Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
I heard part of this quote in the good movie Akeelah and the Bee. Akeelah was told to read it from a framed copy on her spelling coach’s wall. They attributed it to no one, and I see that some people falsely claim it comes from Nelson Mandela. But the quote comes from a motivational speaker named Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love. She is extracting an idea she draws from A Course in Miracles, which is New Age self-help material from the 60s.
Jeffrey Overstreet talks art all of the time. Find him at a coffee bar, and you’ll hear him talking art. He doesn’t give directions to his dry cleaners without literary allusion. Here’s a quote from an interview with Heather Goodman:
If an artist focuses on the idea, the compulsion, the inspiration, then questions about how to engage the audience will probably find their answers along the way. I think a great deal of contemporary art is compromised and weakened by too much concern about who’s out there paying attention, and what they want to see. An artist’s first responsibility is to listen, and then to engage whatever questions or ideas or mysteries they’re encountering.
My favorite stories and movies don’t give me a sense that an artist is eager to please. They give me the feeling that I’ve stumbled onto a project that has the full attention of its artist. . . .
The Auralia Thread is being criticized by some readers of Christian fiction because it contains things that readers of Christian fiction don’t like to read. And it doesn’t have feel-good conclusions or obvious allegories, which readers of Christian fiction sometimes want. Well, perhaps that’s because I was just writing the story that seemed best to me . . .
Sir Patrick Stewart and David Tennant will portray Claudius and Hamlet in a BBC production of Shakespeare’s play to be shown on PBS’ Great Performances tomorrow night and online afterward. Watch a trailer for it on the Great Performances site.
Miley Cyrus is coming to grips with life in the 21st century. She has stopped tweeting and uses the web less often than she used to. “I’m a lot less on my phone, I’m a little bit more social,” she says. “I have a lot more real friends as opposed to friends who are on the Internet who I’m talking to — which is like not cool, not safe, not fun and most likely not real. I think everything is just better when you’re not so wrapped up in [the Internet].”
Of course, she doesn’t read BwB, so that part of her life (that very small part) is malnourished.
In the sixteenth century, the term evangelical came into prominence as a description of the Protestant church. In many cases, the terms evangelical and Protestant were used interchangeably. Today, that synonymous use of the adjectives no longer functions with any accuracy. Historic Protestants have forgotten what they were protesting in the sixteenth century. The central protest of the Reformation church was the protest against the eclipse of the gospel that had taken place in the medieval church.
He points to loss of biblical truth, loss of discipline (meaning appropriate church discipline of congregants), and loss of faithful worship as three danger points for the modern church.
I heard yesterday a Moody radio producer say they believed their listeners were hungry for teaching on the fundamental principles of the Christian faith. Why would that be? Have these people only heard sermons that make application points of principles assumed to be understood? Do most of our churches preach notes from a Christian life over the character and heart of our triune God through whom that life is possible?
Hey, Lars! We’ve been nominated for an award in the 4th Annual Cannonball Catholic Blog Awards. We’re in the category: “Best Blog by a Heretic.” I’m not joking, and I hope we stomp our competition.
In celebration of this nomination, I offer this video of one of my favorite songs–favorite being a loosely defined word that could mean anything.
I have been busy this week and will be next week as well, so my blogging (and pre-blogging, prep-blogging, post-blogging, and linking) will continue to be light and even lite. But at the moment, I am putting folding clothes, so here’s a link to a post on amusement over out of context Bible verses on t-shirts.
One of the best out of context verses I’ve heard was a missions conference banner reading, “All this I will give you – Matt. 4:9.” The person telling the story said he couldn’t recall a missions context in Matthew 4, and if you don’t remember that reference either, I’ll tell you it’s a quote from the devil when he said he would give Jesus the world if he would worship him. I can only assume a biblical illiterate used a program to search for a few words and ran with the best ones.
The problem is that most high quality content found on the internet (music, video games, stories, illustrations, etc.) costs significantly more money to create than it is making on-line. There is a huge gap between the cost of production and the price of consumption. Some organizations, such as the New York Times or the makers of the game Spore, complain about this gap and seek to correct it. When they do, they are endlessly mocked on blogs and many consumers refuse to pay up. This results in such organizations either backing down or finding themselves with far fewer customers. In either case, the degradation of content continues, professional people are laid off, and the public gets more and more Beyoncé mashups to feast on.
Fr. Thomas McKenzie offers suggestions for Christians using digital content.
