The Burr in the Burgh

Philip Meade is a great blogging buddy over at The Beast's Lair whom I've enjoyed reading for quite some time. Currently, I believe, he is a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY whose president, by the way, Albert Mohler, is an active blogger himself. See here for President Mohler's always engaging blog.

I love reading Phil's blog because he seems to like a lot of the things I like, such as scary movies, theme parks, pop culture, and theology. Of course, he's a Southern Baptist and I'm a pretty traditional Lutheran so we wouldn't see eye-to-eye on everything. But one thing I do so enjoy is discovering how much common ground we really have. At least that is how it seems to me. I don't mean this in the sense that either one of us waters down our distinctives but in the sense that we both spring from a common Western Christian Reformational tradition.

All that having been said, I want to direct you to a very fine post he wrote recently that I think expresses views I too have long held. Here is The Knee-Jerk Effect.

In America today, there really are two distinct holidays celebrated on and around December 25th. Both celebrations are called "Christmas." One is a cultural celebration while the other is religious. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive although it seems common for people to observe one and not the other.

See the seminary blog for my post "Keep the Mass in Christmas."

Hey, check this out! The Admission Department of Concordia Theological Seminary-Fort Wayne, IN now has a blog. Here it is. It's called Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary. Cute, eh? Please come by and say howdy to me and the gang. And check back often too because we plan to post daily.

Eastern Promises is the latest film directed by David Cronenberg and stars Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, and Armin Mueller-Stahl.

Cronenberg has a bizarre repertoire of films with a flair for the grotesque. Not only are his movies often graphically violent, but they serve as veritable meditations on the effects of violence, both emotionally and bodily. And in that sense, I hate to say, I think he may have a spark of genius.

Personally, I do not have a high opinion of most of his work. His most recent two films, Eastern Promises and A History of Violence, however, do deserve a bit of attention. It would surprise me very much, in fact, if Eastern Promises does not earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

Director Cronenberg began his career making low-budget horror films specializing in yuck. E.P. is not a horror film by strict definitions, but is very similar thematically. And there is no shortage of yuck. Two fundamental themes for the horror genre are transformation and identity. Many literary forms ask the question "who am I?" but horror asks "what am I?" and "what am I becoming?", with typically unhappy answers.

The definition of a monster is a being who should not exist but does, or a being that cannot be classified. For instance, Frankenstein's monster is a being who should not exist but does. He is the fabrication of a scientist who plays God and attempts to manufacture new life out of old body parts. And Darth Vader is also a monster because we don't know what he is. He's hard to classify. Is he man or machine?

So horror asks, "what is it?" Dead or alive? Man or machine? Male or female? Plant or animal? Earthly or extraterrestrial? Sane or insane? Healthy or sick? Clean or unlcean? Think of the horror monsters you've seen and you'll find that these are the questions most often at play. The significant thing is that they urge us to ponder what it means to be a human. When does a being cross the line of being non-human to human or vice-versa? Etc. With today's bio-ethical dilemmas and the advances of research in genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, cloning, chimeras, etc., you will see more and more, I predict, horror stories asking such questions.

How does Eastern Promises fit into this horror scheme? It's not a horror film, per se, but it considers transformation. A History of Violence does so even better, I'd say. Transformation from one thing into another, usually as the result of violence or bodily disfigurement. In E.P., Viggo Mortensen does a truly brilliant job portraying the ultimate thug as part of the Russia mafia in London. He captures the accent, look and mannerisms masterfully.

Here is what I value in this film. It assumes and teaches that violence changes human character. Not being the object of violence, but the subject. My pastor, Rev. David Petersen, posed a fascinating question in Bible class last Sunday, a question that he found in the work of Peter Kreeft, I believe. Suppose your child were a prisoner is a Nazi concentration camp. Now suppose, your child were approached by the sadist Dr. Josef Mengele who proposes to spare your son or daughter if he or she will assist him in his experiments. So the choice is this: Assist Mengele in torturing others or be tortured by him. Now how would you want your child to choose?

Many would say that since they don't want their child to be harmed, they'd prefer him to assist the doctor. But what is truly more damaging, to be tortured or to torture. I agree with Pastor Petersen's point that to do violence to another person damages the doer in more deep and lasting ways.

In his own way, I think Cronenberg makes this point. The monsters in this world are not those who've been damaged externally but those who do the damaging. They became spiritual freaks, if you will, disfigured on the inside.

How do atheists celebrate Christmas? That's the question posed by the always articulate Dinesh D'souza here.

The added question, for me, is WHY do atheists celebrate Christmas?

Oh, I see. Parties and booze. Parties and presents. That's the ticket.

I don't know. It seems pretty disingenuous to me. I would not trouble myself to observe a major holy day of a religion I disbelieved. Even worse. Many of the new atheists are not just a-theists. They are anti-theists. If religion, and Christianity in particular, is responsible for the bulk of this world's woes as some claim, then why would they commemorate the birth of its founder? I guess it's the parties, the booze and the presents.

UPDATE: See my related post at Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary.

That is the headline from Reuters earlier this week. Calling for a boycott of the recent film based on the controversial trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman, the Vatican statement elaborates: "when man tries to eliminate God from his horizon, everything is reduced, made sad, cold and inhumane". Also according to Reuters, the Vatican paper called The Golden Compass, "the most anti-Christmas film possible."

The Golden Compass is indeed a reason for concern, primarily because of the subsequent two volumes of the trilogy it is associated with. The current movie version of Compass is only mediocre as a movie and for the most part, avoids the most sticky wicky points.

How should Christians respond? First, I agree with the Vatican's concerns, but I believe it is important to remain cool-headed. Is it truly the most anti-Christmas film possible? Such exaggerated assertions suggest that the reviewer either didn't really see the film or is prone to overreaction. In both cases, our cause is harmed.

One of the biggest flaws in Pullman's technique is his extremism. Even some people who agree with his views feel he is an impediment because he overstates his case. I hope the church does not fall into the same approach. Not every attack on the Faith requires the same degree of response. Otherwise, every attack will be the most anti-Christmas film possible. And if every attack is the most anti-Christmas film possible (to use the phrase from the Vatican), then none of them are. Not everything can be the "most possible." Do you see?

So if next year, another film is produced that undermines Christianity but does so in a more direct and sophisticated way, how will we respond if we've already labeled Compass as the worst possible? If it's the worst, then all others must not be as bad.

I am in no way defending the militant atheism of Philip Pullman. I am only saying that our responses to our critics ought to be in proportion to the quality of the threat.

New Book on Women’s Ordination Includes Essays by Several CTS Faculty

FORT WAYNE, IN (CTS)—A collection of essays on the ordination of women, Women Pastors? The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective, edited by Concordia Theological Seminary professor John T. Pless and Matthew Harrison has been published by Concordia Publishing House and is available for $26.99. This anthology of essays includes chapters by CTS professors Charles Gieschen (“Ordained Proclaimers or Quiet Learners?”), Roland Ziegler (“Liberation Theology in the Leading Ladies of Feminist Theology”), William Weinrich (“Women in the History of the Church” and “It Is Not Given a Woman to Teach: A Lex in Search of a Ratio”), and David Scaer (“May Women Be Ordained as Pastors?” and “The Office of Pastor and the Problem of Women’s Ordination”). Other essays are included by North American, European, and Australian theologians Henry Hamann, Bertil Gaertner, Bo Giertz, Reinhard Slenczka, Peter Kriewaldt, David Bryce, Fredrik Sidenvall, Peter Brunner, John Kleinig, Hermann Sasse, Gregory Lockwood, Louis Smith, Louis Brighton, and Robert Schaibley.

CTS President Dean O. Wenthe commented on the significance of the anthology: “It is striking that in the ancient Near East where female deities and priestesses were abundant, Israel was told to have only male priests. Similarly, in the Greco-Roman world, where female gods and priestesses flourished, the church restricted the apostolic office to men. This volume is to be commended for similarly resisting prevailing cultural novelties by supporting in a scholarly and churchly manner the God-given order for the church’s ministry. Women as well as men are blessed when they hear and follow the living, healing voice of Jesus in the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures.”

Of all the books, you've read, wanted to read or wanted to write, which has the most memorable first sentences?

Naturally, someone has compiled a list of the top 100. Someone's choices for the top 100, that is. See it here.

There are a lot of books on there which I've never read and many which I have. But it does happen to be the case that a couple of my all-time favorites are included.

From Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoy:
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

And number 47, from Voyage of the Dawn Treader by Clive Staples Lewis:
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

What are yours?

Who doesn't luv bacon?

For bacon-related products go here. Just in time for last minute Christmas shopping.

Hi folks,

I just posted a few comments on the Pullman movie over at my department's new blog which you can see right here.

Hey, check this out! The Admission Department of Concordia Theological Seminary-Fort Wayne, IN now has a blog. Here it is. It's called Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary. Cute, eh? Please come by and say howdy to me and the gang. And check back often too because we plan to post daily.

It's a dud, folks. I went to see it today and it's just not that good of a movie. Aside from Pullman's atheistic agenda, this movie is mostly a bore. Seemingly, not many folks are rushing out to see it. Check this out. It only made about 9 million bucks on opening night. The latest Harry Potter flick made over 100 million on it's first night.

I love this reviewer's take. It's hilarious.

The Admission Department of Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN is planning to write a blog. I'm pretty excited about. We're seeing it as an opportunity not just to post information but to have a conversation with anyone/everyone but especially those who see themselves serving Christ in a Church vocation.

But here is where I could really use your advice. We want our blog to be funny, serious, edgy, and conventional. So you see our problem.

First, we need a name. I want the name to have a bit of jazz. It needs to be sticky, y'know, to stay in the mind. I've thought of lots of possibilities, but mostly they are dull. Maybe I'm too picky. My personal favorite so far has been The Maggot Sack, a reference to a famous Luther quote where he talks about human frailty. Now that's a sticky name. But a lot of people whose opinions I value have been less than enthused. Weirded out, but not enthused. So give me names people!

My second quandary has to do with which blogging service to use. I've been on Blogger for several years with Burr and I am generally pleased. But I figured this was a good opportunity to examine some of the other main services. The two contenders right now, other than Blogger are Typepad and Wordpress.

Without question, Wordpress seems like the most versatile. But it also seem like you need to be a computer programmer to use it. Which I ain't. As much as I like what I've seen so far, I don't have the time to spend all night trying to update my blog.

Typepad appears to be more powerful than Blogger in some ways and much easier to use than Wordpress for a novice. BUT, the big thing I don't like about Typepad so far is the very limited look. All their templates look basically the same. Typepad blogs are great for content but seriously stink in terms of style. I'm after both. If you know an easy, inexpensive way, to make a Typepad blog look like it did NOT come off an assembly line, please let me know.

Blogger is still a strong option because, like Wordpress, it's free. It's also the easiest to use. It's much more feature rich than it used to be. And here's the biggie, I already know how to use it. My problem with Blogger right now is that I want to host my own domain name. I don't want the word "blogspot" in my URL. Now, I know blogger says this can be done, but i am skeptical and afraid that it'll be a mountain of headaches.

Any suggestions?? I need your help! Pleeaaasseee. Serious suggestions only, please. . . . Why haven't you written a comment yet?

... about one thing. And that is that stories teach. They, in fact, often teach more effectively than any other method I could name.

Here is what the controversial author of The Golden Compass (vol. 1 of His Dark Materials) had to say when accepting an award for it in 1996: All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions.


As the great philosopher Arthur Fonzarelli said many a time: "Exactamundo!"

Too bad Pullman didn't take his own statement to heart. Stories teach. Tolkien knew it. Lewis knew it. Dostoevsky knew it. John Milton knew it. Those were excellent writers. It is usually a sign of an amateur writer when the didactic elements overpower the narrative elements. And I have seldom read published works as tediously preachy as His Dark Materials. He makes the mistake of many well-intentioned Christians who appear to write stories but are really just thinking up premises as a pretext for writing an evangelistic tract. I am a Christian and even I find it objectionable to be tricked by an author into thinking I was going to be getting a story instead of a sermon. Don't get me wrong. I like sermons. It's just that I like stories too. Not only is Pullman's teaching objectionable, but he ruins the story.

There are tons of helpful resources out there. But if you are looking for one more, give this one a try. I wrote it for Concordia Publishing House and the price is right. FREE.

If you read it, I'd be very interested to hear your comments.

Aren't polar bears the awesomest, by the way?!