RELEVANT 55 | January/February 2012

MAT KEARNEY | BEIRUT | PASSION | DEBATING CALVINISM | THE RED TRADE | RELIGION & HIP-HOP

REL EVANTMAGAZINE.COM

A POCALYPSE

NOW

OUR FOOLPROOF GUIDE TO SURVIVING 2012

FEIST

AQUA

MAN PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

INSIDE SCOTT HARRISON AND CHARITY: WATER’S BOLD PLAN TO BRING 100 MILLION PEOPLE CLE AN WATER—IN JUST 10 YEARS

ISSUE 55 / JAN_FEB 2012 / $4.95

i T d o E s n ’ T M AT T E R w H E R E y o u s T A

M i ssi n g THE M A R K R

T.

..

Learn why perfection isn’t the standard.

iT ’ s All in y ou R HE Ad...

Don’t get stuck in a rut.

Learn why true balance is a state of mind.

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s u R v ivA l o f T HE fiT T Es T

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E i M p o R TA n T T H i n g i s T H AT y o u b E g i n T H E j o u R n E y.

i n THE gR oovE? Tips on creating a workspace you and your employees will love.

M A KE i T p E R s o nA l ni

ng

app coming in 2012!

r Ke

Look for the offcial Life

Learn how to put a personal touch on all you do.

For updates about the book and other interesting snippets, consider following the author @justinahrens and his company full of design monkeys @rule29.

Try to create an environment where helping others is just part of what is done.

gE T o f f y o uR T u K H u s

ouT looK is EvERy THi n g

Are you bad at making good decisions?

What will life look like beyond your desk chair?

A change in perspective can realign the soul.

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THERE IS HOPE JOIN US

BUY A BIBLE, HELP A CHILD The Horn of Africa is experiencing their worst drought in decades. With water and food scarce, many young children don’t survive long. When you purchase a Thomas Nelson bible you are directly supporting World Vision’s call to give these children the nourishment and hope they so desperately need.

Visit SEEGODSWORDINACTION.COM to learn how you can help.

**Applies to sales at U.S. Christian retail stores only from April 1, 2011 – March 31, 2012. Thomas Nelson will donate 10% of its year-over-year net revenue growth achieved during that period to World Vision, with a minimum donation of $75,000. Just look for any Bible with the Thomas Nelson “house” logo. For more information about World Vision, visit www.WorldVision.org.

GOD. LIFE. PROGRESSIVE CULTURE. RELEVANT magazine January/February 2012, Issue 55 Now with 100% more Kirk Cameron PUBLISHER & CEO | Cameron Strang > cameron@relevantmediagroup.com Editorial Director | Roxanne Wieman > roxanne@relevantmediagroup.com Managing Editor | Ryan Hamm > ryan@relevantmediagroup.com Copy Editor | Ashley Emert > ashley@relevantmediagroup.com Associate Editor | Alyce Gilligan > alyce@relevantmediagroup.com Editorial Assistant | Heather Meikle > heather@relevantmediagroup.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Anthony Barr-Jeffrey, Jason Bellini, John Brandon, Jonathan Camery-Hoggatt, Tyler Charles, Benjamin Dolson, Chris Hogan, Michael S. Horton, David Johnson, Brett McCracken, Roger E. Olson, John Pattison, David Roark, Christopher Smith, Sara Sterley, Laura Studarus, Tullian Tchividjian Senior Designer | Chaz Russo > chaz@relevantmediagroup.com Graphic Designer | Jonathan Griswold > jonathan@relevantmediagroup.com Production Designer | Christina Cooper > christina@relevantmediagroup.com Senior Digital Designer | Tanya Elshahawi > tanya@relevantmediagroup.com Audio/Video Producer | Chad Michael Snavely > chad@relevantmediagroup.com Web Developer | David Barratt > david@relevantmediagroup.com Web Production Designer | Lin Jackson > lin@relevantmediagroup.com Photographer | Julia Cox > julia@relevantmediagroup.com CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Todd Clark, Brian Harkin, Matt Kirk, Pamela Littky, Pieter M. van Hattem, Jarrod Renaud, Mary Rozzi, Kristianna Smith, Scott Wade Chief Revenue Officer | Josh Babyar > josh@relevantmediagroup.com Account Director | Michael Romero > michael@relevantmediagroup.com Account Director | Philip Self > philip@relevantmediagroup.com Marketing Manager | Calvin Cearley > calvin@relevantmediagroup.com Circulation & Fulfillment Manager | Stephanie Fry > stephanie@relevantmediagroup.com Customer Service Coordinator | Sarah Heyl > sarah@relevantmediagroup.com Chief Operations Officer | Chris Miyata > chris@relevantmediagroup.com Project Manager | Austin Sailsbury > austin@relevantmediagroup.com Finance Manager | Maya Strang > mstrang@relevantmediagroup.com Communications Manager & CEO Exec. Asst. | Theresa Dobritch > theresa@relevantmediagroup.com Systems Administrator | Josh Strohm > joshs@relevantmediagroup.com Fulfillment Coordinator | Tyler Legacy > tyler@relevantmediagroup.com ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: CONTACT Michael Romero or Philip Self at (407) 660-1411

Not sure what those boxes are?

They’re QR codes.

Here’s what to do with them.

1. Download the app

QR codes are two-dimensional barcodes that can be read by smart phone cameras. Search “QR code” to find a free QR app for your phone.

2. Scan the code

Hold your phone over a box. The app will use your camera to read the code.

3. Enjoy

The code will direct your phone to a site with a video, some music, a photo or other goody.

Where having full-time jobs sure cramps our drifter lifestyles.

900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789 Phone: 407-660-1411 Fax: 407-401-9100 www.RELEVANTmediagroup.com

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RELEVANT Issue #55 Jan./Feb. 2012 (ISSN: 1543-317X) is published 6 times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November for $14.95 per year

by RELEVANT Media Group, Inc., 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789. Periodicals postage paid at Orlando, FL, and at additional mailing offices.

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BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE

BY CAMERON STRANG

8 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

was early 2005 when I received an email from Scott Harrison. He was about to turn 30, and though I didn’t know him, he was clearly at a crossroads in his life.

Very early in his career, Scott became successful in the New York City nightlife circuit—complete with all the money and trappings that scene entails—but at the time of his email, he’d decided to leave it all behind for what would become a two-year-long stint as a photographer with Christian humanitarian organization Mercy Ships.

Scott was about halfway through his first year on the ship, and was deeply changed by the experiences he’d had and the people he’d met. He knew he couldn’t go back to the life he’d decided to leave.

He saw need and opportunity in parts of the world that shook him. He wanted to write about it in RELEVANT.

IT

While Scott wasn’t a known writer sustainable. But it was revolutionary, or national figure, his was a story and millions of lives have been and that explored a tension many of us will continue to be changed because feel: the tension between settling for Scott simply tried to do something a comfortable life, or taking a mas- he believed in.

Scott’s story, while remarkable, is sive risk and following your heart.

Or maybe the difference of living really no different than the oppora me-centered life versus one that’s tunity in front of all of us. So many times, we’re quick to point out injusintentionally outward.

Scott’s story appeared in the pages tices in the world. We know what of our May/June 2005 issue. But little needs to happen, yet we rarely act did anyone know, the most remark- because the need seems too overable part of his story was yet to be whelming. We think we can’t do told—in the coming years, he would enough to make a difference. Or found an organization that has liter- maybe we’re not qualified. Or we’ve ally impacted and saved millions of made too many mistakes.

No matter what your job is, or lives around the globe.

Scott Harrison was not an inter- your sphere of influence, you have national development strategist. He God-given resources, talents, ideas was a marketer; he knew how to cre- and gifts that can make a difference. ate buzz and connect people. And The question is, what’s stopping you that is precisely why charity: water from taking a step?

Print subscribers to RELEVANT has worked—they do things differently. They are an expression of received the newest copy of Reject Scott’s unique personality and back- Apathy for free with this issue. In it, ground. (It’s a fascinating journey we go in-depth about this kind of life we really get into in our cover story and Christ-centered world change.

We look at challenging issues and on page 56.)

It’s easy to look at an organization opportunities both globally and like charity: water and be impressed. locally. As you flip through its pages, From their successful track record your eyes might be opened to someconstructing water wells around the thing that grabs you, something you globe that bring clean water to mil- hadn’t heard before—something lions, to their incredibly cool SoHo that compels you to take a step.

What is it you can do? Everyone offices, to their great design and the fact that celebrities (and even the can take action, and everyone can president) name-drop them regu- make a difference.

The time is over for merely talking larly, they are doing great work and about it. Stories like Scott Harrison’s seem to have it all figured out.

But it didn’t start that way. What prove that normal, unqualified peopeople fail to realize is just a few ple who simply put one foot in front years ago, Scott was sitting exactly of the other can change things.

God hasn’t called us to be spectawhere so many are right now: He was a guy whose life was going one tors while others do the heavy liftdirection, and he felt a strong pull to ing. We need to be about the things Jesus talked about, and give our lives go another.

So he made a choice to shake to them. It won’t be convenient, nor easy, but it will be things up, and God used worth it. that choice: Scott’s eyes were opened to need he Quit waiting for didn’t know existed. Such others to take the need compelled him to take lead. In your peranother risk. In the process, sonal life, in what he found a new calling. you devote your CAMERON STRANG is the He had no idea what time and resources founder and CEO he was doing. His idea to to, in your calling, of RELEVANT. give 100 percent of money the time for status Connect with him at Twitter.com/ raised directly to the field quo is over. It’s time cameronstrang wasn’t easy, and to be honto be the change you or Facebook.com/ cestrang. est, it shouldn’t have been want to see.

[FIRST WORD]

FIRST WORD

[LETTERS]

LETTERS You Write. We Respond.

[C OMMEN T S , C ONCERN S , S M A R T REM A RK S] W RI T E U S AT F EEDB A C K@REL E VA N T M A G A Z INE .C OM OR FA C EB OOK .C OM / REL E VA N T

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011

MUTEMATH

Oh man! I just finished reading the article on MUTEMATH. Hearing the honesty and freedom in their words, I have even more respect for the band as musicians and as human beings. It’s helpful to know the true souls of people whose music I listen to regularly. Good to know we are all similar in our search for truth.

—CASSANDRA ELLINGTON / Little Rock, AR

Such a pleasure to hear the honestly odd stories the MUTEMATH guys have, as well as where they stand in their faith in God. —CODY ALLEN WARREN / Dallas, TX

The iPad edition of RELEVANT is unreal. It’s like a children’s pop-up/ pull-tab book on digital steroids!

—JONATHAN DAMICO / Pittsburgh, PA

Strangely enough, a pop-up version of RELEVANT is in the works.

My parents divorced when I was 20 years old. Well-meaning people [tried] to tell me divorce was normal—or even a good thing. After reading “Where Is God in Tragedy?” [Nov/ Dec 2011], I feel validation of my deep pain and relief that I wasn’t wrong to feel it. Thank

you for publishing a magazine for the 20- and 30-somethings that is so daring and personal. who return to the States. While there is now plenty of material for —JONATHAN PARSONS / “third-culture kids” transitioning Melbourne, Australia back, this article addresses attiI laughed out loud imagining tudes felt by all adults. the Rob Bell/Francis Chan rock- —SUSAN GOERZEN / Colorado paper-scissors match [“John Springs, CO Cusack Will Be Wrong (And 10 Other Predictions for 2012)” Nov/ I’m realizing it’s really hard to Dec 2011]. Perhaps the Church study when you have a brandcan settle predestination through spanking-new RELEVANT sitthumb wrestling. ting next to you begging to be read. Why do you guys have to be —MAGGIE LITHER / Pocatello, ID so consistently awesome?!

But did God know who would win —MEGAN WARN / Tauranga, New the thumb-wrestling match? Or Zealand did He cause it to happen?

RELEVANT: Keeping college Living in Orlando and seeing the students from paying attention Food Not Bombs debacle first- since 2003!™

hand, I’m struggling with the “Civil Disobedience” article [Nov/ Dec 2011]. We’re called to respect authority, not be a symbol for anarchy. Why does anarchy need to exist when Jesus came to fulfill the law itself? If we can’t submit to the rulers of this land, how can we begin to submit to God?

Thanks to the awesome 2011 RELEVANT Gift Guide [Nov/Dec and at RELEVANTgiftguide.com], I already have several gifts on their way—ones I know people will actually like and gifts I’m actually excited to give.

—BRANDI COUSIN / Atlanta, GA

—CASSIDE CRISPIN / Oviedo, FL

If even one less child got a

10 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

Be sure to connect with us at Twitter.com/RELEVANT. Here’s some of your scuttlebutt: chelsea_conrad: Big sigh of relief about my future after reading @RELEVANT’s article “When Revolutionaries Grow Up—Can You Be Both Radical and Responsible?” lindsaycorinn: Always so overwhelmed @ my 1st flip thru a new @RELEVANT, like, “Man, I can’t keep up w/ all this progressive culture.” the_schonberg: Can’t stop listening @ActiveChild #playinghouse. Thank you, @RELEVANT. briandanehansen: Just got an iPad, which means I just downloaded the @RELEVANT iPad app. So sweet! kayleemcdaniel: Just picked up my first copy of @RELEVANT today and I am in love. Great content. wackyfacedme: The @RELEVANT Studio Session of @MUTEMATH’s “In No Time” is beautiful! Mad props, guys! nataliecreel: Thanks, @RELEVANT, for introducing me to @sayjaffe’s music in your current issue. SO. GOOD. JeannaLOBH: Dude, @RELEVANT has THE BEST gift guides for the fair trade, vegetarian, indie-loving, eco-friendly types like me.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

“When Revolutionaries Grow Up” sweater for Christmas this year, [Nov/Dec 2011] hits a real nerve we did our job.

TWEET THIS

[SLICES]

SLICES

A BIMONTHLY LOOK AT LIFE, FAITH & CULTURE

[ BY THE NUMBERS ]

CHRISTIAN POPULATIONS

BY COUNTRY

ARAB SPRING OR

CHRISTIAN WINTER?

The number of Christians living in countries affected by the Arab Spring:

.01% YEMEN

SOME MIDDLE EASTERN CHRISTIANS UNSURE ABOUT ARAB SPRING

S

12 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

EGYPT

10%

SYRIA

8%

LIBYA

2%

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

ince early 2011, citizens have been new leadership in Egypt will treat its Christians, protesting various regimes across many of whom are Copts, an ancient denominaNorth Africa and the Middle East. tion based in Alexandria.

In Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad so far Governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen have been toppled, and at continues to resist calls for an end to his 11-year press time, the regime in Syria is barely clinging reign, Christians have been notably absent from to control. It is all part of what has become known the most visible protests. Surprisingly, many Syrian Christians are supporters of al-Assad’s as the “Arab Spring.”

During the protests (particularly in Egypt), government. His regime has mostly protected Arab Christians frequently have been vocal sup- Christians against Islamic extremists via an intenporters of the efforts to oust oppressive rulers and tionally secular style of government, so some dictators. Pictures of Egyptian Christians stand- believers are worried any regime change could ing watch as a group of Muslims prayed went mean danger for them. The Washington Post also viral, as did photos of Muslims later returning notes many of the Christians in Syria are well off and hold a disproportionately high the favor. But that early sense of hope number of high government offices. may be disappearing in the countries It remains to be seen what will hapaffected by the protests. pen in Syria or with the Christians in In October, Christians in Egypt proEgypt, but it’s clear the Arab Spring is tested attacks against the Christian more complicated than some believed community. The current ruling when the protests began. It’s also apparEgyptian leaders responded by breakLEARN MORE: ent many Arab Christians, right or ing up the protests, and 21 Christians Find out how you wrong, feel trapped between a proverdied in the resulting violence. Many can help Syrian bial rock and a hard place. observers are now wondering how the Christians.

GREAT LEADERSHIP ISN’T ENOUGH We need to pursue Great

+ Godly leadership

In Pursuit of Great and Godly Leadership, from author Mike Bonem, outlines how to look beyond standard leadership development and discover how God can grow you into an effective, iffluential leader.

HAS OFFICIALLY RUN OUT OF NEW IDEAS THE BIG NEW STUDIO TREND FOR 2012?

RE-RELEASING MOVIES YOU’VE ALREADY SEEN—BUT IN 3D.

IF

[SLICES]

HOLLYWOOD

CULTURE

you needed any more proof Hollywood will stop at nothing to cash in the nostalgia from your formative years, look no farther than the upcoming release calendar in 2012. It’s a treasure trove of movies popular when you were a kid now being retooled and theatrically re-released in 3D. First up: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. The press release states the conversion to 3D has been “meticulous,” and Industrial Light & Magic has undertaken the process with a “keen eye for ... artistic intentions.” Which means Jar Jar Binks will still exist, the little kid who plays Anakin will still yell “yippee” and the film will still haunt your dreams. George Lucas LET US has announced plans to release a 3D conversion of all six films, so KNOW in 2015 there will be a 3D Star Wars you might care about.

In April, James Cameron will debut the 3D version of Titanic, so WHEN you can relive all of those incredibly awkward moments you expe- SMELL-Orienced when your parents took you to see it in middle school. But VISION IS now that awkwardness is in 3D! And fresh off the success of the 3D re-release of The Lion King, INVENTED. Disney has announced plans to release Beauty and the Beast, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid with an extra dimension over the next few years. Whether or not any of those movies will be improved by adding 3D technology remains to be seen, but it’s sure to make Disney a whole bunch of money.

We’d like to humbly suggest 3D should be used where it truly matters: awesome ’80s action movies. At least one studio seems to be on board—Top Gun is getting the 3D treatment in 2012. But until Red Dawn, Over the Top and Commando get re-released in three glorious, eye-popping dimensions, we’ll consider the technology failed.

[ WE KNEW IT ]

SMART PEOPLE WATCH PARKS & REC NEW DATA FROM NIELSEN has revealed some strange and fascinating facts about Americans’ TV habits. For instance, the total viewing audience of NBC’s Thursday night comedy block (which features Community, Parks & Recreation, Whitney and The Office) is 21.3 million people. That number is still less than NCIS’ 21.5 million viewers. Other interesting notes: Women don’t like Chuck, Latinos like New Girl, rich people like Modern Family, Fringe gets a huge DVR ratings bump and old people watch CBS the most out of all the networks.

CHECK OUT: More analysis and data from the Nielsen numbers.

THE MUSIC OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH February is Black History Month, a perfect time to put on repeat some of the amazing music created by AfricanAmericans that, from jazz to rap, has stood the test of time: Mavis Staples, We’ll Never Turn Back Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson, Winter in America Nina Simone, ‘Nuff Said!

John Coltrane, A Love Supreme The Roots, How I Got Over Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

14 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST Listen to our playlist with highlights off these albums and more.

[SLICES]

FAITH

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL BAPTIST

[ C H U R C H & S TAT E ]

DO POLITICS BELONG

IN THE PULPIT?

EXAMINING THE TENSION BETWEEN FAITH AND VOTING

IN

It’s not just the political right that gets late 2011, a Baptist pastor in Texas came under fire for com- pressure from the IRS. In 2004, an Episcopal ments about Republican presi- church in Pasadena, Calif., nearly had its taxdential nominee Mitt Romney’s exempt status revoked after its pastor preached Mormon faith. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor a sermon condemning the war in Iraq. But of the 10,000-member First Baptist Church this newest incident once again raises imporof Dallas, called Mormonism a cult and sug- tant questions about what a church can and gested Christians should never vote for a polit- can’t—and, perhaps more importantly, should ical candidate who isn’t a Christian. Jeffress and shouldn’t—say about politics, especially also personally endorsed Texas Governor Rick during an election year.

Most Christians take it for granted that Perry for president in a video later posted on First Baptist Dallas’ website—with a dis- faithful believers can disagree about politics. claimer saying the video represented the views But there are some issues—like justice, rights of Jeffress, not necessarily those of the church. for the unborn, care for the environment— that belong in the ballot box and The organization Americans the pulpit. The question is how pasUnited, a group that reports on viotors can address them without runlations of the separation of church ning afoul of IRS rules. As the 2012 and state, asked the IRS to investielection season begins, it will again gate Jeffress and First Baptist Dallas require thoughtful speech and disfor breaking tax rules, which proGO DEEPER: cernment as Christians seek to live hibit nonprofit organizations from Discuss how making endorsements or opposing candidates’ faith in the tension of faithful living and faithful citizenship. statements about any candidate. affects politics.

Apparently, it’s now a trend for longstanding Christian organizations to change their names. Last summer, Campus Crusade announced it will change its name to Cru in 2012. And in late 2011, the Southern Baptist Convention debated changing its name.

While the results were unsuccessful, we’d like to humbly offer our own suggestions to America’s largest Protestant denomination for the next go-around:

THE UNITED STATES OF BAPTISTS

THE SOUTHERN BRO-TISTS CONVENTION

DOWN-SOUTH DUNKERS

THE AWESOME BAPTIST CONVENTION

THE “BAPTIST? MORE LIKE ROCKIST, AMIRITE?” CONVENTION

BAPTISTS RULE, METHODISTS DROOL

THE BAPTIST CHUUCH (TO PULL IN THE ALL-IMPORTANT DIRTY SOUTH RAPPER AUDIENCE)

HIGH-FIVE, BAPTISTS!

THE NOT-ALWAYS-SOUTHERN BUT ALWAYS-TOTALLY-BAPTIST CONVENTION

THE REAL PURPOSE OF LENT’S 40 DAYS

16 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

God. For many people, that means removing something like TV, Facebook, video games or movies. For others, it might be beneficial to purposely carve out something that intentionally reminds them of their sin over the 40 days—like red meat or alcohol. The sense that something is missing can make you stop and remember what you’re commemorating.

The goal of Lent, then, is to yank Christians out of a normal routine, into something where God sets the terms. However you do that, you will find value in having your priorities realigned.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

Every year, Christians all over the world mark the 40-day journey of Lent by sacrificing something that’s not harmful (did you catch that? For Christians, it’s always time to give up something sinful). This year, it starts on Feb. 22. But ... what’s the point? Lent can become an empty ritual, where it seems you’re miserable for 40 days, but you don’t understand why.

Simply put, Lent is a time for Christ-followers to re-orient their priorities. It’s when you give up something that could threaten to become a distraction from your relationship with

[SLICES]

LAST YEAR, MORE THAN 3 MILLION PEOPLE

TECH

GOT HACKED FIVE STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO AVOID BECOMING A VICTIM

IN

April 2011, Sony’s PlayStation Network was hacked and millions of users’ names and personal information were stolen. In June, hacking group LulzSec released personal information from AT&T customers. LulzSec also periodically released giant files of usernames and passwords, encouraging people to plug the combinations into various websites to see what they were for. These attacks led to identity theft and the use of stolen credit card numbers to purchase items online.

How can you be sure your information is safe? In the face of accomplished hacking groups like Anonymous, does an average computer user even stand a chance? The only way to stay completely safe is to abstain and stay offline. But for those not attempting the Luddite lifestyle, here are five tips to secure your online presence and avoid getting hacked.

1. USE DIFFERENT PASSWORDS FOR EACH ACCOUNT.

No website is completely safe—after all, it’s not like anyone expected their information to be stolen from Sony.

But it happens. The best way to protect yourself is to use different passwords for each online account you have. Or, at the very least, have several different ones you alternate, including one for sites you sign up for once and never use again. One way to do so is to sign up for LastPass (LastPass.com), which stores all of your passwords on a secure server and generates hack-proof passwords for every new account you sign up for.

Usually, the most common security measure when creating an online account is to choose from a list of “security 18 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

4. REALLY, TRULY KILL YOUR ACCOUNTS IF YOU NEED TO.

3. STAY OFF OF UNSECURED NETWORKS— WIRED AND WIRELESS.

5. DON’T BE DUMB.

Using a public computer or an unsecured WiFi connection and typing in your passwords can give someone easy access to your information.

Tracking software is easy to install, and there are programs that can record keystrokes from your computer or over the air.

Sometimes when you think you’ve deleted your account, you’ve really just deleted a portion of it and it remains completely recoverable to anyone who knows what they’re doing.

Check out AccountKiller.com to see how to delete any of your accounts once and for all.

Use common sense. Don’t give out your social security, pin number or credit card number in emails. Don’t post Facebook pictures with you holding your new debit card and/or driver’s license. In short, don’t do anything related to your online privacy when you know there’s a decent chance someone could peek in.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

2. BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHO CAN SEE YOUR PERSONAL DATA.

questions.” Often, those are things like your mother’s maiden name, your first pet or the name of the town where you were born. Well, if you make a habit of announcing information like that on Facebook, it won’t take much for a hacker to figure out the answer to your security questions—especially if your Facebook account has no privacy controls.

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WITH A PURPOSE

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REJECT APATHY

THE LEAST KNOWN WAY TO SAVE

SECONDHAND CARBON

2 MILLION LIVES

GIVES YOU WINGS VIRGIN ATLANTIC UNVEILS NEW TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE FLYING A LOT MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

HOW MUCH OF THE WORLD COOKS ITS FOOD IS LEADING TO A SHOCKING EPIDEMIC

M

ost Westerners are familiar diseases usually associated with longtime with the giant pandemics smokers, such as lung cancer, pneumonia that kill and sicken millions and lung disease.

The United Nations Foundation’s Global around the world. AIDS, malaria, cholera and hepatitis Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is seeking to are immediately familiar problems to any- stem the tide of using unsafe cooking stoves around the world. Their hope is to get 100 one concerned with social justice.

But scientists have just discovered some- million better stoves by 2020 into the homes thing else that kills millions of people each of people who currently use outdated forms year, and it’s not a disease: It’s fumes from of cooking.

The NIH researchers also found the primitive cooking stoves. The National people primarily impacted by Institute of Health (NIH), a U.S. the unsafe cooking stoves are medical research agency, says a women and children, who are frereplacement program for older quently the ones responsible for stoves could save up to 2 million gathering fuel and cooking food. people each year. Approximately 3 Additionally, the newer stoves are billion people worldwide use traWATCH: more fuel efficient, which would ditional or open cooking stoves, A U.N. video on which can fill houses with dense the efforts to curb help prevent deforestation and smoke and give residents many dangerous stoves. degradation of natural resources.

One of the most environmentally destructive things we do is fly. While understandable—it’s not like there’s much of a choice for visiting faraway friends and family—one airline is hoping to make the environmental impact of flying less damaging.

Virgin Atlantic has debuted a new method for developing airplane fuel that will use approximately half the amount of jet fuel as a normal plane flight. Essentially, Virgin engineers have figured out a way to take leftover waste products created by the steel industry and use microbes to turn the waste into usable fuel. Virgin has announced planes will be able to fly from London to China on the new fuel.

Even though it doesn’t completely eliminate carbon waste, the secondhand fuel does reduce the large amount of fuel needed for flight. Observers are hopeful the technology can eventually be used by other airlines.

RATS CAN STOP LAND MINES

THE NEWEST TOOL IN THE EFFORT TO DESTROY LAND MINES IN THAILAND

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researchers in Tanzania to identify scents found in explosives. The rats are too light to set off a mine, so when they find one, experts are able to cordon off the area and safely dispose of the explosive. The other skill the rats have? Diagnosing tuberculosis (seriously).

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

During the Cambodian wars in the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge planted hundreds of land mines in neighboring Thailand. Thailand is committed to disposing of the mines by 2018, and the key may be ... rodents.

Giant-pouched rats have been carefully trained by

935,000 LIFTED THEMSELVES OUT OF HOMELESSNESS IN 2011 (THAT'S LESS THAN 1 PERCENT OF THE 100 MILLION HOMELESS WORLDWIDE) We have a job to do. Our generation needs to act— doing everything possible to promote human dignity and life locally and globally. Jesus called us to live outwardly, intentionally and selflessly.

This is our time. This is Reject Apathy .

GET REJECT APATHY FREE WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO RELEVANT

ONLY $14.95 AT RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM/REJECT

JANUARY

CULTURE

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

WINNING

Starbucks introduces Trenta size, making all of our journeys complete

Arcade Fire wins Album of the Year Grammy Award, suggesting America might have taste after all

Amazon Cloud Drive debuts, sparking the cloud computing wars

Portal 2 proves video games can be smart

TIGER BLOOD?

THE YEAR THAT WON

The new American Idol: Good?

Paula’s gone.

Bad? Replaced with J-Lo

LOOKING BACK AT A MEMORABLE 2011

A

nytime a year includes political revolutions, memes started by a TV star/crazy person and a movie with Adam Sandler in drag is worth remembering. Which is why 2011 will be talked about for years, though not always in a good way.

Here’s a look back at 2011, from the great to the sad to the stuff that made everyone go “wha?!” And never forget: there was a time when you hadn’t heard of Rebecca Black.

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The Arab Spring explodes; a dictator is taken down, but the revolution leaves a power vacuum

Rebecca Black teaches us what day comes after Thursday, and before Saturday

Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas writes a book

Charlie Sheen becomes a thing. A sad thing

Royal wedding is beautiful, annoys antimonarchists

LOSING

Bruno Mars’ “Grenade” tops the charts; America’s taste is terrible

The birther controversy reminds us that dialogue is dead

MAY

Fleet Foxes release their sophomore album.

Finally.

Osama bin Laden killed

The rapture did not happen

JUNE

The World According to Paris premieres, no one watches, restores hope in America

JULY

ThunderCats come back to TV

Super 8 reminds us of childhood, and that no one makes original movies anymore

Casey Anthony trial ends; no one knows how to feel

Anthony Wiener makes every latenight host’s job easier

Harry Potter ends (some might put this in the top row)

AUGUST

The NFL ends its lockout, proves not as greedy and dysfunctional as the NBA

East Coast Earthquake makes people hilariously freak out

Amy Winehouse dies

SEPTEMBER

TV is back!

There are some good shows, and also Whitney.

Qwikster is embraced, then quikly abandoned

The NBA starts its needless, ugly selfdestruction

OCTOBER

For a confusing split second, Mark Block makes smoking cool again for Herman Cain

Coldplay releases a new album, which hipsters mock and secretly buy anyway

Steve Jobs dies

NOVEMBER

The Muppets make a triumphant return

Arrested Development comes back!

But we have to wait until 2013

Celebrities get divorced (of course, this could be listed every month)

DECEMBER

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Christmas episode graces TVs once more

Steven Spielberg releases The Adventures of Tintin (awesome!) and War Horse (yawn)

We are reminded of the existence of The Santa Clause 1-3

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 23

On the Front Lines

[SPOTLIGHT]

REJECT APATHY

EAT ART

TODD CLARK

How one organization is rallying creatives to end poverty—artfully

T

here’s no beauty in poverty. But Todd Clark saw beauty as the solution to a global poverty crisis. Clark, a pastor and surfer living in Southern California, felt compelled to do something with his life that would make a difference, and decided to act. Out of that decision, Eat Art was born.

Eat Art is a group of painters, photographers and designers committed to “artfully ending hunger” by selling their work and donating a portion of the profits to purchase low-cost, vitamin-enriched meals for children in the developing world. Through strategic partnerships on the ground in areas

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TAKE ACTION

Eat Art enables artists to use their gifts to serve the poor. What gifts do you have that could help your community?

Twitter: @EatArtNow Web: Eat-Art.org

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CONTRIBUTE Find out how you— and artists you know—can contribute to Eat Art.

like Mexico, Haiti and Guatemala, Eat Art has been able to deliver more than 80,000 meals since September 2011.

“I began to think about how we could merge art—photography, painting, anything—with feeding kids,” Clark says. “My heart had been breaking for these kids who didn’t have any food to eat; sometimes it was all I could think about at night. It was just plaguing my mind.”

The numbers are substantial: One 5x7 photo purchased sends 100 meals.

A 24x36 photo ($140) will send 1,000 meals. The team recently held an art show and commissioned the sale of

enough artwork to send more than 31,000 meals to hungry children.

Clark has pulled together a group of artists who have each made a significant impact on the artistic community; Jeremy Cowart, Clark Little and Ken Hawkins rank among the creative brains who are contributing their work to Eat Art. “I worked on building relationships with different artists I knew,” Clark says. “We launched the website, and in the first month we had sold enough art and apparel to send out over 20,000 meals.”

What may be the most unexpected side effect of the project is the impact it has had on the artists themselves. Clark often jokes about the “starving artist” stereotype and how the Eat Art project has enriched the lives of those involved in ways neither he— nor they—could have ever imagined. It’s given them a way to serve with their talents.

“They’ll say, ‘I never imagined what I do could bless anyone but myself.’ When they find out they can help others, they just can’t believe it. There’s no doubt some of these people have had ‘a-ha!’ moments,” Clark says. “They are so bitter, and angry and wondering why they [make art] when nobody wants to see it. To see they can do something like this—it’s them understanding the greatest ecstasy in life is giving.”

Clark’s hope is to deliver at least a million meals to children in 2012 through the sale of artwork and apparel on the Eat Art website.

“Just giving somebody the food isn’t always the answer. But I felt like if we could get people to donate art, it could become an incredible thing. An image from Jeremy Cowart in Haiti—there’s an emotion to it ...

You get the art—the kids get to eat.”

THE RELEVANT MAGAZINE COLLEGE GUIDES If you’re preparing for higher education, the RELEVANT Magazine College Guides are here to help you make the most of your journey!

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM/COLLEGEGUIDES 2012 RELEVANT GRADUATE GUIDE NOW AVAILABLE. VISIT RELEVANTMEDIAGROUP.COM/DISTRIBUTION FOR FREE COPIES!

[SPOTLIGHT]

REJECT IN THEIRAPATHY WORDS lorem Innovators ipsum Making d a Difference

NATHAN CLARKE Director Nathan Clarke didn’t intend to be moved by a story about a man from rural South Carolina who started a Christian professional wrestling league. But somewhere along the journey of filming his award-winning documentary Wrestling for Jesus, that’s exactly what happened. Here, Clarke talks about his inspirations—for the movie and in filmmaking—and why “Christian” is a bad adjective for art.

WHY I DECIDED TO MAKE WRESTLING FOR JESUS

“A lot of the guys come from really tough backgrounds. Each of them [has] a story beyond what you see in the film, but they sort of all bonded together around this common goal of doing [the league] Wrestling for Jesus.

That’s what attracted me, this sense of community around this common mission. That’s something that’s universal. That’s something that transcends wrestling, spandex and South Carolina.”

STORYTELLING WITH A CAMERA AND CREW

“I always liked engaging with ideas or stories, but I just don’t have the patience or concentration to be a writer. I did five years of campus ministry, and when I was leaving that I had the opportunity to take a [video editing] job. I really liked it because I could engage with ideas, engage with stories, but in a way that allowed me to work really closely to a story, or a topic, or a person, or a profile, and then leave it and move on to the next thing. It’s a combination of a genuine love and affection for what documentary can do at its best—bring you into people’s lives and help you see things in a new way.”

MATT KIRK

CLARKE’S FILMS

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“One of the things that first piques my interest is the character. I have this conviction that

MAKING CHRISTIAN ART

“I have no fear of judgment by my Christian peers. I actually feel more fear about judgment from the secular world that this is just another piece of Christian propaganda.

Ultimately I wanted to create a piece of art that would be taken at face value, that would be judged because it’s a piece of art, not because a Christian created it or didn’t create it. I believe God has made us to create things—that’s what I want to do. Ultimately what I want is for people to watch the movie and talk about that, not talk about [me]. I just want to create something that causes people to stop, to think and maybe to consider their life a little more deeply. If I’ve done that, I’m pretty excited.”

Nathan Clarke is the founder of Fourth Line Films. He has directed several films, including the award-winning Wrestling for Jesus. Check out more of his work at FourthLineFilms.com.

Wrestling for Jesus: The Tale of T-Money is an official selection of several film festivals.

“Family” tells the story of young gang members in Central American prisons.

“Neighbors” is the story of two men caught in a communitywide conflict.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

Preview Wrestling for Jesus.

CHARACTERS ARE BORN, NOT CREATED

everybody has three minutes’ worth of documentary footage that could be made about their life and be interesting. Every once in a while you find someone who has 10 minutes, and then occasionally you find someone who is a feature-length. It’s interesting characters.

Timothy [Wrestling for Jesus’ founder] is an interesting character; he has history and past that he’s beginning to try and reconcile with, and he’s in a location that’s different than what a lot of us experience. For me, that’s something I look for, and I sort of feel like if I have enough time and I point the camera at someone long enough, something is bound to happen. It’s just about being available and present for that to happen.”

DOES VOTING MATTER?

BY JOHN PATTISON

I

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RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

cried myself to sleep the night Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992. I was 14—too young to vote but old enough to know America had, at the ballot, formally turned its back on God. I implored God not to turn His back on America. When I woke in the morning, I was surprised how bright it was, even a little offended the sun had risen at all, as if it didn’t know the world was ending.

I pulled the lever for Dole in ’96, hoping to rescue what Rush Limbaugh called “America Held Hostage.” I stayed up all night watching Round One of the Bush/ Gore election on a big-screen TV in the church where I was serving as youth pastor. In 2003, bombs rained on Baghdad, and I raised a glass to toast the military might of the United States. In 2007, I was arrested in front of the White House as part of the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq. Somewhere in the middle of all that,

Similarly, voting is one of the priviI voted for John Kerry, a decision a few of my Christian friends and family leges of U.S. citizenship. Voting has interpreted not as the sum of a compli- its problems—it is individualistic, it cated political equation but as spiritual can abstract us from real people and it can sometimes be used as a shortcut rebellion.

Clearly, I tend to get too wrapped up around long and faithful engagement with real issues—but it is a tangible way in presidential elections.

I get carried away by the 24-hour we can try to make the world a little betnews coverage, the pundits, blogs, ter. While there are compelling reasons campaign ads, speeches, scandals and to abstain (on this point, I recommend gaffes; my spirit rises and falls with the book Electing Not to Vote), my own every new poll. And yet I feel surpris- conscience obliges me to participate. ingly ambivalent heading into the 2012 The challenge is to drink, so to speak, election cycle. Like a lot of people, I was without getting drunk.

My friend Matt told me recently hopeful the 2008 election was going to have the cultural effect of throwing about a trip he took to Israel. Walking open a window to get the air mov- through bazaars in Jerusalem, he ing, infusing our national discourse noticed dozens of vendors sellwith some optimism and energy and ing coins. Examining the baskets of possibility. The parties’ differences of Roman coins that had been unearthed opinion were real, but I believed in the over centuries of archaeological exploration, Matt remembered a story from politics of goodwill.

I wasn’t the only one to get caught the Gospel of Mark. The Pharisees and up in the excitement. Stirred by hope Herodians brought Jesus a denarius (a and promises of change, young people tribute coin), which probably bore the turned out in droves, voting for Barack image and inscription of Caesar. They Obama by a margin of 2-to-1, the larg- were trying to trick Jesus with a quesest margin of victory for any age group tion about taxes, and Jesus told them since 1972. But the poetry of that epic to “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s election didn’t translate easily into the and to God what is God’s.”

This Scripture passage often comes prose of governing, and for a lot of people, the last four years have been short up in discussions about Christians and on change and hope. According to a taxes. But 2,000 years of hindsight— recent Pew Research Center report, the and Matt’s trip to the Old City bazaar— same young people who helped sweep brings up another layer of meaning.

Obama into office are “disappointed” Maybe buried in the subtext is Jesus’ and paying less attention to politics understanding that long after Caesar was dead, long after the fall of the than they did in 2007.

So perhaps ambivalence might be a Roman Empire, long after the denarius proper attitude for Christians to take in His hand had fallen to the ground, toward electoral politics. This is true been rediscovered and sold as a curio whether you plan to vote this year for for a buck in an Israeli market—God President Obama, his Republican chal- will still be El-Olam, God Everlasting.

The United States will probably lenger or someone else altogether. Like pass away. Perhaps the apostle Paul—who was one day our own coins a Jew, a citizen of Rome, a will be collected as citizen of Tarsus and a citimementoes of a lost zen of heaven (Philippians age. Presidential elec3:20)—American Christians tions, while important, hold multiple citizenships. are cross-stitches in the Roman citizenship came JOHN PATTISON wide fabric of eternity. with certain privileges, and is the co-author of Besides the Our hope will ultiPaul seems to have been Bible: 100 Books mately never rest in a comfortable playing the citithat Have, Should, or Will Create particular political canzenship card. For example, Christian Culture didate, party, process Romans couldn’t be beaten and co-author of or system. Our hope is or imprisoned without trial the forthcoming book Slow in El-Olam, no matter (Acts 16) and had the right Church (both what the sticker says on to appeal a guilty verdict to IVP). He blogs at the back of my car.

Caesar (Acts 25).

SlowChurch.com.

[STATEMENTS]

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FOCUSING ON SIN NEVER WORKS

BY TULLIAN TCHIVIDJIAN

I

30 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

have a problem with “accountability groups.” You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones where you and a small group of “friends” arrange for a time each week to get together and pick each other apart— uncovering layer after layer after layer of sin? The ones where all parties involved believe the guiltier we feel, the more holy we are? The ones where you confess your sin to your friends, but it’s never enough?

Their focus is primarily (almost exclusively, in my experience) on our sin, and not on Jesus. Because of this, these groups breed self-righteousness, guilt and the almost irresistible temptation to pretend—to be less than honest.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in “accountability groups” where there has been little to no attention given to the Gospel whatsoever. There’s no reminder of what Christ has done for our sin—cleansing us from its guilt and

power—and the resources that are news announcement that we’ve been already ours by virtue of our union set free into a narcissistic program of with Him. These groups produce a “do self-improvement.

My greatest need (and yours) is to more, try harder” moralism that robs us of the joy and freedom Jesus paid look at Christ more than we look at dearly to secure for us. They start with ourselves, because the Gospel is not my the narcissistic presupposition that work for Jesus, but Jesus’ work for me.

Christianity is all about cleaning up It takes the loving act of our Christian and getting better—it’s all about per- brothers and sisters to remind us every day of the Gospel—that everything we sonal improvement. need, and everything we look for, is But that’s not Christianity!

When the goal becomes conquering already ours “in Christ.” When we do our sin instead of soaking in the con- this, the “good stuff ” rises to the top.

Because we’re so naturally prone quest of our Savior, we actually begin to shrink spiritually. Ironically, when to look at ourselves and our perforwe (or our “friends”) focus mostly on mance more than we look to Christ our need to get better, we actually get and His performance, we need conworse. We become neurotic and self- stant reminders of the Gospel. There absorbed. Preoccupation with our can be no genuine holiness of life that guilt (instead of God’s grace) makes does not arise out of a perpetual confius increasingly self-centered and mor- dence that “there is now no condemnabidly introspective. Real Christian tion for those who are in Christ Jesus” growth happens when we stop obsess- (Romans 8:1, NIV). The only way to ing over how we’re doing. Sanctification deal with remaining sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the is forgetting about yourself.

The fact is the under-the-surface glorious acceptance, security and forsin that gives birth to our misdeeds is giveness we already possess in Christ. a preoccupation with ourselves. The I need to be reminded of this all the first sin that needs to be rooted out time, every day. Because the fact is guilt and attacked is not immoral behavior; doesn’t produce holiness; grace does. it’s immoral belief—the belief that my Therefore, the reminder we need from Christian life is all about my moral and our Christian friends is first of what’s been done, not what we must do. spiritual progress.

I’m all for accountability, but a Christianity is not first about our getting better, our obedience, our certain kind—the kind that forces us behavior and our daily victory over to reckon with the nature of God’s remaining sin—as important as all unconditional love for us because of these are. It’s first about Jesus! It’s about Christ’s finished work on our behalf.

His person and substitutionary work— I believe in the need to repent and to His incarnation, life, death, resurrec- confess our sins to one another (James tion, ascension, His seat at the right 5:16). But only by reckoning with hand of God and His promised return. God’s unconditional love in the face of We’re justified—and sanctified—by my ongoing failure can I move toward grace alone through faith alone in the genuine, heartfelt confession of sin finished work of Christ alone. Even and repentance. It is, after all, the kindness of the Lord now, the banner under that leads to repentance which Christians live reads, (Romans 2:4). I need to “It is finished.” be told by those around Therefore, the accountme that every time I ability I need is the kind that sin, I’m momentarily corrects my natural tensuffering from an idendency to focus on me—my TULLIAN TCHIVIDJIAN tity crisis: forgetting obedience (or lack thereof), is pastor of Who I actually belong my performance (good or Coral Ridge Presbyterian to, what I really want at bad), my holiness—instead Church and my remade core and all of on Christ and His obediauthor of Jesus that is mine in Christ. ence, His performance and + Nothing = Everything This is what I need to His holiness for me. We (Crossway, 2011), be held accountable all possess a natural profrom which this clivity to turn God’s good to—every day. article is adapted.

[STATEMENTS]

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Like any good indie pop band, the group also reviews for their self-titled debut album, which mixed power-pop with Killers-like hooks. They puts more into its lyrics than you might expect, were endorsed by the King of Sensitive Rockers given their hookishness. Themes of regret, spirihimself, Morrissey. And in August, they played tual confusion and morality run alongside the the MTV VMAs alongside Adele, Lil’ Wayne and more conventional themes of love and heartbreak.

One song, in particular, runs deep—“God Chris Brown. “I know [the VMAs] came down to Made Man”—which concludes with a number of different bands,” says lead the sing-along, “God made man, and singer Sameer Gadhia, “and maybe his reason.” Gadhia says the song is because we [were] the most unknown an attempt to unpack difficult experiof any of the bands, they wanted to put ences. “We’re not religious—some of us out on that stage and have someus have our own levels of spirituality thing to say about making us more WEBSITE: or whatever belief in God,” he muses. successful.” youngthegiant.com “You know, man is going to make misJust don’t expect the band to get FOR FANS OF: takes and err. There are many things to trapped in their own hype. “When The Killers, Local Natives, Guster feel guilty about that you could just go you’re living with each other all the LISTEN: crazy thinking about. time, it’s a very separate life from all “I really wanted to delve into regret that,” Gadhia says. “I don’t think we of wrong,” Gadhia continues. “Even if get caught up in that a whole lot. Being you’re not quite sure that it’s wrong.” able to play around the world and have One thing he certainly isn’t regretan audience come and sing along— ting? All that hype. —RYAN HAMM more than anything, it’s fulfilling.”

PIETER M. VAN HATTEM

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

For many young bands, conversations about “the next level” or the confidence of impending fame are white lies. These bands might have some mid-level success, or their confidence might give them a swagger—usually in interviews—but neither of which actually translates to popularity. Such hype amounts to very little. But in the case of Young the Giant, the hype, it seems, should be believed.

Last year found the band breaking a new barrier seemingly every month. They entered the year on a high from the

F OR F REE NE W MU S IC E V ER Y W EEK , C HEC K OU T T HE DR OP AT REL E VA N T M A G A ZINE .C OM

[THE DROP]

THE DROP Emerging Artists You Need to Know

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flatbed truck presenting music. One night the pas- soundscapes with an overall sense of worship tor and I were talking, and he was telling me about and yearning. There’s the huge sound of “Never how he lived eight hours from his family by bus, Finished,” with its strings, banjo and other instruthat he pastored eight or 10 churches and how hard mentation supporting Strumpel’s weathered, the work was. He just kind of broke down to me. He emotion-soaked vocals; there’s the soothing and dreamy “Fastly Gone”; and there’s the asked for my dad and pastor at home to driving rhythm and sunshine-y melody pray for him and his ministry.” of “Home on Your Heart,” a song that That simple request proved to holds a special place for Strumpel, and become catalyzing for Strumpel. manages to be a culmination of the mis“That spurred a desire to see the Body sion that started him on his journey as [of Christ] be connected,” he says. “I WEBSITE: a songwriter. understood that the arts—and music, aaronstrumpel.com “I wrote that [song] for three especially—were such beautiful vehiFOR FANS OF: Rwandan sisters who were adopted by a cles for that. That was one of the initial Ascend the Hill, John family in Florida, ” Strumpel says. “This stirrings of: ‘Oh man, I want to do this.

Mark McMillan little girl was drawing on a T-shirt with I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but I LISTEN: a marker, and she drew a home and a want to do it.’ ” heart. It’s just really [a] beautiful picSo he did. His newest full-length, ture of that song and of togetherness, of Birds, pays further testimony to his being adopted into the family of God.” heart for the Body of Christ and his gift for creating lush, Americana-tinged —CHRIS CALLAWAY

JARROD RENAUD

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

Have you ever experienced something that touched you so deeply that it helped guide you toward a vocational choice? For Colorado-based singer-songwriter Aaron Strumpel, an unexpected experience on a different continent crystallized his vision for what—and who—he wanted to be.

“I was in Peru, and I was doing a yearlong ministry trip,” Strumpel remembers. “We were working with a pastor and his community, and we were on a

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THE STRANGER SIDE OF

MAT KEARNEY

BY ALYCE GILLIGAN PAMELA LITTKY

M

AT KEARNEY WASN’T ALWAYS the smooth musician praised today for his unique fusion of acoustic pop and spoken word. Before songs like “Nothing Left to Lose” and “Closer to Love” put the Nashville songwriter in the spotlight and on the radio waves, he was just an Oregon boy with a penchant for poetry and graffiti. On his recent album, Young Love, Kearney’s evolution continues with more robust melodies and deeply personal lyrics.

We recently sat down with Kearney to talk about how he’s grown as an artist, his mermaid mother (no, really), marrying the love of his life and why faith is best shared through story.

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Q A

“THE WAY I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY FAITH IS THROUGH MY STORY, BECAUSE I THINK THAT’S ALL WE HAVE TO WORK WITH SOMETIMES.”

Your new album, Young Love, is your first since signing with a major record label and your first project as a married man. How is this album different as a result?

“Hey Mama” is a really exciting [example] because it helped spear the record. Instead of making a traditional singer-songwriter record, that song happened when I sat down and I was stomping and clapping. I made this groove with claps and this 808, and I started dancing around the room writing this song about meeting my wife.

It really helped direct the record into the more program-y, more beat-driven direction. Probably the last song is really important to me. It’s called “Rochester,” and it’s this song I wrote about my family and my grandfather and my dad. It’s probably the most personal song I’ve ever written.

Q A

What’s the story behind it? And why did it take so long for you to release it?

I’m actually named Matthew William Kearney; my middle name is after my grandfather.

My grandfather raised my dad in Rochester, N.Y. He had a fake cigar shop, and he ran an illegal gambling ring out of the back of it. Then the mob came to town when my dad was a freshman. They put my grandfather out of business, because he was taking their business. So my dad had to live through that, and then my dad followed Pink Floyd through Europe for a while. Then he became a lawyer. He moved to Hawaii where he was a deckhand on a boat, and he met my mother, who was a mermaid on a glass-bottom boat. They were married and moved to Oregon. So I guess it’s this crazy story that’s better than you could make up.

I sat down on this album and I said: “I’m going to only write songs that are within arm’s reach. I’m not going to, like, ‘write songs.’ I’m going to tell my story, and I’m going to tell the story of those around me.”

The song ends with my father flushing a quarter-pound of hash down the toilet as he’s looking at my older brother. It really kind of helped shape what I’ve become. I don’t know why I’ve never written it before, but all of a sudden I sat down with my guitar and it happened. It’s all true, though, that’s the funny part. I didn’t make up any of that stuff.

Q A

You also tend to favor a storytelling approach when it comes to the topic of faith in your songs. Why is that?

I think the way I love talking about my faith is through my story, because I think that’s all we have to work with sometimes.

I think it’s the most moving way to share your story, too, is what you know, what you’ve seen, and heard, and tasted and felt.

For me, maybe it’s the path of least conflict or it’s the way I’ve fallen into, but it’s what I’ve always done, ever since I started writing in high school. I’ve always started in a story and jumped to these bigger metaphysical ideas in the daily mundane things of trying to not fight with your girlfriend or something.

Q A

You got married last summer. How did finding real love impact you as an artist?

A lot of songs were written about us and our journey. When you decide to enter into a relationship like that, you learn your inconsistencies and your faults; it brings out a lot of different stuff about family and your own shortcomings. There are a lot of songs that came out of that: just two people trying to connect, and two people trying to deal with themselves, and where they fall short and where they succeed. That’s what Young Love is about.

Q A

There’s often an element of spoken word in your songs. What first inspired this style?

I grew up listening to Tribe Called Quest, and I was this rough kid who sold pot and graffitied trains with spray paint; I was that kid.

When I barely got into college, the one thing I could do was write, so I became an English major. There was this whole poetry side of what I was doing, and it turned into this whole spoken-word style performance thing. I didn’t start writing music until I was a sophomore in college. I would steal

my roommate’s guitar and sit on the front porch and kind of blend this weird spoken word and these little melodies over simple chords; that really started my whole journey as a musician.

Q A

What was it for you about music that trumped these other interests you had and made it clear music was your calling?

I didn’t think I could ever make a penny doing it—I just loved writing these little songs. I met this guy, Robert Marvin (my future producer), who was a friend of mine from Oregon and he said: “Hey, I’m driving to Nashville. I’ve heard a couple of songs you’ve done before, and if you help me, we can record a couple of songs.” So I helped him drive across the country and we showed up to Nashville and set up this little studio in his bedroom. At that point I was done—if I could do anything in my free time, I wanted to be in the studio writing.

Q A

Is it still like that now—are you getting back in the studio any time soon?

Hopefully not too soon. You’ve got to take time to live and breathe so you have something to write about so it’s coming from a genuine place.

If there’s anything I learned on this record, it’s that the songs that come out of life—that really resonate from the deepest places in you—are the ones that seem to stand up.

The problem is there’s got to be some time for those songs to come. They come as you listen, and meditate and pray, and wait for those songs. That’s the challenging part of what I do. You can’t just show up 9-5 and are guaranteed a good song comes. Some of the songs fall out of the sky—they existed before I had it.

LISTEN The song “Count on Me,” a highlight from Kearney’s latest, Young Love.

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THREE REAL-LIFE SCENARIOS OF DEBT, BUDGETING AND FINANCIAL STRIFE— AND HOW TO ESCAPE

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HOW TO

GET OUT OF DEBT THE RIGHT WAY

BY CHRIS HOGAN

W

hen it comes to money, everyone’s situation is unique. Their income, their debt, their expenses, their stage of life, their background and thought process—these are all factors that come into play in figuring out a realistic and sustainable financial plan—you know, a budget.

It’s a dirty word to some—who wants to budget, after all? But whether you are a college student, a newly married twentysomething or a 30-year-old with a baby, money matters. And figuring out how to make your finances work for you is a critical part of being a grown-up. It’s one that many have trouble with, too—after all, current statistics put individual consumer’s debt at nearly $8,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

With mounting statistics that show our generation is getting buried under piles of debt, we presented author and finance coach, Chris Hogan, with three scenarios that echo many people’s situations. Each one is fairly typical—you likely know someone going through one of them. But people respond in all sorts of ways. Here are some of Hogan’s tried-and-true solutions for getting into a better financial state.

SCENARIO #01

S

WATCH Our original short film that tells the practical side of real-life debt management.

THE RECENT COLLEGE GRAD

am is a 22-year-old male, just out of college, living in Chicago with $5,000 in credit card debt and $10,000 in school loans. He makes $30,000 a year at an entry-level job. He lives in a twobedroom apartment he shares with a roommate, and his share of the rent is $550. He wants to get out of debt, but he also wants to have fun with his friends. Plus, he wants to fly home for an upcoming family reunion. What should he cut out?

It all starts with getting on a plan. Sam needs to sit down and spend every dollar “on paper and on purpose” before the month begins. In other words, he needs to make a budget.

By putting his expenses down on paper, he’ll be able to see exactly how much money it takes for him to live: rent, utilities, groceries and so on. Once Sam sees how much of his income is going toward expenses, he can then get a good idea of how much money he has available to attack the credit card debt and student loans.

Remember, income is the biggest weapon to fight debt. The quicker he eliminates debt, the sooner Sam will be able to keep more of his income.

Probably the best place for Sam to start cutting is his “going out”

budget. It’s not like he needs to completely stop going out with friends and having fun, but he’s got to put a limit on how much he spends, and that limit may be less than he wants it to be.

If getting home for the family reunion is a priority, then he must treat it like a priority.

He needs to calculate all of the costs—plane ticket, parking, food, etc.—and immediately begin to save the money he needs. He should put “family reunion” as a line item in his budget with a specific amount of money dedicated to that each month. He might also search through his entire apartment and find stuff he doesn’t need. He can sell that stuff to pay off debt or to put toward the trip.

If he doesn’t have much stuff, then Sam needs to consider taking a second job to make quick money. The sooner, the better!

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 41

SCENARIO #02

C

THE MID-20s NEWLYWED

hristina is a 26-year-old newly married female.

She has $10,000 in credit card debt and $12,000 in school loans. The student loans are locked in at a low interest rate, and she is paying $150 a month toward them. She lives in a house in an Atlanta suburb with her husband, Jose, who has no credit card debt and $7,000 in loans. Christina makes $42,000 as a PR associate, and her husband made $32,000 as a financial analyst before he was laid off. He makes $1,200 a month in unemployment and is struggling to find a job.

They have about $2,000 in savings.

Dealing with a job loss or significant cut in income is always a harsh financial blow. The first thing this couple needs to do is unite and focus. They need to sit down and get a clear view of their current financial situation—they need to look at it on paper and be honest with each other.

Uniting as a couple is critical. That means each person is committing to their part to help the family recover.

Financial stress has a way of pulling people apart, causing them to make bad decisions and panic. Christina may be feeling nervous because her—and her new family’s—financial security is at risk. Jose may be feeling wounded and insecure because of the job layoff. Unless

this situation is defused in a hurry, it could turn into an emotional powder keg.

So it’s a must that they openly talk about this situation and how to fix it. That means admitting fears to one another and becoming the other’s biggest supporter.

The most important thing for Christina and Jose to take care of before anything else is the “Four Walls”—food, shelter, transportation and clothing. These items need to be paid first, and everything else as money permits.

The key to this family rebounding financially is for Jose to get his earning potential back quickly. He’s taken a significant pay cut while on unemployment, so his primary job right now is to find a job that pays him what he’s worth.

He has to be up first thing in the morning, sending out résumés, reaching out to his friends and business contacts, letting them know he’s available and ready to work. If the “well” stays dry for too long, he might have to get a job just to help pay the bills until he finds a career fit.

The money in their savings account is a safety net. They have to protect it and only use it for emergencies. They have to cut out all unnecessary spending—eating out, going to the movies, shopping sprees, vacations and any other form of discretionary spending.

FINANCIAL STRESS HAS A WAY OF PULLING PEOPLE APART, CAUSING THEM TO MAKE BAD DECISIONS.

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GO DEEPER So you want to get out of debt and stabilize your finances? Good for you! Here are some resources to help you get started: Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties by Beth Kobliner (Simon & Schuster, 2009) Generation Earn: The Young Professional’s Guide to Spending, Investing and Giving Back by Kimberly Palmer (Ten Speed Press, 2010) The Complete Financial Guide for Young Couples

by Larry Burkett (David C Cook, 2002) Crown Financial Ministries, Crown.org Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, www.DaveRamsey.com/fpu SHARE YOUR STORY Tell us how you are working toward financial stability and what the rewards/struggles have been along the way.

SCENARIO #03

J

THE NEW PARENTS

eff and Milla are a 32-year-old married couple who just had their first child. They live in a onebedroom apartment in Orange County, Calif., but they want to buy a two-bedroom house so their baby has a room and they can eventually get some sleep. Jeff makes $40,000 a year at the bank he manages, and Milla is on maternity leave from her job at a daycare where she was making $33,000. Their rent is $1,400 a month. Moving to a two-bedroom house would mean their payment would increase to $1,800. And Milla is trying to decide if she needs to go back to work.

This couple is at a crucial life point right now. They have a new baby and are looking to buy a home.

Priority number-one is deciding how they want to raise their child: Is someone going to stay at home, or will both parents work? They need to make a decision on this before they move forward on buying a house.

If they buy the home, their housing obligation will increase by $400 a month. They need to slow down and clearly identify their options before they do anything.

They have the option of staying where they are for a period of time and looking for a two-bedroom apartment to rent. This would give them some time to save for at least a 10-20 percent down payment on a house.

A lot of people just push forward because they get the dreaded “house-itis” disease. This occurs when people become so obsessed with buying a home that they pay too much and overextend themselves financially. Remember, the goal of home ownership is to own a home, not just to buy one and have payments.

Honestly, the best idea for these two is probably renting the two-bedroom apartment for a year. Think about it: Let’s say Milla decides to go back to work.

But once she’s back in the routine, she becomes miserable because she misses the baby, plus the cost of childcare is a huge burden. If the couple is renting, they aren’t as financially bound as they would be if they are tied into a mortgage.

Having a baby is a large enough life change for any couple, so there’s no need to add an unnecessary financial obligation.

What can you learn from these three scenarios? Are there financial habits in your life that need to change—for example, are you considering buying a house, like Jeff and Milla, but should probably wait a little while longer?

Remember, the key is to make a plan and follow it. No matter what situation you get yourself into, a good plan, plus hard work and determination, will always get you out.

CHRIS HOGAN is the director of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Coaching and Counseling Division, developing a program that empowers people to properly manage their wealth.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 43

THE INDIE QUEEN ON REST, THE COMPLEXITY OF LOVE AND GROWING TOMATOES

BY JESSICA MISENER WITH ROXANNE WIEMAN SCOTT WADE

you’re a busy singer-songwriter who has conquered airwaves, Sesame Street, NPR, Starbucks and the iPods of everyone from hipsters to soccer moms, what do you do when you finally get a break?

Simple: You plant a garden.

At least that’s what indie songstress Leslie Feist did during her recent selfimposed sabbatical. Since 2007’s The Reminder, which spawned the ubiquitous iPod commercial track “1234,” she has been in a career growth spurt. In addition to touring the globe in support of her album, she’s done time with supergroup Broken Social Scene, performed at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, collaborated with Beck and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead and hung out with Stephen Colbert. It’s no wonder Feist needed some downtime. And some gardening time.

“I had tomato plants, and that was a big deal,” she says with a laugh. “I actually did end up going away at one point when I had finally gotten them up to three feet tall. I had to lament, ‘Oh well, it was worth a try, but I guess that’s that.’ But when I got home, even though they were fallen over, they were about six feet tall and covered in tomatoes! So I staked them up and they just did their thing while I was gone.”

44 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

Finding time to cultivate some new fruit could be a metaphor for Feist’s career.

Several years of rigorous traveling and touring, she says, took their toll on her spirit and her creativity.

“When you’re moving at one pace for all those years, it does seep into you,” she says. “Mentally, you’re also moving at that pace. It was kind of about trying to calm down that dust storm, that constant dust storm of thoughts and movement.”

From 2008 to 2009, Feist took some time for rest, still dizzied from the immense pressure she suddenly felt.

But when inspiration came to start working on a new album, she seized it, releasing Metals, her fourth LP, back in October. She knew that she wanted this album to be different than her previous efforts—no matter how successful they’d been.

“With The Reminder, the intention had been to have it be a live record. We didn’t prepare before we got to the studio,” she says. “I wrote the record from fragments that I’d been writing on the road. When we went to the studio, we hadn’t had much time as an ensemble to spend with the arrangements. We learned from that circumstance for [the] next time.

“So this time [for Metals], [regular collaborators and producers Chilly Gonzales and Mocky] came to Toronto for a month and we arranged the album—based on the songs I had written alone— as if we were going to play a gig, and then the gig just happened to be in this incredible empty barn space that we built the studio in.”

The organic, spacious elements of their studio also helped define the recording process and the sound of Metals. “We basically just RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 45

tried to play the record into these open ears, all these microphones,” Feist continues. “Instead of building it Lego block by Lego block, we were engaging a whole other level of trust. We weren’t really thinking about it so much in the way that I’d always looked at recording, where everything is isolated from each other when you’re recording, you can always just replace something.

“All of us had the instinct to not give ourselves that option. We all played into a room, bleeding into each other’s [microphones], so we had to completely trust ourselves. When you’re trusting yourself, you’re finding yourself different places every time you set out at the beginning of the song.”

Producer Mocky, who also co-wrote some of the songs, describes those moments of perfect cooperation in tones approaching transcendence. “When I’m there, when we finally get to that moment onstage—at that point, you’d better be feeling something, and really feeling it,” he says, with obvious admiration in his voice. “And when she sings, and when everything is in place, I just get hairs standing up on the back of my neck. I get a feeling that’s just the best feeling on earth. I get that with a handful of people when I work with them.

I would guess it’s not so far off from someone who would say, ‘I just love Feist so much, I go to all of her concerts.’ It’s probably similar, except I’m mainlining it. It’s a super thrilling place to be, and when it’s someone of that caliber—goosebumps.”

A STRANGE PAST THAT SOMEHOW MAKES SENSE

Long before she rocked out with Muppets on this year’s The Muppets soundtrack, Feist was a veteran musician, working diligently to score some recognition in the industry. She started in the business at age 15, fronting a Calgary punk band called Placebo (not that Placebo). The band would go on to open a Radiohead concert in 1993. But Feist’s real star turn came in 1999, when she moved in with a friend of a friend, Merrill Nisker, who had begun to perform as wildly profane electro-punk musician Peaches. Feist joined Nisker as a backup vocalist and toured with her, and ended up releasing her debut album, Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down), that same year. She began to attract even more acclaim—and listeners—with 46 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

FEIST LIVE

Even if Elmo is nowhere to be found, live Feist is great.

Watch “The Bad in Each Other” live on TV.

the 2004 release of the critically acclaimed Let It Die which spawned much loved songs like “Mushaboom” and a cover of the Bee Gees’ “Inside and Out.” But you probably knew Feist, at least initially, from “1234”— that inescapable ditty from a 2007 iPod Nano commercial.

It propelled her second album, The Reminder—and Feist—to stardom. The single was such a mainstream success that it gained her an appearance on Sesame Street, where she performed a version (with Elmo!) of “1234” to teach counting.

“I’m in awe of puppeteers and grew up watching [Sesame Street]. It was like, ‘Really?’ ” she says. “When you get that phone call—but then, conversely, when you get the phone call for whatever strange thing, it makes just as much sense to say yes. There are plenty of other things that I’ve said no to because it didn’t make sense to me.”

After basking in the monumental success of The Reminder, she also began to explore the visual side of music, creating a short film with Broken Social Scene bandmate Kevin Drew, and a making-of film about The Reminder called Look at What the Light Did Now. She also recorded high-profile, oneoff collaborations with Wilco, Grizzly Bear and Ben Gibbard and performed on Broken Social Scene’s most recent album, Forgiveness Rock Record.

And then, after all of that, it was time to return and settle in to tend to her tomatoes—and her solo career.

PREPARING THE SOIL FOR METALS

She claims to have a green thumb when it comes to gardening, and Feist says she feels connected to nature in a creative way as well, drawing inspiration from the Earth.

“There’s this amazing cover of a National Geographic from a year ago, and it has Manhattan cut in half, pre-humans and post-humans,” she says. “When you see the kind of super imposition of people and what form people have chosen to live in, these massive mega-cities, that makes a little less sense to me.

“Where I come from, my hometown, you can drive 10 minutes in any direction and be

either in this desert-looking place, or in the mountains; either direction you have an escape route. When I moved to Toronto, I didn’t have a car, and it just seemed insurmountable to get out of town—any direction you went just went on forever. I remember feeling like I just needed to know where to get out. I just like that right in the middle of New York is this park of trees that has been saved from the sprawl. I find myself going there a lot.”

Perhaps that draw to nature is what made Feist go West for the recording of Metals. Along with collaborators Mocky and Gonzales, she set up a makeshift studio on the coast in Big Sur, Calif. The scenery influenced the making of the album, which she churned out in only two and a half weeks.

“I was just going back to that graphic, clean line of the West Coast,” Feist muses. “I really know the East Coast well, on both sides of the ocean. I’ve crossed the Atlantic so many times because I lived in France. When I imagine making a record, you can curate any circumstances, and I wanted to be at this line between land and ocean. The West drew me because I’ve never been on the other side.

We got this old barn and converted it into a studio.”

Of working on the California coastline, she says: “You’re so high up that you can’t even hear the ocean, and I’ve never experienced the ocean where you can’t even hear it. It was such a trip. On the other side is mountains, and hot springs and parks.”

Conceptually, the album burrows deeper into the human psyche than much of Feist’s previous work. Her typical, sometimes twee love songs have evolved into explorations of the world at large.

She even describes herself as “narrator” of the album, rather than a more traditional, first-person singer-songwriter.

Mocky echoes those sentiments. “By taking the time to create a very amazing experience [in recording] the album, I think she brought that into the recording process. That’s an experience that’s going to have a lasting impression on everyone who was there. I think everyone just had this feeling, that there’s something in the air.

It’s kind of crazy. Whatever it is, it made it possible that we play those songs on that day the way they needed to be played, and sing those songs the way they needed to be sung. It was very powerful. I think we’ve all had lifechanging repercussions.”

On “Graveyard,” the singer toys with the ideas of death and the afterlife. When she sings the delicate refrain, “Bring ‘em all back to life,” it comes off sounding more like a polite conjecture than some sort of demand.

Does Feist think there’s a retrievable place we go to after death? She says she’s not too sure.

“All I know is that [death] is an enormous presence in our lives, the flip side of life—dying,” she says. “[I was] really observing all the various gut responses you have

to trying to understand it, and I don’t understand it. I guess that’s what writing songs is for.”

Mocky says he also feels connected to “Graveyard”: “It’s one of the most powerful songs on the album. It’s cutting very close to some powerful emotions that everyone can relate to.”

GROWING TRUTH THROUGH EXPERIENCE

Feist’s genre-hopping can be an exercise in confusion for the listener, existing in a unique crosssection where she’s loved by a wide range of people: playing with Broken Social Scene, collaborating with shock-rocker Peaches, performing on NPR’s World Café and penning music heard in Starbucks. But Feist says she’s fine living in the tension between indie and pop.

“I guess I don’t ever put them up against each other in the cultural boxing ring of being on two [opposing] sides of a line,” she says thoughtfully. “For me, it’s just the truth of my life. I’ve

over time. Much like watching the progress of a tomato plant, how she has watched her experiences has shifted as she’s changed. “I plant seeds inside these songs, and I know I’m going to be singing them 800 more times, so I can observe them as my perspective changes. It’s like reading a book in high school and then [reading] the same book 10 years later; it’s a totally different book, but [in reality] it’s not—you are. The eyes that read it, the mind that reads it, is different.

Songwriting is sort of that frame. I just know my perspective is going to keep changing, so I try to give myself these breadcrumbs in the forest, like Hansel and Gretel.”

Feist also says valuable perspective on her experiences is provided by others. By investing in others—and letting them invest in her—she’s able to bear the fruit of feelings beyond what she might experience herself.

“When you’ve known people in your life for long enough, you start to know them better than you know yourself,” she says.

“Because you have perspective, you can see them from the outside and say, ‘Oh, they shouldn’t do that, they’ve already done that 80 times.’ You can observe from the outside.

And you know your friends are ultimately doing the same for you, they can see you in the eyes that you can’t see yourself.”

“I’M NOT SPEAKING TO SOME GIANT UNIVERSAL TRUTH—I JUST KNOW THAT I’M NOT THE END-ALL AND BE-ALL.” —FEIST always done whatever in front of me felt like a worthy endeavor and whatever felt like a natural fit, whatever I felt like I could add something to.

“Songwriting is kind of a frame,” she continues. “It’s sort of being attuned to all of these things that are remorselessly moving through your life and picking up speed inside of you, and then either dying in you or taking root and you’re changed.

When vines grow they just twist around each other, and as time passes, all these experiences that you’ve made it through, they leave marks on you and they can leave scar tissue around.”

How Feist looks back on those experiences also changes

Those collective experiences—both hers and her community’s—mean Feist feels more comfortable offering some sort of reflection on topics that might transcend specific contexts.

“In a way, all of the passion plays tromping through people’s lives who are really close to you,” she says. “It’s almost as if they’re your own at some point. I started to feel that, as much as I live something and it completely takes over my life at different times, so do these people close to me. Everyone is at a different point in the ‘connect-the-dots’ as this story unfolds and keeps unfolding; There’s always a new chapter, there’s always a new beginning, there’s always some never-going-to-end-ending.

“I guess I was just seeing that these things weren’t only in my life. I’m not speaking to some giant universal truth—I just know that I’m not the end-all and be-all.”

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 47

BEI RU T THE SORT-OF TRUE STORIES OF

KRISTIANNA SMITH

BY EDWARD MARINER

BY LAURA STUDARUS

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M

ythic, truth-bending biographies have been a part of music at least since Minnesotan Robert Zimmerman claimed he was named Bob Dylan and had spent his childhood as a carnie riding the rails around the Southwest. It’s well within musical tradition to make up your own story and then be very, very serious about it, to the point where you might even forget your own biography. That’s a tension Beirut frontman Zach Condon knows all too well.

As legend would have it, the teenage Condon left home in search of music, landing in Paris. Although the facts are true, Condon is quick to clarify the trip was more about drinking on the banks of the river Seine

than advancing his craft or cultural anthropology. “I find the narrative a little too precious,” he says. “I guess when I was 19 and we just started, I loved the idea of creating some myth about myself. Down the road I realized people take that narrative and really run with it in whatever direction they feel like, and you can’t control something like that. I figured the best way to do it is just to come clean.”

The motivation for Condon to redefine his public image came after an extensive tour of South America. “In Brazil they treated me like a star, like, almost

paparazzi-style,” he recounts, still admitting discomfort about the whole thing.

“The disconnect was so large, from walking down the street in Brooklyn, where every once in a while someone would say, ‘Cool show, dude’ and you’d say thanks, to people scrambling for an autograph. That disconnect became so drastic that I remember coming back and thinking: ‘Who am I? Where do I come from? What does it say in the papers? What do I actually believe?’ ” He continues, thoughtful. “I guess there was a period where you lose yourself in this image you’ve created to not give away personal information. You end up losing the personal information because of it.”

Even with this decision firmly in hand, when to reveal personal facts, and exactly how much to say, is still a struggle for Condon. “It’s incredibly hard,” he admits. “I was never the type of person to leave any signs of my personal thoughts and feelings behind. I loved the fantastical, I loved to put façades up, and I hated when things got too close to home and too realistic.”

But how to begin the process of getting personal? Having already traveled the world, both musically and physically, and come to the end of his self-created persona, Condon decided to take a seemingly revolutionary step to create Beirut’s third fulllength, The Rip Tide. He came home.

TAKING HIMSELF A LITTLE LESS SERIOUSLY

“A Candle’s Fire,” the opening track to The Rip Tide, contains the surprisingly downto-earth line, Don’t forget a candle’s fire is only just a flame. Murmured in Condon’s slurry alto—sounding not unlike Morrissey for the globe-trotting set—it’s a stark reality check, swaddled in the whimsy of brass and strings. It’s a moment of musical dichotomy that could also be used to describe Condon himself. Affable and quick to laugh, he’s also intensely focused, unafraid to double back on a question and correct himself, or to further explore a line of thought. “I don’t take myself too seriously despite what it might seem,” Condon says with a laugh.

“I take my music seriously. It comes from an earnest place. I think people, when we meet, are sometimes surprised at how quick to laugh I’ll be about that kind of stuff.”

Condon is seemingly well aware of the reputation he and his band have earned since their debut full-length, 2006’s Gulag Orkestar. Trading on harmonies harvested from Balkan, French and Mexican music traditions over his previous three albums,

Beirut has come to represent the great elsewhere—the musical personification of wanderlust.

“One of the things that explains the wanderlust, and explains my almost reckless abandonment and my reckless pursuit of this kind of romanticism of exotic places, probably comes from growing up in Santa Fe,” he says. “Growing up there you’re surrounded by the culture that’s presented—which is the tourist industry. Santa Fe is a very touristy town, so there’s this weird, blank, empty façade

of my own, and wanted to belong to something. So that kind of sparked the idea that maybe I could find it out in the world, if not in Santa Fe.”

SETTLED BUT NOT SETTLING

Now married, Condon is an established resident of Brooklyn, N.Y.—a home base he would come back to time and time again.

And while his desire for escapism and pursuit of other places isn’t gone, Condon welcomes his “settled” life.

“That’s starting to fade,” he says of the restless nostalgia that has piloted his path thus far. “I know that sounds really weird, and almost precious, but it’s kind of true. I

“I WAS NOSTALGIC FOR SOMETHING I NEVER BELONGED TO AS A TEENAGER AND A YOUNG ADULT.” —ZACH CONDON that you’re part of. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s this very real, very honest, traditional culture of Hispanic and Native American [influence]— which is amazing, but my last name is Condon, [so] it’s not really mine. Between this void of the very real tradition and very fake traditions, I guess it sent my teenage head spinning, and I wanted to create a culture

mean, I tied it in with daydreaming—I was nostalgic for something I never belonged to as a teenager and a young adult. Even though I am still a young adult, it’s starting to fade. I’m starting to plant my feet a little firmer on the ground.”

WATCH The very strange video for “Santa Fe” from Beirut’s third album, The Rip Tide.

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BY MICHAEL S. HORTON AND ROGER E. OLSON

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HERE’S PROBABLY NO OTHER ISSUE IN POPULAR CHRISTIANITY AS ARGUED OR DEBATED AS CALVINISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS. Whether a dorm room, a Sunday school class, a dinner table, a small group or a classroom, chances are there’s been a discussion there about election, sovereignty and free will at least once in the past month. It’s a theological battle royale, argued by scholars and blog commenters alike.

That debate has only grown over the past decade or so, as more young people have begun to identify as “Reformed”—that is, the tradition housing Christian doctrines commonly referred to as Calvinism. Popular writers and speakers like John Piper, Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll have ignited a movement of Reformed Christians that has fanned the flames of debate into a more visible fire. Meanwhile, Christians like Greg Boyd, N.T. Wright and Scot McKnight offer significant challenges to the current, Reformed mode of thinking.

Of course, just because it’s hotly debated in some circles doesn’t mean everyone knows there’s even a debate going on. Many Christians grew up in or joined churches without knowing if they were Calvinist, Arminian or something in between. Even for many who would not claim a side, they probably have an underlying theology that leans one way or the other. So ... what exactly is the difference between those who are Reformed and those who aren’t?

Most Christians today identify Calvinism with its famous TULIP acronym (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints), an acronym originating in the 20th century. Of course, as with any acronym, clarity can be sacrificed to cleverness.

Essentially, Calvinism attempts to answer one question: How are Christians saved? The Calvinist answer boils down to emphasizing that salvation is entirely dependent on the actions of God and His sovereignty. Humanity is not saved on any merit of its own but completely by the grace of God. That means you don’t choose God—God chooses you and saves you.

Like any Christian theology, there is plenty of gray area where Calvinist thinkers come down. Some strands of Calvinism allow room for human response to God’s initiative, others emphasize “predestination” (the idea that God chooses those who He will save— “the elect”) and some affirm “double predestination”—the belief that God also predestines some for hell. But the primary concern of Calvinism is to understand how God saves Christians.

The most popular alternative to Calvinism is known as Arminianism. Arminianism also seeks to understand how humans are saved, but suggests humans have free will, even as Arminians

affirm the full sovereignty of God. It argues that a loving, perfect God must allow the choice for salvation. In other words, because God loves you, He’s given you the opportunity to choose Him even though you messed up first by sinning.

In order to help unpack what the debate is and how believers on both sides can approach the argument, we turned to the experts. Michael S. Horton, author of For Calvinism, considers Reformed theology the best expression of Christian doctrine based on Scripture. On the other hand, Roger E. Olson, an Arminian and author of Against Calvinism, is convinced Calvinism represents a serious departure from the revealed truths about God found in the Bible. We asked them for arguments in support of and against Calvinism, why the whole discussion matters and how believers of both stripes can still find common ground.

WHY DO THESE DEBATES MATTER TO ORDINARY CHRISTIANS?

OLSON: It may be that whether one believes in God’s sovereignty the Calvinist way or the Arminian way makes little difference with regard to evangelism, worship or discipleship.

But the subject of God’s sovereignty and different interpretations of it matters because God cares what we think about Him. God cares what we think about Him because He cares for His reputation. Why else would He have given us so much in His Word and sent Jesus Christ not only to die for the whole world’s sins but also to reveal His character? God has gone to a lot of trouble, for His sake and ours, to guide us into right thoughts about Himself. Surely He is offended when people think wrong thoughts that harm His reputation. Since I cannot think of God as good and believe what Calvinists believe about Him, I think it must mean something to God as well.

HORTON: Historians have pointed out some remarkable effects of Calvinism in the world. They particularly point out this paradox: Calvinism is pessimistic about the moral perfectibility of humanity but nevertheless unleashes enormous energy for Christian callings in the world. On the one hand, Calvinism points out simultaneously both human helplessness and the gracious overwhelming power of God in Christ. Christians are freed up from trying to score points with God, so now we can fulfill our callings in the world—loving RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 51

and serving our neighbors, and bearing witness to Christ; not to get something from God but to give something to others. Furthermore, traditional Calvinism places a lot of emphasis on receiving God’s grace together, as a covenant community, through preaching, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We respond corporately in worship, prayer, confession. This emphasis on spiritual formation in community over a lifetime rather than individualistic “get-spiritual-quick” programs is sorely needed in our churches today.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL THEOLOGICAL JOURNEY?

HORTON: I’m grateful for a devout, evangelical upbringing. At home and at church I was given a love for God’s Word and the marvelous truth that Christ died for my sins and was raised for my salvation.

However, as I began reading Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the Gospel of John and other portions of Scripture, I started asking questions that my pastors downplayed as “too theological,” divisive and unnecessary. The default theology was basically Arminian, but in a fairly unreflective way. I was also attending a very Arminian school at the time, and I saw increasing conflict between what I was reading in Scripture and what I was being told in classes. With a sense of worry, my pastor told me I was becoming a “Calvinist.” I looked it up in the encyclopedia and, sure enough, he was right!

Soon, I was reading Jonathan Edwards, the Puritans, Luther, Calvin, Sproul, Boice, Packer and others. I went to the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology every year, and Dr. James Montgomery Boice, a leading voice of —MICHAEL Calvinist thought, took me under his wing when I was just an eager 14-year-old. My first book, Mission Accomplished (later Putting Amazing Back into Grace), was an attempt to explain this “grace awakening” to family and friends.

I’m still blown away by the richness and expansiveness of Reformed faith and practice. Reformed theology isn’t just about election; it’s a radical view of the Triune God, human significance and fallenness, Christ’s person and work, the Gospel, the Church and sacraments. It offers an all-encompassing view of the new creation and our callings in this world. This perspective has given me a place to stand, to engage inquisitively with other traditions and to challenge my daily living in my family, neighborhood, church and the world.

WHAT PROBLEMS ARE THERE WITH CALVINISM?

OLSON: Reformed theology shares many beliefs with non-Calvin-

ist traditions, even the first and last elements of “TULIP”: total depravity and perseverance of the saints. But the distinctive beliefs of “Calvinism” are unconditional election (double predestination, meaning people are predestined for heaven or hell), limited atonement (that the atoning impact of Christ’s death on the cross is only applicable to Christians) and irresistible grace (meaning the grace of God compels people to accept Christ—they don’t have a choice).

Taken together, these beliefs call into question God’s character— by which I mean God’s goodness. I agree with R.C. Sproul and other Calvinist apologists that these elements cannot be taken singly; they are a coherent package. As I see it, the root problem is divine determinism—that God has ordered and directed every detail in creation and in history. Whatever Calvinists may say, Calvinism makes God the planner and doer (even if indirectly) of everything that happens ... and thus the author of sin and evil.

Calvinism ends up dissolving the very meaning of evil, which is contrary to the Bible and common sense. If God foreordains and causes everything for His glory, and there is no room for free will to thwart that at any point, every evil thing is for God’s glory.

That means nothing is really evil.

I acknowledge the vast majority of evangelical Calvinists never say God is the author of sin or evil; they prefer softer language and often use the term “permit” to S . H O R TO N express God’s relationship with evil. But however much they wish it to be otherwise, Calvinists imply that God is not good because His “goodness” (in this system) bears no resemblance to Jesus Christ, the perfect revelation of God’s character, or to our human intuitions about goodness.

“ W E S H O U L D AV O I D S TA R T I N G W I T H A CENTRAL POINT OF VIEW … AND T H E N F I N D V E R S E S TO S U P P O R T O U R C L A I M . W E N E E D TO L E T T H E W H O L E TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE CHALLENGE OUR ASSUMPTIONS.”

OLSON: I grew up as an evangelical Arminian and first encoun-

tered the idea that “evangelical” and “Calvinist” belong together during my seminary days, where one of my professors was Dr. Boice. I began to chafe at insults directed at my Arminianism during my education and early years of teaching at a Christian college. In 1992, I saw an issue of Modern Reformation magazine devoted to Arminianism and believed it misrepresented true, classical Arminianism. With the rise of the current trend of young Reformed Christians, I determined to speak out: first in defense of Arminianism, and second against this aggressive Calvinism that implies it is biblically, theologically and spiritually superior to all other forms of Christianity.

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HORTON: Predestination has never been the central dogma of Calvinism that many assume, believing the whole “system” came from it. The doctrines of grace in Calvinism arise from an ordinary reading of the relevant passages in Scripture. Regardless of compelling logic, the only test of truth is consistency with Scripture. We can’t begin with a philosophical idea of divine sovereignty or human freedom and then cherry-pick our favorite verses.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE SO-CALLED “NEOREFORMED” MOVEMENT, IN WHICH A LOT OF YOUNG PEOPLE ARE ADOPTING CALVINISM?

HORTON: I recognize my own journey in the lives of many (especially

younger) Christians who are embracing the label “Calvinist.” In any paradigm shift, the profound changes lead to excitement for the new, and disillusionment with the old. This happens with all sorts of conversions: political, cultural, religious. We call this the “cage phase”—when new Calvinists need to be quarantined from society for a while! When a large number of people are entering this phase simultaneously, there’s excitement but also the danger of uncharitable and arrogant engagement with other believers.

It’s amazing—a theology that says we only know God because He has revealed and given Himself to us by grace can be turned into a self-righteous assertion of our own discovery. It’s something we all have to guard against. This investigation isn’t about an ideology or a party label, but about diving together as brothers and sisters into the vast ocean of grace that is the common playground of all the saints.

I also hope the “New Calvinism” movement will get beyond acronyms. Many of us come out of “fundamentalism”: the tendency to reduce everything to a few slogans and points. However, Reformed theology is just as interested in how we worship and live out our callings, the role of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the Kingdom of God and other marvelous truths. As important as the “five points of Calvinism” are, they are part of a broader and richer confession.

to get around this problem by saying God shows His love to the reprobate (those He predestined for hell) by showering them with temporal blessings on earth. But that is only to say God gives them a little bit of heaven to go to hell in.

Unfortunately, many people have been told any theology other than Calvinism rests salvation on human effort, which undermines grace. Allegedly, Arminianism makes the free will decision of the repentant sinner “the decisive factor in salvation.” Not so. The decisive factors are the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit. The free will decision is only an empty acceptance of God’s great gift. It leaves no room for boasting.

OLSON: My alarm over the rise of “the new Calvinism” is the lack of deep reflection I encounter in their triumphant claims to “truth.” Christians inclined toward Calvinism should first examine its underlying logic and what it requires in terms of good and necessary consequences. I’m convinced many young, Reformed Christians are caught up in Calvinism because of the charismatic influence of certain popular speakers and writers and have never really thought about what that system means and implies.

HORTON: I would say I believe Calvinism more consistently teaches what the Gospel means—both the significance and implications of the Gospel. In my view, Arminianism is a serious error that fails to account for key passages of Scripture, that offers conflicting messages about how we are saved and kept by God’s grace, and that fails to give God’s glory its proper due. It begins with the central belief of human freedom, over and against divine determinism—meaning human freedom can trump God’s actions.

Arminianism also presupposes a questionable interpretation of God’s love—elevating it above all of God’s other attributes—that screens out plausible interpretations of Scripture.

WHAT MIGHT YOU TELL SOMEONE IF THEY WERE CONSIDERING ADOPTING CALVINISM AS THEIR THEOLOGY?

OLSON: I would hope any Christian would examine Calvinism biblically, in terms of Christian history and tradition, with rationality and through their experiences. How does the whole system square with “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and John 3:16-17?

Throughout the New Testament, God is revealed as love. We are commanded to love others unconditionally (1 Corinthians 13).

Does God command a better quality of love from us than Himself? If Calvinism is true, God could save everyone because election to salvation (and therefore salvation) is unconditional. Why would a God of love choose to select only some to save? Saying, “It’s a mystery” doesn’t help.

Basic Calvinist claims about God’s damning of some people “for His glory” are inconsistent with any sense of love and especially with Jesus Christ. Leading Calvinists try

AND WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE CONSIDERING REJECTING CALVINISM FOR A MORE ARMINIAN VIEW OF SALVATION?

WHERE CAN CALVINISTS AND NON-CALVINISTS FIND COMMON GROUND?

OLSON: Many young, Reformed Christians have been led to believe Calvinism is the only biblically serious evangelical option. That’s simply not the case; classical Arminianism is not salvation by good works. Arminianism embraces total depravity together with Calvinism, but the key difference is a term theologians call “prevenient grace.”

Arminians believe God gives sinners the gift of “prevenient grace”—in short, it is the

grace of God that convicts, calls, illumines and enables people to respond to the Gospel.

Salvation is all grace; it does not involve the merit of works. Classical Arminianism is not completely contrary to Calvinism; they share significant common ground—especially belief that salvation is wholly of God’s grace apart from works.

HORTON: Helpfully, Roger Olson distin-

guishes what Calvinism teaches from what he thinks it leads to logically. It’s important to challenge real positions, not caricatures, and to recognize that we can affirm the Gospel together even though we have important disagreements over how to explain it.

First, Reformed theology doesn’t just deny God is the author of evil or robs human beings of responsibility; it offers a detailed scriptural argument against that claim. Second, traditional Arminianism no less than Calvinism accepts the belief that God permits evil. In fact, “open theists” (the most extreme end of Arminianism) have recognized if God foreknows evil actions, then they are certain to occur and are therefore determined. Third, Calvinism affirms the wonder of God’s love more consistently than in Arminian accounts. God doesn’t just give everyone the opportunity to be saved, with His help, but so loved the world that He chose many who hated Him, bore their sins and was resurrected for their justification.

The Father unites us to Christ by His Spirit and keeps us in His love—even though the objects of His eternal love are unfaithful. We should avoid starting with a central point of view—whether a certain definition of God’s love or of God’s sovereignty—and then find verses to support our claim. Instead, we need to let the whole teaching of Scripture challenge our assumptions. The wonder of God’s grace is that He is under no obligation to grant it; the grand presuppositions of the Gospel are the greatness of our sin and the surpassing greatness of God’s love in Christ.

The Gospel is God’s saving good news that sinners are freely redeemed from the guilt and tyranny of sin and death by Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Calvinists and Arminians unpack that differently at crucial points, but both can affirm that sentence.

ROGER E. OLSON is professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University. He has published numerous books, including 20th Century Theology: God and the World in a Transitional Age (with Stan Grenz) and his most recent work, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities.

MICHAEL S. HORTON is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California. He co-hosts White Horse Inn (WhiteHorseInn.org), and is editor of Modern Reformation magazine and author of The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way.

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THE POWER OF "AND YET" HOW GOD CAN WORK IN LIFE’S MESSIEST MOMENTS

BY CARYN RIVADENEIRA

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re you kidding me, God? Nothing? Do we have to go down this road again? Is it really that hard? Is it that it’s a stupid prayer? Or have I been bothering you too much? Why won’t you help me?

I don’t think I’m the only one who’s been left hanging—wondering why God’s ignoring my repeated prayers, wondering if He answers at all.

Take last week, for instance. It wasn’t a huge prayer—I was just hoping for some divine inspiration on a writing assignment, something I often pray for as a career writer. But this time, God seemed a little slow. Because for two days after getting the assignment, I prayed my usual pre-writing prayer and got nothing.

So as I moved through my days—at the sink, washing dishes; at my desk, plunking out other stories; at the wheel, driving home—I repeated my prayer: Give me a story. Give me a great story.

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Nothing.

On the day I needed that story, I sat at my computer and looked up—heavenward, I suppose—and prayed again: God, please just give me a story.

Still a big nada.

So instead of typing a story, I started typing a prayer—a litany of grievances against God. A list of the things I’d come asking and seeking, all the knocks I’d clunked on His door, all the things I was waiting on—some much more desperate than a story idea.

I ended it all by typing: “This is the reason so many people think you are not real. That you are not good. That you can’t be trusted.”

But with that, I broke into a smile—aware suddenly of the sacred space I entered the moment I began my typed lament. I smiled because I knew what was coming next: I type: “And yet …”

And I pause before finishing the sentence. Because I’ve come to believe these two words—“and yet”—are among the most important words Christians can utter. These words make all the difference in how we bring our grievances to God—the difference between blathering complaints and an honest lament. The difference between a scornful rebuke and a grumbled hallelujah.

HOW TO GET MAD AT GOD

I recently heard someone say the purpose of lamenting—mourning and grieving—isn’t for God. Obviously.

He knows our thoughts. Our frustrations.

Our hurts. He knows we’re waiting and waiting. Lamenting, this person said, is for us. So we can come honestly before God and hear our own expressions of faith and doubt.

I love that. Especially as someone who grew up in a faith tradition in which lamenting wasn’t exactly smiled upon. My world was a “nobody likes a complainer” kind of place. Lamenting was an Old Testament thing. Something we Christians, born-again believers, saved by Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit, didn’t do.

After all, we had the joy, joy, joy, joy down in our hearts! The Apostle Paul told us not to grumble or complain in anything—that we should give thanks in everything.

This understanding told me getting angry with God had no place in the Christian life.

As I grew up, I began to match that message with the voice in my head that reminded me I had nothing to complain about. If I simply looked around and saw the true suffering on this planet, I’d shut my trap. No matter what sorts of disappointments I faced. No

matter what types of hurts I endured. No matter how many dreams shattered around me.

But there was just one thing I couldn’t shake—that God seemed to offer a different voice. That God— through His Word—seemed to welcome my complaints.

Even if they were against Him. Maybe especially so.

At least, that’s what I heard as I began reading the great Bible laments during a time in my life when I felt I did have a lot to complain about. A time when my financial situation flirted with poverty levels, when my career seemed to peak and then sputter, rolling through a seemingly permanent dénouement. When my relationships faltered.

“I am overwhelmed with troubles. … You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths … you have overwhelmed me with all your waves … darkness is my closest friend,” says Psalm 88: 3, 6-7, 18 (NIV).

will they make me cling harder to Him? When I run, I end in complaint, in fury. When I cling, I add the “and yet.” And this is what makes it so holy.

The “and yet” is really the core of our faith. If we think about it, the whole story of God and us is built on the “and yet.” Not just every little “and yet” throughout the Bible (e.g., Sarah was too old to bear children, and yet … David was tiny, Goliath huge, and yet …). No, “and yet” forms the overarching redemption story of God. The one God

GOD—THROUGH HIS WORD—SEEMED TO WELCOME MY COMPLAINTS. EVEN IF THEY WERE AGAINST HIM. MAYBE ESPECIALLY SO. And in Lamentations 3:19-23: “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

LAMENTING GOD’S WAY

My friend Gregg—who’s also a pastor—summarized a “biblical lament” for me in five easy steps: 1. Trouble comes.

2. A person of God cries out for help.

3. God rescues in a unique way.

4. A response of thanksgiving is offered to God. 5. The thanksgiving spreads out into the community.

Helpful, yes, I told him. But this didn’t fully satisfy me—didn’t fully capture the laments I’d clung to in Scripture. Maybe because I was still stuck at “number 2,” if you will. It felt like God hadn’t orchestrated any rescues—unique or run-of-the-mill. And in the biblical laments I loved, God hadn’t yet either. But still, a deep holiness abounded in these passages I read and re-read.

And frankly, a deep holiness was how I was beginning to see the space I entered when I began to lament.

That holiness was never more apparent than when I got to the “and yet.” The part of the lament where everything seemed to turn—and on which everything seemed to ride. Which comes back to what I heard about laments being about our own expressions of faith and doubt.

Because while I may lament my grievances against God, while I may shake my fists at Him or pound them on His chest, every time I do, I face a choice: Will these grievances, these grumbles, make me run from God, or

set into play the moment Adam and Eve sinned: We sin, and yet God offers salvation.

“And yet” is at the core of God’s love for us (we are unworthy, and yet God loves us). It’s a central theme of Jesus’ life on earth. It’s the reason He rose from the grave. “And yet” is why the Holy Spirit dwells among us. Christianity is a paradoxical, “and yet” faith, following Jesus' paradoxical, “and yet” life. Which is why “and yet” needs to be central to our laments and complaints and grumbles with God. Because it’s there—in those two words—we acknowledge the mystery, the upside-downness, the “this makes no sense” wonder of our faith. It’s in those two words we express our very belief, our trust in a God who often makes no sense. Who isn’t often (and shouldn’t be!) about instant gratification—but a mighty God who knows better than we do what we need.

CARYN RIVADENEIRA is the author of several books, including Grumble Hallelujah (Tyndale). Visit her at CarynRivadeneira.com.

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WAT E R WORKS

BY ROXANNE WIEMAN BRIAN HARKIN

THERE'S A REASON SCOTT HARRISON CHOSE WATER. BUT IT MAY NOT BE THE ONE YOU THINK.

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ould you like some water? It’s tap.”

Viktoria Harrison holds a glass under the faucet as she explains New York City has one of the most extensive and complex water systems in the world—utilizing tunnels, aqueducts and reservoirs. She knows this because her company recently invited a water engineer to give a presentation on how the city’s water is stored, filtered and delivered. And why would a company be interested in a lecture on water systems? Because the company where Viktoria Harrison works as creative director—the company her husband, Scott Harrison, founded five years ago—is in the water business.

Even if most of their business is half a world away.

Charity: water is not your average nonprofit. Taking a look around their open, brightly lit SoHo loft will tell you that. Yellow jerry cans line the white walls under crisp photos of men, women and children splashing in clean water. “A lot of these Scott has shot himself,” says Sarah Cohen, charity: water’s communications and development manager. “Photography is so important to us—to remind us. We’re trying to show the hope and the joy that comes with clean water.

Trying to show the solution instead of the problem.”

Everywhere in the office the solution is celebrated: a world map with stickers on all the countries where charity: water has supplied clean water, a bulletin board filled with notes and drawings from children who support charity: water, a plasma TV mounted on a wall with real-time Twitter feeds showing who is talking to charity: water, what charity: water staff are tweeting and who is tweeting about charity: water. “It’s inspiring to see how so many different people have taken the message as their own story,” Cohen says.

Cohen points out the conference rooms—both with wall-to-ceiling sliding glass doors and whiteboard walls covered with scribbles and charts and year-end goals. One conference room holds a folded up ping-pong table. The office space is all cubicles, open and collaborative. There’s a constant hum as jeans- and TOMS-clad employees

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RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 57

WHY WATER? Water touches everything.

Extreme poverty is invariably linked with a lack of clean water. To give people clean water is to change their life.

Clean water can reduce water-related deaths by 21%.

Sanitation can reduce water-related deaths by 37.5%.

Hand washing can reduce water-related deaths by 45%. $1 invested in improved water access and sanitation yields an average of $12 in economic return.

Unsafe water and unhygienic conditions kill 30,000 people each week—90% are children under the age of 5.

Annually, the people of Africa spend 40 billion hours walking to get water.

About every 19 seconds, an infant dies from a waterrelated illness.

talk, laugh and spontaneously consult over one another’s shoulders.

“The only thing we ever fight over is the music,” Cohen says.

It’s all so slick, so hip, so cool— so very much more like a marketing agency than a charity. Which is probably because Scott Harrison used to be in marketing.

Specifically, marketing nightclubs. Or, in his words, he got “people wasted for a living.”

THE OLD DAYS

“I should have been happy,” Scott Harrison says. “I was dating a beautiful model. I was driving a BMW. I had a Labrador retriever. I had a Rolex. There was a grand piano in my apartment.”

Harrison had spent most of his 20s as a nightclub and party promoter, throwing lavish parties for everyone from MTV and VH1 to Bacardi and Elle. He concedes that it was, in fact, as glamorous as it sounds. But on 58 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

a vacation to Uruguay, at 28 years old, something inside him shifted.

“On this vacation I was with all the right people,” he says. “Some of them had private planes, some would gamble $10,000 in a hand of baccarat. I remember we spent $1,000 on fireworks.”

But such opulence was no longer the fun it had once been for Harrison.

Matt Olivier, Harrison’s friend since junior high and a fellow nightlife promoter, remembers watching the transition in Harrison’s life during this time.

“He wasn’t terribly happy with where he was at. You could see that. He’s always been incredibly talented, and he wasn’t doing much with his talents there.”

“I remember feeling so empty and so miserable,” Harrison says. “I could almost see my life play out: There would never be enough girls, never be enough money, never be enough status, enough power. There would never be enough to satisfy the God-hole.”

Harrison winces at his words—he is always so careful to avoid the God-clichés, he says. But he only hesitates a moment before continuing in the same vein: “I love the verse, ‘He put eternity in their hearts.’ That was the awakening. After 10 years of running life my way, after walking away from my faith, after walking away from life, this is how it feels. I realized I was chasing more of the wrong things. I was with people who were older than I was, and none of them were happy. They had more of everything than I had, and they were equally empty.”

After returning from Uruguay, Harrison began devouring sermons and Scripture. He read A.W. Tozer’s Pursuit of God (“If I was headed north, that book is headed south”) and went back to church.

“It’s different when you rediscover Jesus at 28 years old than what you were told growing up in church,” he says. “I had fresh eyes 10 years later. Jesus was awesome. I used to think He was religious, and He wasn’t religious. He had ultimate, incredible integrity. He was all of those things I wasn’t. He was easy to like, easy to respect. He lived in such stark contrast to the way I lived.”

Harrison admits it wasn’t really that hard to get back into his faith, “I realized I hadn’t lost my faith, I just hadn’t obeyed for 10 years. I hadn’t become

an atheist, I just didn’t want to do what God was calling me to do.” The problems, he says, came when he went to work. “The closer I was getting in my relationship with Jesus, the more the fun went out of nightlife. I just kind of floundered in that tension of what my heart was doing in those six months.”

So Harrison did the obvious thing: He quit everything and went to sea for two years.

FROM CLUB PROMOTER TO …

CHARITY PHOTOGRAPHER?

In August 2004, Harrison joined the Christian charity Mercy Ships as a volunteer photojournalist. He served aboard the Mercy Ship Anastasis in West Africa, taking tens of thousands of photos as he witnessed doctors and nurses offering free health care to those in need.

“I wept probably 50 times in those two years,” he says. “Seeing 5,000 people looking for help, standing outside a stadium, many of them with huge tumors, many of them blind, many of them lame. There was that first shock of seeing and smelling and tasting extreme poverty. Then being a part of the solution, watching doctors who made sacrifices. Restoring people’s faces, restoring their legs, restoring their vision and really restoring their lives.”

In between his two tours with Mercy Ships, Harrison wanted to share his experiences with his friends—most of whom were still in the nightlife scene.

“Instead of inviting people to parties, he started sending graphic images of before and after surgeries to the 17,000 people we were emailing invites to parties before that,” Olivier laughs. “He kept doing exactly what he does—he just did it in a different way.”

SCOTT AND VIKTORIA HARRISON HAVE TRAVELED TO MANY OF CHARITY: WATER’S PROJECTS.

“I put together an exhibition and just blew up these photos and invited all my friends from nightlife,” Harrison says. “I asked them to see, to learn and then to act, and to give.

We ended up raising about $96,000 through this gallery show. That was a really pivotal moment. If you share stories, if people can see the difference they can make, they will help. They will give. They will engage.”

The importance of sharing through visuals and through story wasn’t the only thing that clicked for Harrison as a result of those evening presentations with friends. “I wanted to connect those people I had taken the money from with the results. I realized there’s an incredible power when you can close the loop. They’ve seen, they’ve been moved, they’ve given, and now it’s up to me to show them what they’ve really done.”

The power of “closing the loop”—of connecting donors with results—is a lesson Harrison never forgot.

The other lesson? Ugly websites don’t work.

When pressed, Harrison admits this is one of the big reasons he started his own charity instead of just joining an already existing one. “Websites would have animated, blinking gifs—the brands were awful. A charity would go out and shoot with a hundred-dollar camera instead of a thousand-dollar one. They would think they were saving $900, but their image quality would be awful.”

As someone who had lived and worked in a space where appearances meant everything, Harrison knew marketing and branding couldn’t go by the wayside.

Even—maybe especially—for a charity. “I didn’t know any cool charities in my 20s,” he says. “I really believe I might have been sucked in by the good design, compelling storytelling and simplicity of mission had I come across one. I wanted to reinvent charity. And as I looked around this space, I just saw people weren’t doing it like it needed to be done. I had a vision for the future, for what charity needed to look like to really achieve scale.”

Not one to let any vision go unseen, on Sept. 7, 2006— his 31st birthday—Harrison founded charity: water with what would later become a foundational fundraising technique for the organization: a birthday campaign. He threw a party at a nightclub and invited all his friends from his past life. Instead of gifts, he charged $20 to attend the party and asked for additional donations.

He raised $15,000 that night, and used the money for digging and restoring wells in a Ugandan refugee camp.

It was just three weeks later when Viktoria Harrison– Viktoria Alexeeva at the time—first encountered Harrison and charity: water. “He was doing an outdoor exhibition in New York City’s parks—to educate people about the water crisis. I said, ‘It seems like you’re using graphic design to tell your story.’ ” Viktoria, who was working as a graphic designer for a marketing agency at the time, says she immediately noted there was an aesthetic she hadn’t seen in other charities. Much like Harrison, Viktoria had been feeling a pull to do

something different—something more outward with her life. “I knew my skill could be valued and appreciated and used here,” she says. She volunteered her help, if he ever needed it. “I thought he wasn’t going to ever call me, but the next day he calls and says, ‘Let’s meet.’ ” A few days later they met up and brainstormed what it might mean to combine charity with great design and exhibitions. Viktoria began volunteering nights and weekends for charity: water. After six months, a board member donated her salary and she became the third employee of charity: water.

Three years later, the two were married.

“I HADN’T LOST MY FAITH, I JUST HADN’T OBEYED FOR 10 YEARS. I HADN’T BECOME AN ATHEIST, I JUST DIDN’T WANT TO DO WHAT GOD WAS CALLING ME TO DO.” —SCOTT HARRISON “The way museums tell stories, charities should tell stories that way,” Viktoria says. “You’re always transformed by the exhibitions, the big photos, the beautiful ways artists tell stories. So what better cause to tell stories like that for than a humanitarian cause?”

WHY WATER?

Of course, an important part of any good story is the ending. Harrison’s original goal to “close the loop” for donors means making sure to tell the whole story of their donation: from the initial water project, to GPS coordinates of the well, to stories of community transformation, to long-term sustainability.

This means working with key local partners on the ground from the beginning to the end of every water project. “We can’t be local experts in all 19 countries where we work,” Harrison says. “We work in partnership with

organizations that have been active in the country for many years. Our goal for sustainability is that people have access to clean water, forever.

Since we’re not experts in every locality, we can’t prescribe the solutions to achieve sustainability, but instead with our partners, we focus on the desired result, which is access to clean water. It’s then the role of our partners to use their expertise to get there.”

That’s where quality reporting comes in—something that isn’t always so easy. “Getting really good reporting back from the ground

THE SOURCE OF CHARITY: WATER Charity: water has a goal to provide clean drinking water to 100 million people in the next 10 years. But what exactly does that look like?

When money reaches the field, expert partners have a number of water technologies to choose from in solving the local water needs.

SPRING PROTECTIONS Fresh water from natural springs is collected and safely stored.

BIOSAND FILTERS Water is decontaminated through a multi-layered filter comprised of sand and a film of microorganisms.

DRILLED WELLS Deep, underground aquifers are tapped by professional drilling teams.

HAND-DUG WELLS Drills are forsaken for manual labor to reach water 15 meters underground.

RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEMS Rainfall is collected via rooftop gutters and redirected to a sanitary holding tank.

REHABILITATIONS If existing water technology is faulty, charity: water teams repair and restore them to current standards.

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is a challenge we’ve been working on a lot recently,” says Michael Letta, charity: water’s financial director. “There’s often complications with making sure we sustain the water program. It’s one thing to drill a well and give people clean water. It’s another thing to make sure that water point is flowing next year, five years, 10 years from now. We do a lot of work developing those systems and working with our partners to scale up their programs to make sure we have robust monitoring and evaluation.”

These reports—along with, of course, quality pictures, videos and stories—ensure charity: water is able to effectively close the loop and help donors see the real-time results their money is making.

Harrison admits, in some ways, this is why he chose water in the first place.

“Water was provable,” he says. “I needed an issue people could see what they’d done. I needed to deliver tangible results to restore people’s faith in charity. That was a big part of my personal mission—to restore a disenchanted generation and bring them back to the table of giving, and then get them addicted to giving.”

Plus, water touches everything. “It touches health, it touches education,” Harrison says. “By providing people with clean water, it also [makes] them richer. The United Nations came up with a powerful study that said every dollar invested in clean water returns $12 to the local economy.”

The list of reasons he chose water goes on—and Harrison ticks them off on his fingers, lingering particularly over the ways the water crisis affects women, who bear the brunt of transporting water from faraway water sources. This is why charity: water’s local water committees always have an equal number of men and women on them. “It’s

really important to have women in a position of power on the water committee,” he says. “We have 4,000 water projects in 4,000 villages [with] 4,000 water committees.

Because of our model, we know where all of the projects are. That was revolutionary in the sector, to prove every project using photos and GPS.”

ABOVE ALL ELSE, TRANSPARENCY

Integrity, though, isn’t just something charity: water worries about in its storytelling—it’s also a critical value when it comes to their bank account.

At the very beginning of charity: water, Harrison insisted part of redefining charity—part of truly connecting people with the mission—was to donate 100 percent of profits to the field.

“That takes a lot of courage, to start a charity that doesn’t have an endowment and [to] say every dollar you raise is going straight to a water program,” Letta says.

But for Harrison, the significance of the 100 percent model was crystal clear. “For 10 years I had been selfish and had no interest, really, in giving to charities,” he says. “Like other people I had the excuse that it was a black hole. I give money to a charity, and what happens to it? Oh, it’s probably going to go into some guy’s salary. He’s probably driving a Lexus around Africa.

Everybody I knew seemed to have a horror story and an excuse for why they weren’t giving. So I needed to make the finances completely clear and transparent. We always use 100 percent of funds for projects, and we’ll separately raise money for staff and operations.”

As if to prove this, a sign hangs in one corner of charity: water’s office, near the entrance, reassuring visitors the office is entirely donated. “Here are 10 things you should know about our office,” it reads. And then a list of who donated everything from the office space to

CHARITY: WATER’S OFFICE FEATURES A GALLERY OF A WATER PROJECT FROM START TO FINISH.

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the furniture to the large-scale photographs. Oh, except for the ping-pong table. The sign admits: “We bought a ping-pong table because we need a break from time to time.”

Of course, an audacious goal of 100 percent was much easier said than done. “We nearly choked,” Harrison says. “We almost flamed. We ran out of money. We had raised so much money for water projects, and I hadn’t been able to grow the other side of the business fast enough. We weren’t going to make payroll in five weeks. I really didn’t know what to do.”

Faced with either shutting down or doing a “reboot” and going to the standard 80/20 model, both Viktoria and Scott admit all they knew to do was pray. “At that time two complete strangers dropped a million dollars into our bank account and funded us for 13 months. Had that not happened, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

Harrison says it was a confirmation—one he’s received over and over again—that the 100 percent model is how God wanted charity: water to run.

Olivier agrees, saying Scott’s dedication to this model is, perhaps above all else, what’s made charity: water a success.

“It just changes everything. It’s not about percentages, it’s about values. I gave $20, and $20 went right into the hand of somebody who needed it. Scott’s responsible for that.”

Since that early crisis, funding the operations side of things hasn’t necessarily gotten easier, but Harrison says he is much more intentional now about raising funds for that side of the business as well. “Our team does an incredible job raising money for water projects, but the burden largely falls on me to raise the money for staff and operations.”

A TEAM OF INTERNS HELP CHARITY: WATER RUN.

THE NEW FACES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE Recent years have seen the rise of social entrepreneurs like Scott Harrison, Jamie Tworkowski and Blake Mycoskie who look for creative ways to change the world. A new class of young leaders are following in their footsteps.

Here are a few to keep your eye on:

JAKE HARRIMAN Nuru International

A CHARITABLE FAITH

But what about faith? With 4,282 water projects funded to date, charity: water has brought clean, safe drinking water to more than 2 million people in 19 countries. But what of his Christian faith? How does that affect the way charity: water operates—both at home and abroad?

“I didn’t start a faith-based organization,” Harrison says firmly. “My theology around clean water is very simple: I believe God does not want any women or children to die from drinking muddy water, and that when a well is put in a village and a woman stops walking five hours a day, when a kid starts drinking clean water, God smiles, and that is bringing His Kingdom a little closer.”

Harrison says he doesn’t feel a tension between evangelism and social justice—he feels God is using charity: water as a unifier and not a divider.

“We have Muslim supporters, Jewish supporters, Christian supporters, gay supporters—I could list 20 groups that all hate each other but have all been unified because [they] can agree people need clean water.”

But Harrison is also quick to say belief is not absent from charity: water, or from his personal life. “I’ve grown so much in my personal walk with God during the last five years. I can’t imagine doing this without Him. There have been personal miracles and massive answers to prayer. I’ve been encouraged so much. I’m just trying to live out my faith with as much integrity as possible.”

For Harrison, adding a faith component to what charity: water does would compromise that integrity—it would mean having an agenda— something he sees as ultimately detrimental to the vision he was called to. “I’m not trying to force my views down the throats of our staff or our donors or communities around the world. The vision God put in my heart is to bring clean water to a billion people. I don’t think that can be accomplished with the Church alone. I believe a vision like that is accomplished with everybody. Having an agenda would have helped less people. Where we’re going, the dream is so big … I think we’re doing it in the right way.”

CHARITY: REDEFINED

And that big dream? To solve the water crisis. Period. “The actual delivering of clean water is such a solvable issue. It’s not one-size-fits-all, but there are solutions. We know how to solve essentially 100 percent of the problem. You need money, you need resources, you need capacity, you need construction teams, [you need] masons and a whole variety of people to do the work—but it’s possible.

“It’s pretty easy for me to focus on the 2 million people we’ve already helped, and on the 100 million people we’re about to help,” he continues.

“The stories I hear in community after community about life ‘after the water came’ are in such stark contrast to their stories ‘before the water came.’ And here at home, I love the challenge of overcoming apathy. I love it when a donor is able to see what they’ve done, and then believe, sometimes for the first time, that it’s really truly possible to directly transform

Harriman’s seven-year service as a Marine Corps Commander showed him the key to combatting terrorism lies in relieving the conditions of the world’s poor. Now, Nuru’s projects empower rural communities to lift themselves out of poverty.

NICOLE BAKER FULGHAM

The Expectations Project Formerly with Teach for America, Fulgham saw a disconnect between churches and local schools. Her new organization seeks to empower churches to mentor kids and build into their local public schools.

EUGENE CHO

One Day’s Wages A simple message is often key to effective outreach. Only two years old, Cho’s organization has already made a significant impact in the fight against global poverty by simply asking people to donate one day of their wages.

JUSTIN ZORADI

These Numbers Have Faces Zoradi’s own college education and mission experiences prompted him to help South African youth receive college scholarships and become equipped to invest in the future of their communities.

the lives of others through their generosity. To see someone become enthusiastic and passionate about the possibility of their wealth and influence [making] a difference in the lives of people who need clean drinking water—that’s magic.”

WATCH Why water matters—and how you can make clean water a reality.

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R E L I G I O N

A N D

HIP-HOP

BY ANTHONY BARR-JEFFREY AND JASON BELLINI

N AV I G A T I N G T H E C O N F L I C T E D R E L I G I O U S C O N S C I E N C E OF THE MOST POPULAR MUSIC IN THE WORLD

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IF

someone tried to say what he thought of when he heard the term “hip-hop,” he probably wouldn’t respond with “spiritual matters.” But hip-hop music, for all its flaws and achievements, is actually very concerned with deeply spiritual topics—disillusionment, discrimination, aspiration and escapism, issues that run deep in the AfricanAmerican communities that gave birth to hip-hop culture. Hip-hop, like gospel music that came before it, originally flourished by giving voice to the world and spirituality of oppressed African-Americans. But, despite sharing cultural DNA, the relationship between the worlds of hip-hop and gospel music has become strident and strained, leaving many rappers with one foot in the church and one in the street.

As a result, many rap albums contain an uneasy marriage of dark, gritty street tales (or profane mythologies) and stories of spiritual renewal and hope. “Most of us [rappers] grew up in church and remember these gospel records and that overtone,” says rapper Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, one half of seminal Southern hip-hop duo Underground Kingz (UGK). “It’s almost implicitly understood that, being Southern and Southern Baptist, your mom or your grandmother or someone is going to see what you’re doing and you’re going to be called out on it.”

So, where casual hip-hop fans found Kanye’s 2004 opus, “Jesus Walks,” revolutionary, it was neither surprising nor lifechanging for insiders who remember artists like Ma$e, Woody Rock of Dru Hill, DMX, Cheryl “Salt” Wray of Salt-N-Pepa and Reverend Run who have all tried to explore what it might look like for committed Christians to make mainstream hip-hop.

The results have been confusing at best— Rev. Run is noted for his inspirational

tweets, but DMX is primarily notable for continuing troubles with the law. These artists—and other hip-hop artists who continue their legacy—beg the question: How can hip-hop musicians try to build an authentic faith somewhere between “the block” and the pulpit?

This tension has garnered an increasing amount of attention. Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins, author of Hip-Hop Redemption: Finding God in the Rhythm and the Rhyme, feels this struggle represents an important shift. “What is emerging in hip-hop culture is a new form of faith that is linked to the Christianity of their elders but is lived in the real world. They are dealing with real-life issues outside the confines and restrictions of buildings and institutionalized religion.”

REDEMPTION AND IMMORALITY ...

ON ONE ALBUM?

Freeman attends The Church at Bethel’s Family in southwest Houston. He said his UGK rhyme partner Chad “Pimp C” Butler’s incarceration in 2002 and death five years later had a tremendous impact on his faith. “Initially, I was a very lost soul,” Freeman remembers. “I was concerned about the future of my family, his family and the career we had built. With this came depression, with depression came more drinking and

“ARTISTS WHO LOOK TO CHRIST BUT HAVE LYRICS THAT ARE STILL ‘GULLY’ OR ‘HOOD’ ARE PROBABLY A TRUER REFLECTION OF THE CHRISTIAN WALK THAN WHAT MORE ‘CLEAN’ MUSIC MIGHT PROJECT.” —DR. RALPH BASUI WATKINS more drugging until I felt like I had almost hit rock bottom spiritually. I came out of it knowing I needed to start anew—a ‘rebirth,’ so to speak.”

After praying to God for direction, Freeman’s wife suggested he find a church home. “I didn’t necessarily need a good preacher but a good house of faith, somewhere I could go and feel comfortable praising and taking in the message without having to dress a certain way just to be a member or where I had to sit

in the back row,” he says. “And I did. Pastor [Walter] August has really, really helped me find answers to the questions I was looking for.”

Freeman also says he believes, at times, his work as a rap artist can even be considered “spiritual.” But discerning ears will likewise quickly point out that Trill O.G., Bun B’s most recent, critically acclaimed album, contains positive, motivational tales like “All a Dream,” alongside tales of drugs, money and unscrupulous sex.

“Yes, I do have some music that would probably, in a religious aspect, be indefensible; some of it would even be considered immoral,” Freeman says. “I can agree with that and I can handle that, but that’s not the only message I’ve sent through my music or that you’ll hear in hip-hop.”

It’s a visible struggle echoed in many Christians’ approach to hip-hop. Namely, how can discerning Christians listen to and create music that often tells stories of violence, sexual promiscuity and substance abuse? And that often seems to wallow in those stories? Watkins says the answers aren’t easy, nor are they the same for every believer. “I think as a Christian you have to discern what will be healthy or unhealthy for you mentally,” Watkins says. “And we need to hold hip-hop responsible. We can’t give hip-hop a pass when it’s irresponsible. We have to hold it responsible for its vulgarity, its misogyny. I don’t judge—I listen, and then I say, ‘This is wrong according to my matrix as a Christian.’ But I want to get behind why [rappers are] doing that.”

“In UGK’s music we always talk about, ‘We’re the star, the lights are on us and we’re the center of attention,’ but then when you leave from amongst the people, how do you look at yourself?” Freeman says. “How do you feel about some of the decisions you’ve made? How do RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 63

you deal with knowing some of the things you’ve done are not in accordance with God’s law?

This is the struggle that almost anyone has, in any walk of life, regardless of career. But we, as hip-hop artists, are able to express this confusion within our art and talk about being stuck and not knowing how we’re going to be judged at the end of the road.”

WRESTLING WITH THE (UGLY) TRUTH

The word “trill,” Southern street slang for “true,” is found throughout Bun B’s music and, in this case, being trill carries an unexpected level of vulnerability and tension that faith can bring to hip-hop.

Watkins reflects on this tenuous meeting of faith and personal truth. “We live lives that are full of tension, conflict and what appears to be contradiction. The paradox of the faith is that we are a walking contradiction saved by grace. Artists who look to Christ but have lyrics that are still ‘gully’ or ‘hood’ are probably a truer reflection of the Christian walk than what more ‘clean’ music might project. Hip-hop is willing to handle these tensions, walk with them and embrace the tensions as a part of life and art.

“There’s some grotesque stories that we live; we just might not tell those stories in a public forum,” Watkins continues. “I appreciate that Bun B is willing to expose that tension: ‘Yeah I have these thoughts, but I also have these thoughts.’ ‘I have this good, and I have this bad.’

I would argue that if we could take a snapshot of an average 64 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

GENE “MALICE” THORNTON JR.

Christian, we would be amazed by what goes through our minds—we just don’t put it on a CD.” Another artist publicly wrestling with the contradictions of his past and present lifestyle is Gene “Malice” Thornton Jr., one half of the multi-time Grammy-nominated group The Clipse. Once known for trademark witty yet grim rhymes about the cocaine trade, Thornton recently released his autobiography, Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind, and Naked. Since then, “Malice” has taken time away from recording to tour and speak about his spiritual rebirth on several college campuses and community centers under his legal name.

“I like to think that [The Clipse] have always been known to, especially me, to give you both sides of the story,” Thornton says. “And everyone has seen me in my splendor and when everything was great, and I just really feel it would be unfair to not share both sides of the story.”

Thornton also says he doesn’t think he has always lived on the right side of the tension between belief and gangster culture. “I believe God’s plan is perfect,” he muses. “And even when we do things that basically make no sense, if you believe, [there] will definitely be some good to come out of it because He’s going to have His way. As far as regretting things, I try not to harbor any guilt or condemnation, but I would love to think that if I could do it all over again, I would definitely not go the route I went. I would do some things differently.”

Thornton says he still plans to continue to record with his brother (and Clipse partner) Pusha T, but in an interview with RubyHornet.com last year, he said he was considering changing his stage moniker because “the power of the tongue is life and death.” He later added, in a video interview: “I believe you are what you fall under, whether it’s in your subconscious or not. It’s just me trying to clean up a little bit more.”

Listening to Thornton, you can sense an underlying sense of angst. His moniker is not just a stage name— it’s his street name, his reputation, his armor. For a man who moved from poverty to wealth doing things and telling stories that reflect his name, changing from “Malice” to a new name is more than a melodramatic media play. Although Thornton is boldly declaring his faith today, there may be literal implications for his reputation and livelihood, so it is not surprising that he is cautious.

For the Grammy-nominated Malice, or Bun B, who has received the near-impossible “Five Mic” rating in The Source, or Fonzworth Bentley, or Kanye West or any of the other myriad mainstream rappers who have claimed faith, only time will tell the full impact of their choices. In the meantime, they continue to make waves both in and outside the music industry. It is possible for these artists to follow in the footsteps of Rev. Run or Salt of Salt-N-Pepa and create a space where they can maintain their faith and mainstream popularity. It won’t be an easy road, but it is possible.

ADDING SOME STREET TO THE GOSPEL

AMISHO “SHO BARAKA” LEWIS

Meanwhile, somewhat ironically, artists on the other side of the questions—those firmly in the Church—are trying to explore some of the complicated topics their mainstream brethren are known for. Hip-hop artists within the Christian music industry have long faced ambivalence from Contemporary Christian, Black Gospel or mainstream music entities, regardless of potential evangelical impact or musical quality. Despite this hesitant support, some Christian hip-hoppers have found relative success when their lyrics stick to conservative topics, systematic theology and have a strongly evangelical focus. Given these narrow parameters for success, it’s noteworthy when high-profile Christian hip-hoppers decide to challenge the pigeonholes of evangelical hip-hop.

Within the last year, both Courtney “J.R.” Peebles and Amisho “Sho Baraka” Lewis have left their high-profile Christian rap labels (Cross Movement Records and Reach Records, respectively) and decided to broaden

their approach, artistically and lyrically—a risky proposition in such a small marketplace.

“I was enslaved to a certain way of thinking just because I wanted to please a certain, different demographic, and I felt I had to escape that for my own purposes,” Lewis says on a recent episode of his podcast.

“Other people may not feel that way, which is cool, and I want them to continue to serve in the lane that God has gifted them to do it, but for me—I want to be Joseph. I want to be Daniel.”

Lewis likes to explain this shift by quoting famed troubadour/record producer T-Bone Burnett: “If Jesus is the Light of the World, there are two kinds of songs you can write. You can write songs about the light, or you can write songs about what you can see from the light. That’s what I try to do.”

“HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH KNOWING SOME OF THE THINGS YOU’VE DONE ARE NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOD’S LAW? ... WE, AS HIP-HOP ARTISTS, ARE ABLE TO EXPRESS THIS CONFUSION WITHIN OUR ART AND TALK ABOUT BEING STUCK AND NOT KNOWING HOW WE’RE GOING TO BE JUDGED AT THE END OF THE ROAD.” —BERNARD “BUN B” FREEMAN Watkins reinforces Lewis’ point. “I think ‘holy hiphop’ is growing up,” he says. “It was trying to be so conservative, it was bland. In many ways it came off preachy. I think the artists have the talent, but I think they’re going to have to deal with more complex subjects. They have to embrace the tension of what it means to be a Christian. We have to be honest, transparent and authentic in our struggle.”

Peebles has moved in a similar direction. Since 2006, he was mostly known as the producer of “Jesus Muzik” (one of Christian hip-hop’s biggest hits by the artist Lecrae) and for his John Legend-like R&B talents.

Today, he’s crafted a new image as an avant garde urban pop artist. In May 2011, he dropped a free album titled Murray’s Grammar: New Rules. It’s a mixtape-like project that contains original works and reinterpretations of songs from Radiohead, Phoenix, OneRepublic and Drake.

Lewis and Peebles have also stated part of their reason for seeking a mainstream audience is to have the freedom to discuss more mature topics (such as romantic love and social justice) in their music. They feel those types of songs often have trouble finding ears in the traditional Christian music industry, whose content is much more vertically directed.

“While making this transition, there was no one I could talk to about it in my circle.

And as you could imagine, coming from one of the most dogmatic Christian labels in existence, it made it a pretty lonely walk,” Peebles says. “Sho was the only person outside of my white, rock friends who shared a similar passion. We would talk about what it would look like for us to take our talents to the mainstream world—to an audience who wouldn’t crucify us for every taboo thing we said and to see how God could use us in a culture that just loved music but were searching for truth at the same time.”

For some, artists like Bun B or J.R. are a welcome respite from the usual categories and approaches to music found in both the mainstream and Christian marketplaces.

In his book The Soul of Hip-Hop: Rims, Timbs, and a Cultural Theology, Daniel White Hodge points out that the Gospel will only truly be revolutionary within hiphop culture when, paraphrasing theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Christ is truly God of the Sacred and the Profane. Living with this

BERNARD “BUN B” FREEMAN

“Divine Encounter” is not easy and rarely occurs in subcultures like hip-hop, or any other sector of our culture for that matter.

“I think Christians can walk alongside these artists [who talk about deeply spiritual matters in their hip-hop] by intently listening to the body of their work,” Watkins reflects. “What we tend to do as Christians is take a song out of context, but if we would sit down and listen to [a discography] or a complete CD, it tells us a story. We have to listen and practice ‘ethical patience’ (a phrase coined by Michael Eric Dyson) to hear the story.”

It’s a skill many people are comfortable applying to movies—understanding the entire context of a film instead of judging a single scene—but might not be used to practicing when it comes to hip-hop. Perhaps that kind of patience will make it easier for Christians to accept hip-hop—and for rappers to authentically embrace their music and faith.

Watch Malice offers a powerful glimpse into his faith and changed life.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 65

YOUR GU I D E T O T H E

END OF THE WORLD

BY RYAN HAMM AND BRETT McCRACKEN

we learned anything from the film 2012 (and there are many things we learned, like “John Cusack no longer makes good movies”), it’s that the world will end this year. Fortunately for you, we’re here to help. The following is a step-by-step guide (in full-on, choose-your-own-adventure style) for making it through the apocalypse alive and/or with your soul intact.

IF

LET’S BEGIN ...

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FIRST, WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND YOU?

06

Did you wake up in a strange hospital and go outside, only to find yourself wandering the eerily bare streets of London while a foreboding Godspeed You! Black Emperor song plays in your head? If so, go to 29. If no, go to 30.

Did the Kingdom of Heaven come down to Earth, making all things new and God is now on the throne? If so, go to 01.

07

Good news! You can afford to join the rest of super-rich humanity on the arks they’re building in the Himalayas. Has it started raining/tsunamiing yet? If so, go to 11. If not, go to 12.

Have millions of people simply disappeared? If so, go to 02.

08

Congrats! You’re on a boat filled with really rich people and cultural artifacts. You’ll now spend the rest of your life with a bunch of people who bought their lives, meaning you will probably be killed during an argument over the last can of Coke ever. The End.

Is Woody Harrelson driving by in an RV? If so, go to 03.

Has the last bit of time been marked by a worldwide turn to Christian ethics? If so, go to 04.

09

You paid a whole bunch of money and ended up on a boat, but now the boat isn’t a safety net. Go to 13.

Has there been a rash of smart monkeys lately? If so, go to 05.

Have you seen anything on the news about “patient zero” and/or Gwyneth Paltrow dying of a mysterious disease after a trip to Macau? If so, go to 06.

01

Are you a Christian? If yes, go to 14. If no, go to 15.

You are likely living in a reallife version of 2012. Meaning, the Mayans were right. Are you extremely wealthy? To the point where you can afford to spend approximately $1.25 billion to be rescued from the coming weather-related apocalypse? If yes, go to 7. If no, go to 13.

Check the door mechanism on your boat. Is it working? If yes, go to 8. If no, go to 9.

You’re going to die in a flood/tornado/earthquake/when Los Angeles falls into the ocean.

Sorry. The End.

14

OK, you’re not really a Christian. But you’ve got seven years to become one. Get on that.

Do you own a copy of the Left Behind series? If yes, then go to 18. If no, go to 19.

04 05

16

Who have humans turned to for help fending off the increasingly hostile army of smart monkeys? If James Franco, go to 24. If Jane Goodall, go to 25. If “Bubbles” (Michael Jackson’s beloved pet chimp), go to 26.

12 13

15

You may be living in a postmillennial society. But it’s likely a temporary lull. Has the world grown so peaceful that there is no longer a demand for 24-hour cable news channels? If yes, go to 37. If no, go to 38.

Did that happen seven years ago? If yes, go to 17. If no, go to 4.

Hurry! They’re shutting the doors to the arks and all the open spots will soon be taken by gangsters and/or John Cusack’s loved ones. If you make it in, go to 12. If the doors are already closed, go to 13.

The amillennialists were right! The world has been renewed and everything is perfect. Enjoy eternity! The End.

02 03

10 11

This means you’re living in a premillennial, pre-, mid- or post-Tribulation rapture apocalypse. Don’t panic—we’re here to help. Is #IsraelPalestinePeace a trending topic? And did a handsome, charismatic young politician from Eastern Europe just become the first person to surpass 1 billion followers on Twitter? If yes, go to 16. If no, go to 10.

You’re at the very beginning of the Tribulation.

This means you’ve either got three-and-ahalf or seven years left to become a Christian before Christ’s pre-Armageddon 1,000-year reign. So do that first. Now, do you own any guns, canned food and a bomb shelter? If yes, go to 20. If no, go to 21.

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17

You may be experiencing a post-Trib rapture, which basically means you survived a horrible stretch of the Earth’s history and a wonderful 1,000 years of peace will start soon. Congrats! But it also means if you weren’t raptured, you’re still not saved.

So go find an “In Case of the Rapture” videotape. The End.

18

Left Behind will serve as your guide (in fact, in your immediate future, it will be known as “The Guide”). Make sure you study everything very carefully. Important: Have you received the mark of the beast? If yes, go to 35. If no, go to 36.

19

This is very important. You must get a copy of these books because they have just turned out to be (mostly) nonfiction. Every used bookstore in the world will have at least 20 copies of each book. Then go to 18.

20

Is the expiration date of the food at least seven years away, and is there enough of it to feed a remnant of people calling themselves the Rapture Brigade? If yes, go to 23. If no, go to 22.

21

Get those things. If you can, go to 23. If you can’t, go to 22.

22

You’re probably going to be killed by roving bands of Tribulation militias. Or you’ll be killed by a guillotine. Either way, your next few years are going to be rough. Silver lining: It’s not going to last forever, and when you’re killed you go straight to heaven (as long as you follow the rules and become a Christian, of course).

The End.

23

OK, good. You’re all set for the next few years.

Do you own a copy of the Left Behind books?

If yes, go to 18. If no, go to 19.

24

James Franco will act like he knows what he’s doing and like he’s got all these plans and he’s smart enough to realize how ridiculous a premise it is before signing up for it. But he is, in fact, lying. So the apes will win, and you can look forward to a lifetime of indentured servitude to a family of orangutans. The End.

25 26

Has Jane Goodall betrayed humanity? If yes, go to 27. If no, go to 28.

You’re going to be fine. Bubbles will solve everything. Enjoy the world as he unites humanity with the apes to create a paradise of amusement parks and cotton candy stalls. The End.

27

Goodall has ensured humanity will live in a slightly deferential harmony with the apes.

Your life won’t change much, but all three branches of the government will only consist of primates. The End.

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33 THAT PERSON COULD BE THE ANTICHRIST IF ...

Trying to figure out who “the Man of Lawlessness” could be? Use these point values to figure it out: Has a deceivingly charming way with babies (+5 points) Authored the book It Takes a (One-World Government) Village (+20) Owns a dominant share in OWN stock (+15) Solved Europe’s debt problems (+10) Daily practices a pig ride through a reproduction of the Hebrew temple (+3,455) Makes staff address him as “Supreme Potentate” (+20) Tasks Dr. Phil with the creation of a new, unifying global religion (+90) Was born on June 6, 1966 (+15)

28 29

She will, but for rational reasons. Go to 27.

The world has been taken over by zombies. Is there any social infrastructure left? If yes, go to 31. If no, go to 32.

30

It may just be an abnormally calm morning in London. Keep calm and carry on. The End.

31

Is the military helping people, or trying to cover up the fact they released the initial illness? If they’re helping, go to 33. If they’re covering things up, go to 34.

32

You’re living in the bleak world of The Walking Dead. This means everyone who is still alive will slowly grow to resent each other for still being alive and you will be very, very sad all the time. The End.

Went from being a no-name to Time’s Person of the Year in less than six months (+60) Is named “Nicolae (+1,000,000)

Carpathia”

Killed two annoyingly preachy terrorists live on television and was globally praised for it (+200) Brings Steve Jobs back from the dead, renames him “Stefan,” debuts new iGod device (+100) Is orchestrating a peace treaty with Israel while muttering, “You’ll get yours” under his breath during the negotiations (+20) Has dogs named Gog and Magog (+30) Has ferrets (+150)

named

Gog

and

Magog

Get some weapons, lots of non-perishable foods and find a safe place to hide, preferably underground with one entrance/ exit. Leave a sign outside saying, “Hey, military, I’m down here” because zombies can’t read. Wait it out as long as you can, and don’t get bit. If you have enough food, you’re going to survive.

Congratulations! The End.

34

Don’t trust anyone you don’t know, except Viggo Mortenson and his little son, especially if they are making their way to the coast.

You can also trust Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, but only if they are driving a yellow Hummer and cracking jokes. Gather guns, ammo, food and a vehicle. Make your way to an island nation, and hope you can rid the island of zombies and reestablish society. The End.

35

Oops. Um ... is there an underground tattoo removal doctor nearby? If yes, go get the mark removed and then go to 36. If no, The End. :(

36

You’re good. Just do not get the mark of the beast.

Instead, become a Christian and look for the “cross” sign on the foreheads of other believers (no one but believers will be able to see it). Band together with fellow Christians, try to convert those who have yet to get the mark and don’t be tempted by leggy stewardesses named “Hattie.” The End.

37

Breathe a sigh of relief.

Everything is going to be great, and then after a-time-that’s-probably-around-1,000-years-but-not-a-literal-1,000-years, Jesus will come back.

The End.

38

The momentary lull is because there’s a oneworld government, and the leader of said government just signed a seven-year peace treaty with Israel. Go to 16.

Appoints Anderson Cooper as his press secretary (+25) Masterminds a new alliance of the world’s 10 largest superpowers called 10H (10 Horns) (+80)

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 69

70 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

FOR 15 YEARS, FEW THINGS HAVE MADE THE SPIRITUAL IMPACT OF PASSION. SO WHERE IS THE ICONIC WORSHIP MOVEMENT HEADING?

MOVEMENT

ACCIDENTAL

AN

BY TYLER CHARLES

THERE’S

a reason why thousands of young people mark their calendars (and scratch together enough cash) to attend Passion events year after year. From the beginning, Passion has always been different. It’s spawned hundreds of worship songs— many of which are sung every Sunday at any given church.

But it’s different than a worship concert tour. Passion is also different from other conferences or revivals. Different from other “crusades.” And even different from one year to the next. One year there might be 12 events around the world.

One year there might be one centralized event in Atlanta that draws 25,000 people. The next year there might not be an event at all.

It’s not a sensible business model, a smart “ministry strategy” or even logical. But it’s

PASSION CONFERENCES

what you get when you have leaders whose most pressing goal is to follow the Spirit.

“I love how Passion has always felt like a movement and not just a good idea or a clever organization,” says worship leader Matt Redman, who has been with Passion for more than a decade. “No two years ever look quite the same. There’s a sense of adventure about the whole thing.”

“The thing for us that has been good and bad is we really are trying to follow the Spirit, so our path isn’t linear,” says Passion founder Louie Giglio. “I have nothing but respect for Urbana, for example, doing a World Missions gathering every three years. I think that’s awesome, but I don’t think that’s in our DNA. We’re not in the ‘conference business,’ but we feel we’re in the movement, and we want that movement to be blown along by the Spirit of God.” Chris Tomlin, who has been a songwriter with Passion nearly since its inception, admits there have been times when he’s thought to himself: “Why can’t we just do another conference? Why try something new when we already know what works?”

“That’s what I’ve always thought,” Tomlin says. “But I trust God is speaking and leading. I’ve seen it time and time again. It’s just increased my faith so much to see God come through in all these ways.

I’m glad I’m on this team.”

Giglio and his wife, Shelley, started Passion in 1997. But the organization known as Passion Conferences quickly developed into much more than conferences. It also consists of Do Something Now, a social action clearinghouse; sixstepsrecords, a worship label that includes artists like Redman, Tomlin, David Crowder Band, Charlie Hall and Christy Nockels; a management entity for those recording artists; and, most recently, Passion City Church, a new plant in Atlanta, Ga. Such a broad scope of endeavors could not thrive under the same umbrella without remarkable leadership, and by all accounts, that’s exactly what Giglio brings to the movement.

“I’ve learned so much from how he and Shelley move forward,” Redman says. “Things are never done randomly or on a whim; everything is very intentional and purposeful. They don’t settle for yesterday’s manna.

There’s always something new on the horizon.”

“You want to be on his team,” Crowder says, simply.

[the college students]. That’s what pulled our hearts, and it still does.”

In 2000, Passion launched OneDay 2000, a large outdoor gathering on a farm outside of

“WE’RE NOT IN THE ‘CONFERENCE BUSINESS,’ BUT WE FEEL WE’RE IN THE MOVEMENT, AND WE WANT THAT MOVEMENT TO BE BLOWN ALONG BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.” —LOUIE GIGLIO THE BEGINNINGS

Giglio and Crowder first met at the weekly Bible study Giglio was leading for college students in a small apartment near the Baylor campus in Waco, Texas.

“Most of the components that define Passion Conferences, and that are now the building blocks of Passion City Church, were there in that little apartment on the Baylor campus,” Giglio says.

The Giglios had no plans to step away from their ministry in Waco, but when Louie’s father got sick, the Giglios decided to move back to Atlanta to help Louie’s mom care for his dad in his final days.

When Louie’s father died sooner than expected, suddenly the Giglios found themselves in Atlanta with no idea what to do next.

“It was a weird time for us. We didn’t have plans. We just knew that what we thought was going to happen— spending several years taking care of my dad—didn’t happen,” Giglio says.

Then, on a flight from Dallas to Atlanta, Giglio was struck by a vision for a new chapter of ministry.

“I saw a picture as compelling as anything I’ve ever seen,” Giglio says. “In the picture was a huge sea of university students on their knees or on their faces, crying out to God. I don’t know where that image came from or went; I think it was divine intervention, and it grabbed me at the core. Then I came back and realized I was sitting on a plane reading a magazine.”

This vision helped shift the Giglios’ mission from a campus to campuses, and it prompted new questions.

“I had to process: ‘What did I just see? What does it mean? How do we move toward this?’ And we decided to do a gathering,” Giglio says. “That’s how it all started.”

Two years later, the first Passion conference brought 2,000 students to Austin, Texas. In a couple years, the gathering grew from 2,000 to 11,000.

Instead of being content with the thousands, the Passion leadership team cast a vision for reaching all 17 million college students in the United States.

“We weren’t overconfident about what we could do,” Giglio says. “But we were focused on reaching all of

Memphis, Tenn. Giglio reflected on the day in a 2010 blog post.

“If there is such a thing as an epicenter of a movement, it’s probably true that the epicenter of the Passion Movement happened as 40,000 university students gathered on that field outside of Memphis, Tenn.,” Giglio wrote. “Though Passion was only three gatherings old, we felt a sense of urgency that led us to call the students of the nation to a holy fast, a sacred assembly—a day set aside to put our faces to the ground and pray for this generation.”

The Passion team went all out for OneDay 2000, traveling across the country in a tour bus and RV, holding small events on hundreds of campuses—all leading up to OneDay 2000.

“I can’t say I have ever experienced anything quite like it,” Giglio wrote. “I remember standing, somewhat stunned, as students started running toward the cross from the edges of the field—from hundreds of feet away. Their response wasn’t organized or dignified as they sprinted past their friends and literally threw themselves on the ground at the foot of the cross. We were all wrecked by His grace and mercy. I can close my eyes and be back there in a heartbeat. I can see a generation on their knees—on their faces—bowed down in RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 71

“A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD SAY: ‘WOW, WE’VE GOT 10,000 PEOPLE HERE AT THIS CONFERENCE! LET’S DO THAT AGAIN!’ BUT LOUIE’S LIKE: ‘LET’S NOT JUST DO THIS AGAIN. LET’S GO GET THE WORLD.’” —CHRIS TOMLIN SCOTT WADE

LISTEN TO “THE SACRED ASSEMBLY” ...

Louie Giglio called OneDay 2000 the “epicenter” of the movement. Here is its music:

OneDay Live Passion Band (Sparrow, 2003)

WATCH A powerful, behindthe-scenes look at the Passion 2011 Conference.

the muddy grass to be lifted up again to touch the world in Jesus’ name.

“Yet, today, it serves as fuel for a journey that has only just begun.”

SHARING A COMMON HEARTBEAT

Music has always been a central aspect of Passion and—based solely on the musical talent that fills the stage at their conferences and the worship albums that result from those gatherings—it would be easy to assume Passion intentionally recruited the most talented artists out there, but Giglio insists God brought the talented and the willing to Passion.

“We’re fortunate to have the heart and not just the gifts of a 72 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

lot of amazing and anointed people,” Giglio says. “Somehow it’s the family in the midst of the movement that’s held it all together.”

That sense of family is something the Giglios and the other leaders have worked to preserve. Their record label, sixstepsrecords, was created so the artists would not be divided among companies with competing visions.

“We knew enough to realize different family members with different labels could easily fracture the movement,” Giglio says.

“The best outcome was a family label where the various, distinctive artists could be championed, a home that shared a common heartbeat and the skin of Passion to hold all the components together.”

FROM CONFERENCE TO CHURCH

Even in the midst of all the busyness of running Passion Conferences, Giglio would occasionally wonder out loud whether the culture the Passion movement produced could work in a local church setting.

After a five-year period in which he felt God was calling him to be pastor of a local church, Giglio finally had a moment when he concluded, “I can’t not do this.”

Three years later, Passion City Church has the beginnings of a full-time staff and their own “gather space” (an abandoned retail building they gutted and transformed). The church is still led by Passion’s leadership board and a nucleus of friends— friends who have spent much of a decade together rallying around the same vision.

“It was incredibly beneficial to grow out of a movement, but enormously challenging,” Giglio says. “We had already created some community and culture—and that’s what church is about, not buildings and programs. We had established quite a bit of that as a family rolling around the country.

“We knew what we were about and how we wanted to take Jesus to people. We had a language that was similar, a soundtrack and teaching that undergirded it all.”

The downside, Giglio says, in a consumer society, is that having artists like Tomlin, Redman and Nockels leading worship can become the attraction—it would be easy to make church a worship concert.

“Our goal wasn’t to jump out of the box with as much hype as we could get,” Giglio says. “Our goal to this day is to build community.”

On a given Sunday, Passion City Church attracts somewhere between 2,500 and 3,500 adults.

“I don’t mind talking about how many people show up, but we’re not having staff meetings celebrating that,” Giglio says. “We’re focused on growing and maturing those people. And inside the hype is a budding and blossoming community of faith, and that’s where our focus is, and that’s what we’re excited about.”

THE FUTURE

As for the future of the Passion movement, Giglio says it’s still—as it’s always been—about following the Spirit.

Which is why no one knows exactly what’s next.

“I see [Passion City Church] being a huge part of it,” Tomlin says. “I see continued influence in the cities God has allowed us to be a part of. Passion, in its culture, in its essence, will continue in some form. Whether it’s the church and everything just kind of bleeding out of that, or if it’s continuing with conferences as well.”

“We don’t want to set up just to set up, just because we can,” Tomlin says. “We want to be very purposeful and do what God wants us to do.”

Crowder says trying to figure out what God wants has always been the driving force for Giglio: “There is a relentless attempt on his part to be utterly sure he’s doing what he feels God is wanting him to do.”

Regardless of what happens next, there’s no denying the scope of Passion’s impact.

“Passion has encouraged thousands and thousands of students to live for the glory of God in those college years and given them a bold and holy confidence to do so,” Redman says. “I think Passion has connected with so many people in that season of life and spoken some stabilizing and energizing truth into their hearts.”

TYLER CHARLES is a freelance writer and a campus minister with the CCO at Ohio Wesleyan University.

74 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

THE

FLESH TRA DE HOW YOU KEEP BLOOD FACTORIES, BONE SNATCHERS AND BABY PEDDLERS IN BUSINESS

BY JONATHAN CAMERY-HOGGATT

T

here’s a multibillion-dollar, worldwide market for blood, bones and everything in between. And a haunting economic reality fuses the United States straight to its core.

Hindu pilgrims shave their scalps as a sign of devotion, and temple employees sell truckloads of hair to cosmetics companies and chemical factories. Those factories turn that hair into plant fertilizer and additives for baked goods. Which means, every time an average American buys an average bran muffin mix from an average grocery story, there's a chance he or she is a cannibal.

People leach blood from prisoners locked in their backyards; they dig up bodies and sell the bones, and they kidnap babies for a profit.

Cut. Clip.

Crack.

Crimp.

This story should be disturbing.

The white market legally trades iPhones and milk, and the black market illegally trades crack cocaine and dirty bombs. The red market deals in human flesh—attached or dismembered, living or dead, whole or in shreds.

When it comes to cash flow, human bodies move units like Starbucks coffee and the stock market. Like anything, the flesh trade boils down to supply and demand.

One of the people shining a light on the human flesh trade is Scott Carney, author of The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers. Carney—whose name eerily recalls the Latin word for “flesh”—knows

more about the organ market than almost anyone, save the people who buy and sell daily.

“I weigh just a little under 200 pounds, have brown hair, blue eyes and a full set of teeth,” he explains. “At 6-feet, 2-inches, I have long femurs and tibias with solid connective tissue.

Both of my kidneys function properly, and my heart runs at a steady clip of 70 beats per minute. All in, I figure I’m worth about $250,000.”

Demand is high. Burn victims need skin grafts; dialysis patients need kidneys; and chronic smokers need lungs.

Modern medicine works everincreasing miracles, so—as long as humans remain mortal—the demand for body parts will rise.

If the world economy continues to scratch and writhe, the supply will rise, too. What if you need a blood transfusion? A bone graft? What if you need a new kidney and have a few thousand dollars to spare? Someone, somewhere, needs that money more than a kidney.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 75

POVERTY AT ITS ROOT

Purified poverty—poverty distilled to an essence—occurs when physical bodies provide our last remaining resource. People might use their bodies to protest, to march on government buildings and to lie flat in front of tanks, or they might sell pieces of their bodies to feed the wholes that remain.

The first option, social upheaval, requires millions of people to topple unjust social structures and build a just society to replace them. The second option, kidney selling, offers three years’ wages in one afternoon.

Which would you choose?

A dirty supply chain of criminals and organ brokers connects purified poverty to medical necessity. It’s an invisible pipeline, but it’s real nonetheless. The 2004 tsunami that swallowed the Sri Lankan and Indian coastlines provides a perfect example. Millions of people who were already scraping by on a dollar or two a day lost the next-to-nothing they owned. Organ brokers swarmed. They offered hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars per kidney, and—while organ brokers had a nasty habit of vanishing during recovery without paying—poor people still bit the bait. Kidney sellers knew they wouldn’t see any money

The red market trades everywhere, by the way, not only in the corners of the planet we tend to romanticize as poor and violent. During the 1990s, Israeli soldiers sliced out thousands of Palestinian corneas. Sex tourists no longer need to fly to Thailand to sleep with children; they flock to the busiest airport in the world: Atlanta International, where pimps capitalize on chaos in order to traffic hundreds of children per month. A 17-yearold just swapped a kidney for an iPad. And until very recently, the United States and Chinese governments sold executed prisoners’ skin to burn victims by the square inch. It was legal to strip the bones, blood, kidneys, corneas and tendons from someone like Troy Davis— whom Georgia executed despite questionable evidence—and sell body parts like cuts of chicken.

Imagine how Jesus—an innocent prisoner who was executed by the state—might view this particular practice.

THE SMARTEST GRAVE ROBBERS DON’T WASTE TIME WITH JEWELRY, CLOTHES OR FAMILY HEIRLOOMS. THEY STEAL BONES. after the scalpel, but small down payments in advance were better than watching their children starve.

“Invariably, flesh moves upward from poor to rich,” Carney says. “The most vulnerable people give the organs, and the most secure people get them.”

It is now common for entire villages to sell body parts. “Since the inception of antirejection drugs like cyclosporine,” Carney continues, “international cabals of doctors and corruptible ethics boards have slowly transformed slums in Egypt, South Africa, Brazil and the Philippines into veritable organ farms. The dirty secret of the organ business is that there is no shortage of willing sellers.”

76 / RELEVANT_JAN/FEB 12

BLOOD

Let’s get specific: blood, bones and babies.

Blood is scarce everywhere on Earth except human veins. According to Katelyn Anderson, a nurse who volunteers in Malawi for the summer, blood banks there are so depleted, patients have to provide their own supply before they can receive transfusions.

“Patients in Malawi often come to the hospital extremely weak and anemic from intestinal parasites, malaria and malnutrition,” she says, but villagers

won’t donate because their “blood is insurance for family emergencies. During my entire stay in Malawi, the country’s blood bank remained empty. Hospital staff donate as often as possible without making themselves sick. I asked a group visiting with an organization called Y-Malawi to donate blood. Within a few hours, half of it was gone. Two days later, there was none left.”

Demand is high.

Supply is low.

Carney tells a story about an Indian dairy farmer, named Pappu Yadav, who locked people in converted cowsheds and sold bags of blood for profit. The recounting reads like a Cormac McCarthy novel: “One man stared at the ceiling with glassy eyes as his blood snaked through a tube and slowly drained into a plastic blood bag on the floor. He was too weak to protest.” When a prisoner finally escaped from an unlocked shed, his skin was so gray, his words so slurred and his arms so punctured with needle pokes that the neighboring farmers thought he was a heroin addict.

Police raided Yadav’s sheds and found bags upon bags of blood dangling from ceilings, 17 half-dead people chained to tables and records detailing the cash flow from every blood-buying doctor who kept him in business. Yadav drained some of his prisoners for years, and all of them spent a month recovering in the hospital.

Pappu Yadav spent nine months in jail and then walked.

From the 1960s through the 1990s, U.S. prison industrial complexes entered into similar contracts with blood banks by hooking up pipelines to prisoners of their own.

Corrections departments grew greedy and careless, and many shipped HIV/AIDS around the world along with rivers of blood. Yadav sold blood illegally on the red market for a few years before the law shut him down.

Prisons in Arkansas did the same thing—completely legally—for three decades.

BONES

The smartest grave robbers don’t waste time with jewelry, clothes or family heirlooms. They steal bones.

Medical students study skeletons, after all, and plastic bodies replicate the same small handful of skeletons on repeat. Hundreds of thousands of medical students need to learn from diversity. Demand is high.

In one bone factory, body snatchers—sometimes called “resurrectionists”—wait for grieving families to leave the crematorium before they drag corpses from the flames, strip their flesh, bleach their bones and ship their skeletons in shiny packages. By 1984, Carney writes: “India had exported 60,000 skulls and skeletons. … The supply was sufficient for every medical student in the developed world to buy a bone box along with their

treating others. They streamlined as cottage industries grew around coffins and health care.

The social teaching stops there.

The moral of the story: Why didn’t anyone go upstream to learn where the bodies came from?

textbooks for just $300.” After India’s government banned bone exports, American medical schools lobbied to reopen the trade without success. But bones still circle the planet in piles. In 2006, police caught a New Jersey surgeon selling snatched bodies to five different medical suppliers, but most resurrectionists slip through the shadows without consequence.

The laws of supply and demand often out-muscle the law of the land. Money’s sticky that way.

BABIES

Adoption is expensive; people in rich countries pay high fees to adopt children from poor countries. These parents depend on international regulations to keep the process ethical, but the supply chain can be smeared by inky unknowns. For some unscrupulous profiteers, the adoption fees invite criminality. Kidnappers grab children— often toddlers—and ship them across international waters like Coca-Cola cans. Wealthy countries have disproportionately

white skin, too, so the lighter the shade, the higher the price. This leaves orphanages and foster homes blacker than white with a sliding scale across the skin color spectrum.

Demand is high—depending on race.

Biological parents might spend years looking for lost children. If they find their kids—which is rare—they have to pay lawyers’ fees and navigate international laws.

Adopted parents are alarmed, to say the least, when they learn their children’s histories. And by this point, many children have forgotten their biological families and native languages anyway.

Most adoptions involve selflessness. But some involve child trafficking. The difference is worth the research. The road to hell is paved with good intentions—but only when we pour pavement through ignorance.

HOW CAN WE STOP THE RIVER?

An old Catholic social teaching goes like this: A fisherman set sail on the river by his village and hooked something heavy underwater. He pulled and he tugged until a dead body broke the surface. Horror. None of the villagers knew what to do, so they buried it.

The next day, two more corpses floated into town. The following day brought four dead and two unconscious. Some were adults.

Others were children. Villagers hauled bodies out of the river—burying some and

When we follow the river to its mouth, two factors keep the red market flowing. Privacy is the first. Medicine— and the red market by extension—is shrouded in privacy. It can protect a teenage mother or a car crash victim with a donor sticker, but privacy also keeps the red market steaming. Criminals cloak grotesque flesh trades in privacy to exploit both the poorest of the poor and the medically desperate.

Carney argues a lack of transparency across the pipeline keeps the red market unethical. He’s quick to admit transparency won’t eradicate the problem by itself, but it’s foundational. It starts and telescopes the conversation. “The transparency ethos destroys the opportunities for brokers who will stop at nothing to acquire human bodies,” he notes. “No one could be killed or kidnapped for his or her kidney if the person who bought it was able to track down the original family to send a thankyou note. No children would be kidnapped from their parents if all adoptions were open. And no blood sellers would be locked in rooms for years at a time to create an infinitesimal increase in the local blood supply.”

We have to burn the overgrown brush along the banks where body snatchers do their business.

Privacy is the first factor, but the second is even more insidious: poverty. Those of us who perpetuate global poverty—whether we intend it or not—are complicit in its consequences. Some people’s blood is stolen by brute physical force. Other people sell their own kidneys to survive barbaric financial markets. Is there a difference?

“We need to do internal work at a conceptual level before we get into macro solutions,” Carney says. That means people who are poor are worth no less than any rich person. It means human value runs deeper than market value. If there’s a hope to change this system, it lies in ripping out the system’s roots. These roots reach deep down into poverty itself, spreading everywhere there is need and hunger.

The flesh trade won’t go away on its own. The supply has to change or the demand has to change—or the laws have to change. But any changes will require people willing to use their bodies to protest, to march on government buildings, to lie flat in front of tanks.

These audacious changes will require millions of people to overthrow unjust social systems and build a just society to replace them. The changes will require nothing less than recognizing the inherent value in every single broken, blasphemed and bartered body.

JONATHAN CAMERY-HOGGATT is a synesthete and social hacker. Learn more at Camery-Hoggatt.com and on Twitter: @cameryhoggatt.

RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM / 77

RECOMMENDS

THE BLACK KEYS EL CAMINO NONESUCH

LISTEN “Lonely Boy,” the first single from El Camino.

> When a band starts acting as one element despite the strong personalities of each member, you know you’ve reached a nirvana state (ahem). With The Black Keys, the two members (one plays drums, one switches between bass and guitar and sings lead vocals) have perfected their sound over six albums, particularly on their last effort, Brothers.

El Camino, their newest, is more cohesive without as many rambling blues digressions—even the guitar solos don’t overwhelm the thumping backbeat. Produced by Danger Mouse (Beck, Gnarls Barkley), the songs are freshly wrought: “Dead and Gone” clings to an R&B bass line, “Money Maker” boils with combustion and first single “Lonely Boy” marries a little psychedelic rock (think Byrds organ) to the tried-andtrue blues formula.

All of these artists can be found on RELEVANT.fm.

CHAIRLIFT SOMETHING (COLUMBIA) > Breathy vocals, meandering

instrumentation, strong pop sensibilities—no, it’s not Washed Out or something fresh from Roxy Music. Chairlift borrows the catchy bass parts from Foster the People but fills them with helium and ripe sentiments about relational challenges. On “I Belong in Your Arms,” vocalist Caroline Polachek whispers out her lines while lone bandmate Patrick Wimberly throws in both African chants and a choir of monks on the same song. “Met Before” does the impossible: The synths rattle like they are shaking off the walls, shimmering like they have strings and not keys.

THE ROOTS UNDUN (DEF JAM) > Does everyone succumb to a specific path, or can we break the mold and find our own way?

That’s the burning question on The Roots’ 13th album since 1987, their most spiritually minded release yet. Unpredictable at every turn, Undun unleashes a string of expletives on one song, and then wonders about the fate of humanity on the next.

Trickling piano parts and fuzzedout guitars help emphasize the words—that everyone is on a path of destruction, so we might as well make the best of this life. Yet, on “Lighthouse,” there’s a hint we might survive the “dark abyss”— somehow.

JESUS CULTURE AWAKENING (KINGSWAY) > Skip ahead to the song “The

Anthem” on the latest Jesus Culture release. The song, part of a concert held in early August 2011 in Chicago, shows how the California-based worship troupe is evolving: There’s a blistering vocal part, heavy audience participation and a hint of outright anger over the current state of affairs. It’s a reminder that we were born to rule in the spiritual realm, a call to let God shake the nation.

On “Break Every Chain,” there’s a similar vibe that erupts about halfway through. Jesus Culture doesn’t worry too much about melodic interchanges, relying on short, repetitive chants instead.

KATIE HERZIG THE WAKING SLEEP (DOWNTOWN/MERCER STREET) > Amid a spiraling cascade of

whispering bells, warm cellos marching up the scale and a chorus of synthesizers, Katie Herzig’s voice wraps around you like a cocoon. The well-regarded songstress—her songs have shown up on Grey’s Anatomy, Bones and the Lifetime channel—sings about how war starts from within (on “Lost and Found”) and how her “faith lies between daisies and pews” (on “Daisies and Pews”).

The production retains her folky charm but adds intricately choreographed synth parts with hints of an African tribe suddenly inspired by M83 or maybe Metric.

DAMIEN JURADO MARAQOPA (SECRETLY CANADIAN)

SHARON VAN ETTEN TRAMP (JAGJAGUWAR)

> Damien Jurado disses

> After working with The Antlers

journalists on his latest release, comparing them to a former girlfriend. Richard Swift, who produced his last album and is now a member of The Shins, returns to help flesh out the songs. The acoustic and electric guitars rattle along as usual, with an agonizing organ part meant to help you through to the last chorus. The song “So On, Nevada” has a country tinge and hints of Neil Young. But Jurado hits a high note (literally) on “Museum of Flight,” eschewing his sparse delivery style for something much more emotive. What’s next—a children’s choir and Euro-synths?

and singing BGVs for The National (on the haunting “Think You Can Wait” from the movie Win Win), Sharon Van Etten’s new batch of wonderfully myopic songs serve as harrowing odes to broken relationships and lost opportunities. She’s brutally honest throughout, suggesting (on “Give Out”) that a love interest is either the reason she’d move to the city or the reason she’d leave. Aaron Dessner from The National recorded the album in his garage studio, and there’s a peculiar strength in Van Etten’s vocal style that rises above the emotional carnage.

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SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE MARGOT STARBUCK (INTERVARSITY PRESS) > In this humorous, engaging handbook—laid out to address readers at whatever point they find themselves in life—Margot Starbuck describes practical ways Christians can participate in bringing the Kingdom to Earth. Small Things encourages Christians to “experience real relief in yoking ourselves to Jesus by moving toward the ones He loves.”

POETS RANKED BY BEARD WEIGHT UPTON UXBRIDGE UNDERWOOD (SKYHORSE PUBLISHING) > In Poets Ranked by Beard Weight, the aspiring pogonologist will learn everything from the origins of modern beard science to the 10 rules of beard decorum. Like all such lists, the ranking of the poets will spark debate (Walt Whitman in the middle of the pack? And where do you put Emily Dickinson?), but that’s part of the fun.

BIRD ON FIRE ANDREW ROSS (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS) > Social critic Andrew Ross launches into Bird on Fire with the idea that “if Phoenix could become sustainable, then it could be done anywhere.”

The book explores the efforts underway to make the desert city sustainable. Bird on Fire is essential for reflecting on the traits (e.g., natural resources, population density, land use) of cities that are sustainable and flourishing.

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HIGHER GROUND (BCDF PICTURES, R) > Higher Ground may be the most accurate depiction of Christianity to make its way to Hollywood. The film, directed by and starring Vera Farmiga, chronicles one woman’s faith journey. From her baptism to her eventual apostasy, it goes where typical faith fare avoids, including the realities and humor of sexuality. Farmiga’s character asks viewers to take seriously the call of Christ while not ignoring the human flaws that accompany it.

CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. (CAROUSEL PRODUCTIONS (II), PG-13) > This romantic comedy, which boasts an all-star cast (Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone), is a refreshing plea for love and marriage. The film centers on Carell, a man whose wife (Moore) of 20 years wants a divorce. Gosling, who plays a handsome womanizer, offers to help him get back in the game.

But it’s Stone who steals the show in a subplot involving her and Gosling.

ATTACK THE BLOCK (STUDIO CANAL, R) > With quick humor, sleek visuals and a dense story, Attack the Block is like a British Super 8. Written and directed by Joe Cornish and produced by Shaun of the Dead’s Edgar Wright, the sci-fi action comedy follows a gang of teens as they defend their housing project from alien invaders. Not only does it go Spielbergian and use aliens as a vehicle for redemption, but it also draws a metaphor about race and social class.

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ISSUE 55 JAN_FEB 2012 / RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

CON TENTS 74

62

8 First Word 10 Letters

38 Mat Kearney

12 Slices

40 How to Get Out of Debt the Right Way 44 Feist

24 REJECT APATHY: Eat Art 26 IN THEIR WORDS: Nathan Clarke

The indie queen on rest, the complexity of love and growing tomatoes

28 DEEPER WALK: Does Voting Matter?

48 The Sort-of True Stories of Beirut

30 WORLDVIEW: Focusing on Sin Never Works

50 Debating Calvinism

34 The Drop

54 The Power of “And Yet”

Young the Giant, Aaron Strumpel

78 Recommends

62 The Religion of Hip-Hop 66 A Field Guide to the End of the World 70 How Passion Became a Movement 74 The Flesh Trade Uncovering the most alarming trafficking issue that nobody’s talking about