Siegel, Shuster and Keats

When I was in college, I took an English course during the summer of 2004 and as a consequence spent most of June, July and August reading. More than anything else I read that summer Keats' poem "Ode to a Grecian Urn" has stuck with me. Specifically the line "Beauty is truth, truth beauty". I remember reading those words and experiencing this rush of recognition, of overwhelming validity. Things that are beautiful are true and truth is beautiful. Since that time, I have seen this played out in front of me, over and over again.

As a Christ-follower, I see God and His influence everywhere. Anything that's true and beautiful is a reflection of Him, of His character. I see God in the way a father patiently teaches a child, the way a mother soothes a wound. In the natural world around me. I'm not being heretical or saying God is in all things, I'm saying that the reason we know beauty and goodness exist is because God is good and exudes beauty. True beauty and truth is a reflection of Him and has it's basis in Him.

This strikes me most when I see it in literature, movies, and songs. Especially when it isn't the author's intent. For example, there is a Superman story called 'Last Son' written by Geoff Johns. You can read a synopsis of it here or you can buy it here. Basically, Superman and Lois can't have kids (because he's an alien, not human) and he and Lois find a Kryptonian boy whom they adopt and call Chris. Then some bad guys come and there is some fighting and they send all the bad guys back to the Phantom Zone through a portal. But the portal won't close, because the portal is staying open for Chris. In order to save the world, Chris has to fly back into this horrible alternate dimension filled with bad guys. Superman begs him not to go, but Chris does, because he's Superman's son, and that's what Superman would do. I see Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Maybe I'm crazy.

I've been listening to Mumford & Sons a lot recently and: 1) they are good and 2) I hear God in these songs. I'm not saying they are Christians, or that you should buy their album. One of their songs has the f-bomb in it. That could be cause they are British, or it could be because they are they are jerks and d-bags. I don't know anything about that. But read these lyrics:

"Love that will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, It will set you free. Be more like the man you were made to be. There is a design, an alignment to cry, at my heart you see, the beauty of love as it was made to be." -Sigh No More

"I will hold on hope and I won't let you choke on the noose around your neck. And I'll find strength in pain and I will change my ways I'll know my name as it's called again... Now let me at the truth which will refresh my broken mind. So tie me to a post and block my ears, I can see widows and orphans through my tears, I know my call despite my faults and despite my growing fears. So come out of your cave walking on your hands and see the world hanging upside down, you can understand dependence when you know the maker's hand. Cause I need freedom now, and I need to know how to live my life as it's meant to be." - The Cave

"In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life. Awake my soul, awake my soul, awake my soul. You were made to meet your maker." - Awake Your Soul

"Corrupted by the simple sniff of riches blow, I know you have felt much more love than you've shown, and I'm on my knees and the water creeps to my chest. I begged you to hear me, there's more than flesh and bones. Let the dead bury the dead, they will come out in droves. But take the spade from my hands and fill in the holes."-Thistle and Weeds

If you seek God, you will find Him. If you know His voice, you'll hear His cry. If you know His story, you will see it played out around you. As a picture is not a person, these things are not Him. Just flickering shades, pale imitations of the true immeasurable person of God. Who loves you and died for you. So that you may know Him and make Him known.

Video Games vs. The Supreme Court

In case you didn't know or hear (or care), the Supreme Court recently decided a case regarding California vs. The Video Game industry. Basically, California passed a law restricting the sale and rental of violent video games to minors. So, why did the Supreme Court get involved? Well, turns out banning video games is a violation of free speech. For reals. I'm not making that up. "Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium."

So, it's a free speech thing. And in order to be banned, (not protected under 'free speech') something has to be clearly defined and obscene. The Supreme Court felt that it did not meet those requirements. "California’s Act does not adjust the boundaries of an existing category of unprotected speech to ensure that a definition designed for adults is not uncritically applied to children. Instead, the State wishes to create a wholly new category of content-based regulation that is permissible only for speech directed at children. Unless California can demonstrate that it passes strict scrutiny, i.e., it is justified by a compelling government interest and is narrowly drawn to serve that interest. California cannot meet that standard."

So the law was too vague and it could not prove causality (that playing violent games made kids violent).

So what? Why should we care? Well, for starters, video games made more money than movies. $10.5 Billion vs. $9.87 Billion. And second, video games are pervasive. You can get them almost anywhere. (Did you know that 7-11 sells video games?)

Now, I hear you saying, "Don't video games have a rating system?" Yes. Yes they do. And it's voluntary. Companies don't have to do that. It's like the Comics Code Authority. The industry hopes that if they self-regulate they won't have laws like the one passed in California, because they like to roll around in their oodles of money, and restrictive laws would make that harder to do.

But, unless (until) a more narrowly defined or better researched law gets passed, how are we supposed to protect our children? By being parents you lazy bags of excrement. All the parents and adults getting upset about their kids playing violent video games SHOULDN'T BY THEM FOR THEIR KIDS. OR GIVE THEM THE MONEY FOR THE VIDEO GAMES. Stop asking the government to parent by proxy.

Too Long for Facebook

This was too long for a Facebook status, but I thought I would share.

"I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one that I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic. At first glance, such a suggestions seems to have it all backward. Shouldn't faith become easier, not harder as a Christian progresses?"

Jesus pled three times for God to "take this cup from me" and Paul begged God to cure the "thorn in my flesh." C.S. Lewis asks "Does God then forsake just those who serve Him best? Well, He who served Him best of all said, near His tortured death, 'Why hast thou forsaken me?' When God becomes man, that Man above all others, is least comforted by God, at his greatest need.

There is a great mystery here which, even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore. Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might have been less tenderly treated."