Steve the Owl's Blog

As someone who studies religion, one of the things that I get confronted with the most is the exhortation to be “open minded.” Often, this seems to come from people who have a different theological perspective. However, I think that digging into this question, we have to ask ourselves what “open minded” really means.

Cross It Out of Your Dictionary?

One of the best political thrillers I have seen was a movie that came out ten years ago called The Contender. In this movie, Joan Allen plays a Congresswoman who is nominated by the President (played by Jeff Bridges) to fill the vacancy of the recently-deceased Vice President. (The last time the United States had no Vice President was the time between the Kennedy assassination in November 1963 and Johnson’s inauguration in 1965. After that, the 25th Amendment gave the President the right to name a Vice President if either the VP moved up to President or something happened to the Vice President. This is how Gerald Ford became President in 1974.) The choice is a highly contentious one, in no small part because this would be the first woman Vice President, thus giving a legacy to the term-limited President, and because she was initially elected to Congress as a Republican but switched parties later in her career.

Anyway, with that background, a young Democratic Congressman from Rhode Island (played by Christian Slater) asks the Republican Chairman of the committee assigned to running the hearings (played by Gary Oldman) for a spot on the committee. However, he does not tell Oldman’s character about his party affiliation. When he is confronted later, he promises to be objective. Then, the chairman tells him one of the most interesting ideas in the movie:

“Do me a favor. Do you have a dictionary? Okay, when you go home tonight, I want you to take a black magic marker, and cross out the definition for ‘objectivity.’ People elected you for your experience, your philosophies, your world view. In other words, they elected you for your subjectivity.”

What is the Balance?

This is something that I have always found interesting. While it is obvious that this is an attempt to get the young Congressman to vote against the nominee, there is a definite truth in this statement. One of the biggest fallacies of the Enlightenment period was the notion of human beings, and the entire universe for that matter, as a largely blank slate. We each have passions and interests that all play a role in who we are. There are also questions of things that we inherited from our parents. I know that I have a tendency to stare out into space when my mind is relatively unoccupied, and this is something that my dad does as well. I also inherited his height and my mom’s small bone structure. These things mean that there are certain things in life that I would not be very well suited for.

However, there are some areas where we do control our own destiny, so to speak. We can either nurture or suppress our interests and our talents. We can be people who seek truth and development, or we can be people who think that we already know the answer. What is interesting to me is all of the times that the person who claims to be “open minded” really isn’t open minded at all. I think that there are definitely ways to test out the question of what being open minded really is. How often does one’s opinions change when new facts are brought into light? Does that person automatically reject ideas that disagree with their own, or have they given a detailed explanation of why they agree or disagree that shows that they have wrestled with these ideas? There are some things that people will hold on to until the end, and that’s okay. (For me, there are some things as a matter of faith that I consider non-negotiable, and I also feel that way about my commitment to my wife.) There’s nothing wrong with admitting that, but I think that there definitely times when truly being open minded is also a benefit, so I guess I’m not quite ready to get my magic marker out just yet.

Like a lot of people of a certain age (I was born in 1979), I watched a lot of TV as a child (probably too much). However, one of the things that I think was of a great value to me as a child was children’s television. I must admit that this blog post was originally going to relate a different lesson from children’s television, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew that this was the better lesson to reflect upon for you, my friends and followers, as it provided an even better value.

In a lesson on the Law of Attraction, a theme song for a Christian children’s television program that I had not even seen while flipping through the channels in about 16 years, Quigley’s Village, came into my head over the weekend. While I was doing training for my summer job with the Census Bureau, I saw five of the episodes on VHS at the library of the church where we held our meeting. So, using YouTube, I didn’t find whole episodes, but I did find several excerpts, including a video of one of the puppet characters, a lion named Danny, singing his night time prayers, and words cannot express how much it moved me as it struck a nerve that I didn’t even realize was there. (As a kid, I preferred the storylines over the songs in Quigley’s Village.) So, this made me think about the connections that I have from my days of children’s television, and what this has taught me about personal connection.

Profit Cannot Be Our Primary Goal

Over the last 50 years or so, almost all of the major children’s television has been produced in the non-profit sector, whether for public television (such as Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’s Neighborhood) or religious broadcasting (such as Davey and Goliath). So, this made me think: why has so little of the children’s educational television that has captured the public’s enduring imagination and consciousness come to fruition from networks and cable? (Even without the focus on “educational,” most of the work that has endured that was made by the profit sector tended not to be marketed to children, such as Looney Tunes-era cartoons and The Three Stooges, which were targeted to a more general audience at the time, but only later found to have large appeal with children.) I think that the reason for this is simple: sometimes there are things of value that the market does not recognize. If you grew up watching any of the children’s educational programming I mentioned, would you put a price on the values and lessons that you were taught? I know that I wouldn’t.

Still, when thinking about connections, it thrills me most to see that something that I wrote in my blog meant something to the people who stopped by and read it. Whether or not any of these people find something of value that results in a financial reward for me, I know that I cannot put a price on the friendships that I have formed through this blog.

Be on Your Audience’s Level

As a doctoral student, there is an enormous temptation to try to show the world how smart you are and how much you know. However, I think that the old saying, “People won’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care” is absolutely correct. I am not saying that knowledge is bad, but I am saying that it is a tool like many others.

While I was filling in for the pastor at my church this past Sunday, there were a couple of kids in the congregation. I was trying to teach a lesson on patience and endurance during the children’s story. However, they were two years old and nine months old, respectively. As much as I tried, I couldn’t figure out how to connect. I’m not sure what it is, but these stories do connect, and they still have a resonance decades later.

Don’t Be Ashamed of the Source

I’m sure that there will be some naysayers out there who look down on such programs, but they taught me values that I will have for a lifetime, and even though there were times when I was older than the target demographic (the first time I saw Quigley’s Village, I was 11 or 12, and the target group was 2-7), and I struggled with what I now know was depression, the simple message contained in these shows was something that I desperately needed at the time. So, if it takes singing puppets interacting with adults to get through, there is no need to apologize for it. Instead, embrace the things that work.

Lead from the Heart

The video that moved me so much is not a technically-perfect work. It is obvious that the puppeteer is having difficulty hitting some of the high notes in the middle of the song, and you can hear his voice straining at some points. However, I think that is part of what makes it so moving. It was a heartfelt song by someone who wanted to communicate something of value, and that is why it means so much to me.

Here is a download that I found of the video that inspired this post. (If the owners of the copyright ask me to take it down, I will gladly do so. I am not trying to steal anything, and I want to share what has helped me so much.) Yes, the song makes specific references to one faith, but regardless of your faith, I hope that you can see the beauty that I saw in this short video:

Often, when someone comes from a certain religious background, and has been exposed to very little else, there is a fascination with religions that seem very different from that person’s own background. For me, being raised as a Baptist, with what is known as a “free church” tradition with very little pomp and circumstance, I have been fascinated with Eastern Orthodox Christianity, with its ornamentation and its focus on mystery. (For example, the actual act of preparing the communion is hidden behind a door, and many Orthodox churches speak in different languages, with Greek being one of the most well known.) One part of the Orthodox tradition that has fascinated me was the Jesus prayer. While there may be some variations on the actual phrase, the Jesus Prayer involves the repetition of the following phrase:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”

The purpose of this prayer is to focus one’s mind and heart on God. While at the library one day, I saw a book by Frederica Mathewes-Green called The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer That Tunes the Heart to God. Mathewes-Green, a reporter who experienced a conversion to the Orthodox faith in the 1990′s, writes about her experiences with the prayer.

Deceptively Simple

One of the things that one will note when examining the text of The Jesus Prayer is just how short and how basic the prayer is. Rather than a longer prayer, it is only one sentence. However, when one tries to do it, there are things that one notices. (According to the author, the prayer is usually said in units of 100.) For example, depending on one’s mood, the prayer can be done quickly or slowly, and the choice of the speed and rhythm will affect the way that one responds to the prayer.

A Word of Warning

I am not Eastern Orthodox. I am guessing that most readers who find this probably are not Eastern Orthodox, either. Mathewes-Green said that her spiritual advisers argued that the Jesus Prayer is not something to be undertaken lightly. Some believed that only Orthodox Christians with a spiritual guide should undertake this prayer. However, the author also says that she believes that it is possible for other Christians to find benefit from this prayer, but she also believes that it is not something that should be a solitary pursuit.

A Holistic Approach

One of the things that fascinates me the most about this book is the way that it ties everything to faith. There are some who argue for a type of compartmentalization, but Orthodox tradition argues that one’s faith defines everything one does. This also applies to the Jesus Prayer, which has a goal of tuning the heart to God to make it easier to, in the words of the apostle, “pray without ceasing.”

While I do not think that this prayer is meant to be used as a substitute for more individual prayers, I have found in my experience that saying it (although I must admit that when I first heard about the Jesus Prayer and tried it, I did not count the number of times I said it) that it made it much easier to focus my prayers of my own saying, and it made it easier to put the focus on heavenly things rather than have several things going on in my head at once. Considering how difficult it is to get my thoughts focused sometimes (If I am not careful, I tend to tell several stories at once in conversation.), I think that this is the best testimonial that I can give to its power.

One of the things that has fascinated me the most about questions of faith is the group of people who have tried to profit off of the subculture of that faith. When I discuss the “Christian subculture,” I do not mean this as a commentary on whether or not Christianity is an assumed belief in America, or whether or not people who buy movies and shop at businesses explicitly labeled as “Christian” is a sign of sincerity of belief, simply examining the question of those who make a subculture around Christianity.

Christian Subculture Gone Mainstream?

Part of the reason for the rise of Christian subculture was the mainstream success of two major Hollywood movies in the middle of the last decade: The Passion of the Christ (2004) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005). With the success of these movies, there were efforts to find other movies that would cash in on this market that they felt had been underserved.

Because of this, there have been several movies with Christian themes with a much wider release than the typical release for such boutique studios as Cloud Ten Pictures. These movies include The Second Chance (2006) and Fireproof (2008). These are two movies that seem to approach the Christian subculture in a very different way.

Perhaps the movie that seems to fall into the biggest stereotypes regarding “Christian stereotypes” is Fireproof. It stars Kirk Cameron, who may be best known for his days as a teen actor on Growing Pains who started doing more and more movies with religious themes in the late 1990′s. This movie follows a firefighter captain (Caleb Holt) whose marriage is slipping away. On his father’s advice, Caleb decides to follow “The Love Dare,” a 40-day challenge to save his marriage. Midway through the movie, Caleb has a born-again moment where he converts to Christianity, and he continues with The Love Dare, despite the fact that it does not seem to work.

The Second Chance stars Michael W. Smith, a gospel musician in his first acting role, as Ethan Jenkins, the son of a pastor of an affluent suburban church that partners with an inner-city church. Because the board of trustees does not like his brash style, so they send him to the inner-city church, Second Chance, on an internship of sorts with the streetwise pastor.

The Key Ingredient

Perhaps the biggest difference between these two movies is the quality. I think that the key difference is that one focused on being a good movie first and foremost while the other wanted to be a good Christian movie first and foremost. The cruel irony is that this approach means that the movie that wanted to be a good movie became the one that presented the message in a better way. The surprising thing is that the musician turned out to be the far better actor. In Fireproof, the scenes where anger is supposed to be convey end up being unintentionally funny. While it may be unfair to Cameron, it is still difficult for me to see Mikey Seaver as an authority figure in some of the scenes where Caleb interacts with the other firefighters. Size may be part of it, but it seems like there is a presence that is missing. Even more vexing is the fact that there are several times where the married couple are supposed to be in tears, but they just can’t pull it off, but somehow the director managed to coax tears out of them in the climactic scene, which only made me wonder why he couldn’t do it with the others.

While Michael W. Smith may not be experienced, he displayed a full range of emotion, and he had an impeccable sense of dramatic timing. The Second Chance is a movie that may make some Christians squirm because of its PG-13 rating (for language, some violence, and drug references), but it is a movie that was much more honest to real life. While you may want the marriage to succeed in Fireproof, you will feel an emotional connection to the characters in The Second Chance as they try to save their church and be a beacon to a troubled community.

The reason why The Ten Commandments (1956) was the highest-grossing movie of the 1950′s and Ben-Hur (1959) won 11 Oscars is not because America was more moral at the time, but because these movies were excellent movies and they were focused on telling a great story. I know that I have seen many “Christian” businesses that were sub-par if not corrupt. This is not necessarily an endorsement of the two major successes I mentioned above (I liked The Chronicles of Narnia, but not The Passion of the Christ, preferring The Gospel of John, which came out the year before.) Businesses like Chick-Fil-A succeed not because they are Christian businesses, but because they are good businesses. This is something that everyone should remember when they consider their faith and their business.

Early Monday morning, Robert Carlyle Byrd, the longest-serving Senator in American history, died at the age of 92. As someone who was born in West Virginia and lived 25 of my first 28 years in West Virginia, Senator Byrd was a larger-than-life figure who played a big role in the state and the nation.

However, there are some who have criticized Senator Byrd, and rightly so, for his membership in the Ku Klux Klan for a year in his 20′s, and for his votes against civil rights legislation in the 1960′s, including a 14-hour filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unfortunately, those who were his political opponents tend to end the story of Senator Byrd right there. Looking at the rest of the story of Senator Byrd’s life, one can see a powerful lesson in redemption as we deal with issues of faith.

The Role of Redemption

In Christianity, one of the key doctrines is the doctrine of redemption. This teaches that those who repent can turn their life around. Pointing out the mistakes of someone who has done some terrible things at a younger age while ignoring completely the things that they have done to turn their life around sends the message that it is impossible to ever do anything right if one is only to be judged by such things.

In His Own Words

Many times he was asked about his early record on civil rights, and Senator Byrd freely apologized about, saying that he was wrong, that his membership in the KKK was an “albatross” around his neck, and that he knew that his obituary would include that time. However, he accepted this and told people that he had apologized for it a thousand times, and if he was asked about it, he would apologize a thousand times more. While looking at his statements as he sought his redemption on the issue, let’s look at his actions.

More Than Words

Senator Byrd held a rating of 100% from the NAACP for decades. Unlike the other two examples of notorious Southerners who lived to old age and sought some form of image rehabilitation, Governor George C. Wallace (D-AL) and Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC), Senator Byrd repented at a point where he could do something about his feelings of remorse. Wallace only repented after he left the governor’s mansion, and Thurmond, while casting some votes in favor of civil rights legislation in his career, defended his segregationist past and Dixiecrat Presidential Campaign of 1948.

In perhaps the final display of how far he came by the end of his life, he endorsed then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary. There have been some who argued that Thurmond only changed his stance on civil rights because the Voting Rights Act meant that his electorate was now more racially diverse. However, Senator Byrd represented a state that was 95% white, and a state that only four days earlier gave Senator Hillary Clinton a 67%-26% victory in the West Virginia primary. (Contrary to some accusations of bigotry, the main reason for Clinton’s big win was that she crisscrossed the state and made several stops in small towns all across West Virginia, including a trip to Grafton to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Mother’s Day celebration, while Obama only made one trip to Charleston to speak at the Civic Center.) In other words, Senator Byrd had nothing to gain from this decision. I think that this shows that he truly repented of his past.

Conclusion

I do not write this to ignore the mistakes of the past, or say that they do not matter in the life of a man. The scars of Robert C. Byrd’s past will remain for all time. It is also fair to point out the heroism of then-Congressman Ken Hechler (1959-1977; WV Secretary of State 1985-2001; still going strong at age 95), who represented southern and western West Virginia, who was the only sitting member of Congress to march with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma in 1965. He did so despite the fact that he knew that his actions would be unpopular in his district. While the true heroes are the ones who lead on an issue, I think that we must also recognize those who grew later in life as they saw the error of their ways.

“For the love of money is the root of all evil.” I Timothy 6:10a (KJV)

“My poor dad said money is the root of all evil. My rich dad said lack of money is the root of all evil.” Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad

As a person of faith, one of the hardest questions to address is the role that one should take in the financial world. There are some who believe that money is an absolute evil, and they try to avoid it at all costs. I know of some people who refuse to earn any more than a subsistence living because they feel that is greedy. There are still others who believe that the Bible actually calls people to be wealthy. I think that most Christians would fall somewhere in between these two extremes, but this contrast is something that can be very enlightening for those of us who have decided to pursue a career in business.

Taken to Extremes?

One thing that I have noticed that is very interesting among those who argue that Paul is wrong about this issue is that they have a tendency to misquote the Apostle Paul’s famous statement. Paul never said that “money is the root of all evil,” but that “the love of money” was the root of all evil. Of course, there are those who say that this means to go ahead and try to build a huge fortune.

A More Balanced Approach

Unless society returns to the barter system, I think that it is safe to say that it is impossible to live life without any money at all, but I think that it is clear from this passage that motive plays a huge role in the process of building a fortune. In what is often considered the greatest movie ever made (and for good reason), Citizen Kane, the newspaper reporter is trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle of Charles Foster Kane’s life through a series of interviews and reading private journals.

At one point, he interviews Mr. Bernstein (his first name is never given in the movie), who was one of the few who remained loyal to Kane, “before the beginning, and now, after the end.” When he discusses Mr. Thatcher, the banker who handled Kane’s finances, Mr. Bernstein described him as a fool. When Mr. Bernstein is reminded that Mr. Thatcher made a lot of money in the world of finance, Mr. Bernstein tells the reporter, “Making a lot of money isn’t hard, if all you care about is making a lot of money.”

Why Are You Doing Your Business?

I have heard people talk about the “reason why” as the most important factor in finding the motivation to build a successful business. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know this: no one will ever be happy if his/her only goal in life is to make more money, because there can always be “more money” to be had. However, if one can understand that money is a tool, and not the ultimate goal, business can be conducted in an ethical way, and a lot of pure greed can be avoided. I have seen greed tear families apart, and I know that, in this sense, the Apostle Paul was right, and the preachers of the “prosperity gospels” are wrong. However, it is important never to lose sight of why you are in business in the first place.