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isneyland but of the entertainment industrial complex broadly and its mass machinations of fantasy and even though dismaland is itself as a bourgeois art event for dilettante consumption a part of this entertainment industrial complex anti consumerism as consumer good there s a big market for it its critique still has some merit in amusing fashion it highlights the paradoxes and disconnects of our reality confused duplicitous age banksy s clever installation is simply a more ironic and intentional version of the same observation offered unintentionally by megyn kelly s foxnews banter with donald trump both are highly amusing artifacts of a culture where real and fantasy have all but lost their semiotic difference ashley madison may not seem to have much in common with instagram disneyland or donald trump but they re all connected all products of the fantasyland in which we presently live blissfully avoidant of reality until reality inevitably hits home or gets hacked 1 comment posted in my articles tagged ashleymadison banksy dismaland donald trump fox news infotainment jean baudrillard neil postman technology abortion the environment and the exile of autonomy posted on august 12 2015 1 comment how is it that our society can collectively agree that an unborn life lost to a miscarriage is something to lament but the loss of millions of unborn lives each year from abortion is not karen swallow prior pondered this question recently calling out the contradictory yet widely held idea that unborn children are babies whose lives matter when they are desired but disposable or sellable fetal tissue w hen they are not desired by this logic the definition let alone value of an unborn life rests solely on the intent of mom and dad a baby s life matters insofar as it fits into the timing and plans of its parents in this way we can see how planned parenthood is the perfect name for an organization that is mostly known for abortion ending a life because its timing doesn t line up with our plans and preferences assumes a god like right to power that the name planned parenthood implies it casually asserts that the greatest most mysterious reality of existence the creation of a new life is something that can be planned manipulated defined and controlled according to our convenience it celebrates our sovereign autonomy and refuses sacrifice symptomatic of man s worst tendencies going all the way back to eden back then we didn t like to be told that we can t have everything on our terms and we still don t an arrogant assumption of control is at the root of most evil and it goes far beyond the issue of reproduction the same fallen impulse that leads us to assert the right to abort an unplanned pregnancy also leads us to assert the right to use and abuse creation as befits our lifestyle regardless of its longterm consequences many of the same christian politicians who push for legislation restricting abortion are also those who never vote for legislation restricting environmental pollutants but isn t there at least some logical link between protecting the created beings of unborn life and protecting the created world that declares god s glory as pope francis recently pointed out in his sprawling encyclical on a christian ethic of environmental stewardship on care for our common home care for the unborn and care for the natural world are both essential outgrowths of a consistent theology of life concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion how can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings however troublesome or inconvenient they may be if we fail to protect a human embryo even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties the pope is right to connect the two issues which both deal with man s tendency to exert his dominion in careless and life devaluing ways when we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person a human embryo a person with disabilities to offer just a few examples it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself everything is connected once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion the very foundations of our life begin to crumble though a small but vocal minority of evangelicals see this connection and support the passing of clean energy legislation most pro life americans throw the eco friendly baby out with the liberal bathwater this is unfortunate because it undermines what could be a powerful and consistent articulation of a deeply christian ethic of life an ethic that says the rightly ordered miracle of god s creation must be respected and valued even when it is inconvenient costly or in conflict with our plans it is this same ethic that also insists that god knew what he was doing when he created gender and marriage here is pope francis again from laudato si making the connection thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns often subtly into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation learning to accept our body to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning is an essential element of any genuine human ecology also valuing one s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if i am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different in this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman the work of god the creator and find mutual enrichment we should decry bruce jenner asserting his dominion over creation by claiming he has absolute power to choose his gender and we should lament the tragedy of a woman who claims she has absolute power to end her unborn child s life but we should also take offense at those who claim an absolute power to consume resources selfishly and wastefully with no regard for the flourishing and sustainability of creation the man who drives a needlessly fuel inefficient car disregards watering restrictions and takes long showers in the midst of a drought is just another version of the arrogant assumption of control that leads to lunchtime discussions of fetal tissue commerce over wine and salad all of these postures stem from man s resistance to accepting god as god and fully respecting the way he created things to be when push comes to shove we want things our way and we want god to respect that how childish we grow up only insofar as we learn to be ok with not getting what we want however and whenever we want it as carl trueman recently pointed out one hallmark of childishness is an ethic built upon personal pleasure and convenience by that measure our society is about as childish as they come i love psalm 131 s picture of david having calmed and quieted his soul like a weaned child with its mother he does not dwell on his fickle wishes or desires for things too great and too marvelous for me he is satisfied with his lord where his hope resides a lesson for human flourishing if ever there was one contentment is the antidote to our sinful propensity to desire control contentment with parenthood even when it isn t planned contentment with unrealized sexual and relational longings even when it s painfully lonely contentment with restrictions on pollution even if it costs us profits or convenience christian contentment is that sweet inward quiet gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in god s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition that s what english puritan jeremiah burroughs wrote in his 17th century work the rare jewel of christian contentment it s a radical idea for people today suspicious as we are of submitting to any authority outside the self and yet it s so needed but how is contentment like this achieved especially in a world where have it your way and gimme more are the dominant slogans of success burroughs says a christian comes to contentment not so much by way of addition as by way of subtraction he rightly describes the world as being infinitely deceived in thinking that contentment lies in having more than we already have indeed and it is this grass is always greener consumerist mentality so present in our culture and even in christianity e g church shopping that perpetuates our control obsession if we are constantly told we can dispose of unborn life or change our sex on demand or that we can eat whatever food we want at any time of year or that we should just let go of any restrictions placed on us no right no wrong no rules for me i m free then of course we are going to begin to believe that we are master and god is not but living in this way is not as freeing as elsa might think on the contrary an embrace of limits and less is more simplicity is what really frees us up to experience joy this is something pope francis mentions in laudato si as he describes christian growth in terms of moderation and the capacity to be happy with little as well as the avoidance of the dynamic of dominion and the mere accumulation of pleasures this is not a lesser life or one lived with less intensity he notes on the contrary it is a way of living life to the full in reality those who enjoy more and live better each moment are those who have given up dipping here and there always on the lookout for what they do not have they experience what it means to appreciate each person and each thing learning familiarity with the simplest things and how to enjoy them so they are able to shed unsatisfied needs reducing their obsessiveness and weariness the reality is a life of sacrifice and simplicity is a more satisfying life a life of relinquishing our obsession with control and getting over our resistance to authority is more free it s the life we were meant to live for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it matt 16 25 as joshua ryan butler argues in the skeletons in god s closet the cost of union with christ is the death of our independence the cost of true worship is the exile of our autonomy may the exile of our autonomy always be a cost we re willing to bear 1 comment posted in my articles tagged abortion climate change consumerism contentment environment laudato si planned parenthood pope pope francis pride amy posted on july 28 2015 leave a comment the new documentary about amy winehouse amy is devastating whether or not you were a fan of winehouse s music it s hard not to be moved by this film directed by asif kapadia senna it chronicles the singer s rise to superstardom as well as her roller coaster struggles with drug and alcohol addiction eating disorders and other destructive behavior which ultimately led to her tragic death by alcohol poisoning in 2011 amy is a powerful haunting picture of what sin does to all of us it destroys it undermines our gifts it stubbornly refuses to go away the movie shows the various good bad and really really bad periods in amy s life circa 2001 2011 which more or less correspond with periods of drug alcohol addiction and stints of rehab or relative sobriety it s amazing to see how her physical appearance speech and ability to be creative change dramatically with the ups and downs of her addictive struggles it s painful to watch amy at times start to move away from destructive behavior and make better choices only to have it all undermined by relapses and returns to the people and pleasures that destroy her if ever there was a movie that showcases the ugliness of what sin does in our lives and how hard it is to escape its grasp on our own merits it is amy the film is also a pretty damning critique of the friends family boyfriends managers executives journalists and fans who enable amy s self destruction by standing by and saying nothing while taking pictures and or making money off her some of them are better than others but for the most part the people in amy s life don t have the courage to call a spade a spade some of the saddest moments in the film show her father downplaying the need for amy to go to rehab tragically this episode inspired her 1 hit song rehab i ain t got the time and if my daddy thinks i m fine or her mother downplaying the gravity of bulimia or managers booking shows for amy at the height of her addiction struggles or anyone in her life refusing to keep amy far away from her drug pushing disaster of a boyfriend blake fielder this is not to say that amy is not herself also to blame it s just to acknowledge that individuals are embedded within communities who shape them for good and for ill communities who ought not sit idly by when sin does its destructive thing the film made me think about how increasingly unwilling most people in our society are to talk about sin let alone know it when they see it because we are so afraid of being intolerant or judgmental vices that are worse than just about anything in our to each their own callmecaitlyn world we find it unfathomable to tell another person that what they are doing is wrong even if we know deeply and without a doubt that it is amy shows the pitiful fruit of a society that is impotent to help sinners because it has bought into the notion that tolerance is the highest love it also shows the ramifications of the pervasive sense even amongst many christians that brokenness is the most authentic thing and the source of all good art one of the tragic meta themes of amy is the suggestion that her timeless voice and raw lyrics stemmed from and were spurred on by her demons that art and brokenness depend on one another this may be partially true but abandoning someone to ruin is never justifiable even for the greatest art we should all wish to have rather had a healthy and alive amy who was boring than a dead at 27 amy who lives on in art films and the annals of pop leave a comment posted in my reviews tagged amy winehouse documentaries inside out and mountain memories posted on july 16 2015 leave a comment i saw pixar s inside out a few weeks ago at the pinecrest amphitheater an outdoor movie theater on the shore of pinecrest lake in the sierra nevada mountains under the stars surrounded by family and with the smells of pine and campfires in the air the setting was beautiful and memorable fitting for a movie about the mystery joy and sadness of memory kira and i saw the movie in the middle of a two week vacation that took us to northern california and oregon and for about an hour washington where we experienced beauty of the first order both in nature and in culture we took pictures and bought souvenirs but the intensity of the beauty we experienced will only live on in our memories and possibly also in the ways the memories will shape our personalities and those of our children but the visceral feelings of being there at a certain moment in time the snowmelt water of the stanislaus river the soft sand of nye beach at sunset the taste of a coconut blackberry scone are forever in the past such is the nature of joy it pulsates with life and vibrancy because not in...