, You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I want to turn from all the sin and selfishness that rules me. I want to let it go and walk with You. Only You. You are my life now. Help me to walk away from the enslaving, worthless things in life.”

So if a little bit of spirituality added in to our lives is not what God has in mind, what does He want for His children? How does He desire that we live? The fact is we were called

by Jesus to give up everything. His call is to come and take up the cross (Luke 9:23).

“Taking up my cross” has become a euphemism for getting through life’s typical burdens with a semi-good attitude. Yet life’s typical burdens—busy schedules, bills, illness, hard decisions, paying for college tuition, losing jobs, houses not selling and the family dog dying—are felt by everyone, whether or not they follow the Way of Jesus.

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When Jesus calls us to take up our cross, He is doing much more than calling us to endure the daily, circumstantial troubles of life. The people in Jesus’ day were very familiar with the cross. Having witnessed crucifixion, they understood the commitment and sacrifice of taking up a cross.

It is a call to radical faith.

Jesus is calling us to be willing to suffer anything and forsake everything for the sake of the Gospel. His call is to love those who have cheated us in business; those who have spread nasty rumors about us; those who would kill us if they could; those who disagree with us politically, practically and fundamentally. His call is to consider everything a loss for His sake. His call is for total surrender. He calls us to give up all that we have, to give even to the point of offering up our lives as a living sacrifice. Jesus’ call means realizing His power is made perfect in

our weakness, that when we are weak we are also strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-I0).

What if you could hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and He asked you to literally give everything you owned? What if He asked you to sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor?

Could you do it?

Before you start explaining why He would never ask that of you, take a moment and answer the question honestly. It’s not out of His character to ask for everything.

In 2 Samuel 6, where David danced (it says in “a linen ephod,” the equivalent of priestly underwear) before the Lord “with all his might” (v. I4). Others were shamed by his undignified display of worship to God, yet David said he didn’t care and he would become even more undignified for the sake of the Lord. All David cared about was worshiping his God.

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When I read this story, part a passive participant. Occasionally God works of me says: “Yes, I want to live this way and heals or frees a person outright. like David. I want to forget about He is certainly capable of this. But in my what others think and worship experience, God typically asks us to play an my King with all of me.” The active role in the journey toward wholeness. other part of me says, “OK, but God doesn’t need our help, but invites us practically, what does that look to participate. Often this journey to freedom like?” How do I walk in such takes time, sometimes a very long time. And intimacy with the Spirit that it takes perseverance. It takes participation my genuine response when on our part. We have to get on the treadmill He moves is to dance with and run—merely looking at the workout abandon, heedless of those machine doesn’t do a whole lot. (See also around me who might consider Romans 12:11 and I Thessalonians 5:19.) it inappropriate? And do I really Living by the Spirit implies a habitual, need to not care about what continual and active interaction with the Holy others think of me?

Spirit. While this sounds exhausting, it really The crux of it, I believe, is isn’t because all of this living and action is realizing that being filled with done in the power of the Spirit. It is not by the Spirit is not a one-time your own strength. act. As we read in Galatians This, however, brings up a whole other about the Spirit and the flesh, confusing issue: Is it God’s work or my work? walking with the Spirit implies an God’s responsibility or mine? Paul addresses ongoing relationship. Being filled this when he writes to the Galatians. He with the Spirit is not limited to calls them out, asking whom they had been the day we first meet Christ. bewitched by (quite an accusation!). Paul Instead, throughout Scripture asks, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you we read of a relationship that now being perfected by the flesh?” (3:3) calls us into an active pursuit of I think each of us has a strong tendency to the Spirit every day. attempt to wrestle control from the Spirit and Imagine I buy a treadmill to “do” this life on our own. We tend to switch lose some weight. Three months from living the gospel of grace to trusting in later, I take it back to the store a system of works. That’s why Paul brings up and complain to the clerk that it this issue with the churches in Galatia. Paul didn’t work—I didn’t lose a pound. knows it’s hard to truly depend on sustenance He asks me, “Did it not work and guidance from the Spirit rather than properly?” I respond: “I don’t merely on our own wisdom and effort. know if it works. I never ran on If we never responded to God, if we never it. I just know I didn’t lose any acted based on what He has done for us, weight, so I am done with it!” there wouldn’t be much of a relationship This may seem like a silly there. God is still real and moving, but at example, but change the details and suddenly some point we have to respond and act it sounds familiar: because of what God’s done. Like yeast and “I have prayed for the Holy Spirit to free flour are both necessary to bread, both God’s me from my lust, and I am still addicted to action and our response-action are necessary pornography.” in this relationship with God. Or, “I have prayed for years to be able Like many things in life, there really isn’t to forgive my dad, but I am still racked with a sew-it-all-up solution. And I love that. God anger and bitterness 30 years down the road.” is big and mysterious enough that we cannot “I have prayed for years to be free of my simply put a label on this process and move gluttony, but despite prayer, spiritually on. It requires continual engagement and based support groups and dieting, I am still a wrestling and discovering how to live a Spiritcompulsive, unhealthy eater.” filled life today. Not 10 years from now. Not FiIl in whatever sin plagues you and tomorrow. But right now, in the particular suddenly the treadmill illustration doesn’t time and place God has put you. a seem so silly. In fact, it seems like those prayers for freedom from that ongoing sin didn’t really “work” in much the same way the Francis chan is the pastor of Cornerstone Church treadmill didn’t help me lose any weight. in Simi Valley, CA. He is the author of Crazy Love and Receiving freedom and healing in answer Forgotten God, from which this article is adapted. to prayer is generally not something that is Copyright 2009 Cook Communications Ministries/David C. Cook. Used with permission. All rights reserved. done to you, a situation in which you are just

Making Space for the Spirit kathy Bostrom has done it again! in her inimitably thoughtful and inspirational style, she offers 100 simple exercises that will boost your spirits and, more important, strengthen your spirit— that essential part of you that connects you to god. other books by kathy Bostrom include Finding Calm in the Chaos and 99 Things to Do between Here and Heaven. Look for kathy’s upcoming 99 Ways to Raise Spiritually Healthy Children, available this fall from WJk.

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The good and bad to pay attention to this year If 2010 is anything like 2009, the “next big thing” in music will be a genre someone made up one day, possibly under the influence of something.

Technology continues to be cheap and widely available, and the Internet continues to be the best distribution tool ever. It’s very possible your best friend’s album he recorded using GarageBand might get picked up by Pitchfork.

Technology means artists are dusting off old sounds, rapping about sneakers and old favorites are back. In short, 2010 figures to be an exciting time for music; the Internet has changed it forever ... but maybe that’s not a bad thing?

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Brett McCracken

[KID CUDI]

The Freshman Class of Hip-Hop 2010 brings about a new kind of rapper: The kind who is smart and “socially conscious” while also being obsessed with women, partying, video games and their own crippling self-doubt.

They revel in middle-class leisure (especially of the skateboard/BMX variety) and high-class fashion, rapping about skinny Diesel jeans instead of urban violence. They include people like Kid Cudi, who grew up in Cleveland’s Shaker Heights neighborhood, moved to hipsterville (Brooklyn) at age 20 and made mixtapes that caught the eye of Kanye. Cudi’s 2009 debut concept album, Man on the Moon, featured just the sort of unexpected, fashionable collaborations you’d expect from a post-Kanye rapper: MGMT, Ratatat and a redux of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.”

This playful pop culture intertextuality and avoidance of anything heavy also characterizes Chicago’s The Cool Kids, who made a splash in 2008 by rapping about Sega video games and X Games shenanigans. Or there is the Nigerian-American D.C. rapper Wale, who samples everything from Seinfeld to Rihanna and raps over Peter Bjorn and John songs (“Nothing to Worry About”) when he’s not collaborating with Lady Gaga (yes, him too).

It remains to be seen what the long-term effects of the “freshman class” will be on either hip-hop or pop culture. While on the one hand, it’s nice these rappers avoid the casual misogyny and acquisition of “Pimp Juice” goblets, there’s still lots of drugs. Lots of drugs. And while the treatment of women is generally preferable, don’t mistake any of the freshman class for strong-willed advocates of chastity (remember, Drake released “Every Girl in the World” last summer). So the freshman class has made some steps toward repairing the thug persona in hip-hop ... but also doesn’t really seem all-that-concerned in replacing it with positive things.

[THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART]

[NO AGE]

Shoegaze Revival We can blame Sofia Coppola for this one. Her films—particularly Lost in Translation—did more for the shoegaze revival than just about anything. When ‘80s shoegaze icons Jesus and Mary Chain serenaded the milky morningafter malaise of that Tokyo sunrise setting with their song “Just Like Honey,” something very zeitgeisty and wonderful clicked in the musical consciousness of hipsters everywhere. And those hipsters grew up and started making music. Now, seven years later, neo-shoegaze is all the rage.

An outgrowth of the early aughts garagerock revival (especially its noise), the neo-

For those who think shoegaze is officially passé, the “next thing” on the pseudo-underground, “subversive-because-it’snot-American Idol” radar is “chillwave,” also known as “glo-fi.”

This trend is characterized by a sort of washed-out, pre-digital dance vibe that has a vaguely haunting, ambient quality to it—as if you just unearthed a shoebox of old cassette tapes from the late ‘80s/early ‘90s and spliced them together with whimsy.

A sort of proto-techno, trance-inducing homage to those late summer nights in the city when spilt beer, humid air and fireworks combine to make all dreams seem possible, glo-fi retrofits the modern raver spirit for a trip down Goonies memory lane. Essentially, it’s the musical embodiment of the hipster fascination with thrift stores, dumpster diving and all things “found.” Basically, the 1980s.

Unabashedly blissful, glo-

shoegaze trend celebrates all things lo-fi, reveling in wall-of-sound noise, dense layers of slightly monotonous guitar, and largely inaudible or indecipherable lyrics. These are bands like California’s No Age, New York’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Crystal Stilts or Vivian Girls, Vancouver’s Japandroids, Britain’s The Big Pink or Sofia Coppola’s Swedish fave The Radio Dept.

Each of these bands tend to favor the communication of mood over lyrics—they cloak their words (and sometimes even their melodies) in waves of sound, muddying the effect in towering reverb until just the

fi turns its nose up at the earnest dirge music of The Antlers in favor of ironic recombinant pop-kitsch of the highest order. This is sampleheavy, made-with-a-laptop music that masquerades as some sort of nostalgic reverie.

Basically it says: We’ve been sad for so long in indie rock ... maybe it’s time to be happy again? And generally, it’s a great sentiment, even if the lyrics sometimes lack substance ... or promote substances and *ahem* actions you wouldn’t exactly want Mom knowing about.

Leaders of the pack for this emerging trend include 2009 “it” bands Neon Indian, Washed Out, Nite Jewel, Toro Y Moi, Bibio and Sweden’s Air France.

Glo-fi pulls its many disparate, outdated pieces together in purposefully imperfect and unpredictable ways, rife with gauzy synths, maudlin muzak, warbling club beats and the

right mood is established. The effect makes shoegaze one of the more interesting experiments in indie-rock—if what they have to “say” doesn’t matter as much as how they make you feel, what’s the best way to respond to the music? Maybe the best way is to let the music literally act as a wave, crashing over you and carrying you into the tone and emotional timbre suggested by the music.

Some of these bands are harder to take (Wavves and Times New Viking can be unlistenable) while others (Real Estate and Surfer Blood) can be pleasantly melodic, possibly even at home on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Just don’t expect the Glee kids to do a rendition of “Young Adult Friction” anytime soon. Though that would be awesome.

Chillwave/glo-fi/ thrift store music

[WASHED OUT] breezy wonderment that can be seen in the close-cousin dream-pop trend (Beach House, School of Seven Bells, Lykke Li).

There’s also a sneaky pop underbelly of the glo-fi movement; The Drums—2010’s next big thing—have clearly listened to The Smiths a lot, and Memory Tapes sometimes

[NEON INDIAN] resembles New Order so much, you think you’re back in 1988.

And you won’t find better driving music than Dolorean.

The result is a scene that will likely continue on in years to come, as analog-starved Millennials continue to explore the creative potential of Gen-X sonic scraps, and make a music mosaic of them.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 57

We made you a mixtape!

[DIRTY PROJECTORS]

Don’t just read about 2010 trends—listen to them!

• The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa • Real Estate - Younger than Yesterday • Caedmon’s Call - Ten Thousand Angels • Surfer Blood - Swim • Wale - Shades (clean version) • Crystal Stilts - Love Is a Wave • Sixpence None the Richer - River • Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is the Move • Memory Tapes - Bicycle • Drake - Fear (clean version) • Waterdeep - My Second Try • Vampire Weekend - Giving Up the Gun • Washed Out - New Theory • Yeasayer - Ambling Alp • Kid Cudi - Cudi Zone (clean version) To download these songs on iTunes, head over to RELEVANT magazine.com/NewMusicMix

$

[YEASAYER]

Preppie Afro-Pop Globalization has left its mark on nearly every aspect of everything over the past two decades, including well-heeled indie music.

In recent years, many of the biggest buzz bands have been characterized by their heady appropriations of African and world music sounds. The poster-child for this is Vampire Weekend, the quartet of twentysomething Columbia grads who present an airy picture of Ray-Ban-wearing Hamptons beach life while simultaneously making a Ph.D.-level statement about post-colonialism.

Across town in Brooklyn, Dirty Projectors are another band making interesting Afroinspired music with a decidedly upper-crust white hipster sensibility. Some of their songs, like “Stillness is the Move,” are so rhythmic and

danceable that R&B artists like Solange Knowles have taken notice (she recorded an awesome cover of “Stillness”).

Other bands associated with this trend include The Very Best (with members from France, Sweden and Malawi), L.A.’s Fool’s Gold, Brooklyn’s Yeasayer, Oxford’s Foals and Washington, D.C.’s Extra Golden. Even bands like Coldplay (under the direction of Brian Eno) have taken a turn toward world music sounds, especially on songs like “Strawberry Swing.”

We’re waiting to see if this trend will raise awareness about other kinds of music and other cultures (along with the difficult circumstances that created some of this music) or if it’s the musical equivalent of a colonial-era safari trip, but either way: this music is a lot of fun.

Endangered Species: Albums, fourminute songs

[SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER]

CCM Flashback For those of us who came of age at the height of the CCM juggernaut, it’s hard to go a day without lamenting the bygone era when The Newsboys, dc Talk and Petra were the pinnacle of faith-based aesthetic magnificence. You don’t know nostalgia unless you know what it’s like to have truly loved Skalleluia. (Christians owned ska!) Which is why it’s

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music to our ears that some of CCM’s finest, long-dormant icons are coming back in 2010 with new music. Sixpence None the Richer—crossover superstars with hits about making out (“Kiss Me”) and, um, heroin usage (“There She Goes”) —have a new album in the works for 2010.

Waterdeep, who disbanded in the early ‘00s, regrouped and just released their third

album since reforming. And other familiar names are resurfacing, like Caedmon’s Call (with Derek Webb!), and Jennifer Knapp, who came out of seclusion last fall to debut new (and very good) songs at a few concerts.

Knapp will be a part of another relic of the ‘90s— Lilith Fair—during the summer of 2010. Now if we could just convince dc Talk to reunite ...

As music continues to morph and adapt in the new “digital ecosystem,” some of its most elemental aspects are being thrown into question.

Things like the album.

Why bother packaging a collection of 10 or 12 songs together when we can consume a single song so easily from any number of digital outlets?

In addition, progressive-minded artists are beginning to question the form of a song itself, challenging the notion that it must be a four-minute, cohesive, single-thought entree that’s easy to digest. More and more bands are brazenly exploring other ideas of what a “song” can be in the pop music world.

And then there are other artists who are rethinking “songwriting” in light of remixability. It all adds up to an accelerated evolution of music, newly liberated from old constraints like “albums” and ready to throw convention to the wind in favor of sonic revolution. Which is fine, but we miss really, really big album covers.

THE of Sigur Rós’ Jónsi Birgisson

Music can be spiritual—even when it’s in a made-up language

by Jessica Misener

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H

as anybody, on a basic level, ever understood a Sigur Rós song? Even if you hail from Iceland, where the post-rock quartet first fired up their glockenspiels in 1994, you might be up a linguistic glacier. The band records mostly in a made-up language called Hopelandic, a strange gibberish of vowels and moans that accentuates their ambient sound.

Lilja Birgisdottir

That’s why it’s especially surprising that lead singer Jónsi Birgisson is about to shatter the language barrier. “I’m singing for the first time in English,” he says of his new solo album, Go, a ninesong LP out March 23.

Of course, there’s more to experiencing music than the lyrics themselves. For more than 10 years, Birgisson has been at the creative forefront of Sigur Rós and of the ambient/post-rock scene itself: transcending octaves with his airy falsetto, playing his guitar with a cello bow and penning instrumental melodies that soar to celestial heights. So now that we can comprehend Birgisson lyrically, what will he say?

According to him, it’s something just as evocative.

“Sigur Rós has been a safe cocoon for me,” he says.

“I love writing with my band, because you get to share that creative spark, but I’m also enjoying learning about myself as a songwriter.”

For many Christians, the music of Sigur Rós has been a soundtrack for worship; that is, the band’s soaring melodies and non-linear vocals draw the listener up to focus on higher things. Perhaps it may best be thought of as “spiritual” music—not explicitly religious, but art that tries to transcend the ordinary of human experience and tap into something more than temporal reality. That might sound ridiculous and ostentatious, but it’s also the best way to talk about their music: it’s transporting.

Ken Heffner, director of Student Activities at Calvin College and curator of the bi-annual Festival of Faith & Music, is well-versed in finding the sacred amidst the secular. His tenure at Calvin has been noted for bringing acts ranging from Lupe Fiasco to, yes, Sigur Rós to perform at a Christian college. “[Sigur Rós] played here in 2006; that was a high point for me in my 22-year concert career,” Heffner says. “One of my favorite parts about having them was during the interview we did beforehand.

Someone asked them, ‘Many critics talk about your

music as the soundtrack of heaven or music from God—what do you guys think of that?’ They laughed and said they were aware of that reputation, but that’s not what they think they’re doing—they think it’s just about beauty.”

Birgisson is surprised, but not unreceptive, that many Christians and religious people consider the music of Sigur Rós worship music: “That’s kind of a scary responsibility, but also a cool thing. I think any way that my music can inspire people is an amazing opportunity.” “[Sigur Rós] has found some way to tap into glory, to give glory a sound,” Heffner says. “Other artists have done this, but in this time, Sigur Rós, I think, does the best job of that. God is at work renewing all kinds of things and He can do it through a Sigur Rós concert. His presence can show up at a concert even though that was not the intent of the artist.”

Birgisson says his own spirituality is inextricably tied up in his music.

“I’m not a religious person, but I am spiritual,” he says. “Music is what keeps me alive, and it keeps me fulfilled and happy. I let everything flow through me and out of me and into my songs.”

Birgisson may be striking out on his own with Go, but he’s also assembled a sharp team of background players. Most intriguing is the involvement of Nico Muhly, a modern classical composer who has worked with Björk and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and most recently appeared on Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest.

Muhly arranged all of the songs on Birgisson’s new album, and also brought strings, bass and woodwinds into the mix.

“Nico made things more colorful and playful,” Birgisson says. “He brought out the crazier side of my music.”

The new album isn’t Birgisson’s first experience recording apart from Sigur Rós. In 2009, he released an instrumental album, Riceboy Sleeps, with Alex

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Musically, Go glides along the same glacial oeuvre as Sigur Rós: ethereal and haunting, cascading in and out of satin-like glissandos.

But there’s a certain spunk, and a spark of optimism, to the album that has sometimes been absent from Sigur Rós’ more dark and arctic musical canon. Go is injected with life, and its theme, Birgisson says, is getting rid of fear.

“So many people are afraid to let go and experience the crazy roller coaster that is real life. I wanted this album to have an upbeat energy that would encourage people to go for it, to tackle their dreams, to do everything they dream —Jónsi Birgisson of doing.”

Currents of freedom, adventure, joy and creation lace through the tracks on Go. Lead-off single “Boy Lilikoi”—“lilikoi” being a type of tropical fruit—is a crescendo-soaked romp, with the same airy majesty as a Sigur Rós song, but with something new: a pop structure and narrative lyrics.

But this isn’t to say that Go is all happy-go-lucky. The ballads are equally haunting: “Tornado” is a lilting, somber song that echoes like rain beating against a taxi window, and “Kolnidur” inches along with opulent strings. In other words, the album is as soaring and as moving as any Sigur Rós album.

The release of Go will galvanize a busy year for Birgisson. He embarks on a world tour this year, and the release of a new Sigur Rós album is also slated for 2010.

“Fame is a strange thing, but you have to enjoy it,” he says of the slow-burning spotlight on his band and himself. “I still live in Reykjavik, and that keeps me grounded. Above all, I’m grateful for the ability to compose my music. Life is a gift.” a

“Music is what keeps me alive, and it keeps me fulfilled and happy. I let everything flow through me and out of me and into my songs.”

Somers under the name Jónsi & Alex. Somers does production for Go as well, alongside Peter Katis, who has produced for The National and also for Interpol.

The LP was the culmination and selection of Birgisson’s entire, decade-spanning repertoire, he says.

“I started with 27 songs, and narrowed them down. Some of these songs I wrote 10 years ago, and I’ve just been waiting for the right time to debut them.

“All the other members of Sigur Rós are having babies,” Birgisson says with a laugh, “so now was a great time to go the solo route.”

Birgisson and his band have had an indelible impact on ambient music. With their symphonies swept up in falsetto and vivacity, they’ve influenced everyone from Radiohead to Coldplay, and won fans as diverse as David Bowie and Brad Pitt. But beyond Sigur Rós’ musicality, their unique brand of wordless orchestra reaches many fans on a profound, soulful level.

(Other Worship Music … That’s Not “Worship Music”) Sigur Rós isn’t the only band who makes the sort of soaring, ambient post-rock that can be described as “transcendent.” Check out these albums that have both inspired and been inspired by Sigur Rós’ music.

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[múm]

[Stars of the Lid]

[Explosions in the Sky]

[Jóhann Jóhannsson]

[The Album Leaf]

Finally We Are No One Though they share an island with Sigur Rós, múm are different. They make “glitchy” electronic music, filled with tape hiss and popping. But their music is triumphant and sublime like their Icelandic counterparts.

And Their Refinement of the Decline This Texas duo are the current masters of the ambient drone genre. This music is best defined as transcendent; the washes of sound evoke a mood and create an atmosphere like nothing else.

The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place This is what a tent revival would sound like if it was hooked up to an amp.

These songs build and build to the breaking point ... and then sometimes they break. Repeatedly. And it is beautiful and loud.

Fordlândia This is a classical and electronica work by a composer from Iceland (noticing a pattern?).

It builds and soars in all the right places; the 15-minute “How We Left Fordlândia” alone is worth the price of the album.

In a Safe Place This is one of the moodiest albums on this list—and what a mood it is. Every track on this record seems filled with possibility and with the potential pain and hope that each day brings.

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EVERYDAY JUSTICE 10 Lifestyle choices that can tangibly help others

by Julie Clawson

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Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, and in our globalized world we now have more neighbors than ever. From the clothes we wear to whether we bike or drive, our lives are intertwined with those of people around the world. Our daily choices affect real human beings. Unfortunately, those daily choices also often inadvertently support systems of injustice. Instead of loving our neighbors, we hurt them and fail to treat them as brothers and sisters created in God’s image. Becoming aware of how our choices affect others can help us alter our habits and seek justice on their behalf. The following are 10 simple everyday actions that can help you do just that.

Stop Keeping Up With the Joneses It has to be said. And it has to be said first.

Our culture is obsessed with having more—the latest fashions, the trendiest electronics. We buy stuff we don’t even need just to say we did. We waste resources and contribute to injustices worldwide just so we can look better than our neighbor. To escape this system, we need to reclaim the life of faith and simplicity Jesus called us to. So find ways to simplify your life. Don’t feel pressured to get the latest model cell phone when your current one still works fine. Don’t dump polluting chemicals onto your lawn so you can have the perfect suburban landscape. Question whether you really need to waste energy by choosing to buy a huge house or a monster car. Break free from the lie that we are what we consume, and find ways to connect with the Joneses instead of competing with them. Invite them to start a community garden with you. Join with them to help rehabilitate women in your area who have been rescued out of sex slavery. Working together to live sustainably in our world instead of insatiably consuming it is far more fulfilling anyway.

Pay a Fair Price for Your Coffee For most of the 20th century, the International Coffee Agreement held steady the price paid to coffee farmers so as to provide them with a decent income and prevent instability that Communists could use to foment revolution. As the Cold War ended, the agreement was abandoned, and coffee prices plummeted worldwide. Twenty-five million coffee farmers started earning less and less for their labors—workers often weren’t given promised wages, or what they did earn only covered a fraction of their production costs. Since they were not receiving a fair price for their labor, many of them could no longer afford to send their kids to school, feed or clothe their family, or survive in their chosen profession. When we buy coffee, we support this system and convey to the coffee companies that we approve of them cheating their workers. Thankfully, however, there are organizations (like the Fair Trade label) that work to ensure farmers get paid a fair and living wage for their labor. Buying coffee through these groups or directly from farmerrun co-ops may cost us more, but paying a fair price shows respect for the work others do.

Buy Slave-Free Chocolate With its nostalgic image as the quintessential children’s treat, there is a long history of keeping chocolate cheap. This pressure to keep prices low has led the major chocolate companies to pay farmers less and less for their cocoa beans. In places like the Côte d’Ivoire where most of the world’s chocolate originates, these low wages, in addition to the illegal military and government “taxes” imposed on farmers for transporting goods, result in the farmers struggling to make a living at all. To cut costs, many of them seek out cheaper and cheaper labor, and sometimes even slave labor. Children are trafficked in from neighboring countries, kept as slaves, and even beaten and locked in unventilated rooms at night, all so we can have cheap chocolate. Most of the chocolate we eat is tainted by this child slave labor. But we can subvert this system by choosing to

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only buy chocolate that is guaranteed to be “slave-free,” by telling chocolate companies we care where our chocolate comes from, and by asking our government to enforce the laws prohibiting the import of goods made by child or slave labor.

Eat Sustainably A quick stroll through any supermarket reveals a vast array of food available all seasons of the year—something many of us take for granted. But this recent overabundance isn’t sustainable. Our produce is grown with the use of heavy amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, picked while unripe by underpaid workers, artificially ripened with more chemicals and then transported hundreds of miles to our grocery store shelves. Our meat comes from cows living in their own excrement on factory farms that have been fed unnatural diets and given regular doses of hormones and antibiotics.

These chemicals and the concentrated farm waste are entering our groundwater and breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Communities near these farms and the people who work on them are suffering from diseases caused by this heavy chemical use. And one of the ironies is that we actually put more energy (calories) into producing our food these ways than we actually get from the food. The Earth can’t sustain this for long. But we have the option to support sustainable practices instead. Buying locally at farmer’s markets or through a community-supported agriculture program, purchasing organically grown produce (in season) or grass-fed, free-range meat, or even growing our own herbs and vegetables are everyday steps we can take to ensure we’re able to continue producing healthy food for generations to come.

Conserve Energy It’s trendy and obvious, but nevertheless, it has significant impact on people worldwide.

Oil is not only a limited and polluting resource, the refining of it has caused the destruction of ecosystems and traditional fishing economies in places like the Niger Delta. And burning coal is the source of much of the energy we use in our homes. Besides polluting our atmosphere, the mining of coal has destroyed entire communities in Appalachia. Mountains are literally blown up to get to the coal— destroying ecosystems, ruining small towns, and even killing local children when bits of the mountain land in the wrong spot. Choosing to conserve as much energy as we can and

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Find ways to integrate justice into the rhythms of your life one small step at a time. pushing for clean renewable energy sources like solar or wind power are acts that can demonstrate love to these people. Everyday choices like switching to CFL lightbulbs, combining errands and carpooling to reduce the amount we drive, drying our clothes on a line, keeping our cars and appliances tuned-up in order to be energy-efficient, and turning up our thermostats in summer and down in winter are all small commitments that add up and can make a difference for real people.

Support Sweatshop-Free Clothing In the Western world, we usually take full closets and cheap clothing prices for granted, but we don’t always consider the human cost of that lifestyle. The shocking truth is that most of our clothes are made in sweatshops where workers (generally women and children) are forced to work exceedingly long hours for little or no pay, are frequently abused or raped for failing to meet quotas, and expected to work in unlit, unheated and

unventilated areas with no breaks. Factory owners struggle to survive as clothing companies (in order to meet our demand for cheap clothing) continue to pay the owners very little for their products. The owners then cut corners by withholding wages or decent working conditions from workers. We can choose to improve the worker’s lives by sending the message to clothing companies that we care about how these workers are treated. Write and tell them you are willing to pay more for clothes made by people who are treated with dignity and paid fairly, but also show them you mean it by buying clothing that is fairly made and sweatshop-free.

The Naked Gospel Songwriting Contest.

Andrew Farley’s radical reflections are resonating with readers around the world and leading them to rethink everything they thought they knew about Christianity.

Now Farley is offering another challenge – to express the message of “Jesus plus nothing” in song. Through The Naked Gospel Project, readers can record and upload songs based on the book’s themes for a chance to win $5000. Visit TheNakedGospel.com for details.

Create Rhythms of Justice in Your Daily Life

It’s a disposable world. In our culture of convenience, the average American personally creates nearly five pounds of trash a day.

Reduce the Waste You Create It’s a disposable world. In our culture of convenience, the average American personally creates nearly five pounds of trash a day. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg— for every 100 pounds of product we acquire, 3,200 pounds of waste were created in the manufacturing process. This waste adds up, filling our landfills, polluting our rivers and oceans, and releasing toxins into the air. Our waste harms the Earth and its people. But making simple changes to our habits can reduce our impact. Start using cloth napkins and towels. Choose to eat off real plates and mugs instead of the paper and plastic options.

Get a stainless steel reusable water bottle.

Use cloth diapers and sanitary pads. Mend your clothes to extend their life. Buy food in bulk to reduce packaging. Simple actions can make a difference. Reducing our trash not

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only makes a difference in our landfills, it also helps to develop a mentality of awareness that will shape our entire life. You can influence others to make changes as well. When entire neighborhoods or churches get on board, the impact begins to add up.

Seeking justice needs to be an integral part of our everyday lives. Once we make a habit of shopping ethically or eating sustainably, it can seem like second nature, but making that initial leap is difficult. Find ways to integrate justice into the rhythm of your life one small step at a time. Set limited, achievable goals for yourself. Choose to buy one organic item at the store this week. Decide that next Easter or Halloween you will serve slave-free chocolate.

Commit to eat sustainably for Lent. Seek out fairly made options next time you need a new item of clothing. Anything can be done in small doses and creating the habits slowly will make them less jarring and more natural.

Soon that weekly trip to the farmer’s market or brewing your own cup of fair trade coffee in the morning will just be a regular part of the rhythm of your life. Similarly, making times of celebration like Easter or Christmas into opportunities to seek justice together with family and friends can give new or deeper meaning to those already special occasions.

Make Justice Personal Campaign for Conflict-Free Cell Phones We’ve all heard of blood diamonds and their connection to terror and violence, but we often overlook the other precious minerals that are connected to similar bloody conflicts. In our technological age, the mining and exporting of minerals like coltan and tungsten, which are commonly found in high-demand electronics like cell phones, can bring massive profits to whoever controls the mining process. In the Congo, guerilla squads wage campaigns of terror in order to gain control of those mines and the profits they bring. Indiscriminate murder and gang rape give them the power to illegally mine and sell minerals and prevent local people from building a stable economy by mining their own lands. As long as governments and manufacturers turn a blind eye to the origins of the minerals they purchase, the cell phones we buy will continue to fund these acts of violence. But we can choose to use our voices as consumers and constituents to demand change. Encourage lawmakers to support legislation that tightens the restrictions on the import of conflict minerals. And tell cell phone companies you want them to guarantee their phones are conflict-free (and then support the ones that do).

There is all sorts of information out there about how to live justly and care for people, but sometimes the sheer amount of problems and possibilities just seems too overwhelming.

Or it can start to feel like living justly is some legalistic checklist to follow. It’s easy to forget justice is all about relationships—loving God and loving others. So while I gladly share what I’ve learned about how to live justly, the most important first step is to make it personal. Choose one problem that really speaks to you—whether human trafficking, environmental stewardship, sweatshop abuse, the AIDS crisis, trade justice, sustainable living or whatever—and then take the time to really research and understand that issue.

Read the stories of real people affected by it, and find ways you personally can show them love. Discover whether your everyday actions are contributing to the problem and figure out how to live differently. Then live it out.

And then do it all again. Personally investing ourselves in these issues makes just living sustainable—which is the only way change can happen in the long run. a

JULIE CLAWSON is the author of Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of our Daily Choices (IVP, 2009).

GOD and

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GUINNESS How the faith of Arthur Guinness inspired the vision for his beer

By Stephen Mansfield

W

hat comes to mind when you think of the name “Guinness”? Is it the wildly popular beer, the one that sells more than 10 million pints every day? Is it the clever and “Brilliant!” advertising? Is it the famous book of world records, the publication that has launched a billion bets and contests?

All of these probably come to mind, but there is far more to this story than popular beer and good advertising. The origins of the Guinness brand is a tale largely forgotten, buried beneath two centuries of history we do not know ... and beneath a Christian discomfort with alcohol. It is also buried beneath a bias about what a corporation can be, under a belief that businesses merely exploit and that only individuals can do meaningful good in the world.

Picture a young man sitting in a large cathedral in Ireland with his wife and small children. He lives around the time of our founding fathers and is a rising entrepreneur in Dublin. His name is Arthur Guinness, and he is where the story begins.

Guinness was born in a small village just outside of Dublin, but has come to the big city to make his mark with a trade he does well.

He is a brewer, and it is hard to exaggerate just how important beer was to the people of Guinness’ day.

Guinness lived at a time when no one understood micro-organisms and how disease is spread. They routinely drank from the same waters in which they dumped their garbage and their sewage. Unknowingly, they polluted the rivers and lakes around their cities. People died as a result, and this made nearly everyone in Guinness’ day avoid water entirely. Instead, they drank alcoholic beverages.

Usually, this was done in moderation and all was well. Occasionally, though, excess set in and drunkenness plagued the land. This is what happened in the years just before Guinness was born, in the period historians call “The Gin Craze.”

Parliament had forbidden the importation of liquor in 1689, so the people of Ireland and Britain began making their own. It was too much temptation. Drunkenness became the rage. Every sixth house in England was a “gin house,” many of which advertised, “Drunk for one penny, dead drunk for two pence, clean straw for nothing.” It was a terrible, poverty-ridden, crime-infested time.

To help heal their tortured society, some turned to brewing beer. It was lower in alcohol, it was safe—the process of brewing and the alcohol that resulted killed the germs that made water dangerous—and it was nutritious in ways scientists are only now beginning to understand. Monks brewed it, evangelicals brewed it and aspiring young entrepreneurs like Guinness brewed it. And they were respected and honored for their good works.

So as Arthur Guinness sat in church on the day we are imagining, he was a successful brewer in Dublin, selling a drink throughout the city that made people healthier and helped them avoid the excesses of the hard liquor that had done so much damage for so many decades.

What makes this Sunday in Guinness’ life so important is who he is about to hear, because on this day John Wesley is in town. Wesley is the founder of the Methodist church, the man who started a small group at Oxford University from which a great revival grew. Wesley and his friends wanted simply to be good Christians—to “perfect holiness,” as they said—and so as they preached the Gospel, they gave to the poor and visited prisoners and raised money to serve the needy. Whole cities were changed by the preaching of John Wesley, his brother Charles and the famous George Whitefield. And now John Wesley had come to Dublin and was preaching at the soaring St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

And Arthur Guinness was there.

We do not know exactly what Wesley preached, but we can know a few things.

Wesley would have called the congregation at St. Patrick’s to God, of course, but he also would have had a special message for men like Guinness. It was something he

Guinness poured himself in founding the first Sunday schools in Ireland. He gave vast amounts of money to the poor, sat on the board of a hospital designed to serve the needy and bravely challenged the material excesses of his own social class.

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taught wherever he went. “Earn all you can.

Save all you can. Give all you can,” he would have insisted. “Your wealth is evidence of a calling from God, so use your abundance for the good of mankind.”

On this Sunday and on other occasions when he heard Wesley speak, Arthur Guinness got the message. He also got to work. Inspired

by Wesley’s charge, Guinness poured himself in founding the first Sunday schools in Ireland.

He gave vast amounts of money to the poor, sat on the board of a hospital designed to serve the needy and bravely challenged the material excesses of his own social class. He was nearly a one man army of reform.

If the Guinness story was only about Arthur Guinness, it would be a small footnote in the pages of history. But Arthur Guinness added to all his good works by teaching his children the values he learned. His children, then, built the Guinness corporation on the strength of their

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“Find out the will of God for your day and generation, and then, as quickly as possible, get into line.” —Prince Albert of England father’s vision and faith. This is what became the great legacy of the Guinness family.

The Guinnesses decided, first, that they could better society by bettering the lives of their employees. They started by paying better wages than any other employer in Ireland.

Then they decided they should provide an entire slate of services to improve the lives of their workers. With the passing of decades, they became one of the most generous, lifechanging employers the world had ever known.

Just consider what it might have been like if you had worked for Guinness in 1928. This was just one year before the Great Depression, not exactly a wonderful time for employee perks.

Yet, if you had worked for Guinness in those days, you would have enjoyed an array of services and benefits that almost exceed the way Microsoft and Google treat their workers today. You would have enjoyed around-theclock medical and dental care. Health workers would have visited your home regularly to see how they could help. There would have been clinics and physical therapy rooms and athletic facilities. Medicine would have been largely free, and there would have been massage therapy available for nearly every worker—in 1928, more than 80 years ago.

That’s not all. The Guinness board would have insisted upon paying the full amount of

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your pension, providing educational benefits for your family, funding a savings and loan so you could eventually own your own homes, and even paying funeral expenses when you or a family member died.

There would have been concerts and classes and sports of nearly every kind. Guinness also provided “Workmen’s Rooms” for you, which were lounges that allowed a hardworking man to read or just to think, to focus his mind on something beyond his labors. Sometimes the Guinness generosity seemed almost extreme.

Every year, Guinness would have paid you to take your family into the country for a day just to get out of the city and breathe clean air. The company would have paid for train fare, food and entertainment. If you were single, you were allowed to take a date and, again, the company paid the bill. And on every working day, you and every other Guinness worker would have been given two pints of beer, free of charge.

Just think about what this kind of care must have meant to the “common man.” A carpenter might be hired to make barrels for shipping Guinness beer. He would have come from a farm or a small village, and he would have been thrilled to get a job at the famous and generous Guinness brewery. He would marry and have children. During his years as a Guinness employee, he would be given professional training, encouraged to read and take classes, and he would be rewarded for his achievements.

His wife would also take classes in every kind of domestic skill and could even enter contests for cooking or singing or sewing. The carpenter would come to own his own home and would prosper enough to have something to pass to his heirs. His children would be offered jobs in the company. Their education would be paid for and, if they showed promise, special tutors might be hired so the children of laborers could end up at some of the finest schools in the land.

All of this was done through the benevolence of the Guinness family. They saw their company not just as a business, but as a vehicle for changing lives.

The Guinnesses also bettered society by responding generously to crises. During the Irish potato famine of the mid-1800s, for example—when thousands died and thousands more crowded into squalid Dublin neighborhoods—the Guinness family made such a difference that there are monuments to their goodness in Irish towns and villages to this day.

This eagerness to serve society in crisis continued for generations. During the Irish Civil War—the conflict we see in the film Michael Collins—it was first aid practices developed at the Guinness brewery that saved hundreds of lives. And the chief medical officer at Guinness, Dr. Lumsden, was so involved in helping the wounded that when

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he charged out onto a battlefield, both sides instantly stopped firing. This was the respect Ireland had for Guinness and its efforts to do good in the world.

When World War I broke out, Guinness promised every employee who shipped off to war that his job would be waiting for him when he returned. While the employee/soldier was away, Guinness paid his family half of the man’s salary until he returned. This became a model for other companies in Europe and kept thousands from poverty during the war years.

At the start of World War II, Guinness promised every British soldier he would have a bottle of Guinness with his Christmas meal. There was a problem, though. Guinness’ manpower was depleted because so many of

Cathedral, believing that it was an offering both to Arthur Guinness, his ancestor, and to the glory of God’s work in Ireland. And at a time when corporations squeezed the life out of their workers and treated them poorly, one Guinness heir, the wealthiest man in Ireland, proclaimed publicly, “You cannot make money from people unless you are willing for people to make money from you.” It was a maxim that began to transform corporate culture and that ennobled society as a result.

Perhaps, though, the greatest lesson to be learned from the Guinness tale of faith is found in a truth that one of the great Guinnesses borrowed from Prince Albert of England. “Gentleman,” he instructed, “find out the will of God for your day and generation,

its workers were serving in the military abroad.

Still, they were committed to giving the men and women in uniform a taste of home. The brewery operated around the clock, but there simply weren’t enough employees. Soon, though, retired workers showed up to volunteer their time. Then workers from competing breweries were sent to help. By Christmas, every soldier had his pint, but not until the unselfish efforts of the brewers of Ireland were celebrated throughout the British Isles.

Deeds like these fill the Guinness story and are almost as inspiring as the character of some of the Guinness family members themselves. One Guinness heir received 5 million pounds sterling for a wedding gift, but then moved his new bride into a poor neighborhood to draw attention to the blight of poverty in the land. Another Guinness used his own wealth to rebuild St. Patrick’s

and then, as quickly as possible, get into line.”

This is what Arthur Guinness did when he claimed the highest purpose for his wealth and his beer. It is what Guinness heirs did as they built on their legacy of good and achieved astonishing prosperity through their craft while also doing massive good through their generosity. And it is what is possible today for those who are willing to go outside the four walls of the church and apply a fiery Christian faith to the needs of their times.

The Guinness tale is not primarily about beer.

It is not even primarily about the Guinnesses.

It is about what God can do with a person who is willing and with a corporation committed to something noble and good in the world. A STEPHEN MANSFIELD is a historian and author.

His most recent book is Searching for God and Guinness (Thomas Nelson).

get defensive

There’s every reason to stand up for your faith if you know why it’s true.

Once you’ve spent time with the Apologetics Study Bible for Students, you’ll find yourself better equipped to answer critics of Christianity and advocate the truth in an ungodly culture.

Learn more at ApologeticsBible.com.

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BY BONNIE McMAKEN

76 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

Birth control is a matter of life and death.

So why aren’t we talking about it more?

W

e were newly engaged and overwhelmed by details: the dress, the guest list, the family tension, and ... the honeymoon. The honeymoon meant sex. And sex meant babies. And babies, in my neurotic mind, meant the dead-end to my career, financial instability and the stigma of being “that couple,” those crazy people who get pregnant immediately after their wedding.

So I did the only logical thing to address those fears, the thing everyone did: I went on the Pill. Sure, I talked it over with my then-fiancé, but was there really a choice?

It was practical. Responsible even. It wasn’t time. We weren’t ready. We wanted to enjoy one another, figure each other out before we added a child to the mix. We had our fancy hormonal insurance and, even if we didn’t fully understand our decision, we were set.

I know there a lot of couples like us: Christian couples who—in their mission to abstain from sex before marriage—never truly weigh the seriousness of birth control.

“Many Christians haven’t even thought about [birth control],” says Johnmark Smith, a twentysomething from Wheaton, Ill. “The idea of praying about it doesn’t even compute.”

Most of us simply choose the easiest option or the familiar one—the one our friends chose.

And aside from swallowing that little pill every day, opening that annoying little square package or inserting that ring, we forget about it. But birth control matters more than we think.

It matters because our whole selves, including our bodies, matter to God. He proved that matter matters by entering our shattered, messy and tangible world as a human. This was a precarious endeavor, one that ultimately led to Jesus’ death, communicating His care not just for our souls and hearts, but for our bodies.

Birth control also matters because in giving meaning to the physical, God intentionally created us male and female (Genesis 1:26-28).

Our bodies, no matter how flawed, reflect God because He made us in His own image. The physical mirrors the eternal.

Our gender isn’t an accident, and these bodies aren’t merely a shell housing our

immortal souls. The particularities of the tangible point us to something greater.

This is especially true of marital sexuality and childbearing: The Bible is bursting with such imagery because marriage (and sex and children) is a powerful picture of how God relates to His people, whether it’s the Israelites (Hosea), all creation (Romans 8:2223) or us as the Church (Ephesians 5).

Because sexuality is at the heart of who we are as humans, what we do with or put into our bodies shouldn’t be an afterthought—like it was for me when faced with the issue of birth control. This decision carries weight, and in the same way our bodies mirror the intangible, these choices are rooted in a deeper reality.

Our assumptions about contraception—even our ignorance or apathy of the subject—will inform what we choose and why.

So how do we decide when there are many effective options? And is any one method better or “holier” than another? Deuteronomy 30:19 tells us we should “choose life,” which is essentially choosing the life God offers. Saying “yes” to life is saying “yes” to God, for He is life (John 14:6, TNIV). I don’t think the logic behind this passage says we should be bad stewards of our bodies and our resources, or that we should throw caution to the wind when it comes to getting pregnant.

However, we must also give credence to the remarkable capability we’re given when we enter marriage to create life. Sex was designed for pleasure and procreation. The Church has done a pretty good job of downplaying the pleasure part, but our culture often misses the other crucial half.

“I think if more married couples really understood that sex equals children, many marriages would be in better shape,” says Janna Williamson, a mother of three.

There’s a subtle lie we’re told about children: they’re a burden, they disappoint you, their presence should be avoided as long as possible. In her book Real Sex, Lauren Winner writes: “When the ads promise that you can separate sex from procreation, they are telling something close to the truth, technologically.

The problem is, they aren’t telling the truth theologically.”

This is a modern concept. “Birth control” used to be a laughable and irrelevant phrase, unless you count some nifty and not surprisingly ineffective makeshift linen condoms. Birth, like death, was not something we were able to

We must give credence to the remarkable capability we’re given when we enter marriage to create life.

Sex was designed for pleasure and procreation. control; it was—barring health complications— part of the natural rhythm of marriage.

Perspectives on contraception shifted about 50 years ago with the invention of a contraceptive pill. The Pill was intended to liberate women from the “oppression” of unwanted pregnancies. Women could now wriggle their way out from under the tyranny of man’s sexual dominance and enjoy the same career opportunities or sexual promiscuity as their male counterparts.

The Pill has a much broader appeal today.

A lot of married couples use hormonal birth control and prefer it to condoms. These women, as monogamous Christians, don’t take it to enjoy multiple partners without consequences. They just don’t want to get pregnant right now.

Some Christians are concerned about the

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abortive effects of certain types of the Pill.

While we obviously need to do our research and avoid these methods, we tend to get stuck here, neglecting the other pieces of the puzzle.

A friend of mine described it as looking into a very bright light. That light blocks out all the surrounding questions that, while maybe not as important, still hold value.

For example, when I was on the Pill, I wasn’t worried about accidentally aborting a baby. I knew the method I chose was safe. But there was something else percolating in my heart: I didn’t feel empowered like I thought I would or should. Actually, in a weird way, I felt like less of a woman. I knew the hormones were cloaking a deeply feminine part of me. I didn’t feel empowered; I felt oppressed.

This issue, among other questions related to birth control, plagued me during my first year of marriage. In general, my husband and I were asking ourselves, How do we respect our bodies and the God-given purposes of sex while making wise decisions about contraception and our future? And how do we live lives of accepting what God will give us, even if it’s scary?

Ultimately, my initial decision was based on fear. I wasn’t choosing life. And this wasn’t because I was on the Pill. It ran deeper than

Regardless of our method of birth control, are we open to life in our hearts? the practice. It was a nasty, tangled root God needed to unearth in me. I don’t think I was ever hostile toward life, but I also wasn’t open to the possibility. I couldn’t trust God to care for me.

Putting ourselves into God’s hands is frightening; it is a fragile place to be, but it’s often where we experience profound freedom.

And under this umbrella of freedom, and openness to life, and a biblical understanding of sexuality, Christians can and will vary in their opinions on birth control.

My husband and I decided to abandon the Pill for Natural Family Planning (NFP). I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t that the Rhythm Method that all those Catholics use and then have, like, 12 kids? NFP is based on the time of ovulation, but it’s not guesswork like the Rhythm Method. There are three scientific indicators of ovulation, the primary one being a rise in the woman’s temperature, which is taken orally each morning. During the woman’s fertile period, the couple will either abstain (true NFP), or use condoms, which is part of the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM), an NFP variation.

78 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

Until my husband and I started researching, I didn’t know that NFP was a viable option.

There are a lot of benefits to this method: I get to know my body’s rhythms, there is a new freedom and intimacy in my marriage, it’s cheap, and it’s even eco-friendly! And contrary to popular belief, when practiced correctly, it’s actually 98 percent effective.

I know NFP is not the right choice for everyone. It’s a lot of work and takes intentionality. There are many complex reasons for why people choose the birth control method they do, and some of these reasons lend themselves to particular approaches. Many women, married and unmarried, are on the Pill for medical reasons.

Some, because of abuse or mental illness in their family background, have chosen not to have children. Some couples choose a particular method only for a season. Many simply want to wait until they are financially prepared to support a child.

If a couple has truly thought through the issues, Christians can fall anywhere on a wide spectrum with their decisions. Here are some things we should ask ourselves when choosing a method of birth control: Are we choosing this out of fear? Are there any hormonal side effects, and are we willing to live with them?

Is the particular method in line with what it means to be women and men formed in God’s image? Does the method draw us closer or drive a wedge between us, physically or emotionally? Can we use this method and still be open to life if God gives it?

Another important thing to consider is whether or not the method we choose allows husband and wife to share the birth control load. Because women can get pregnant, they are often the sole thinkers on the subject. Yes, it’s the “woman’s body” in the secular sense,

but the very act of sex is a joining of bodies.

We care for not just our own bodies, but also each other’s.

Choosing birth control is sometimes difficult, but maybe it should be until God gives us peace. We should wrestle with issues of our sexuality, life, gender and marriage.

Ultimately, like Jesus’ mother, Mary, our attitudes should be one of acceptance because God is the sovereign one, the giver of all life.

God works around and despite our best-laid plans. Never was this as poignant for me than when I miscarried two years ago. The pain my husband and I experienced was profound, but we were almost more affected by our lack of control. This was happening to me, inside me.

My body was going against my will, and I could not change its disastrous course. Acceptance was undeniable because in this raw place, it was all I had.

And just like He took that tiny life from my womb, God gave us another. We were ready, our love conceived her, we accepted this gift, but we also knew that life never really belongs to us. We hold this little life loosely in our outstretched palms, trusting the Savior who gives and takes, the God who is always in control.

I’m now sitting in my living room with a 10-month-old baby girl chattering in her walker next to me. It isn’t the most productive writing environment—I have to take breaks every so often to feed her, change her diaper and play with her. Caring for this tiny life isn’t necessarily convenient or easy, but it is always a gift.

Regardless of our method of birth control, are we open to life in our hearts?

The possibility might always scare us, but maybe that’s a good thing. Life is a dangerous, mysterious, wonderful thing—kind of like the God who gives it. a

R E M E M B E RIN G

communion

What “Drink My Blood, Eat My Flesh” Really Means

by Jason Boyett

80 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

The saints have ruined me. I wrote a book about them last year, and now I can’t stop thinking about them. We’re observing Communion at my church, and I should be focused on Jesus. It’s the season of Lent, after all, and Easter is on the horizon. But no, I’m fixated instead on a woman. It’s St. Catherine of Siena. She’s distracting me. I can’t get her out of my mind.

St. Catherine was a mystic who lived in the 14th Century. She’s notable for a lot of really weird things—I could make a list—but one of them was for adopting the holiest diet ever.

She went long periods of time wherein she ingested nothing but the sacraments. The only food she ate was the consecrated Communion host. Her only drink was Eucharistic wine. I guess it was spiritually beneficial, but it might also explain why St. Catherine died when she was only 33.

There are other hard-to-believe Communion stories about the saints. St. Francis Xavier was known to levitate occasionally while distributing Communion, and St. Stephen of Mar Saba once saw a bright light emanate from his body upon taking the elements. St. Clare is said to have repelled a military attack on the gates of her convent by brandishing a Communion wafer at the soldiers. Padre Pio, the famed 20th century Italian saint, showed visible signs of the stigmata—bleeding wounds in the hands and feet, like those of Christ—and always said the pain became excruciatingly worse during Mass.

And St. Anthony of Padua once displayed the consecrated host to a mule. It (allegedly) caused the animal to bow in reverence and reject the hay it had been munching on so contentedly only moments before.

It’s easy to explain why these stories have gotten lodged in my Communion-taking consciousness. They’re fascinating and funny.

St. Anthony’s mule story seems no different from a tall tale, like the legend of Paul Bunyon and his great blue ox, Babe. The idea of taking Communion and seeing a spotlight beam out of your chest? Floating up in the air as you’re trying to pass the chalice? Just picturing these scenarios makes me smile.

But St. Catherine? Padre Pio? Those stories are different. They make less sense to me.

Nevertheless, I’ve always been enthralled by the lives of the Catholic saints. Many of the saints were recognized as such because they were martyred (like St. Stephen) or highly

influential (like St. Francis). But some of them attained sainthood due to an extreme level of holiness—or, at least, extremely holy-sounding stories—and these are the saints I struggle to identify with. Particularly when the holiness is attached to Communion.

See, I grew up Southern Baptist, and in our tradition, Communion isn’t such a big deal.

You won’t find any Baptists who will admit we don’t take Communion seriously, but actions speak louder than words: We only observed it quarterly during my childhood. I remember being told the Lord’s Supper wasn’t anything magical, but just a way to remember Jesus. St. Catherine would’ve had a horrible time being Baptist. She’d have died of malnutrition long before her 30s.

It just so happens the approach to Communion is one of the major sources of division between Catholics and Protestants, especially “low-church” evangelical Protestant traditions like mine. When it comes to Communion, though, I wonder: In our attempts to reform Catholicism—starting with Luther and evolving into what we have today—have we thrown the proverbial baby out with the bath water? In de-emphasizing Communion, might we be possibly missing out on something central to our faith?

Those are questions worth asking. So I did.

Source and summit In my home church, I can assure you supernatural body lights, bleeding wounds or feats of levitation rarely occurred during Communion. When you observe the Lord’s Supper once every three months, the odds of something crazy happening are pretty low.

That’s what makes St. Catherine’s Communion obsession (among others’) so hard to understand. She was serious about the bread and wine. Then again, so is her tradition.

The Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church both teach Communion is a sacrament; during Mass, the common elements of bread and wine change, miraculously, into the actual body and blood of Christ. This is known as the “Real Presence” in the Eucharist. Though many denominations still observe Communion weekly, most Protestants deny this transformation, to varying degrees. At one end of the spectrum are those denominations that believe Christ is present spiritually in the bread and wine, not physically. At the other end are those, including Baptists, who view

Communion as merely a symbolic memorial of the Last Supper.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the Eucharist as “the source and summit of the Christian life.” That’s the kind of statement that gives pause to evangelicals like me. Isn’t that a little over-the-top? Shouldn’t the “source and summit” of our faith be, I don’t know, Jesus?

Precisely, says Fr. Robert A. Busch, Ph.D., a Roman Catholic priest and assistant professor of theology at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla. (He’s also a friend of mine.)

“Think about what’s going on every time Christians celebrate the Eucharist,” he says.

“The Eucharist is about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s about God reaching out to us with amazing grace. It’s about the Word become flesh and dwelling among us.

The whole Christian faith is contained in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.”

No argument there. But there’s still the issue of what, exactly, is contained in the elements of Communion. As in: Is it supposed to really, physically be Jesus?

In de-emphasizing Communion, might we possibly be missing out on something central to our faith?

Supernatural Amy Welborn believes so, and this is a source of comfort to her. Welborn is a Catholic blogger and the author of 18 books, including The Words We Pray: Discovering the Richness of Traditional Catholic Prayers. She finds the concept of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist to be reassuring. “I don’t have to wonder or search any more,” she says, citing Christ’s words in John 6 about His flesh as food and blood as drink. “His presence is not dependent on the giftedness of the preacher or the attractiveness of the church or the music or even my mood on any given day. He is there, He is feeding me, He comes to dwell in me, mysteriously, just as He promised.”

In the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus said

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 81

this: “ Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ... For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them” (John 6:53-56, TNIV).

These mysterious proclamations disturbed enough of Christ’s disciples that they left Him when He said it, according to John 6:66. They walked away. It’s odd, Catholics might say, that Jesus would let them go because they didn’t understand an upsetting metaphor. He didn’t call out: “Hang on, fellas! Come back! It was just symbolism. And, anyway, I only want you to do it every three months!”

No. Jesus let them leave, without explanation and without defending His words.

He left open the interpretation His disciples understood: that somehow His flesh and blood really was food and drink. “Christians, from antiquity, have taken Jesus’ words [in John 6] quite seriously,” Welborn says, listing the

our continued transformation into His image, going beyond memory and fond feelings to a real, mystical encounter with Christ.”

For someone outside the Catholic faith, this description seems uncomfortably foreign.

Maybe a little superstitious. But let’s be honest: We evangelicals sing passionate songs about knowing Jesus in “a secret place,” and talk a lot about “inviting Jesus into your heart,” and spend a lot of energy trying to figure out when the rapture might occur.

Catholics think we’re pretty weird, too.

Pascal’s Wager The case for regular Communion is an easy one to make, and as a Baptist I’m perfectly willing to admit that somewhere we’ve made a wrong turn. I understand the historical background behind a de-emphasis on Communion, but it’s such a central part of Christian worship—and it has been for two millennia—that moving it to the sidelines

“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ... For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” —Jesus (John 6:53-56) Catholic, Orthodox, and many Lutheran and Anglican traditions where Communion really is a way to “remain” in Christ. Which makes St. Catherine sound a bit less batty.

Lingering questions Is it possible Communion is more supernatural than we think? That possibility is what attracts Alan Creech to Roman Catholic worship. A former pastor, emerging church pioneer and prominent blogger, Creech has returned to the Catholic faith of his youth, where he’s inspired by “the possibility that God could be connecting with us in some kind of very real way, beyond just a ‘remembrance’ or a recalling of what He did 2,000 years ago.”

Creech packages that possibility in mystical terms. Through the Eucharist, Jesus Himself “may be reaching through the veil, as it were, and touching us in a way not fully perceivable with the human senses.” He says this makes Communion one of the means by which God makes us more like Jesus.

Taking the consecrated host and wine means “actually putting some of His grace in us for

82 / RELEVANT_MAR/APR 10

seems a gross overreaction. This is why these days, you’ll find more and more evangelical churches increasing the frequency of Communion rather than diminishing it.

But the Real Presence is still something I can’t quite take as an article of faith. Because that is exactly what is required to believe the wafer becomes Christ’s real body and the wine physically changes into His blood: it takes faith.

Faith that communion is a supernatural event, not just an event of remembering. Faith that Jesus wasn’t just talking in metaphor in John 6. And that kind of faith is difficult for me.

Still, I keep returning to Pascal’s Wager. It’s an idea the 17th century philosopher proposed as a reason to believe in God’s existence, and which contemporary Christian apologists still cite as a decent piece of logic.

It goes like this: It makes sense to live life under the probability that God exists. If we’re wrong, we don’t lose much because we’ve lived a full and moral life and have nothing to be ashamed of. If we’re right, we have everything to gain. Salvation. Heaven. The presence of God. But if we live life under the

assumption God does not exist—and end up being wrong about that—then we’ve made a tragic mistake. We lose everything.

What if you applied Pascal’s Wager to the question of the Real Presence in the Eucharist? If we take it believing Jesus really is present in the consecrated host and the Communion wine, then the best-case scenario is that we’re right, and we should be commended for treating it as a deeply sacred, serious event. Worst case? We’ve observed an event of remembrance and symbolism—an event which points to the life and resurrection of Jesus—only we’ve done so with a slight misunderstanding of what it means. Still, not a huge loss.

But if we bet against the Real Presence and it turns out we’re wrong? Yikes. We’ve made a big mistake. We’ve marginalized something essential to the practice of Christianity.

“I think it’s precisely because the Eucharist is the most intense crystallization of all the aspects of our Christian faith that disciples of Christ have made it the centerpiece of their gatherings for just about as long as Christianity has been around,” Busch says.

Creech adds: “The Eucharist isn’t seen in the Catholic tradition as the only way we are able to encounter or come into union with Christ, but it has always been very central.”

If Jesus really is present, clearly the Eucharist should be emphasized to the point of obsession. Catholics are right to structure their worship around it, and lowchurch Protestants like me are missing out on something big. It’s Jesus, after all. Why shouldn’t strange and mystical things like light emission and levitation happen upon ingesting the elements? In fact, why don’t we see more levitation?

But even if it’s only symbolic, that symbolism calls attention to so many aspects of our Christian faith. Inclusion at the table.

Salvation in and through Christ. The call to love and serve one another. Sacrifice, mercy and the presence of God. Why deemphasize something so holy, meaningful and fundamental?

I’m not about to go on a wafers-and-wine diet, but maybe the Communion obsessions of St. Catherine and the other saints aren’t as crazy as I thought. Who knows?

During this Lenten season—as we prepare to celebrate the first Communion—perhaps I’d do well to think of them more often. A Jason Boyett is the author of the Pocket Guide series of books, including Pocket Guide to Sainthood. His newest book, O Me of Little Faith: True Confessions of a Spiritual Weakling, releases from Zondervan in April.

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tones, hushed choruses, crescendoing

the click-clock of warped-up stringed

piano (especially on “Wayside”) and

instrument slithers in the mix. Beck

a more mainstream vibe (see the big

produced and wrote most of the songs,

chorus on “Walking in My Sleep”)

but this is his Sea Change mode where

elevate this sophomore release (four

the production is thin, sort of like

years after their first album) from

what Rick Rubin used to do to Johnny

just another side project by a well-

Cash. Gainsbourg? Cash? In the same

known knob-turner into an enjoyable

sentence? OK, we’re stretching.

and surprisingly joyous affair.

Number One Gun To the Secrets & Knowledge (Tooth & Nail)

Beach House teen dream (subpop)

four tet There is Love in You (Domino)

Waterdeep In the Middle of It (Hey Ruth, Inc.)

> What’s with bands recording in

> Surprising beats, drum patterns

> Waterdeep has been making music

> There’s nothing wrong with a little

converted churches? On Teen Dream,

that devolve into nothing, chimes

that doesn’t fit comfortably in the

passionate emo-rock from time to

Beach House does it in style, crafting

and fuzzblasts that echo an alien

realm of Christian rock for a long

time. No, we’re not talking about Fall

dreamy pop that wafts up into the

infestation: these are the hallmarks

time. And they like it that way (and so

Out Boy; we’re talking the hard-fought

balcony. Chris Coady (TV on the Radio

of the new Four Tet, called There is

do we). In the Middle of It, their third

emo of Jimmy Eat World or Death Cab

and Yeah Yeah Yeahs) produced,

Love in You. On “Circling,” a cascading

album since restarting the Waterdeep

for Cutie. And that’s the mold Number

providing a distinct atmospheric charm

piano whispers in the hushed tones of

name in 2008, wears its classic

One Gun fits into. Their newest album

for this release, the band’s third. “Silver

Final Fantasy (the game, not the artist),

rock and experimental roots on its

layers guitars, passionate vocals and

Soul” starts with a watery trickle, sweet

as though something important was

sleeve, alternately channeling Dylan

hints of electronica to make a modern

chanting vocals and a droning guitar.

happening, building to a mesmerizing

(“Falling”), power-pop (“Gimme My

emo classic. “Noises” channels The

Fitting for the dream-pop genre, the lush

finale. “This Unfolds,” in brilliant Moby-

Walkman”) and mid-’90s electro-grrrl-

Postal Service, while “Forest” sounds

tones never really evolve—often, singer

derived fashion, sounds whole-earth

rock groups like The Cardigans and

like it could be on Jimmy Eat’s classic

Victoria Legrand repeats the same

analog—warmly inviting loops. The

Garbage (“Tools in the Garage”). Like

Clarity. The ballad “White Lies” is a sad

phrase over and over. On “Norway,”

brainchild (or brain waves?) of soloist

all of Waterdeep’s albums, the lyrics

tune about authenticity and the end of

the Baltimore natives channel The

Kieran Hebden, the happy electro

are terrific narratives, frequently

a relationship. In other words: it’s an

Knife with a sliver of The Twilight Sad.

chirps are like Owl City in space.

telling tales of the down-and-out, love, belief and heartbreak.

emo record. In this case, that’s good.

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RECOMMENDS

music///

The Welcome Wagon

Purity of the Heart Is to Will One Thing (EP) (Asthmatic Kitty)

> If you’re a fan of Welcome to The Welcome Wagon, you know what to expect from this four-song EP. But a lack of surprises isn’t a bad thing, especially when the music is so good and charmingly ramshackle. Opener “Oh Christ, Our Hope” (a seventh- or eighthcentury Latin hymn) is riskier than just about anything on Welcome, with discordant guitar (likely courtesy of Sufjan Stevens, who loves musical discord these days) and brass interludes. “I’m Not Skilled to Understand” talks about needing the love of Christ even when it’s impossible to understand what God’s doing, all backed by a banjo and an upbeat band. “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” puts the classic Puritan hymn in a simple setting, sounding like a casual hymnsing among friends. Finally, “Up on a Mountain,” the opener from Welcome, is here in demo form, stripping away the production and leaving behind a contemplative hymn. The album is so sneakily simple, so understated, you might find yourself wondering why

Midlake The Courage of Others (Bella Union)

Yeasayer Odd Blood (secretly canadian)

> Midlake is a strange mixture of

> Skip the first track on Yeasayer’s

neo-folk, slowcore alternative rock

Odd Blood sophomore release and

and Jethro Tull. On their latest, Tim

come back to it. On the second song,

Smith—the main figure in the band

“Ambling Alp,” the experimental psych-

who sings lead—almost goes full-on

rock band (Animal Collective with

British folk circa 1971, especially on

more pop sensibilities) is not adverse

“Winter Dies,” a song about changing

to stopping cold and inserting druggy

ways and forest creatures in the dark.

Muppet characters singing in a choir,

What holds it all together is this sense

but the rhythms and positive lyrics are

of collusion: The music is never quite

great. On “I Remember,” the soaring

elitist or precious, nudging into Elbow

synth and whoa-oh chorus are equally

and King Crimson territory without

uplifting. “Rome,” which sounds like

the extreme haughtiness. “Fortune,”

Richard Marx got lost on his way

the best song, fingerpicks like some

to a Boards of Canada recording

long-lost Simon and Garfunkel relic

session, mashes and meanders.

amid the languorous, sapid harmonies.

Yeasayer brilliantly pieces together strange loops and pop choruses.

Cookbook & Uno Mas C&U Music Factory (Audio sketchbook/ end of earth records)

Cold War Kids Behave Yourself EP (Downtown Records)

> Surfer Blood has been crowned the

The Michael Gungor Band Beautiful Things (Brash Music)

hipster “it-band” of 2010. And it’s hard

> Don’t write Michael Gungor off

> This is the third full-length album from

a while, Cold Wars Kids cooked up just

to disagree with anything about Astro

as a mollifying worship artist, Dave

the duo of LA Symphony-ers, and if

three proper songs for Behave Yourself,

Coast—apart from the timing. These

Matthews soundalike or accomplished

you’re familiar with Symphony’s sound

each stripped to the core elements of

lads from southern Florida have made

guitar aficionado. In some ways, he

(or with West Coast alternative hip-hop),

good songwriting and their penchant

the perfect summer album. In January.

is all three and more. On Beautiful

you’ll know what to expect here. Many

for ripe piano rock balladry, plus a

But it’s so good, it doesn’t matter. Lead

Things, the raging up-tempo rock

of the sounds recall Blackalicious—the

re-recording of the song “Sermons”

single “Swim” recalls both Weezer and

firesparks and uplifts, then calms

samples are funky, but take unexpected

and a bonus track that lasts only

The Beach Boys in its buoyant grasp of

down into a John Vanderslice-style

turns into rock (see “Just Us”). Other

38 seconds. “Audience,” which was

melody and reverb. “Harmonix” sounds

folk song. A few of the choruses find a

tracks hearken back to Native Tongues

recorded before their last full release,

like The Shins discovered the distortion

Bebo Norman groove, which is a good

tracks (you’ll have a heard time not

hammers along like Panic at the Disco

pedal, while “Catholic Pagan” has such

thing. Partly inspired by Gungor’s

hearing Black Star on “Rock ‘n’ Roll”).

meets The Fray, and “Coffee Spoon”

ridiculous hooks it’s almost unfair. The

involvement with Mocha Club, an online

But don’t think these two MCs are stuck

has some exceptionally well-crafted

album might have come out in winter,

community funding development

in the past; “L.A. Times (Remix)” could

guitar work—a song that hinges on the

but we have a feeling we’ll be listening

projects in Africa, Beautiful Things

pass for a minimalist Cool Kids track. All

fact that a really good melody and a

through the summer and beyond.

reflects the spiritual journey that

in all, it’s yet another strong effort from

Fender Strat are a heavenly match.

happens during such efforts.

a group who deserves more acclaim.

Surfer Blood Astro Coast (Kanine)

> One of the best EPs we’ve heard in

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RECOMMENDS

dvds/// DVDS/// PRECIOUS THE HURT (Lionsgate) LOCKER

(FIrsT LIGhT prOduCTIOn) Vastly and carrying second childBreak) at the far-too> In>The Hurtoverweight Locker, director kathrynher bigelow (Point has young age of 16, the Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) isof anthe African-American crafted perhaps best cinematic treatment current Iraq War. girl livingwith in the Bronx.action, Her mother (Mo’Nique) is verbally, Fraught nonstop white-knuckled suspense andemotionally gripping and physically father is only in mere the picture enough to human drama, abusive.

The HurtHer Locker transcends polemics to present over andofrape her, frailty which and led to her firstset child being baghdad, born with acome tragic vision human violence. in 2004 Down syndrome, Precious utterly of properofprenatal the film traces theand war’s descent into aunaware hellish quagmire roadside care orand evenfaceless a delivery date for her second.

Thea only thing that brings bombs insurgents.

Locker follows trio of american her any sense of in joydelta is her imagination, which Precious uses to block army specialists Company, charged with the harrowing task outlocating horrificand moments of the past and present withthe visions of herself of defusing these hidden explosives: levelheaded sgt. on red carpets and other glamorous situations.unnerved But whenspecialist a school J.T. sanborn (anthony Mackie), the chronically officialeldridge steps in(brian and orders her toand go staff to an sgt. alternative Owen Geraghty) Williamschool Jamesfor (Jeremy troubled ayoung women, a concerned teacherand (Paula social renner), riotous cross between MacGyver MadPatton), Max. The film worker (Mariah and a male postnatal nurse (Lenny flits from sniperCarey) standoff toeventually bomb crisis and back, with the trio’s Kravitz)frayed discover the extentthe of odds Precious’ problems and help her nerves to breaking, of survival seemingly plummeting take every the drastic actions to save her life.

This is only with moment, andneeded overhanging every scene—the faintdirector pallor Lee film, his command incredibly difficult Daniels’ second of gruesome death. as thebut tension mounts,of the viewer cannot resist dark existential subject matter is masterful. stunning Starring aand certain solidarity with these men: the as they sweatSidibe, and Preciousover is anaunforgettable that’s not easily tremble ticking bomb, experience he sweats and shakes on hisshaken. couch, and

A SERIOUS MAN UP (Focus Features) (dIsneY/pIXar) A Serious Manfrom is a dark > UP, the latest pixar,comedy followsin the adventure vein of the of Old Testament Job, set 78-year-old, in a MidwesternCarl Jewish community curmudgeonly Fredricksen (ed in 1967. an Anyone who grew up in a asner), indomitable Wilderness middle-class, religiousand subculture scout named russell, a host of will beunlikely drawn into this film for its other companions, including yetand accurate depiction ahumorous talking dog a colorful giant of small-town religious moa. as Carl and rusty sincerity, fly to a south through nebbish hero Gopnik american paradise in aLarry rickety house (Michael Stuhlbarg).

It’s a captivating suspended from thousands of helium story on the risk the of helping balloons, theuncertain film explores grief others.

The Coens make some room that follows death and divorce, the for a spiritual of sorts,and a patient surprising joysquest of friendship our study of life events and ability torandom begin anew when all seems theirFun, connection to transcendent lost. but rarely silly; sad, but purpose.

A Serious Man will provoke not gloomy; and touching without discussion—especially if you like melodrama, UP continues pixar’s mixing of dark comedy and religion. legacy films that appeal to all ages.

feels that their race for survival has in some sense become his own.

WHERE THE DISTRICT 9 WILD THINGS ARE (keY CreaTIVes) (Warner Bros.) like The > District 9 is something > Based on thethe book byLagoon Mauricemeets Creature from Black Whereblending the Wildcultural Things critique Are Sendak, Hotel Rwanda, is about a boy who realizes he can’t with ‘50s-style monster drama.

Made control the things he wants to. Dressed on a shoestring budget by a team in his wolf suit andafricans, running District into the of unknown south forest, Maxa(Max Records) escapes 9 presents documentary-style into his imagination, where his allegory of racism, apartheid anddarkest social fears and strongest emotions unrest.

When a spaceship stalls are over personified byand huge, scary about monsters.

Johannesburg unloads a In Spikealien Jonze’s capable and million refugees, are hands we to fear the magic pen ofthey Dave Eggers, the them, or should fear us? The story is all heart and subtle pathos, government corrals the “prawns” (the reflecting on the conflicting, terrifying human epithet applied to them) into a and completely non-understandable slum, and instigates a controlled human/ emotions of beingfor a child.

The20 years. alien segregation the next soundtrack is also worth mentioning, The movie explores what occurs when performed

by KarenaOwitches’ and thebrew Kids.of the system becomes greed, courage and charity.

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ZOMBIELAND (Columbia)

THE INFORMANT! (Warner Bros.)

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY (Overture Films)

SUMMER HOURS (Criterion Collection)

> In the course of just two months,

> The Informant! is a wild ride

> Michael Moore’s latest work

> Olivier Assayas’ widely acclaimed

a mysterious plague has seemingly

through the psyche of Mark Whitacre

serves up big laughs and even bigger

Summer Hours is a slow, delicate,

wiped out all but four normal

(Matt Damon), a biochemist who

discussions with its harrowing vision

nuanced film about the beauty and

Americans—who must team up if

makes lysine, a corn byproduct in

of just how far off the rails our

meaning of aesthetic objects. In other

they’re going to survive and make

practically everything we eat. A virus

present economic crisis has taken

words, it’s a French film. In all the best

it to a California amusement park,

in the proverbial petri dishes is ruining

the nation. The film has a mournful,

senses of the word. Hours raises profound

which, legend has it, is the last

the production quota at the plant,

yearning approach, mixing tragic tales

questions about why we treasure certain

zombie-free place in the nation. A

and Mark is tipped off by a Japanese

of foreclosed homeowners from the

things and what gives a vase or desk

big difference between Zombieland

competitor about a saboteur in the

heartland with Moore’s usual pranks

or painting “value.” But the film is also

and Hollywood’s typical horror fare is

ranks. With more and more people

(i.e., storming corporate headquarters

about life, and how the bric-a-brac of

that this one is played almost entirely

involved in the investigation, the

in search of their executives). Much

our everyday accumulations interacts

for laughs. Starring the unlikely

crimes become even harder to pin

of the documentary treads well-worn

with our own “being” in space and

wonder team of Woody Harrelson

down, as revelation upon revelation

ground, but the crack team of editors

time. It’s about the hours we spend

and Jesse Eisenberg as two random

leaves everyone with dropped

are sharper than ever, making the

with our families, running around on

survivors who specialize in entirely

jaw. The Informant! is gloriously

film well worth seeing and sure to

a summer evening in a forest or field,

different ways of killing the undead,

character-driven, and a must-see for

stir discussion—no matter what side

sipping wine or eating quiche, in houses

Zombieland is hilarious and disgusting

those who like good performances

of the political divide you’re on.

that have seen generations of love.

fun for those who can handle it.

and the psychology of personality.

Relevant 2_3.65 x 4.98

8/3/09

10:39 AM

Page 1

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BOOKS/// Too Much Happiness: Stories Alice Munro (Knopf)

> In “Fiction,” the second of 10 short stories collected in Alice Munro’s new book, Too Much Happiness, the narrator contemplates a book she is waiting in line to purchase. She looks at the cover: It is “a collection of short stories, not a novel. This in itself is a disappointment. It seems to diminish the book’s authority, making the author seem like somebody who is just hanging on to the gates of Literature, rather than safely settled inside.” Oh, Alice.

As the greatest contemporary practitioner of the short story, and with a lengthy list of awards to her name, Alice Munro has made a comfortable place for herself inside the gates of Literature. In Too Much Happiness, her 15th book of new stories, Munro continues to elevate the form. The stories in this book move at a stately, unwavering pace through plot turns that are unpredictable, yet upon reflection seem inevitable. But it is Munro’s ability to understand and describe the interior lives of her characters that is her greatest gift.

They are complex and beautifully wrought creations—particularly her women—inhabiting worlds as full as can be found in any novel.

Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays Zadie Smith (Penguin Press)

Eating Animals Jonathan Safran Foer (Little, Brown and Company)

> Zadie Smith has a new collection of

> In his first work of nonfiction,

essays at a bookstore near you. Best

Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran

known as the young and critically

Foer superbly articulates his journey

acclaimed novelist of White Teeth, The

to vegetarianism. Upon the birth

Autograph Man and, most recently,

of his first child, after a lifetime of

On Beauty, Smith has quietly become

being an occasional vegetarian, Foer

a brilliant and insightful essayist.

commits to investigating what exactly

Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays

most Americans eat. Eating Animals

collects her best work over the past

is the result of his research. It is at

four years—essays originally published

turns revolting and hilarious, but

in places such as The Guardian and

consistently personal and compelling.

The New York Review of Books. Her

Ultimately, Foer argues for more

piece on Franz Kafka is exceptionally

ethical food choices because “one

good, as is the final essay in the

of the greatest opportunities to live

book, a remembrance of the beautiful

our values—or betray them—lies in

and tragic David Foster Wallace.

the food we put on our plates.”

The Book of Basketball Bill Simmons (espn)

Rediscovering Values Jim Wallis (Howard Books)

> The last great shock of the

Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide?

Karen Spears Zacharias (Zondervan)

The Tyranny of E-mail John Freeman (Scribner)

> Many new books attempt to explain

> Thirty-five trillion emails were sent

publishing decade happened when The

> Karen Spears Zacharias traveled

the cause of the Great Recession and

worldwide in 2007. In The Tyranny

Book of Basketball, a 736-page tome

around the country asking people

how we can get back to business-as-

of E-mail: The Four-Thousand Year

dedicated to Boston homerdom, the

about two things you’re not supposed

usual. But Jim Wallis takes a different

Journey to Your Inbox, Jon Freeman,

secret to winning NBA championships

to discuss in polite company—God and

approach in Rediscovering Values:

editor of the literary magazine Granta,

(it’s not about basketball) and the

money. Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-

On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your

presents a brief history of written

‘80s film Teen Wolf, beat out Krakauer,

Wide?: ‘Cause I Need More Room for

Street. The economic crisis, he writes,

communication “from the reed stylus

Gladwell and the Dog Whisperer on the

my Plasma TV is an often funny, often

reflects an underlying spiritual crisis—

to silicon computer chip.” He also asks

bestseller’s list. Fans of the superstar

heart-rending, but always challenging

business-as-usual is not an option. He

tough questions about the ubiquity

sportswriter weren’t surprised.

account of that journey and the folks

urges Americans to see the recession

of email, fearing that the public

Simmons’ passion for the NBA bleeds

Zacharias met along the way: the

as an opportunity to re-examine

commons is being “shunted aside for

from every page (most notably when

ultra-rich evangelist, the redhead

conventional economic philosophy

its electronic simulacra.” Freeman

he establishes once-and-for-all that

dying of cancer, the man running a

(“Greed is good”) in light of the biblical

proposes a “Slow Communication

Bill Russell was better than Wilt

homeless ministry. It is an indictment

understanding of justice, family and

Movement” in which email is

Chamberlain), and even non-sports

of the prosperity gospel that’s

community. Readers may not agree

subordinated to more important

fans will find those 736 pages flying by

entangled with American Christianity,

with every point, but the book should

issues like natural limits, physical

as quickly as 736 pages possibly could.

as well as a story about God’s

start a conversation looking beyond

context and real-world relationships.

blessings beyond the pocketbook.

economic recovery to moral recovery.

“GOD KNOWS E X ACTLY WHAT THE BEST VERSION OF YOU LOOKS LIKE.” -john or tberg God made you to flourish. When you flourish, you become more you.

As you do, you get a glimpse for a moment why God made you.

Read The Me I Want To Be by JOHN ORTBERG and learn how to become the best version of yourself. For more info about The Me I Want to Be or the free monvee™ spiritual assessment, please visit www.TheMeIWantToBe.com. Available wherever books are sold.

Also available in Spanish.

CONTENTS ISSUE44 MAR_APR 2010 | RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

8 10 12 24 26 28

First Word Letters Slices The Pulse: An Ode to the Record Store Reject Apathy: We Can’t Forget The Drop

The Noisettes & The Gaslight Anthem

32 You Are Here Saving the world in your own backyard 36 She & Him

M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel on what it takes to be in harmony

40 On the Ground in Haiti

A Q&A with Steve Haas, the vice president of World Vision, U.S.

44 Denzel Washington How his beliefs drive his film career 46 Jack White

He’s played a lot of roles, but who is the real Jack White?

52 Knowing God’s Will What if we’re getting it wrong?

56 2010 New Music Guide

The good, the bad & the glo-fi

64 Everyday Justice

10 lifestyle choices that can help others

70 God and Guinness

How the faith of Arthur Guinness inspired the vision for his beer

76 A Bitter Pill

Birth control is a matter of life and death— so why aren’t we talking about it more?

80 Remembering Communion

What “drink my blood, eat my flesh” really means

88 Recommends THE SOUND OF SIGUR RÓS’

JÓNSI BIRGISSON

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WE’RE HOLDING KELSEY HOSTAGE. On a mission to help Americans fight indifference to injustice, Kelsey Timmerman, author of Where am I Wearing, has partnered with Life In Abundance to film a true documentary in Africa.

Help Kelsey and join with him in empowering communities in the slums of Kenya.

F O r m O r e I n F O r m AT I O n , p L e A s e v I s I T

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