Cloaking

I will go against the grain (and good sense) and start with a tangent today.

Our office's elevators have two lights beside them to indicate whether they are headed up or down, as all elevators anywhere do. When the elevator is going up, the top light shines white, but when the elevator is going down, the bottom light shines red (just like they did at my old office). Does anyone else find this eerie at all? It's like going up to heaven or down to hell, and we always start in hell, and after we've reached heaven, we descend back to hell just a few hours later.

Ahem, back to relevance and sense...

So, for the past few days I've been learning a lot about spam sites. This has involved learning the tons of techniques that these rapacious fellows use when they create their bogus sites, learning how to spot spam sites quickly, and understanding the various ways to treat these sites. I won't go into too much depth here, cos it's a lot of info and I'd probably bore most of you.

But one of the techniques that these people use is called "cloaking." Basically, search engines send out spiders to crawl the Internet and relay information about Web sites back to the search engine's database. The sly site creators out there will come up with a way to tell if a spider is checking out their site, and if they know that a search engine's spider is looking at their site, they'll respond by automatically showing them a fake site, in order to trick them into thinking that their page is legitimate.

My mentor put it this way: it's like a cop (the spider) is knocking on the criminal's (spammer's) door. The criminal will look through the peep hole to see the cop standing at the door. Since the criminal doesn't want to reveal his identity, he'll put on a mask and then open the door to make it seem like he's just a regular guy, and can say "No, I'm not a criminal. I'm legit." (My mentor actually got up and acted this scenario out with the conference room door, which was very funny.)

Why am I telling you this? Do I want you all to learn how to become a spammer and add to the already ridiculous number of spam sites out there on the Web? No!

I just thought that there was some hidden significance in this, and I wanted to share this seed with you. I hope that if you think on this just for a moment or two, that the seed will blossom into something more, and that fruit will be born from it.

I'd usually expound on this, but for some reason (and I don't think it's laziness or lack of words) I feel like refraining tonight. Though I will say this: after I pondered the idea behind this idea, I realized that the real pain and the real work doesn't happen with the initial recognition and resonance with it, but instead with the dread and horror that comes with digging out the "why" of the matter.

I don't expect my excavation to be finished until I am done with this life, but I deem the task to be more than worthy of my efforts, and I hope that you will join with me.

Grab a shovel. Let's find our true selves.

Audience of One

Jon Foreman (center) and his friends in Switchfoot are less concerned with satisfying the status quo than they are an 'audience of One'.

by Collin Hansen
Posted 11/27/06

You might say things have changed in the nearly four years since Christian Music Today last spoke with Switchfoot. That was in January 2003—before The Beautiful Letdown, which would go double-platinum, was released. Mainstream success came as the San Diego band continued to earn Christian acclaim. Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman won six Dove Awards at the 2004 GMA Music Awards. Christian Music Today chose the band's next release, Nothing Is Sound, as the top Christian album of 2005. Christianity Today associate editor Collin Hansen talked with Foreman about success, Christian criticism, the gospel, and Switchfoot's December 26 release, Oh Gravity!

What do you think will surprise Switchfoot fans about Oh! Gravity?

Jon Foreman: When you're around the music, it's like watching a kid grow up. If you're around the kid every day, you don't really see changes. But everyone outside of the family notices dramatic differences. It's been really interesting to see other people's reactions to the songs where, for us, I think it's been a real honest effort to try and get the energy live onto a CD. It's almost been this dichotomy in our band where we record music one way and then play it live a completely different way. In the recording, you tend to be going for perfection. And a lot of times perfection can stifle the song itself. With this record, we made a conscious effort to leave mistakes in, to leave the first take in if it felt better.

I can only speak from the inside, but we felt freedom making this record. We were really thankful to be in a spot where we couldn't care less what the outside world thought. That's a really liberating place to be as a musician.

When did you get to that point?

Foreman: We had a few things that happened over the past year that were frustrating for us as a band—copy protection on Nothing Is Sound that was incompatible with iTunes, spyware on our listeners' CDs without their knowledge. It put a lot of things between us and the people who bought our music. Nothing Is Sound was the best record we had ever made, and we were really excited about getting it out there. We still really believed in our songs, but to have all of those things kind of working against us in our attempts to get the music out there was a really troubling time for us as a band.

So we went into the studio halfway through last year in between tours to work on an EP without plans for what to do with it. It really felt like a newfound freedom in the studio that we hadn't felt in a long time.

It's been a while since publicists have allowed Christian Music Today to talk to you guys. What was the biggest change since moving over to Sony/Columbia a few years ago?

Foreman: It was initially a realization of something that we'd wanted to be from the beginning. When we were signed to re:think Records, the goal was to get the music out to everybody. When Sparrow bought re:think Records, it was evident that our music wasn't going to be in the hands of everybody. As a Christian, I have a lot to say within the walls of the church. But also, as a Christian, I've got a lot to say just about life in general.

I've always been a little bit leery of putting "Christian" as a tagline for anything. If you're going to attach the name of Christ onto something, then you'd better have thought about it for a long time and really feel like that particular product, whether it's a CD or a church or whatever, is worthy of that name. So to be able to be on Columbia and on Sparrow felt like the realization of the two sides of what we had to say. It's a dream come true to be able to have songs that are outside of the box. Because it can be really troubling when your music gets labeled as one thing or another. All the goals that you're trying to achieve suddenly become boiled down into this really simplistic box.

Has your support remained strong among the Christian community?

Foreman: We've been really fortunate. People within Christendom still know who we are, and they still trust us and remember us for the most part. There's always going to be people who don't understand what you're doing. The bigger you get, and the more what you're doing is known, the more it's misunderstood.

At first I used to hate to think that somebody wouldn't know what we're doing. I would be the first one to want to talk to them and explain it. And then I realized our music isn't for everyone. To think that everyone is going to understand it and that we're going to be everyone's favorite band is a little unrealistic. Then you think, Well, I just want to be making music that I'm proud of, that I feel like is exactly what I'm put here on earth to do. And that becomes your goal. And it's a much more realistic goal, because you're responsible to One instead of to millions.

The Beautiful Letdown had such widespread critical acclaim and strong sales. Reaction to Nothing Is Sound was mixed. How do you explain the difference?

Foreman: You can tell a really good joke, but if people don't get it, you can't explain it. I feel much more like an archeologist than an inventor. I'm not the guy who tinkers in my workshop all day long in an attempt to achieve a goal. I have no preconceived notion when I write a song. All I do is dig. And you discover a city that's been there all along. Those are the good days, you know, where songs just come to you. I can't look at the dig that happened for Nothing Is Sound and be self-critical.

I feel like there were a lot of things that needed to find the surface that maybe were uncomfortable for people. But I feel like those were—up until Oh! Gravity—the best songs that we'd ever written. I'm comfortable with other people not appreciating it. There are certain types of food that aren't for everyone. As a chef you can't be limited to making hamburgers because you know everyone's going to be satisfied with that.

"American Dream" on Oh! Gravity reprises some of your critiques of consumerism, which are also featured in fan favorites like "Company Car." Is Christendom implicated in these warnings? How do you ward off the corrupting influence money can have along with success?

Foreman: I'm implicating everyone, myself included. To think that you're not susceptible to the lure of cold, hard cash and the advantages it buys us in this life is to be ridiculously foolish. I think that we've all fallen to our knees to many of the things that our nation has to offer. For me the grounding, the centering of my soul is something that comes in various forms, whether it's in meditation or reading or even travel to foreign countries. There are a lot of ways that you can kind of loosen your grip on the American steering wheel, and those are the things that I find to be really healthy.

I'm reminded every night of what I've written. And I noticed with Nothing Is Sound, singing a depressing song night after night can wear you out. Depressing songs need to be written, but joyful songs also need to be sung.

You're going on record with your fans, almost like you're asking them to hold you accountable.

Foreman: That's something I've noticed from the very beginning. You're taking a stand with every verse. That's a really humbling thing to do, because I know for a fact the wickedness that I am. I know for a fact the sinner that I am. To sing these songs is an honor and a challenge.

How has your faith changed in these tumultuous years of success?

Foreman: Oh, man, in a million ways. The closer you get to the monster, the tighter you grip the sword. There's a lot of things we've faced over the past few years that we didn't want to, and then a lot of things that we kind of ran at that we thought we could beat. We are all interdependent upon each other. Independence does just not exist within the human species. We need each other. There's no way you can face your demons alone.

In Jeffery Sheler's book Believers: A Journey into Evangelical America, he travels to Creation Fest and watches you perform. He describes you as feeling constrained to be ambiguous. Why do you think he would get that impression?

Foreman: I feel like people want us to be flying their flag. People will use our words to prove them right. We are not trying to fly the flag of Christendom, and we never have attempted to lift that flag. At the end of my life, I would love to have somebody say, "He was a humble Christian." I think that would be the biggest compliment.

I've seen very few people get up on stage in rock and roll who yell and stamp their feet for the name of Christ and do it in a way that I feel like is the gospel. So when people come to us with books and microphones and cameras and they want us to cheer the cheer and chant the chant, it's something that I don't feel comfortable doing. In all honesty, I don't feel like that's the gospel. And to do so is to betray the very thing that means the most to me.

If people are going to misconstrue that as being an unbeliever, then I have to be comfortable with that outcome, because I can't be responsible for other people's opinions. Again, you can't live your life for a million people. The whole audience of One is a really liberating concept.

So how do you see the gospel?

Foreman: I see the gospel as the antithesis of what happens on stage. We have it all wrong in a lot of respects where we interview the people who are up on stage when I truly believe that what happens off stage is more important. How we treat each other behind closed doors matters a whole more as far as infinity's concerned than whether you hit the right note on stage and you had the strobe just perfect and your guitar was in tune.

We are continually striving for excellence, and I feel like music in and of itself is a worthy endeavor. That's something we will continue to do with every piece of us. But the way we treat our families is infinitely more important. Life is too short to always be the center of your world.

SANTAAAAAA!

I hate being jaded!

Every Thanksgiving, my mom prepares a huge feast, and still I find it hard to get excited to eat it, or to be as thankful as I should for all her hard work.

I've become so indifferent to so many aspects of my life that sometimes I wonder whether or not I'm fully human.

This is why I want to be like Buddy.  He still has new, innocent, eager eyes for everything, especially Santa.

I know that Santa is coming soon.  In fact, he meets me everyday.  But why is it so hard to get excited about this?  Is this something that I should accept and roll with, or is it something that I really need to grapple with, pin down and strangle until no breath can be heard from its evil, hulking body?  It's a shell that I know must come off eventually, but I wonder if it will even crack in this lifetime.

Michael Richards Apologizes; David Crowder's Xanga

(By the way, if you don't know what this is all about, click here.)

---

Did you know that David Crowder (yes, that David Crowder) has his own Xanga? It's really his. If you don't believe it, watch his most recent video clip (at the end he shows his face) and look at some of his photos.

Pretty neat.

Jesus, the True and Better Jehoshaphat

2 Chronicles 18 concerns Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and his alliance with Ahab, king of Israel, through the marriage of his son, Jehoram, to Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah. This was a foolish thing for Jehoshaphat to do, since God's people were not to be married with the ungodly. Matthew Henry says, "This was the worst match that ever was made by any of the house of David."

A few years after this alliance, Ahab prepared a large feast for Jehoshaphat, and asked him if he would go with him against Ramoth Gilead. To this request, Jehoshaphat said that his people would join Ahab's, but that Ahab should "First seek the counsel of the LORD." (v. 4)

The king of Israel complied with the request, and brought four hundred prophets together to ask them if Judah and Israel should battle Ramoth Gilead. All four hundred prophets replied by saying, "Go, for God will give it into the king's hand." (v. 5)

However, there was one prophet who inquired "of the LORD," (v. 7) and his name was Micaiah. He had a reputation of never saying anything good about Ahab, and he upheld this reputation when he was brought before the king of Israel concerning this issue.

Unlike all the other prophets, who "as one man" predicted success for the war (v. 12), Micaiah recounted a vision he saw of "all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd," (v. 16) and went on to say that a lying spirit was put in the mouths of all the other prophets to entice Ahab to go forth against Ramoth Gilead. In addition to all this, Micaiah said, "The LORD has decreed disaster for you." (v. 22)

Ahab was not pleased with this prophecy, and ordered Micaiah to be put in prison with nothing but bread and water until he had returned safely, to which Micaiah replied, "If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me." (v. 27)

In spite of Micaiah's words, Ahab, king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went to war against Ramoth Gilead. However, Ahab requested that he go into battle in disguise, while Jehoshaphat go into battle wearing all of his royal garments, to which Jehoshaphat agreed to.

30 Now the king of Aram had ordered his chariot commanders, "Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel." 31 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, "This is the king of Israel." So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him. God drew them away from him, 32 for when the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him.

33 But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told the chariot driver, "Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I've been wounded." 34 All day long the battle raged, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans until evening. Then at sunset he died.

And here is where we see that Jesus is the true and better Jehoshaphat.

Christ was clothed with royal garments once: a robe, a crown, and even a staff. And this king was also targeted by the enemy as the keystone to his evil victory, for who can stand after the king has been murdered? However, unlike Jehoshaphat, Christ did not avoid the wrath directed at him, for though the LORD helped Jehoshaphat when he "cried out," Jesus' cries in Gethsemane and on the cross were left unheard. Jesus was our ready and willing decoy and substitute, our ally who had every right to distance Himself from us and deny us any association, and He paid our price while we were set free.

The wrath poured out on Him was meant for us. Ahab was unable to avoid his cruel fate, despite Jehoshaphat's willingness to shield him from it. But we, playing the part of Ahab in this divinely revised story, are fully shielded from our rightful fate by Jesus Christ, who became sin for us, taking all of the pain, death, and separation that should have been wholly ours.

Jesus is the true and better Jehoshaphat, and for that, I am enormously grateful.

"Somebody put this together some years ago...

"'Consider this: Jesus is the true and better Adam, who passed the test in the garden, and whose obedience is imputed to us.

"'Jesus is the true and better Abel, who though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.

"'Jesus is the true and better Abraham, who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void, not knowing whither he went to create a new people of God.

"'Jesus is the true and better Isaac, who was not just offered up by his father on the mount, but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, "Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from me." Now we can look at God taking his Son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, "Now we know that you love us, because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from us."

"'Jesus is the true and better Jacob, who wrestled and took the blow just as we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

"'Jesus is the true and better Joseph, who at the right hand of the king forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

"'Jesus is the true and better Moses, who stands in the gap between the people and the LORD and mediates a new covenant.

"'Jesus is the true and better rock of Moses, who, struck with the rod of God's justice, now gives us water in the desert.

"'Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.

"'Jesus is the true and better David, whose victory becomes his people's victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

"'Jesus is the true and better Esther, who didn't just risk losing an earthly palace, but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn't just risk his life but gave his life to save his people.

"'Jesus is the true and better Jonah, who was cast out into the storm so we could be brought in.

"'Jesus is the real rock of Moses, he's the real Passover lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us.

"'He's the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread...'

"The Bible's not really about you; it's about him. And, you see, when you find the thread through every single passage or theme that leads you to Jesus, then you can preach against the sin underneath every sin, show people the Gospel every single week in a new and fresh way, bring Jesus in because you are able to do it, because you follow the thread, and that's preaching the Gospel." - Tim Keller

Ask.com

After two and a half months of painful, stressful, and discouraging job searching, I can finally and gladly say that I am now an employee of...



Yeah, sure, they're not Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft, but who cares? It's more fun to be part of the dark horse than the front runner, isn't it?

I'll be working there as an information analyst, which basically means that I'll be helping them to make sure that spam sites and other inappropriate content do not show up prominently, or at all, in Ask.com's search engine results pages.

I am happy.

Hidden Under a Bushel

Sufjan Stevens and the problem of Christian music.
by Randall J. Stephens and Delvyn Case

(The title of this article comes from Luke 11:33.)

What's your favorite band?" Youth pastors in evangelical churches from Anaheim, California, to Virginia Beach, Virginia, have been asking young people that question since Richard Nixon's famed meeting with Elvis in the Oval Office. Whenever teenagers answered with the Doors, Bon Jovi, Black Sabbath, or Run DMC, religious mentors steered their impressionable charges to sacred analogues: Resurrection Band, Barnabas, Stryper, Freedom of Soul. In the 1980s, popular Christian author J. Brent Bill created a "sounds like" music chart, an easy-to-use guide for those newly initiated into the Christian subculture. (It's the kind of tool Ned Flanders, the kind-hearted fundy on The Simpsons, would love to employ for his two sons, Rod and Todd.)

The relationship between so-called Jesus rock and secular music is as peculiar as it is fascinating. Since the Jesus People movement first swaddled the gospel in the tattered rags of the counterculture, Christian rock has grown steadily, inhabiting almost every niche in the splintered world of contemporary music. You want Christian death metal, Christian rap, Christian indie rock, Christian electronica? You got it. Part of the job of being a youth pastor today rests on being hip to the dozens of massive Christian rock festivals that take place around the country every summer, having a mental map of nearby Christian coffee houses and bookstores, and always being ready to usher teens into the safe world of Christian music.

In 2006, a youth pastor asked for a Christian doppelgänger of brooding English troubadour Nick Drake, doomed indie icon Elliott Smith, or cracked folk rocker Iron and Wine might respond with a single name: Sufjan Stevens. But Stevens is also quite original. While other artists have busied themselves chasing the latest fad, Stevens has crafted a unique, sprawling indie folk that deserves much of the attention it's received. He has also joined the ranks of a handful of other artists and bands—Danielson Familie, Damien Jurado, Pedro the Lion, and Starflyer 59—which have earned respect and critical acclaim almost in spite of rather than because of their Christian faith.

A Michigan native, Stevens was something of a musical prodigy. He attended Michigan's prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy, where he honed his skills on the oboe. He attended Hope College in Michigan, formed a band, and started piecing together his slightly outsider compositions with a few other sympathetic souls. From obscurity, Stevens has taken the college rock world by storm. His 2005 CD, Illinois—which occupied the number-one slot on college music charts for weeks in the fall of 2005, and has since received wide acclaim—and its recent companion disc of outtakes, The Avalanche, are part of his staggeringly ambitious project for a state-by-state romp through America. Stevens has done two states so far, the first being Michigan. Each release will be devoted to a single state, intended as a sweeping travelogue, a character study, and a window into Stevens' worldview.

Even a casual listen to Stevens' work reveals his fascination with Christian themes—creation, fall, and redemption. Take for example these lines from one of the tracks on Illinois, "Casimir Pulaski Day," a heart-rending exploration of theodicy (via the story of a friend's death from bone cancer):

All the glory that the Lord has made
And the complications when I see His face
In the morning in the window
All the glory when He took our place
But He took my shoulders, and He shook my face
And He takes and He takes and He takes

Certainly an overtly Christian message is a bitter pill to swallow for the average indie rock fan, but in song after song Stevens is open about his faith. As critical acclaim has mounted, though, he's become much more evasive when questioned about his faith. He routinely brushes aside the matter of his personal beliefs, strategically separating himself from the weird world of contemporary Christian music. He has a "knee-jerk reaction to that kind of [Christian] culture," he quipped in one interview. "Maybe I'm a little more empathetic … because we have similar fundamental beliefs. But culturally and aesthetically, some of it is really embarrassing."1 More bluntly, he has said, "I don't make faith-themed music."2

Stevens seems convinced that to own up to evangelicalism would amount to professional or artistic suicide, and he is probably right. Though Christian culture warriors are put off by his calculated ambiguity, fans and critics are captivated. The high praise he has garnered from The New York Times and Rolling Stone—let alone thousands of fans around the world—may be the direct result of Stevens' willingness to grapple, in a suitably cryptic fashion, with issues of faith. Indeed, the secular music press now views the spiritual component of his work as an asset, best summed up by the Village Voice, which called him "the Next Flannery [O'Connor]."3

In the long run, Stevens may find that his greatest challenge lies in the genre he's chosen. As rock's answer to the song-cycle of the classical tradition, the concept album is a self-consciously "artistic" attempt to forge a large-scale, unified whole out of a succession of autonomous songs. The success of a concept album rests upon its ability to lead the listener on a journey from beginning to end. Like a scene in a film, each individual song must both cohere internally and contribute to the overall experience of the album. This hierarchical view of musical relationships is central to the language of classical music, but it is almost completely absent from rock. Hence, the concept album presents daunting hurdles for rockers of all stripes. The few successful examples in the genre work because the relationships between their constituent songs are as compelling as the individual songs themselves.

This is precisely where Stevens' latest project, Illinois—and its companion The Avalanche—collapses under its own conceptual strain. Despite his skills as a lyricist, his limitations as a musician hinder any over-arching artistic unity. Stevens is in many ways a capable composer. Quite a few of his melodic ideas are fresh, interesting, and distinctive, and his arrangements are meticulously crafted. The trouble is that his creativity is limited to essentially two different song-types: an introverted, folksy one and an extroverted, symphonic one. In short, there is a major disconnect between the subtleties of Sufjan Stevens the poet and Sufjan Stevens the composer. His music lacks the carefully modulated gradations of tone, meaning, and mood that distinguish his poetry.

Great pop musicians use music to provide "color" to their lyrics: to give them a different, sometimes deeper, expressive power than they would have if they were just poems. The best songs are those whose lyrics and music complement each other, making them more than the sum of their constituent parts. In Stevens' albums we hear the same four or five ideas, regardless of the mood or lyrical theme: the twee toy-town march, the ebullient five-beat rhythmic pattern, the melancholic four-chord progression, the nostalgic guitar and banjo duet. Each of these ideas is compelling in itself, but when they are set to so many different lyrics, their energy and appeal are dissipated.

From an artist whose lyrics shout out with such distinctiveness, beauty, and even theological richness, this shortfall is painfully disappointing. Let's hope that as he makes his way through the remaining 48 states, Stevens enriches his musical palette.

Randall J. Stephens is an assistant professor of history at Eastern Nazarene College, associate editor of Historically Speaking, and a member of the indie rock group Jetenderpaul. His book on the holiness and Pentecostal movements in the American South will be published by Harvard University Press.

Delvyn Case is an assistant professor of music at Eastern Nazarene College. A composer, conductor, performer, and scholar, he works within both the classical and popular traditions. He is currently composing an opera inspired by The Canterbury Tales.

1. "Sufjan Stevens," interview by Matt Fink, Delusions of Adequacy. http://adequacy.net/int/sufjan/index.shtml accessed on 11 December 2005.

2. "Sufjan Stevens," interview by Amanda Petrusich, Pitchfork Media (July 2004). www.pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/s/stevens_sufjan-04/ accessed on 11 December 2005.

3. Nick Sylvester, "Without a Prayer," Village Voice (8 August 2005). www.villagevoice.com/music/0532,sylvester,66665,22.html accessed on 12 December 2005.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Books & Culture magazine.

2006 New Jersey General Elections

For those of you going out to vote today, or for those of you who feel like you are not educated enough to vote today, here are some links to information about today's General Elections that could help you decide who you want to represent our glorious state of New Jersey.

2006 General Elections Guide - NYTimes.com

NJ Senate Race Issues - NYTimes.com

NJ Elections 2006 - CNN.com

NJ Senate Election 2006 - Wikipedia

Menendez for Senate

Tom Kean for U.S. Senate

There are tons of other resources out there (but be wary of skewed sites).

Do your research, and VOTE!

Borat

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was a very funny movie, though I feel as though I must now repent for all of the laughter that spilled out of me. It is totally politically incorrect, and manages to offend virtually everyone on earth, but the amazing thing is that the film somehow captures the hideous, hilarious, and shameful underbelly of contemporary American society and culture.

Two memorable things: unexpectedly finding myself choked up, and the fight that tops all fights.

Sacha Baron Cohen deserves an Oscar nomination.


Two rubber fists way up.

"Niiice!"

The Undefeated Truth

For the past few weeks I have been slowly chipping away at The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (pictured to the right). I decided to read it mostly to challenge my mind, since philosophy has never been one of my strong suits. And I also hoped to read some of his atheistic viewpoints/arguments to better my understanding and to battle my own naivety concerning that realm of thinking (though so far, he hasn't mentioned any atheistic topics).

So far, the book has been quite the mental exercise. The dude is clearly an intellectual stud, and I will admit that I have difficulty following 40-50% of what the guy says. Nevertheless, I think my corroding mind has been benefiting from reading the book.

The main thing that impresses me with Russell, and with all those other great minds, is how they can take what we deem universal truths and pick them apart until they cause us to question how we could ever have thought those ideas to be truths at all. In one of the chapters I read today, Russell talked about "2 + 2 = 4" and all of the recondite layers beneath that simple equation, and his discussion on the matter is the first domino to the mess below.

There's something special about being undefeated. Of course, much of the reason why being undefeated is so exceptional is the perfection that is inherent in that status. But the more and more I think about it, the more I realize that a big reason why undefeated teams (ahem, Rutgers), athletes, and other competitors are so heralded is because everyone knows that that perfection, that streak of W's, is evanescent. That is why when I see people rooting for those that are undefeated in this world, I see an undeniable sense of fragile hubris, because they are aware that it is a certainty that perfection cannot last forever.

Furthermore, I think that it is this muted anxiety that actually drives the enthusiasm and pride shown for the undefeated team or competitor. The transient nature of this perfection encourages people to take extra joy and care to savor it and celebrate it.

But when all is said and done, it is a fact that perfection on this earth can never last. Sooner rather than later, it will be tainted with defeat.

The idea is all around us, in the celebrations of championships, the looks and whispers of awe when a house of cards is built, and the praises we heap on that great album. But as humans, we are incapable of entirely understanding the notions of "perfection" and being "undefeated," in the truest senses.

And this is precisely why it is so incredibly difficult for humans, regardless of their personal beliefs, to understand what it means when we say God is perfect. Russell says, "...we may sometimes know a general proposition in cases where we do not know a single instance of it." That is our problem. As Christians, we understand the proposition that God is perfect, but the thorn in our sides is the fact that we do not have a helpful earthly correlation with which to frame this obscure concept.

How does God convey His perfection to us? He doesn't proclaim "I AM PERFECT" over and over and over again and demand that we nod our heads and agree. Our God conveys His perfection to us by showing us confirmations of His perfect character, or by proving Himself right, over and over and over again.

It is in this way that God has remained undefeated. He has defeated doubters, mockers, and enemies throughout history.

Now, though we have that sense of transience to give vigor to our cheers for the earthly undefeated, we do not have even that when it comes to God, because we know that He has always remained, and continues to go undefeated. We lose a catalyst that we have relied upon for our entire lives.

This is why the Gospel is such a necessary truth to cling to every moment of our lives.

As we read the Bible from the Old Testament and into the four gospels, we see that there was a time when defeat did seem inevitable for God. Throughout the OT, the LORD proved His perfection over and over again to His people, despite their constant doubting and grumbling. But as we encounter the four gospels, we begin treading unfamiliar ground. In simple and honest terms, Jesus Christ, the God-man, met defeat at the cross, and for three agonizing days His followers were forced to deal with this event.

But after those three days, Jesus (as promised) rose from the grave to defeat sin and death forever.

God remained undefeated, and those three days of suffering, doubt, and eventual triumph are now a catalyst to what we call our "faith." He turned the worst defeat in history into the most glorious victory, and that should speak oceans of encouragement to us whenever we are stuck in cold, lonely, and difficult places.

There comes a point where perfection transcends into truth. "2 + 2 = 4," "the sun is bright," and "Jun Ji Hyun is beautiful" are statements that have proven true over and over again, to the point where they are not just perfect statements, but truths.

In the same way, God's persistent and complete fulfillment of His promises (which finds its culmination at the cross) not only makes Him perfect, but means that He is truth. Not only truth, but the truth (John 14:6).

It is when we begin to "philosophize" about this Truth that we begin to become double-minded, and fall into the slippery trap of doubt. We take an undeniable truth and pick it apart with our devious, self-serving doubts until that truth is no longer tenable.

I think this is part of what Jesus meant when he talked about having faith like children. Yes, it is healthy to think and meditate upon God, the Bible, and salvation, but when we begin to use our cunning intelligence to justify our doubts for selfish gain we are denying Truth, and when God conveys His perfection when He returns to earth, when He reaffirms to us that He is undefeated, those who oppose Him can only be two things: wrong and defeated.

For those of us who genuinely struggle with the idea that God is perfect, undefeated Truth, our faith will be rewarded on that day when He will prove us right by proving Himself true...again.

Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the Devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else -- something it never entered your head to conceive -- comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it. - C.S. Lewis