This End Down

From Flickr

There is no way to even begin to share the things we’ve heard and seen since 5pm yesterday … yes the four story Caribbean Market building is completely demolished. Yes it was open. Yes the National Palace collapsed. Yes Gov’t buildings nearby the Palace collapsed. Yes St Josephs Boys home is completely collapsed. …

Thousands of people are currently trapped. … Precious lives hang in the balance. When pulled from the rubble there is no place to take them for care.  Haiti has an almost non existent medical care system for her people.

There are friends and co-workers that are missing. … The horror has only just begun and I beg you to get on your knees – I truly mean ON YOUR KNEES and pray for the people of this country. The news might forget in a few days – but people will still be trapped alive and suffering. Pray. Pray. Pray. After that – PLEASE PRAY.

From LivesayHaiti

Photos

• The Boston Globe’s Big Picture (by far the best collection): http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html
• ABC News Slideshow: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/slideshow?id=9546756
• Terremoto in Haiti Flickr set
• Lisandro Suero’s Twitpics

News

• NYTimes: The Lede blog (actively updated with collection of news): http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/gleaning-information-from-haiti-online/
• Wikipedia: 2010 Haiti Earthquake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti_earthquake
• CNN Haiti Quake Site: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/haiti.quake/
• LivesayHaiti (a missionary blog): http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/

Aid/Organizations

• Red Cross: http://newsroom.redcross.org/2010/01/12/disaster-alert-earthquake-in-haiti/
• Worldvision: http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/learn/world-vision-haiti?Open&lpos=lft_txt_Haiti
• Partners in Health: http://pih.org/
• Full list here: http://www.urbanfaith.com/2010/01/ways-to-help-haiti.html

Twitter has helped me learn conciseness. Earlier today, I had a thought that I wanted to write down. It started as just a one-sentence thought, but then quickly spiraled (in my head) to become paragraph after paragraph of elaboration. I caught myself, thinking, “I only have 140 characters (the length limit for Twitter messages) to get across this message. Fix the sentence to make it communicate what you want; don’t just elaborate forever.”

Obviously, the fullness of each of my thoughts can’t be explored in 140 characters. But no matter how long I make this post (before I edited it, it was almost four times longer), its summary will always be simply the post’s first sentence (which is far less than 140 characters): “Twitter has helped me learn conciseness.”

Edit: I chose to change to the word conciseness. I prefer concision, personally, but conciseness is a better communicator–there’s much less of a pause between reading the word and understanding it, as conciseness has only one meaning and concision has multiple.

I love being able to keep my friends and family (and some random strangers) updated about every thought that crosses my mind. I’ve long enjoyed writing long, intimate blog posts about things that matter to me, and engaging in conversation with people who read the blog. I also love feeling like my family and friends who aren’t close to me geographically can get an update on how I’m doing.

This blog, Twitter, Facebook, and then an IV blog, IV facebook and IV twitter, have given me so many outlets for expression that I’ve reached the point of emptying myself of anything significant to say. I find myself always referring to “that post I wrote last week”, or, “did you see that thing I posted on Facebook?” Something had to change.

This blog, taking the most effort to update, was the first to drop. I’ve begun to limit my Twitter & Facebook updates pretty severely as well. I’m moving more towards generating content I want other people to see, and away from just talking about my life, my frustrations, etc.

Hopefully this is a good sign for the blog, because it’s my best place for generating content. It’s hard to have a teaching moment through Twitter. We’ll see.

It does mean it’ll be harder for people to just keep up with my life through these online mediums. So, if you ant that, and you miss it, please give me a call, email me, text me, comment here, or whatever else it takes to get in communication. I’d love to hear about you, and maybe tell you a little about my life as well.

But, for now, if you want to be kept a little more aware of my goings-on Internet-wise, feel free to follow me on twitter. Otherwise, pray that I use my time, attention, and expression wisely and in a way that helps others, leaves me with impetus for non-Internet conversation, and glorifies God.

I wrote in June on Migrating Intervarsityuf.org to Facebook, and I have some thoughts about how the last few months have gone in using a Facebook page for our InterVarsity chapter at UF.

Benefits of switching to a Facebook page (from a group)

• You can generate status updates and posts to your wall, allowing you a much greater capability for daily interaction with students.
• People are more likely to be a fan of something than to join a group.
• You can have multiple “tabs” (meaning you can have multiple pages to your Page.) You can choose which is the landing page when visitors first visit your site, and you can customize these to look almost any way you like (although some customizations might require the knowledge of HTML).
• Pages get detailed user interaction tracking (called Insights) about fans added, fans who leave, and how fans interact with their posts and updates.
• The user interface is more like the personal profiles they’re used to interacting with, making the page feel more dynamic, comfortable, and personal.
• Once you reach 100 users, you can create a custom URL for your page (for example, ours is http://www.facebook.com/intervarsityuf ).

Detriments of switching to a Facebook page (from a group)

• Becoming a “fan” of a page has less feel of commitment than joining a group. More people become fans, but it carries less weight than joining a group.
• You cannot message your members; you can only send updates. Both show up in their inbox, but updates are not the default view, and also don’t show up in their unread message count.
• You cannot invite all of your fans to an event; you can only invite people you’re already friends with.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll try to update this if I think of more. Overall the experience has been great, but the limitations on event invitations and messaging is putting a huge damper on our plans to use the Page exclusively.

Recently I’ve become very aware of some factors influencing the representation of Black characters in American TV & Film. Since I moved to Florida, got involved with InterVarsity, and made some incredibly gracious Black friends who’ve worked with me to help me understand how much different much of their experience has been from mine, I’ve become much more aware of the racialization of the world around me. But I don’t watch a lot of TV or movies, so that’s one arena in which I’ve stayed blissfully unaware… until recently.

Pause for a moment. Racialization is not the same as racism. I first read the term in Divided by Faith, an incredible book that gave me so much understanding and wisdom and research and fact (to add to the personal testimony I’d gained) about the race situation in America and in the church. Racialization as I read it is not the same as racism; racism is a knowing dislike of and unfair negative approximation of a person’s worth because of their skin color, ethnicity, etc. (which in our world fall under the social construct “race.”) However, many people have told me that white people who don’t get super-involved with race issues, etc. are racist. I always clashed with that. Instead, Divided by Faith presents the concept of a racialized society–one that has distinct lines drawn along the boundaries of race. More black men in prison, segregated churches, different health rates and hiring rates and educational quality, etc. So, you can exist in your happy white world, unaware of what’s going on with people of ethnic minorities, and you can think great things about them–you’re not a racist. Yet if you aren’t actively learning about and doing things to end racialization, you’re still allowing a racialized society to persist–which isn’t any a lot better.

Back to the original point: I’ve been making some comments recently on Twitter about Black characters on TV. Essentially, I like to watch TV while I design web sites–it distracts me just enough to keep from getting bored, but it’s not stimulating enough to slow down my work. I’ve been watching a lot of normal shows recently–not advanced, award-winning shows that are on the forefront of social commentary, but plain old normal shows–and I’ve noticed a trend across all of them: Black people are accessories.

It’s sad. It’s a terrible thing to admit. And, growing up, I would’ve told the person saying what I’m saying now to stop whining. But there’s something to this. In these shows I’ve been watching, the Black characters fall into a few simple categories:

• The mean girl’s follower best friend
• The drug dealer
• The young kid from the projects who’s trying to make his way out playing basketball
• The “mammy”, the homely, simple, sweet but a little sassy mother/neighbor/grandmother/landlady
• The voodoo mystic (usually African, Haitian, or from New Orleans)

There are certainly others, but I can’t tell you the last time I saw a consistent Black character with depth that didn’t fall into some strong stereotype. Smallville had Petey, but he disappeared right quick. I know there have been others–everyone can name a show with a Black president or a Black best friend. But in general, I’ve been more and more disappointed the more I see.

Obviously, this is excepting movies and TV intended for Black audiences. From what I can gather, I once would’ve been able to point to BET, but now it seems to be shirking its original intention of giving Black Americans A) real roles for the actors/characters and B) programming that meets them where they are.

Anyway, that’s where I’ve been coming from. I find that I’ve been mentioning this a lot recently, and I decided it was time to really write something about it and see if people wanted to say anything about this, teach me more, learn from what I’ve learned, or whatever else.

*Edit*: If you’re interested in learning more about these topics, two of the best sites (in my opinion) are UrbanFaith and Racialicious. UrbanFaith looks at national issues from a Black Christian context; Racialicious is devoted to all things racially motivated/striated. One note: Racialicious contributors are very comfortable with sex and some language that might make some people uncomfortable, so visit if you can handle it.

The origin of evangelistic culture
We start with the two great commands that form the foundation of Christianity’s purpose: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a) and “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:28-31 pp).

Out of these commands, you find a Christian culture devoted to evangelism, obedience to Jesus’ teachings, love for the LORD, and love for other people. However, the American Protestant church is dominated by Evangelicalism, which (as the name implies) places priority on evangelism. This emphasis isn’t unfounded;  consider the importance Jesus placed on people being brought to know his father, the example of evangelism set by the earlier church, and the implications of someone’s death without knowing the LORD. The result is that I, like many of my generation, was raised seeing the primary goal of Christians as soul-saving.

Do you really love me, or are you just fulfilling your quota?
What I didn’t understand as a younger Christian is that evangelism is important in the context of the other commands. Many of us American evangelicals have forgotten the second half of “Love God, Love People” when we are following the Great Commission, which is why (among other reasons, I’m sure) Evangelicals have earned such a bad name in American culture. We yell and scream at the “sinners” because they “need to repent from their evil ways”–all true and Biblically supported, of course, and all in the name of love (“I don’t want to see them go to Hell!”)–but really practiced without any love at all. There’s no mention that we the preachers are also sinners; there’s no compassion, empathy, or even stopping to learn someone’s name.

In response to our bad name, a common sermon thread has emerged: “Don’t tell the non-Christians to come to us; let’s go to them!” It’s a great thought, recognizing that while Jesus went to the houses of the tax collectors, we’ve instead been sitting in our temples telling the “tax collectors” of our day that they’re not good enough to even come to our temples. What’s this meant for a lot of my generation, however, is that instead of just sitting in church in a Christian bubble, we instead push outward on our bubble and try to sort of just crush everyone else’s bubbles underneath ours. Instead of just sitting around at youth group, the youth group now goes out on campus and does cold contact evangelism (walking up to perfect strangers and asking/telling them about Jesus.)

Now, there’s nothing wrong with contact evangelism or street preaching. There are certainly times when the LORD prompts you to speak to someone you don’t know, and some people find that that’s a regular enough part of their lives (or feel like it should be) that contact evangelism, street preaching, and the like are where they best connect to people about Jesus. That’s fine. But there’s a much more foundational element of the Great Commission that we’re often missing.

If you’re an evangelical Christian, consider this: how many of your close friends aren’t Christian? Did you make any friends in your classes or at your job? Did you join any non-Christian clubs? Are you involved in any non-church social activities? Or is your entire circle of influence formed of Christians? My bet is that we’ll find that we’re a lot more immersed in Christian culture than we realize. Evangelism must be “talking about Jesus to a random stranger on the bus” because they’re the only non-Christians we ever see–hence our cold contact evangelism mentality.

To be “in this world but not of it”, we have to actually be in the world
What if there were a different way? What if, instead of just sitting on the outside of popular culture, and (in the words of Andy Crouch) condemning, critiquing, consuming, and copying it, we actually engaged with the world around us? What if we were around non-Christians, joined non-Christian groups, intentionally made friends with people who disagreed with us or don’t understand us?

My wife Tereva has always been frustrated with one aspect of the culture of our InterVarsity chapter: it is often the only campus group its members are connected to. People join our chapter and love the fellowship, community, teaching, and even the outreach, and they are content just to stay there. Rather, Tereva wants them to join other campus groups, get to know other people, go do extracurricular activities you love and make friends there. My intial response was to wonder why we wanted to encourage people to spend less time with our group, but I soon saw that even our “outreach” events were merely just us trying to expand the edges of our little bubble of IV culture.

My challenge to us
I always feel a disconnect when people are so super-hyper about evangelism and church culture but seem to know nothing about the people they claim to want to reach. There’s a definite need for all of us to realize that Jesus didn’t just talk about the Kingdom–he talked to people where they were. Talking to shepherds, he used sheep metaphors. In a religious culture that didn’t allow mingling with sinners, he sat and ate with sinners. When speaking to untouchable lepers, he reached out and put his hand on them while he spoke. In the same way also, meeting people where they are doesn’t just mean going with a group of Christian friends in Christian t-shirts and quoting small snippets of Biblical phrases that mean something to you and nothing to the person you’re talking about. It means getting into their culture, their situation, and putting yourself in places where you can learn from them before you start pushing your culture on them.

However, I’m not the only one who feels that disconnect with those church culture folks. I think I share that with a lot of the postmodern church, a lot of people my age who are the “intellectuals” and “cool Christians”–we’re proud of ourselves for actually knowing non-Christians and being able to engage in their spheres. Some marks of “cool Christianity” are embracing the freedoms that Christ very legitimately offers us, but valuing those freedoms over the call to ministry; when more of your discussions about Jesus are about how silly and legalistic the “church culture” people are, and less are about the person of Jesus and his call on your life.

My opinion is that John Kerry lost the ‘04 presidential race because he didn’t actually have a platform to run on. His entire campaign was “at least I’m not George Bush,” and while it got him a lot of press, it wasn’t enough to actually convince people he had anything to offer. In the same way, “cool Christians,” we need to be more than just “the Christians that aren’t stuck in church culture.” Yes, it’s great that Jesus has given us freedom, and yes, I support the Biblical right to drink (in moderation), cuss (occasionally, but be careful with your heart and don’t bring your brother down just for your freedom), and to watch secular movies and listen to secular music. The freedom of the LORD and his desire for us to enjoy the world around us are very important; showing non-Christians that we’re not inviting them into a life of service to church, but instead a joy-filled life serving the King of the Universe is important. However, our lives need to be most devoted to the above-mentioned foundations of the true Church that obeys our King: evangelism, obedience to Jesus’ teachings, and love for God and others.

How can I be cool and still love Jesus?
Simple answer: You can’t. But what we can do is recognize that our lives should not be lived in church culture, and our lives should not be lived as a contrast to church culture. Rather, our lives should be lived devoted to Jesus, and we should recognize that different people will go about it different ways. Church culture folks need to learn a little bit from cool Christians about loving and understanding the people you’re called to reach; cool Christians need to learn a little bit from Church culture folks about devoting your entire being and existence to the work of the LORD without hesitation, shame or regret. Both sides need to step outside of their comfort zone and become a little more like the other side. Both sides need to stop judging the other.

I know this was fantastically long, and I hope it meant something. Thanks for reading it, and I’d love your comments, criticism, and suggestions.