Job Hunt

The job hunt is on. Right now I am talking to three churches: Darwin Jordan's church in Ft. Worth, TX, Duncan Rankin's church in Evans, GA, and Billy Dempsey's church in Ft. Payne, AL.

Please be in prayer for Hilary and me as we interview and try to figure out where we want to be and where God wants us to be. We hope those two will be the same place.

Trey

Here's How

Read this first:

How Can Any Christian African American Vote for Obama? Throwing the Race Card on an All Black Table

This is a very thought-provoking article, and it is a must-read for my white brothers and sisters, who need to understand our black brothers and sisters. I really appreciated it. I would love to vote for Obama, but I cannot do it in good conscience. Race is the main thing he has going for him. He has very little experience in Washington (3 years). I also cannot support his socialistic tendencies or his positions on abortion and homosexual marriage. For Americans to vote for Obama solely based on the color of his skin is foolish, and in a sense, racist. If it is wrong to vote against Obama because of his skin, is it not just as wrong to vote for him because of his skin?

However, the main thing that bothers me about Obama is that he markets himself as a Messiah figure. Even as this article displays, the black community looks to Obama as the anointed one who will right all the wrongs committed against blacks in America. They look to him to be their savior, and he promises to be. Yet, there seems to be very little behind his pomp. He says "Change can happen!" but what kind of change are we talking about? Even more scary is that Obama runs for office as a man on a mission, and this mission is to be president. Once there, what will he do? Obama has some very powerful and influential backers. How else could he become the democratic nominee after only two years in the Senate before announcing his campaign for presidency. The Senate was merely a presidential springboard for him. When/if he becomes president, Obama will be strongly pulled by their pursestrings to enact legislation favorable to this mysterious group. In other words, Obama is not his own man: he is a figurehead for a group of political powerbrokers. These two things make Obama a very scary persona.

What scares me more is that America, more specifically African-America, looks to Obama as its savior. He has replaced Jesus Christ as the one who corrects injustice and makes all men equal. Only the sovereignty of Jesus can bring reconciliation and equality for black men and white men in the United States. I beg my African-American brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as my white brothers and sisters in Christ, to remember that Jesus Christ is our Messiah. No man, whether white or black, can fix the problems in America. Our hope must be in Jesus Christ. Political action and affirmative action have their place, but what America needs, what blacks and whites need, is the grace of Jesus Christ. We need revival.

I also cannot vote for McCain. To me he typifies the greedy, sleazy Republican. Issues of social justice are important, and should be. There is something wrong with politics that profit the wealthy but overlook the poor. I get the sense that McCain is only concerned about the typical fiscal conservatism of the right wing. McCain may be pro-life and against homosexual marriage, but I ask why? If McCain is truly pro-family, how can it be that he divorced his first wife after she was maimed in an automobile accident, even though she still adores him, and married a beautiful woman half his age? Does being a POW give him superior character and class? His campaign seems to think so.

Contra McCain, I do not support the war against terror or the war in Iraq. I do not think we can impose a Western form of government with American ideals on an Arabic, Islamic culture. No matter what America does in Iraq, there will be civil war and much bloodshed at the end. I think America should pull out as smoothly as possible as soon as possible. We are accomplishing nothing in Iraq. It is also foolish to wage war against an idea, because you can never kill an idea. You can only kill an enemy.

I cannot support a candidate merely because he fires on some issues that I support any more than I can support another because of his skin tone. I am convinced that we Christians need to start voting out of conscience rather than choosing the lesser of two evils. We need to vote for men—or women, come the day—of solid character, who we believe can run this country well. We need to vote for men who don't have all the answers, but who see the problems with our country. However, we can only do this if our hope is in Jesus Christ. Christian America has to realize that Jesus is the only one who gives us safety. He is the only one who can protect us. He is the only one who can bring justice and equality. Jesus alone is the Messiah, and he doesn't restrain himself to party lines. Jesus is bigger than Republican or Democrat. His followers need to be too.

We will never have the perfect presidential candidate. No man will ever save America, no man except Jesus Christ.

The modern world clamors to give us the appearance of safety and security. We have removed insecurity, poverty, illness, and death to the far corners of acceptable society. That is, we have removed them until they hit close to home, until the gas prices soar (as does everything else), until 9/11, or until someone we loves dies from cancer. We live in a fragile world.

Jesus Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power. Jesus Christ will never leave us or forsake us, but will be with us wherever we go. Jesus Christ is the shade at our right hand and our keeper; he will keep his children from all evil; he will keep our life. He will keep our going out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Brothers and sisters, we cannot forget this. Jesus is our only security and refuge. He is our only Savior. Only as we turn to him will we have hope, security, or success.

This means we need to repent of our idolatry and return to the Lord. We need God to work in our hearts. We need revival.

Star-disappointment

I have failed at my last few attempts to buy good coffee. The last bag of Community beans (medium roast) I got were a bit funny-tasting. Trey decided it must have just been a bad batch.

This time I decided I would try Starbucks coffee beans (forgetting for some reason that my husband's faithful employer, Seattle Drip, has no tolerance for Starbucks) because I've heard they have good beans; it's just that they burn them when they brew the coffee in the shop. I guess I should have made the connection that if people wanted the Starbucks taste and they weren't in the shop, the beans sold in Wal-Mart would have to produce a similar taste to the coffee brewed in the store.

Anyway, the coffee beans make exceptionally strong, burnt-tasting coffee.

I will have to try again next time.

In other news, Trey has been super sweet to me this week. He has made supper, cleaned the kitchen, put away dishes, and run two loads of laundry. And he gives me lots of hugs. He's the best husby.

FINISHED!

we finally FINISHED the two thousand piece puzzle that we've been working on for six months. . . except for the two pieces that don't exist.

AND

Trey beat Final Fantasy VII, which we have both (along with some friends at various times) enjoyed for around sixty hours now.

Yay!

but we've lost our two major sources of entertainment in one night. yipe!

Narnia Betrayed

Hilary and I just walked out of Prince Caspian. Yes, we walked out. It is the first movie either of us have ever walked out on.

Why?

What Disney (and I assume the producers of the movie) have done to the story of Prince Caspian is nothing less than betrayal. Now, I admit my feelings are strong because I just read the book a few weeks ago. However, I went to the movie expecting a few minor changes, even ridiculous ones like what Peter Jackson did to Faramir in The Return of the King.

Not only were there minor changes that are annoying to long time fans of C.S. Lewis, the whole story was changed. Beloved characters were altered. In my wife's words: if screenwriters and directors are going to use the name of a book and use the names of the characters, and then give you something totally different, it is deceptive. It is a betrayal of the author, and it is a betrayal of everyone who goes to see the movie that expects the story of Prince Caspian.

The movie was awful. It was offensive. It was lame. 

First, I can understand condensing the chronology of a long book to suit the silver screen. I can also understanding altering minor details to keep them simple and focus on the main story. I cannot understand, however, why the writers/director would condense Lewis' original tale to make room for an awful fabrication that is a betrayal of Lewis' characters and stories.

The rewriting created a battle scene. The cost was Peter's character, Caspian's character, and Aslan's part in the story. After all, people only go to movies to see action and battle scenes, right? In the book, Peter and Miraz duel. There is no organized battle. In fact, the Caspian and Peter want to avoid a big battle. But Caspian is too wounded and does not have enough of his uncle's respect to fight. That's not very interesting. 

Secondly, the movie stripped Peter of everything that is honorable. Adamson, the director, made Peter a shallow, self-assertive teenager with little memory of his former nobility as high king of Narnia. He isn't even consistent with the last movie! Instead of the wise and noble former High King of Narnia, we have a puerile teenager who "doesn't want to be a kid anymore." So, Peter does everything he can to prove that he is capable and a grown up. He doesn't even feel the need to wait on Aslan.

Why is it that Hollywood feels the need to strip men of character of everything admirable? They did the exact same thing in Lord of the Rings with Faramir, even with Aragorn to a lesser extent. In that story too, it led to a fabrication in the story that irritated those who knew the story! Do directors and producers feel like Americans cannot relate to someone who is wise and admirable? Is it too unrealistic for us to see a man who has a sense of moral direction and duty? Nope, we can't handle that! Instead, give us petty teenage boys who constantly argue and blame one another for their own faults! That's what we want.

Please!

Then there is the Susan/Caspian romance. Yes, just what we need, another sappy teenage love story. Hilary and I should have known what was coming when we walked into the wrong showing and saw Susan kissing Caspian at the end. We should have gotten our money back then. Or after we saw, "Based on the story by C.S. Lewis," appear at the opening title. Nothing cries unbelievable distortion more than, "based on the story..." What it should say, "We took an idea from this story and ran with it in the wrong direction."

Again, most of the movie was completely fabricated. It was a lie! It never happened!

Back when Titanic came out, a Christian company was sued for editing out the Model T sex scene and reselling the movie. The obvious charge was copyright infringement. Why is it that movie producers feel they can do the very same thing with classic works of literature? They use the same title and the same characters, but they change the story so that it says something completely different! In my opinion, it is completely unethical. I cannot imagine that Lewis would have approved of the screenplay. Were he alive, he probably would have sued Disney for defamation of character! 

Most mind-blowing of all is Disney's patent disregard for those of us who grew up in Narnia. Their primary audience. I have loved these four kids and their companions in Narnia since I was a small boy. I always looked up to Peter. I wanted to be an admirable and wise leader like he was. Disney has betrayed me! They took creative liberties with the story I loved and said, "Here's Prince Caspian, just like you always wanted." But instead I find two boys and a story I rather loathe. And it makes me loathe Disney.

Their interpretation of Prince Caspian isn't even that good. Their changes to the plot don't flow well. The directing is bad. The dialogue is bad. Even the acting is bad. If I had known how bad it was going to be, I would have waited for it to come out on dvd.

It would have been helpful if our friends would have merely said, "it wasn't true to the story." All we heard were great reviews. That I don't understand. 

It is high time Hollywood stops screwing with classic books and beloved characters! If you are going to market a favorite book that we have grown up on, for the consideration of your audience, give us a faithful interpretation of the story!  As Iron Man and Spiderman have shown, movies based on well-known books and stories are better and more well-received when they receive a true interpretation. We want the old story, the original story, not some cock-eyed, modern day, "relevant" interpretation of the story. 

Whether we are talking about comic books or classic books, The Incredible Hulk or Prince Caspian, the real movie fans, those who pay to see Iron Man twice (like me), want to see the stories and characters we love faithfully portrayed.