BlakeAtwood.com

When missionaries approach a cannibal tribe, they don’t protest outside the village, call them names, put an ad in the paper, or complain that they eat people. Missionaries develop a relationship with the tribe, earn their trust, and become part of the community. Once they do that, the tribe is far more open to listening to their message.

So why can’t we do that with Hollywood? Hollywood is simply filled with sinners just like us. There’s plenty of things Hollywood does that I don’t like, and are detrimental to the culture. But does anyone really think a confrontational approach works? When people get mad at you does it soften your attitude toward them? I doubt it. I wish we could view Hollywood as a mission field, develop a relationship with those in the entertainment industry, supporting the hundreds of believers who are there already, and then speak into their lives.

Some responses from people have sited Jesus turning over the tables in the temple as an example that we should be confrontational with the culture. But we often forget that the money changers Jesus tossed out were the religious people. There’s no record to my knowledge of Jesus confronting the non-believing culture. He didn’t go into a Roman guardhouse and turn over the tables.

via Phil Cooke’s blog

I recommend reading the rest of the article. I just stumbled onto his site today. I love it when I find engaging, thoughtful Christians who present their arguments in a non-confrontational way, that can take what seems like a middle of the road stance that is, in my opinion, more honest and more truthful to the way Jesus lived and taught.

As an aside, I use Bloglines as my feed reader. You can view my list here. You’re allowed to group blogs into folders. I read a group of blogs that relate to Christianity and Culture. I named that folder “Flandersology.”

Via Tim Stevens, pastor at Granger Community Church

One of the quotes I’ll be sharing is from the book Movies that Matter: Reading Film Through the Lens of Faith by Richard Leonard. The first 25 pages is worth the price of the book. Mr. Leonard, a Jesuit priest with a PhD in Film and Theology (wow, what a combination!), says the following…

“Given the power of media, becoming conversant with its mixed messages is an essential tool for Christian life. This involves the process of inculturation—discovering where Christ is already active within a given culture. Inculturation has traditionally been about uncovering Christian resonances in faraway places and exotic rituals. Yet the risen Christ sends us out to our media-saturated culture as well, and in it we labor with Christ to expose the signs of God’s saving love already present there. We cannot speak to a culture we do not know or one we despise…we have to learn its language and discover how Christ has already gone ahead of us, inculturated in some of media’s values, stories and style.”

Stark. Contrast. Black and White. Maybe by going simpler on the design, I can focus more on the content. If only my lazy mind could awake from its slumber. There have been far too many days recently when I’ve felt oblivious to the world around me, and it’s a very large world.

The change of name is an homage to Zach Lind of FindingRhythm.com and, possibly more noticeably, the band Jimmy Eat World. It’s a recent blog find that I enjoy, for the twin facts of his drumming skills and Christian worldview. And he posts some killer drum videos.

And, not that I need to tell you O Learned Reader, but the rest of the name change is an homage to the late, great Douglas Adams. If you’re unfamiliar with the man’s work, do yourself a favor and start reading.

I never thought I would see Bob Dylan in concert. He’s too old. He seldom tours Texas. Tickets would be too hard to get or too expensive to afford. These were my rationalizations. Then, somehow, despite not getting Austin City Limits Festival tickets for the third year in a row, and one in which Bob was closing the event, the stars aligned, I hit refresh at the right time, and I was afforded the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Bob Dylan play a relatively intimate show at Stubb’s in Austin.

I’d only heard the stories, read the books and interviews, and, of course, heard the songs. I even spent a semester in college studying the man, the lyrics, and the myths…for credit! After that much buildup, the concert experience was a little surreal. Considering his age (66), his immense catalog, and his indelible and pervasive effect on American culture, the legend loomed larger than the music on this night.

I was more than annoyed with the college kid in front of me with the bushy mane that couldn’t stand still. Sure, you should enjoy Bob’s music and dance for every song, but not when you’re in my line of sight. Eventually, my prayers were answered, and he somehow danced off to one side. Then my twelve-rows-back, standing room only spot provided me one of the best visual and auditory experiences I’ve ever had at a concert.

I recognized half of the songs from his set, but, even then, they were nearly unrecognizable.This is not to say that they were bad – far from it. Bob’s current vocal stylization may be described as spoken-word-country-staccato-rap. A rapid delivery with a dry voice at the beginning of each phrase somehow winds its way to the denouement everyone in the crowd is expecting, except no one knows, really, how or when he’ll get from Tangled Up in… to the closing tag of that chorus, to the point that you think the old man might run out of breath, but, instead, he flashes a quick grin to the audience, then looks knowingly at his phenomenal band, and finishes, in a rhythm that’s all his own, surprising everyone who’s already finished the lyric for him (as if he forgot!) with Blue!

Possibly the highlight of my concert going career was the closer, the encore, the song I hoped to hear, but didn’t want to hope too much for fear of major depression setting in should the dream not come true. After reading Jimi Hendrix’s biography and watching some of his performance at Woodstock, I was thrilled when Bob decided to close with All Along the Watchtower, which, after Bob heard Jimi’s take, began to prefer and to play that version. The version from this concert, however, was somewhere in between the original, Jimi’s take, and Bob’s current sound. And even though the words and rhythms were all Dylans’s brand-new creations, the song was as powerful in it’s nebulousness as it was in it’s timelessness.

I attended the show with my brother-in-law, a good guitarist. As an average drummer myself, I turned to my bro-in-law during the middle of the show and after more than a few delectable drum fills, and promptly told him I was going to cut my hands off. There are musicians that, when seen and heard and felt, make you feel as if all of your hard work is for naught. He felt the same way about Dylan’s lead guitarist. I rationalized that these guys were much older than us, and we still have time to get better. The music was stellar.

As for Dylan, even though he didn’t do much, I couldn’t help but stare. He barely said three words the entire night, aside from introducing the band at one point. He just played music. Course, he’s just a song and dance man, right? It was hard to fathom that someone so elusive and talented and close to me at that moment in time has had such an impact on American music and culture.

Dylan’s the epicenter of a still-radiating cultural earthquake. He meant so much to so many early on in his career, but he was never afraid to go his own way, to be an artist. Maybe all artists, in order to maintain integrity, have to be salmon-driven, fighting the stream to create something new, only to die after having done so, then to do it all over again. He not busy being born is busy dying.

And Dylan, the cultural chameleon that keeps reminding us of what we look like, is always busy being born.

——-

The Set List

Bob Dylan (Sept. 15, 2007, Stubb’s)

1. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat

2. It Ain’t Me Babe

3. Watching the River Flow

4. You’re A Big Girl Now

5. The Levee’s Gonna Break

6. Spirit on the Water

7. Cry Awhile

8. Tangled Up in Blue

9. Workingman’s Blues #2

10. Honest With Me

11. Beyond the Horizon

12. Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine

13. Nettie Moore

14. Summer Days

15. Ballad of a Thin Man

16. Thunder on the Mountain

17. All Along The Watchtower

I saw Bob Dylan at Stubb’s last night. For now, suffice yourself with this clip.