Theology or Americanology?

There are many things about the American church that totally turn me off. I’ll get into those in later posts I guess, but the reason why I’m writing tonight is to ask you, whoever you are and for whatever reason you are reading this, what do you think is true theology? What do you think is religion that Jesus Christ would approve of? For that matter, what parts of our Christian culture are truly about following Christ and what parts are about being an American? Has your belief system conformed to your culture instead of informing it?

That said, I firmly believe in the message of Jesus Christ and that His message will transform your life and your eternity. Of that I have no doubts. What I doubt is whether or not the churches you and I go to are always teaching us how to be more like Jesus, but instead are often teaching how to be more like good little evangelical Americans. Think it over.

~Jason

(btw, I <3 my church I think it gets it right more often than most of the other places I have been in the past. This isn’t an indictment of my pastors or church body, but more an observation about our American Christian culture.)

So You Think You Can Dance?

Well, I know that I can’t. I think its my hips. I just don’t have the hip control to make dancing look natural, so I generally stay off the dance floor. However, despite my general disdain for reality television, I really like So You Think You Can Dance. The performances are really fantastic and dance is one of the few visual arts that hasn’t been totally over saturated by our culture.

In fact, I feel like, for once, the people on a reality TV are getting famous for something. Let’s be honest here, the people on American Idol have been mostly underwhelming. Everyone on MTV’s shows are picked because they are either rich and stupid or so emotionally retarded that they’ll constantly churn out “good” television. On SYTYCD (sadly, a terrible acronym), these performers are really talented and are genuinely challenged by a wide variety of styles.

Of course, there is one annoying spot in this otherwise excellent television program: Mary Murphy. She’s the shrill, nasally judge that likes to scream and is always too harsh if she doesn’t like something and too excited when she does. Also, on Wednesday night’s show she looked like someone had attacked her with a Bedazzler. She needs a new wardrobe. Good thing the Nigel is the best and most balanced stodgy British judge on the American reality television circuit, otherwise it might make even a show full of talented people not worth watching.

For the record, the favorite couple in our house is Twitch and Kherrington. She is not only phenomenally talented, but she is SO hot to boot. Unless she seriously gaffs someplace along the line, I fully expect her to be in the top four. Twitch has a good shot to get into the top four as well. He’s talented, he’s surprisingly good at partnering and he’s more likable that just about anyone on that show. However, the humble and gentle nature of Joshua might put him into the top two guys instead, alongside the obvious choice Will.

Yes, I still hate reality TV and you’ll never convince me that the vast majority of it isn’t inane garbage preying on the stupidity of America… but I can confidently say that So You Think You Can Dance is worth watching.

Criminal Racket

I work in an industry that creates media and I get paid based on people paying for entertainment products. I understand how piracy can be detrimental to the health of industries like mine. I also understand how morally and legally murky the waters are around the concept of file-sharing. There are some incredibly fine lines between legitimate sharing of entertainment media and illegitimate theft of goods. Sadly, the fact is that technology has completely outpaced the law and the judges that preside over cases involving technology rarely have the kind of expertise necessary to make a sound judgement. I doubt that the issue will be resolved any time soon. 

That said, the RIAA and the MPAA continue to demonstrate that they are far more like criminals than the people they randomly sue over alleged file-sharing incidents. According to this article , the MPAA is arguing that they don’t need any proof to extract payment from individuals suspected of file-sharing. As far as they are concerned, since technology allows people to mask their identity and avoid detection during file-sharing activities, suspicion alone should be enough to allow them to seek as much as $150,000 in compensation.

They are essentially asking the courts to write them a carte blanche when it comes to extracting money from people they “suspect” of stealing their copyrighted material. If you don’t think that’s absurd, think about what our legal system would be like if the cops could pull you over for driving a nice car and arrest you because they “suspect” you could have used this car recklessly. Or to make the concept even more crystal clear, imagine that your school, church or home office has a wireless network that is either open to the public as a service or is accessible through some other means. If some random person not affiliated with you or your organization uses this wireless network to download copyrighted material and the MPAA happens to be (illegally) monitoring network traffic, they don’t need to prove it was actually YOU who stole their goods to force you to pay $150,000 in compensation for their “lost revenue.” 

Absurd? Absolutely. But that doesn’t seem to stop the MPAA from making the argument in court. They want the ability to ignore privacy law, monitor private network traffic, use malware as a weapon against consumers and then extract money from anyone they please? Now who’s the criminal? 

Life Update Jun 19th 2008

I’m kicking it Mark Artrip style for this update and hitting you all with some bulletin points since I don’t have the time to write all this in greater detail.

• Went to Maryland for Father’s Day and had a fantastic time at my parent’s new beach house on the Chesapeake. We picked crabs, fished off their pier and enjoyed beautiful ocean vistas. A house on the water has been my dad’s dream for as long as I can remember so I’m really excited for them. Also, I suddenly really want to get a boat.
• My brother Aaron moved down to NC last week. He’s staying with us until he finds a job and his own place. He is the first of many people we intend to move to North Cackalacky.
• We’re dog-sitting for Dave and Kara while they get married and go on their honeymoon. Maggie will be with us for about two weeks. Last night we actually got her to play, which was a big step for her, but she still doesnt’ particularly care for Drake.
• Drake has not had a seizure since we started him on his medicine six weeks ago. Please pray that this medication continues to work for him and that he can have a normal doggy life.
• Casey is studying to get her personal training certifications. Hopefully by the end of the summer she’ll be doing that full time and can let someone else do the front desk stuff.
• I’m currently playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates on my Nintendo DS and I’m pretty surprised to be enjoying an RPG. Of course, I’m still playing Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii.
• I got sick last weekend and missed the big brew day my buddy Matt planned. Hopefully next month I can pick up my turkey fryer and some ingredients and make something new.
• Work has been busy and there have been a lot of random meetings recently, but I can’t complain about getting paid to design video games. I’m also working with some really important companies and brands in the industry right now, so I’m definitely getting top tier resume-building experience.
• God is good, all the time.

That’s all for now.

~Jason

Don’t Get a Dog…

… unless you intend for it to be part of your family and you are willing to make personal sacrifices to make that a reality.

I will admit that my wife and I are a little crazy about our beagle. His name is Drake and he will be two years old on August 14th. Yes. We know his exact birthday. I told you we were a little crazy about him. He gets 2-4 walks per day. We wrestle and play chase with him around the house. We take him to the dog park on the weekends. Sometimes we let him sleep in our bed. We love him and we feel like his presence enriches our lives. We are more active and we don’t let activities take over our evenings because we can’t be away from him every night of the week. He makes us feel happy when he comes and says thank you for a meal with some kisses (yes, he really does that). We have a real family relationship with him and we think its beneficial for all of us.

Drake is not, however, the perfect dog. If we leave our cook books uncovered or the accent pillows on the couch down while we are gone, there is a very good bet that they will be chewed on when we get home. He destroyed some plants in my garden this year and sometimes he’s just got too much energy when I’m tired from a day of work. He has also had two seizures this year, so we’ve had to pay for some expensive vet visits and he’ll be on medication for the rest of his doggy life. So he takes effort, money and proper care to keep as a pet. We are well aware of these things and yet we believe that the benefits of keeping him far outweigh the costs.

We also have to consider Drake’s best interests as well. When God told mankind to have dominion over the earth in Genesis, it wasn’t a gift to be ravaged. It was a responsibility to be managed. If Drake doesn’t have a positive lifestyle, then we aren’t really keeping him as a pet or a member of the family. In that case, he becomes a toy that we use when we feel like and ignore otherwise. This is not a healthy way for people to treat animals and not a healthy attitude for us to have in general. Instead, it is selfishness and a destructive attitude to have towards the earth given to us for stewardship. Even if you don’t believe the Bible is true or that God is real, I would argue that this is still a negative and destructive pattern of behavior considering what it shows about our attitudes towards other living creatures and the limited resources on our planet.

That said, the people that get a dog and ignore it really piss me off. There is a house in our neighborhood where the family keeps the dog in the garage or in his kennel in the garage all time, at least as far as I can tell. No matter when we walk by, day or night, this poor animal is in the garage and barking at everyone and anything going by. It’s lonely and the people that own it should be ashamed of themselves. I hear stories like this all the time from shelter workers we meet at the dog park. People surrender dogs to the shelter and say they “just couldn’t handle the dog” or it was “too destructive.” Sometimes they come right out and say the animal was in a kennel most of the time and whenever it was out, the family couldn’t handle it. Gee, I wonder why?

Dogs, in case you’ve never seen The Dog Whisperer or read a book about them, are social animals. They might have been bred to be very different from their wild wolf ancestors, but they still think in terms the pack and their relation to others. Not only were they bred to be companions, but the breeds we know and love were mostly bred for working or some specific utility that most families don’t know or understand. So not only do dogs require companionship and social interaction to be healthy, but they also need exercise to satisfy their inbred urges and desires. If you fail to provide these things, you can fully expect the dog to become neurotic, aggressive, destructive and all the other bad traits that you can associate with dogs. It’s your fault. Not theirs. You are mentally and physically destroying the animal by taking it into your home and then failing to provide more than food, water and shelter. Children don’t become productive members of society without training and attention, so why would we expect dogs to be vastly different?

So don’t get a dog unless you are prepared to socialize it, exercise it, give it affection and deal with the expense of your time, money, love and effort. You are being selfish and cruel by failing to meet the dog’s social and mental needs. If you are a Christian, I would argue that God expects you to treat your animal like a responsibility and not a toy if you are going to be a good steward of the blessings He has put into your life. That said, if you do want to get a dog, please go to a local shelter or rescue and not to the pet store. There are lots of awesome animals that need a home and that puppy in the store is going to end up with someone anyways.

Juno

I finally got around to watching Juno last night. Casey borrowed the DVD from someone at work and we spent a couple hours on the couch watching it together. I know it won all sorts of awards and whatnot, but we had heard mixed reviews from friends in our own age bracket. Between the people that thought it was the funniest thing they had seen in the last year, the people that thought it was culturally relevant look at teenage pregnancy and the people that thought it was kinda boring, I wasn’t sure if it would strike a chord with me. But we had the DVD and a little time to kill, so we popped into the Xbox 360 and watched.

My thoughts? It was funny, clever and managed to not be a total waste of my evening. I didn’t think it was groundbreaking and I don’t think its an “important” film. It was just an entertaining movie. The dialogue was Whedon-esque in its pacing and clever vocabulary. The characters were likeable and felt more like real people than the flat characters we usually get in movies about families and teenagers. Juno’s parents, in particular, were really excellently played.

I don’t know if I can recommend it to everyone, but Juno ended up being better than I expected. If you are interested in the film but haven’t checked it out yet, it could be an entertaining use of some hours that you might have to kill.