10. No snake handling.
9. You can believe in dinosaurs.
8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.
7. You don’t have to check your brains at the door.
6. Pew aerobics.
5. Church year is color-coded.
4. Free wine on Sunday.
3. All of the pageantry – none of the guilt.
2. You don’t have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the Number One reason to be an Episcopalian:

1. No matter what you believe, there’s bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

Too true!

The idea shouldn’t be a big surprise.  When I was in high school, I thought that a really cool idea would be to have a Christian theatre.  I felt so blessed to find Living Parables at my college!  Now that I’m seeing my career in the theatre, I’m wondering if I might one day actually start a Christian theatre.  My idea is that we would perform in churches and organizations as well as have larger productions in a theatre.  We would perform some existing work, but there would be a heavy emphasis on development, and much of what we would perform would be original work.

Why am I posting about this?  Well, it’s on my mind since I’m starting to think about thesis ideas (I’m considering creating a full business plan for this venture as my final thesis), but I also wanted a little bit of feedback.  If you had a group come in to your church for a performance, possibly retelling Bible stories or creating new skits that would be “modern-day” parables, what would you want to see?  What what are some new, artistic ways to express God’s love, our Christian walk, and the thoughts of the Bible?  What have you seen so many times that you hope to never see it again?

Readings in Bible and Theology, History, Philosophy, Science, Literature, Art, & Contemporary Culture

Learn and Grow with Christian Thought Leaders including Dallas Willard, John Eldredge, R. C. Sproul, Randy Alcorn and many, many more.

Explore significant ideas, people, and events from a Christian worldview in a format that fits your busy life. A Faith and Culture Devotional will help bridge the artificial gap between learning truth and loving God…

And from Amazon:

Explore significant ideas, people, and events from a Christian worldview in a format that fits your busy life. A Faith and Culture Devotional will help bridge the artificial gap between learning truth and loving God—inspiring you with the wonder at the genius, power, and beauty of Jesus Christ.

Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington offer a daily guided tour through many of the paintings, laboratories, rock arenas, great books, mass movements, and private lives that have shaped the ways in which we think and live. This educational devotional will inspire us to go beyond critique to creativity as we discover the wonder of God in seven subjects—theology, history, philosophy, science, literature, art, and contemporary culture.

The book’s editors Kelly and Lael have also created a blog and will be posting regular updates with more insights along the same vein as their book.  Be sure to check it out, it sounds really interesting!

And here’s the ad from YouTube. (I couldn’t get it to embed for some reason)

I think it’s depressing that NBC and the Super Bowl said no to this!  If you read the article, you’ll see that their public reason for not airing the ad is that they don’t want to air commercials for advocacy groups.  Yet they were willing to work with PETA to make their ad air-appropriate?  Seems a little bit iffy to me . . .

“One of the most worldly concepts you’ll find in our culture is this idea that ‘because we can, we should.’ Name a moral failing or a political ambition and I’ll bet ‘because we can, we should’ empowers it . . . Christians are not immune to this mistake. In fact, we rationalize a lot of ‘because we can, we should’ under the guise of redeeming things. Kids love Saturday morning cartoons? Well, let’s make Christian cartoons! Your son wants an action figure? Why not give him a brand-spanking new Jesus action figure complete with a whip to drive out moneychangers and a glow-in-the-dark sword that springs out of his mouth to slay the wicked?”

This pretty much sums up my opinion of popular Christian music. I’m not really talking about praise and worship music (that is another post altogether). I’m talking about all the rock/rap/country/indie/pop groups out there. Go into any book or music store, peruse the Christian music section, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I am all about expressing yourself through music, and I think that people who incorporate their faith into their careers are a lot braver than most. But do we really need another “God is good, He loves me, and I’m so thankful!” song? It’s not that the lyrics aren’t true – far from it. God is good, He does love me, and I am incredibly thankful. But do I really need to hear those same lyrics in every Christian music song that comes out? To me that’s like saying the Lord’s Prayer every week in church because you’re supposed to, but never stopping to think about what you’re actually saying, and trying to actually live the words of that prayer.

Is there no sense of poetry, symbolism, storytelling? Where is the artistic integrity? Where are the innovative musical styles and interpretation of groups like the Beatles, or Bob Dylan? You may not agree with what they say, but you have to admit that their experimentation has revolutionized what music has been created from their day on as a result of what they did!

The Christian pop culture industry has a habit of validating anyone and everyone with a noble purpose. Because of this, the Christian music industry has a reputation as being repetitive and monotonous. And honestly, I agree with the critics. Aside from the hairstyle and wardrobe du jour, there hasn’t been anything new and innovative in the Christian music industry for YEARS. Nonbelievers mock us, but aren’t we setting ourselves up for it?

I don’t listen to much Christian music anymore. I stick to my old school dcTalk and Burlap to Cashmere – you’ll notice that they haven’t come out with an album (as a group) in YEARS. As the Christian music industry has become popular and has become accepting of groups who aren’t just the typical praise and worship, it has become habitual to accept all, regardless of talent.

I’m not a “bad Christian” because I listen to non-Christian music. If I can listen to non-Christian music and not allow it to influence me, then that’s a plain and simple case of in the world, not of it. And I think that God gives people musical and lyrical talent so that they might be enjoyed and used to His glory. Just because that saxophone solo isn’t part of a Christian music song doesn’t mean that it doesn’t move me to praise God. And in all honesty, listening to music is one of the ways that I feel closest to God. It’s a shame that the underachieving Christian music industry is so close-minded that it loses consumers like me regularly . . . and only creates a mocking and bitter attitude in the hearts of unbelievers.

I am quite willing to be proven wrong. Do you have a group that I simply must listen to? Please, share with me!

I personally enjoyed this movie very much. There were some things that were obviously theatrical conventions (the wise men arriving on the same night, Mary being clothed in blue, etc), but the story was presented quite lovely. You get a sense of what life may have been like for Mary and Joseph, what it may have been like to deal with the task that God put to them.

While it may not be 100% academically accurate, I personally was able to EASILY put that aside and just appreciate the beauty of what Mary and Joseph did, and what God gave to us. Many have criticized the inaccuracy of certain events, but this did not sway me at all. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and cried my way through the end. It was lovely, and I plan on watching it in the future at Christmas as a way to appreciate the holiday more fully.

Did you see The Nativity Story? What did you think?

And here’s one of the videos – please go to the article for the rest! These are a clever take on an interesting dilemma . . . please, let me know what you think in the comments! Are these videos fun and harmless, or are they doing wrong?

It’s been almost a month now, and the show is quite funny. I’m really enjoying watching it every week. And I especially enjoy Harriet’s character, played by the talented Sarah Paulson (her impressions crack me up). She doesn’t care if the show makes fun of Christians – and in all honesty, that doesn’t really bother me in shows either. I only get offended when the media gets all accusatory and assumes that all Christians are fanatic. However, Harriet’s character does draw the line when the writer wishes to perform a script that makes fun of a small town community. Referring to skits that make fun of conservatives and Christians, Harriet says “‘Crazy Christians,’ ‘Science Schmience,’ ‘Bush and the Republicans’ are all fair game; it’s hypocrisy and power. These guys are just trying to raise their kids.”

The show gets my thumbs up. And check out what beliefnet has to say about the show!

“These children are the seeds my days plant, the blooms of the next generations.”
~ Ann Voskamp ~
“Holy Experience”

Children ARE the next generation – the way we raise our children and the values we instill in them will become the way the next generation lives, and therefore will determine the actions of our country years to come from now.

That’s why things like the new Jesus Camp movie really concern me. Check out the trailer if you haven’t heard of it.

I really have to question if these children have a clue as to what they’re talking about. I know that when I was eight years old, I had no true intellectual sense as to what damnation was, and I certainly didn’t know what being a warrior for Christ was all about. I mean, these children are being trained to fight against certain social issues, yet they can’t possibly have a full understanding as to what those social issues are. They’re just regurgitating information fed to them by their parents. How can the next generation have any hope if we don’t allow them to think and make decisions for themselves? I just don’t see brainwashing as the answer.

Don’t get me wrong – I think that exposing your children to the Christian lifestyle and doctrine is extremely important. Send them to Sunday school, teach them the stories of the Bible, tell them all about Jesus and how much He loves them. These are vital acts that are important for spiritual growth in a child. But driving them to the point of a crying, convulsing shell of a child who claims he wants to take the nation back from Satan . . . I seriously doubt he knows what he’s saying. Wouldn’t you much rather give your child the tools to come to Christ on his or her own, allowing them to own their faith? I can’t help but wonder how many of these children will come to reject Christianity later in life because they were borderline abused with their parents’ religious zeal.