theo|digital

Before I recently wrote a review of Kasey Chamber’s newest album Rattlin’ Bones, I didn’t know a lot about her, except of her few more popular songs in the US.  The country singer is a down-home Australian (really) whose pop-country is enough off the mainstream to like her.  I can’t post my review cause it hasn’t been published yet, but I’ve gotta note her video of her 2004 single Pony, which I can’t stop watching.  Chambers bats happy, expressive eyes to be simultaneously five years old and all grown up.  The video makes the song.

There’s something about Kasey here that makes me think “little sister”—which makes me think of my fake little sister Heidi (something about her facial expressions) and my real little sister Erika (who is hardly a country fan, but I think will like this anyway).

The youth conference skit of the last few years has been the one featuring Jesus and a troubled girl, set to “Everything” by Lifehouse. It dramatically shows how dark life can feel, and how Jesus intervenes.

And I can’t bring myself to like it.

This is one of the cases where I wonder if my cynicism has gone too far. The LT crew performed this here in Colorado on our first Tuesday night, and though one my new friends poked me and asked if I liked it, I struggled to be positive. It made me feel like a jerk&mdashmy resistance like stiff-arming Jesus himself or something.

Here’s what was going through my mind:

1. It doesn’t feel like a legit art form. Where in culture do you see the pantomime-over-audio-bed-skit except by church drama teams? The “skit” as generally accepted is a piece of comedy (SNL), but I can’t think of applications that are taken seriously (Cirque du soleil maybe?). It’s just not common, and to me has that nobody-does-this-except-us feel that goes with gospel tracts and public hymn sings.

2. The cascading chain of sin. The Lifehouse skit shows a succession of temptations or sins that seems to distract or invade the girl’s life. In order: boyfriend/romance -> cash/money -> alcohol -> beauty/anorexia -> cutting -> suicide. Each of these is profound and serious. But do boyfriends cause money-chasing or does chasing money cause alcohol, etc? I guess the positive way to see this would be as one girl’s story, but the subtle message that these will lead to each other.

3. Oversimplified sins. Romance, money, alcohol, and self-beauty all have God-created elements that can both live with vigor and grace in the Kingdom or be twisted and abused outside the Kingdom. I’m sure the skit format necessarily needs simplification, but I’m not sure Romance/Love is replaced by Jesus as much as it’s replaced by Romance/Love Done Jesus’ Way. Wine Done Jesus Way (Wedding feast of the lamb). Etc. I’m always worried when it feels like we’re throwing out Creation along with the Sin. It’s tough – in our world they are well tangled. But I hope this leads us to complicated conversations about how grace is the Great Unravellor.

4. Her turn-around/conversion is so black & white. One image I love in this skit is the deep struggle that’s portrayed. The clawing and pain under sin. But when Jesus finally dashes in to shield the heroine, she seems instantly free of her ailments, returning to a sense of perfect freedom. Isn’t it a significantly more realistic picture (though much less Happy Ending) to portray a walk that’s near to both Jesus and struggle? This is the Christian life we live. It’s possible, by portraying otherwise, to tell a false story that condemns those that show harsh evidence of their sin struggle their entire life. Hardly difficult to find in the history of the church. Paul shows us a rich picture of grace and sin running in parallel… the final glory established is Next not Now.

I realize in certain quarters I’ll get an bored high-five on this, but there are other that might wonder why I need to stir the pot. Why bring it up? Because these are big central issues of the way we talk about the gospel, sin, and grace. As fundamental pillars in the Christian worldview, I’m sure they can emerge from my small discussion no worse for the wear.

A programmer a Google created a piece of interactive art/java application that aggregates quotes throughout the web from the KJV version of the Bible, and shows you visually what is quoted the most. The site is called exegesis.

Yeah, it turns out Revelation is quoted a lot. Judgement, etc.

The project was commissioned by Turbulence, a New-York-based fund that commissions, exhibits, and archives new hybrid networked art forms.

It takes a minute to understand, but you can click and drag the cursor in areas to scroll through the text quickly. It also allows you to search for terms and uses small blue or orange arrows to indicate results. Orange is direct word-matches, blue are matches that finds using the text of the website the scripture was quoted on.

Found it surfing.

Isn’t the story posted along the side of the road the life narrative we really believe? Truth – when it’s presented as such – has not such real power as the billboard-illusions of our lives.

Culture is not something Christians think carefully how to face. Culture is the truth we all walk in the doors already believing.