RELEVANT - Issue 72 - November/December 2014

DAMIEN JUR ADO | GUNGOR | SWOOPE | SLEEPING AT L AS T | NONONO | CHRIS TIANIT Y IN CHINA FAITH, CULTURE & INTENTIONAL LIVING

R E L E VA N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M

ART MAKES A DIFFERENCE

HAVE WE GOTTEN JESUS WRONG?

SHEPA R D FA IR E Y on making waves in culture.

TIM KELLER, EUGENE CHO & OTHERS WEIGH IN

THE 1975 THE BAND OF THE YEAR (GET IT?)

THE AMAZING

25 YEARS OF THE SIMPSONS THE IMPACT OF TV’S FAVORITE FAMILY

CAN IMMIGRATION BE REFORMED?

R E E S E W I T H E R S P O O N ’S NE W MOV IE DIDN’T JUST TRANSFORM HER CAREER. IT CHANGED HOW SHE SEES THE WORLD.

ISSUE 72 | NOV_DEC 2014 | $4.95

IT ONLY TAKES A SPARK. If you’re looking to ignite a love for Christ in others or rekindle your own relationship, Harding University’s Distance Education in Bible and Ministry program will help you grow and be a light to those around you, whether you’re a church leader or simply looking to learn more about the Bible. » www.harding.edu/distancebible/ » onlinebible@harding.edu » Twitter: @HUDistanceBible

INTROUDCING A DOCUMENTARY THAT EXPLORES MILLENIAL FAITH Watch FREE: www.ScissorsGlue.com/Relevant

SERVING TOGE THER

W O R L D V I S I O N F O U N D E R B O B P I E R C E , 19 5 9

J E S U S H A S A LWAY S sent His followers to help the suffering. For over 60 years, World Vision has served the church—those with the faith and compassion to carry the burdens of others—as it serves the world’s most vulnerable.

IN THE MARGINS

W E B E L I E V E Jesus still calls His people to bring hope and transformation to the world’s hardest places. Together, we serve Him, leading the way to fullness of life for children and families living in pover ty. Join us in the margins.

worldvision.org/church World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of pover ty and injustice.

CH147138 _ 0814 Š 2014 Wor ld Vision, Inc.

DISCOVER the PEOPLE and PLACES of the BIBLE

THE MAGAZINE ON FAITH, CULTURE & INTENTIONAL LIVING

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014, ISSUE 72 A new Reese on life Publisher & CEO | CAMERON STRANG > cameron@relevantmediagroup.com

RELEVANT Issue #72 November/ December 2014 (ISSN: 1543-317X) is published 6 times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November for $14.99 per year by RELEVANT Media Group, Inc., 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789.

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In-depth introductions to each book of the Bible.

Sidebar articles throughout with targeted information about the people and places in the Bible.

Includes charts and maps.

Reliable and balanced scholarship.

A full Bible with an in-depth reference handbook in one.

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STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RELEVANT magazine (Publication Number: 1543-317X) is published bi-monthly by RELEVANT Media Group. Filing date: 09.30.14. Number of issues published annually: 6. Annual subscription price: $14.99. The complete mailing address and General Business Offices of the Publisher are located at 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789. The names and addresses of the Publisher, Editor and Managing Editor are: Publisher, Cameron Strang; Editor, Cameron Strang; Editorial Director, Tyler Huckabee; 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789.

The owners are: Cameron Strang, 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789; Stephen Strang, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746. There are no known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities. The tax status, the purpose, function and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income purposes have not changed during the preceding 12 months.

Issue date for circulation data: July/August 2014. Extent and Nature of Circulation are as follows. Total number of copies (net press run): average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 37,333; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 35,000. Mailed outsidecounty paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 22,478; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 25,166. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0. Paid distribution outside the mail including sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid distribution outside USPS: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,753; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 1,880. Paid distribution by other classes of mail through the USPS: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,733; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,037. Total paid distribution: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 25,964; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 29,083. Free or nominal rate outside-county copies included on PS Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0. Free or nominal rate in-county copies included on PS Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0. Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other classes through the USPS: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,588; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,210. Total free or nominal rate distribution: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,588; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,210. Total distribution: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 27,553; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 31,293.

Copies not distributed: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 9,781; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 3,707. Total: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 37,333; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 35,000. Percent paid: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 94.24%; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 92.94%.

Annual publication of this statement is required. Published November/December 2014.

- Cameron Strang, RELEVANT magazine

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SELECT TITLES AVAILABLE IN SPANISH AND WHEREVER CHRISTIAN BOOKS ARE SOLD

SOMETIMES IT’S GOOD TO BE OVERWHELMED.

W W W. I N F L U E N C E M U S I C .C O M

MUSIC FOR THE JOURNEY

first word

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

BY CAMERON STR ANG

happens every year. As we’re working on our November/December issue, at some point it dawns on me, Wait—this is the last issue of the year. Another one flew by.

For many, 2014 can’t end soon enough. Prominent ministries crumbled. Police shot unarmed kids in the street. ISIS mercilessly slaughtered people who disagreed with them. Conflict in the Holy Land got way worse. Battle lines in Washington, D.C. got more entrenched than ever. And, oh yeah, Ebola is threatening to kill everyone.

For me personally, 2014 was incredibly hard. Things happened that weren’t in the script, and I wouldn’t wish the sort of pain I experienced on my worst enemy. In very substantial ways, my life will never be the same again.

And yet, the year wasn’t all bad. Not by any stretch. Sure, I’ve experienced a painful season, but in the midst of that, new margin, friendships, healing and growth has transformed my life. (Plus, every day I’m reminded that being the dad of a 5-year-old boy is pretty much the best thing ever.)

And at RELEVANT, we’ve had a blast this year. The team and I are working to move from clutter to clarity, and through that missional and strategic reinvention we’ve found a season of extraordinary creativity and growth. So, while 2014 has been a difficult year in many ways, it has been a phenomenal year as well.

I used to think life was like a series of hills and valleys. I was either in a good time or a hard time. But that’s wrong. Life is actually more like a railroad track, where the good and bad coexist side-by-side all the time.

IT

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In the midst of hard, painful and confusing things, good is still happening. No matter what is going on, God is still in control. He is not surprised by anything. He still loves us, and can work through any situation. The key is honestly up to us.

In hard circumstances, we have an opportunity. Sure, we can get cynical or angry— that’d be easy. Or, we can make the harder decision and simply choose not to. We can choose to trust a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, no matter what’s happening around us.

If things have gotten off-course, we should honestly and vulnerably ask ourselves why. Is there something we can learn through it? Is there a way we can grow personally or spiritually from it? Can God use us to be instruments of change or hope because of it?

Say you lost a job this year. Are you going to blame circumstances (or other people), or are you going to use it as the impetus to chart a new course for yourself professionally?

If you had a tragedy in your family this year, are you going to become bitter, or will you use the pain you’ve gone through to help others who are going through something similar?

Reese Witherspoon tells us in this issue’s cover story about a choice she made recently.

When she found her career plateauing, and felt trapped in a rut doing films she didn’t really care about, she decided to thoughtfully and intentionally change course.

She expanded her worldview, engaged issues and projects she previously wouldn’t have, and it’s leading to a resurgence in her career that will probably open doors to more Oscars and influence.

Stories like this are special because they don’t happen by accident. They require an intentional choice.

As you think back on the highs and lows of 2014, choose to define your year by more than just your circumstances. And resolve to make 2015 more than just a series of events.

It might require an intentional change of course, but that’s OK. Good and bad, highs and lows—it’s all a rich, rewarding journey if we have open hearts.

But yes, 2015 can’t get here soon enough.

CAMERON STR ANG is the founder and publisher of RELEVANT. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @cameronstrang.

feedback

SEP T/OCT 2014 ISSUE 7 1

SAVORING TV’S NEW GOLDEN AGE RE: NICK OFFERMAN

As a longtime Parks and Rec fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the interview with Nick Offerman. I could imagine [his character] Ron Swanson saying a lot of the things Offerman said in the article, but the real Offerman has a lot of great insights. And I wish all stars were as humble about their success as he seems to be!

T W E E T N E S S

@ K AC IE PAIG E

Quite possibly my favorite issue yet.

Doesn’t hurt that @Nick_Offerman is on the cover. Well done, @RELEVANT @ R IC HAR D PAU L HILL

Latest issue of @RELEVANT on iPad is excellent. Crazy to grow from 700k to 17m readers in a few years. Good work, @cameronstrang!

JAMIE MARSH / Via RELEVANTmagazine.com

I’m absolutely loving the new Maker section. Ever since you first launched it, the moment I get a new RELEVANT in the mail, I fly to that section and find myself reading each article multiple times. As a small business owner, it’s so refreshing to read practical, inspiring, well-written articles on business, leadership, and creativity that are from a Kingdomminded perspective.

I believe the science vs. religion discussion is a symptom of a larger issue for Western culture [“The God Particle” Sept/Oct 2014]. We are learning to integrate previously separate worldviews to develop new ways of seeing things. This struggle for integration creates conflict, but it’s a worthwhile journey that I believe is inspired by God. May we all give grace to each other as we co-create a better today and tomorrow.

CHRIS HAWLE Y / Via RELEVANTmagazine.com

Great article (“The God Particle”) by @jessecarey in the most recent @RELEVANT. I now want to listen to @Radiolab :)

IMMANUEL MULLEN / Via email

@ MAD D IE C OG AN

THE ARTICLE ON LECRAE IS SO GOOD. I’M THANKFUL FOR CHRISTIAN LEADERS WHO AREN’T ASHAMED AND ARE CONFIDENT IN WHO THEY ARE.

This month’s @RELEVANT is on point. Especially the #musicthatmatters section. Colony House. Crowder. Ellie Holcomb. @ SID N E YK AYY

I could read @RELEVANT articles all day. Translation: I spent most of my day reading RELEVANT articles.

TORI K. WEBB / Via Facebook

Great points in “4 Lies the Church Taught Us About Sex” [Sept/Oct 2014]. I think the stories we tell our church communities about sex need to mature a lot! The values are not wrong, but as you point out, how we talk about upholding those values is not always helpful.

CALEB SIMONYI-GINDELE / Via RELEVANTmagazine.com

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@ J E R E MYR ATL IFF

As a social worker who has had to deal with the system, “Can the Foster Care System be Fixed?” [Sept/ Oct 2014] was a good article outlining the current state of the system and not blaming any one group. All the groups involved want to make a difference. I know many amazing foster care parents who are taking great strides to love and care for the children in their homes. The Church will be the people who change this broken system, using our gifts, talents and resources to love, care and work with those involved.

DANIELLE BAKER / Via RELEVANTmagazine.com

@ AN D R E WORTIZ 413

The latest @RELEVANT issue arrived today. Thanks for adding six new books to my reading list. I’m up to 1,872 since my subscription started. @ LSU MME R S3

One of the best decisions I made this year was finally subscribing to @RELEVANT. September issue looks awesome!

WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

WE’LL HELP YOU GET THERE. iamgoing.org

Wake Forest, NC /sebts

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

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DO SOMETHING ABOUT INJUSTICE JOIN US THIS SUMMER: BIKE, HIKE & RUN FOR THE OPPRESSED, VULNERABLE & UNREACHED

VENTUREEXPEDITIONS.ORG

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

15

A communion service in a Chinese church

THE NUMBERS

T

he spiritual sea of change taking place in “underground” house churches have thrived.

China will not be without its challenges— Perhaps sensing that they’re fighting a losing some more complex than others. battle, the Chinese government is considering a While China is officially an atheist councompromise of sorts with their country’s Christry, it is undergoing one of the most dramatic relitian population. Senior religious affairs officials gious overhauls in modhave discussed the possiern memory. In 1949, the bility of establishing their country was home to own “Chinese Christian Senior religious affairs an estimated 1 million theology,” that will conform Christians. In 2010, that to “China’s national conofficials have discussed number was more like dition and integrate with the possibility of establish- Chinese culture.”

58 million. And some studies are saying that Authorities have yet to ing their own “Chinese by 2030, China could be offer any details about what Christian theology.” home 247 million Chrisan atheist governmenttians—the most of any sanctioned brand of “thenation in the world. ology” would look like, This is all happenbut when they do, China’s ing despite serious tensions with authorities, who churches will be faced with a new hurdle and a only allow Christians to worship together in statevery important conversation: What is the price of approved churches. Nevertheless, the country’s religious freedom?

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89% The rate of growth of Christianity in China per decade since 1949

247 MILLION The estimated number of Christians that could live in China by 2030

10% Percent of the Chinese population that could be Christians by 2020

P H O T O C R E D I T: K E V I N F R AY E R / S T R I N G E R

IS CHINA CHANGING THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY?

China’s Christian population is growing at unprecedented rates.

SLICES

ADORBS AND YOLO ADDED TO DICTIONARY

2014: THE YEAR HOLLYWOOD LOST AMERICA (BUT DIDN’T CARE)

T

his year, for the first time since 2002, Hollywood’s box office revenues for July failed to hit the billion dollar mark. June managed to make just over $1 billion, but totals were still down 16 percent from 2013.

The numbers show a few truths that will shape Hollywood in the future. The first is that Hollywood is losing its grip on America, and nobody can quite figure out why. The public say they’re tired of sequels and reboots, but they failed to show up for this year’s attempts at original films like Tom Cruise’s well-reviewed sci-fi thriller Edge of Tomorrow and Chris Evan’s dystopian epic Snowpiercer. The only thing that continues to work—albeit in lower numbers than they used to—are superhero movies and CGI-fests. Case in point: Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pulled Hollywood’s summer out of its tailspin.

But Hollywood is still pulling in billions of dollars—they’re just getting it elsewhere. America may be getting tired of Hollywood’s tricks, but U.S. films are

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doing record-breaking business in China, where Transformers: Age of Extinction became the country’s highest grossing movie of all time, and X-Men: Days of Future Past, Maleficent and other movies that did modest work stateside pulled in serious money, as well.

So Hollywood may be losing America, but as long as money continues to pour in, it may not particularly care.

CHINA’S HIGHEST GROSSING FILMS OF 2014 1

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (U.S.)

2

THE MONKEY KING

3

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (U.S.) $116m

4

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (U.S.)

$115m

5

DAD! WHERE ARE WE GOING? (China)

$112m

(China)

$301m $168m

As if to give further proof of the wild times of the social media era, Oxford Dictionaries has added definitions that show the strange evolution of the English language.

The list of new words reads like a wordbank “cool” guidance counselors could use to convince students they’re in touch with Generation Z: cray, adorbs, YOLO and neckbeard.

Oxford Dictionaries is like the hip kid brother of the more official Oxford English Dictionary.

Still, “adorbs” has cleared the first hurdle to being a certified part of our language, which is very cray.

THE END OF THE INTERNET’S PASSWORD ERA PA S S W O R D S H AV E LO N G B E E N

one of the most infuriating hinges of the digital age. Beyond the task of remembering passwords for everything from your bank to your Hulu Plus account, their security is dubious.

According to consulting firm Deloitte, over 90 percent of user-generated passwords are “vulnerable.”

But tech innovators are on the case.

In October, Apple introduced Apple Pay, which allows user to pay for products using touch ID. And Google is working on voice recognition software and a physical dongle that would act like a skeleton key to all your accounts.

I . C .Y. M . I .

IN C ASE YOU MISSED IT

ENTERTAINMENT ACTUALLY WORTH YOUR TIME

Iggy Azalea performing at Lollapalooza

M OVIE M US IC TV

THE CULTURAL APPROPRIATION INDEX RANKING POP CULTURE’S TROUBLING HABIT OF STEALING FROM OTHER CULTURES

1 BA NK S: GO DDE S S

What Banks does so well on her debut album is take all the electro-pop experimentation of other acts and turn them into music that’s genuinely timeless.

2 THE D ROP

Crime thrillers are a dime a dozen, but few of them are anchored by Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace.

3 E XTA NT

Halle Berry’s performance anchors a script that doles out clues to sci-fi mysteries in small, tantalizing doses.

C

“

ultural Appropriation” is a fancy term for something that is actually pretty simple: Stealing other people’s stuff. More accurately, it’s absorbing traditions, symbols, images and artifacts from minority and immigrant cultures into the predominant culture with no concern for their origins. Think of it like that 16-year-old who wears a Ramones T-shirt without being able to name a single Ramones song—only, instead of a band, it’s deeply held ideals, beliefs and artform at stake. It’s generally frowned upon, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a national pastime. Here’s a breakdown of some instances of cultural appropriation in pop culture.

AVRIL LAVIGNE Her music video for “Hello Kitty” showed such blatant disrespect for Asian culture that it was quickly taken down after the backlash.

4 ASTRONAUTS:

HOLLOW PONDS

Take post-hardcore angst and channel it through folky filters and you get Astronauts.

5 TRACKS

Mia Wasikowska stars in this beautiful tale of a woman who walks across the Australian desert.

IGGY AZALEA In the music video for “Bounce,” the singer danced in saris and wore a bindi on her forehead while riding elephants, raising the ire of several Indian groups.

TAYLOR SWIFT 6 THE ROOSEVELTS

There are few American subjects as compelling as Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Odd Future’s Earl Sweatshirt tweeted that the video for “Shake It Off,” which featured Swift flanked by twerking dancers, was “Perpetuating black stereotypes.”

R E A L LY T E R R I B L E

MILEY CYRUS Not lost in the furor over her 2013 VMA twerking performance was the fact that her black backup dancers were treated like accessories, not peers.

WAYNE COYNE The Flaming Lips frontman has loudly supported the trend of wearing Native American headdresses at music festivals, despite Native American backlash.

M I L D LY U N C O M F O R TA B L E

P H O T O C R E D I T: M A R Y E L L E N M AT T H E W S

SLICES

SLICES

THE H T LIST BI-MONTHLY CULTURE POWER RANKINGS

LECR AE [HOT TEST] Anomaly debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 with some serious critical love. Lecrae is officially a very big deal.

HANK WILLIAMS [HOT TER] He died in 1953, but he’s never been more popular. The Americana icon has not one, but two movies about his life headed to the big screen.

SPINNING THE TRUTH [HOT] Invented by the media, modified by politicians and perfected by the NFL—filtering facts to fit your agenda is the new telling the truth.

CANDY CANES [COLD] This mediocre treat is not worth the time it takes to unwrap and does not deserve the hype.

ARIANA GR ANDE [COLDER] Rarely has the world gotten so tired of the next big thing so quickly. Her rumored diva attitude doesn’t help.

’90S NOSTALGIA [COLDEST] OK. We get it. The ’90s were a good decade for pop culture.

It was a fun time, but now it’s time to move on.

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MEET GENERATION Z EARLY RESEARCH SHOWS THE NEXT GENERATION OF DIGITAL NATIVES COULD MAKE A BIG IMPACT

R

esearch is still in its beta stages for the upcoming generation that is being unimaginatively called “Generation Z,” but what research there is points to a generational divide that might be even more pronounced than the one between millennials and Gen X-ers.

Loosely defined as those born after 1995, Gen Z are the world’s first true digital natives. More concerned with healthy living and making good decisions than previous generations, they don’t smoke, drink or fight as much, and, according to some studies, they are twice as interested in of Gen Z-ers want social justice as millennials. jobs that have a social Research is still in its infancy, but it looks like Gen impact, compared with Z’s impact could very well be pronounced.

31 percent of millennials

60%

GOOGLE’S ANTI-PORN SOFTWARE STRIKES OVER THE SUMMER, GOOGLE DEVELOPED A

new algorithm that rather grandly promised to eradicate child pornography from the Internet. That might sound impossible, but it’s already led authorities to make at least one arrest, after the software tracked down a Texas man who was sending pictures of child sex abuse over email. The software has raised eyebrows among those concerned about

privacy, but Google dismissed such fears. The technology is based on a Microsoft innovation called “PhotoDNA” that matches emailed images against a mathematical algorithm to determine whether they involve sexual abuse of minors. At this point, Google says they’re only using the software to look for anyone distributing child pornography, and no other type of illegal content.

SLICES

M I S C.

weighing in on who to vote for ...

CLASH OF THE TITANS A COMPARISON BETWEEN NOAH AND EXODUS

Lifetime’s new film Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever has found its voice talent, and they couldn’t have chosen better.

Parks and Rec’s Aubrey Plaza will voice the internet’s crankiest cat in the made-for-TV movie ...

T

here were plenty of Bible movies in 2014, but only two were true biblical epics. The first is Darren Aronofsky’s baffling take on the Noah story. The latter is Ridley Scott’s high-minded spin on the Moses story. The two movies share huge budgets, Oscarnominated directors, all-star casts and sacred source material, but where do they differ?

VS

NOAH

genre Make no mistake—Noah was a flight of high-concept fantasy.

While most audiences went to theaters expecting a grand, swordand-sandals epic, they got a wilder, woollier (rockier) beast that defied easy classification.

Both Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass are returning to the Bourne franchise. Their new Bourne film will likely hit theaters in the summer of 2016.

Finally, all is right in the action movie world ...

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EXODUS

EDGE

Between Charlton Heston’s muchloved classic and 1998’s animated Prince of Egypt, the Moses story is a pretty well-trod epic. But Scott’s is notable for exploring the political and familial intrigue behind the big plagues.

oscar count Three: (Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins)

Two: (Christian Bale, Sir Ben Kingsley)

EDGE

beards Gray, short and sort of Hell’s Angel-ish.

DRAW

Luxurious, groomed and sort of Teddy Roosevelt-ish.

superhero presence Russell Crowe played Superman’s father in Man of Steel.

EDGE

Christian Bale played Batman in Christopher Nolan’s epic trilogy.

SLEIGH BELLS TAKES ON THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY AT SOME POINT, JUST ABOUT anyone with a platform feels obligated to take on a cause of some sort, but with Alexis Krauss—the soothing voice in the middle of Sleigh Bells’ raucous, brash rock and roll—that cause feels more like a tip of the hat. She’s co-founded a site called Beauty Lies Truth, dedicated to shining a light on the beauty industry.

“We are simply two real women who want to expose the lies and understand the truth about beauty.”

According to Krauss and co-founder Jessica Assaf, the makeup, lotions and perfumes people use every day often use ingredients that are dangerous for both the environment and users’ own bodies. Some of Krauss’ early findings—such as the fact that the European Union has banned 1,300 chemicals in beauty products while the United States has only banned 11— are genuinely troubling. “We aren’t scientists, or politicians, or marketing masterminds,” Krauss wrote. “We are simply two real women who want to expose the lies and understand the truth about beauty.”

P H O T O C R E D I T: G O O G L E I M A G E S / K E R R Y B R O W N

According to a new Pew Research study, 32 percent of Americans say they want clergy to endorse political candidates from the pulpit. That’s an 8 percent jump from 2010, But it’s still a long way from the majority.

Nearly twice as many don’t want religious leaders

A S LO W A S

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2014 CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE

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6 GIFTS YOU CAN FEEL GOOD ABOUT GIVING

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he longer you wait on your Christmas shopping, the more likely you are to end up in Walmart on Christmas Eve sorting through a bin of five dollar DVDs. You don’t want that, and the people you’re buying presents for certainly don’t want that.

Here are a few options for some presents that are not only better than a DVD, they’re also produced ethically—because the greatest gift of all might just be a clean conscience.

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1. PROOF EYEWEAR , $115 www.iwantproof.com

Of all the ethical eyeware companies popping up lately, Proof is one of our favorites. Their Do Good programs are way more than lip service to social justice. Last year alone, they built not one, but two eye clinics in India.

2. LOOPTWORKS, $85 www.looptworks.com

4

Looptworks operates on a simple principle: Use less to make more. They use recycled materials to make gorgeous products, like iPad cases, book bags and T-shirts.

3. LAND OF A THOUSAND HILLS COFFEE,

$12 www.landofathousandhills.com Fair trade coffee companies are a dime a dozen, but this one goes above and beyond, often paying local farmers twice the fair trade wage and investing profits in local initiatives.

4. OXFAM, $18 www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com Through Oxfam’s Unwrapped initiative, you can donate anything from a goat to honey bees to a new garden for an impoverished family, all in your friend’s honor.

5. RAVEN + LILY, $118 www.ravenandlily.com

At Raven + Lily, you can find tons of gorgeous jewelry, journals and bags, all made by hand by marginalized women who receive fair wages for their work.

6. KAMMOK, $99 www.kammok.com For the camper in your life, Kammok donates malaria treatments to people in Africa every time they sell a hammock, insect net or outdoor shelter.

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NOV_DEC 2014

6

SS TL A I CT EE SM E N T

LET GO OF YOUR PHONE

BY CR AIG DET W EILER

I

have a confession to make: I love my iPhone.

We are constant companions, attached at the hip, from morning to night.

Even as I try to power down after a hectic day, it is close by, within easy reach for an update. I sleep with one eye on it, wondering what I might be missing.

I may be too attached to my iPhone. When we love an object a little too much, we are veering toward idolatry, which is never a good thing. How quickly the ancient Israelites bowed down to foreign idols, shifting allegiance toward the latest innovations introduced by conquerors and kings. Images of lines outside the Apple store awaiting the latest iPhone dance through my mind. Idols are things we become so attached to, we can’t imagine living without them.

So how do we incorporate the best of technology without becoming ruled by it?

How do we keep a tool intended to serve us from becoming an idol setting the agenda where we respond to its every beep?

For the past couple of years, I’ve been researching the creators and companies that have ushered in the digital revolution. People like Steve Jobs of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook have become billionaires by solving our problems of abundance. How do we find the info we want? We Google it. How do we find what we want to buy (and get it delivered overnight)? Amazon. How do we keep up with our friends? Facebook.

The tools these tech superstars have created are remarkable in their simplicity, ease and design. They have made us more efficient and better connected.

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NOV_DEC 2014

They reflect the intentions of God, the original technologist, to organize, to harness, to comfort.

God separated light from darkness, land from sea, giving form to chaos. We’ve been charged with taking similar care of the earth, restraining the forces which threaten to overwhelm us (like floods). Technology at its best turns things that could potentially destroy us (like a raging river), into a source of power.

Technology has always helped us navigate a cruel world. When Adam and Eve chose independence outside the comfort of God’s garden, they were given tools to till the earth and clothes to cover their bodies as a consolation. Technological breakthroughs like the wheel made life much easier. Innovations like eyeglasses, hearing aids and artificial hips equip us to live more fully.

People of faith have been at the forefront of technological revolutions like stained glass, winemaking and the printing press.

Monks perfected the mechanical clock in order to figure out when to work and when to pray. Clocks called the community to pause, rest and focus their attention more clearly upon the divine.

So what do our ringtones and text tones call us toward? We are training ourselves to look down rather than up, to respond to what’s urgent rather than eternal. We no longer start and end the day in prayer but in updates, checking in or checking out one last time to see if anybody has messaged us.

I am not planning to get rid of my iPhone, but I am striving to put it in the proper place and perspective. If it is not making me more loving, patient and kind, then perhaps I need to back off a bit. If it is keeping me from loving my friends or family in a face-to-face, intentional way, then perhaps I need a digital break. Even some of the most committed technologists have been rediscovering the power of an electronic Sabbath. Maybe the goal in life is not be more efficient, but more engaged. Maybe we need to power down in order to power up.

CR AIG DET WEILER is director of the Center for Entertainment, Media and Culture at Pepperdine. His latest book is iGods: How Technology Shapes our Spiritual and Social Lives.

THE SWEDISH TRIO IS READY TO BRING THEIR DANCE POP TO THE MASSES

IN

“I think it’s just as hard programming an old vintage synth as playing a guitar.”

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MUSIC THAT MATTERS

aren’t legitimate instruments, but Swedish production duo Astma & Rocwell—who make up the band along with singer Stina Wäppling—disagree.

“It’s been hard especially for electronic bands to be accepted by the purists,” Rocwell says. “But I think it’s been proven over and over and over again. I think it’s just as hard programming an old vintage synth as playing a guitar.”

After making the rounds at summer music festivals, the band launched into a tour with Foster the People in the fall. But even with a string of highprofile shows under their belt, the band still feels most comfortable in the studio.

“We’re so comfortable making music and recording, I think a lot of bands struggle with that. But for us it’s really easy. We’re mostly looking forward to it actually, going back and making more stuff.”

WE ARE ONLY WHAT WE FEEL

On NONONO’s debut, Wäppling’s vocals anchor the songs, but Astma & Rocwell’s effects provide the textures that keep listeners coming back.

P H O T O C R E D I T: P E R K R I S T I A N S E N

many ways, electronic music, once the outcast of the music world, has become part of the popular crowd.

Music like NONONO is a good example of why it’s catching on.

Take, for example the Swedish trio’s single “Pumpin’ Blood”: It’s catchy and dance-inducing, layering beats, whistles and other effects under airy vocals.

The single became an instant hit, landing on charts in the U.S. and Europe.

Still, some old-school musicians say computers

THE DROP

ARTISTS TO WATCH

ack in 2012, when Rapzilla asked Christian hip-hop king Lecrae which artists were inspiring him, Swoope was one of the main artists mentioned.

“That album just slapped me, man” Lecrae said, referring to Swoope’s debut album, Wake Up. “This dude is raising the bar.”

To hear Swoope tell it, that was when he knew his hobby of rapping had the potential to turn into more.

And though Swoope is still serving as a music director at his church, his rap career certainly has become more than just a side hobby. His latest album, Sinema, climbed to No. 4 on the iTunes hip-hop chart through pre-orders before it even released. After it dropped, it hit No. 1, passing albums from mainstream artists such as Iggy Azalea and Wiz Khalifa. It also debuted at No. 1 on

B

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MUSIC THAT MATTERS

the Billboard gospel albums chart, No. 3 on Christian albums and No. 4 on rap albums.

Three albums in, Swoope is getting more attention than ever, and it’s a transition he’s still learning to navigate.

“The way I started rapping was just for fun,” he says. “I did a joke record and showed it to my pastor and he was like, ‘You need to pursue this.’ I didn’t even really want to be a rapper, I guess you could say. So to go from that to where we are now has been a very drastic switch.”

But getting to this point hasn’t been easy.

Swoope admits he went through a dry spell creatively while he was working on Sinema, but he says pushing through made him appreciate the end product all the more.

“I’m not sure I would have been able to produce or write a lot of the substance on the album without having kind of walked through some of those valleys,” he says.

WHY WE L OV E HIM: Swoope’s last album was great, but instead of sticking with the status quo, he’s upped his game with Sinema, feeling the weight of his increased platform. He takes on issues like adultery and lust, taking a hard look at sin in a way that is real, but still palatable and relatable. And in the midst of reflecting on brokenness, he encourages listeners to reflect on the wonder of Christ.

SWOOPE’S SINEMA

FOR FANS OF:

Sho Baraka, Trip Lee, Tedashii, Flame

NOW S T R E A MING

These albums (& more) are streaming on The Drop at RELEVANTmagazine.com.

Listen in!

S U C RÉ

Loner

S T E F FA N Y GR ETZINGER

The Undoing

THE LAST INTERNATIONALE While many bands shy away from singing about controversial issues, The Last Internationale tackles them head on. Their form of “activist rock” urges listeners to fight their apathy and work toward justice.

The band’s guitarist, Edgey Pires, says the band always imagined themselves on a big stage, but they also want their music to make a difference.

“Whatever we do, we put 100 percent into, and we have nothing else going on but this, for the most part. We dedicate every waking moment to this—to music and to art and to changing the world. And when you hit the stage, I think people sense that.”

WHY WE L OVE THEM:

Heavily influenced by folk and blues music as well as punk rock, We Will Reign sounds like a call to arms.

FOR FAN S OF:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Arcade Fire, Little Hurricane

JAC O B MO NTAG U E

P H O T O C R E D I T: S E N B A I ( S W O O P E ) ; A N N A W E B B E R ( L A S T I N T E R N AT I O N A L E ) ; G R A N T L E G A N ( G E M I N I C L U B )

North Winds

GEMINI CLUB J A R S O F C L AY

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THE DEVIOUS MEANS

Other Animals

Gemini Club is a hybrid of sorts, heavily influenced by electronica but also committed to rock and roll. On stage, they strive for authenticity, choosing to play everything live.

“We want to be transparent,” says guitarist and lead vocalist Tom Gavin. “Computers aren’t a crutch. We use these computers to do things that are way cooler than if you didn’t have them.”

“We love rock music and we want that excitement on stage,” adds drummer Ryan Luciani.

“We totally embrace that live aspect. We’re a rock band through and through, in that sense.”

WHY WE L OV E THE M:

Far from simply re-creating their songs for live shows, Gemini Club one-ups themselves by remixing their songs to make each appearance unique.

AND REW EHRENZEL L ER

Children of Promise

FOR FAN S OF :

Two Door Cinema Club, Strange Talk, Digits

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

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THE DROP

CONVERSATION

SLEEPING AT LAST RYAN O’NEAL ON HIS ‘ATLAS’ PROJECT, CREATIVITY AND FAITH yan O’Neal first started making music when he was 14.

Taking on the moniker Sleeping At Last, he has since gained widespread recognition, with his music being used in major movie and TV soundtracks such as Twilight and Grey’s Anatomy.

Now, O’Neal is in the middle of a multi-year conceptual project, exploring a different way of creating and releasing music. We talked to him about the project, his writing process and his faith.

Q: A:

TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT YOUR ‘ATLAS’ PROJECT.

Basically, the concept behind it is I wanted to, through different EPs, kind of explore the themes of how everything in the world came to be. So it starts with darkness, and then the next EP is light. And then after that, it goes through space, which is a song for each of the planets in our solar system. And then after that, it goes to land and then oceans. So now I’m with Atlas: Year Two, [which] will all be centered on the concept of life.

Q: A:

HOW HAS YOUR IDEA OF W R ITING M USIC CHANGED?

I’ve noticed that when I have the time to really over-obsess over my music and kind of overproduce, I end up somehow losing my connection to it. Now, with these songs coming out so quickly, it’s taught me not only to get better at how I’m producing and how I’m writing, but also, I feel a deeper connection with the songs because they’re closer to the source of when I actually wrote them.

Q: A:

“It’s kind of a rule I put out on my music: to never force my faith out of my music and to never force my faith into my music.”

PERFECTIONISM TO GET TO THAT POINT?

MUSIC THAT MATTERS

recording, but I just had to be proud. I feel like I’ve found a balance between still being able to do everything I want to do in the songs, but at the same time, not have the time to overanalyze and kill what was good about it.

Q: A:

ON THE TABLET EDITION Listen to Year One of Sleeping At Last’s Atlas project.

W HAT’S BEEN THE MOST SUR R EAL MOM ENT IN YOUR CAR EER?

I’ve had some really fun opportunities. A couple of years ago, I recorded a song and it got into the movie Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1. I ended up being able to go on this mini tour and promotion of the film. So I got to ride around in a private jet with a couple of the Twilight actors. I was with a friend of mine, and we kind of just looked at each other like, “This is the strangest thing in the world.”

Q: A:

DO YOU HAVE TO SORT OF SACRIFICE

I’ve had to let go of that, and that’s been a really healthy thing. I had one criteria, which was I had to be really proud of what I put out. It didn’t have to sound like a million-dollar

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P H O T O C R E D I T: J E R E M Y C O WA R T

R

YOU HAVE SORT OF STRADDLED THE CHRISTIAN MUSIC SCENE AND THE MORE MAINSTREAM SCENE. WAS THAT AN INTENTIONAL DECISION?

It’s kind of a rule I put out on my music: to never force my faith out of my music and to never force my faith into my music. I’ve always just welcomed anybody that wants to listen to my music. It definitely helped from an early age to just decide, “OK, I’m just going to be honest. That’s all I need to do in my songs.” And hopefully that will just attract whoever wants to listen to it, whether that’s a faith-based audience or otherwise.

DON’T LABEL ME

WHY MYERS-BRIGGS MAY NOT BE AS TELLING AS WE THINK

or years, the Myers-Briggs test has been one of—if not the— personality test against which all others are measured. Your “type” is often part of your introduction, providing context for why you are the way you are.

The test is taken annually by some 2 million people.

And yet, new findings among a small but growing number of researchers suggest the Myers-Briggs’ usefulness has been greatly exaggerated.

To understand why, you have to understand the test’s origins. It rests on the findings of famed psychologist Carl Jung, who posited that all people can be split into either “perceivers” or judgers.” Perceivers, he said, could prefer either sensing or intuition while judgers prefer thinking or feeling. Notably, none of this was

F

Even Jung was skeptical of his personality placements, cautioning that “Every individual is an exception to the rule.”

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CREATE. INNOVATE. LEAD.

based on any scientific observation.

His theories were loosely adapted into the MyersBriggs test by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katherine Briggs, in 1942. Neither had formal psychological training, but Jung was popular, and the idea that the test was based on his theories gave it some credibility.

The trouble is, even Jung was skeptical of his personality placements, cautioning that “Every individual is an exception to the rule.” Modern psychology has discounted his personality dichotomies altogether, realizing that most people fall into a deeply complex scale of perceiving, judging, introversion and extroversion and trusting their own intuition.

But dubious origins and modern research aren’t the only issues with the Myers-Briggs test. The test itself has come under fire, with new research showing test takers can get drastically different results upon repeat takings. Other research has found that the test’s attempts to predict people’s success at their jobs are fraught with failure.

In the end, the failure of Myers-Briggs is actually one of scope: In attempting to point out how unique everyone is, it simply doesn’t go far enough.

T H E B E S T A S S E S S M E N T S The Myers-Briggs might be the bestknown personality test, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best: THE B IG FIVE

The best-accepted model of personality testing in psychology.

THE E N N E AGRAM

A more complicated test involving nine interconnected types.

THE HE X AC O P E R SONAL ITY IN V E N TORY

A test based on six factors found through lexical studies.

MAKER

PUTTING

FAITH & CREATIVITY TO WO R K STEPHEN KENN IS RAISING THE BAR IN DESIGN

Stephen Kenn and Beks Opperman

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CREATE. INNOVATE. LEAD.

B Y M A R I E L L E WA K I M

P H O T O C R E D I T:

BECCA BOWER

“DO

you want to see our Japanese tea room?”

Thirty-one-year-old furniture designer Stephen Kenn leads the way up a narrow black staircase in the downtown Los Angeles apartment he shares with his wife and business partner, Beks Opperman.

At the top of the stairs, he pulls back a curtain to reveal a small, dimly lit room outfitted with two cushions, a teapot and cups and a hanging glass terrarium. There are two Bibles on the floor.

A tea room is one of many unconventional flourishes in the loft. In lieu of a traditional entryway is a rolling overhead metal door.

Just inside are two motorcycles parked in what one might describe as a foyer, except that it’s not. Snake lights wrapped in grey felt under flooring meander up one wall, and a custom-built bar protrudes from another.

And then, of course, there’s the furniture: A chair and a couch handcrafted by Kenn make up a living area at the front of the loft, each piece a steel, streamlined behemoth that commands attention without overpowering the small space. There’s a second chair upholstered in inky black Mongolian sheepskin, but it’s only a temporary fixture.

“That’s for a guy named Joel Chen,” Kenn explains. “He’s a vintage furniture collector with the largest independent collection of Eames furniture in the world.”

No big deal.

Though his mother was an art teacher, Kenn claims he wasn’t particularly creative in his youth. Inspiration struck, however, when he had the idea to sew fabric on the underside of a T-shirt and then cut a design out of the top layer of material. It’s a common technique called reverse applique, but to a 20-year-old Kenn, it was groundbreaking territory.

He commandeered (and broke) his mother’s sewing machine trying to realize his vision. In the end, it was a success.

“That’s when I started to get this itch,” he says. “If I spent an hour working on something, I’d have a physical product to show for it. It was a tangible way to express myself.”

Over the next few years, Kenn capitalized

on his new avocation by starting a denim company with a friend. They dubbed the company Iron Army, a nod to Proverbs 27:17. Eventually, they found favor with Rick Crane, the president of sales for Seven Jeans. He encouraged them to move the operation from Canada to LA. After Iron Army, Kenn started a new company selling handmade bags, stitching one bag per day and selling it on his blog.

After his friend Erwin McManus, lead pastor of the LA-based Mosaic Church, provided funds for the company to grow, Opperman—whom Kenn married in 2009— asked him a simple question: What did he want the next season of his life to look like?

An old wooden chair frame peeking out of a dumpster held the answer.

“I sanded it down and oiled it a little bit, bought batting, found an old military blanket, and staple gunned it all together,” he says with a laugh. “I had no idea what I was doing.”

That is no longer the case.

The furniture Kenn has come to be known for are stripped-down, minimalist masterpieces. Every piece is as handsome as it is functional.

“I liked the idea of it being beautiful from every angle,” Kenn says.

Since officially launching Stephen Kenn furniture in 2011, Kenn has sold upward of 450 pieces, which run for anything from $650 (a tent pole rack) to $8,000 (a calfskin leather sofa). His work can be seen in locations as diverse as Deus Ex Machina coffee shop in Venice, California, the Todd Snyder x Champion store in New York and various J. Crew stores across the country.

In the fall of 2013, he partnered with LA-based denim company Simon Miller to forge a sofa inspired by a pair of jeans, featuring natural cotton canvas and webbing hand-dipped in indigo dye. The project landed them a mention in no less a stylistic gatekeeper than GQ. “I’ve been an admirer of Stephen’s creative endeavors for some time,” says Daniel Corrigan, co-creative director at Simon Miller. “He’s able to inherently

THE KENN COLLECTION

ENCOUNTER

Handmade, durable leather bags designed to get better with age.

INHERITANCE

Furniture made out of steel welded frames and repurposed WWII military fabric.

PAR ALLEL

Simple and modern bags and furniture made for the menswear brand Chapter.

break a design down and strip away the unnecessary components. Creating pieces with integrity and still retaining the passion is not an easy thing to do, and Stephen does it wonderfully.”

And while Stephen Kenn (the furniture) has brought Stephen Kenn (the man) ample success, Kenn would hope that his works are more than physical objects taking up space. “[At one point], I had decided that the world doesn’t need more stuff,” he says.

“What I found rest in, though, is that the world needs more stories. If we can create things that inspire people or encourage them to live their life with more intentionality, then it’s worth making those things.”

He shrugs. “We’re not changing the world.

We’re just trying to build authentic community. If we can do that on a micro level, then maybe there will be a macro effect.”

MARIELLE WAKIM is the Associate Editor of Los Angeles Magazine. She has a Masters in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

39

MAKER

W H AT T O DO WHEN YO U WA N T TO GIVE U P HOW TO STAY COMMITTED AFTER YOUR DREAM GETS DIFFICULT

B Y J E NA L E E N A R D E L L A

hen I was in my early twenties, I dreamt of making a dent in the HIV/AIDS and water crises in Africa. As a young founder of a new nonprofit, I received the fanfare associated with being a social entrepreneur. I was lauded for what I had started. We are enamored with newness; launching something creates a splash on the news feed and tempts the imagination of what can be.

But starting an organization is not the hard thing; building the organization and sustaining yourself in the work is the hard thing.

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The real question is what happens once the startup loses the new shine? What do you do when the cause feels too daunting, or attendance is low, or the work is unfulfilling, or the blog visits are scant? How do you persist through a great endeavor when it just doesn’t feel as great anymore?

We had the audacious belief that we could bring clean water to millions of people in Africa and bring health care to thousands of families in HIV-affected communities. Imagining those goals was not the hard part. Following through on vision, persisting with grit despite the self-doubt— that has been hard. Only 10 years later have

I realized how difficult it is to keep doing a good thing in the world, to set something in motion that will last.

Here are some of the practices I have learned in order to stay with something, especially when it becomes difficult:

FIGHT AGAINST THE CULTURAL UNDERTOW We live in a culture saturated with expectations of expediency and disposability. We hardly have to wait for anything anymore.

We microwave our food, download our books and Google our questions. We can send messages across the world in a matter

of seconds and order an item on Amazon on a Tuesday afternoon and have it arrive on our front porch Wednesday morning. And if we don’t like what we have, we can return it, exchange it or start over.

We do this in so many areas of our lives—causes, relationships, diets, jobs. In fact, more than 90 percent of millennials only expect to stay in a job for three years or less—that’s more than 15 jobs in a working lifetime.

The trouble is, our culture’s expectation of instant gratification doesn’t work for the things that matter most. While the world is changing faster than ever, changing the world (and ourselves) takes time and cultivation.

In my work, I learned that it is relatively easy to drill a well. That can be done in a few days. But the true and hard work is changing the behaviors in a community by convincing people to properly utilize the clean water, to wash their hands and to build latrines.

Those are the keys to improved health.

If you want this real change, it requires nearly a year of advanced planning to mobilize the local community to form a water committee, train people in water and hygiene and invite them to contribute their own resources and labor. The result is not just water today but water and health for a lifetime.

Look at how God fashioned the world to work: It takes years for a seed to become a trunk and branches and leaves before there is any fruit to show for it. I still believe the greatest and most lasting works of beauty (by humans or by God) are the ones that come after years of cultivation.

LET COMPARISON INSPIRE RATHER THAN DISCOURAGE Teddy Roosevelt is often credited with saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

On days when I’ve felt discouraged about growing my nonprofit, Blood:Water Mission, I can’t stop myself from looking at other organizations and wishing ours could be like theirs. I feel sorry for myself and assume other leaders have it easier. I pay attention to what I am lacking and let self-pity and doubt rise.

But if I spent that energy instead on pushing through and reminding myself why this mission is so important and what makes it unique, I could persist. It is not productive to compare ourselves. Our

dreams are seeds, and we need to keep watering them even if it feels as though they will never grow, even if it seems as though the towering trees nearby are overshadowing them.

(And if you’re going to spend your time comparing your endeavor to that of others, let their greatness inspire you. Look to those in your field whom you admire, and let them fuel you to pour greatness back into your own work).

CHOOSE IT AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN The work will disappoint you. Exhaustion, disillusionment or some dose of reality will steal your internal motivation. Being in that empty space can be scary. What happens when you don’t think you love the cause or endeavor anymore? What happens when you don’t get the intended results?

I have spent a lot of time in the desert of northern Kenya where the communities

I still believe the greatest and most lasting works of beauty (by humans or

by God) are the ones that come after years of cultivation.

have worked diligently to build rainwater catchment tanks in area schools. After over a year of mobilizing, training and building, the tanks were constructed right before the region entered a severe drought. The beautiful new rain tanks sat dry. I remember feeling weary from the disappointment and overwhelmed with the question of whether our efforts were futile. I wanted to stop trying, because it hurt too much to feel the failure.

I have learned, however, that love and creativity and working for change is a choice.

The feelings will come and go, the successes will rise and fall, but a true commitment will endure past those fleeting moments.

It can feel daunting at times to constantly choose it, especially when you don’t feel it.

Yet, there is freedom when you realize you do have a choice, and you can reaffirm it each day, regardless of immediate outcome.

Eighteen months after the rain tanks were built, the rains finally returned for our friends in Kenya. The hard work of the communities bore the fruit of life-saving water. The most beautiful things in the world are those you have to fight through and choose over and over again.

CELEBRATE THE SMALL The original dream of Blood:Water was to bring water to a thousand communities in Africa. It took eight years to achieve that goal. Some days, it was intimidating to realize we needed to raise millions of dollars to get there. But we chose to celebrate not just the large checks, but also the small gifts. Some days, our envelopes were filled with dollar bills from children who cared enough to send their allowance on behalf of children in Africa. We must pause for these moments, and let them encourage us.

If you have a book to write, celebrate the completion of a chapter or, on a harder day, just the fact that you wrote at all. If you’re championing a cause, remember that social change is made up of a thousand little steps forward (and sometimes backward!) along the way. Don’t miss the milestones—they are the fuel that will keep you and the others with you going.

GIVE IT TO GOD It’s easy to become a martyr for that which costs time and personal endurance to build, but it’s important to remember you’re in partnership with a mighty and compassionate God who laid the initial calling on your heart in the first place.

Some days, the best thing you can do is to stop doing, put it down and trust that it’s taken care of. God doesn’t promise your calling will be easy. But He does promise to never leave you. He is there every step along the way for us to fall upon, rest upon or call out to when the inevitable roadblocks come.

Give yourself grace, and ask for help.

As you continue to endure the challenges of time, comparison or audacious expectations, let God surprise you. More often than not, what flourishes on the other side of your commitment will be more beautiful and lasting than what you started with.

JENA LEE NARDELL A is the co-founder and executive director for Blood:Water Mission, a nonprofit focused on overcoming the HIV/AIDS and water crises in Africa.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

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REJECT APATHY S U S TAIN AB L E CH AN G E. SA C RIF IC IA L LIVIN G .

ne of the biggest troubles facing any attempt to take down a terrorist organization is that terrorist organizations aren’t large, monolithic entities. They don’t have borders. They don’t have a singular ideology. In fact, as has been the case with ISIS, there may not even be a general agreement on what to call themselves.

ISIS (or ISIL or the Islamic State) actually began as a faction of Sunni militants in Iraq who’d been disenfranchised by the Shia government. Their frustration turned violent, and they joined forces with al-Qaeda—and even helped free members of al-Qaeda from prison. However, relations between al-Qaeda and ISIS were strained (reportedly, ISIS refused orders to stop killing so many civilians) and, in February of 2014, the groups split.

Since then, ISIS’ aims have been, broadly, the absolute destruction of the current

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Iraqi government and the creation of a Sunni Islamic state, which would impose strict Sharia law.

It’s an ambitious aim—one most experts find unrealistic—but as the map above shows, it’s an aim they’re taking seriously.

They’ve already taken over parts of Syria and an area in Northern Iraq that’s roughly the size of Belgium and includes the country’s second largest city. The group funds itself selling oil and electricity and extorting local humanitarian workers. According to some estimates, ISIS could be pulling in as much as $2 million a day.

Their atrocities—including mass executions, forced conversion and unspeakable torture—has led to a global coalition of nations who, in the words of President Barack Obama, plan to “dismantle” and “destroy” ISIS. But as a decade of wars against terrorist organizations have shown, the real question is what comes next.

ISIS has been around in different forms since the early 2000s, but it made significant gains this summer: JUNE 10

ISIS takes over Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq JUNE 30

The U.N. announces that 1.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes AUG UST 6

ISIS traps about 40,000 Yazidis on a mountain in the northwest part of the country AUG UST 19

ISIS beheads American journalist James Foley—the first of several beheadings of captured Western journalists

SOURCE: CNN, INSTITUTE FOR STUDY OF WAR, ECONOMIST (SEP TEMBER 2014)

WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC STATE?

ISIS TIMELINE

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THE NFL SHINES A LIGHT ON DOMESTIC ABUSE BACK IN SEPTEMBER, A VIDEO

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION all the liberties the world’s free countries enjoy, few are easier to take for granted than freedom of speech. Those in countries with some measure of free speech might be surprised to learn that there are places where they would be censored. Here’s the places with the most and least freedom of speech:

OF

BEST COUNTRIES

1 ERITREA This African nation has been known to throw journalists in prison without trial.

JAPAN Prior to 1946, Japan had very limited freedom of speech. Today, there are virtually no limitations.

NORTH KOREA The country’s 12 newspapers and 20 periodicals are nearly all managed by the government.

AUSTRALIA The High Court of Australia ruled there was an implied freedom of speech in the nation’s constitution.

SYRIA The Syrian government has cracked down on anyone trying to report on the conflict.

THE U.S. The First Amendment guarantees Americans a broad measure of free speech, but there are exceptions.

4 IRAN Officials are known to jam satellite signals and intimidate citizens via social networks.

5 THE U.K. The U.K. guarantees freedom of expression, but there are broad limitations on offensive speech.

5 EQUATORIAL GUINEA The country has extremely strict laws about how it can be portrayed.

2

3

4

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NEW ZEALAND The country’s 1990 bill of rights declares that “everyone has the right to freedom of expression.”

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surfaced online that showed Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out Janay Palmer (his fiancee at the time, now his wife).

The video prompted the NFL— which before had only suspended Rice for two games—to terminate Rice’s contract and vow to take a harsher stance on domestic violence.

It also put the issue of domestic abuse back in the spotlight, and showed it’s a bigger issue than many might think. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S., 31 percent of women have been physically abused by an intimate partner at some point in their life. (14 percent of men in the U.S. have been victims of severe physical violence.)

2

3

31% of women have been physically abused by an intimate partner at some point in their life.

And instances of domestic violence aren’t one-time incidents: According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, around 77 percent of female victims had been victimized by the same offender.

But the rigamarole it took to force the NFL to take domestic abuse seriously is reflective of a much wider problem facing victims of abuse at large. By and large, their claims are frequently shadowed with doubt, shame and outright dismissal.

Domestic abuse remains a stubborn tragedy in the world, largely because of those who refuse to take it seriously.

>

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>YOUR HURTS Life is hard. Maybe that’s why people get tattoos ... to remember what matters.

But this actually reveals a deeper longing for God’s eternal tattoos. Discover your four soul tattoos.

>WHATEVER YOU’RE FACING in life—whether it be disappointment, hurt, confusion, or fear—God is greater. These books will both challenge and encourage you to live a radical life of trust and obedience to the God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Available in print and digital editions everywhere books are sold.

>YOUR IDEAS The Ten Commandments are vital pillars of Christianity, and most everyone can recite the three imposing words at the beginning of each decree. We are pretty familiar with what not to do, but what about all that God does call us to do?

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STATEMENT

DOES “HASHTIVISM” REALLY WORK? B Y H O L LY B U R K H A LT E R

ashionable cynics love to deride “hashtag activism”: those thousands of gallons of water dumped for ALS, the #BringBackOurGirls tweets, the Snapchat solidarity with victims of police abuse in Ferguson, Missouri—at safe distances from the events. Some skeptics contend that social media campaigns actually do harm by giving participants the illusion of making change while asking nothing more of them than a click.

As a 60-year-old techno-moron, I’m surprised to find myself in passionate disagreement. I look in amazement and delight at millions of ordinary people giving voice to what they care about and finding others to join them. I think back on the issues I’ve worked on over the past 35 years in the international human rights field and think how different things would have been if vast numbers of people had known what was actually happening in the world and had been able to share that information quickly and widely.

After the Rwandan genocide in 1994, then-president Bill Clinton famously said, by way of apology for doing nothing to stop the genocide: “We didn’t know.” Imagine if Rwandans and Americans in 1994 had the tools for communicating and mobilizing that we have today. We—meaning millions of people all over the world—would have known. And some percentage of the millions who knew would have demanded that our government do something to stop the genocide.

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We can all agree that knowing is not the same as doing. Awareness of Joseph Kony’s atrocities or Lou Gehrig’s Disease or police violence does not by itself save lives. But knowing can become doing for those who have learned something that touches their heart. And the likelihood that a cause will touch your heart is vastly increased when you hear about it from someone you know.

Thus my 17-year-old daughter, who previously knew absolutely nothing about ALS, joyfully took the ice bucket challenge, contributed her allowance and called out friends to do the same. It was a lark, no doubt. But it also meant that for a few days, those kids thought about others. It meant money was raised for a good cause and people with ALS saw that a whole lot of people cared about curing the disease they suffer from.

Back in 1961, a British lawyer named Peter Benenson founded Amnesty International, an organization that went on to engage tens of thousands of ordinary people around the world in writing letters of support to political prisoners. Those letters told the prisoners and their captors that someone knew they were alive. As a consequence, thousands were released who would have otherwise died in jail, unacknowledged and unknown.

Today’s Internet activism is easier than those individually penned letters, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s less precious.

Thanks to the Internet, barriers to participating in social justice campaigns have fallen so that anyone with a phone or computer can participate. And the Internet can also serve as a rich resource for further and deeper effort among others of like mind who we never knew were out there.

Those who commit abuses rely on silence, shadow and indifference. Social media can be shallow and ridiculous—and often is. But it can also joyfully rip through the shadows and fling the truth far and wide. That is very bad news for perpetrators of corruption and cruelty.

HOLLY BURKHALTER is the vice president of government relations & advocacy for International Justice Mission and the author of Good God, Lousy World, and Me.

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An Arizona National Guardsman watches over the U.S. border with Mexico at an observation post in Nogales, Arizona.

BY M AT T H E W BL A N T ON

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HAT ARE WE PUSHING FOR, AGAIN?” After an emotional film and panel discussion, the captivated congregation sat in anticipation, waiting to hear how they could get involved and make a difference. I talked about the importance of education and political advocacy, explaining in detail the process of calling our members of Congress to push for legislative changes.

One man in the audience who had been

SUSTAINABLE CHANGE. SACRIFICIAL LIVING.

shaking his head vigorously in agreement shot his hand up. “I am looking forward to calling my congressmen and taking a stand,” he said. “But what do I say? What are we pushing for, again?”

Many of us have felt this way about complicated issues. At an emotional level, we understand the need to do something, and we are often excited about getting involved. But how to talk about the issues we’re supporting can be a deeper challenge.

The issue at hand this particular night was immigration reform, a perennial political discussion that provokes a lot of emotion and vitriol without a lot of understanding to show for it.

P H O T O C R E D I T: J O H N M O O R E / G E T T Y I M A G E S

REFORM WHAT? Immigration reform is a large proposition, one that would fundamentally change the way our country handles an area of law many argue is more backward and confusing than the U.S. tax code.

Under our current system, legal immigration is severely restricted by decadesold limits based on a system introduced in 1965. This setup has not kept up with the economic realities and needs of the United States in the age of globalization. The impact of these restrictions means employers have inadequate access to the workers they need, families can wait decades to be legally reunited, and more than 11 million people are living in the country illegally with no possibility of coming out of the shadows and contributing fully.

Meanwhile, our government spends billions of dollars a year attempting to enforce these broken laws. This emphasis on “enforcement” has done little to stem illegal immigration, but it does carry a drastic human cost for countless families affected by daily deportations and the fear they will be separated.

This situation has prompted an unprecedented coalition of leaders in the business, law enforcement and education communities to advocate for a complete overhaul of our immigration laws.

Motivated by the many biblical commands to love and serve the immigrants among us, a large and diverse group of evangelical and Catholic leaders have also joined this advocacy effort through sermons, education, denominational resolutions and legislative meetings.

For many Christians, the U.S.’ broken immigration system has become a focal point of our social justice efforts. As children of the God of justice (Deuteronomy 10:18), when we hear stories of immigrant families being ripped apart by deportations, undocumented immigrants being taken advantage of or human traffickers using broken laws to their advantage, we know something has to change.

However, concern does not an expert make. That’s why I was glad for the

audience member’s question. If we desire to be informed and engaged on this issue, we must be able to move beyond our conviction that something is broken. We must also be able to understand and articulate the kind of solutions we are advocating for.

So what is immigration reform, anyway?

What is being proposed, and how would it fix the problem? While immigration reform includes lots of details, it can generally be broken down into three areas:

BORDER SECURITY I recently received a phone call from a desperate immigrant woman living in my community. She had received word that her brother was left behind in the desert by his group as they crossed the border, and no one had heard from him for a week. Despite the efforts of multiple pastors and advocates trying to help, we had to eventually tell her that the chances of his survival were very low.

Desperate to reunite with family or flee poverty and violence, people will try to

agents to focus on catching criminals and traffickers at the border, rather than spending time and resources on people who would gladly come legally if they could.

OVERHAULING LEGAL IMMIGRATION With a young family and a vibrant new faith, Luis was one of the rising leaders in the small immigrant church I was attending until he was pulled over for rolling through a stop sign. Without legal documentation, he was arrested and sent to a detention facility for two months before being sent back to El Salvador.

Luis immediately set out to reunite with his family in the U.S. He was caught on the border and sent to a nearby facility for 10 months before being deported a second time—even though he was a dedicated family man and leader in his community, holding a job and paying taxes. Luis is now back in the U.S., but not before missing a year of his young children’s lives and leaving his wife in a vulnerable financial situation.

To put things simply, we have an

TO PUT THINGS SIMPLY, WE HAVE AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PROBLEM BECAUSE WE HAVE A LEGAL IMMIGRATION PROBLEM. immigrate, no matter how dangerous and difficult the journey. And, contrary to popular belief, every serious proposal of immigration reform begins with border security and the desire to end illegal immigration.

Since the early 1990s, the annual budgets of Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have increased by more than 700 percent.

We have more agents with more resources than at any point in history, but in the same time period of increased enforcement, the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has tripled.

The militarization of the border and the deportation machine will not stop illegal immigration as long as we have a broken system that will not allow those trying to work or be reunited with family to enter through legal channels.

Instead, shifting to a more strategic understanding of security will allow our

illegal immigration problem because we have a legal immigration problem.

Migration is a basic fact of human existence. People are pushed out of their homes by poverty and pulled to wealthier nations by the promise of a better life, often because the wealthier nation needs cheap or specialized labor.

When the immigration laws of a nation fall out of sync with these more powerful economic factors and it becomes difficult or impossible to come within legal channels, people simply go around the system and immigrate illegally.

That’s the circumstance in the U.S. right now. Our economy is held hostage by an antiquated government system that decides how many immigrants we can let in annually. For example, while we have an incredible need for manual labor jobs, only 5,000 visas are available each year for such workers. For employers and the

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GET INVOLVED Here are a few organizations working for immigration reform:

G92

The group puts on events on college campuses and provides resources to raise awareness and encourage Christians to minister to immigrants.

WO RL D REL I EF

The organization has a branch that empowers churches to serve immigrants through legal services, providing training and support.

J USTI C E F O R I MMI G R A N T S

Part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Justice for Immigrants aims to create a network pushing for political change in immigration.

vast majority of poorer migrants who come and fill these jobs, there simply is not a viable legal path.

Similar caps on visas at the other end of the labor spectrum mean many large businesses and tech companies cannot hire the number of specialized workers they need.

This is a nightmare of government red tape where nobody wins. Our economy suffers, and undocumented workers fill the jobs we need them to do but live without legal protection.

Immigration reform would completely overhaul how we allow immigrants in and make it easier to immigrate legally through guest worker programs, student visa reforms and a dynamic allotment of visas based on our real-time economic and population needs.

With a legal immigration overhaul, there would be ample visas for people

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like Luis to work legally at the jobs where we need the labor instead of putting families through needlessly tragic situations.

LEGALIZING THE UNDOCUMENTED The recently prosecuted Botsvynyuk brothers operated a human trafficking ring in Pennsylvania for seven years, bringing immigrants from Ukraine into the country illegally with a promise of a new life and then taking their documents and forcing them to work long hours with no pay. The Botsvynyuk brothers used the threat of arrest and deportation to control their victims.

Traffickers regularly use our broken immigration laws as their own invisible chains to control and manipulate. A legalization process would allow undocumented immigrants who are being trafficked, victimized at work or manipulated to come out of the shadows and receive protection without fear of deportation.

But right now, there is no such process.

While the first two components of immigration reform are rarely controversial, this third piece often prompts disagreement and has derailed potentially successful legislation. Along with securing the border and fixing the underlying problem of a broken system, what do we do with the approximately 11 million undocumented men and women currently living in the U.S.?

Mass deportation proposals would attempt to remove the equivalent of the population of Ohio, which would cost billions in enforcement and cause tens of thousands of orphaned children and separated families.

Immigration reform attempts to address the undocumented population in a way that balances the choice between doing nothing and the unrealistic option of mass deportations. Although the specifics of various reform plans differ, the basic purpose would be to set up a process for those who are here illegally to come forward, pay a fine and any taxes owed, undergo a background check and eventually gain the opportunity to earn permanent residency or citizenship after an appropriate waiting period.

WHAT NOW? Together, these pieces of immigration reform would make us safer, benefit our

national economy and achieve justice for millions of immigrants. So what’s the holdup? Modern immigration reform has been debated since President George W. Bush first argued for it in 2001. Most recently, the Senate passed a comprehensive bill in 2013, but the House of Representatives has not addressed it.

For far too long, both political parties have used immigration reform to blame each other for inaction or wait for the most politically beneficial time to act, which always seems to be just over the horizon. But the American public can have a say in that. If we demand action, we can help Congress move forward.

One of the easiest things you can do is educate yourself and encourage others to do the same. Learn more about our broken immigration system and the need for reform. Search the Scriptures on what the Bible says about immigrants and challenge your friends or church to do the same.

Proverbs 31:8 tells us to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”

Immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, have no voice in our society. When we speak on their behalf, we are fulfilling this verse through political advocacy.

Lawmakers care about their constituents and people who vote, so as long as they think immigration reform isn’t a real concern to the American public, they won’t do anything. Take a moment to look up your member of congress and call their office. Share your perspective as a Christian and explain why you want immigration reform.

Lastly, one of the most powerful ways you can be involved is to simply get to know immigrants. Befriend an immigrant and welcome them into your home. Help them navigate a foreign environment, learn about their customs and listen to their stories.

As you develop relationships, your perspective will shift from “those people out there” to “my people,” and their struggles will become so real to you that you will be pushed into action.

MAT THEW BL ANTON works with the Evangelical Immigration Table, encouraging Christians to think biblically about immigration.

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B Y E M I LY M C FA R L A N M I L L E R

reston Yancey came to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, a Baptist and graduated an Anglican.

He came into his college years, Yancey says, with “a lot of expectations—not only about who God was, but about the ways He chose to operate in the world and my participation in that.”

He came to the centuries-old church for a number of reasons. But, among them—in a generation more connected to the four corners of the world, more transient and more unaffiliated religiously and politically than any other—he found stability and rootedness in the denomination’s history, in its tradition and its existence on the other side of the globe.

Previously, Yancey says, his view of Jesus had been driven deeply by his own emotions and actions.

“The deeper I walk into a liturgical formation, the more clearly I see a picture of a Jesus who is human as much as He is God,” he says. “That doesn’t wither with my feelings. It’s something I can root myself to, because Jesus is unshakable, but my feelings about Jesus are pretty shakeable.”

While Jesus doesn’t change, we do.

And our picture of Jesus changes as each generation projects its own emotions and views on Him. The majority of the millennial generation (72 percent), like the majority of Americans of all generations (78 percent), believe Jesus was a real, historical figure, according to David

Kinnaman, president of Barna Group.

But that belief doesn’t seem to have the same implications for millennials it has had for previous generations, Kinnaman says.

Just 19 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 believe Jesus speaks to them in a way that is personal and relevant, according to Barna research. That’s a steep drop from the generation before (38 percent of Generation X).

Looking at those numbers, he says, “we made the conclusion they may be debating the relevance of Jesus.”

“Jesus is getting lost in the data stream of media,” Kinnaman says.

The debate over who Jesus is and what that means isn’t new, says Matthew Paul Turner, author of Our Great Big American God. Throughout the history of the United States, Jesus at times has been relegated to “God’s Son” and overshadowed by the works of the Holy Spirit, Turner says. He’s been a right-wing Republican and He’s been a “liberal, social justice, homeless man,” he says.

But that debate is more public now, he says, fueled by more information to debate and more ways to debate it with more people.

So what does this generation’s picture of Jesus look like, and where does it get Him right—and wrong?

JESUS THE KING To Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, it seems “younger adults” view Jesus as someone there to “meet your needs and satisfy”— not as a King to be served.

Viewing Jesus as someone who caters to your needs, rather than as a King you are called to serve, takes away the possibility of being challenged, he says.

“How can there even be obedience if you don’t have a God who speaks to you and sometimes gives you communication you don’t like?” Keller says. “If you’re able to go through the Bible and say, ‘Well, I don’t like that part, I don’t like that part,’ you’ve actually got a God you’ve created. How can that God call you on the carpet for anything?”

Millennials are coming to adulthood, Keller says, in a time “in which individual autonomy is everything, freedom of choice is

everything. And this means sometimes I can be guided by some of the general features or contours of Christian teaching, but I really don’t have a divine Lord I have to submit to.”

Books like Bart D. Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God, published earlier this year, have popularized the idea that Jesus never claimed to be God. Ehrman argues Jesus was just a religious leader or teacher.

But that idea has been around critical scholarship for about 150 years, Keller says. It’s an idea C.S. Lewis took to task more than six decades ago in Mere Christianity, writing: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic ... or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.”

If the idea of Jesus as divine is uncomfortable, Keller says, “that probably means you don’t know who He is.” He’s the Jesus who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of “Hosanna!” He accepted the title of king, but He did so not on a war horse, but on a colt. He is a king, but He is a king who came to serve.

That means, Keller says, “You still can’t just live for yourself.”

“Jesus came, among other things, to take the melancholy burden of living for yourself off of you,” he explains. “And always being worried about your own needs—there’s nothing more claustrophobic than that. The self pity, the self absorption is terrible. The only way you’re going to actually surrender and live for someone else is if you have to surrender to a king, but a king you trust, and a king you know won’t oppress you. And He won’t.”

JESUS THE JUSTICE-SEEKER Like many of us growing up, Cho did not want to become his parents.

And, he says, he wonders if millennials feel the same way about their parents’ churches. “Maybe, in the Church, we look back on our upbringing and think, ‘The Church seems so un-present,’” he says.

This is a generation born during the rise of Jerry Falwell’s “Moral Majority” in

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America, Turner points out, when Jesus became inextricably linked with politics and America and the American Dream. Maybe that’s why, as millennials become more aware of what’s happening in the world, they’ve become more disillusioned with this picture of Jesus. They’ve wanted to become more present in the world—to right wrongs and seek justice.

Biblical justice, Cho says, is the process and the journey by which God is restoring all things. The Old Testament references justice being important to the heart of God more than 200 times, he says, as in the words of Isaiah 61:8: “For I, the Lord, love justice.” And the New Testament gives us Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well and touching the leper and eating at the homes of tax collectors.

“It wasn’t just His words, it was the way He lived His life,” Cho says. “In the same

redemption and reconciliation comes not from us, but from God. The hero and Savior of this story is not us, but Jesus.

That’s why, he says, “We have to stay close to God’s heart and character.” We can’t just follow Jesus’ example, we have to follow Him.

JESUS THE TOLERANT One thing millennials can thank their parents for: They were raised to value tolerance, according to author Rachel Held Evans.

Certainly, Pew Research Center data supports the idea that millennials are more open to change than other generations. They are the most racially diverse generation in American history; 43 percent are not white.

They are more accepting of interracial dating, immigration and of what Pew calls “modern family arrangements.”

“IF YOU’RE ABLE TO GO THROUGH THE BIBLE AND SAY, ‘WELL, I DON’T LIKE THAT PART,’ YOU’VE ACTUALLY GOT A GOD YOU’VE CREATED. HOW CAN THAT GOD CALL YOU ON THE CARPET FOR ANYTHING?” —TIM KELLER way, He was the Word incarnate, He was mercy and justice, especially in the way He engaged the marginalized.”

Millennials are trying to follow Jesus’ example in this way, engaging their friends in conversations, the pastor notes. And they’re not just talking about it; more and more, they’re taking action. Campaigns like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge have their flaws, he says, but that campaign raised more than $100 million in a month—a 3,500 percent increase over the same time period last year, according to Forbes.

But there’s a danger in this generation’s emphasis on justice, too, Cho warns in his book Overrated. In it, he confesses how God convicted him that he had fallen more in love with the idea of changing the world than with actually changing it. He thought justice meant he and his wife and children doing something for others, and while there is truth to that, he says, “What God wanted to do was change us.”

Everybody wants to be a hero, he says, and we can forget this vision for justice and

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But, Evans says, “We don’t see Jesus teaching tolerance as much as radical, enemy-loving love. I’m not called to tolerate my neighbor. I’m called to love my neighbor.

I’m not even called to tolerate my enemy.

I’m called to love my enemy.”

We tend to soften what that means, she says, and that has implications for every generation. We forget that Jesus loved the Pharisees, too, even as He disagreed with them and rebuked them.

Loving our enemies doesn’t mean simply being nice, Evans says. It doesn’t mean keeping our distance.

It means investing in relationships with those who are different from us, even those with whom we disagree, Evans explains. It means being humble enough to realize we aren’t their hero or Savior and we may not have all the answers.

And sometimes, it means conflict, she says, because that’s part of the work of reconciliation.

“I think it looks like putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation ... and being

hospitable and opening our homes to people different than us, whether that’s our Muslim neighbor or fundamentalist Christian neighbor,” she says.

JESUS THE HARD TO PUT INTO A BOX “What we get wrong” about Jesus, Turner says, is “probably the same stuff we always get wrong.”

It’s easy to paint a picture of a Jesus that looks like us, whatever decade in which we were born. It’s easy to make Him too tame or too radical, a caricature of either extreme, when really He represents the whole of the Gospel narrative, says Yancey, who chronicles his faith journey through his college years in his book Tables in the Wilderness.

The Bible is uncomfortable, he says. But we like people to read our blogs. We like them to leave “likes” and comments. And while the Internet allows us to connect, that connection largely is around the ideas we throw around in that space, he says.

So we present hyper-sweet Jesus or offensive Jesus—whatever picture of Jesus we think our “potential target clickbait audience” might like, he says. We argue rather than sit in the tension of all the things Jesus is and does, he says.

But, Evans says, “That’s what I like about Jesus: It’s hard to fit Him into what you want Him to be because He always presents you with something challenging.”

In those times she’s gone looking for Jesus’ words in the Bible to support her arguments or point of view, she says, He has turned instead and challenged her.

As we continue to look for Jesus through the lens of Scripture, filtered through our generation’s unique position in history, He will continue to challenge us and our ideas about Him. But as long as we are focusing on Him, as long as we honestly are seeking Him, He also just may reveal Himself to us.

He just may surprise and best you, the way Yancey says Jesus has surprised and bested him.

“Whatever you’re doing,” he says, “it’s entirely possible if you are seeking to be faithful, you are intimately involved with Jesus in prayer and you root yourself in Scripture ... there’s a good chance you’re doing OK.” EMILY MCFARL AN MILLER is an award-winning journalist and truth-seeker based in Chicago.

Connect with her at emmillerwrites.com.

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IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR

BY T YLER HUCK ABEE

et’s just sit down over here.”

Matt Healy is slouching around backstage before his band, The 1975, takes the stage at Lollapalooza in Chicago. He slips under a “KEEP OUT” sign, grabs an open seat in MTV’s press tent and sprawls out, decked in a leather jacket despite the summer heat.

It’s definitely off-limits, but Healy is a rock star now; this sort of stuff is part of his DNA.

“L

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“I just need a rest, mate,” he says, rubbing his bleary eyes.

He looks like he hasn’t slept in a few days and, given that his band is wrapping up an international tour, that may be the case. He got to Chicago from Australia two or three days ago, he can’t remember. He looks terrible, but in that terribly cool way.

I ask him if this is what he imagined being a star would be like.

“In some ways, it is,” he says, kicking his black boots up on another chair and stretching. “In some ways, it isn’t.”

P H O T O C R E D I T: R O S I E H A R D Y

THE GOLDEN YEARS

L-R: Adam Hann (guitar), Ross MacDonald (bass), Matt Healy (vocals), George Daniel (drums)

Lest you doubt, The 1975 are rock stars. Before their self-titled debut even released, the band sold out three nights at Brixton Academy in London. When their debut did release, it was the No. 1 album in their native England. They’ve been nominated for two Radio 1 Teen Awards. They’re touring internationally. If they’re not rock stars, then what is a rock star?

“I always knew it was going to be something,” Healy says with a blistering amount of self-confidence.

“I knew it was going to say something, because I couldn’t be as in love with it and not have at least somebody else feel the same,” he explains. “So I had the confidence that it was always going to connect.

“But I never thought it would translate into the way that it’s done,” he admits.

Healy was 13 years old when he met the rest of his band in Manchester and they formed what soon became a punk cover band.

“If you start a band when you’re 13, you’re doing it for the same reason that you play, like, soccer or whatever,” he says, smiling a little.

“But when you’re 17, you’re like, ‘I want to be in a band because I like music, because I like girls, because I like bands.’

“I didn’t even really know about being in a band like that. The idea of that wasn’t realistic when I was 13. Playing music with each other was what we did because it was exciting. He could play something and I could play something, and we could make it sound different and that, as a model, was exciting.”

They quickly became known for a riotous stage show, but that always buried Healy’s true passion for ’80s pop like Michael Jackson and Peter Gabriel.

He says he’s obsessed with music “moreso than the majority of people” and he’s adamant about not letting the famously fickle industry get in the way of that. That said, The 1975 doesn’t sound like a punk band anymore.

“Stylistically, and the way it sounds and the things

THE 1975 The 1975’s debut fulllength album peaked at No. 1 in the U.K. Their single “Chocolate” landed on the Billboard Hot 100.

we were doing, technically, no, it sounds absolutely nothing like it,” he admits. “Is it the same music? Yeah, I think it is. It’s the same four people doing it for the same reason: because they love each other in a weird way.

“We purposefully only did things completely the way we wanted to do it,” he declares. “That held a lot of currency with our fan group. And that’s been one of the reasons we’ve been so successful, I think: not being compromising.”

“WE PURPOSEFULLY ONLY DID THINGS COMPLETELY THE WAY WE WANTED TO DO IT. THAT’S BEEN ONE OF THE REASONS WE’VE BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL, I THINK: NOT BEING COMPROMISING.” That sort of bravado is pretty common from young bands looking to make a statement but, in the case of The 1975, they aren’t empty words.

They’ve made decisions—sacrificial ones—to retain creative control over their sounds.

“We signed to our own label and then put our distribution deals through major labels,” Healy explains. “So everything you see and you get comes directly from us, kind of uncompromised. We make all the records just in my bedroom, you know.”

BEAST OF BURDEN Healy’s humble about the recording process but, then again, he has Hollywood stars hanging out with him in his dressing room, so in some ways, the pressure is on. But if he’s feeling it, he isn’t showing it.

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TOUR LIFE The 1975 has been called one of 2014’s biggest breakout bands, but they were gaining recognition from big names in music before this year. Here are a few of the most notable they’ve supported.

T H E R O L L IN G S TO N E S

MU SE

THE N E IG HB OU R HOOD

The legendary rock band asked The 1975 to open for their show in Hyde Park last summer.

The 1975 opened for the English rock band in London in the spring of 2013 along with Bastille.

This spring, The 1975 will be headlining a tour with the band they supported in their first U.S. tour.

“You imagine everything that comes with it, every commodity of being in a rock and roll band. You idealize the positive of it. Like fame, for example: It’s one of the most desired aspects of being in a band.

But I mean, that doesn’t matter at all.”

Fame may not matter but, in the world of music, fans do—and fans are something The 1975 has plenty of. Among them, Mick Jagger, who personally asked The 1975 to open for The Rolling Stones’ Hyde Park show.

“It was incredible,” Healy says, sleep sud-

“I’m not, like, famous,” he says, a little defensively, before checking himself. “I suppose it depends on what you consider famous. It’s interesting. I don’t care about being famous. I don’t really think about it that much. When I’m walking around the street, I’m not thinking, ‘Oh, I’m famous.’ It has more to do with I’m just happy that I get to have a truly creative existence now.”

The creative existence is something Healy has a lot of thoughts about. He comes from a family of actors, and his

“NO GREATER EMOTION IS FELT THAN AN INVENTOR WATCHING HIS INVENTION TURN TO SUCCESS. FOR ME, IT’S SUCH A FASCINATING THING TO WATCH HAPPEN—WATCH AN IDEA BLEED FROM ONE PLACE ALL OVER THE WORLD.” denly disappearing from his eyes. “It was massive. It was huge. It was a lot of fun.”

But he balks at saying it was the highlight of his career.

“I’ve had so many,” he says, slowly growing more animated. “From the Royal Albert Hall to getting a gold record in my flat and then sitting there for, like, hours just staring at it, like, ‘Oh my God, look what I did.’ Everything’s slightly surreal when you spend 23 years of a very normal existence.”

Maybe it’s Healy’s swagger or wiry frame, but he calls a young Jagger to mind.

If he’s heard the comparison before, he’s quick to dismiss it.

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musical aspirations were always encouraged. But he has seen the dark side of creativity as well.

“It can drive you mad,” he says of popularity. “I mean, no greater emotion is felt than an inventor watching his invention turn to success. That will just starve you of anything. It will starve you of food, of desire to copulate, anything. For me, it’s such a fascinating thing to watch happen—watch an idea bleed from one place all over the world. So that’ll drive you mad.”

So, success may drive him insane, but he brushes off concerns that it will affect who he is or how his band will get along.

“We know each other too well,” he says. “We’ve been with each other for so long. When you’ve been best friends since you’re 13, you don’t need to say anything.

You know, we have a relationship where we can tell each other we love each other and tell each other to f *** off in the same sentence. It’s what you need.”

THE FUTURE OF THE 1975 If this were any other story, this would be the point where fissures start to show— where the band starts getting cold feet, or creative control starts to wobble. But Healy is still following the muse that got him as far as he has: his love of what he does.

“Music speaks to me,” he gushes. “And there are people like me, so I know it speaks to them. So by the time The 1975 put out our first record, I’d written and recorded the whole album and all of those EPs. So I had this body of work that, as simply a fan of music, I knew was going to do something.”

That’s a pretty decent formula for success, and its one Healy hopes to replicate. But he’s not sweating whether it will work again.

“It’s not like, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do that again. I’ve got to make people like me again,’” he says of The 1975’s breakout single, “Chocolate.” “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If you’ve got a big fanbase that loves us, we just need to have consistency and keep loving the music we make.

“And then hopefully, it will be fine.”

T YLER HUCK ABEE is the managing editor of RELEVANT magazine. Find him on Twitter @tylerhuckabee.

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ON CHOOSING BETTER ROLES, FINDING A BETTER PERSPECTIVE AND MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.

BY T YLER HUCK ABEE

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started this whole string of things was just getting back to wanting to play interesting, dynamic characters.”

She has certainly done that. Starting with a small but significant role in 2012’s Mud (a film which, notably, also kickstarted the career of Matthew McConaughey), Witherspoon is easing her way back into the sort of powerhouse films that made her an Oscar winner. She brought the house down at the Toronto International Film Festival for her searing work in Wild, which she also produced. She also has work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated Inherent Vice. Next up, she’ll be starring in Wish List, director Paul Feig’s first film since he changed the comedy game with Bridesmaids.

“They all just happened to come out within three months of each other,” Witherspoon laughs. “I’m having a bit of a traffic jam.”

WALK THE LINE The night before this conversation, Witherspoon had attended a party for the premiere of her newest film, The Good Lie, in Nashville, Tennessee.

It sounds strange to say, but it’s true: Reese Witherspoon is just good at being a star. She’s been at it long enough to master a tricky balance. She’s elegant, but approachable. She’s humble, but skirts any sort of fake “aw, shucks” humility.

She walks into the room and the guests visibly electrify. She’s short—shorter than you would think—but she positively hums with energy. It’s infectious.

Obviously, this sort of hyperactivity is par for the course any time a star appears, but there’s something different with Witherspoon. There’s an ease to the way she turns from person to person, focusing her eyes on them just so. She has neither a hungry need for approval nor the droning plasticity of bored courtesy. She asks for

P H O T O C R E D I T: K E V I N W I N T E R / G E T T Y I M A G E S

ou should see my hotel room this morning,” Reese Witherspoon says.

It’s early in the morning, but she’s all buzzy charm, with a light bulb smile, an easy grace and, evidently, a slightly scattered hotel room.

“It’s chaos!” She laughs.

“Pancakes and milk and fruit and teenagers and just—” she pauses, waving her hands over her head, “mess.”

Nothing about her seems like a mess but then, some messiness is unavoidable, given her recent schedule. After a couple of slow years, marked only by the occasional rom-com, Witherspoon appears to be attacking her career with renewed zeal and focus.

“I think, for a few years, I was a little bit lost as an artist, not being able to find what I wanted to do, making choices I wasn’t very happy with,” she says. “What

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Reese Witherspoon as Carrie in The Good Lie

REESE REIGNITED The Good Lie truly kicked off Witherspoon’s return to form. She plays a frazzled, unraveling immigration worker suddenly tasked with finding employment for three refugees fresh off the plane from South Sudan.

It’s an unglamorous role for Witherspoon,

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“I think, for a few years, I was a little bit lost as an artist, not being able to find what I wanted to do, making choices I wasn’t very happy with.” refreshingly distant from the “white woman saves the less fortunate” genre it so easily could have turned into. In fact, that was part of what drew her to the film.

“I met with the director and the first thing he said to me was, ‘This movie isn’t about you. I want to be really clear about that.’ I’ve never had anybody say that to me before,” she says. “I was really happy, because I didn’t want to make a movie where it was just a white, American girl coming to save the African people. My character is just as emotionally distraught, she’s just as lost, she’s just as without family as they are.”

It’s just as well Witherspoon took to the script as quickly as she did. The film’s

writer, Margaret Nagle (best known for her work on Boardwalk Empire) wrote the character with Witherspoon in mind.

“She’s got light and dark going on,” Nagle says. “She’s got a strong sense of the feminine, but she’s got this strong sense of the masculine. You look at her and there’s so much going on behind those eyes. I love that she surprises you when she goes on screen.

There’s fierce intelligence in what she does, and yet, she’s every woman.”

HARD TO CONCEIVE “There’s not a lot of media coverage,” Witherspoon says of the war currently raging in South Sudan. “So a lot of people are

P H O T O C R E D I T: B O B M A H O N E Y

each person’s name and says it back to them, with just the slightest hint of a Southern drawl that all her years in Hollywood have failed to completely scrub away. She has a knack for putting everyone around her at ease and seems to be genuinely enjoying herself.

Maybe it’s the fact that it’s happening in her hometown of Nashville (that night, the governor of Tennessee called her “Nashville’s favorite daughter”). Maybe it’s the fact that her career is easing into a dynamic, hugely successful second act, replete with Oscar talk.

Or maybe it’s just that this is what Witherspoon does.

making a comparison with Hotel Rwanda. It’s not a situation a lot of people knew about, but then, when you see the movie, it makes you want to go home and look it up.”

The script alone made Witherspoon interested in knowing more. But she had no idea just how much a little research was going to revolutionize her outlook.

“I came from a place of not knowing, other than a random newspaper article,” Witherspoon admits. “I knew very little about the story.”

to all these technologies and things that disconnect them. The more you can show them of the world is great. “[Ava] is a wonderful, socially conscious girl.

But even a kid who reads a million books on the situation, you don’t understand until you see it yourself. It was very emotional, seeing people displaced, and sleeping on concrete slabs. Just the sprawl. Twelve different languages being spoken. Very little health care.

Very little food. It brought it all home for me.”

WITHERSPOON REBORN After a few years of being “a little bit lost as an artist,” Reese Witherspoon is taking her career more seriously than ever, and her roles are garnering more attention. Here’s a breakdown of what’s to come.

TH E G O O D L I E

Witherspoon tries to help a trio of South Sudanese refugees find work in America. But as the movie goes on, it becomes clear they’re not really the ones who need help.

L-R: Emmanuel Jal, Ger Duany, Arnold Oceng and Reese Witherspoon

Her interest was further piqued by talking to her co-stars, Emmanuel Jal and Ger Duany, both of whom fled their villages in South Sudan and made the long, perilous journey to the refugee camps on foot.

“A lot of things I know were from talking to Emmanuel and talking to Ger. I’d say, ‘Did that really happen?’ And Ger would tell us stories about walking all that way,” Witherspoon says. “It’s hard to even conceive.

“I didn’t want to just do the part in Atlanta and be done and go home to my life,” she continues. “I really wanted to see what the experience was like.”

So, in an attempt to wrap her mind around it, Witherspoon and her 14-year-old daughter, Ava, took a trip to Kenya, where they visited the Kakuma Refugee Camp—home to some 138,000 refugees.

“Just consciousness,” she says, when asked why she wanted to bring her daughter along.

“Awareness. A feeling of wanting to give back.

Travel is the antidote to any kind of selfish behavior. Kids nowadays, we give them access

At first, Witherspoon notes, the plan may have worked a little too well. “[Ava] didn’t say a word the whole day. She really didn’t talk about it till a few days later.

We saw women giving birth on metal tables with their infant just sitting there with no clothes on. And kids that were sick,” she says.

“There are so many times you think you appreciate your life until you see someone else’s perspectives on our privileges and the opportunities we have, whether it’s education or health care or just food or running water.”

WILD

Based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of the same name, Witherspoon plays Strayed—a woman whose life is in a tailspin prior to her attempt to hike the famed Pacific Crest Trail. Early reviews are calling for an Oscar.

SWEET HOME The danger in such trips is to see refugees as a one-dimensional mass of suffering.

Witherspoon recounts a conversation she’d had with Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, whom she calls “amazing.”

“He said, ‘Sometimes we assume that if people are poor they’re not intelligent. Or they don’t have anything to offer to society,’” she says. “But these are people who were at the top of their field. They’re doctors.

I NH E RE NT V I CE

Witherspoon will be one of the many stars featured in this adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel, which will be directed by Oscar-nominated Paul Thomas Anderson.

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Reese Witherspoon and Ger Duany in The Good Lie

They’re educators. They’re community leaders. And essentially, they’ve been displaced. It’s been really amazing through this process. Even two days ago in D.C.— All these wonderful men and women from Sudan are there, and they’re doing incredible things in America. One is a war veteran from Iraq and Afghanistan. One is a community leader. It’s been so educational for

to have a better life for their children,” she says. “Their spirit is just incredible. They greet you with joy and laughter and hugs and dancing.”

When asked how this journey—this knowledge—affected her, Witherspoon doesn’t hesitate to answer. It’s something she’s clearly considered.

“You don’t have to be a perfect person to

“You don’t have to be a perfect person to do something great for somebody else. It’s not just for the saints of the world. We can all do something.” me to learn about refugees and their contributions to societies.”

And, according to Witherspoon, it wasn’t just those who had made it out of the camps that changed her view on refugees. The people in the camp were far different than she expected, as well.

“A really remarkable thing about it is the joy and the determination of these people to rise above, their determination for them

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do something great for somebody else,” she says. “The imperfections in your life might be helped by the process of meeting and helping and creating community for people who are displaced. It’s not just for the saints of the world. We can all do something.”

THAT PERSON Ger Duany—one of the so-called “Lost Boys of Sudan” who ended up playing a slightly

fictionalized version of himself—was cast in the early days of the film’s pre-production, before Witherspoon came on board.

The filmmakers wanted to cast people with connections to the actual events depicted in the movie, and it doesn’t get much more connected than Duany, who continues to travel back to Africa whenever he can in an attempt to find his siblings—who remain scattered across various refugee camps in the area. His passion for the project is palpable.

“When [casting director] Mindy Marin called me and said, ‘Hey Ger! There’s a lady named Reese. She’s going to be in the movie with you.’ I said, ‘Who’s Reese?’”

He chuckles at himself now.

“She sent me a link and I was like, ‘Yes, of course! I know this lady! I’ve watched all her movies since I came to America! I learned English from watching these movies!’

“When I knew it was Reese who I’d been watching for many years, I was very excited because she can turn things into something that brought all of us together.

We couldn’t find another person who could tell the story of the South Sudanese people who have been suffering for decades. But Reese was that person.”

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BY JESSE CAR EY

a large, industrial-style room located in an upscale downtown Chicago building, a collection of the work of some of the world’s most renowned street artists hangs in an unlikely setting: an art gallery. Visitors and prospective buyers survey works usually relegated to the sides of buildings and abandoned billboards—tile Space Invader pictures, faux Soviet-era political posters and massive, brightly colored murals.

The exhibit, aptly called “The Provocateurs,” was curated by legendary graphic artist Shepard Fairey. In the last 20 years, the 44-year-old artist and entrepreneur has transcended the semi-legal world of underground street art to become a cultural force in his own right.

For Fairey, the show wasn’t about simply placing street art in a formal gallery typically reserved for traditional art—it was about blurring the line between the two altogether.

“People say, ‘Is street art being tamed by the art world?,’” Fairey says. “No, because it’s not street art when it’s in a gallery. It’s street art when it’s on the street. There’s no street art in the show. There are street artists who are in the show, but when it’s on canvas, it’s not street art.”

artists have literally taken their works to the streets—and in turn grabbed national media attention—the formal art world has taken notice of the new generation of underground celebrities.

Like Fairey, the mysterious U.K. artist Banksy—whose identity is still unknown outside of a group of his close collaborators—rose to fame for works that first appeared overnight on the sides of buildings, highways and billboards. But his works have become some of the most coveted modern creations among art collectors.

For street artists such as Banksy and Fairey, whose works are now regularly sold and commissioned through traditional art industry mediums, the two worlds colliding have created an interesting tension: Street art is a no-rules culture fueled by spray paint and the cloak of secrecy, whereas the art world is a high-income society of critics, collectors and fickle tastes. But according to Fairey, creating street art for a gallery isn’t selling out.

“I still have that mentality of using what I call the inside-outside system,” Fairy says.

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE

THE WORLDS COLLIDE The Provocateurs, which ran in August, is just one of many gallery exhibits in recent years to display the work of artists whose work was first featured in open, public places—often illegally.

Fairey is one of the most well-known figures in the movement, but as outsider

“When I’m trying to do what I want, if the system doesn’t embrace it, I’ll work outside the system. But if I do have an opportunity to infiltrate the system on my own terms, I’ll utilize that system.”

Fairey says whether it’s working within the formal art world, running his clothing line Obey (which has brought his work into stores across the country and the world) or doing pieces commissioned by major commercial brands, it’s about reaching the biggest audience without sacrificing his message or ideals.

“I’m looking at all the different platforms that are coming forward for me to utilize and thinking, ‘If I were to not use that platform because it’s seen as working with the system or being part of the art world or being commercial, but it can help my work communicate with more people, I’d be a fool,’” he says.

“But I have to be able to do it in a way that maintains my ideals and my integrity.”

And, unlike traditional street art, these new mediums have presented Fairey and fellow artists with another perk: The unexpected demand for their work has provided the funds to create more art and perpetuate the creative cycle.

“I still lose money doing street art,” Fairey explains. “But I’m able to sell prints, and I have my clothing line. And that affords me the ability to go out there and do these huge murals and rent equipment and bring a couple of assistants. I’m glad these kinds of opportunities have materialized, not just for me, but for street artists in general.”

shepard fairey is an artist and entrepreneur best known for his unique style of street art and his Obey clothing line.

One of the hallmarks of the street art movement Fairey helped create is the ability to use well-known symbols and iconography to communicate messages about social issues.

Fairey likens it to great music.

“Some of my favorite music is stuff like the Dead Kennedys, The Clash, Public Enemy, M.I.A., Bob Marley,” he says. “It sounds great, but it also has something to say.”

Many of his pieces utilize stencil and screen-printing techniques to create blackand-red based murals that resemble Sovietera political propaganda posters. The messages of his works however—which often

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Make Art Not War, 2005

focus on themes like peace, social justice and sustainability—present the viewer with the juxtaposition of stark, hard-edged designs and messages of hope and positive change.

“When I look at that dangerous dynamic of entrenched power basically smothering progress, I wanted to make some art about that,” Fairey says, pointing to an example of a recent series that examined the oil industry.

“I’m worried about the planet for future generations. So it’s really all that intertwined in there. It’s about questioning power dynamics, looking at the health of the planet, looking at all these different variables I think are really critical for us to break out of the stranglehold of big oil and fossil fuels in order to move forward, not only as a nation, but as a planet.”

Sometimes though, creating the basis of those powerful juxtapositions requires

the sides of warehouses to the National Portrait Gallery and New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. But rather than increased appreciation changing his art, his work’s authenticity, creative methodology and raw messages are now changing the art world itself.

“When I began, I was going to art school.

Everything was hyper-analyzed. Everybody was hypercritical,” Fairey remembers.

“Doing street art, in a way, was very liberating because I was outside of this rigorous academic environment just doing what I wanted.”

That freedom—which sometimes has even involved breaking the law, pushing the boundaries of trademark (he was famously sued by the Associated Press for using a picture they owned to create

“I’M NOT AFRAID TO RUFFLE FEATHERS, BUT I ALSO DON’T WANT TO INCITE WITHOUT A STRONG REASON TO INCITE.”

Obey Eye, 2009

using symbols some may revere.

Fairey says that for him, there’s a fine line between being irreverent and offensive—but sometimes the message requires dramatic creative decisions.

“I’m not afraid to ruffle feathers, but I also don’t want to incite without a strong reason to incite,” he says. “If I am using a sacred symbol—or a symbol that’s sacred to some people, at least—in a way they might not like, there’s actually what I think is a very constructive, compassionate reason behind that. Because sometimes people have been brainwashed into acting against their own best interest.”

He points to the work of artist Andrew Schoultz, who created a massive American flag dripping with gold paint.

“He’s not trying to be un-American,” Fairey explains. “I use symbols in the same way. I think we’re both saying these icons of America are things to be enjoyed, but also things to question the way in which they’re used to brainwash or manipulate. And you can celebrate and critique that simultaneously in a work.”

THE NEW HIGH ART Uncle Sam HPM, 2006

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Fairey’s work has been displayed everywhere from the bottom of skateboards and

a Barack Obama “Hope” campaign poster) and even partnering with major brands—is what, in the end, has made the structured art world want what Fairey and his cohorts are creating.

“It’s very ironic that what I did as a way of escaping the bureaucracy now has become embraced by the art world,” he says.

“I hope people see there are opportunities to do things in a lot of different ways—whether you’re working as a fine artist, graphic designer, working with bands, working as a street artist—you don’t have to choose just one,” he says. “You can use multiple platforms to get your work out there.”

Fairey explains that despite the rigid structure of the world of fine art and people’s opinions about street art, what he’s doing with his work and shows like The Provocateurs isn’t about labels—it’s about showing what art, and messages of social change, are really capable of.

“What we really want to show is that you can see art with a capital A, but it’s still coming from the same outsider philosophy we’ve always embraced,” he says. “We want to bring stuff to the people.”

JESSE CARE Y is an editor for RELEVANT and a mainstay on the RELEVANT Podcast.

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FIXING WHAT THE CHURCH GOT WRONG ABOUT DATING

B Y D E B R A F I L E TA

he world of dating has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and the world of Christian dating is no exception.

From I Kissed Dating Goodbye and purity culture in the ’90s, to the growing popularity of sites like ChristianMingle.com, it seems many Christians are more confused than ever before about what healthy, godly dating relationships should look like.

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To help clear up some popular questions about dating, we set up a conversation between three experts who have written and spoken extensively about relationships.

Debra Fileta is a professional counselor, author of True Love Dates and regular contributor to RELEVANTmagazine.com.

Emerson Eggerichs runs the ministry Love and Respect along with his wife.

The ministry puts on conferences and provides resources for people in all stages of romantic relationships. He’s also the

author of the national best-seller, Love and Respect. Emerson’s daughter, Joy, was working at the ministry with her parents and then decided to start a branch ministry called Love and Respect Now, aiming to reach the younger generation.

The three relationship experts shared some thoughts about healthy dating, whether there is only one perfect partner for every person, sexual chemistry and how the Church can support people throughout the dating process.

WHAT THE CHURCH HAS GOTTEN WRONG—AND RIGHT DEBRA: It seems Christians are often confused when it comes to the topic of dating and relationships. Why do you think that is? Where do you think the Church goes wrong in this conversation?

JOY: It’s hard to make that blanket statement because there’s just such a wide spectrum of churches and how they do things. I was just with a friend last night who grew up in a church where everyone prophesied over who you would marry, and then you really weren’t allowed to be with anybody else. And she was saying how her sister is 21 and has never dated anyone and doesn’t even know how to interact with someone of the opposite sex.

So that’s obviously an extreme, but that is out there. Often, it comes out of a motivation to do the right thing. Any church that has come up with some kind of doctrine on dating—whether it’s courting or prophesying or “Don’t date” or “Let’s have a singles mixer”—all of those things are out of a motivation to help young people in the Church to not get hurt. I think for that, you can applaud the Church.

I think the reality is that churches need to take stock of where we are and point people back toward, “What do you believe? Where is your heart at? What do you particularly need to help move forward if marriage is the end goal for you? And how can we encourage you as the Body of Christ to do that?” instead of trying to come up with rules to protect everyone.

INTERGENERATIONAL CONVERSATIONS DEBRA: The truth is, a lot of what we learn about relating comes from our families and how we were brought up. Part of healing from that comes when we’re surrounded by people who love Jesus who are engaging in healthy relationships.

Practically, what do you think that looks like in our generation?

JOY: I think the Church was intended to be more intergenerational. As opposed to actually being the Body of Christ, we’ve separated people into their different classrooms and their different affinity groups. From an overall standpoint, we’re losing the ability to learn how to relate, because we end up only spending time with people who look, smell, act like us. The beauty that can come from people who are

in relationship and people who are single, who are male, who are female, having these conversations, hearing recognition from someone who’s in a different stage who says, “Yes, I relate to that”—I think that’s what builds empathy.

If I can learn to relate to just my brother or a male, it’s going to be much easier for me to move into a dating relationship. I think that is one of the areas where the Church has—because of this separation— hurt the ease of dating a little bit.

EMERSON: I’ve noticed there are usually two or three couples in every church that have a passion for marriage. They have a healthy, successful marriage. They’re the first to admit that they got that way because they almost killed each other through the

your wedding day, your husband is going to start planning dates, it’s just not going to happen. Ultimately, you’re free to do whatever you want, but how you date is pretty much going to be how the relationship ends up.

‘THE ONE’?

Another frequently asked DEBRA: question I get is, “Does God only have one person out there for me?” What do you think about that idea?

EMERSON: A good Scripture to this is 1 Corinthians 7:39, where Paul is addressing the widow. He’s encouraging her to remain celibate, but he says she is “free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.” Paul isn’t saying, “She is free to be married to the

“God designed us to be attracted in a sexual sense.

But, at the end of the day, there are things that attract us that have nothing to do with some of these superficial physical features.” —Emerson Eggerichs early years. They’re transparent, they’re real, but they’re successful. Young people are saying, “You know, we haven’t had it from our family of origin.” But one of the gifts God has given us is, in every local assembly, there are two or three couples who have wisdom and can impart these things in such a way that will give wisdom on learning how to relate.

WHO INITIATES? DEBRA: One Christian culture question that gets asked a lot is, “Does it matter who initiates the relationship? Should the woman just wait for a man to pursue her?”

JOY: I think it really depends on the person. Sometimes in this whole “men are to be the pursuer” mentality we have, we sometimes abdicate giving off anything that says we’re available or open. We have this mentality that we can just sit at home and knit, then somehow our prince charming is just going to show up at our door.

Then ultimately, are you fostering the type of relationship you want in marriage?

If you’re a woman who is the pursuer, the planner and then somehow think that after

one person God has for her, who is out there somewhere, and it is incumbent on her to find that man.” No, she’s got freedom to be married to whom she wishes.

Paul clearly says she is free to marry who she wishes as long as it’s in the Lord, and that should free people up. It’s really not a question of finding the right one, its a matter of being the right one. If you’re trying to find a person out there who’s perfect, my question is always, “Why in the world would a perfect person want to marry you?”

It comes back to the issue of me being the person God intends for me to be and to work on that, and usually that’s going to attract the kind of person we want to ultimately be married to.

DEBRA: With this question, “Is there one person out there for me?” I don’t think it really matters what we believe, because you still have to go through the same process of interacting with someone, of getting to know what they’re like, of becoming healthier. I think singles can let the pressure off and realize they don’t have to know that the person is the one for them within 24 hours of meeting them.

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EMERSON: If you have this idea that God’s going to lead you to that special one ... and this is now going to lead to an easy relationship, it’s not. If you think this is going to be easy and you have one doozy of a fight, what are you going to conclude? You’re going to conclude that you made a mistake or God misled you.

DATING ‘CHEMISTRY’ DEBRA: I recently read an email from this guy who basically said there’s this girl who is godly, wonderful, amazing, everyone says she’s a great fit for him, but he doesn’t feel “chemistry” with her. How important do you think it is to have sparks or chemistry in a dating relationship?

JOY: I think chemistry is real. That’s part of God’s design, and it’s beautiful.

There is a real natural sexual chemistry we can have. However, obviously, within Christianity, you want to be with someone [who loves God].

But [I don’t agree with] people who want to ignore the fact and say, “It doesn’t matter about chemistry—this is a great person” and just dive into that relationship anyway. I would rather be alone the rest of my life than force myself to marry someone I had no spark or chemistry with—but I do believe it can grow.

EMERSON: Unquestionably, God designed us to be attracted in a sexual sense, Song of Solomon clearly unpacks the beauty of that. The Lord clearly intends for the husband and wife to experience that. We would be foolish not to acknowledge beauty—Scripture warns against beauty on one hand, but it acknowledges and rejoices in it in another sense.

But, at the end of the day, there are things that attract us that have nothing to do with some of these superficial physical features. There’s more to this than meets the eye. The Lord knows what He’s doing.

DEBRA: A lot of times, we’re influenced by what we find to be the spark or this chemical reaction based on what our culture tells us it’s supposed to feel like or look like, when really you can have attraction to so many different parts of a person. It’s important for our generation to be aware of that and ask what kind of things are spoiling our perspective of attraction.

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RELATIONSHIPS IN THE LIGHT One of my key phrases is: Are we living our relationships in the light? I always find it so amusing when I will meet someone, and they will have just started dating and I’ll say, “Oh, that’s so exciting.

What do your close friends or parents or mentors think?” And people will often be like, “Oh, I haven’t introduced them yet

not feeling good about this and you don’t want to be honest. A lot of times, people convince themselves they can love this person into changing, but it doesn’t work that way. If they have some godly people in their life who can honestly speak to them, it will save a whole lot of heartache. If there’s any degree of humility and teachability, it’s going to protect us from a lot of pain. But

because they just get so annoying.”

Yes, some people in your life are annoying because they ask you so many questions.

But if we can remember that our close friends and our parents and these people most likely want the best for us, then just let them be a little annoying. There’s freedom when we bring things into the light.

If you’re not hiding anything, then there’s really no fear in letting people in on your relationship.

EMERSON: If we say “I don’t want to bring that into the light because it’s going to create so much hassle,” that means you’re probably

there’s so much isolation today and so much autonomy that we’re losing a gift God has given us by receiving this kind of input.

JOY: Also, sometimes we need people in our lives to say, “Do not leave this relationship.

You are sabotaging this relationship. This is a healthy godly, good person,” or whatever it is you need to be told to keep pushing through.

Get people in your life who love you, who will tell you if you need to stay in something, if you need to work on something and who will give you hope for an area that you feel very wounded and broken in.

DEBRA: One of my college professors

JOY:

totally spoke into my life. I will never forget during our mentorship moments, she would pull me aside and talk about the relationships I was in. She would ask some hard questions and she would have me make a list. She would say, “What are the things you love?

What are the things you’re cautious about in this relationship? And let’s be honest, what are the things that are stop signs?”

“It’s really not a question of finding the right one, its a matter of being the right one.”

—Emerson Eggerichs

It doesn’t come easy because you have to be so genuine, you have to be so real with another person. I feel like those relationships with people before marriage prepare us for marriage. We have so many significant relationships that we need to tap into in order to prepare us for a healthy dating relationship and a healthy marriage.

MORE COMPLEX THAN IT NEEDS TO BE Sometimes people will ask me, “What’s a biblical approach to dating?”

Well biblically, that includes a couple herds of goats and your extended family, and that

would make for an awkward date at Starbucks. Really, the culture of dating changes a lot with the culture and time.

We don’t get too much about dating in Scripture, but we do get a lot about what is it to be a godly person and how that plays out in our lives. I think sometimes we make it more complicated than it needs to be.

EMERSON: One of the things we say to singles is, “If you want to know what God intends for you in marriage, listen to what He has said to the married in Scripture.” There are only two major teachings to the pre-married; sexual purity and being married in the Lord.

But there are so many salient passages to the married.

We take the position from research as well as some Scripture that love and respect are the two foundational attitudes that make for a successful relationship. In other words, when there’s hostility and contempt, that’s what kills a relationship.

At the end of the day, hostility and contempt undermine intimacy.

JOY: Whether it’s in relationships with our family, our friends, or whatever, we can start practicing [love and respect] now and it will impact our marriage.

So that comes back to that relating over dating, because this topic of love and respect does transcend the marriage, and it will greatly benefit if people can figure it out before marriage.

EMERSON: Part of what we’re also addressing here is what role does the Church have? Do we create events for young people to come together? Do we encourage them to get on eHarmony?

There are a lot of ways of trying to create relationships, but once those relationships form, it’s more of an issue of relating. And how is it that God intends for us to do relationships? That’s really the critical question.

I don’t think God intended it to be complex. It’s simple at some level. And once we understand some of those basic principles, we can have a confidence that if we can just keep on this, at some point, we’ll find someone who feels the same way.

DEBRA:

DEBR A FILETA is a counselor specializing in relationship issues. Visit truelovedates.com and follow her on Twitter @DebFileta to learn more.

MOMENTS IN CHRISTIAN DATING HISTORY Christians have been given a lot of different messages about dating over the years. From the Bible to online dating, here are a few of the most notable:

900 B C : SON G OF SONGS

Solomon is the only person in history to get God’s help writing a love song.

1993: ‘ TR U E L OV E WA ITS’

Lifeway launches its campaign, convincing over 100,000 teenagers to commit to save sex for marriage.

1997: I KI S S E D DATI NG GOODBYE

Joshua Harris unleashes his critique of cultural dating norms, inspiring thousands of couples to break up.

2004: C HR ISTIAN MINGLE LAU N C HE S

Christian Mingle launches its online dating site. The world has yet to see an online courting site.

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comes home

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THE SINGER-SONGWRITER ON FAITH, AMERICA AND WHY HIS MUSIC ONLY TELLS HALF THE STORY B Y L AU R A S T U DA R U S

P H O T O C R E D I T: S A R A H M U R P H Y

L

ast year, J. Tillman (otherwise known as Father John Misty) published an essay about singer-songwriter Damien Jurado.

With 11 studio albums of material to reflect on, the former Fleet Foxes drummer wove an epic tale of Jurado’s rich inner life, contrasting it with an idyllic view of a bygone America.

“We’d all like to live there, but we don’t,” Tillman wrote of Jurado’s imagined world. “No one does. We’re stuck with Jamba Juice and the Internet, occasionally a charming, aesthetically pleasing dilapidated monument of the pre-air-conditioned nightmare on the side of the road.”

As a folk musician who has amassed a fair amount of dust on his boots after some 17 years of touring, it’s not a view Jurado dismisses out of hand. As Bob Dylan once sang, and Jurado heartily concurs, the times, they are a-changin’.

“The reality is that the America you can read about in a Kerouac book or a John Steinbeck book is not the America that exists anymore,” he muses. “I think there are a pockets of it and elements of it that exist, but I think for the most part, it’s gone.

“Before, it was in front of you. Now you have to go look for it. Which isn’t bad. But it’s like traveling through time. Colorado is a good example of this. Colorado, for the most part, aside from the mountains, it’s a giant strip mall. It’s a lot of outdoor malls, which is fine, but how many Home Depots and Olive Gardens can you have in a 10-mile radius? It’s kind of sad.”

It’s that quiet tension—between man and nature, society and man, and man and his maker—that informs Jurado’s autumnal blend of folk, rock and retro pop balladry.

The characters in his songs are often big and brave, but their trials are difficult and haunting—cut only with the occasional splash of sly humor (two words any fan will appreciate: Purple Anteater). The settings are real (Washington, Colorado, the Midwest).

The pain is real (death, rebirth, a burning desire to disappear). Although, rendered through Jurado’s poetic worldview, it all seems larger than life.

But today, on a wintry Seattle afternoon, the musician has his mind trained on far less emotionally taxing matters— namely, the hope that the rain will clear and he’ll be able to take his sons Coltrane and Miles to the park.

The idea of putting down roots and investing in the community has always been appealing to Jurado, but with his

“My whole idea of touring has changed ... I think the major venue is going to be on its way out fairly soon.

I think that’s good.

People want a sense of community.”

sons getting older and a recent move to a more kid-friendly neighborhood, it’s taken on an added significance.

“My parents, they never stayed in one place for more than a year,” he reveals.

“So I moved around a lot as a kid.”

Given that, perhaps it is unsurprising that the idea of movement has crept into Jurado’s work. His newest album, Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son, and its predecessor, 2012’s Maraqopa, fit together to form a loose travel narrative through places both real and imagined. Inspired by a dream, Maraqopa is the story of a musician who gives everything up and disappears. Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son is a continuation of that story, its loose narrative offering, if not a resolution, then at least an uneasy peace.

Given the central character, a worldweary, well-traveled musician, it’s almost impossible not to see elements of the artist in the art. But as Jurado wryly points out, that isn’t the case. If he really were as dark as his often-troubled cast of characters, he’d be institutionalized—not making a career out of music. If anything, he says, his goal is to avoid writing about himself.

“It has happened in the past,” Jurado clarifies. “But it’s not something I was really aware of. I’m really removed from what I do musically. I don’t sit around and think about it or ponder it.

So it’s not surprising that things like that happen.”

Therein lies the great paradox.

Although comfortable rendering tales of pain and suffering in cinematic clarity, at the end of the day, Jurado is— by his own admission—just another guy, content with his life. He’s happy to talk about the mundane, admitting an affinity for old TV shows such as I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

(Even though he contributed a song to the soundtrack of The Walking Dead, he confesses he’s yet to watch a single episode). But when he speaks about his songs, it’s not in tones that imply a near-mystical extension of self, but rather with the implication that music is like a suit he’s more than happy to remove at the end of a workday.

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S A I N T BA RT L E T T

Nine albums in, Jurado reinvented his sound with great results.

CAU G H T I N T H E T R E E S

Jurado’s 2008 release saw his usual themes of discontent covered in catchy, driving beats.

REHEARSALS FOR D E PA RT U R E

Jurado’s sophomore album showed he was a folk force to be reckoned with.

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Although not a part of the praise and worship movement by any stretch of imagination, and uneasy with the term “Christian musician,” Jurado confesses that yes, his personal beliefs are often woven through the threads of his songs. While discussing other topics, Jurado often pauses, stumbling over words or offering the equivalent of a verbal shrug. But when it comes to God, he’s unafraid to make a definitive statement.

“In the past, I shied away from it,” he confesses. “I think because I didn’t really feel confident. It’s all a growing process. It’s also very personal. I still stand by the fact that I’m not an evangelical preacher. I’m not that. My faith is deeply rooted in the Bible and Jesus.

But I’m not a preacher or a Christian musician. I’m none of those things. I’m just a normal person.

“I’m as much a Christian musician as I am a father musician,” he continues. “I was a Christian before I was a musician. I have been ever since. That doesn’t change because I’m a musician. I’m not going to change that. For me, my faith has always been a very personal matter. It’s sort of like anything else. It’s like my taste in movies or food. It has little or nothing to do with my music. But is it a part of it? It’s definitely a part of it, sure. Also, my kids are a part of my music and what I do, too.”

And with that, it’s time to go. Talking about music is all well and good, but real life is calling. His children are getting restless, the park is waiting. And any second now, the skies will clear.

L AUR A STUDARUS is a writer living in Los Angeles.

She’s a regular contributor to Under the Radar, Filter, eMusic and RELEVANT.

P H O T O C R E D I T: S T E V E G U L L I C K

MORE MUSIC

“I’m a musician when it’s time to be a musician,” he confesses with a sigh. “I’m definitely like, a father when it’s time for that.

When I’m home, I’m home. I’m one of those people. I’m not a person who picks up his guitar a lot. I just don’t. If anything, I need to be more disciplined when it comes to that kind of thing.”

Currently embroiled in the promotional wave that comes with putting out a new album, one can forgive Jurado for seeking a little time away from the office—particularly in light of the long string of international tour dates he’s booked in the upcoming months. It’s not that Jurado minds live shows per se, he makes that much clear. But the traveling and diminishing returns are starting to get him down.

“I don’t plan on touring like this ever again,” he says emphatically. “It’s not worth it to me.

Frankly the music industry is changing. My whole idea of touring has changed ... I think the major venue is going to be on its way out fairly soon. I think that’s good. People want a sense of community. They want a sense of their community, and that’s really good. If an artist can go into that community and be part of that community for 24 hours or so, that’s really cool.”

In addition to forging indelible connections to the Pacific Northwest and folk scenes, Jurado’s personal beliefs place in him a third category: Christian. In his essay on the musician, Tillman transitions from the idea of America to the idea of God—lamenting that because of their desire for inoffensive conversation, most people tend to whitewash their ideas of a divine being. Jurado’s God, Tillman concludes, is far bigger and wilder than social convention would dictate.

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THE SPIRITUAL IMPORTANCE OF GOING TO COUNSELING

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B Y T Y L E R WA R D

S

ince I was the only non-Albanian in the mosque that day, I had absolutely no idea what to do and when to do it during the ritualistic-heavy ceremony.

Realizing my learning curve was becoming a distraction, I spotted a bench all alone in the back of the room. I figured it was there for spectators like me.

I made my way to the bench and, for the first time since stepping foot in this place, I felt my body relax. Perhaps that’s why, when the back few rows of people turned around and started to yell, it took me a few seconds to realize they were yelling at me.

At that point, a friend grabbed my arm, ushered me out the back door of the mosque, and in the best English he could muster, said, “That not bench. That Quran altar.”

The experience was a grandiose failure of my best intentions ending in confusion, shouting and disappointment by all.

Such is the state we frequently find ourselves in life. Regardless of intentions, we just can’t seem to not fight with our spouse.

Or no matter what we do at work, it’s always misunderstood by the team. Or perhaps, every once in a while, we’ll emotionally spiral into depression for no logical reason.

The truth is that life gets messy and, at times, can feel like everyone’s shouting at you and you don’t know what to do.

After my mess at the mosque, I hired a language/cultural coach to help expedite my learning curve in hopes of avoiding more socially traumatic experiences. In that scenario, nobody thought less of me for doing so.

But in life, it’s different. When you turn to a professional for help, it often comes with

a social cost. Getting professional guidance from a counselor or a therapist is tantamount to an admission of failure. Counseling, the assumption goes, is for people who just aren’t up to snuff.

Sadly, misconceptions about counseling and the resulting stigma aren’t limited to our culture. They’ve infiltrated our churches, too.

In Christian communities, counseling is seen as a cry for help. It’s an indicator of a marriage on the rocks, a spiraling emotional life or crippling doubt. We can acknowledge that counseling is necessary for war vets and suicide survivors. Many may even consent to its value when unhealthy habits have become addictions. But generally, we tend to think healthy Christians should be able to handle their own issues with a quiet dignity.

Most of our culture’s history, chock-full

counseling—and so should our view of the craft. Counseling is not just for those with traumatic experiences or life crises. And getting counseling is not a sign of weak faith; it’s simply a way to take our pain seriously.

PAIN IS A HUMAN CONDITION Pain is the residue of experiences not authored by love. And these kind of experiences—outside of our control or inflicted by people without our best interest in mind— are universal and inevitable.

Some of us were taken advantage of as kids or severely rejected. Others acquired pain as they spent their childhood and young adult lives trying to architect themselves into the person their parents or peers wanted them to be. Some experienced traumatic accidents or deaths in the family. Others have unbalanced chemicals in their bodies, which

It’s easy to recognize that counseling is necessary for war vets and suicide survivors ... but as society has evolved, so has its need for counseling. of American rugged individualism, wouldn’t let us think any other way. We’ve been told needing someone to help you with your own life is weak. Strong people don’t get counseling. Good Christians don’t get counseling.

These misconceptions are keeping people from getting the help they need. The Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health shows that as many as two-thirds of people who need counseling don’t go because of the stigma attached.

But as society (and the futility of our individualism) has evolved, so has its need for

added a layer of confusion and loneliness to even the happiest of times.

We spend a lot of time and energy avoiding pain.

Some of us choose to work too much and indulge in an occasional Netflix binge. I had a friend once who chose to never acknowledge his pain—a tactic he picked up from his church, where he had been convinced his pain died with Jesus on the Cross.

The problem is, the Cross didn’t kill pain.

But the Cross does give us the hope to deal with pain, a light at the end of the tunnel

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GO DEEPER TO BE TO L D

by Dan Allender One essential part of understanding your relationships and tendencies is to know your story. In this book, Allender coaches readers on how to understand how their past plays into the present. He gives ways to see God’s work in who you are—and to join with Him in continuing the story.

BOUNDARIES

by Henry Cloud and John Townsend A classic of Christian counseling, Boundaries deals with learning our own limits and establishing healthy boundaries in all areas of life, which is an essential part of caring for both others and ourselves.

THE SCHOPENHAUER CURE

by Irvin Yalom For those who prefer fiction, Yalom’s story of a psychotherapist confronting his own mortality stirs up ideas that allow for introspection on the reader’s part through both the story and the insights into the work of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

T HE GIF T S O F I MPER F E C T IO N

by Brené Brown We spend far too much time worrying what others think of us, argues Brown.

She offers ways to understand our shame responses and journey to self-acceptance.

Though not written from a Christian point of view, the book’s main points resonate with our need for a Savior.

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of pain and a divine being to walk with us through the pain.

No matter how we choose to avoid it, pain will surface in one way or another.

For some, it comes out in addiction, chemical imbalance or suicide. For others, it may appear as infidelity, loneliness, apathy, passive aggression or social anxiety.

The concern is: pain unacknowledged has a way of authoring our worldview and manipulating our relationships.

What if talking through our pain with a third party—not to go on a witchhunt of our issues, but to simply talk about how our experiences have affected us—is not a weak thing to do? Perhaps it’s actually the responsible thing to do.

HUMAN CONNECTION IS A BASIC NEED After giving the majority of her adult life to researching the social experience of human life, Brené Brown—Ph.D., author of Daring Greatly, and famed TED talker—makes an interesting conclusion.

“The surest thing I took away from my research in social work is this: Connection is why we’re here. We are hardwired to connect with others—it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it, there is suffering.”

Her conclusion is echoed by one of the better critics of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Dr. Pamela Rutledge, when she says, “Human connection is the driving force of human behavior, not a third-tier activity.

The system of human needs from bottom to top—shelter, safety, sex, leadership, community, competence and trust—are dependent on our ability to connect with others.

[Connection] provides the sense of security and agency that makes our brains happy and helps keep us safe.”

And as wordy as Brown’s and Rutledge’s statements are, they’re modern translations of a statement made centuries ago: “It is not good for man to be alone.”

This art of human connection, the one thing Brown says is vital to the human life, is not something that comes naturally to most of us. We must learn it, as we learn mathematics or science. Relationships can be complicated. Most communities (even the Christian kind) are about as equipped and interested in the ways of human connection as we are—rarely making them a safe place to learn and make mistakes and grow.

So what’s the solution?

One good option would be to find someone to help you learn.

MONEY CAN BUY HAPPINESS In 2009, Psychologists Chris Boyce and Alex Wood and their teams analyzed thousands of data sets from participants who, at one point in their life, had a significant boost in income and level of lifestyle. This could have been winning the lottery or selling a company or getting a substantial raise.

They then analyzed a similar number of participants who regularly went to counseling sessions.

What they found was those who went to a regular counseling session were 32 times more likely to be happy than those with a large increase in income. They also found it would take an increase of roughly $40,000 dollars to equal the same amount of quality of life added from $1,300 worth of counseling.

DON’T KEEP COUNSELING WEIRD What’s the narrative unfolding here?

Human life gets messy—but rarely do we know how to clean it up. Humans have pain— but rarely know how to navigate it. Humans need human connection—but rarely know how to connect. Humans could use other equipped individuals to help clean the mess, navigate the pain and connect with others— but have made the practice culturally taboo.

Every day, people who refuse to step foot in a counselor’s office are deciding death feels like a better idea than life. Every day, people who assume it’s weak to talk to a third party are ending their marriages.

Every day, people who believe counseling is only for the overly emotional are suffering from a very real mental disorder and living in continual, internal pain. Every day, people who think counseling is shameful are not learning the art of relationships and not living fully alive.

Regardless of whether you personally feel a need to see a counselor, we all can help the world around us by simply choosing to do one thing: Resist the modern stereotypes and choose to believe counseling is a helpful tool for people of all ages and all walks of life.

Counseling is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength.

T YLER WARD creates and consults web-centric businesses. He blogs about the intersection of work, relationships and spirituality at tylerwardis.com.

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25 YEARS IN, THE SIMPSONS ARE CASTING A LONG SHADOW.

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tremendously—and everyone knew it.

“The show’s impact when it first hit the scene was so massive, like an asteroid smashed into the world of comedy,” says Matt Selman, one of the show’s executive producers. “The deep impact changed how everyone, including myself, saw animated comedy forever—that it was for adults, that it was smart, that it was emotionally meaningful. And now the micro-particles

frantically searches for a gift at the mall, as he’s realized he’s forgotten her birthday.

He ends up buying her a bowling ball with his name engraved in it, which sends Marge into a furious rage. She decides to get back at him by actually going to the bowling alley and learning how to bowl. While she’s there, she meets a French man named Jacques who is charming and charismatic. All signs look like Marge is going to have an affair

BY ROB FEE

ike most kids of the ’80s and ’90s who grew up in church, The Simpsons was wildly popular for everyone else, but forbidden for me. It wasn’t that it was so much more racy than anything else on television, but something about the fact that it was animated and not The Jetsons made everyone freak out.

I remember seeing my friends at school wearing shirts of Bart Simpson saying “Don’t have a cow, man” and dreaming of the day that I too could express my feelings of not wanting to have a cow via T-shirt.

I remember slowly warming my parents up to the idea of letting me watch the show when I was 9, during the first season. It had been on for a few months and was somehow becoming a worldwide phenomenon without the use of the Internet. (Can you even imagine? How would a show possibly gain the eye of the world without YouTube clips, sponsored tweets, mobile apps, hipster blog reviews and a Facebook page?)

It wasn’t like you could just watch an episode on-demand or, god forbid, find a torrent of the latest episodes. You just had to wait for it to come on. The thing was, there was so much buzz around the show because nothing like this had ever come around before. The last successful primetime animated series before The Simpsons was The Flintstones, which ended in 1966.

It was a bold, gutsy move that paid off

“THE SHOW’S IMPACT WHEN IT FIRST HIT THE SCENE WAS SO MASSIVE. THE DEEP IMPACT CHANGED HOW EVERYONE SAW ANIMATED COMEDY FOREVER—THAT IT WAS FOR ADULTS, THAT IT WAS SMART, THAT IT WAS EMOTIONALLY MEANINGFUL.” –MATT SELMAN of that asteroid impact are present in almost all entertainment.”

The Simpsons is now in its 26th season.

Many of us remember, as children, when the Simpsons family transformed from a segment on The Tracey Ullman Show into a series that exploded upon the world and became an instant phenomenon.

The kind of longevity the series has experienced means almost anyone born after the early to mid-’80s doesn’t even know what a world looks like without The Simpsons in it. It’s a staple that never ages. The characters don’t grow old and move on to different parts of life; they’re consistent. If we were on Lost and Daniel Faraday was helping us find our constant, it would be The Simpsons.

I remember the exact episode that was on the night I finally convinced my parents to let me watch the show. This was after weeks of begging and saying, “It’s not that bad! Everyone else’s parents let them watch it.” The episode was season one, episode nine, titled “Life on the Fast Lane.”

The story revolved around Marge’s birthday and started with Bart and Lisa making her breakfast in bed, while Homer

with him, while Homer sits at home moping over the mistakes he’s made.

And that’s when the show became offlimits for me.

The episode ends with Marge not going through with the affair with Jacques and coming back into Homer’s relieved arms.

So what was it that made it so unacceptable? It was the story of a terrible husband who took his wife for granted and realized what a special thing he had when it was too late. It was a story about a woman who chose to work on a relationship that was full of flaws and imperfections instead of abandoning everything she had built for a moment of bliss.

If anything, this was the kind of story we needed to hear—a message of appreciating those in your life and never taking them for granted because nothing is forever. But in a traditional, old-school church setting, those types of issues weren’t discussed.

I don’t fault my parents for this as much as I wish the church we attended at the time was culturally savvy enough to realize that these were actual issues. Couples stop trying. People stop caring. Relationships, without effort, fall apart.

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The Simpsons’ brand of hilarious, biting but thoughtful satire has tackled everything from politics and news to media and pop culture.

And it has never veered away from evangelicalism:

SUNDAY S C HO O L S TO RI E S

In an episode in season 10, the entire family dozes off in church and has Bible-inspired dreams. The episode examines the story of Adam and Eve, David and Goliath and the exodus.

T HE END T I MES

Season 19’s “Thank God, It’s Doomsday” is a send-up of evangelicalism’s end times culture. Homer, after seeing Left Below, tries to calculate the exact date of the rapture and warn the people of Springfield. Irreverent satire ensues.

PRAI SEL AN D

In season 12’s “I’m Goin’ to Praiseland,” Flanders opens a Christian amusement park in honor of his late wife that was inspired by the now defunct Heritage USA park.

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script while doing their classic voices. The core cast is still exactly the same as when the show began, which is mind-blowing.

However, the most fascinating part of attending the read was seeing the demographic of the fans in attendance. There were seats all over the room for the guests,

THE REASON THE SIMPSONS HAS BEEN ABLE TO LAST FOR OVER A QUARTER OF A CENTURY IS BECAUSE, AS SILLY AND OVER-THE-TOP AS IT IS AT TIMES, IT’S STILL A STORY ABOUT A FAMILY TRYING TO MAKE IT. time with the boys at Moe’s, a family man laughs because he loves his family, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t love to take a day off from his job and just live like a responsibility-free 20-year-old for the afternoon.

When Lisa deals with acceptance or falls head over heels for a boy who seems like her world, only to disappear forever before the end of the episode, a young girl laughs because she’s been in that exact same spot.

The Simpsons may be a cartoon, but it’s a show about life.

We laugh when Milhouse desperately tries to fit in by saying something absurd because we’ve all felt like a Milhouse before. Some moments with Nelson have felt like they pricked our hearts because we see that his bully exterior is nothing more than a defense mechanism to cover up the sadness and pain he experiences in his home life. It’s almost like each character in The Simpsons’ universe represents a small piece of our own lives.

I’m happy to say that now, at age 33, I can watch The Simpsons whenever I want.

Recently, I was invited to a table read for the show. It was an absolutely incredible experience. The cast and crew, minus a few members who conference call into the read, gather around a large table and read through an upcoming episode in character to see how the jokes and story sound when performed aloud.

It’s amazing to see and hear all the voices you’ve grown to love for decades coming out of actual human bodies. Many of the staff will walk around and greet the guests, offering to sign their copies of the

and it was such a variety of people. There were children, parents, college students, older couples, multiple nationalities and everything in-between. There was one particular group of female mountain climbers who barely spoke English, but were laughing the entire time. It’s fascinating to see a show that can cross cultural boundaries and appeal to the world.

So where does a show that’s older than a One Direction member go from here? There is no foreseeable end in sight, and while some feel the show isn’t what it used to be, it almost doesn’t have to be. The beauty of the series is that you can pop in and check out what’s going on whenever you like, and everything is exactly the same. Ralph Wiggum is still just a hilariously clueless child. Kirk Van Houten is still a sad, almost creepy dad trying desperately to gain the love and respect of his son.

It’s like a living painting that moves around but never really changes. It’s familiar and comfortable. And as bizarre as it can get, it reminds us of simpler times. You could show a new episode to your kids and say, “I used to watch this when I was your age. Well, I used to sneak and watch it, anyway.”

A few of the people behind the scenes may have changed, but the show’s template has stayed the same.

“I don’t know how much I’ve personally contributed,” says Selman, who started writing for The Simpsons in 1997. “I just took what the creators of the show started and ran with it. But the template was already there. I guess I feel lucky to have

P H O T O C R E D I T: F R A N K M I C E L O TA

SPRINGFIELD RELIGION

The reason The Simpsons has been able to last for over a quarter of a century is because, as silly and over-the-top as it is at times, it’s still a story about a family trying to make it. Every time Homer comes up with some crazy scheme to get out of work while also trying to find a way to go spend

Creator and executive producer Matt Groening and producer James L. Brooks

been granted some small stewardship over this monumental experiment in craziness.

“The Simpsons turned out to be strange, but somewhat accurate record of what it means to be an American family for over a quarter century now,” he continues. “So if some of the stories and insights and feelings and jokes I contributed to that record stay with people, then I’m truly delighted.”

The Simpsons gives us the ability to hold onto a piece of our youth and a piece of yesterday to remind us that not everything fades away. You know how you can walk into your grandma’s house and immediately smell that unique smell? It’s not

something being cooked or some kind of cleaner; it’s the aroma of the house. As soon as that scent hits your nostrils, you remember making your California Raisins Halloween costume in the 4th grade. You remember opening your Christmas presents in 1994 and freaking out because you actually got a Discman. How cool will it be to have the ability to listen to CDs whenever you want? You’re like Harrison Ford on Blade Runner!

That’s what The Simpsons does.

It has become more than just a show, but instead, a link to our former selves. Even if you grew up like me and you weren’t

allowed to watch it, the feeling is still there.

You feel how much things have changed, but, in a way, stayed exactly the same.

Hopefully, The Simpsons will last another 25 years. Sure, it may not be the glorious darling of critics it once was, but it’s sad to think about a world where we’ve seen the last of the residents of Springfield.

In a way, as long as The Simpsons is there, a piece of your childhood lives on with it.

ROB FEE is a writer and comedian best known for writing and telling jokes. You can follow him on Twitter @RobFee to read more jokes or go to Del Taco. He’s probably there.

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WR ESTLING W ITH

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A N E SS AY BY

M IC H A E L GU N G OR

a symphony orchestra, many people come together to play vastly different roles. One might find, for instance, a first chair violinist that is featured throughout a piece, playing hundreds or thousands of notes. In the same piece, there may be a need for a percussionist who has hundreds of measures of rests only to play a few notes at precisely the right time.

All effective groups contain both diversity and unity. In fact, it is arguable that without diversity, there is no unity (only a much less effective uniformity). Diversity will mean there are probably completely different roles, focuses and objectives at play simultaneously, but unity means all of that diversity is aimed at a common endgame— a mission that makes it possible for people within a team or orchestra, or perhaps a faith, to have complete unity within tremendous diversity. Without unity, the group is doomed to failure. A house divided against itself cannot stand, after all.

Perhaps this is why, of all the prayers Jesus could have prayed in the garden before He was crucified, the book of John records that He prayed for us, “that all of them may

be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you … in complete unity.”

Later, the apostle Paul wrote that in Christ, all of our divisions (religious, sexual, social and political) fade away (Galatians 3:28).

But now, 2,000 years later, the Christendom that claims to follow Jesus is divided into tens of thousands of bickering sects and denominations, more splintered and fragmented than ever before.

I actually think a little healthy friction in a team is OK. It’s understandable for the violinist to get a little frustrated at the timpani player for playing louder than the dynamic marking on the page dictates. But friction and division are not the same thing. There is a big difference between “you’re not doing your job well enough!” and “I’m not playing on the same team with him anymore!” “ In modern Christendom, I’m afraid we too often let our friction veer into blatant and hateful division. In the last few months, I personally have been called a heretic, a blasphemer, a twofold son of hell and a fool that is leading thousands to hell, in which I happen to have a special spot reserved for me.

Why? Essentially because I (like a lot of Christians) believe evolution is the means by which God created us. And I’m certainly not the first or the only Christian to receive the brunt of this sort of evangelical fervor for saying so.

Again, I do not have a problem with Christians disagreeing with me about how I read Genesis. I don’t even have a problem with them getting angry and passionate about their opinion. The real problem begins when we start throwing around words that are intended to break unity, loaded words like “apostate,” “heretic,” “false teacher,” and so on.

Certainly, there were times when the biblical writers found it useful to use such language—when talking about someone preaching that Christ never actually came in the flesh, for instance. But we never see Jesus or the early apostles using that sort

IN MODERN CHRISTENDOM, I’M AFRAID WE TOO OFTEN LET OUR FRICTION VEER INTO BLATANT AND HATEFUL DIVISION. of language toward people who merely had differing interpretations of Scriptures. We never find Jesus calling someone a heretic because they interpreted an Old Testament story figuratively when it was supposed to be read literally or vice-versa.

Even in disagreements about significant doctrinal issues such as, “Should we follow the law anymore?” the early Christians maintained unity. They had disagreements, but for centuries, they saw themselves as one Body. How? Perhaps they shared an endgame—a mission that was much more important than any of their differences.

For early believers, unity was not merely a nice ideal to espouse as a theoretical good to aspire toward, but an essential missional condition in which to operate under.

Without unity, there is no symphony.

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WE NEVER FIND JESUS CALLING SOMEONE A HERETIC BECAUSE THEY INTERPRETED AN OLD TESTAMENT STORY FIGURATIVELY WHEN IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE READ LITERALLY OR VICE-VERSA.

WHAT HAPPENED? MICHAEL GUNGOR HAS NEVER SHIED

away from the controversial. This fall, Michael and his wife, Lisa, came under fire for statements they made about creationism and their view that not all the events in Genesis literally took place—comments that had resurfaced from a 2012 interview. The singer caused even more controversy after attempting to explain his views on the Liturgists Podcast and suggesting that Jesus might have been wrong about Noah and Adam being historical people.

It’s unclear exactly why the controversy has exploded all at once, as Gungor has been honest with his struggles with doubt and orthodoxy throughout his musical career, especially on the band’s latest album, I Am Mountain.

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This then begs the question: Are we, the Christian church in America, actually performing our role as the Body of Christ?

After all, how can the Body of Christ, the very reality of the risen Christ, be so divided against itself? How could the eye say to the hand, “I don’t need you”?

It seems we are in a situation where every single player in the orchestra has gone off into her own corner, playing her part to whatever tempo she deems best in the moment. And what we have as a result is a din of clamorous noise—a series of competing factions, each trying to prove they are more right about the musical score than the others.

No beautiful music will ever be made like that. And no group of people, regardless of their claims or beliefs, will ever be able to function as the Body of Christ like that, either.

So what’s the solution?

Perhaps we begin by at least recognizing the problem; by recognizing that what we are doing is not at all what the composer intended. Then perhaps we might do well to ask ourselves what our endgame actually

should be as Christians. What is this piece we are trying to play together, after all?

Many of us would say our endgame is to draw people to Jesus. However, some might respond to that with questions about “which Jesus, exactly” or “what specifically about Jesus” do we hold as the most important endgame?

So what if we let Jesus tell us what the greatest endgame should be as people who want to follow Him? “What,” we might ask Jesus, “is the ultimate goal for the Christian?

What does every piece of Scripture—every command, prophecy, story, history, parable and piece of tradition hang on?”

We can find Jesus’ answer in Matthew 26: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

MICHAEL GUNGOR is the lead singer of the band Gungor and a founding member of The Liturgists, a collective of creators working together to make thoughtful liturgical work.

The Kingdom of God is More Than or

“One of the most important and timeliest works to be written in recent years. . . . McKnight brings much-needed clarity to what ‘kingdom of God’ means—and doesn’t mean.”

—Greg Boyd, Woodland Hills Church “An invitation to embrace a kingdom theology rooted in the church; it’s as simple as gathering and doing the things the church is called to do.”

—Sara Barton, Pepperdine University

KingdomConspiracy.com

V

Available in bookstores or by calling 800.877.2665 | Visit our blog: thebrazosblog.com Subscribe to Border Crossings, our enewsletter, at brazospress.com

We all long for

freedom

Pastor Rick McKinley shows how true freedom—the kind we see as God delivers his people in the Scriptures—is always in the form of relationship with God rather than our popular notion of complete independence.

“This is great practical theology.”

—Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City Available wherever books are sold.

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CONTENTS

relevant recommends ISSUE _68

MUSIC

COLD WAR KIDS HOLD MY HOME

[DOWNTOWN RECORDS]

When Cold Wars Kids dig in to create new material, there’s no better result in indie alt-rock music. Immediately likeable yet distinctly their own, the songs on their fifth album rely on well-known tricks: a hammering piano, emotive singing and drums that fill left and right speakers like a mood swing. The song “First” belies the expert craftsmanship involved with a single pounding drum beat and syncopated hand claps. Like the pull of gravity, you like the song, then love it, then become captivated. On “Drive Desperate,” minor relational sentiments add up to themes of desperate dependence.

I Do.

CITIZENS & SAINTS

FLYING LOTUS

JOIN THE TRIUMPH

YOU’RE DEAD!

[BEC RECORDINGS]

[WA R P]

On their second full-length album, Citizens & Saints (renamed from simply Citizens) don’t mince words. It’s about letting God have control, bearing with one another and being willing to expose ourselves with the confidence of grace. Musically, the touches of modern rock propel the songs beyond same old CCM land.

A themed album about death and the afterlife, the songs on You’re Dead! blend into one another like words in a Shakespearean soliloquy. There are guitar and drum solos and a little old-school rapping here and there. What’s the point? To create something unusual and unworldly. It’s transportative in the most heavenly sense of the word.

I Do

not tell you everything.

Discover hope for your relationship. dhp.org/pure And they lived happily ever after. Well, not exactly. Every couple experiences the ups and downs of marriage, but Jen Ferguson found herself rocked to the core when she uncovered her husband’s porn addiction. Pure Eyes, Clean Heart shares their personal story and offers others encouragement and hope for true healing.

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THE TWILIGHT SAD

STEFFANY GRETZINGER

EX COPS

LIGHTS

NOBODY WANTS TO BE HERE AND NOBODY WANTS TO LEAVE

THE UNDOING

DAGGERS

LITTLE MACHINE

[BE THEL MUSIC]

[DOWNTOWN RECORDS]

[WA R NER BROS. MUSIC]

“No need to be frightened by intimacy” sings Steffany Gretzinger on “Out of Hiding,” the third track on her first solo album. She takes this charge seriously throughout the album, crafting songs full of honest, vulnerable lyrics, often full of pain, but also deep reminders of God’s faithful promises. Set to gorgeous melodies, the album is as intimate as music can be.

Ex Cops’ second album has less shoegazing stoner-rock and more infectious synth revitalization. On the title track, there’s an early hint of The Dead Weather’s gothic dread, but the chorus lifts into blue skies. “White Noise” is downright chipper. Side B gets curiously slower, more introspective and playful, a revelatory nod to ’60s lounge music.

Lights could sing about accounting and we’d sit up and take notice. The singer has a curious ability to infuse her pop songs with both grit and glimmer. “Up We Go” is the song every MTV star wanted to write in the ’90s, but lines about not letting the darkness overwhelm you make you think this Canadian pop star is thinking big thoughts.

[FAT C AT R E C O R D S]

The word “haunting” is overused when it comes to the drone-rock movement. Yet, on The Twilight Sad’s fourth and best album, you can almost hear the door creaking.

The combination of low-register synths and the heavy pulse-pound of drums might make you look around the room, wondering if there’s a dark shadow lurking.

“Don’t eat peas from our freezer.

They have been thawing in my armpits and refrozen about a billion times.”

Discover an honest look at cancer. dhp.org/pink No one wants to hear the words, “You have cancer.” Vivian Mabuni did hear those words and candidly shares the anger, pain, and peace she experienced during her fight. Find hope, perspective, and the comfort of faith and community as you read one warrior’s story. It’s real life—peas and all.

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relevant recommends

MOVIES + BOOKS

MOVIES

BOYHOOD

FRANK

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

CALVARY

RICHARD LINKLATER

LENNY ABRAHAMSON

JAMES GUNN

DENIS VILLENEUVE

[IF C FIL MS]

[M AGNOLIA PIC T UR E S]

[ W A LT D I S N E Y S T U D I O S ]

[A24 FILMS]

Don’t be turned off by the hype; Boyhood lives up to it. Shot over 12 years with the same cast, Linklater’s magnum opus tells a beautiful and poignant story of a boy and his dysfunctional family.

More of a collection of significant moments than a conventional narrative, the film masterfully captures the essence of growing up.

Michael Fassbender wearing a large plastic head sounds like a waste of talent. But he finds a way to deliver a great performance, playing the lead singer of an eccentric rock band. Frank not only incites genuine laughter, it also explores a range of complex issues, such as the quest for fame and the brokenness of humanity.

On one hand, Guardians of the Galaxy proves to be somewhat of a mess, from the trite plot to the uneven tone. But the film succeeds because of its charm and witty humor. Gunn accomplishes this through an abundance of pop culture nods and his motley cast who make you laugh enough to forget about the apparent flaws.

Anchored by the strong yet considerate performance of Brendan Gleeson, Calvary tells a story of sin and sorrow, faith and redemption.

Yet it does so skillfully. Through the story of a priest (Gleeson) confronted with a dark and difficult matter in his parish, the film takes on “Calvary” with both a sense of humor and respect.

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BOOKS

LILA: A NOVEL

THE MAKING OF AN ORDINARY SAINT

JUST MERCY

FIERCE CONVICTIONS

MARILYNNE ROBINSON

BRYAN STEVENSON

KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR

[FSG BOOK S]

NATHAN FOSTER

[SPIEGEL AND GR AU]

[THOMA S NEL SON]

Stevenson—founder of the Equal Justice Initiative—recounts the true story of his life in law representing the wrongly condemned and those trapped in the furthest reaches of our criminal justice system. His story is a sobering, firsthand look at the cracks in our system and the racial and economic injustices it continues to propagate.

Prior eloquently narrates the life of Hannah More, a prominent British writer and social reformer around the dawn of the 19th century. Prior emphasizes the intimate connections between More’s writing and her ceaseless social efforts, highlighting More’s ability to communicate the possibility of a world without slavery and injustice.

[BAKER BOOK S]

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson returns with her third novel set in Gilead, Iowa.

This book tells the story of Lila Ames, mother of Gilead’s narrator.

Surviving a tumultuous childhood, Lila finds comfort in her courtship and marriage, but is still plagued by a host of spiritual and existential questions.

Foster, the son of Richard J. Foster, who wrote the classic book Celebration of Discipline, describes his own struggles to practice these disciplines and how he ultimately came to find a rich joy in them. His book offers the hope of a deeper life amid all the challenges millennials face today.

800.264.1839 | lpts.edu

Paul Herrington, MAMFT student Louisville, Ky.

Explore these degrees | Master of Divinity, MA Marriage & Family Therapy, MA (Religion), Doctor of Ministry

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CONTENTS

relevant podcast ISSUE _68 CHECK OUT THESE RECENT EPISODES OF THE RELEVANT PODCAST

ELLIE HOLCOMB

SCOTT HARRISON

EPISODE 408

EPISODE 409

Singer-songwriter Ellie Holcomb stopped by the studio to perform a few beautiful songs off her debut full-length album, As Sure as the Sun. With her sweet voice and honest, uplifting lyrics, it’s no wonder why the album hit No. 2 on the Billboard Christian albums chart. We also talk to Jamie Tworkowski, founder of To Write Love On Her Arms about mental health and suicide prevention.

Since 2006, charity: water has brought clean drinking water to more than 2.5 million people in developing countries. But there’s plenty of work still to do in water-stressed areas around the world. We talk to charity: water’s founder, Scott Harrison, about the organization’s new campaign to bring sanitary water to the Sahel region in Africa and the new product they’re rolling out.

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LECRAE

RADIOLAB

EPISODE 410

EPISODE 407

Lecrae has been steadily building a hip-hop empire for years, and his hard work has paid off in many forms. His latest album, Anomaly, hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200— making it the fifth Christian album to do so. We talked to the rapper about his album and the view from the top. Also, Preemptive Love Coalition founder Jeremy Courtney stops by the studio to talk about the situation in Iraq. Don’t miss it.

Radiolab is one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes, with over a million weekly listeners.

The show’s hosts, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, have mastered the art of great storytelling, and many of their stories sit at the tension of faith and science. We talk with the duo about the show, how faith and science can co-exist, and the beauty of not always knowing the answers.

relevant .tv ISSUE _68 CONTENTS

CHECK OUT THESE CURATED VIDEOS AND SHORT FILMS PLAYING NOW ON RELEVANT.TV

“LEAD ME”

WIFI

“SOFTLY”

THE VICAR OF BAGHDAD

YOUNG OCEANS

JULIAN SMITH

KYE KYE

VICE

Young Oceans doesn’t sound like your typical worship music, but it is undeniably worshipful. The selfdescribed “neo-alternative worship project” out of Trinity Grace Church in New York City put out its second full-length album, I Must Find You, in September. The single “lead me” is beautiful and impactful, the lyrics a prayer for God to cleanse our selfish desires and draw us closer to Him.

These days, it seems everyone is glued to their phones and computers. A world without the Internet is hardly conceivable. That’s the idea Julian Smith takes on in this hyperbolic short film, where a group of friends has a complete meltdown when their wifi goes down. It is both funny and, though highly exaggerated, at points uncomfortably revealing about how dependent we are on our gadgets.

This video for the ninth track off Kye Kye’s excellent sophomore album, Fantasize, plays with lights and silhouettes in ways that mesmerize. The driving guitar riff and Olga Yagolnikov’s soft vocals caress and soothe, but a tinkling keyboard adds layers that entrance and call for repeat listens. It’s just further evidence that Kye Kye is one of the best artists in the indie electronica genre.

Made by culture-making magazine Vice, this short film is the first in a series telling the story of Andrew White, an Anglican vicar in central Baghdad. Along with running his church, White also works toward reconciliation between Sunni and Shia leaders— a dangerous job that makes him a target for terrorists. It’s a stunning picture of a servant leader entirely reliant upon and trusting in God.

Z How can I make a long-term impact by partnering with CSM on a short-term trip?

Because we serve alongside existing organizations, you are able to come alongside ongoing work.

The work does not begin when you arrive, and it keeps going for years after you leave.

Whether it's a weekend or a week-long trip, your service has a lasting impact on the community.

www.csm.org 267.928.2620

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contents

NOV/DEC 2014 ISSUE 72

FEATURES 52

HAVE WE GOTTEN JESUS WRONG? Every generation tends to remake Jesus in their own image. Here’s where millennials get Jesus wrong—and right.

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THE 1975 Talking fame, passion and The Rolling Stones with the U.K.’s fastest-rising rock stars.

66

YES, ART CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE Shepard Fairey talks the impact of street art.

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60

REESE WITHERSPOON After having been “a little bit lost as an artist,” the actress is entering an exciting new phase of her career. We talk to her about how her latest project, The Good Lie, changed her perspective on poverty and privilege.

SAVE THE DATE Three experts discuss misconceptions about dating within the Church.

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DAMIEN JURADO The singer-songwriter on his career, faith and how the music industry is changing.

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THE SPIRITUAL IMPORTANCE OF GOING TO COUNSELING Going to counseling is sometimes seen as an admission of weakness, but it’s actually an important part of staying healthy.

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HOMER’S ODYSSEY Comedian Rob Fee on the legacy of The Simpsons, 25 years in.

66 SHEPARD FAIREY

10

FIR ST WOR D

12

FEEDBACK

16

SLICES

Christianity in China, Google’s anti-porn software, a comparison of Noah and Exodus, our Christmas gift guide and more.

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56 THE 1975

30

THE DROP

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Singer Michael Gungor reacts to the controversy about his views of Genesis.

42

R E J E C T A PAT H Y

How the Church can push for immigration reform, examining the effectiveness of “hashtivism” and more.

NONONO, Swoope, Sleeping at Last, The Last Internationale and more.

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WRESTLING WITH FAITH AND DOUBT

MAKER

Stephen Kenn, an analysis of MyersBriggs, how to stay committed when the dream gets difficult and more.

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R E L E VA N T R E C O M M E N D S

Music, movies, books and digital media you should know about.