RELEVANT 46 | July/August 2010

JOHN MARK McMILL AN

DOVES

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god. life. progressive culture.

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THE HOLD STE A DY

beyond blockbusters our summer movie guide

TALIB KWELI & HI-TEK’S

REFLECTION ETERNAL p. 54

ISSUE 46 | Jul_aug 2010 | $4.95

FUTURE OF F ORES T R Y

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

N.T. WRIGHT

on Living in the in-between p. 66

REAL CONNECTION DOESN’T JUST HAPPEN

Available May 24 Wherever Books Are Sold

GOD. LIFE. PROGRESSIVE CULTURE. RELEVANT magazine July/August 2010, Issue 46 Better than an episode of McGee and Me! Yeah, we went there.

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: Gregory A. Boyd, John Brandon, Julie Clawson, Steve Dobritch, Seth “tower” Hurd, Adam and Chrissy Jeske, David Johnson, Carl Kozlowski, Brett McCracken, Jessica Misener, John Pattison, Kevin Selders, Sara Sterley, Matthew Paul Turner, N.T. Wright Print Design Manager | Amy Duty > amy@relevantmediagroup.com Senior Marketing Designer | Jesse Penico > jesse@relevantmediagroup.com Junior Designer | Justin Mezzell > justinm@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Photographers: Brendon Beecy, Deirdre O’Callaghan, Peter Dawson, Michelle Garrels, Chris and Sarah Rhoads, Marlon Ross, Kyle Trafton, Gage Young Chief Innovation Officer | Chris Miyata > chris@relevantmediagroup.com 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 Advertising Associate | Jen Cook > jen@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 FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT Michael Romero (407) 660-1411 x 125

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CONTENTS ISSUE 46 JUL_AUG 2010 / RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

8 First Word 10 Letters 12 Slices 28 REJECT APATHY: Why Your Light Bulb Matters 30 WORLDVIEW: The Idolatry of Patriotism 32 The Drop Josh Garrels, Future of Forestry, Son Lux

38 Eugene Cho The One Day’s Wages co-founder has a radical vision to end poverty

40 John Mark McMillan Exploring a new language for worship

44 Is There Any Hope for Haiti Now? Six months after the earthquake, we look at what’s being done in Haiti and the plans for long-term recovery

58 The 100 Year Plan What a difference a century can make 60 Doves This hit U.K. band continues to reinvent itself.

62 The Day God Called Me to be The Christian Michael Jackson 66 Living in the In-Between N.T. Wright on navigating this life the right way 70 Beyond Blockbusters Our guide to the more thoughtful side of summer movie season

72 Crossing the Line When is it art and when is it just too far?

78 Recommends

REFLECTION ETERNAL

TALIB KWELI & HI-TEK

FIRST WORD

How We Can Help Haiti the Right Way > Cameron Strang

I

t was April when, in passing, I asked the head of a nonprofit that’s doing a lot of work in Haiti how things were going there.

The look on his face said everything.

He proceeded to tell me how the need in Haiti is still overwhelming, how not enough resources are getting in and how some NGOs are growing frustrated waiting on someone to take lead.

This is six months after the earthquake. I couldn’t believe it. What about the millions people texted to help the relief efforts? What about the billions pledged by USAID and the U.N.?

The media isn’t talking about Haiti anymore, so the perception is everything there is on the road to recovery. But if what he said about Haiti is true, someone should be talking about it. Three weeks later, Roxanne Wieman and I boarded a plane for the short two-hour trip. We had to see this for ourselves.

What we encountered was, in a word, unbelievable. The devastation was mindnumbing, the poverty more severe than anything we could’ve anticipated. The loss was palpable.

Haiti, right now, is in a holding pattern. As bad as it looks, all of the relief agencies say the crisis of the earthquake is largely under control. People are fed, sheltered (though, many, crudely) and getting back to life as normal.

The country just can’t move forward because there’s too much to do—and no plan. Centuries of mishandled (some have said corrupt) government have created a nation with no infrastructure, stripped natural resources, no public schools and no clear way to dig itself out.

And that was before a devastating earthquake wiped out the country’s capital, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing more than a million.

What you’d think is happening in Haiti right now is widespread clean-up and construction, right? It’s not. But ask any Haitian why not, and you’ll find it’s just not a top priority. Aside from the fact there is virtually no equipment to clear debris (let alone rebuild), the loss of jobs and

8 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

need for infrastructure is far more pressing.

Unfortunately, those are the types of needs that can’t be fixed quickly.

We landed in Port-au-Prince and spent most of a week canvassing as much of Haiti as we could. It was like drinking water from a firehose.

Roxanne went into Port-au-Prince and met with NGOs and government agencies about the work happening, asking hard questions and seeing up-close what’s going on. Her story is on page 44.

I spent more time in the rural areas. The devastation there is completely different than the city. It is strikingly desolate. What should be a lush tropical island (and is, on the Dominican Republic side) is nothing but bald, desert-like mountains. Decades of deforestation have wreaked havoc, and with strong rains much of the year, the soil—and hillsides—has literally washed away.

The lack of vegetation, which should absorb the rain, leads to constant flash flooding in the valleys—where the majority live. People regularly die because the floods are so violent. This is the biggest threat facing Haiti this summer, all the way to the tent cities in Port-au-Prince.

Why has Haiti been so deforested? By necessity. People there are very survivalminded. The main fuel used in the country is wood. There’s no land ownership like we know it, and no government oversight, so if cutting that tree down means your family can have a fire to cook dinner tonight, that’s what you do.

What it’s done, though, is left the country with little farmable land, no exports to speak of, and an economy where people can only grow enough to feed their families, and maybe eke out a few dollars a week.

Compounding this is the lack of an education system to break the cycle. There isn’t one public school in Haiti. If a child wants to be educated, he has to go to a church school where his parents pay tuition (which pays the teachers’ salaries). Since most families can’t regularly afford tuition, attendance is sporadic at best for the ones fortunate enough to go at all.

When asked what needs to be done to rebuild Haiti, virtually every leader we talked to echoed the same three things: Infrastructure (sanitation, water, food, power), jobs and education.

Education seems to be the least urgent in a time of crisis, but if Haiti is ever going to rebuild itself, educating the next generation is vital.

Many of the schools in Port-au-Prince crumbled, putting strain on the rural ones (many have seen their attendance double as families relocate from the city to rural villages).

And many of these rural school structures are damaged as well. The cinderblock walls may be still standing but look as though they could easily collapse. The thing is, children are meeting inside these schools every day.

Everyone wants to help Haiti. But the proud, resilient Haitian people don’t want handouts.

They just need an opportunity. One way we can help Haiti stand on its own is to ensure more kids are able to get an education by making sure they have buildings to meet in.

We want to help rebuild some of the damaged and collapsed schools we saw, and we need your help. We want to fund the rebuilding of three schools in particular, partnering with those churches to hire local workers who need jobs to do the labor.

The churches we’ve chosen to partner with have strong leadership and have been influential in their communities for quite some time. We know this because our friends at Convoy of Hope have been partnering with these schools for years, providing nutritious meals and clean water to the schoolchildren and their families.

Our goal is to raise the money to erect new, safe structures (roughly, $15,000 per school).

It’s very basic—block walls and a roof—but will provide a place for hundreds of kids to get an education. With your help, we know we can do this. Will you consider donating $10? All you have to do is visit RELEVANTmagazine.com/ HaitiSchools and every dime you give will go directly to the field.

Haiti has had an urgent crisis, and the world responded. We now need to look ahead and help Haiti in its long-term recovery. We feel helping kids get an education is a great place to start.

If Haiti is ever going to rebuild itself, educating the next generation is vital.

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

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

LETTERS Bear Grylls brings a more realistic view of God and creation than Avatar ever could [“Into the Wild,” May/June 10]. His practice of worshiping our Creator through creation was so inspiring to read. This adventurer is able to balance family life, his passions, fame and faith all with humility and a brave face.

—Cliff Thatcher / Aspen, CO just a bit below and you’ll find lots of hidden truth. In my opinion, Acuff’s way of looking at it the way he does with a funny twist is brilliant and totally refreshing.

—Anna-Maria Agostan / Waterloo, ON If iPhone is third and you have an app for that, and Android is second and you’re thinking of embarking on that, what’s the deal with No. 1 BlackBerry? No app for that?

—JOSHUA ORLICH / Columbus, GA The article by Pete Wilson, “Plan B or C or D or M” [May/June 10], seemed to be written for me. Are you guys stalking me? (Maybe Pete is.) I’m going through transition, and it’s turning out more challenging than I thought it would be this time around. God used the article to speak to my wife and me.

—randy bennett / Saint Joseph, MI I’m a little confused by your article on Jennifer Knapp [“The Return of Jennifer Knapp,” May/June 10]. The news of her coming out is everywhere in the national media. It doesn’t even come up in the discussion. ­—Tom Delk / Quakertown, PA Our print interview with Jennifer happened months before she announced the news of her sexuality in the media, and we regret that our story omitted that major issue. Candidly, our interviewer did give her the opportunity to discuss the rumors at the time, but she chose not to. After she made the announcement, we talked to her again at length, and ran that interview on our website. You can find it at RELEVANTmagazine.com/knapp. Our editors also discussed the interview in-depth on the April 30 RELEVANT Podcast. Check it out.

I really appreciated the Reject Apathy section [May/June 10]. Thank you for presenting all sides of social justice, rather than only focusing on whichever cause is trendiest at the moment. I’m more likely to take action when I’ve been educated about an issue.

—Shane Cohen / Baltimore, MD The surface of Jon Acuff’s work is hilarious [“Stuff Christians Like,” May/June 10], but dig

10 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

The long answer: Nope.

I agree with your article “Fatherless Day” [May/June 10]. It’s true that many of our problems today stem from “daddy issues.”

However, I’d be interested to see if the results are just as similar in homes that have a father, but perhaps one who is negligent or abusive.

—Jonathan Kristofferson / Brooklyn, NY I am a B&N Nook owner. While I know the iPad will likely take priority, is a Nook-compatible version of the magazine in the works, or at least planned? I’d likely subscribe to both digital and print if given the option.

—JOEY CRISTINA / Brooklyn, NY We’re working on getting our digital magazine in the Kindle and Nook stores, not to mention an enhanced iPad version coming late this year.

Adam and Chrissy Jeske’s article, “At the Root of It: Why Knowing What You Believe Matters” [May/June 10], was refreshing. Sometimes I can get so swept up in the mysteries of God I eventually become quiet about the essential truth claims of the Bible—most importantly, that all of us are sinners and Jesus died that we might be saved. If we aren’t clinging tightly to that doctrine first and foremost, what are we standing for?

—TRacy Spohn / Seattle, WA I am only in my mid-20s but as a manager in an office, I completely agreed with “A Career is Hard Work” [May/June 10]. Seeing interns and fresh-out-of-college new hires, egos need to be checked at the door. Without any real world experience, new people think the corporate

RELETWEETS If you didn’t know, we tweet every day at Twitter.com/RELEVANTmag. Here is some of the Twitter scuttlebutt about us, in 140 characters or less: Husband and I just read a sweet article in @RELEVANTmag about @BearGrylls. His joy is seriously contagious. I kinda want to climb a tree. —@mlizknight Just read article on Bear Grylls!

Thanks for giving us these great stories of faith in pop culture!

—@everchris New article by D. Kinnaman on The Lost Art of Career is chock-full of realistic, practical nuggets de wisdom re: Career! (duh) —@brettrwilkes Thank you for that Avett Brothers interview! I LOVE RELEVANT mag!

—@ambrosechick Just got May/June issue of @RELEVANTmag. Phenomenal cover to cover! Topics are right on the mark!

—@drobertson345 I’m disapointed in @RELEVANTmag for considering Colorado part of the Midwest on page 60! We are part of the West. You should be ashamed! ;) —@typopanther world is like Mad Men or Ugly Betty. Having a humble and persistent attitude will help you rise in your field faster than landing any deal or big project.

—Melissa Hearth / Miami, FL I’ve been browsing the latest issue online.

Thanks for making it available!

—REBECCA MAXWELL / Boise, ID We’ve found giving the magazine away online is a great way to pay our bills. Oh, wait ...

slices

Gratuitous explosions

a bi-montHly look at life, Faith & culture

Include monsters, tanks, or other hulking objects Cast Liam Neeson

Decrease bling No wincing

Support 'Merica

2.5 automatic weapons per action hero

0.5 plaid shirts per action hero Recruit new talent from the UFC, preferrably men called “Rampage”

Do not iron the wardrobe

Bonus points for knee pads

Make it gritty

Increase floating Add 3D in postproduction

The Anatomy of a Remake Many of this season's new movies are anything but

12 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

Make it “gritty” and “raw.” How does one amp up the appeal of an iconic tale like Robin Hood? Throw some dirt and glass in there, stomp it around in the mud, shout at your band of marauders and you’ve got a realistic Ridley Scott remake.

Get spooky. Taking a tip from Guy Ritchie’s brilliant Sherlock Holmes remake, The Last Airbender (based on a Nickelodeon program) is throwing in plenty of doses of the supernatural, in hopes that M. Night Shyamalan won’t be this movie’s only enemy.

Hire a Smith. Will Smith’s son Jaden stars in the new The Karate Kid, and his daughter,

Willow, appeared in I Am Legend (a remake of The Last Man on Earth). Basically, the star is breeding a troop of blockbuster stars your re-creation is incomplete without.

Add a new monster. (Or Liam Neeson.)

Clash of the Titans was a remake of mythical proportions before it added the Kraken.

Naturally, Neeson’s Zeus is triumphant. (The actor also stars in the big-screen adaptation of The A-Team. Our guess is, they win.)

When all else fails, make it in 3D. If your movie is no good, it can at least look cool. Plus, you’ll make an extra $3 or so off each ticket.

Piranha 3D, for the win!

relevantmagazine.com

This summer, Hollywood is taking a vacation from the original storyline and embracing the art of the remake. From ‘80s odes to bigscreen adaptations, studios are attempting to reimagine the classics (and not-so-classics).

Here are the proven formulas for making a hit movie the second (or third) time around.

Blow more stuff up. We pity the fool who can’t afford more pyro. Face it: The A-Team was pretty great, Nightmare on Elm Street was sufficiently terrifying and that alien from Predators has invaded before. So unless you’ve got 10 times the gore and pyro, your remake is going the way of Mr. T.

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[slices]

What really needs to happen is a mid-'90s alternative resurgence. You know you'd go to a festival with Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra and Everclear.

culture

5 The O.C. Supertones Has it been long enough that ska can be cool again? Apparently so, as the O.C. Supertones are back, horns in hand. No word on new music, but the reunited band is set to play multiple festivals. Which is great—it’ll be good to reclaim the term “skanking.”

Culture

6 Belle & Sebastian

Hey, 2010: 1998 Wants Its Music Back

Finally, the sad-sack kings and queens of Scottish twee-pop are reuniting to claim their rightful place in indie-dom. While they technically never broke up (they were on “hiatus”), they’re due to make a record this year and are curating a festival in Britain in late 2010.

This summer may as well be termed the “year of the reunion.” Sure, every summer has its share of re-formed groups hitting the festivals, but this year there are some heavy-hitters who’ve returned to the stage (if not the recording studio). Here are a few of the more notable ones coming along soon to a stage (or iTunes) near you:

1

3

4

7

Sunny Day Real Estate

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Sixpence None the Richer

PAVEMENT

This is cheating a little bit since they also reunited last summer, but we’re still happy the godfathers of emo are back together. The fact is, no one quite does soaring emotions like Jeremy Enigk when he’s with his bandmates.

These guys are as weird as the punctuation in their name, but they make epic, symphonic post-rock that is as inspiring and crushing as anything out there. It’s always good to have some thundering instrumental rock on the scene.

In a summer notable for its reunions from the heyday of CCM, Sixpence None the Richer are re-forming and releasing a new album. While it’s up in the air if this will be “thoughtful and melancholy” Sixpence or “we’re the soundtrack to Dawson’s Creek” Sixpence, it’s nice to see them back.

Fiercely indie before indie was a thing, Pavement made a career out of sloppy guitar work and darkly funny lyrics by Stephen Malkmus. When they announced a comeback tour, aging hipsters everywhere let out a collective gasp—and bought every ticket they could get their hands on.

2 Soundgarden

14 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

catch up on the classics Don’t be the only person who doesn’t know the words this summer: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Pavement

Superunknown Soundgarden

Diary Sunny Day Real Estate

If You’re Feeling Sinister Belle & Sebastian

Supertones Strike Back The O.C. Supertones

Sixpence None the Richer Sixpence None the Richer

relevantmagazine.com

Remember Audioslave? And how they were terrible? Well, apparently Chris Cornell finally realized it too and went back to the band that made him famous. Hilariously, the reunion was announced by a tweet that included the line, “Knights of the Soundtable ride again!” It remains to be seen if this will be a reunion with some good music or if it’s just a terrible cash-in.

Either way, “Black Hole Sun” is still awesome.

MATT PITT

DINO RIZZO

MATTHEW BARNETT

CHRIS HODGES

DAVID PERKINS

PHIL WICKHAM

JOHN LARSON

KARI JOBE

[slices]

How mean would it be if the symphony for dogs was just two hours of vacuum cleaner noises?

Q&A: Jesse Eisenberg

The indie star of Holy Rollers

By Carl Kozlowski Whether fighting rampaging zombies in Zombieland or teenage ennui in Adventureland, Jesse Eisenberg broke out big in 2009 as a young star with a unique mix of deadpan wit and emotional sincerity. In his new film, Holy Rollers, Eisenberg plays a neurotic Hasidic Jewish 20-year-old struggling to make his way out of his shell and onto a greater social scene by helping smuggle Ecstasy into America by the suitcase-load.

Eisenberg had such passion for Rollers, a small indie film, that he not only maintained his commitment to the role throughout its two years of fundraising but also helped its producers with casting choices and other key decisions. Not to mention, he had the experience of finally having his bar mitzvah at age 26 during the making of the film.

Culture Eisenberg as a Hasidic Jew in Holy Rollers

Q: A:

You’ve done indie and big-studio movies. How do you decide what films to work on?

It’s easy to tell on the first page if a film is taking its characters seriously, rather than as punchlines in and of themselves.

Stories are secondary to where the parts are.

“When we did the movie, I made rash commitments to get back into the fold, but the promise to practice didn’t carry over. There’s time to do it still.”

How did you get into acting?

I went to a performing arts high school, which was wonderful and was a collegelevel acting school. And I worked last year with the Atlantic Theater’s NYU program sitting in on classes. I got the training without having to do the very expensive acting classes working actors have to take.

How did you come across the script for Holy Rollers, and what about it appealed to you?

I got the script through a traditional way—one of the producers sent it to my agent.

Then it became non-traditional.

I really liked it and put extra effort in going to financing meetings, and bringing in other actors for roles.

I was involved for two years prior, trying to do research on the role and meeting the people depicted in the movie.

Your character is a Hasidic Jew. What was your upbringing like?

I was a Reformed Jew until I was 12, and at that point I was secular.

I [spent] time with the Chabad community in New York [for the film], and they asked [to throw] a bar mitzvah for me. My character would have been bar mitzvahed, so I did it. When we did the movie, I made rash commitments to get back into the fold, but the promise to practice didn’t carry over.

There’s time to do it still.

Did the bar mitzvah have an impact on you?

I would say mostly it helped me as an actor as opposed to in a spiritual way. It was an emotional scene every day.

We shot it in 19 days and it felt as though it was a week of shooting in a day. On some days you’re with both the long hair [Hasidic men grow long ringlets of hair] and the short hair from scene to scene, so [it was] hard to stay on the chronology. It was a fast-paced, emotionally driven shoot with limited resources.

But How Will Anyone Know If It’s Good?

16 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

not Reed was joking by releasing it), he’s made his mark in the “strange” category.

Well, it’s time to add another thing to the list.

Reed is collaborating with his wife, performance artist Laurie Anderson, on an event that is surely among the weirdest ever to be seen at Sydney, Australia’s famed Opera House. The two will

be performing a piece called Music for Dogs, a concert that will be performed entirely in a high-end frequency—a pitch inaudible to humans but fully audible to dogs.

Anderson said she has played for her own dog for more than 10 years. Somehow, we’re not sure dogs will be that impressed unless the concert includes some free Beggin’ Strips.

relevantmagazine.com

Lou Reed, former singer of the Velvet Underground and general rock icon, has always been kind of a weird dude. Whether it was hanging around with Andy Warhol’s über-talented-butundeniably-bizarre group of proto-hipsters or releasing the droning “album” Metal Machine Music (an album so derided that people still debate whether or

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[slices]

life

Tips for Hosting Your Best-Ever Barbecue The Fourth of July is almost here. And this year, you want to be a hero. You want to throw the best barbecue anyone has ever seen. But you’re not totally sure how. Here are some tips to becoming the king or queen of the summer party.

Plan This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people overlook this step. During the lead-up to your party, you’re going to think of tons of details that you’ll promptly forget. So carry a little notebook to write in all the last-minute stuff—things like ice, making sure you have plenty of cold water, utensils, napkins, glasses, condiments, etc. You’re not going to forget the big stuff for your party, but the small steps can take it from merely “fun” to totally “mind-blowing.”

Come up with a signature refreshment.

For this one, we suggest making either some sun tea or some real lemonade (none of that frozen stuff). It’ll show people you’re Encourage potlucking It’s not a bad thing to ask everyone prepared and will offer some options beyond the high-fructose to bring a side or a dessert to share. That way everyone gets into corn syrup two-liters and water. the spirit. And you don’t have to buy ridiculous amounts of food.

Get tiki torches Music Put together a killer playlist. If it doesn’t include at least one Will Smith song, you have failed.

You’re going to need some sort of guard against bugs. The last thing you want is your guests itching all over the next day.

This is the most important part of the party, if not your summer. In order to really grill, you can’t skimp. Here are some tips to get the most out of your time in front of the flames.

Get a good grill There’s a reason Weber is considered the best.

Misc.

MI5, the British intelligence agency, is forcing retirement on people who don’t know how to use social networking tools like Facebook.

We’d like to think James Bond would be really good at Mafia Wars ...

A company has started selling the “carstache,” which is what it sounds like: a mustache for your car. Bonus points if you get a hot pink one ...

Get a charcoal grill Gas grills are faster and easier.

But charcoal grills are tastier.

Get a charcoal chimney Avoid lighter fluid. Charcoal chimneys are $10 and easy to use.

GET GOOD CHARCOAL Use hardwood charcoal. It’s cheap at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

We've all pulled allnighters at some point.

But according to a new study, a single allnighter can dramatically increase the possibility of developing type 2 diabetes.

It’s also the fastest way to feel terrible the next day ...

Be patient Nothing can ruin the perfect piece of meat or vegetables like moving it too soon. So while you’re grilling, resist the temptation to mess with everything on the grill.

Be a good host Just because you’re the grillmaster doesn’t mean you can’t be the life of the party. relevantmagazine.com

Some people in 1952 basically wrote the book on “wild” barbecue experiences when they barbecued a crocodile (that had just eaten a gazelle) on a specially constructed 20-foot grill.

We don’t recommend trying that ... anywhere.

18 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

[THE GRILL]

GAMES Eventually, people are going to get antsy. So have some stuff around to entertain them. Bocce ball, croquet, Frisbee, limbo, etc.

Basically something that will give people stuff to do beyond sit in a circle and talk. Not that talking isn’t a perfectly acceptable alternative. But this is the best barbecue ever, remember?

[slices]

faith

Community Doesn't Take the Summer Off Many small groups and Sunday school classes (or whatever your church calls groups of eight to 12 people) take a break for the summer. So how do you stay connected to a community of Christians during the time off? After all, it’s not like our need for relational support in our faith takes a summer vacation. With those thoughts in mind, here are some creative ideas to intentionally stay involved with a group of fellow Christians this summer.

A weekly gathering with your other friends. Small groups are great places to meet new people and to be in community with people you might not otherwise hang out with. But if your group’s on hiatus, why not hang out with some friends not in your group? Pick an activity to do together once a week and let the natural conversations flow.

Family dinner. Find a group of people who would be interested in once a week or every other week dinner. You can rotate who’s in charge and who brings what. But have a great time enjoying a communal home-cooked meal, and then take some time to pray for one another after you eat.

Read a book with people. Pick a book to go through with some of your friends from church (or some of your friends who go to other churches— chances are, their small groups are on break, too).

Take the opportunity to read something you’ve been wanting to read but haven’t found the time.

Being in a group will be a good motive to finish.

Celebrate some feast days. Whether you’re aware of it or not, there’s pretty much a feast every day celebrating some hero of the faith or event in Christianity. So you have plenty of reasons to throw a party! Pick a few of your favorite stories of faith— remember the story of Doubting Thomas on his feast day (July 3) or marvel at the Transfiguration (Aug. 6). Whatever you decide on, invite a bunch of people over to actually celebrate huge events in Church history.

20 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

Hate or Free Speech?

A street preacher in the U.K. says he was arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin to a passing shopper. He was arrested under the Public Order Act, which was enacted in the ‘80s to curb football hooliganism ...

According to a new USA Today/ Gallup Poll, 83 percent of Americans believe God answers prayers.

Ninety-two percent of Americans believe in some sort of God ...

relevantmagazine.com

Get out. It can be hard to get out and about and serve when you’re trying to intentionally meet around work and school schedules on one specific evening per week. So take the opportunity of more free nights to gather up a regular group of people to go serve somewhere. You can go any day of the week and decide as a group what you’d like to do.

Misc.

when in doubt,

read these

books.

Sometimes having all the answers isn’t as important as asking the right questions. In Evolving In Monkey Town, Rachel Held Evans takes readers on a personal spiritual journey, recounting her struggles with doubt and her upbringing in a fundamentalist Christian town.

Could a little bit of doubt actually be a good thing?

For self-proclaimed doubter Jason Boyett, the answer is yes. With humor, encouragement, and grace, O Me of Little Faith explores the challenges of following Jesus amidst spiritual uncertainty.

Visit RachelHeldEvans.com to join the discussion.

Get the benefit of the doubt at JasonBoyett.com.

To purchase your copies today, visit www.Zondervan.com or your favorite local bookseller.

[slices]

They should just release Captain EO on 3D Blu-ray. Remember that movie? Michael Jackson + Francis Ford Coppola + George Lucas = 3D gold.

SO, HOW DOES 3D TV WORK? Magic.

Just kidding. But it’s not as complex as you might think. Basically it involves several steps geared to tricking your brain into seeing 3D:

2

3D Television The new TVs will be able to display two HD pictures at the same time, overlapped with each other. They’ll still show 2D shows in HD.

Misc.

HP will introduce a new printer to European markets this summer that will print plastic models in full 3D. We’re one step closer to being able to “print” our own furniture ...

A group of researchers thinks it may have found an exciting new way to treat cancer: nanobots.

Putting the tiny robots into the body delivers a strain of RNA that kills cancer cells; the bots then break down and exit the body without any side effects ...

L

3

DISPLAY The overlapping images will appear blurry until you wear glasses.

4

shutter lenses These special lenses open and close many times per second, so the overlapping images combine into one.

5

eyeballs Each eye sees one of the overlapping images. Your brain combines the two images into an image with the illusion of depth.

6

3D Television All of this will be pointless if you don’t have the right stuff that sends 3D images to the screen.

R

Though 3D televisions are the next big thing in home devices, 3D imaging itself actually dates back to 1844.

relevantmagazine.com

22 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

as much as high-end HDTVs. But that doesn’t include the glasses you’ll need to buy (see diagram for more on how glasses make the image come to life), which can run up to $150 a pair. So for a family of four, tack on an extra $600.

Ironically, you could also drop all of that money and not even be able to see 3D. According to the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, approximately 5-10 percent of people are born with stereo blindness, or the inability to see 3D images. And there are already warnings for people who might experience health issues from watching television in 3D, including children, senior citizens, pregnant women or drunk people.

So if you have any old or young people in your house, look out.

Will the drawbacks outweigh the attractions for 3D TV? It remains to be seen. If developers and movie studios can figure out how to harness 3D to truly enhance a visual experience (a la Avatar) and not just tack it on like a lame gimmick (we’re looking at you, Clash of the Titans), 3D could be one of the coolest things to happen since, well, HD. Until they prove it’s worth it, you can probably enjoy this summer’s rendition of Wipeout just fine in 2D.

GLASSES You’ll have to buy extra pairs at $100-$150 a pop for these “cool” shades.

They’ll be equipped with shutter lenses for full 3D.

tech

Television Good Enough to Touch Remember that fancy HDTV you just bought? You know, the one you saved for just so you could watch football/Dancing with the Stars/Blu-ray in the full detail they were meant to be seen?

Yeah, that’s totally obsolete now.

Because this summer is the dawn of the 3D TV era. Several TV manufacturers (including Sony, Samsung and Panasonic) have already introduced 3D televisions, and ESPN is currently broadcasting the World Cup in 3D. DirecTV and Panasonic have launched two broadcast channels and one ondemand channel in full 3D, while overseas, SkySports has already begun airing in 3D. And Sony has licensed its Blu-ray technology for 3D, so expect to see the floodgates open on 3D movies soon.

Sony has also promised that its popular PlayStation3 video game console will be capable of displaying video games and movies in full 3D. A firmware update in June gave the device the ability to play 3D games, and an upcoming update is expected to make the Blu-ray player full 3D too.

But is the 3D change really here for good? Consider the new costs (that might make adoption prohibitive for some people).

Currently, 3D televisions cost about

1

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FREE SINGLE “TROUBLED” + MUSIC VIDEO

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[slices]

The best kids' books to read: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Napping House.

REJECT APATHY

Power in Numbers— and Tweets Social media is the new street team—and nonprofits are harnessing its power. The Chase Community Giving initiative took off when Facebook and Twitter users began spreading the word for their favorite nonprofit to win $1 million (Invisible Children nabbed the top prize). USA Today joined the socialnetworking-for-social-good trend with its #AmericaWants campaign, which had people tweeting for their favorite charity to win a full-page, full-color ad (valued at $189,400) in the newspaper. After a week and a half, To Write Love On Her Arms won the contest. And all year long, people can apply for grants (from $5,000 to $250,000) for their cause through the Pepsi Refresh program, and then use their various social networks to get the word out for others to vote for them. A total of $1.3 million is awarded every month in 2010. Earlier this year, Demi Moore won $250,000 for GEMS Girls, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit, in the Pepsi Refresh Celebrity Challenge. As long as it’s 140 characters or less, all’s fair in tweeting and nonprofits.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame

The Votes Are In Historic elections are taking place all over Africa this year—many in countries with significant political unrest. In April, a general election in Sudan marked the end of a transitional period that began when the decades-long Second Sudanese Civil War ended in 2005. In August, Darfurians will vote on a referendum that could merge West Darfur, North Darfur and South Darfur into a single Autonomous Region of Darfur. In July, a constitutional referendum will take place in Kenya—a solution to avoid a repeat of the violent outbursts following their 2007 presidential election. And in August, Rwanda will hold its second presidential election since the genocide.

President Paul Kagame is expected to win a second term.

what do these elections mean?

Sudan Omar Hassan al-Bashir won the election. In 2009, he was charged by the International Criminal Court with war crimes and crimes against humanity for the genocide in Darfur.

darfur Darfur is currently governed by three separate states of Sudan as administrative entities.

If it becomes a single Autonomous Region of Darfur, the region would have its own government.

kenya The referendum is seen as a step in the right direction as it shows an attempt at unity. It was officially published on May 6 and is to be voted on within 90 days of its publication.

rwanda Kagame’s election as president in 1994 effectively ended the genocide. Since he has been president, Rwanda has been called Africa’s “biggest success story.”

E-Reading is Fundamental

24 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

relevantmagazine.com

With the advent of e-books, it seems the days of visiting the library might soon be gone. But a new literacy initiative is making sure physical books stick around—and they’re actually using e-books to do it. Started by publisher Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation, We Give Books is simple: Users choose a literacy organization on the site they’d like to help, read a children’s book online for free and one book is then donated to that organization. There isn’t a limit on the number of books users can read. Added bonus: Parents, relatives and teachers get to share their favorite kids’ books with the children in their lives.

[slices]

When we first heard "emo porn," we thought it was going to be some weird fan fiction about Fall Out Boy. We were scared.

5 .com

Emotional Porn | The dangers of sentimentalizing relationships We all know visual porn is a terrible thing (at least, we should). It rips apart relationships, destroys men and women who look at it and entrap

5 Things To Do Online This Month If you only get the magazine, you're only getting part of the story.

1 REJECT APATHY

is sponsorship a scam?

people in addictive cycles that seem impossible to break out of.

But Cole NeSmith argues there’s something else insidious in our lives that deserves the label “pornography.”

NeSmith calls it “emotional porn”; the romances we see on TV and in movies every day. He says: “We’re taught to crave the moment of romantic ecstasy or to live for the wedding day. We’re raised to think these are the real stories of love and relationship, and we’re confused when they are so few and far between that we aren’t sustained. So we turn back to that which led us to believe in this fantasy all along.”

His comments led to a firestorm of conversation. Head over to RELEVANTMagazine.com, search “emotional porn” and join in the dialogue.

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably wondered about child sponsorship at some point. “How effective is it? Where does my money go?” A skeptic asked those questions— and was excited by what he found.

Top 10 from RELEVANT.fm Here’s our Top 10 favorite songs playing over at RELEVANT.fm right now:

1

Tiger Teeth (Passion Pit Remix)

by Paper Route

Roll Away Your Stone 2

2

by Mumford & Sons

Real Love

by Delorean 3

DEEPER WALK

We Don't Eat

Grace > Bitterness

Andrew Schwab (lead singer of Project 86 and author) wrote this blog about the key to defeating bitterness in your life—he says you have to become a person who embraces grace. It’ll make you think—and act.

3 THE RELEVANT PODCAST Frivolity, interviews, music.

26 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

by James Vincent McMorrow

When I'm Small

by Phantogram

4 RELEVANT.FM

5

Yaa I Get It

by Shad 6

For your streaming pleasure.

If you’re like us, sometimes you’ll stare blankly at all of your music, not even sure where to start looking for something to listen to. Volume can be an enemy on occasion.

So why not let us choose for you? We have great taste. And so you do. This will work perfectly. Head over to RELEVANT.fm and check out what we’ve got lined up. We don't think you’ll be disappointed, and you might even find some new music you love in the process.

Crown on the Ground

by Sleigh Bells 7

Die by the Drop

by The Dead Weather 8

Beautiful Things

by Gungor 9

Symphonies

by Dan Black (feat. Kid Cudi) 10

relevantmagazine.com

What do a horrible tale of a pig, nuclear disarmament and live music have in common? If you said the RELEVANT Podcast, you win. You don't win anything—just pride—but seriously, check out the podcast.

4

REJECT APATHY

Why Your Light Bulb Matters > Julie Clawson

I

f there is one question I am sure to get any time I speak on our personal responsibility to seek justice, it’s what difference any of this makes. “Why bother changing my light bulbs to CFLs?” “Can buying fair trade really help farmers?” “Do my consumer choices really matter?” In other words, how big of an impact can a person really have?

Many environmental and advocacy groups are quick to point out that the largest eco-offenders and oppressors in this world are generally large corporations. For instance, the waste and pollution produced by these corporations combined with their extravagant energy consumption makes my choice to recycle that plastic bottle or install a CFL light bulb seemingly insignificant. Often, these advocacy groups encourage me to focus on making big changes—pressuring corporations to clean up their act or lobbying the government to pass stricter trade laws. I’ve even been told that encouraging people to change their light bulbs is pointless because then they will assume they’ve done their environmental good deed and not push for larger changes.

In the name of building a better world, it seems counterproductive to discourage those willing to help. By only promoting actions that can effect large-scale change, these groups can unintentionally turn things like environmental stewardship into a “more eco-conscious than thou” sort of competition. It’s like scoffing at a kindergartner’s attempts at reading just because she isn’t yet reading Shakespeare. We all have to start somewhere, even when it comes to saving the planet. So I still encourage people to do whatever they can whenever they can. It has to be doable for it to become a sustainable practice. A person has to be willing to make small changes in his or her life before committing to advocate for the bigger issues. If someone doesn’t care enough to even change a light bulb, why do we suppose they would care about clean energy legislation? Big changes start with small changes.

But the truth of the matter is that even the small changes and personal commitments do make a difference. On one hand, it is a matter of scale. Get enough individuals doing the same thing, and their impact will be significant. When shipping giant UPS decided to get all 95,000 of their trucks to eliminate as many left turns as possible from their routes (since idling while waiting to turn wastes gas) they collectively saved 3 million gallons of gas and cut CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons in just the first year. And if every American home replaced just one light with a CFL bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, about $700 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions of about 800,000 cars (energystar.gov).

There is something about the collective “we” that multiplies our impact

28 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

and effects great change. When one person starts living differently, and gets a friend on board, and then perhaps a small group or an entire church, she is making a difference that extends far beyond herself.

Our individual commitments make a difference on even a small scale.

A decision to purchase a fairly traded item, for instance, is a choice to make a difference in at least one other person’s life. The coffee farmer in Rwanda who can now feed his family because he can sell his small crop directly to a fair trade co-op is benefitted because of one person’s choice to buy his coffee. Choosing to buy the T-shirt sewn by the woman rescued from the sex trade and rehabilitated with a fairly paying job allows her an opportunity to heal. Like Mother Teresa said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” That one person doesn’t mind that your actions didn’t magically solve all the world’s problems in an instant—she is just grateful for the impact you made in her life. There is a time and place for working to save the masses, but that in no way diminishes the importance of making a difference in one person’s life.

The actions of one person can have a significant impact in this world, but I wonder if such a question should even be our main concern. I am uneasy basing a decision to love and serve others on whether or not it will have a measurable impact. Jesus said if we love Him we will obey His commands.

Loving our neighbor, setting the oppressed free, bringing good news to the poor, spending ourselves on behalf of the hungry and seeking justice for all are not just suggested paths for how to have the greatest impact according to some utilitarian calculus; they are part of what it means to be faithful Christ-followers.

We don’t weigh a decision of whether or not to be righteous on the global impact it will have, so why should our decision to love and serve be any different? Knowing we are helping others and changing the world is fantastic and encouraging, but we aren’t in it for the reward. We love others because as Christians we have no other choice.

Do my actions make a difference? Certainly. But even if I never knew what impact I had in this world, I would act the same way.

I am uneasy basing a decision to love and serve others on whether it will have a measurable impact.

Julie clawson is the author of Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices (InterVarsity Press). She and her family live in Austin, Texas.

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.

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

AVAILABLE AT BOOKSTORES NATIONWIDE

PULSE

WORLDVIEW

The Idolatry of Patriotism > Gregory A. Boyd

I

am thankful to live in a country that acknowledges people have rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and that empowers citizens to influence how they are governed. I know how rare such freedom has been throughout history, and how costly it has been to acquire and protect. I’m also proud of many other ideals America stands for, such as the principle that all people are created equal (though, we’re obviously still in the process of living up to this one). So, I see no problem with an American Christian being patriotic.

At the same time, followers of Jesus need to be very careful. History shows us how easy it is for Christians to forget that the Kingdom Jesus came to establish is “not of this world” (John 18:36, TNIV). And it’s to His Kingdom we are to pledge our sole allegiance.

Throughout history we find Christians buying the age-old pagan lie that God uniquely favors their country, and their national enemies are God’s enemies. Believing that lie, patriotic Christians have tragically followed the orders of earthly rulers and marched into battle “for God and country,” rather than following the example of Jesus—who gave His life for the people who persecuted Him. Ironically, in some cases the “enemies” Christians have slaughtered have been other patriotic Christians who happened to be born in other countries, or other parts of the same country. Few things have done more to discredit Christianity than the patriotic zeal with which Christians have participated in violence.

“Whoever claims to live in him,” John teaches us, “must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6). When we compromise our commitment to living and loving like Jesus, we’ve crossed the line between healthy and idolatrous patriotism. Jesus and Paul repeatedly command us to love, bless, pray for and do good to our enemies, and to never retaliate or resort to violence. It’s healthy to patriotically appreciate the positive aspects of our country and our form of government. But we’re putting that patriotism in front of God the moment our allegiance to our country motivates us to kill our enemies rather than to die for them. And anything in our lives that comes before God is idolatry.

The danger of idolatrous patriotism is not just about how we compromise our love for enemies. If we become too invested in our nation, we can forget our real citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 1:27) and our job is to live as ambassadors of Christ ( 2 Corinthians 5:20).

Rather than manifesting the distinctive values of the Kingdom of God, we can begin to assume the ideals of our culture are Kingdom values.

I appreciate that America recognizes my rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” but there is nothing distinctly Kingdom about these rights. They’re nowhere to be found in the Bible. To the contrary,

30 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

as a follower of Jesus I’m called to surrender my rights to life, liberty and happiness, and instead submit to the will of God. These rights are noble on a political level, but they can get in the way of my call to seek first the Kingdom. I’m grateful America extends these rights to people, for most countries throughout history have not. But my sole allegiance is to the heavenly Kingdom that calls me to surrender my rights. If I get too concerned with an earthly country that frees me to pursue my rights, my healthy patriotism becomes idolatrous. I’ve put my country’s ideals before God. Along similar lines, history consistently shows when we forget we’re “foreigners” and “exiles” in this world, we can begin to associate our preferred form of government or politics too closely with the Kingdom of God. Here, too, it’s crucial we follow the example of Jesus.

Despite the fact that He lived in an age when plenty of political and nationalistic issues were being hotly debated, Jesus never displayed the slightest interest in such matters. He didn’t come to bring us a “new and improved” version of the Kingdom of the world. He came to inaugurate a Kingdom that is “not of this world.” It’s a Kingdom that is no more Israeli than it is Palestinian; no more American than it is Iraqi; and no more socialist than it is democratic. Instead, it’s a Kingdom that encompasses people from every nation and political persuasion, for it puts on display the “one new humanity” Jesus died to create (Ephesians 2:15). In this Kingdom, Paul declares, there is no longer any Jew or Greek (Galatians 3:27-29). In our Kingdom, all national, tribal, ethnic, gender, social and economic distinctions are insignificant.

So over the Fourth of July weekend—and all year—be appreciative of your country. Be patriotic. But make sure your patriotism pales in comparison to your sacrifice, commitment and allegiance to the Kingdom of God.

Rather than manifesting the distinctive values of the Kingdom of God, we can begin to assume the ideals of our culture are Kingdom values.

Gregory a. Boyd is the author of The Myth of a Christian Religion and The Myth of a Christian Nation (both Zondervan). He’s the founder and pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN.

Haiti was home to one of the worst disasters of our time.

Then the earthquake hit.

The true disaster in Haiti struck long before January 12.

It’s what caused thousands of homes to be made of inferior concrete, featherweight bricks and a lack of rebar. It kept Haiti’s government from responding efficiently when those houses dominoed in a crushing cascade of rubble down precariously steep hillsides.

Take 95 seconds to see the disaster behind the disaster at compassion.com/haitivideo.

TIM GLENN USA Advocacy Port-au-Prince January 20, 2010

Haiti’s true disaster? Poverty. It’s why Haiti lost more than 220,000 lives while a similar magnitude quake in California claimed 63 in 1989.

Truth be told, it’s poverty that steals, kills and destroys more than any force of nature ever could. But it’s an enemy the Church is powerfully equipped to defeat in Haiti — and everywhere poverty attacks.

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

THE DROP

J

osh Garrels the man is simplistic. He values family time with his wife and two children at their home in Portland, Ore. He promotes communal living, but also makes time for silence and solitude.

Josh Garrels the musician ... well, he’s more like a mad scientist.

“I’ve always felt a liberty to juxtapose things and mesh sounds together to see what might happen, almost like working with chemicals and mixing things to see if you can create some crazy new formula.”

In 2009, Garrels released his fifth album, Lost Animals, which included everything from spirituals 32 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

to the spoken word, fused with folk and electronica. The broad strokes are tied together by the universal themes of God, love, doubt, compassion and community.

“I think true art can only come out of what lives in us. Sometimes I’ll start writing a song, and on the surface level I may not even want to take the song to this spiritual place, but it almost always finds its way in there,” Garrels explains. “I really enjoy it because it makes me grapple with what I believe.”

Garrels, who is already at work on his next album, is a lifelong musician from a creative family, but he didn’t begin experimenting

with his art until he encountered God during his first year in college.

“Something about the liberation of faith, of all strange things, musically liberated me to go in any direction I felt like,” he says.

To preserve and empower the freedom of other artists, Garrels launched his own label, Small Voice.

His goal is to promote musicians doing something worthwhile and interesting, rather than producing a product or identity.

“There is so much resource and time [spent] to make a big splash in the water. But then it can be the simplest thing that can change lives, can shake nations.”

Website:

joshgarrels.com

For Fans of:

Sufjan Stevens, Ben Harper

featured artist

Alyce Gilligan

Michelle Garrels

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ot many people are so inspired by transportation that they develop an entire creative project around it. But that’s exactly what Future of Forestry’s sole member, Eric Owyoung, did with “the Travel series.” He has released three emotive, six-song EPs over the past year, each representing a different mode of transport (air, sea and land).

The idea stems from a single track on Travel I, “Traveler’s Song.”

“That song is based on traveling through life. I’ve been through a lot of hard times over the last five years, and I’ve had a lot of amazing times in the last five years. I just wanted to write a song kind of encapsulating

34 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

the dichotomy of that experience,” says Owyoung, who created each EP in rapid succession. “These albums have been really fun for me because they’re little snapshots of what was going on in my life at that time.”

Owyoung plays instruments ranging from the guitar to the harmonium. While several musicians accompany him on tour, he handles the bulk of the writing, recording and instrumentation himself.

“It challenges me because I get bored easily with the whole bassdrums-guitar setup. I always am way more ambitious than I should be to take on things,” admits Owyoung, who developed most of the series’

artwork with his wife, a photographer.

“I’ll always look back at the Travel series as something I really took ownership over.”

Future of Forestry, a name taken from a C.S. Lewis poem, was formed in 2007 from Owyoung’s former worship band, Something Like Silas.

Though he still plays in churches, Owyoung tries to avoid limiting the spiritual message of his music with “Christianese” or lyrical sermons.

“This is my experience—if you relate to that, this music will reach you. If you don’t, hopefully you’ll enjoy the music. Either way, it’s not [about] telling people what they’re supposed to believe. It’s sharing.”

Website:

futureofforestry.com

For Fans of:

Blind Pilot, Sleeping At Last

featured artist

Alyce Gilligan

peter dawson

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d

Holy Spirit’s work of restoration by seeking to make all things better. All things matter, because of the Kingdom.

What do all these

s n

All Things. God created all things, and they were good. All things have fallen from that original goodness.

Jesus Christ, whose death and resurrection redeemed all things, eventually will restore them. We join the

THE DROP

F

ew artists who write music will tell you they don’t write songs, but that’s a claim Son Lux (aka Ryan Lott)—who mixes everything from programmed beats to strings and woodwinds into his music—makes about his work.

“Son Lux doesn’t write songs, per se, in that there are no verses and choruses,” Lott says. “It’s nonbinary, more like plainchant. Simple, small fragments of text and melody.

I definitely consider Son Lux pop music, but abandoning song form liberates me from all sorts of other conventions.”

One of those conventions, Lott says, is defining a piece by its initial arrangement. “How the song is

36 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

expressed in the recorded format becomes its definitive self. I’m not into that. And creating as Son Lux, I don’t have to be—my pieces are not defined by structure, but a single strand or two of text and melody.

Songwriters are sort of bound to all parts of a song when performing live. But all I’m bound to is one thing: the chant.

“In some ways, the concept is derivative of lectio divina, a medieval tradition of recitation and meditation.”

Son Lux, crowned “Best New Artist 2008” by NPR, is now working on his second full-length album and has remixed work by My Brightest Diamond, Beirut, MuteMath and Paper

Route. “Initially, I sought out artists I liked, whose fan bases I thought might dig what I’m doing,” he says. “I did this in lieu of touring, to support the debut. I continue to remix folks, but at this point people are usually coming to me about it first.”

Elements of Lott’s faith also seep into his work. “My particular faith and worldview is part of who I am, and is therefore reflected in my music, instrumental or otherwise.

The concept of rebirth, of course not exclusive to Christianity, inspires my remix process. But that’s also just the playfulness in me coming out, wanting to mess around with pieces and parts and make something new.

It’s not all that lofty.”

Website:

sonlux.blogspot.com

For Fans of:

Radiohead, MuteMath, Bjork

featured artist

Kevin Selders

brendon beecy

The One Day’s Wages co-founder has a radical vision for eradicating poverty in our lifetime

BY JOSH LOVELESS

Chris & Sarah Rhoads

38 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

Eugene Cho has a simple idea to combat a complex issue: What would happen if everyone donated one day of their pay to fight extreme poverty? His idea came to fruition last year when he and his wife, Minhee, launched the aptly named One Day’s Wages. In six months, they’ve raised more than $300,000, awarded a grant to an organization in Thailand and fully funded the building of a border outpost between Nepal and India that will help rescue hundreds of girls from sex slavery every year—a project with one of their partners, Not For Sale. Here, we talk with Cho about ODW, the nonprofit trend and the need for passion combined with education.

Could you explain the idea behind One Day’s Wages?

My personal story is traveling to Burma several years ago and encountering these villagers called the Karen people living in the jungles, fleeing from these ruthless government, military folks, and they had this makeshift school in the jungle. I was speaking to one of the leaders in the village, asking him what was the most difficult thing in sustaining this school, and it was paying the teachers’ tuition. His response when I asked him, “How much is their salary?” was “$40.” So I responded, “Oh, $40 a week”? And he snickered and looked at me and shook his head. So I assumed I’d made a mistake and I said, “$40 a month,” and he shook his head again and ... responded by saying, “A year.”

Forty dollars is not a lot of money.

My one day’s wages is about $175.

Just the concept of, what would happen if I were to give up a day’s wages, and then start a movement, if you will, based upon that.

Do you think it’s possible to end extreme global poverty in our lifetime?

To answer your question very simply, I would say yes, I do believe it’s possible. I choose to defer to many of the so-called experts and mentors who are in this sort of work that believe in our lifetime, in the next 40, 50

and simply consider donating one day’s wages, once a month, once a quarter, once a year, whatever you feel inclined to do,” and I see that resonating with people.

How can people move beyond the conversation of justice to acting on it?

My hypothesis is that we live in the most overrated generation of our history. The reason I say that is because we have access to so much stuff. I’m not just talking about resources, I’m talking about the mediums in which we communicate some of our thoughts and ideas, particularly social media. While talking about it over those mediums is part of the process of doing good work, my fear is that we stop right there, and then we pat ourselves on the back as people who have great social consciousness. We have to realize our resources, our time, our talents, our treasures need to be inclined toward making changes in our larger system and in ourself.

years, this can come to an end.

Obviously the answer is also very complex. What’s really painful is what’s currently going on in Haiti is absolutely devastating and painful, but here is something very sobering to all of us: There are Haitis all around the world right now ... and people need to not turn their attention away from that.

How can people who want to start a nonprofit move from just being passionate to being educated?

You have to place yourself in a very teachable spirit, to learn, to be educated, to put some substance and merit and depth to the initial passion you have. Ideas are great, but every idea will be tested, and it will be tested through our knowledge, it will be tested through our strategies, it will be tested through our perseverance and commitment. It will also be tested through sacrifice.

I think one of the reasons One Day’s Wages has resonated with some people in our short stage as an organization is because in learning more about my wife and our story, they realize we’re not asking people to do something we’re personally not willing to do.

In 2009, we made a commitment to donate our yearly salary to the cause of fighting extreme global poverty. We’re saying, “Would you be willing to partner with us

they’re going to implement that.

What we’re trying to do is not come in and cause more problems by doubling their budget, but seeing how we can help them build their capacity to be able to do more substantive work for their own people because they’re the ones who are really lifting themselves out of poverty.

These are what we call the CBOs— community-based organizations.

Our first grant was awarded to a CBO in Thailand doing work with Burmese refugees. Many of these Karen Burmese students, young children, once they flee from Burma because they’re tired of fleeing from the military, they’ll go to Thailand. Then once they go to Thailand, the unfortunate thing is they’re undocumented.

They’re basically illegal immigrants and because they don’t have their papers, they’re unable to go to school in Thailand. There’s this woman who started a school system for these Burmese Karen students and the amazing thing

There are Haitis all around the world right now ... and people need to not turn their attention away from that.

What criteria does ODW use when looking for partner organizations?

Some of our vetting involves: are they in good accordance with their local government, do they have all their documents filed, do they have a budget, do they have a strategy, what does their leadership team look like, what is a specific project they’re asking funds for, do they have a responsible manner in which

is there’s over 6,000 students in their school system. Their [yearly] budget, last time I checked, was about $40,000. What our grant does is help provide transportation for one of those schools to allow these kids to go back and forth from school.

If some of the folks here in the West get a chance to learn about the amazing work, the laborious work, yet amazing work, that might inspire us even more deeply.

(One Day’s Wages) www.onedayswages.org

Founded in October of 2009, ODW is a movement of people, stories and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty. They work toward this goal by awarding grants and partnering with other nonprofits to help fund their various projects.

1

What is Your One Day’s Wage?

Calculate your day’s wages on the ODW site and then donate it either directly to ODW or to one of their partner organizations.

2

Campaigns for a Cause After their six-month mark, ODW announced Campaigns for a Cause, which includes: Birthday for a Cause: donate on your birthday and encourage friends and family to donate in lieu of gifts Work for a Cause: work one day for those living in poverty Idea for a Cause: send ODW a fundraising idea and they will try to help you make it a reality

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 39

john mark mcmillan Exploring a new language for worship

by Kevin Selders

Kyle trafton

40 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

During the last several years, John Mark car accident—the night after Coffey told God he would McMillan has learned to stop worrying about whether give his life if it would draw more youth to Christ. or not his lyrics are perfect or if what he sings about is “He was my best friend,” McMillan says. “I’d known what people want to hear. After all, a lack of approval him since we were children. We were baptized is a common side effect of honesty. together. Really, what it came down to is I was angry “I want to inspire people to say what they feel and with God. I didn’t quite know what to do with those not what they feel like they’re supposed to say,” he feelings, but through that anger and resentment, I says of his songs. “Because they feel like they’re was able to see the heart of God in it all. God was able supposed to do something, they don’t give themselves to take something terrible and show me something the opportunity to be genuine. They’ll just say the through it.” same words, which are great words, but after a while Shortly after the tragedy, McMillan sat down to put they stop meaning anything. We need new words to his feelings into song and the lyrics quickly began say the same thing because after a while the words flowing onto the paper. lose their potency.”

He describes the writing process as a conversation McMillan is perhaps best known for his song with God: “I sat down to have a dialogue with God, and “How He Loves,” which, despite being released really, He ended up having a dialogue with me. It’s like independently five years ago, has found its way to the He was speaking to me through the song.” ears of some of the industry’s biggest names—and into McMillan adds that the Church should incorporate churches across the country. more songs dealing with tragedy, loss and despair into Originally appearing on his debut album, The Song its worship. He points to one of his favorites—Bruce Inside the Sounds of Breaking Down, “How He Loves” Springsteen—as an example of someone who sings has been covered by David Crowder Band, Kim Walker about hope to those who don’t have it. and the Glorious Unseen in the studio, and Flyleaf, “That’s what I love about Springsteen—he’s telling Hillsong and Todd Agnew in concert. the average person’s story,” he says. “That’s what a “I’m super happy for a whole new generation to take worship leader should do. the song as their own and use it for their personal “On this side of eternity, we’re going to have conversation with God,” McMillan says. “We’d actually tragedy,” McMillan continues. “A lot of times in church stopped playing the song for a while, but it feels like it we don’t want to talk about those kinds of things has a new energy now as new people discover it and because it’s uncomfortable, but there are so many that’s exciting to me.” people in church who need to have that dialogue with The popular song has also attracted its share of God that I had. I think that’s why that song has become (strange) controversy. In the original song, McMillan so powerful.” sings, “Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy wet kiss,” referencing the consummation of the Kingdom of Heaven that God promises His people. When David Crowder recorded the song for Church Music, he asked McMillan’s permission to change the lyrics to “an unforeseen kiss” to avoid a misunderstanding with the metaphor. Crowder received a fair amount of criticism for the decision, and McMillan took to his blog to talk about it. He said, “I applaud David for changing the line to serve his people, and at the same time I boo Finding a language the machinery that would cause him to have to do so.” In addition to reclaiming “How He Loves,” McMillan So when McMillan decided to put the song at the says resurrection was the theme that kept coming to end of The Medicine, his label debut with Integrity the surface as he wrote The Medicine.

Music, he wanted to give it a new feel that transcended “It takes it from the resurrection of Jesus to the idea some of the baggage. of living in the Resurrection, which we’re called to do “I wanted to record it to make it sound like it on a daily basis,” he says. “Having a relationship with belonged,” he says. “A part of me felt like I was Jesus creates life in your daily life.” covering someone else’s song even though I wrote And Medicine is regularly marked with refrains that song seven years ago. It’s actually more like the pointing to that sense of new life. “Death in His Grave” way we play it live. I feel really good though with what explores the conquering power of the Resurrection. we were able to do with it. It is really weird for me, “Reckoning Day” anticipates a time when we are no honestly, to try to do a song that everybody already longer ruled by death. The album’s soaring lead single, “Skeleton Bones,” draws on Ezekiel 37’s vision of The had expectations for.”

Valley of Dry Bones, where God creates a vast army For McMillan, the song’s raw emotion is personal. It from the remains of the dead. was written after a friend, Stephen Coffey, died in a

“Having a relationship with Jesus creates life in your daily life.”

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 41

(L-R) Lee Worley, John Mark McMillan, James Duke and Shae Wooten

“I think [Jesus] died for us because He wanted a relationship with people, and the music is a part of that relationship. If you get the music away from that, it’s just music.” incorrect and genuine instead of something “I kind of see that as the Church,” says that’s correct but comes from a robot.”

McMillan—and as someone who has been around When it comes to leading worship, McMillan church his whole life—he learned guitar from says the goal must be to help people worship musicians at his father’s storefront communicate on a personal level. church—he should know.

“The purpose of a worship leader or a “The Bible talks about the Church being a body and humanity as kind of the dead bones,” songwriter is to give people language,” he says. he continues. “That’s basically the idea behind “If you give people language, you give them permission. If you’re Bob Dylan in the ‘60s, you the song—that we come together and we give people permission to think differently than become something more than ourselves. It’s a their parents did. ... If you’re a worship leader, resurrection song.” you give people permission to talk to the Lord, In the end, McMillan says, having the right have a dialogue and express their heart.” words isn’t the point—it’s being able to be McMillan also believes in seeking social vulnerable and open yourself to God. justice as an act of worship. He contributed the “I think people get so concerned with being joyous “I Dreamed There Was a Fountain” to a correct that they end up editing themselves down, but that’s not the way King David did it,” benefit album of the same name to support Zao, an organization providing safe drinking water he says. “That’s not the way they do it in the and education to developing countries.

Bible. You bring God what you have and let “Literally, they’re preventing wars by digging Him deal with you. I really feel like God is not wells for people,” he says. “I thought, ‘Man, interested with how correct our words are. He that’s the real kingdom of God.’ Doing stuff that doesn’t want us to get into weird situations, in reality is saving people’s lives. It’s literally but I think He’d really prefer something that’s 42 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

changing the whole world for some people. One well gives life to a thousand people.”

Filthy rags vs. nasty hearts In a February 2010 entry on his blog, The Promenade, McMillan wrote: “It’s time to write dangerous music. It’s time to take risks. It’s time to wear your heart on your sleeve, and sing about the things that actually matter to you. It’s time to bury the shackles of religious expectation and stop trying to put new clothes on the dead.”

The sentiment is what ran through McMillan’s heart as he made The Medicine, and it’s his general philosophy as a worship songwriter.

“Jesus was not safe, at all,” McMillan says.

“I’ve been in church my whole life and I’ve been a Christian a long time and I’ve always had a difficult time connecting with the expression of the Church. That’s really why I started writing music, I think, because I needed to be able to say those kinds of things.”

After all, he says, the Book of Isaiah reminds us that all of our righteousness is like filthy rags.

What God wants is a person’s whole heart—“the whole nasty thing,” McMillan says.

“How silly would it be to say, ‘OK, Jesus died so we could sing Him songs,’” McMillan says. “I think He died for us because He wanted a relationship with people, and the music is a part of that relationship. If you get the music away from that, it’s just music.”

mars hill graduate school gladly welcomes dr. derek mcneil as our new academic dean.

Dr. Derek McNeil has spent his career as a professor, a diversity advisor and coordinator, and a clinician in private practice. McNeil received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Counseling Psychology and his M.Div from Fuller Theological Seminary. His research and interests focuses on issues of ethnic and racial socialization, the role of forgiveness in peacemaking, and the identity development of African-Americans. Dr. McNeil’s teachings range in social, cultural, and spiritual foundations of mental health.

“Mars Hill Graduate School has a desire to provide a context of learning that is transformative and redemptive. This is a value that we share, along with a belief that God is active in human affairs and still willing to use us. This is the bond of our community.”

–Dr. Derek McNeil

Join us in a transformative education. Apply today for fall 2010. mhgs.edu · Seattle, Washington

Is There Any

Hope For Haiti now?

BY ROX A NNE W IE M A N 44 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

“ W e Need Hel p ” I t ’s a simp l e p hrase, e v en an obv ious one .

Simple because of its directness and obvious because, well, it’s spray-painted on a pile of rubble in the middle of Port-au-Prince. This one and countless other messages like it were painted throughout the city in the aftermath of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake—one of the largest natural disasters to ever affect the Western Hemisphere.

We need help. But how? How can we even begin to help? How did it get this bad? And, perhaps most pressingly, where is God in all this?

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 45

S

tanding on a hillside overlooking Haiti’s nearly destroyed capital city, that spray-painted phrase feels as accurate now, six months after the earthquake, as it did then. Even though money poured in from all sides (remember the $10 donation to the Red Cross via text message? The telethon with every celebrity ever known?), it seems like nothing has happened—as if this tiny half-island nation has somehow become a hope-free zone.

No one can prepare you for Haiti. Sure, as the buzz cause of the year, there’s certainly no shortage of articles to read, organizations to interview and experts to analyze. But to try to understand Haiti, to try to understand why it’s still this bad after so much time and, perhaps most difficult of all, to try to find hope in the entire mess, you have to make sense of a nation with a brutal history, a country that was a mess of corruption and poverty before a 7.0 earthquake destroyed its capital city. To understand what’s being done, where money is going, what the outlook of the country is—well, you need to go back to the beginning.

C ri p p l e d f rom t he s tar t “I want you to remember three dates so we can really make sense of 2010,” says Edouard Lassegue, a native Haitian and vice president of the Latin American and Caribbean region for Compassion International. “The first date of Haitian history is 1804—the date of our independence in Haiti.”

To go so far back may seem unnecessary.

Surely, more recent events—like the U.S. occupancy in the 20th century, the Duvalier revolution or Aristide’s rise to power in the 1990s—are what affect Haiti today. But Lassegue is insistent. On that date, “after 300 years of slavery and 10 years of war, finally, the slaves got their independence from France.”

The second date is in 1825, the day Haiti signed a contract with France for their independence. After spending more than 20 years defending their freedom and preparing themselves for a renewed attack from the French, Haiti agreed to purchase its independence from France. The Haitian leaders signed a contract to pay 150 million francs (later reduced to 90 million) to guarantee its continued freedom. It was an amount based on France’s calculated financial

46 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

losses during the war for independence— including the loss of their slaves.

“The next date to remember is 1947,” Lassegue says. “That’s when the last penny of the debt of independence was paid. So it took Haiti 122 years to pay back that debt.

The Haitian government had to close all schools and stop all investments in public infrastructure in order to make the first payment and all the payments thereafter.

My parents still remember standing in line as schoolchildren to bring their pennies and their few dollars into the collection baskets because there was that motivation, ‘Let us pay the debt of independence.’ That was just over 60

years ago, so one cannot say, ‘Haiti has been independent for so many years, how come there has never been change in the country?’

We have been crippled from the beginning.”

The p o l i t ic s When you consider Haiti’s lack of infrastructure—there are no public schools, very little access to health care, no real sanitation system—in light of this history, it makes more sense. And it partially explains why everything still, even six months later, seems to be in such bad shape.

Of course, Haiti’s challenges are not limited to those created by distant history. A cycle of

Port-au-Prince Sections of this hillside have been identified as “red zones” by the government and deemed unsafe to rebuild in due to flooding and new earthquake codes.

“i t ’s dif f icult t o ge t a sense of hop e back in t o t he coun t ry.”

— e d o u ar d La s s e g u e , Vice President, Latin American and Caribbean region, Compassion, Intl.

political unrest and government corruption has plagued Haiti since its inception.

In its 200-year history, Haiti has suffered 32 coups, several foreign occupations and an extremely tenuous and occasionally violent relationship with its neighbor on the island, the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s current president, René Préval, took office in 2006 following an interim president and the 2004 Haitian rebellion, in which the divisive two-time

president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted and sent into exile. Préval, though occasionally demonstrated against, is expected to be one of the first democratically elected presidents to go full-term in Haiti. Elections are set for November of this year.

“Haiti has come very far,” says Dr. Dianne Jean-Francois, Haiti director for the Catholic Medical Mission Board. “We have been independent since 1804, but our leadership was never good. People were selfish, they were thinking only about themselves.”

This lack of forward-thinking is perhaps no more obvious than in the bald mountains surrounding Port-au-Prince—ones that were once covered in lush trees and vegetation.

“One of the issues you have in Haiti is severe deforestation,” says Russell Porter, the USAID deputy coordinator for the Haiti Task Team. “And that’s come about over years and years of a lack of a sufficient energy supply.”

Very little has been done to regulate the forests in Haiti, and with a very complicated system of land rights, no one has taken ownership over making sure Haiti’s trees are regulated and replenished.

“I don’t think they truly understand the lasting consequences,” says Kevin Rose, the Haiti director for Convoy of Hope, a faithbased nutrition distribution and disaster relief organization. “Haitians don’t live for down the road, they live for today. ‘I need to feed my family today. I need charcoal today to cook my food. I’m not going to think about cutting this tree down that’s not going to grow back, and the consequences.’ It’s easy on paper to think about that stuff, but you’re changing a culture, you’re changing a mindset. People have always done it this way.”

Deforestation is but one example of Haiti’s existing development struggles. “Haiti has been a country of instability,” Lassegue says.

“In the past we’ve seen governments come and go, and people have been used to that unfortunately. There’s a sense that nothing is going to change­—it’s only going to get worse.

It’s very difficult to get a sense of hope back into the country.”

“ There i s s o m u ch t o d o ” And in the midst of all that history and tragedy, the earthquake hit. People were shocked the earth buckled with such a ferocity—images upon images of the destroyed Port-au-Prince flooded our televisions.

At first, of course, giving to Haiti is all anyone wanted to do. The constant stream of reports—the rising death toll, the incomprehensible property damage, the

Def ining De v e l op men t When assessing the progress that Haiti has made since Jan. 12, it’s important to remember that recovery is comprised of phases. Here are the three divisions recognized by most NGOs.

1/

Immediate/Emergency Relief

2/

Transitional/Mid-Term Relief

3/

Long-Term Relief

(4 - 6 months) medical care, food, water, temporary shelter, rescue, rubble removal

(18 months - 2 years) transitional shelter, hurricane and flooding preparedness, cash-for-work programs, trauma counseling, security

(5 - 15 years) infrastructure development, public education, sanitation, microfinance loans, vocational training, permanent homes, building codes, free and democratic elections, energy distribution, agriculture development, increasing exports

orphans—prompted people all over the world to open their wallets and give in unprecedented amounts. But such generosity rarely comes without strings attached. And now—six months after the earthquake and with hundreds of thousands still living in tents amidst a city of rubble—people want to know, just where is all that money going?

It’s a legitimate question, and the answer is both very simple and extremely complex.

The simple answer: We’re not done yet.

“There is so much to do,” Imogen Wall, a communications officer with the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says as she walks hurriedly through the jumble of U.N. log base buildings. “Oh my goodness, there is so much to do. Usually at this stage in the operation, you’re getting at least Saturdays or Sundays off. Not here. Everybody is working absolutely flat out, and it’s hot and exhausting, but it’s so necessary. It’s so huge, this thing, so overwhelming. There is also a necessity to get things right, as well as do things fast.”

And it’s there, in that last bit, that the answer to the question of where the money is going becomes complicated.

“We need to make sure everything is done right,” Wall continues. “Particularly

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 47

in a disaster like this where a large portion of money has come from people’s pockets.

People have actually donated money. I think everyone here is acutely aware of the need to make that money work as hard as it can.”

“It’s a lot longer-term process than people think,” says Scott Sabin, the director for Plant with Purpose, an agricultural aid organization that’s been working in Haiti for more than 30 years. “You’ve got just a very short time in which you’re doing the immediate, handing out food and digging people out of the rubble. And that’s what everybody envisions the money all

is when it becomes more of a challenge. You have to take into account people, and change the mindsets and their hearts.”

A ba d s i t u at ion ma d e wor s e It’s not only the politics that make bringing relief to Haiti so complicated. Every seeming solution comes with 10 reasons why it won’t work or it isn’t a good idea. Bring in heavy equipment to remove the rubble? Well, sure ... but the roads (unpaved alleys many of them) are too narrow. There are a limited number of skilled workers in Haiti who can operate the

“ t his is no t recons t ruc t ion—i t ’s cons t ruc t ion.”

— I mo g en wa l l , Communications Officer, United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs going for. I’m almost offended by some of the headlines: ‘Three months after the quake, Haiti still has rubble.’ Providing adequate shelter and rebuilding infrastructure takes time. It takes a lot more time.”

To drive through Port-au-Prince is to see the effects of the earthquake everywhere you look. Tents fill every open space—no matter how small—rubble spills onto the road, buildings lean perilously over crowded walkways. It’s easy to see the physical needs of the city all around you—and easy to wonder why it’s taking so long to meet those needs.

What is harder to see, however, is the milieu of historical, cultural, spiritual and psychological influences that make up Haiti. And each of those must be taken into consideration as the massive rebuilding efforts continue.

“We surely do not want to give the impression that money is going to be easy in and easy out, and no effort,” Lassegue says.

“Organizations have to be extremely careful to spend the funds in a way that is constructive.

When it comes to actually building lives and to making a difference for the long-term, that

H A I T I: A HIST ORY / 1492

Christopher Columbus of Spain discovers Hispaniola, inhabited by the Taino Americans.

48 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

machines—and it’s critical to give the work (and the money) to Haitians rather than bring in foreigners. And where would all the rubble go, anyway? The existing dump sites are quickly filling up, and land in Haiti is at a premium.

“You’re looking at a lot of shovels and a lot of stuff being done by hand,” Wall says. “Plus, every time you start clearing rubble, you find a body, and then the whole process has to stop while someone comes in and moves the body. It’s dangerous moving rubble, there’s a lot of metal and things in it, so you have to be properly equipped to do it, vaccinate everybody and get them hard hats and stuff.”

And rubble removal is only one among a host of troubling issues in Haiti: land rights, lack of sanitation, dense and unstable tent cities, gender violence, an imminent hurricane season. Each with its own series of possible solutions—and inherent in each of those solutions, a complicated list of pros and cons.

“I think one challenge President [Obama] and others have pointed to is that even before the disaster, the infrastructure was significantly challenged,” says Joshua

Dubois, head of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in the Obama administration. “There was a tremendous amount of work to be done even before the earthquake, and obviously that disaster then exacerbated the level of difficulty there.

You’re not starting from a base of significant infrastructure, but you have to rebuild, you have to bring an infrastructure that was never there in the first place.”

Of course, not everything has been bad news. Even with a difficult start and admitted confusion in the early parts of the relief efforts, there are victories to celebrate.

“I think the two biggest [victories] probably are shelter—the vast majority of people now have tarps or tin or waterproof shelter—and that we haven’t had a secondary wave of deaths from infections and transmitted diseases,” Wall says. “It’s very hard to prove a negative, but I cannot tell you the amount of work that’s gone into making sure waterborne diseases do not spread in these camps, making sure people have access to clean water. And people have had access to food, as well.

There are no mass food distributions going on anymore because they are no longer needed, and the government is worried about them damaging the agriculture sector, as are we, so that transition is happening now.”

“There was a lot of confusion at the very beginning,” Lassegue admits. “We lost a lot of time trying to understand and coordinate efforts. There could have been much better networking and cooperation between organizations, but each one was learning on their own. ... We were not ready for such a thing. But now you see more and more organizations coming together to say, ‘How can we pool our strengths together?’”

W here are t he ch u rche s ?

Lassegue points to the local church as a critical component to organized and successful

T h e m a k i n g o f t h e h a l f- i s l a n d n a t i o n

16 9 7 The Treaty of Ryswick divides Hispaniola between France and Spain. The western third of the territory, Saint-Domingue, falls to France, and is known today as Haiti.

Harsh systems kill one-third of the imported African slaves in a matter of years.

18 0 4 After a 13-year war, SaintDomingue gains its independence from France and becomes the republic of Haiti. This slave rebellion kills roughly 1 million blacks and 24,000 colonists.

18 2 5

19 15–3 4

19 3 4

Charles X of France sends 14 battleships to reclaim Haiti, who agrees to pay 150 million (later reduced to 90 million) francs to ensure their freedom.

U.S. forces make significant constitutional and infrastructure improvements in Haiti, though their brutal presence is marked by the death of 3,000 Haitians.

Following U.S. departure, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo kills 10,000-20,000 Haitians in the Parsley Massacre.

19 47

Haiti finally repays its debt to France.

relief efforts—as well as being a challenging force for integrity.

“The disaster is a result of the [earthquake], but also it is a result of years and years of bad decisions,” Lassegue says. “And that is why we want to challenge the Church to have a voice, to stand up and say, ‘There are things we will not stand anymore, there are some ways and practices of corruption, of injustice, of lack of integrity that have resulted in these 237,000 deaths, that we as a Church and we as a people of God do not want to accept anymore.’ If the culture of Haiti had serious leadership and serious citizenship, a lot of the deaths would have been avoided. We want the Church to be the Church. If there is hope for Haiti, it is not

19 5 7 Francois Duvalier (“Papa Doc”) becomes president. He promotes black Haitian rights, but is later suspected of stealing from the Haitian public treasury.

He is succeeded by his son, JeanClaude Duvalier, who is later exiled in 1986.

1987

A new Constitution is approved, followed by massacres in the November elections.

in the billions of dollars promised. The hope of the people resides in the Church of Haiti.”

The Church in Haiti has its own troubled history. Like most colonized islands, Catholicism is the primary religion—more than 80 percent of Haitians identify themselves as Catholic—but (as televangelist Pat Robertson was infamously so quick to point out) voodoo has a significant spiritual and cultural place in Haiti. For many black Haitians, voodoo represents their ties to Africa and is a symbol of pride in their heritage.

“The voodoo stuff is still here,” says pastor Jacques Louis, who works with Churches Helping Churches and is on the faculty for the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Port-au-

1990 Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president, but his cruel reputation leads to a 1991-1994 exile. He is brought back to finish his term from 1994-1996.

1996

Pétionville Five families live together in this extended tent made from tarps. They are part of a spontaneous tent city located across the street from the Red Cross headquarters in the Pétionville district of Port-au-Prince.

Prince (STEP). “You don’t see it as much as you used to, but it’s still here. It’s like a big syncretism thing. We can say 80 percent of people in Haiti are Catholic, but maybe we have 85 percent of Haitians doing voodoo.”

Louis says that while voodoo practices are something almost all churches teach against, it’s not an easy thing to fight because it’s so embedded in the country’s cultural history.

“People in Haiti, they have a lot of belief, strong belief,” Jean-Francois says. “After the earthquake, people thought they were

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2 006

2 0 10

Current President Préval is re-elected.

Former Prime Minister René Préval becomes president.

Aristide regains presidency after his opposition boycotts the election, but is driven out by a revolt in 2004.

A 7.0 earthquake strikes Haiti, just outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

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being punished for their sins—that our own sisters were so much involved in voodoo, so that’s why we were being punished. The day of the earthquake, there was one word you heard out in the streets: Jesus. Jesus! Jesus is coming back! Haitians know there is one God up there, and they know you have to turn toward Him when you have a problem.”

The C h u rch ma k e s a d i f f erence “I was first invited to Haiti in 1995 by an Episcopal priest,” Sabin says. “His home church was this beautiful stone church way out in the countryside. And it’s utterly crumbled now; not one stone on another. I was there just before Easter and ... amidst the rubble, a choir of 30 or 40 people were [singing] Easter hymns. That vignette of faith amidst that devastation was so poignant. The whole country dedicated three days to prayer and fasting about a month after the quake, and that’s just the one thing, over and over again, I keep hearing. The faith goes on. I would have expected [the earthquake] would really shake people’s faith, and I haven’t seen that, I haven’t heard that.”

It’s a trend most in the Haitian church agree with—saying the earthquake has united people in faith and caused many to return to church.

“Many people came to church after the earthquake,” Louis says. “There were more converts after the earthquake than maybe one or two years of evangelism. ... I know most of the time people will think, ‘Where is God in this?’ But I don’t hear that much in Haiti. I hear people saying, ‘I’m thankful to the Lord because I’m still alive.’”

In fact, it’s the Church—both in Haiti and globally—that’s been a central part in the recovery efforts following the earthquake. “[President Obama] believes faith-based groups have a central role to play in meeting the needs of those suffering in the world, including of course our brothers and sisters in Haiti,” Dubois says. “What we’ve done in Haiti is connect local and national/international NGOs [non-governmental organizations] with the federal government so we can work together to serve those in need, and specifically our faith-based office at USAID has done a tremendous job at making sure USAID and NGOs working on the ground are communicating with one another, sharing information and resources.”

Many faith-based NGOs like Compassion, World Relief, World Vision, Convoy of Hope and Plant with Purpose had existing partnerships within the local church in Haiti, and those partnerships have been key to implementing their disaster relief efforts.

“The clergy have such a network of people in their community, whether it’s 10 people or

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100 people in that church, who are coming to them with their needs,” says Laura Blank, who works in disaster response with World Vision and has worked in Haiti since the earthquake.

“So they’re very much a sounding board for us about what’s happening in the community, and how we can help.”

Lassegue echoes the importance of partnering with the local church. “The Church was active immediately after the earthquake and they did not wait for outside help. The buildings may have been destroyed, some churches may have lost their leaders or pastors, but the Church still stands. Those churches are flooded because the people realize they are the ones who stepped out to provide assistance and love and support during this time. The Church is very strong in Haiti, and needs to be supported and equipped to face this challenge.”

I n t ran s i t ion And a challenge it is. Six months after the earthquake, most churches and organizations are in what many have dubbed a “transitional phase”—meant to bridge the emergency relief efforts and more long-term development.

It’s a phase focused primarily on sanitation, education and shelter—as well as preparation for Haiti’s hurricane season, which began

W eighing t he C os t You’ve heard the staggering statistics from the impact of the earthquake in Haiti.

But what would these numbers look like in the States?

3.7 million people were impacted by the quake. Almost the same amount of babies born in the United States each year.

More casualties resulted from the earthquake than those killed in action during the entire Civil War. The 1.2 million people displaced equals the entire population of Dallas, Texas.

June 1 but is most severe in the early fall.

“We’ll not even begin to consider this not an emergency environment until after the hurricane season,” Wall says. “From the start, we’ve been planning transitional shelters. I think there’s a few hundred finished now and there’s about 160,000 in the pipeline. We’re transitioning. We would like to get as many people out of tents as possible before the hurricane season, no questions asked.”

But even getting people out of tents is not that simple. Building permanent homes is,

The earthquake brought the total number of orphans in Haiti to 400,000, nearly the enrollment of the State University of New York, the nation’s largest college.

To cover the estimated $13 billion in damages to Haiti, every person in the U.S. would need to give about $42.

in most cases, not feasible yet. The Haitian government is responsible for creating a new building code in accordance with international standards for earthquake-prone areas, as well as identifying safe zones for rebuilding.

However, as of press time, that code had not been approved. And until it is approved, no permanent structures can be legally erected.

“It’s up to the government of Haiti to identify places where we could begin building or relocating,” Blank says. “So I think one of the challenges has been for the government to

Port-au-Prince Though tent cities such as this one in the airport ward of the capital city are still alltoo common sights, major efforts are underway to relocate as many displaced residents as possible to more stable structures before the hurricane season.

identify those portions of land and then for us to be able to start building.”

Eric Porterfield, the senior press officer for international services with the Red Cross, agrees with the need for the Haitian government to take the lead on a resettlement strategy, but also feels a growing sense of urgency. “It’s going to have to come from the government up to a certain point,” he says.

“Then there is a thing called humanitarian diplomacy. And there are talks at every organization right now about how long do you wait until you start putting more pressure on.”

But even once a building code is approved, land rights issues will continue to be a major barrier to permanent reconstruction. Very few records exist of land ownership in Haiti— and much of what did exist was lost in the earthquake—so it’s very difficult to prove ownership. And that’s for people who owned their homes in the first place, which was rare.

“Most people rented, so what do they do?”

Porterfield asks. “Do organizations like the Red Cross give into being land tenants and landlords? It’s not something we’ve ever had to do before. Buying land, that’s just not

something humanitarian organizations do.”

Not to mention, land in Port-au-Prince is at a premium anyway. Much of the city is still covered in rubble, and there are areas where it’s simply not safe to build again.

These government-identified “red zones” are on steep slopes and areas prone to flash flooding—places homes should never have been built in the first place. It’s a safety measure—and a good one—but it further limits available land in an already overpopulated city.

Long-term, there are talks of decentralizing Port-au-Prince—of creating “suburbs” on the outskirts of the city with amenities and infrastructures to support whole communities.

“We want to see Haiti decentralized,” Porter says. “This is a priority of the government and of the Haitian people—to not have everything in Port-au-Prince. This is one of the key areas where we will work with the government of Haiti to improve service delivery outside of Port-au-Prince and in local areas.”

But, in the meantime, people need someplace to go. And—as much as everyone would like to move straight into construction of permanent homes—transitional shelters seem to be the best option.

Li f e a s norma l The thing is, to read about the devastation in Haiti and to hear how hard rebuilding is

going to be, is completely different than to walk around and see Haiti. Because when you walk around the tent cities and you talk to the people on the street selling their fried plantains and fresh mangoes, you don’t hear the theories on long-term rehabilitation or the concerns over land rights. What you see and hear and smell is life as normal—albeit, a very new normal.

“Some of the reports I heard about the chaos, well, that’s just the way Haiti normally is,” Sabin says. “Being used to that, I guess it was often easy to overlook the earthquake.

There were times I would forget there had been an earthquake. Things just seem so normal because they’re so good at just picking up and going on. There would be street vendors, and traffic, and people walking down the street and it’s very easy for your eye to overlook the fact that most of the buildings behind them had collapsed.”

This juxtaposition of everyday life amidst a city in ruins is perhaps the most striking part of being in Port-au-Prince. Clothing hangs drying on lines suspended above piles of bricks. Two men play a game of chess on the edge of a second-story apartment whose walls and roof are missing. A woman offers manicures and pedicures in her tent, a cart of multicolored polishes tucked against her bed, where several customers sit waiting.

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“People are incredibly self-sufficient, incredibly capable,” Wall says. “People were setting up small business in their tents the day they arrived. Within a few days, you could go and buy soap, you could go and get your phone recharged, you could go and pay to watch a movie. People are incredible here, they will rebuild their lives, and our job is to help them do that, and to help take on the bigger things individuals can’t and that need to be taken on by a state and by a system.”

E d u cat ion , e d u cat ion , e d u cat ion Perhaps the most critical of the larger issues waiting to be taken on is the school systems.

“The education system collapsed on January 12,” says Laurent Prosper, the consul chief of mission for the Haitian Consulate General’s office in Orlando, Fla. “Investing in the education system is key. The more Haitians we can empower through education will allow us as a people to become more independent and less reliant on international aid and workers to reconstruct our country.”

No matter who you talk to, nearly everyone says education is the key to Haiti’s long-term growth. In the transitional phase, this merely means getting schools reopened and ensuring kids are able to attend somewhere. In the long-term, it means a complete reimagining of Haiti’s education system. Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is working with Haiti’s first lady, Elizabeth Préval, and leaders from the International Development Bank to restructure the Haitian education system—which is almost exclusively private and expensive—and create a free, public school system.

“It is absolutely impossible to build a strong middle class without a well-educated populace,” Landrieu says. “And Haiti, for many reasons over the last several decades, has just not been able to provide quality, free public education, and that has to be done. So [we’re] working on a plan to propose the building of the first free, quality, universal public school system in Haiti, which would be thousands of new schools that would be designed and built.”

Convoy of Hope works closely with several schools in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas. They have seen many of their partner schools start to reopen—but they’re often meeting in tents or in buildings that are still significantly damaged.

“We’re really focusing on our aid being through schools,” Rose says. “Getting children back in school, getting them the daily food, getting them to take home rations to their families, getting them clean water.”

Rose says there is a lot of instability in the schools right now as displaced families are still moving around—from tent city to

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“ t he e ducat ion sys t em col l a p s e d on January 12 .”

— La u ren t Pro s p er , Consul Chief of Mission, Haitian Consulate General’s office, Orlando, Fla.

tent city, or from Port-au-Prince out into the rural provinces. The earthquake has only exacerbated a nationwide problem of regular school attendance. Because of tuition costs, families often send their children in rotation, or only when they can afford the tuition.

“There are kids always cycling through school,” Rose says. “There are a lot of different causes for kids not coming to school every day. There are probably a lot of kids not here today because they can’t afford their monthly tuition, and when they can’t afford their monthly tuition, [the school] can’t afford to have any teachers. It’s a vicious cycle.”

That vicious cycle has led to a national literacy rate barely more than 50 percent, and only 20 percent of the population reaching secondary education.

“Education, education, education. Without that, we are poor,” Jean-Francois says. “When people are not educated, it takes them down. It takes the country down, everything down. So we’ve got to move forward. This is my dream: I would like to see by 2020, that at least 75 percent [of people] have access to schools in the country. And with that I think we can change; the future of Haiti will be better.”

P l annin g f or t he f u t u re It’s the future of Haiti that everyone has on their mind. Though most relief work being done now is classified as transitional, aid agencies and governments alike are

Port-au-Prince Although their building is severely damaged, children have started meeting for classes again at the Terre Noire school.

making plans for the long-term. Education.

Infrastructure. Agriculture. Sanitation.

Housing. Health care. Vocational training.

Energy distribution. Continued democratic elections. The list of priorities for long-term development is long and growing. But each of them must be taken into consideration as plans are made.

“In the long-term, this is not reconstruction—it’s construction,” Wall says.

“This is trying to bring in systems that actually will reduce some of the awful developmental disease that was here before. It would not be acceptable to aim to put Haiti back the way it was. No one thinks Haiti the way it was is an acceptable way for people to be living. So we have to raise that. That has to be and has been an objective from the start.”

A criticism long aimed at aid work in Haiti has been the concern that such work—in the long run—only creates dependency on foreign systems and charity. It’s a concern shared by most aid workers, and one that everyone is actively trying to avoid.

“There is a tremendous amount of dependency in Haiti,” Sabin says. “And I think a lot of it is that the aid tends to be misapplied in ways that make people passive rather than empower them. One of the things I tend to hear a lot of is people trying to solve the Haitians’ problems: What Haiti needs is ‘x.’

Haitians need to say more of what they need.

I hesitate with what a lot of Americans say

they are going to do, unless it’s alongside people who are taking the lead, because those things can rot local initiative. In long-term development or long-term aid, you’d better not be doing for people what they can do themselves because that will achieve the wrong result.”

Most aid agencies are working hard to ensure Haitians are taking the lead on rehabilitation—starting with the government.

However, the Haitian government sustained a heavy loss of lives and property in the earthquake, and it’s taken time to recover.

“The palace itself was destroyed,” Porter says. “Many of the people who worked for the government are now living in tents or temporary shelters because their homes were destroyed. You have records that were lost, you have computers, all of those things are lost. Not to mention people. You have a lot of people that were lost in the earthquake, either family members or people who work for the government itself. So that’s been very difficult.

All that said, the Haitian government is our key partner in this, and the government of Haiti is going to be key to the success because it’s their country and we have to work with them as our primary partner in these efforts.”

As the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, former President Clinton will serve as a key liaison between aid organizations and the Haitian government. He will organize task forces based on the U.N. cluster system, where relief work is divided into sectors—such as shelter, food, sanitation—and aid organizations are assigned to whatever sector they work in. Each meeting will have representatives from aid organizations in that sector, as well as Haitian government officials assigned to that cluster.

“They are the elected authorities here, and the U.N. and aid communities come into countries at the request of national authorities,” Wall says. “So we are a support to the government of Haiti’s efforts. But the policy decisions and the accountability must lie with the government­.”

“The hope of Haiti is not in the money that will or will not come,” Lassegue says.

“The hope of the country resides in its people. And as we challenge Haitians to take responsibility, and to face those challenges for themselves and to question some of the practices that have gotten the country into a downward spiral, there have to be some things that change. It cannot change from the outside; it has to change from the inside.

Things like integrity, corruption, injustice— these things have to turn from the inside.

And as leadership is developed in the country and awareness is made regarding those challenges, that is where change is going to take place.”

“A R enewe d H ai t i ” Through all of these efforts, the long-term goal is to help Haiti move beyond both the problems of the earthquake and the problems that afflicted the country before.

“A renewed Haiti is a Haiti where nobody goes hungry,” Wall says. “It’s a Port-au-Prince that’s an acceptable place to live, that has the sanitation systems and the electricity systems and the basic services we all take for granted, many of which were not here before.”

That means what’s needed is more than throwing money at the problem and hoping it works. It means a carefully considered and strategic approach to spending and rebuilding.

It may even mean a process that seems painfully slow to anyone watching from the outside. But, as in many cases, sometimes the right thing to do takes the most work and time.

“It drives me crazy when people hear about Haiti and go, ‘Oh, gosh, we’ve wasted so much, those people are hopeless,’” Sabin says. “It’s not the real story. There are so many stories in Haiti. It’s an amazing place, it’s one of my favorite places in the world. It’s very complex, like every place is. We tend to see someplace superficially and say, ‘Oh, I’ve got this figured out.’ Then before you know it, you realize you didn’t know anything when you started.”

I s t here ho p e ?

No matter how much time aid workers and NGO leaders spend chronicling the complications of rebuilding Haiti, or emphasizing how difficult and complex and time-consuming such a restoration effort is, they will always tell you there’s hope.

“If you’re reading the American press, all you hear about is the grinding poverty and despair,” Sabin says. “And from the surface, when you first see it, I think it’s the chaos that really affronts your senses. But when you get to know it a little bit better, you see it is remarkably buoyant. You don’t see despair, what you see is people who are somehow coping. You ask anyone how they’re doing, and the standard answer in Creole is, ‘Not too bad.’

They never express the positive—it’s always a moderated negative—but it’s something I really end up admiring. You take it in stride and keep on going.”

Not too bad. As improbable as that may seem, when you look past the rubble and the tents and you see—really see—the people of Haiti, you can believe it.

On the way out of Port-au-Prince, near the airport, there’s an open field. Every night, children gather there to play soccer. Dodging the ever-present puddles of water, they dribble and pass in the waning light—throwing their hands in the air after each goal.

Not too bad.

W hat are t he nee ds now ?

Immediately following the earthquake, your donations went toward providing food, tents, tarps, water and medicine for the Haitian people.

But the future work of restoring Haiti will not be so immediate or visible. Here are the long-term and often behind-the-scenes priorities.

She lt er Transitional shelters of wood and steel will be needed to house those displaced following the earthquake.

E ducat ion Money for buildings, teachers’ salaries, books and supplies will assign value to education in a nation that has never had a free, public school system.

Agric ult ure Farming is essential for food and economic recovery, and requires seeds, machinery and training.

Inf ras t ruc t ure de v e l op men t Plans for sanitation, land use, clean water and better roads will need to be defined for Haiti’s unstable infrastructure.

Li v e l ihood s Job training and economic opportunity will encourage Haitians to take ownership of their recovery.

you can he l p

Rebuilding schools in Haiti It’s impossible to read about Haiti and not want to do something. The question is: What’s truly helpful? Education is the future of Haiti and yet it’s one of the most overlooked areas of aid.

RELEVANT is partnering with Convoy of Hope to rebuild three schools that were destroyed after the earthquake­. All donated money will go directly to the rebuilding efforts, which will be done by local workers. To learn more about this effort and to offer your donation, visit RELEVANTmagazine. com/HaitiSchools.

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TALIB KWELI + HI-TEK LEAD ANOTHER REVOLUTION

BY RYAN HAMM

MARION ROSS

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W

hat does it mean to start a revolution? And, perhaps more importantly, how can you turn that revolution into a popular movement?

That’s the tension rapper Talib Kweli has existed in since his career began—trying to bring awareness of social and political ills (particularly the African-American experience in the United States) while making music that’s both accessible and conscious. “It’s not that these are causes that are closest to my heart,” Kweli says. “These are things that are relevant to what’s going on. And it’s my job to be relevant and talk about what’s on people’s minds.”

That feeling of public responsibility is what sparked his reunion with producer Hi-Tek for Revolutions Per Minute, the second album from the duo’s Reflection Eternal project.

Before the album came out, Kweli said the title is inspired by that deep reservoir of thoughtful rap he’s known for. “[The title comes from] the idea of revolution through music. It’s the idea that people in today’s culture take things in YouTube-sized bites and clips—and if it’s not in a clip or a sound bite or something you can fit in under a minute, people don’t pay attention to it. The idea is: How many revolutions can you get accomplished in under a minute in a quick culture?”

In what seems like a paradox, for all the talk of revolution, Kweli is still a popular musician interested in making music people like. “I just try to make music for people to enjoy,” Kweli says. “People can apply it to their lives in the way they see fit.”

Hi-Tek backs that vision up. “At the end of the day, I just try to make good music,” he says. “Hopefully, as Talib says, I can capture people with that one revolution. People’s attention spans are very short a lot of times, just with the Internet and how disposable music is nowadays. You can pretty much Google just about anything these days and find it ‘cause somebody has posted it. But that actually takes away from the whole mystique of the music, the whole mysteriousness of it is just not there anymore. Being that it’s so easy to get and disposable, you really gotta come with it.”

Back together again This isn’t the first time the pair have come together. There’s their first collaboration as Reflection Eternal, 2000’s Train of Thought.

But Hi-Tek has also worked on all of Kweli’s solo albums but Quality and produced much of Mos Def’s and Kweli’s stone-cold classic Black Star. Likewise, Kweli has appeared on all of Hi-Tek’s solo efforts. So what makes this duo click? Why do Kweli and Hi-Tek return to one another every so often to produce these important works of hip-hop?

it lives up to the lofty expectations of Kweli’s lyrics—quite a feat indeed.

Fairly or not, in the late ’90s Kweli was saddled with the label of “socially conscious” rap. It happened to pretty much every MC who tried to talk about social issues and the effects of violence and poverty—and who dared to criticize the lifestyles of excess so prevalent in much of the day’s hip-hop. His work on Revolutions Per Minute won’t do much to remove the label—he covers topics as diverse and controversial as the Nigerian oil industry

“People in today’s culture take things in YouTubesized bites and clips—and if it’s not in a clip or a sound bite or something you can fit in under a minute, people don’t pay attention to it.” —Talib Kweli Kweli puts it simply: “He’s one of my favorite producers. It’s his musical knowledge combined with his swing, how his drums sound.

His musical knowledge of the history of music, along with his talent for hip-hop.”

And Hi-Tek has nothing but praise for his lyrically gifted collaborator. “Talib is just a hard worker. He has a great vision of what he wants to do musically, the picture he wants to paint. I just try to create the best soundscape for his vision, and he has the same drive I have, musically, just to get the music to the world.

We love the reaction of the people when they hear our music, even if it’s my music. He loves the reaction when they hear him spit and what he’s saying, catchphrases and metaphors and just his flow, period. I think he has the same drive in his lyrics as I do in my music.”

“It’s better for the music,” Kweli says of working with a single producer. “It takes longer and it requires you to work with different people, working more, compromising with somebody. But it’s better for the music.”

Getting past “consciousness” Fortunately for both Hi-Tek and Kweli, the music really is that good. So good, in fact, that

(“Ballad of the Black Gold”), health care (“Strangers (Paranoid)”) and the American obsession with fame (“Got Work”).

“I just think that’s what makes me different as a person,” Kweli says. “[I’m] talking about what I know and what I pay attention to. I suppose everybody does [that], talks about what they pay attention to.” Which, if true, is a sad commentary on a lot of rap that works its way up the charts.

It’s not just press hype that makes Kweli’s lyrics notable. Throughout his career, whether his solo projects, his towering collaborations with Mos Def as Black Star or his work with Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal, Kweli has never shied away from controversy or making his opinions known. Just don’t ask him to accept the “socially conscious rapper” label—he’s even suggested his next solo album will be called Prisoner of Consciousness.

“I think [the ‘socially conscious’ label] can [make me a prisoner], if I paid attention to it, or if I let it. But I have to actively not let it,” Kweli says. “I have to do what I think is right but also be as free as possible as an artist. I try to be honest in my craft. I’m not positive 24/7, but I’m positive balanced with negative. And if

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“I’m NOT POSITIVE 24/7 ... if I’m honest about who i am, everything’s going to fall into place.”

—Talib kweli

I’m honest about who I am, everything’s going to fall into place.”

Revolutions Per Minute also makes Kweli’s honest feelings on America’s obsession with fame very clear in the song “Got Work.”

“We don’t have any kings or queens, and religion is being exposed for being fraudulent in a lot of ways,” Kweli has said about the topic. “People have a lot more access to

information and people always want to worship something, and the next thing they turn to is the celebrities and the fame. That is our royalty, our god, what we worship and what we pay attention to. Instead of a society being drawn together from a cultural identity or drawn together because of an idea of God, we’re drawn together by our fascination with people’s lives, like a high school thing.”

But the ever-thoughtful Kweli even questions the effects of any kind of idol worship—including celebrity worship. “Is celebrity worship any better than any type of false idol worship?” he asks.

The accessibility of the revolution So how does Kweli communicate these deep— and yes, conscious—messages in a way that appeals to the masses?

“Talib is different,” Hi-Tek says. “ He has

(A brief History of Talib kweli projects)

1

Train of Thought The first collaboration of Hi-Tek and Kweli as Reflection Eternal.

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2

3

4

5

Quality

Black Star

Eardrum

Liberation

Kweli’s first solo effort, this album had production from J Dilla and Kanye West.

This classic collaboration with Mos Def is a monument of conscious rap.

Kweli’s most recent album is a return to form, with fast MC skills and more Hi-Tek tracks.

Kweli tapped producer Madlib for this record, and the collaboration suits both well.

a distinctive voice up top, and then he has a broad vocabulary, but he knows how to pull it. The way he connects words is really hard to do. His adjectives, you see what a broad vocabulary he has, just the way he puts words and makes them rhyme is just over the top. His knowledge and his down-to-earthness, he’s putting that into lyrical form. It’s crazy.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about politics,” Hi-Tek continues. “It’s mostly about just making music, and it’s more about what you’re putting into the music at the end of the day. A lot of times, even his stand on politics, when he’s rapping on my music, it might be over my head sometimes. I may have to look into what he’s actually trying to talk to the people about, get across, get them to see what his message is. It’s not necessarily [that] I’m like: ‘Yeah, yeah! The oil in Nigeria, that’s what’s up!’ That ain’t really the case. I try to paint the best soundscape for him to get his message across.”

Reflection Eternal has managed to walk the line between making music people care about and making music they simply enjoy. Hi-Tek creates the soundscapes and Kweli brings the message. “Music is a universal language,” HiTek notes. “Even if [the message] don’t catch you right away, music has to marinate and it just gets to people who are music lovers. Most people have their favorite song, for whatever reason, whether it’s the beat or whether it’s what the person is saying on the song. But I definitely feel that music is one of the best ways to get a message across to people.”

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It is better by far to depart and be with Christ, we read in the Bible.

If a short life and a longer tenure in eternity is “better,” is that a license to load up on the cheese fries? Or to reach for the super-mega-jumbo bucket of soda at the gas station?

Or to drive to a destination a quarter-mile away? Or to pound coffee to enable (and then offset) another late night? After all, if it’s better we just die already, to bring on the heavenly party, do we need to worry about how long we live?

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Some of us seem to think in this way, but Paul carries on in Philippians writing that it’s necessary for others’ benefit that he “remain in the body” (1:24, TNIV). So rather than taking care of ourselves because Michelle Obama says to, we ought to so we can have the most time possible to do the most good possible until we are in the sweet by-and-by. Here are some basic steps to help you live to a ripe old age.

Garbage In, Garbage Out Those cheese fries we were talking about carry 1,967 calories (if they’re the regular Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries). So you can eat those and you’re just about set for the day, from a calorie standpoint. But when you eat high calorie, high fat, high carbohydrate, highly processed foods, you’re making a death wish.

You’ve heard all the rules of what’s good for you and what’s not, so now organize your busy life so you have time and energy to create and savor the good foods.

Start by “de-marketing” your menus, thinking about food without the contamination

of those who want to sell you stuff. When we see and experience food without the lenses provided by advertisers, we begin to develop healthier attitudes about food. If the ingredients on the labels of your typical lunch fare don’t sound like food, they probably shouldn’t be. Get yourself a good old-school cookbook like Irma Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking, or the Mennonite wonder, the More-With-Less Cookbook, and read it all—not just the recipes, but the directions. You’ll be surprised how much good stuff lil’ ol’ you can make yourself, how much money you save, how little time it takes and how good you feel.

And limit the portion size—you don’t have any more growth spurts coming on.

End Fuego Still lighting up? Just stop before it’s illegal everywhere and you go to jail with Joe Camel, the Marlboro Man and a guy named Tiny.

Brusha Brusha Brusha Raise your hand if you brush twice a day and floss every day. OK, for the other 99.6 percent of you, at least try to hit the basics (brush daily, floss weekly, mouthwash once in a while—and make sure it’s the kind that makes your eyes water after 10 seconds. You’ll know it’s doing something). Get checked out once a year by somebody in a white coat. Nobody wants to live the last 40 years of their century gumming down pudding and soft processed meats.

No Pain, No Gain OK, exercise doesn’t really need to hurt. At least, it doesn’t once you’re in reasonable shape.

Getting started can be hard, but setting a firm commitment to something—anything—and then building from there can do a lot.

You might enjoy running in circles around your block like a gerbil or doing whatever it’s called when you move on an elliptical machine, but some people find exercise feels stupid

You’re Getting Sleepy …

Sometimes we wear it like a sort of badge of honor—“I only got four hours of sleep last night.”

But in the long run, we’re wrecking ourselves if we’re constantly deprived of sleep. Have the discipline and self-control to turn off the TV or computer or put down the book or phone. Our 100-year bodies need to shut off, heal themselves and process stuff in Dream Land.

If outside recess is good for a first-grader, why shouldn’t it be good for you? because you’re not accomplishing anything.

So accomplish something with your muscles.

Many a college student and cubicle dweller have discovered just how pleasurable an afternoon raking leaves, digging trenches or even shoveling manure can feel in the midst of brainintensive work. Remember, you heard it here first: shoveling manure = pleasurable.

Offer to mow an elderly person’s lawn for a summer (with a push mower), or shovel their drive for a winter, weed their flower beds, clean their gutters or walk their poodle. They might offer you a little cash in return, and you’ll probably strike up a precious friendship. They might even join in, which would be good for them, too. Just don’t push them too hard, OK?

Make Friends with Squirrels If outside recess is good for a first-grader, why shouldn’t it be good for you? Besides the exercise benefit, your body and soul benefit just from getting into the great outdoors, hearing water moving and noticing the shape of trees.

So get off your duff and go play outside. Do it with a friend. Do it with a group. Do it alone.

Snowshoe. Surf. Walk to buy groceries. Climb mountains. Pick wild raspberries. Wendell Berry wrote, “Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.” Get out and find some.

That said, if you regularly snag 10 hours of shuteye, you may want to cut back. It’s not good to fall off the other side of the horse, either.

Chill that Self Out It’s good to make your nights restful enough. But if all day every day is jam-packed with problems, issues, questions, disputes, friction, faction, fractions, fissures and other stress, you’re going to punk out before you hit The Century.

So take up bocce, learn to crochet, sit and talk with friends, and generally do a bit of what makes you happy. Take time to rest physically, mentally and spiritually. Occasionally plan ahead to drop work for a day and give yourself a retreat. Tell your boss if necessary. Use that time to consider your future and present, pray and remind yourself to “suck all the marrow out of life” like Henry David Thoreau.

Contemplate the Greater Things of Life While you’re feeding your body with wholesome goodness, feed your brain, too. Don’t stop at the quotes above from Wendell Berry or Thoreau: find a whole book by one of them, a big armchair and enjoy. In fact, read some more poetry, like Garrison Keillor’s anthology, Good Poems. Find a list of required high school English reading and tap into the age-old wisdom of some classic literature. Visit an art museum. There’s a time

and place for Family Guy and South Park, but also for Dostoevsky and Poe. And tap into good music. Maybe you’re tone-deaf and rhythmically challenged. Maybe you’re an arms-glued-to-thighs frozen-chosen stiff. Maybe waving flags across a stage or even clapping your hands in church isn’t your thing.

But find other ways to let music lighten your soul. Attend live music concerts that make you happy. Dance in the dark. Take up the penny whistle, the cello, the hammer dulcimer or the electric bass.

Stash the Cash (or Give it Away) Think about the resources you have, those that you anticipate and what you’ll do with all of them. North America has a lot to offer the rest of the world, but one thing we need to get from others is perspective on our wealth. So spend time with people who have less, question your consumption and be generous. Oh, and having a little extra socked away can keep you a bit calmer—but balance that with Jesus’ words about building bigger barns and trusting in wealth.

If you search for Bible verses on long life, you’ll find goodies like Proverbs 28:16: “One who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long life.”

So hate ill-gotten gain. Hate injustice, and do something about it. Incidentally, you’ll also find long life is promised to people who love God, obey God and even go so far as to obey their parents, so work on those while you’re at it.

You Just Need Someone to Love …

In the platonic sense. When we have good, supportive, honest, challenging community, we are better people. When we are engaged in acts of service frequently, we keep ourselves from getting all screwed up in our heads.

Talk to real people in person, not just through your computer screen. Find ways to help other people, both for their sake and to remind yourself your life on earth matters.

Pretend you’re a reporter for a day and interview a stranger just to learn something new about this world. Make excuses to invite people over, whether for a pajama party, a fondue dipping night, a croquet tournament or installing (and then using) a basketball hoop in your driveway.

Turn Off the Local Evening News The headline story one night a couple years ago was, “Escalators—Hidden Danger?!” C’mon, people, we need to live our lives. Interactions and relationships with people in different cultures can teach us how to think realistically about risk and threats. We sometimes worry ourselves into a tizzy for naught.

So, your century may ring up in 2077 or 2087 or somewhere thereabouts. Maybe it’s time to go make some goals for the next 75 years.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 59

BY JESSICA MISENER

Deirdre O’Callaghan

60 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

What does a U.K. dance band do when the electronica scene starts to tire out? Simple: write brooding ballads and Britpop anthems instead.

In 1998, the band known in the British dance scene as Sub Sub re-hatched under a new moniker, swapping synthesizers for solemnity and penning slower tracks soaked in love and mourning. Doves was formed, and it was a surprising success.

Their reinvented sound, one they’ve sustained for more than 10 years now, is like Coldplay with seasonal affective disorder, or The Verve with a symphony that’s actually bittersweet: melodic with a dash of melancholy; sweeping anthems that combine traditional pop guitar and piano with alt-rock plaintiveness.

But whether you’ve heard of them might boil down to one factor: where you live.

“Our fan base in the U.K. is almost like a religion,” says Jeremy “Jez” Williams, guitarist and vocalist for the indie trio. He’s right; across the pond, Doves scored back to back No. 1’s on the U.K. charts with their first two studio albums.

Yet in the U.S., the band’s lilting melodies and sumptuous piano ballads have staunchly skirted the mainstream. Most indie bands have a name for that: ideal success.

“It’s sometimes pleasant to come to the U.S., where things are more low-key,” Williams says.

Worldwide, their fans have seen the band through a decade and through four studio albums. In April, Doves released The Places Between: The Best of Doves, a career-spanning collection of their favorite songs.

Escaping Manchester The band’s story begins with twin brothers Andy and Jez Williams growing up in Manchester, a bustling town in northern England famous for churning out noteworthy bands like Morrissey, The Smiths, Joy Division and Oasis.

“The only way to escape

Manchester is to play football or make music,” Williams says with a laugh.

In 1989, the brothers connected with local guitarist Jimi Goodwin, who they knew from high school, and the trio formed the techno group Sub Sub. They eventually scored a top 5 hit with the song “Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use),” which was Sub Sub’s biggest single.

“When we were first starting out, dance music had just hit England, and we were swept away with that.

That’s when Andy and I decided to get together with Jimi because we were all digging the same kind of music. We were witnessing a new music revolution,” Williams says.

“But then the dance scene started getting stale. We felt the need to change and try different things; we were getting a little bit bored and we wanted to move on.

Still, morphing and changing our sound was a slow process.”

They were also aided by an unfortunate twist of fate. In 1996, the band’s recording studio burned down, providing the impetus for the re-launch as Doves in 1998.

Synths down, guitars up The newly christened Doves said adieu to the dance floor and got their rock start by releasing three EPs. In 2000, they put out their first studio album, Lost Souls. The record was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize—an honor given to the best album released in the U.K. or Ireland—and Williams calls it their most “brooding” record. For the fledgling Doves, it seemed switching to a more somber form of music felt like a trip home.

“We were well-versed in the traditional instruments, so it was refreshing to write songs that were in more of the traditional structure,” Williams says.

Musically, Doves’ sound is

peculiarly, perhaps stubbornly, retro. Their album comes a decade after the zenith of their mellow, brooding brand of indie. While bands like Travis have faded from the spotlight over the years, Doves has sustained their sound under the radar while never subjecting it to over-experimentation. Some may allege the stability indicates a lack of creativity, but Williams sees their music as tenacious and multifaceted.

“We’ve never really crossed over to the mainstream,” Williams admits, “but we’ve gained a massive following in the U.S. of people who come to our shows, and maybe that’s more important. We’ve been fortunate to stay relevant in people’s minds for over a decade, which is an accomplishment in itself.”

Most bands with their longevity would have made the tabloids with reports of trysts and trouble, yet Doves has remained humble and grounded, a fact Williams attributes to lessons learned.

“We partied a lot early on, and we learned a lot that way about how not to do things. That makes us humble and a bit more wise and ready to handle the pitfalls.

“Keep an eye on the money,” he advises. “Work one day and then take the next day off. Unfortunately, younger bands have to work harder these days because people don’t buy albums anymore. But it’s easy to ruin music with ego.”

Breaking through A Mercury Prize nomination was also bestowed on their next LP, The Last Broadcast, which hit No. 1 in the U.K. Albums chart and spawned the hit singles “There Goes the Fear” and “Pounding.”

Doves recorded its next studio album, Some Cities, in the British countryside, and it took the same meteoric path, reaching No. 1 on the U.K. Albums chart in 2005.

It’s then that Doves slowly began to achieve mainstream renown. In 2005, they opened shows for U2, Oasis and Coldplay, and their song “Caught by the River” was featured on the hit primetime soap The O.C. Tour dates stretched worldwide, and the band played major music festivals like Britain’s T in the Park. They’ve been reaping that slow-burn success ever since.

Songs for every feeling For a band that began with club music, Doves is now one of the most cerebral bands in the indie scene. As Williams puts it, “We’ve got songs for every feeling, man.”

So, what’s next? Following a world tour, the trio is going to spend some time apart.

“We’re going to pursue different projects and then hopefully come back to Doves,” Williams says.

But he’s adamant the hiatus is only temporary, and devoted fans of Doves needn’t worry about dissolution.

“Music should be an escape, like going on holiday,” Williams says.

After more than a decade, it sounds like Doves has found their path to flight.

The Doves: Start with these The Last Broadcast The band’s second album is their best. It’s Brit rock at its very finest.

Kingdom of Rust Their most recent album, it proves they’re one of the most consistent bands out there.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 61

by MATTHEW PAUL TURNER

62 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

I

case some of them tried to shimmy their way inside our heads. Demons were scary enough, but nude demons gyrating their hips inside our brains—that would require a prescription. And Baptists who required antidepressants often turned into atheists or, sometimes, Methodists.

I didn’t want to be either, but the thought of standing among a bunch of strangers with my ears covered sounded immature. My sister was 13 and on fire for Jesus, which made her incapable of stomaching guilt of any kind.

I didn’t like guilt either, but I was in the 11th grade so I had mastered it to some degree. Not only could I hold my girlfriend’s hand without confessing my sin, I could tell a white lie once in a while without getting diarrhea.

That was as free-inChrist as it got.

The music became louder, the rhythm heavier. All of us watched the stage with weighted anticipation for Ollie to appear. Then a voice that sounded familiar began singing over the beat. I knew the voice, but I couldn’t place it.

Elisabeth elbowed me again. “Cover. Your.

Ears.”

The first time I remember my mother making my sister and me “put our ear muffs on” happened during a trip to Drug Fair when the three of us heard Madonna for the first time. I was 10 and didn’t know what a virgin was, and by the look of repugnance on my mother’s face, I was pretty sure I never wanted to find out. It must be like the mumps or impetigo, I thought.

As I stood in the bleachers, a small door on the left side of the stage opened, and the cutest furry animal I had ever seen appeared.

Ollie was an otter. A real otter. The little guy pranced out to the beat of the music like he’d practiced his routine a thousand times. I had no idea otters, like chimps, seals and toddlers, could be trained to entertain humans. I wanted to applaud for Ollie, but I couldn’t—not without unmuffling my ears. I considered asking the lady next to me if she minded putting her hands over my ears so I could clap, but she avoided eye contact.

Ollie scurried toward his trainer on his hind legs. In his little hands, he carried a Pepsi can, and it dawned on me how I knew the song: it was “Bad” from Michael Jackson’s Pepsi commercial. I’d only seen the ad a couple of times, but I loved it. The tune was so catchy; I couldn’t deny its power over me. Its sound was so distinct. Even at muffled volume, the

’ve been told all my life that God’s timing is perfect. And I believe that, for the most part. But on the afternoon He called me to become the Michael Jackson of Christian music, His “perfect timing” was tolerable at best.

My family and I were at Sea World in Orlando, watching trained sea lions play volleyball. I was 16.

When one team of sea lions was finally deemed the winners, their trainer held up a bucket of fish and tossed minnows in both the winners’ and losers’ mouths.

“OK, Sea World guests, we have a very special treat for you this afternoon!” A man wearing khaki shorts and a blue Sea World polo shirt looked back at one of his fellow trainers, and she gave him a nod. “Without further ado, please give a loud Sea World welcome to our newest little friend here at Sea World Orlando—Ollie!”

As soon as he said “Ollie,” a loud beat that sounded like popcorn popping in rhythm started thumping out of the loudspeakers.

Immediately, my sister’s face turned ghostly white, which meant God was telling her something. Covering her ears with her hands, Elisabeth nudged me with her elbow. “Cover your ears,” she said in her demanding Christlike tone. “That is a syncopated beat.”

Elisabeth was right. The beat was syncopated, and for a young Independent Fundamental Baptist, few things existed that were more frightful than a syncopated beat.

For good reason, too. Whenever my church deemed a beat “syncopated,” it meant it was the kind of beat to which Baptist missionaries had witnessed evil spirits conjured among naked African tribes.

That was why we covered our ears—just in

pop percussion and sensuous bass line took control of my head and made it bounce like a souped-up low rider with hydraulics.

While the song played, Ollie did several tricks. He caught a ball. Waved at us in the bleachers. He even moonwalked. And that’s when God spoke. Not audibly. Not with flaming clouds or burning shrubbery. Just in my head.

What if I become God’s Michael Jackson?

I thought. I imagined God’s Michael Jackson being exactly like the devil’s Michael Jackson, except without catchy drumbeats, sexual dancing and changing skin color. God told me Baptists needed somebody to look up to, somebody talented who didn’t wear a three-piece suit. Somebody they could listen to without guilt and still feel cool. God needed me. As I thought about my idea, a peaceful satisfaction settled in my soul. I looked up into the sky and whispered: “Thank you, God. You never cease to amaze me.” I knew seeing Ollie’s dance performance wasn’t by accident.

God wanted me to see him shake his little abdomen. I knew because I didn’t feel guilty for enjoying it.

When the show was over, as my family and I exited the amphitheater, I started singing “Bad” to myself.

The next day at school, Willie and I were the only two people in our homeroom classroom after school. He was there serving detention.

One of the teachers heard him mutter the word “golly” with the same inflection that sinners said the word “God.” I was making up an exam I had missed while on vacation.

When I finished the test, I told Willie about what happened at Sea World and how it caused me to ponder if Baptists needed a Michael Jackson. He thought the idea was ludicrous.

“Why would Baptists need their own Michael Jackson, Matthew?”

“Why not?” I replied.

“You know what the Bible says as well as I do: whatsoever things are of good report.

We’re supposed to think on those things.”

He tapped his finger on the table. “Michael Jackson is not of good report, Matthew.”

“It’s not like I would do the bad stuff that Michael Jackson does. You have to admit, there’s something a little cool about him.”

Willie’s eyes grew to the size of Egg McMuffins. “Do you hear yourself? There is nothing holy, upright or cool about Michael Jackson. Nothing. He’s a sinner.” Willie quieted his voice to a whisper. “He grabs his private area when he sings. I suppose you think that’s what God has called you to do?”

He was joking, but both of us immediately thought of our Algebra II instructor, Mr. Nelg.

In addition to teaching us about polynomials and factoring, Mr. Nelg also taught the high school boys’ Sunday school class. The year

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 63

before, he’d spent 45 minutes talking to us about how disgusted he was that Michael Jackson grabbed his crotch in front of teenagers.

“Can you imagine?” he said. “If I ever caught one of you young men grabbing down there in public”—he lowered his eyes for emphasis—“ I would come up behind you and

really know what His voice sounds like. Most of the time it seems there are a whole bunch of voices sounding off in my head.”

“Well,” I said, “does the voice that you think is God’s ever tell you what you should do when you grow up?”

“Yep. I’m either going to be a fireman or an emergency medical technician. It’s like God can’t make up His mind, so I keep going back and forth between the two.”

Willie was right. God sometimes seemed a bit schizophrenic when it came to helping people make decisions about careers. In my short life, He’d told me to be a veterinarian, a pharmacist, Jerry Falwell’s choir director and a preacher. Now He was telling me to be Michael Jackson so Christians would

But the people who asked me that question had no clue about my dilemma. They didn’t understand what made my situation complicated. My problem had nothing to do with not knowing what I was going to do with my life. My problem was that I thought God had revealed exactly what I was supposed to do, and I didn’t want to tell anybody about it. I wasn’t ashamed of my spiritual calling, but admitting I planned to move to Nashville because God had called me to be the Michael Jackson of Christian music wasn’t easy.

Some people became defensive. Some quoted Scripture. Others laughed. Some changed the subject. Once in a while they asked questions: Does Christian music need a Michael Jackson? Can you moonwalk? Will you wear a glove on one hand? The negativity and sarcasm overwhelmed me at times, but I wasn’t surprised by it.

Any time God was involved in somebody’s circumstances, Baptists expected a fair

“Does Christian music need a Michael Jackson? Can you moonwalk? Will you wear a glove on one hand?” The negativity and sarcasm overwhelmed me at times, but I wasn’t surprised by it.

kick you in the backside.”

I quickly realized debating the validity of what God had told me with Willie was pointless, so I asked, “Willie, do you ever hear God?” Willie rolled his eyes, and I knew why. As much as my friends and I talked about God, the Bible, and all the various things God mentioned He hated in the Bible, we rarely spoke aloud about how God interacted with us personally. It just wasn’t a topic that got brought up. Which meant that when it did get brought up, we didn’t know how to respond honestly.

We talked all the time about how God was close to us. We even knew the proper way in which to explain it. Our bodies are the temples of God, we told non-Baptists. As one of God’s temples, we were like walking church sanctuaries He lived inside. But none of us seemed close to God. We just told people we were. “Sometimes I think He says things to me,” Willie said. “But to be honest, I don’t

64 / RELEVANT_JUL/AUG 10

have somebody to idolize.

“I’ve always enjoyed music, so maybe that’s what I’m supposed to do.”

“But don’t you think there’s a difference between singing in church and being like Michael Jackson?”

Willie didn’t seem to understand what I was trying to say, and I wasn’t very good at explaining it. Two years went by before I mentioned it again, but I never stopped thinking about it. I kept hearing God say it over and over in my head.

When I was a senior in high school, the first question most people asked when the topic of college came up was something like, “So, Matthew, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?”

“Uh, well,” I said, “it’s sort of complicated.”

“Complicated” was a good word to use in that situation because most people responded by nodding and saying something along the lines of: “You don’t have to say another word, Matthew. I understand. It is complicated.

Figuring out what you want to do with your life can be stressful. But you’ll figure it out. God will show you what you should do. You’ll see.”

amount of teasing and mocking. It was practically a given.

Whenever God chose somebody to do something miraculous or special or asinine, Pastor Nolan told us to anticipate scoffers.

He said scoffers could come from anywhere— work, home, even church.

Pastor Nolan did try to encourage us with pep talks once in a while. He told us that whenever people criticized or stood in the way of our callings, we should keep our eyes on the mission God set before us and run over the cynics and pessimists as if they were merely speed bumps. “When God calls you to do something,” he preached on several occasions, “you don’t stop when people mock you or say mean things about you. You don’t stop doing God’s work for nobody! You keep going.”

Sometimes Pastor Nolan offered us examples of people in the Bible who didn’t stop. “Moses didn’t stop when the children of Israel complained! Joshua didn’t stop when the Israelites whined about walking around the city of Jericho! Noah didn’t stop when people teased him about building the ark!”

Out of Pastor Nolan’s three examples, I identified a lot with Noah. I understood what

it felt like to be mocked simply because I was following God’s call on my life.

Noah’s circumstances and mine were quite different, though. God hadn’t called him to become a Baptist-based King of Popular Christian Music. And, unlike Noah’s, my calling didn’t come with an apocalypse attached. One friend disagreed. He told me that my becoming a combo of Michael Jackson and Jesus was definitely a sign of The End. My favorite part of Pastor Nolan’s encouragement was the conclusion. He’d stop screaming, look around the auditorium, wipe beads of sweat off his forehead and then whisper: “But the naysayers who mocked Moses, Joshua and Noah didn’t get the last laugh. No, they didn’t. Does anybody know who did? Church, are you listening to me this morning? Who got the last laugh?”

People in the auditorium usually got excited during this part. Some would holler, “Amen” or, “Preach it” or, “I know who laughed, Pastor.”

Others nodded their heads and fanned their faces with church bulletins. And then Pastor Nolan delivered his grand finale. “You wanna know who got the last laugh, church?” he said, his voice becoming louder with each word.

“Moses got the last laugh. Joshua got the last laugh! Noah got the last laugh! And ultimately, God got the last laugh!”

Whenever Pastor Nolan preached that sermon, I always left church wanting to laugh—just like Moses, Joshua, Noah and God laughed. So far everybody else was laughing, which sometimes caused me to wonder whether I’d heard God correctly or whether or not I’d heard God at all.

My dream of becoming the King of Christian Pop died a slow death during my time in Nashville. Looking back, I realize that was a good thing—for me and Christian-music fans. Perhaps being the Michael Jackson of Christian music was my desire, and since saying that out loud sounded so ridiculous, I subconsciously pushed the blame onto God in order to make myself pursue it. Or maybe I dreamed up that calling because, at the time, it sounded exciting and I needed to have something to look forward to. Still, I believed with all my heart that God had ordained the career I’d set my sights on. And nobody could have convinced me otherwise.

Age and experience has taught me that “hearing God” will always be somewhat complicated, involved and difficult to navigate.

How can it not be?

Putting our hope and trust in a message that, for most of us, isn’t delivered by an audible voice or written down on God’s letterhead or somehow provable without us first conjuring up enough faith to believe in its divinity is a frightening task. To act on what we

Age and experience have taught me that “hearing God” will always be somewhat complicated ...

hear pushes us out of our comfort zones and sometimes sets us up to appear foolish or worse, fail. But then again, for those of us who believe, the thought of ignoring that still small voice seems just as insane as putting our faith in it. I think that’s true because most of us would rather risk the chance of our big dreams crashing and burning than to ignore the voice of something or someone we know we heard speak words of life into our passions.

Sure, it’s risky, and to some, stupid and ridiculous. But sometimes I need uncertainty.

Sometimes I need to journey on the unsafe terrain of belief. Not because I’m masochistic, but because it’s in my willingness to stand on the shaky foundations that exist somewhere between my unseen dreams and my everpresent reality that my faith in God begins, where it becomes tangible and human and without guarantee.

I’ve heard God speak on many occasions, and on many more occasions I’ve mistakenly believed I heard God speak. Either scenario is scary, uncertain and requires faith. But even when life turns out to be much different than what I’d imagined, I always end up being grateful I listened and believed. Because God exists on either path, the ones He leads and the ones you think He’s leading. That’s one thing I know to be true about God. I still think His timing is questionable, but at least He talks to me once in a while in the waiting room.

Matthew Paul Turner is a writer and speaker and blogs at JesusNeedsNewPR.net.

Adapted from Hear No Evil by Matthew Paul Turner copyright © 2010 by Matthew Paul Turner, by permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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BY N.T. WRIGHT

James was in his early 20s when it happened. Out of the blue, he met up with an old friend who was on his way to a meeting at a nearby church.

James went too, and that very night, to his complete astonishment, his life was turned upside down and inside out.

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ames was telling me this story because he had now run into a puzzle. He had been attending the church where he’d had that wonderful, life-changing experience. He had learned a lot about God and Jesus. He’d learned a lot, too, about himself. But he found himself now staring at a big question mark.

What am I here for?

He put it like this, as we talked: God loves me; yes. He’s transformed my life so I find I want to pray, to worship, to read the Bible, to abandon the old self-destructive ways I used to behave. That’s great. God wants me to tell other people about this good news, so they can find it for themselves. And obviously all this comes with the great promise that one day I’ll be with God forever. But what am I here for now? What happens after you believe ... and before you finally die and go to heaven?

What’s more, James had discovered a puzzle within this question. Many of his new friends lived very strict, self-disciplined lives. They had learned a lot of rules for Christian behavior, primarily from the Bible, and they believed God wanted them to follow those rules. But James couldn’t see how this squared with the basic teaching that God had accepted him as he was, because of Jesus and what He’d done, simply on the basis of faith. If that was so, why should he be bound by all these old rules, some of which seemed, frankly, bizarre?

opening act of faith and commitment, for the initial statement of that faith (“believing that Jesus died for me” or whatever), that they have a big gap in their vision of what being a Christian is all about. It’s as though they were standing on one side of a deep, wide river, looking across to the further bank. On this bank you declare your faith.

On the opposite bank is the ultimate result—final salvation itself. But what are people supposed to do in the meantime?

Simply stand here and wait? Is there no bridge between the two? What does this say about faith itself? If we’re not careful, wrote my friend, this opening act of belief can become “simply a matter of assent to a proposition (Jesus is Son of God, etc.), with no need for transformation.”

Transformation! Now there’s an interesting idea. But is it appropriate to think like that? Isn’t that suggesting there’s a way across from the present to the future, across that wide river called The Rest of My Life—a bridge put up in the old days when people thought you could use your own moral effort to make yourself good enough for God? But if moral effort doesn’t count for anything, what is then the point of being a Christian—what am I supposed to be doing with all that time in between?

One of the most haunting scenes in the Gospel story is the tale of the rich, bright, eager young man who comes running up to Jesus with an urgent question (Matthew 19:16–30; Mark 10:17–22; Luke 18:18–30). “What must I do,” he blurts out, “to inherit eternal life?”

Notice what has happened. The young man has come wanting fulfillment. He wants his life to be complete—complete in the present, so it can be complete in the future. He knows he is still “lacking” something, and he is looking for a goal, a completion. Jesus suggests he needs turning inside out. His life is to become part of a larger, outward-looking purpose: he is to put God’s Kingdom first, and put his neighbor (especially his poor neighbor) before his own fulfillment and prospects. Here is the real challenge: not just to add one or two more commandments, to set the moral bar a little higher, but to become a different sort of person altogether.

Jesus is challenging the young man to a transformation of character.

Learning to navigate this world wisely, and to grow toward complete and mature human life in and through it all, is the challenge we all face.

I was reminded of James when I had an email, just the other day, from a good friend. Many people, he wrote, find it all too easy to get the idea “that one can just believe in Jesus and then really do nothing else.” Many Christians have so emphasized the need for conversion, for the

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And the young man isn’t up for it. He turns and goes away, sad.

Here is the gap between theory and reality, between command and performance. Jesus has told him how to behave, but the young man doesn’t know how to do it. The question hangs, disturbingly, over the rest of the Gospel story. What is the path to God’s new age, to the new time when God’s Kingdom will flood the world with justice and peace?

How are we to be the sort of people who not only inherit that world but actually join in right now to help make it happen?

But what we notice in Mark 10 is something which seems to operate in a different dimension. For a start, it is a call, not to specific acts of behavior, but to a type of character. For another thing, it is a call to see oneself as having a role to play within a story—and a story where there is one supreme Character whose life is to be followed. And that Character seems to have His eye on a goal, and to be shaping His own life, and those of His followers, in relation to that goal.

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ut part of the problem of knowing how to behave is that this kind of “knowing” isn’t straightforward. From the moment a young child is told to eat up quickly, or to sit still, or to stop crying, or to go to sleep, let alone told not to steal or bully or tell lies, he or she has entered a confusing world of wants and hopes, of commands and prohibitions, of feelings and assumptions and questions and expectations. Learning to navigate this world wisely, and to grow toward complete and mature human life in and through it all, is the challenge we all face. The dynamic of “virtue,” in this sense—practicing the habits of heart and life that point toward the true goal of human existence—lies at the heart of the challenge of Christian behavior, as set out in the New Testament itself. This is what it means to develop “character.” This is what we need—and what the Christian faith offers—for the time, “after you believe.”

When we approach things from this angle, we are in for some surprises.

A great many Christians, in my experience, never think of things this way, and so get themselves in all kinds of confusion. Virtue, to put it bluntly, is a revolutionary idea in today’s world—and today’s church. But the revolution is one we badly need. And it is right at the core of the answer to the questions with which we began. After you believe, you need to develop Christian character by practicing the specifically Christian “virtues.” To make wise moral decisions, you need not just to “know the rules” or “discover who you really are,” but to develop Christian virtue. And to give wise leadership in our wider society in the confusing times we live in, we urgently need people whose characters have been formed in much the same way. We’ve had enough of pragmatists and self-seeking risk-takers. We need people of character.

What might all this say to James, puzzled about what life is supposed to be like between the first expression of Christian faith and its final fruition after death?

The fundamental answer is that what we’re “here for” is to become genuine human beings, reflecting the God in whose image we’re made, and doing so in worship on the one hand and in mission, in its full and large sense, on the other; and that we do this not least by “following Jesus.” The way this works out is that it produces, through the work of the Holy Spirit, a transformation of character.

This transformation will mean that we do indeed “keep the rules”— though not out of a sense of externally imposed “duty,” but out of the character that has been formed within us. And it will mean that we do indeed “follow our hearts” and live “authentically”—but only when, with that transformed character fully operative, the hard work up front bears fruit in spontaneous decisions and actions that reflect what has been formed deep within. And, in the wider world, the challenge we face is to grow and develop a fresh generation of leaders, in all walks of life, whose character has been formed in wisdom and public service, not in greed for money or power.

The heart of it—the central thing that is supposed to happen “after you believe”—is thus the transformation of character.

This transformation will mean that we do indeed “keep the rules”—though not out of a sense of externally imposed “duty,” but out of the character that has been formed within us.

All of this suggests that Mark’s gospel, with Jesus Himself as the great Character who stands behind it, is inviting us to something not so much like rule-keeping on the one hand or following our own dreams on the other, but a way of being human to which philosophers ancient and modern have given a particular name. My contention is that the New Testament invites its readers to learn how to be human in this particular way, which will both inform our moral judgments and form our characters so we can live by their guidance. The name for this way of being human, this kind of transformation of character, is virtue.

V

irtue, in this sense, isn’t simply another way of saying “goodness.” The word has sometimes been flattened out like that (perhaps because we instinctively want to escape its challenge). Virtue, in this strict sense, is what happens when someone has made a thousand small choices, requiring effort and concentration, to do something which is good and right but which doesn’t “come naturally”—and then, on the thousand and first time, when it really matters, they find that they do what’s required “automatically,” as we say. On that thousand and first occasion, it does indeed look as if it “just happens”; but reflection tells us it doesn’t just happen as easily as that. Virtue doesn’t come by accident. It comes through the self-discipline required to do anything in life really well—to learn a musical instrument, to mend a tractor, to give a lecture, to run an orphanage. Or, indeed, to live as a wise human being.

Again and again, when you’re working hard at a difficult or complex task, the mind will try to jump away, to focus instead on something easier or more enticing. And again and again, if you’re going to get the job done, you have to force your mind back onto the job and away from the distraction. And the mental muscles you require if you’re going to do that have to be trained, just as much as physical muscles do when you’re working up for sustained and strenuous exercise. (This, by the way, is one of the underlying reasons why watching television for hours on end can be such a bad habit. Programs are carefully designed to be enticing and undemanding. They offer “training” in avoiding hard work, in “going with the flow.” Which is fine for relaxation, but not for learning the mental habits you need for a fully human existence.)

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N.T. Wright is bishop of Durham for the Church of England and one of the world’s leading Bible scholars. He taught New Testament studies for 20 years at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. He is the author of Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian and After You Believe, from which this excerpt is adapted by permission of HarperOne, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.

WESLEY SEMINARY

INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

BE YOND

BLOCKBUSTERS

y

ou know about th e A-team . but what are the truly good movies coming out this summer? here’s a sneak previe w.

by ryan hamm

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Summertime is usually the best to let your mind wander at the movies. You grab your oversized theater snacks, tilt your head back and enter a maze of explosions and frenetically edited bliss.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with going to the movies for escapism. But sometimes you want (or you want to want) something deeper at the multiplex. With that in mind, here are some movies out this summer that are a bit weightier than the usual popcorn fare. Some of them might be hard to find, but we think they’ll be worth the hunt.

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A documentary on the friendlyfire death of Pat Tillman, the former football player who joined the armed forces after 9/11. The film documents the efforts by Tillman’s mother to find out the truth of what happened to her son after she realized that facts surrounding his death were covered up.

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We’re assuming inception is mostly leo saying, “If you remind me about titanic once more, i will steal your thoughts.”

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1 INC EP T ION

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout

The new movie from Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), Inception looks like a throwback to his mind-bending Memento. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a man with the ability to enter the subconscious of people and who then sells their secrets to the highest bidder.

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Josh Radnor (TV’s How I Met Your Mother) makes his directorial debut with what could be this summer’s Garden State or (500) Days of Summer. It centers on a group of twentysomething New Yorkers trying to figure out life and love. Yes, we know, it sounds cliché, but hopefully Radnor’s fresh take on it will lend some authenticity.

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2 C a s ino J a ck a nd

t he U ni t e d Stat e s of Mone y Rated R for some language

This documentary (from Oscarwinning filmmaker Alex Gibney) tells the story of Jack Abramoff, a D.C. lobbyist currently serving a prison term for defrauding Indian tribes who invested with him. It’ll be slanted and scintillating but will no doubt reveal a little more of the lobbying underbelly in D.C.

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Rated PG for cultural and maternal nudity throughout

This is a documentary tracing the first year of four different infants from Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco and Tokyo. It delves into cultural differences in child rearing and how babies are regarded in different societies.

Rated R for language and some sexual material

This year’s awkward romantic comedy stars John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei and Catherine Keener. Reilly reclaims his role as a sad sack who finds someone to love in Tomei. But his efforts at a relationship are strained by the insane antics of Tomei’s son (played by Hill) who’s a little too close to his mom for anyone’s comfort.

7 Agor a Unrated

This film explores the clash of religion and philosophy in the ancient library city of Alexandria.

It stars Rachel Weisz as the female philosopher Hypatia, who was killed by Christians during a politically volatile time in Roman history. It will probably be a “rationalism vs. religion” piece, but it’s sure to spark conversation and will certainly be a beautiful period drama.

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Rated R for drug content, language throughout and brief sexual material

Current nerd-on-the-rise Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland) stars in this inspired-by-real-events movie as a Hasidic Jew who gets sucked into the world of drug smuggling.

The film will explore the line between sin and redemption, as Eisenberg’s character finds himself caught up in the drug lifestyle instead of the religious one his parents hoped for him.

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Rated R for disturbing bloody war violence, language including sexual references and some nudity

Set entirely inside of a tank, this film is an Israeli anti-war film about the Israel-Lebanon war of 1982. It caused some controversy after winning the Venice Film Festival, but critics and audiences have been amazed by its unflinching depiction of war time. The filmmaker reportedly took 25 years to write the script because the writing process made him physically sick.

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Rated R for some sexuality and brief violence

The new film from the director of Amélie and A Very Long Engagement, Micmacs is about a man who gets a stray bullet in the head during a shooting and finds himself living in a strange community of people with disfigurements. It looks as magical and beautiful as Amélie did the first time we saw it.

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Not Yet Rated

It’s always exciting when a major star (or two) decides to make a thoughtful film like The Adjustment Bureau. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt play star-crossed lovers who find they’re being kept apart by mysterious forces. The film is based on a Philip K. Dick story and should have plenty of ruminations on free will vs. fate and choice vs. destiny.

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CROSSING THE

LINE When is it art? and when is it just too far?

by Brett McCracken

O

n a Saturday afternoon on the Left Bank of Paris last summer, I decided to see Antichrist, a new film from director Lars von Trier.

It was a mistake.

The movie was full of disturbing images that make anything from The Exorcist look saintly by comparison. When the lead actress (Charlotte Gainsbourg) drills a hole in Willem Dafoe’s leg and puts in a big bolt with a millstone, it’s one thing. When she takes scissors to her lady parts (in extreme close-up), it’s just too much.

I walked out of the theater feeling filthy and scarred, and ran to the nearest creperie so I could feel better about humanity.

I usually don’t do that. As a film critic, I sit through pretty much anything and try to give it the benefit of the doubt.

I have to see a lot of movies that are not necessarily pleasant to sit through. And indeed, a lot of my favorite films—and some of

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the most beautiful, important films of all time— would hardly be categorized as “pleasant” viewing experiences. Films like Breaking the Waves, or Requiem for a Dream, or a number of films by David Lynch or Quentin Tarantino, are, in my view, works of art, deeply disturbing though they may be.

But sometimes it’s a fine line between “just far enough to make an impact” and “that’s gone too far.” Whether it’s brutal violence, explicit sex, language or just a general thematic fixation on nihilism and despair, there is certainly a line that can be crossed—a line Christians must take seriously and seek to understand in mature and nuanced ways.

Whose line is it anyway?

Sometimes the line can be clearly agreed upon. Most everyone can agree the brutality of Schindler’s List is worth watching, while that of Hostel 2 is probably excessive and needless.

We can probably all agree that Shakespeare in Love is worth seeing, even if we might see some nudity in the process. Other times, the question gets a little fuzzier. Is it good to watch The Hangover as a fun, escapist film? What about Watchmen? What is and isn’t harmless in the experience of films like this? More often than not, these “lines” are subjectively drawn … rendered visible in one’s conscience when that inner monologue speaks up and says, “This is disgusting” or, “You should probably look away now.”

There have been moments when this voice led me to stop watching a film midstream. Such was the case recently when I was watching The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke, a filmmaker (Cache, The White Ribbon) who I admire for his tasteful pushing of the envelope, but who in my opinion pushed it a little too far with The Piano Teacher. I stopped watching about an hour into the movie.

There have been other films I never finished or walked out of, for the same reasons: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò, or Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers or Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible.

The obvious question is, why would you even attempt to watch these films? I can just hear the parents and preachers now: “Why subject yourself to such debased filth?” Trust me: I have thought the same thing; wrestled with it, prayed about it.

My answers usually have to do with how subjective “the line” is, and that my experience has shown some of my favorite, most treasured movies included “hard to watch” content. There is truth to be found—sometimes most clearly—in the midst of, or on account of, darkness. Should we wallow in it? No. Should we seek it out? Surely not. But should we bear with it to some extent, in the task of experiencing art? Most of us would probably

say yes. But the question is, how far can “experiencing art” take us as an alibi? At what point is something just damaging to watch?

In the Bible, Christians are instructed to dwell on things that are excellent and worthy of praise—”whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable ...” (Philippians 4:8, TNIV). We should pay attention to this instruction, but what does it all mean? Who defines “true,” “noble,” “right,” “pure,” “lovely” and “admirable”? What does it mean for something to be edifying? Can something painful and disturbing be as edifying as something innocent and joyful? Might There Will be Blood possibly be more edifying than Fireproof? Some would say yes. Some would say no. The question of subjectivity is a hard one to escape.

appropriateness tend to make themselves loud and clear.

Once it becomes clear a film encompasses some morally tumultuous, virtuecompromising (or otherwise questionable) territory, the difficult task of discernment begins. Discernment is a difficult task because it is far less black and white than the “cursecounting” morality police often make it out to be. It involves a holistic consideration of film, beyond the number of swords and drug references. “Discernment,” writes Dick Staub in The Culturally Savvy Christian, “means evaluating the nuances of art, not just evaluating it based on a superficial checklist of unacceptable elements.”

The “nuances of art,” I think, can be addressed in considering a few basic questions:

Is the movie truth-telling?

Is the morality of a film completely subjective?

Clearly, subjectivity plays a huge role in this discussion. But beyond saying gleefully relativist things like, “Everyone has a different threshold” or, “Different people are affected by different things” (both true statements), is there any way we can begin to apply more concrete or universal criteria to questions of appropriateness? If we agree there is “a line,” it doesn’t do us much good if no one but the individual self can determine it.

One place to start is with the whole, “Would I feel comfortable watching this with my parents or grandparents?” question. Who

Is it a coincidence that, in the list of things “to dwell on” that Paul outlines in Philippians 4, “whatever is true” comes first? I don’t think so.

One of the crucial functions of art (let’s consider movies “art,” at least for this discussion) is certainly the way it captures, frames and confronts us with truth in all of its messy glory. But some will protest: Do we really need to be reminded of life’s most disturbing truths through art?

There is a real temptation in every human heart to ignore difficult truth, or at least to hide from any of the truths that don’t line up in the comfortable, familiar ways we want them to. Left to our own devices, and in a world

Art has the ability to shake us out of our comfort zones and show us the realities of existence—both beautiful and ugly— we might otherwise look past or ignore. of us hasn’t had the awkward experience of watching a movie with the folks, only to suffer through a few uncomfortably long sex scenes or topless shots, accompanied by Dad’s disapproving throat-clearing or (worse) comments to the tune of, “What kind of perverted movie are we watching, anyway?”

Sigh. I’m a moral failure and Dad knows it.

Kidding aside, the “parent question” really is a good place to start because it at least tips you off to the presence of a moral dilemma.

It can be easy to ignore guilt or conscience when it’s just you and your laptop, but when you’re watching something with a group of friends or with your conservative soccer mom aunt, the “is this edifying?” questions of

without art, most of us would just as soon live in such a way that uncomfortable truth is always held at arm’s length. But art has the ability to shake us out of our comfort zones and show us the realities of existence—both beautiful and ugly—we might otherwise look past or ignore. But we have to let art work on us in that way.

As C.S. Lewis writes in An Experiment in Criticism, we should stop using art to buttress our own views of the world but rather receive it and let it say to us what it says. Art that we “use” merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our life, but it does not add to it, Lewis notes. Only when we open ourselves up to the sometimes painful and difficult

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experience of unfamiliarity and discomforting truth does art truly impact our lives. As Lewis says, true lovers or appreciators of art should be “like an honest examiner, who is prepared to give the highest marks to the telling, felicitous and well-documented exposition of views he dissents from or even abominates.”

In cinema, the “well-documented exposition” of the world becomes all the more visceral, because it sets forth images and faces and flesh in a way that is hyper-familiar and “real enough to touch.” This is why we are having this conversation. Movie reality confronts us with mighty and affecting force, with little regard for the viewers’ scruples or hesitations to look at certain things or pretend they don’t exist. In watching a movie, we can’t retreat inside ourselves and opt to imagine how we would like things to look or be. We can only accept what the images present us.

I like what the Christian writer Frank Burch Brown says in Religious Aesthetics about how

dynamics). The Bible is full of both types of truth. And most of the best novels, plays and movies are, too.

When it comes to hard-to-watch content in movies, then, we should always think in these “truth” terms. The movie Gran Torino had an awful lot of curse words and racially offensive language, but it wasn’t included just because; it was being authentic to its rough-Detroit street setting. A film like Little Children has some pretty raw scenes of sex and nudity, but it does so in the name of showing the simultaneously attractive, revolting and cautionary realities of infidelity (not to mention a social commentary on middle-class suburbia). A film like A Prophet (nominated for a 2010 Best Foreign Film Oscar) contains some of the most brutal images of violence I’ve ever seen—but it’s also set inside a prison, where violence and depravity of all sorts is a day-today reality. Hard to watch? Yes. But truthful and valuable to watch? Arguably yes.

There is truth to be Found—sometimes most clearly—in the midst of, or on account of, darkness. art comes as a revelatory vision, “its artifices and fictions revealing what may strike us as real but virtually unsayable features of our own world, with its mysterious order and inescapable disorder; with its created order and lurking chaos.” Brown continues: This artistic capacity to envision, and in vision to transfigure this world or some hypothetical counterpart, evidently responds to an abiding human need. That is the need to discover, imagine, and come to grips with a world that can be thought and felt to matter, both in its goodness and beauty and in its evil and horror … Precisely because we are embodied, thinking, passionate beings who want meaning and meaningfulness, truth and emotional satisfaction, we cannot be engaged wholly except through forms that imaginatively encompass and orient us within something like a world: something, moreover, as purposeful in its apparent purposelessness as we hope and trust life itself can be.

And so in evaluating art, and especially with movies, it would be wrong to ignore or downplay the question of what truths are exposed or realities revealed. It would be wrong to assume that some truths (goodness/ beauty) are immediately and always more valuable than others (evil/horror). Truth is truth. And more often than not, both light and dark truth exist side by side (usually to the benefit of the art, which thrives on contrast/

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What are the filmmakers’ intentions?

Another question to ask is whether or not the merits of a film’s graphic content can be enlightened by knowledge of the filmmakers themselves, and an understanding of how their vision and artistry is or isn’t being employed with respect to the content in question.

How might the swastika-carving grossout violence of Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds be justified? Perhaps by taking a look at the larger Tarantino oeuvre (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, etc.) and understanding that Tarantino is making a statement about the artificiality of movies and the exploitative power of movie violence as much as he is using it to create pop-kitsch art in the mold of Warhol or Godard.

You could also make this case with filmmakers like Haneke, Martin Scorsese (The Departed, Taxi Driver) or David Cronenberg (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises), all of whom artistically employ film violence in ways that are not exploitative but rather fueled by thoughtful, provocative engagement with the implications, cycles and sociological experience of violence.

But I can see where people would contest all of this, arguing that explicit content is explicit content no matter what. Its effect on the spectator doesn’t change depending on each person’s “whys.” A beheading is a beheading.

Nudity is nudity. Vengeance is vengeance. Who

cares how stylishly it is presented or what the filmmaker was “trying to say”?

To this we can just say that, sure, the “artistic” element is not everything. But it is something to consider. And perhaps a deeper discussion about the reasons artists choose to show certain unpleasantness could do us all some good. Through this process we might come to realize some films are created with no interest in art/truth but rather to be outrageously violent for their own sake (Hostel, Saw), or exceptionally shocking for laughs (Bruno, Porky’s) or overly sexually explicit for titillating thrill only (Showgirls, 9 1/2 Weeks). For Christians, it’s harder to justify watching these films.

Exercising discernment (and grace) At the end of the day, it comes back to discernment—wisely weighing all of the above factors in thinking about this thorny question of “a line.” But perhaps the questions associated with discernment should be broadened beyond “content” categories exclusively (i.e., How much sex, violence and vulgarity should I expose myself to?). Maybe we should also ask questions about whether the two hours required to watch a certain film would be better spent doing something else?

Are some films even worth the time? Aside from a few hours of diversion and escape, will there be any takeaway for your life? Is the experience of laughing together with friends in a dark theater while watching Superbad reason enough to justify the time spent (to say nothing of whatever moral sketchiness the experience might entail)?

Perhaps thinking about this in terms of community is the best approach. We usually watch movies with others, after all. Perhaps we should also talk through the issues of what’s acceptable to watch in community—openly and with no fear of being thought a prude. It’s too important not to talk about.

We all have different convictions and different “stumbling blocks” in our lives, and it’s important for Christians to be mindful of each other in this way. As Paul instructs the early Christians in 1 Corinthians 8-9, we must bear with one another in love and not partake in something if it will make another “stumble.”

Likewise with a topic that is as contentious and so seemingly subjective as this. We can’t dismiss someone who isn’t “up to our level” and can’t appreciate Eyes Wide Shut the way we do. We should respect them and perhaps check ourselves in the process. But mainly we should talk about it together, and learn from each other, talking through the issues of truth, and art, and all the other difficult questions that come with living in, but not of, this problematic world.

THE HAPPY GOSPEL “

The Happy Gospel is the debut book from Benjamin Dunn.

Using more than 30 different Bible translations- and with his wonderfully shocking revelations of Christ’s work upon the cross- He has prepared a heavenly feast for every reader!

When you encounter the pure and true Gospel, you encounter something from another realm. It will hit you like a ton of bricks. Its goodness instantly disintegrates all of your tainted, preconceived ideas about Christianity. It revolutionizes you and scandalizes everything that you ever heard or maybe even believed about the finished work of the Cross.

That ‘s what this book is about-- the scandalizing message of Christ’s Cross. It ‘s about the shocking joy offered to us in the Gospel. It is about discovering a perfect salvation procured through Christ’s perfect sacrifice. In this book you will find what God truly requires of you and what He has provided for you.

You will without a doubt discover an effortless union with a happy God, for this is what the Gospel boldly offers to all who will believe it.

Does this sound foreign?

”

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Celebrating 50 Years of Theological Education

RECOMMENDS

music /// The Hold Steady Heaven is whenever Vagrant > On The Hold Steady’s fifth release, singer Craig Finn and company question the commonly held view that impulsive decisions lead to dire consequences. There’s a subtle spiritual undercurrent, most with hints of a Catholic upbringing. “Sweet Part of the City” opens the album with signs that the band has morphed into John Hiatt, but “Soft in the Center” brings back The Springsteen in full force, crescendoing into a blistering guitar solo. The most anthemic song, “Rock Problems,” has a fantastic interchange between drums and bass, melding into one instrument and unleashing a cacophony of meandering solos and bar-rock breakdowns. On the most poignant and personal song (“Hurricane J”), Finn battles his emotions over rekindling a relationship that will likely lead to more tension. On “Our Whole Lives,” Finn plays his final hand: Father I have sinned / but I want to do it all again tonight. In the end, he doesn’t regret his mistakes, but he sure spends a lot of time singing about them.

Sandra McCracken In Feast or Fallow (Self-Released)

LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening (DFA Records)

> Derek Webb found his techno vibe

> Likely the final release for LCD

on Stockholm Syndrome, his best

Soundsystem, This Is Happening

effort yet. Now, his wife, Sandra

throws every ingredient into the mix: trip-happy techno, nine-minute experimental dirges and curiously analog-bred pop hits. The single, “Drunk Girls,” sounds like OK Go took a philosophy class right after getting seriously inebriated, since the point of the song is that being shallow is not necessarily a sign of unintelligence or lack of poignancy. By the way: Don’t miss the music video for this song, which has these strange panda creatures pawing at the band members like MySpace commenters with nothing better to do on a Saturday night.

McCracken, has also outdone herself.

Mostly a collection of old, folksy hymns updated for the coffee shop crowd, In Feast or Fallow revels in G chords and sustained melodies, mopping up the same part of the barn as Julie Miller and Patty Griffin.

“New Wonders” could have been a big hit for Amy Grant in 1982 and the title track is so weepy and joyous, it makes you want to find a large brown rug and start a campfire. Can McCracken cross over to Emmylou stardom? Here’s to hoping ...

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> A brilliantly conceived recording

> With song titles like “Gasoline” and

SHAD TSOL (Audio sketchbook/ end of earth records)

of Dylan-sized proportions, Band of

“I’m Mad,” it might be easy to mistake

> If you feel like good hip-hop ended

Alexis Krauss with Alison Krauss, the

Horses has unleashed their best yet:

the sophomore outing for The Dead

when A Tribe Called Quest broke up,

syrupy sweet country star. Sleigh

a varied collection of introspective

Weather as slightly insipid. Other

then Shad’s new album is for you.

Bells has a pernicious White Stripes

ballads (“Neighbor” meanders like a

than the fact flames will start licking

Wearing his backpack rap influences on

undercurrent with feedback loops,

Louis L’Amour novel), ‘70s-rock barn-

the side of your speakers on most

his sleeve, Shad raps about romance,

assaulting percussive tones and more

burners (“Laredo” could have been

songs, or that Jack White (The White

faith, hip-hop history and everyday

than a few alien invasions (see “Run

on the first Wilco release) and several

Stripes, The Raconteurs) and Alison

life with terrific MC skills. And the

the Heart”). On “Rachel” and several

infectious, sanguine pop ramblers

Mosshart (The Kills) have formed the

production is top-notch—it’s a mixture

other songs, Krauss uses her breath

(see “Dilly”). The tight harmonies

best supergroup since Cream, Sea

of classic jazz and soul samples and

as an instrument—and as a way to keep

of Ben Bridwell and Tyler Ramsey

of Cowards also adds some furious

futuristic beats courtesy of Broken

time. “Crown on the Ground” mixes the

hold every song together nicely,

synth and heavy doses of goth-

Social Scene members. Shad confronts

loopy-doopy fun of Los Campesinos!

reminiscent of The Cash Brothers or

flecked attitudinal disorder. Listen

misogyny in “Keep Shining,” while

with a bluesy Black Keys vibe, mostly

Witness. The clincher: The lyrics are

for the screeches, gasps and vocal

standout “At the Same Time” touches

thanks to guitarist/songwriter/producer

often insightful, touching on deep

disharmony. A live sound? Maybe—

on politics and his deep faith. On “We

Derek Miller’s pop predilections. And

longings about counting on the people

but it’s more like de-evolutionary,

Are the Ones,” you can hear his sense

opener “Tell ‘Em” proves that epic ‘80s

you love, hoping God watches over us

random guitar sludge, with drums.

of humor. All in all, another terrific

guitar riffs always work. Just another

release from the Canadian sensation.

example of why Treats goes to 11.

band of horses infinite arms (columbia)

and wishing for resolutions in life.

The Dead Weather Sea of Cowards (Third Man)

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RECOMMENDS

dvds/// SHUTTER ISLAND (PARAMOUNT, R) > U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is heading over with his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to investigate the mysterious and seemingly impossible disappearance of a female murderer from her locked room at Shutter Island’s maximum-security Ashecliffe Hospital. Once there, the duo find the hospital staff, led by psychiatrists Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow), seem to be throwing up one obstruction after another.

Through it all, Daniels is bedeviled by dark flashbacks of his WWII exploits and his late wife (Michelle Williams). Shutter Island, based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, keeps viewers off-balance from the beginning with its utterly offbeat setting and ever-changing story, all set against an intense atmosphere of dread. Across the board, the performances are terrific, but the true key to the success of Shutter Island is the design team. There is not one moment that feels false, even as Daniels’ visions become ever more unusual. The film also re-teams Scorcese and DiCaprio for their fourth collaboration of the past decade. Shutter Island isn’t a typical horror film, but it develops into an epic mindbender in the vein of Alfred Hitchcock’s finest psycho-thrillers.

oceans (disneynature, G)

alice in wonderland (walt disney, pg)

> Following the success of last year’s

> With Tim Burton’s long résumé

DisneyNature debut, Earth, Jacques

of tragic and twisted fairy tales, he

Perrin’s Oceans is another big-screen

finally takes that trip down the rabbit

triumph in an otherwise sparse

hole and gives us exactly what we

genre. Narrated by Pierce Brosnan,

were expecting. Alice in Wonderland

the French documentary chronicles

basically boils down to fantastical

a myriad of sea creatures. It’s a

imagery, and the film’s saving grace

cinematic adventure that captures

is its amazing visuals and interesting

some of the most breathtaking

supporting characters. Johnny

ocean cinematography since current

Depp’s Mad Hatter waltzes through

benchmark Planet Earth. From the

the comic relief as he pauses for

first sounds of a Galapagos iguana’s

solemn moments of self-discovery.

claws brushing a head of coral, it

Burton avoids the temptation to rely

becomes clear that Oceans is an

too much on his heavy stylization

aesthetic work yet to be rivaled. Far

and lets Lewis Carroll’s universe

more than a reboot of Blue Planet, it’s

and characters do most of the work.

a completely new look into the depths

In doing so, he finds a nice balance

that we are so rarely privy to view.

in this reimagined kingdom.

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Submit a five-minute film with a redemptive or positive theme. Become a finalist and you will spend a weekend at our beautiful Virginia Beach campus, networking with a panel of professional judges. Grand prize: a full-tuition scholarship to Regent University’s award-winning film school.

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to save a life (New song pictures, PG-13)

The last station (Sony Pictures Classics, pg-13)

The Book of Eli (warner brothers, r)

greenberg (Focus Features, r)

> The Book of Eli, directed by

> Roger (Ben Stiller) is a 41-year-old

> When a school shooting and a

> Although a film exploring the

the Hughes Brothers, is a gritty,

New Yorker whose entire life plan

suicide happen in the first 15 minutes,

final days of Russian author Leo

post-Apocalyptic tale about a

currently consists of doing as little as

it doesn’t take long to figure out To

Tolstoy may sound like a bore to the

lone wanderer named Eli (Denzel

possible. When he comes to Los Angeles

Save a Life is not a typical “Christian

average moviegoer, The Last Station

Washington) who is on a mission to

to help house-sit and dog-sit for his

film.” The story centers on high

is anything but. The story is utterly

protect a mysterious book at all costs.

highly successful brother, Roger meets

school star athlete Jake whose

engrossing and superbly acted—

Doses of surprising emotional depth

a mid-20s blond beauty named Florence

childhood friend, Roger, commits

boasting one of the best casts of the

add spiritual substance and feeling

(Greta Gerwig). With the world moving

suicide at school. Roger’s suicide sets

year, featuring Christopher Plummer,

to what might otherwise have been a

past him and his growing realization

off a chain of events in Jake’s life,

Helen Mirren, James McAvoy and

time-worn template for predictability.

that he’s caused his own misery for far

causing him to question how he is

Paul Giamatti. The film is the story

The Book of Eli wears its heart on its

too long, Roger has to decide whether to

living. But the film doesn’t end with a

of a brilliant thinker and writer who

sleeve from beginning to end, clearly

reach out and attempt love or to stay in

simplistic moral lesson. Rather than

at the start of the 20th century has

crediting the Bible as the one book

his self-imposed exile. Oscar-nominated

a story of a bad kid who becomes

a worldwide reputation and fan base,

above all that can change the world,

director Noah Baumbach turns deeply

good, the plot is layered with teens in

but it is also the story of a husband

and making it one of the oddest yet

inward on his characters to find not just

a variety of social situations who are

and father. The Last Station tackles

most forthright faith-based films to

their quirks and bad habits but to also

forced to wrestle with why they act,

huge ideas that resonate deeply, but

ever come out of a major studio.

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judge others and believe as they do.

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RECOMMENDS

BOOKS/// the wisdom of stability

jonathan wilson-hartgrove paraclete press > The writer Wallace Stegner found it helpful to distinguish between two American archetypes: the “boomer” and the “sticker.”

Boomers live in perpetual motion, always looking for the next big killing. Meanwhile, stickers quietly stay put, rooting themselves in a community for the long haul. Society tends to praise boomers and ignore or mock stickers. But something essential is lost in our mobile culture, Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove writes in The Wisdom of Stability: “[We] are able to best discern the call of God … when we are rooted in the life-giving wisdom of stability.” Stability—“a shared life with particular people in a specific place”—is an ancient Christian idea, and Wilson-Hartgrove draws from the deep well of monastic tradition, as well as his own experiences as the co-founder of an intentional community, to unpack it for a modern audience. Stickers may not end up in the history books, but a rooted faith is still radical (the word “radical” is derived from a Latin word meaning “root”). The Wisdom of Stability is the first truly essential Christian book of the year.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Seth Grahame-Smith (grand central)

Absence of Mind Marilynne Robinson (yale university press) > In a collection of essays originally

> Here is something you might not

presented for the Terry Lecture Series

have known: in addition to being

at Yale University in 2009, Marilynne

the Great Emancipator and the

Robinson masterfully discredits the

16th president of the United States,

black-and-white mentality that has

Abraham Lincoln was a prolific

come to dominate our discussions

vampire hunter. In this recent

about science and religion. Robinson

addition to the monster-lit genre,

argues, quite convincingly, that

Seth Grahame-Smith (co-author,

modernity has mistakenly assumed

with Jane Austen, of the best-selling

“some assumptions were to be

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies),

regarded as fixed and inevitable and

reimagines Lincoln’s life, indeed

others exposed for all time and for

the entire Civil War period of the

all purposes as naïve and untenable,

United States, as influenced primarily

supplanted by a better understanding.”

by vampires. Abraham Lincoln:

Both scientists and Christians would

Vampire Hunter won’t convert

do well to read Absence of Mind before

skeptics of monster literature, but it

launching into yet another contentious

is a clever read for those willing to

conversation about faith and science.

suspend disbelief a little further.

Relevant. Intelligent. Engaging.

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Q

Green Like God Jonathan Merritt (faithwords)

Hipster Christianity Brett mccracken (baker books) > In Hipster Christianity, his first book,

The Girl who kicked the hornet’s nest stieg larsson (KNOPF)

> Jonathan Merritt has become a leader of evangelical

Brett McCracken explores the roots

> In this conclusion to Larsson’s

environmentalism, a movement that,

of the hipster movement, especially

best-selling trilogy, Lisbeth Salander

> March 1996. The brilliant, doorstop

until recently, would seem like an

the specific branch of Christian

finds herself facing Sweden’s criminal

of a novel Infinite Jest by David Foster

oxymoron. But Merritt is on a mission

hipsterdom, and contemplates cool’s

justice system on charges of attempted

Wallace has just been published to

to show why being green is more than

impact on the Church. McCracken

murder. Meanwhile, journalist Mikael

nearly universal acclaim, and Rolling

just a trendy cause; it’s a scriptural

contends that Christians “should

Blomkvist attempts to protect her from

Stone has sent David Lipsky to spend

truth. In Green Like God, he provides

be a taste of the kingdom for the

a secret group within the government

a few days with DFW on the final leg

biblical and historical support for the

world, a fragrance of goodness

that will stop at nothing to keep

of his book tour. Lipsky came away

importance of creation care. Having

and peace and love and mercy that

its dark crimes a secret. This was

with hours of recorded conversation

been environmentally ignorant until

makes us far more fulfilling than the

Larsson’s last completed novel before

with the young author, which he has

his college years, Merritt’s tone is

fickle fashions of the day.” Although

his death in 2004, and though his

now turned into Although Of Course

both relatable and motivational,

McCracken doesn’t sweepingly reject

writing style is often clunky, the author

You End Up Becoming Yourself, a

pushing beyond political or religious

cool, he does offer a critique on our

more than makes up for his lack of

book-length transcript of those five

presuppositions about the subject.

obsession with it, and reminds his

lyricism with engaging characters and

days that offers a largely unedited

And like all green guidebooks, you’ll

reader that Christianity is “coolest”

plot twists that keep this remarkable

glimpse (though through a glass,

get some tips and tricks for applying

when it’s focused on Christ and

mystery novel moving at a steady pace.

darkly) of what it was like to experience

this ancient calling to modern life.

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CONTENTS ISSUE 46 JUL_AUG 2010 / RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

8 First Word 10 Letters 12 Slices 28 REJECT APATHY: Why Your Light Bulb Matters 30 WORLDVIEW: The Idolatry of Patriotism 32 The Drop Josh Garrels, Future of Forestry, Son Lux

38 Eugene Cho The One Day’s Wages co-founder has a radical vision to end poverty

40 John Mark McMillan Exploring a new language for worship

44 Is There Any Hope for Haiti Now? Six months after the earthquake, we look at what’s being done in Haiti and the plans for long-term recovery

58 The 100 Year Plan What a difference a century can make 60 Doves This hit U.K. band continues to reinvent itself.

62 The Day God Called Me to be The Christian Michael Jackson 66 Living in the In-Between N.T. Wright on navigating this life the right way 70 Beyond Blockbusters Our guide to the more thoughtful side of summer movie season

72 Crossing the Line When is it art and when is it just too far?

78 Recommends

REFLECTION ETERNAL

TALIB KWELI & HI-TEK

FEAR. FEAR NOT.

The new BASIC film series challenges Christians to be the Church described in scripture. In the first of seven films, Francis Chan confronts the idea that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.� Is this fear simply respect and reverence or is it literally a paralyzing fear that drives you to your knees in trembling? And could it really be that fearing God will lead to life as He intended?

What is church? You are church. I am church. We are church.

BASIC.Fear God - Available July 1, 2010 basicseries.com