Here’s a sobering quote from from an interview on CNN.com today with American film director Oliver Stone:

 

 

It’s been a while since I read Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness (upon which Apocalypse Now was based) but Stone’s quote makes me think that this is what Conrad was refering to. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a re:telling of that book in the next few years – it seems highly applicable to where the world is today.

 

There is a movement both toward and away from God. Some of us live in the balance between the two – it is a razor thin line that keeps us in one place never getting caught up in the gravity of God or evil. This is a safe place for the most part as long as we do not move. If we stand motionless as storefront manikins we will be ok. By ok I mean in the sense that no decisions need to be made, no moral choices need to be agonized over and no guilt need to be burning within us. It is the place of lukewarm sewage that recognizes that getting caught in the gravity of God or evil are both dangerous things although God is dangerous in the sense that He calls us out of ourselves, away from the world and into complete submission to Him and His often unknown will for our lives. Like C.S. Lewis wrote of Aslan in The Chronicles… "He is not a tame lion…". The other gravity which we can fall into is toward evil…and this is dangerous simply because it leads to death and away from God.

 

We often think of the movement toward evil or God as needing to start with some dramatic decision or sin one way or the other. The reality is the movement in either direction is paved with subtle action and thought. A series of small almost deceptively insignificant steps in one direction or another and before one knows it they find themselves either in the stratosphere moving toward God in hurtling like a meteor in flames toward death.

 

The point? Small, seemingingly insignificant decisions, thoughts and actions have eternally significant consequences and move us into the gravity of life or death.

 

"Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…"  – Acts 16:30-31

 

 

This is one of those ridiculous personal observations based upon nothing except my own highly partial and arbitrary opinion.

 

Ever notice that there is a dichotomy of offence in the Christian world? Let us divide Christian North America into two realms for the sake of this discussion – the conservative and the liberal (I know the lines between the two are often blurred and both groups often don’t even know how to or care to define themselves…). The typical conservative tends to get fairly bent out of shape when it comes to sex and sexuality but usually doesn’t give violence much of a second thought. On the other hand the typical liberal Christian gets all twisted out of shape when it comes to violence but portrayals of sex and sexuality is usually passed over as relatively harmless (certainly in comparison to violence). What is the root of these differing perspectives?

 

In terms of scripture the Bible is certainly not anti-sex but definitely lays out the ground rules for it – there’s fornication (BAD) and then there’s sex within the bonds of marriage (GOOD). I would like to think that conservative’s primary issues with sex have to do with fornication but I suspect that the portrayal of sexuality within and outside of the bonds of marriage would garner a similar reaction.

 

Now the Bible has a great deal to say about violence (and certainly there is a great deal of violence in the Bible), and unlike sex it is difficult to find Biblical evidence that God has ordained a certain scenario within which violence can be celebrated and indulged in.

 

Now if we were to blend the two extremes into one perspective you would get one of three types of Christian:

 

1. A Christian who avoids both sex and violence in culture

2. A Christian who embraces both sex and violence

3. A Christian who knows God’s will in the extremes (pornography (BAD), snuff films (BAD) and seeks God’s will in the gray areas.

 

You guess which would be the most likely outcome…

As a father of three I have to say that Steve Irwin a.k.a The Crocodile Hunter, had an impact on our family, especially my kids. It was very sad when I had to tell them he died today but I’m sure it’s nothing compared to the challenge his wife and children have ahead of them. He was one of the few and diminishing positive influences on television with a passion for creation. It is a sad loss.

 

This calloused heart

does tear apart

the soul of lesser man

 

One reaches in

To pull out sin

returns with empty hand

 

We’ll cry the ‘morrow

Buried in sorrow

For the inner rocky shore

 

We’ll trust to light

Take on this fight

What hands can do no more

 

Faith calls to you

Seeks to undo

this solid blackened scar

 

Till raw you’ve left

By Holy theft

ripped err’ away afar

 

This calloused heart

once tore apart

the soul of lesser man

 

Now soft restored

No earned reward

But Christ’s eternal plan

 

I have been having a lazy Sunday and so when we noticed Omni was playing a Bollywood (Indian) movie we decided to have a look – in the end we watched the entire thing. The movie, Main Hoon Na, has elements of comedy, action, drama, romance and of course the musical. It is interesting to watch an Indian movie because it they are utterly unique in a way that I don’t think would work in a North American movie.

The best part of Indian movies in my opinion are the dance/musical scenes and this one was no exception. If you’re ever interested in watching a Bollywood movie and have never watched one go out and rent Deepa Mehta’s Bollywood Hollywood…its a cool crossover movie made in Toronto. Mehta’s has made some more serious movies that I want to see still – Earth, Fire and Water (three separate movies).

Another movie worth seeing that has a small Bollywood influence is Bend It Like Bekham.