Tired of those annoying “ask your doctor commercials”?
They just got served.
Lion Rampant
My church went to see The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe this Saturday and we brought guests–3 to 4 times as many outside our church went to see it with us as did church members.
It was magnificent. From a fan’s perspective, it was as faithful to the book as you can expect a movie to be. From a technical perspective, it should say something that I found a beaver in chain mail utterly convincing.
They even made Turkish Delight look appealing, which is truly nasty candy. If that was the most tempting snack available to Brits during the war I’m amazed they were able to hold out against the Luftwaffe. I mean, really. Turkish Delight? The stuff tastes like congealed fat.
I was destined to love the movie as long as it was even close to the book. I was more interested in the reactions of my neighbors: he an atheistic Jewish postdoctoral biology researcher at Stanford and she a not-really-practicing Hindu who works as a business consultant.
They loved it, too.
As we were talking about it afterwards, he commented “The reviews I’ve read are right–it’s definitely got Christian imagery but you have to look for it.”
While I think he downplayed the obviousness of the Christian message (it’s always winter without CHRISTmas–hello?), I think he was on to something.
The movie did dilute some key dialog, but even if the dialog had been unaltered his point would still have merit. The story doesn’t so much tell the Christian message as it prepares one for it. It creates categories and understandings in your mind which serve as placeholders for the gospel. It’s like an extended parable that highlights a few truths:
- This world is more fantastic than we dare believe.
- Evil is seductive.
- Evil need not prevail, either in our lives or in our world.
- Evil must be fought.
- We can’t win the fight against evil alone.
- The one we need help from is our rightful King.
- Our rightful King is not tame but he is good.
And given Phillp Pullman’s claim that the story was loveless I couldn’t help but marvel as the formerly fear-stricken Edmund—Edmund, who knew well the horrible extent of the Witch’s power—hurled himself at her to prevent the slaughter of Peter and incurred a life-threatening wound as a result. And I could talk of the love of the mother for her children, of the children for their father, of the children for each other, of the children for Aslan, of Aslan for his people, of the professor for his haplessly unloveable housekeeper, and of the children (especially Lucy) for Mr. Tumnus.
No love indeed. Pullman just has it in for Lewis.
Anyway, it’s an outstanding movie. I’ve been to precious few movies which caused the audience to burst into applause at the end. This was one.
Actual Details On The Giant Black Box Called Springfield
Rich Tatum posted a fascinating article on the recent Assemblies of God restructuring process. These are the kind of details I’d like to get from headquarters instead of the usual rah-rah stuff I get in the ministers’ letter or Enrichment Journal.
The Facebook In The WSJ
Extremely popular website the Facebook seems to be alarming some college administrators.
In The Dorms This Morning
I was on campus this morning strolling through Toyon, and I noticed a lot of apparently dorm-sponsored flyers celebrating Hanukah and Kwanzaa. I noticed something was missing, and so I asked a student if there were any dorm-sponsored Christmas acknowledgements anywhere in the dorm. She said no.
That Never Occurred To Me
As I was doing some reading in the Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, a thought jumped out at me in the article Family Relationships: stoning is a unique form of capital punishment because it requires the entire community to accept the responsibility for putting someone to death and it prevents any one person from having to serve as the executioner. It’s like a firing squad that way. I wonder how the debate on the death penalty woud change if we each had to help execute convicts…
I Just Coined a New Word
Gumnastics:
(1) as a noun, the fascinating facial contortions of a toothless person
(2) as an adjective (gumnastic), of or pertaining to the facial motions of the untoothed
College Factoid
“The average age of an undergraduate student is 26, reports the American Council on Education. But the average age of an undergraduate living on campus is 20, the group says.” (source: Alcohol makers on tricky path in marketing to college crowd)
Overwhelming Generosity
Paula and I loved our first microwave. It had this awesome dial that did everything. You didn’t need to punch a number–you just turned the dial and magic happened.
One sad day our microwave died. Food stopped warming yet the microwave kept churning, leading us to surmise that radiation was seeping into our chromosomes.
So we got a replacement microwave from a friend. It was great, but the light didn’t work and the food didn’t rotate. And we often suspected that radiation was still seeping into our chromosomes (but only half of them owing to the lack of rotation).
And that’s just one reason we’re so grateful for last night: many of the Assemblies of God churches in the South Bay threw a Christmas party to celebrate AG US Missionaries. We and the Harlows were the recipients of outrageous generosity. Dana got books, stuffed animals, a play tea set, a stroller, some garb, and an enormous ladybug pillow (with matching sheets and cover).
And we got a fully functional microwave. No more radiation-steeped DNA, no more inexplicable tans, just hot tasty food on demand.
And the icing on the cake? Not too long ago an alumnus of our ministry gave me a PSP (a completely unexpected and much appreciated gift).
We are blessed beyond measure. Say what you will about the hierarchy of the Assemblies of God, the tremendous generosity of our laypeople is unmatched.
Because I Like Quoting Myself
Here is the thought that has been my eschatalogical anchor for at least five years: we will be just as surprised by the details of the Second Coming as were the Pharisees by the details of the First.