Blinded By The (Pixellated) Light

RELEVANT is a magazine that features the tagline: "God. Life. Progressive Culture." and serves up pretty much what it says on the tin, directed to both Christians and non-. I guess I hope a similar thing could be said about this li'l blog, in time. I provide this introduction simply because I expect there will be more than this post that comments on material found within the pages of RELEVANT. I do not wish to seek to be a portal for their content (they have their web presence under control without me!) but feel that their content is worth pointing out to those unfamiliar with it.

This brings us to an article upon which I seek to make comment here. Have a read of "Finding The Line" (excerpt) then come back and see me (I'll wait)...

There is an ongoing discussion about Christians being "in the world, but not of it" (John 17:14-15) where the "world" is defined as our current physical location which is ruled by Satan. (One need only open a newspaper or turn on the television (NOT just the news programs) to see the evil inclinations of this world.) The Christian, despite having had their heart cleansed from these inclinations still exists in a world defined by them and still has their human nature to deal with when making choices. This is where some Christian sects decide that it is better to detach from the world as much as possible in order to avoid being polluted. The error here is that a problem can't be fixed by turning from it or by observing it from a distance - one has to get one's hands dirty. (At this point I could inject a Gulf oil spill reference, but that would be off-topic, so I won't.)

As stated in the article, the choices one makes over which movies to watch, etc. are inevitably going to be subjective with differing criteria used by different individuals. A point that I return to is whether or not it is worth digging through the trash for a morsel of food when the need is not there to do so. For example: I have not watched 'Avatar' (2- or 3D) because I don't find the negative spiritual aspects of the storyline worth sitting through, just for the pretty CGI pictures. I don't find myself missing out either; I don't find myself wondering if I should just take a peek because after all this time I'm still hearing people raving about it. (See an awesome CGI film below to see why I don't feel like I'm missing out.) Upon my "Return" I found the desire for watching certain movies and TV programs just dissipating, sometimes for no other reason than that they were wasting my time.

If you're not a Christian - thankyou for getting this far - you may be wondering why you should care about content choices, as you don't need to worship any god and can watch what you want... right? Just consider that whenever you spend time following contestants on shows like 'Survivor', 'Big Brother', 'Masterchef', et al, you are worshipping minor gods or "idols"... hell, one program even uses the word in their name! Movie characters are the same. Movies now are not "films" but "franchises" - brands built to string you along for years dollar by dollar. Storylines shot-through with holes, Swiss cheese style, just to they can plug them with endless sequels and prequels which, despite being panned by critics, still make millions on opening weekend. Tell me if any of the (pre-) teen girlies currently screaming to be bitten by 'Twilight's Edward (read: demon) would, if given the chance, do anything other than pee their pants and run screaming...

Anyone who is a responsible parent would be choosing carefully the content they allow their children to view. The thing is, the 'Twilight' fans are not just the teens, but their mothers (the same ones smitten with a bespectacled boy sorcerer previously). We all rue getting older because we still feel so young... in fact, in many ways we're all kinda still children. Perhaps we need a Father to guide us...

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

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Now playing: The Black Crowes - A Conspiracy