theo|digital

John Piper interviews Rick Warren. I have not tightly followed the conversation here, so I can’t helpfully comment on that. What I notice here is the non-adversarial, warm tone of this conversation. And I appreciate Piper speaking directly to less charitable critique.

I read Purpose Driven Life very carefully – this is 20 pages of notes. And I have read critiques of it and one of my agendas is to do an appreciative critique.  And it will, I think, feel to you–I hope it does–mainly appreciative.

Because, frankly I’m appalled at the kinds of slanders that have been brought against this book by people whose methods of critique, if they were consistently applied to the Bible, would undo it as the Word of God.

I really–I’m one of these Reformed types, and my type tends to get on your case pretty often. And when I read the book, I thought:  “What’s the issue here?”

I’m reading through Media and Formal Cause, a re-release of several 60s and 70s journal articles by Marshall McLuhan on his use of Aristolian formal cause to explain media effects. I love this.

People do not want to know the cause of anything. They do not want to know why radio caused Hitler and Ghandi alike. They do not want to know that print caused anything whatever. as users of these media, they wish merely to get inside, hope perhaps to add another layer to their environment in the manner of “The Chambered Nautilus” of Oliver Wendell Holmes.
…
It does not take long to discover that all of the sciences, physical and social, are interested only in describing and measuring effects while ignoring causation entirely. A connection is not a cause but a hangup… the absence of interest in causation cannot persist in the new age of ecology. Ecology does not seek connections, but patterns.

I had to (maybe rather poorly) explain this methodological approach in my research on McLuhan because I imitated it in pursuing theological understanding of things like Facebook and remix. Excited that this book re-opens the discussion for me to maybe to adopt better descriptive language on the method.

End of Spring, 2011.  What happened to the writing me?  What happened to the habits of reflection?  I don’t feel like I have them any more… like a former, thoughtful Me got forgotten upstairs and has grown wrinkled and anemic and silent.  The humidity of a warmer climate has coated my brain cells, sending inspiration into a sticky fog.

And clearly I’ve been holding in a few metaphors.

But I’m serious about the confusion that I get when I stare at my stale blog. What are the rhythms of life that lend themselves to quick posts and sparks of inspiration?  In past years, I can recall crazy days and overflowing to-do lists, and they never seemed to squash the blog ideas. They’d flow in too fast to handle. My only limit was time: I could sit down and generate posts for weeks if wanted.

And now I sit down to shake a few thoughts loose and it’s like someone dumped gravel on the slip-n-slide.

Okay, again, the metaphors seem to be flowing fast enough.

I guess we’ll just use this as a test post. With the press finally catching up on the effects of the digital explosion (Newsweek’s had several cover stories this year), there’s tons to comment on. I think the difference might be in 2011 that I may be able to stop sounding the alarm on information overload, filtering, or Facebook being more important than Google (after 5 years: people are finally realizing why social information filtering will win!)… these are finally common topics.  Now I can more critically imagine a future with these things environmentally in place. A future where we stop doing stories about them and start living stories with them.

And one where I can find the “quick post” button.

Glints of laughter + tinsel strands of truth = one Merry Christmas.  From smack in the middle of the political circus, Colbert (inadvertently or not)  preaches the gospel again.

This one is definitely jumping in meme status: just got by hit with it from multiple friends. “thought of you” kinda stuff. Why’d they think of me??

You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God:

“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me.”

You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.

Dt 26:3-11

This is my transcript of the speech.  I posted brief thoughts separately.

Jon Stewart
Rally to Restore Sanity
Transcript (draft)
From C-Span Feed

——

• Transcript Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity Keynote Speech (pdf 190k)

2:41:50

So.  Here we are.

<applause>

We’ve had some really incredible musical performances here today.  I hope you enjoyed them.

<applause>

We’ve had what some would classify as comedy as well <laughter>, and now I thought we might have a moment, however brief, for some sincerity, if that’s okay.

I know there are some boundaries for a comedian, pundit, talker-guy, and I’m sure I’ll find out tomorrow, how I have violated them. <laughter>

I’m really happy you guys are here.

<applause>

Even if none of us are really quite sure why we are here. <laughter>

Some of you may have seen today as a clarion call to action.  Or some of the hipper more ironic Cats as a “clarion call” for “action.”  Clearly, some of you just wanted to see the Air and Space Museum, and got royally screwed.  <laughter>

And I’m sure a lot of you are here to have a nice time, and I hope you did.

<applause>

I know that many of you made a great effort to be here today, and I want you to know that everyone involved with this project, worked incredibly hard to honor the effort that you put in, to give you the best show; the best that we could possibly do.  We know your time is valuable, and we didn’t want to waste it.

<applause>

And we’re all extremely honored to have had a chance to perform for you on this beautiful space:  on the Mall in Washington, DC.

<applause>

<2.44.36>

So, uh, what exactly was this?

I can’t control what people think this was. I can only tell you my intentions.  This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith, or people of activism, or to look down our noses at the heartland, or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear—they are, and we do.

But we live now in hard times, not end times.

And we can have animus, and not be enemies.

But unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two, broke.

The countries’ twenty-four hour, political, pundit, perpetual panic conflictinator <laughter> did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder.

<applause>

The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen.  Or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire. <laughter> And then host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected, dangerous flaming ant epidemic.

If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.

<applause>

There are terrorists, and racists, and Stalinists, and theocrats.  But those are titles that might be earned:  you must have the resume.  Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers—or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez—is an insult, not only to those people, but to the racists themselves, who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate!

<laughter> <applause>

Just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more.

<applause>

The press is our immune system.  If it overreacts to everything, we get sicker, and perhaps eczema.

<laughter>

And yet, with that being said, I feel good.  Strangely, calmly good.  Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false.  It is us through a funhouse mirror, and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waste and maybe taller.  But the kind where you have a giant forehead, and an ass shaped like a month-old pumpkin, and one eyeball.

So why would we work together?  Why would you reach across the aisle to a pumpkin-assed-forehead-eyeball-monster?  If the picture of us were true?  Of course, our inability to solve problems would actually be quite reasonable.  Why would you work with Marxists, who are actively subverting our Constitution, or racists or homophobes, who see nobody’s humanity but their own?

We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is, how it is on the brink of catastrophe, torn by polarizing hate, and how it a shame we can’t work together to get things done.

The truth is:  we do.  We work together to get things done every damn day.

<applause>

The only place we don’t is here <gesture to Capital Building> or on cable TV.  But Americans don’t live here or on cable TV.  Where we live, our values and principles form the foundation that sustains us while we get things done, not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done.  <applause>

Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives.  Americans live their lives more as people that are a just a little bit late for something they have to do. <laughter> Often something they do not want to do.  But they do it.

Impossible things, every day.  That are only made possible through the little reasonable compromises we all make.

Look, look on the screen.  This is where we are—this is who we are—these cars.  That’s a school teacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high.  He’s going to work.  There’s another car: a women with two small kids—can’t really think about anything else right now.  There’s another car, (<wind blows screen> swinging’ don’t really know if you can see it), the lady is in the NRA and loves Oprah; there’s another car, an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah.  <laughter>

Another car is a Latino >, another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman, another an atheist obstetrician, Mormon J-Z fan. <laughter>

But this is us!  Every one of the cars you see is filled with individuals of strong belief, and principles they hold dear.  Often principles in direct opposition to their fellow travellers.  And yet these millions of cars must find a way to squeeze one-by-one into a mile-long, 30-foot-wide tunnel, carved underneath a mighty river—carved by people, who, by the way, I’m sure had their differences. <laughter>

And they do it.  Concession by concession.  You go, then I’ll go.  You go, then I’ll go.  You go, then I’ll go.  Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car?  Is that an Obama sticker on your car?  Uh, well that’s okay:  you go, then I’ll go.

And sure at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute, but that individual is rare and he is scorned… and not hired as an analyst.  <applause>

Because we know instinctively as a people, that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light:  we have to work together.  And the truth is, there will always be darkness.  And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land. Sometimes it’s just New Jersey

<laughter> <applause>

But we do it anyway.  Together.

Do you want to know why I’m here?  And what I want from you?

I can only assure you this:  you have already given it to me:  your presence, was what I wanted.

<applause>

Sanity will always be, and has always been, in the eye of the beholder.  To see you here today, and the kind of people that you are, has restored mine.

Thank you.

<applause>

<end 2:54:50>

I separately posted a transcript of Jon Stewart’s speech.

I enjoyed joining (in spirit) Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity held today on the DC Mall.  He’s been derided in the last few weeks as either a liberal plotter trying to sneak a left-punch in just before election day, or a comedian that simply goes too far.  But I think his words speak pretty well for themselves:  he’s honestly trying to take things down a notch.  For those of us that get a headache listening to both Fox News and MSNBC, it was a breath of fresh air.

As a Christian there are portions of his universal tolerance that poked my theology a little bit hard.  All ways up the mountain just can’t be the same: I believe Jesus wins.  But what poked my theology harder is what strong call to compassionate listening and grace Jon Stewart provided.  Wow: what an embarrassing example for those of us who follow Christ.  I would only the hope the church could be so clear in calling for loving enemies. Jon Stewart stood on the stage and practically demanded it from 200,000 people.

Jon’s hope is in the collective good of humanity, and this too is something our Christian worldview can both agree with and resist.  We can agree because we see everyone—Sunni Muslim to South Carolinian—as made in the image of God.  We resist only to say that we can see the source of the tension.  The demonizing each other is still just the symptom.  The tainted media communication environment is just a symptom too.  Both are the results of millions acting in self-centeredness, the essence of sin. And it can’t be undone with people trying to be nicer.  It can only be undone through Jesus-powered forgiveness.

But for now, I still think Jon Stewart won the Jesus-like image award today.

Microsoft’s Bing has been running a genius ad campaign for almost a year now, although I’ve only recalled seeing them in the last month or two (and thanks to my friend Amy for making me notice them everwhere). Kudos to their ad firm for latching onto one of those problems that people know they have, but would have trouble putting into words. Too bad Bing really isn’t much of a solution.  I still believe that keyword-based search will need social network data interface innovation to yield something like they promise.

But they’re funny. This one (from last year) is one of my favorites.

Anyone remember a year ago?  I’m not talking about something universally big—just my life here.   In September 2009, I was huffing and puffing through the last miles of a year-long masters thesis.  My days were endless library-as-containment-cell exercises—re-wording, finding sources, and fixing the grammar errors that seemed subject to obscure rules of physics ensuring their everlasting presence.

Anyway, October saw me submitting the 150-document  for the last time, November was the official defense, and then my mind raced on to my obligations for Great Commission Ministries, where I helped lead our national campus conference and then turned around and made a quick move to my role here in Orlando, FL, which had me back on the road 5-days later for my first training conference.

Somewhere in there, I started my new blog here, and I set up a special page to post my thesis here.  Except I didn’t have time to finish the formatting on the document in order to post it.  So things sat in limbo.  And sat.  And sat.

Big news in my world:  I think we’re over limbo.  Somehow I’ve scratched out some time in the schedule to stand up and make some moves.

And so starting this week, I get to post my thesis, right here.

(Cue personal celebration).

There may be few people that have an interest any more. And I go back and re-read things and go “oooh… that needed some more work” or “ugh… not sure I want the world reading that.”  But this was the work I was able to do at the time.  It helped my clarify years worth of questions and hopefully launch years more worth of answers about God’s digital world.  So it’s still worth re-visiting, I think.  At the very least,  this is a year-late victory lap that lets me move forward.

As I finish configuring the document for each chapter, I’ll post it here.  Hopefully I’ll start in the next few days.  Meanwhile, you can read why I realized I had to post it online in the first place.