Giving Thanks

Thanks to Hope, Josh and Lex for hosting our family feast!

The Screenwriters' Strike (by Jim Wallis)

Friday, November 09, 2007
The 'Desperate' Consequences of the Writers' Strike (by Jim Wallis)

The evening news has been filled with tragic reminders of our broken world: continued violence in Iraq, bombings in Afghanistan, and political unrest in Pakistan.

But the most devastating news of all?

Due to Hollywood's ongoing screenwriters strike, Desperate Housewives may have to go into reruns this season. Terrible news, I know. My issue is not with the screenwriters themselves (I sympathize with their efforts to get an equitable share of corporate profits). As to the content of our media culture—now that's another story.

So what will be the consequences of our nation's restricted access to Housewives? Brace yourselves. This could get ugly.

America's appetite for the scandalous, seductive, and scintillating may have to be put on hold for a time. Adultery as entertainment may have to give way to long meals around the family dinner table. On cold, dark evenings we may have to fill the void reading books in front of the warm glow of fireplaces instead of catching up on Eva Longoria's most recent escapades with her pool boy. And rather than lying in bed channel surfing the for the latest television infidelity, we married couples may actually have to turn to one another and engage in meaningful conversations (or even in committed, marital sex).

What terrible, horrible, utterly rotten, no-good news indeed.

Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows

Pat Robertson has endorsed Rudy Guilliani (divorced twice, married thrice, supporter of abortion rights and gay marriage)

Bob Jones III (Fundamentalist Baptist) has endorsed Mitt Romney (Mormon)

James Dobson wanted to endorse Newt Gingrich.

Movie Review: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

We rented and watched the HBO production Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Sunday evening. The opening sequence which quickly leads to the Battle of Little Big Horn held much promise as a helicopter moved from Sitting Bull's called encampment of thousands of Native Americans across the hills to the battlefield where an arrogant Custer led his hungry and somewhat naive soldiers to their deaths.

I agree with most of the reviews I read (after last night's viewing): the movie tries to cover too much difficult to understand, little-known, carefully nuanced epic history in too little time. I felt that characters were not carefully developed and there was simply too much assumption that the audience knew the history. In fact, I'm fairly sure that the "artistic license" taken by the producers distorted history. For instance, there was an attempt to show a connection between the arrest and killing of Sitting Bull and the Wounded Knee massacre; this connection is, no doubt, direct. However, the events are morphed into one with no real time lapse between them.

What is most missed by this Impressionistic view, is the pitiful plight of the poor, sick, starving Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee and their fatally ill leader, Bigfoot, suffering from tuberculosis, leading from a reclining position in a wagon. The emphasis on Dawes' project and the Washington politics surrounding the events strip the story of its pathos and its spirituality.

Once again, a lack of communication between two cultures has resulted in another failed attempt at reconciliation.

I can't help but feel that what is called for is an act of contrition and repentance on the part of the White offenders. Movies, art, music, even stories, may set the stage, raise awareness and even provoke but repentance is not an artistic act. It is an act of the will and the heart of a people. And of its leaders.

The Next Generation

Friday night, at the Kindred Spirit Ministries Fall Retreat, I had the great privilege of singing back-up with my second cousins, John Mark and Moriah Whichard. John Mark is ten and he sang the lead vocal on "Through the Fire". He has a great voice and is already powerfully anointed by the Spirit. It was a joy both to hear him and to see him used of God. The whole church responded as they recognized God's anointing on him.

One of the greatest aspects of Pentecostal worship is its egalitarian nature. There are no barriers of gender, race or even age in Spirit-led worship and a "son or daughter" is just as likely to prophesy in word or in song as a person of an older age or of more experience.

As long as the next generation is willing to be used of God, the Spirit of Pentecost will move on them and use them. The question is, will those of us who are older give Him room to move?