So this blog post is a result of another inspired request of a friend. Personally, I think he should start blogging too. He's got some wisdom in him =) Though, I suppose I can write this one for him. This blog deals with a rather popular artist that has risen to popularity in the past few years. Her hits include songs about kissing girls and waking up in Vegas. Yes, you probably guessed that I am talking about the one and only Katy Perry. However you might not have guessed that she is a pastor's daughter. Shocking right? But wait there's more! Ms. Perry also maintained a brief career as a Christian singer when she was about 15. So how did she go from singing about God to singing about being bi-curious? According to Katy's mom, its when Katy was noticed by a music producer who wanted to take her to L.A. “that's when she started to change" said Mary Hudson (Katy changed her name from Hudson to her mother’s maiden name Perry to avoid confusion with that other Kate Hudson). That may have been what led her on the path to the super-stardom and notoriety she experiences today. But I would argue that that’s not when it started, when Katy herself really started changing. Sure, that’s when her parents noticed her changing but Katy said in an interview "I started living life on my own terms at 17. I moved away from home with the blessing of my parents. And it’s just that crazy experience of like, ‘Ohmigod, I have no curfew! I’m making my own money now! Nobody can tell me what to do! I don’t really have a set of rules besides the rules I set for myself!’” I think what happened was her parents held Katy so tightly, then she was let loose into a world she was not prepared for. She experienced a culture shock. And her reaction was to lose herself in it. While looking online, I found some Christian responses of hopes she might find God again, that she might return to her parent’s faith.
I would argue that she never had it in the first place.
You see, Katy Perry isn't that different from us. Well, except for the millions of dollars of course. We have been there. We have held the title of "Christian" but haven’t yet figured what that means, what that looks like. And if we do not have parents, role models to help us figure that out, our faith becomes superficial at best. A few lines from that same interview mentioned, "Perry grew up in a Christian household. MTV-watching was prohibited. Madonna posters were forbidden. And terms as innocent as 'Dirt Devil' and 'deviled eggs' were banned in favor of 'vacuum' and, yes, 'angel eggs'."
My theory is that her parents sheltered her. And when I say sheltered I mean from everything. I don’t think they really explained to her why she couldn't watch MTV or listen to Madonna, past stating that they were bad influences. It seemed like it was just a "Cause I say so" situation and it seemed to have backfired. Katy seemed to translate that living Christian meant living cut off from the world completely and that's just not how Jesus intended for us to live.
Our faith is not meant to be a list of things we cannot have or do. It is a living breathing faith that allows us to adapt to our culture and change it, not fight against it. I am not saying there are not things in our culture that should be challenged but I think it’s more of a not throwing out the baby with the bath water situation. Yes, we must use our discernment when approaching secular music, movies and other media. Not avoid them altogether. We need to see that God is not just in Veggietales and songs by Newsboys. He reveals himself in other areas as well. Areas not included in our sheltered Christian environment. Don’t get me wrong, I love Veggietales but when we are constantly on a diet of Christian books, music and movies, how are we supposed to encounter the culture we live in?
I believe if Katy's parents had successfully taught her about her culture and about how to encounter it, she wouldn't have run headlong into it. Because think about it, if all she knew about Christianity was rules and then she suddenly lives in this culture of ours where there are almost no rules, which one is she expected to choose? Well-intentioned repression is always going to fall short of unapologetic freedom.
The key here then is to recognize that our faith is not rules. Our faith is acknowledging the all-encompassing love, revelation and salvation of Christ and how it will transform our lives. Do not misunderstand me, God wants us to remain pure of the world's tainting but that does not mean we must shun the world. How are we to save it unless we understand it? What we must do is keep ourselves rooted in God as we explore culture. That means viewing the movies, music, and other media we enjoy through God's scope. More on that in my next post. For now, I would say to exercise caution in judging Ms. Perry. She is actually more alike to us than we think.
A Different Perspective
So I was watching Bones earlier (one of my favorite shows) and it got me thinking. This particular episode I was watching was called "Player Under Pressure". The storyline involves a murdered star college basketball player.(SPOILER ALERT!) The killer ends up being a past-champion basketball player-now head of campus security. He didn't plan to kill the boy though. This guy wasn't a bad guy. It was a crime of passion. You see he walked in on his daughter, his baby doing something rather personal with this basketball player. And it broke him, he killed the boy. At the end, Booth is trying to talk him down from shooting himself. Then he said something that just struck me. He said "I came in and saw my little girl...doing what she was doing...I was just like him ya know?... I was just like him. You wouldn't understand. It changes your life when you see your little girl...its a different perspective." I think you boys (and even some girls) would benefit from seeing things from that perspective. Boys when you are with a girl and things start going farther, picture being that girl's father and watching someone else doing this with your little girl. Your daughter. Girls, imagine what you are doing this with a this boy ,imagine your father is watching. Imagine how heart-broken he is when he sees you giving up innocence for pleasure or for "love". This isn't to judge you but I just thought if we viewed things from a different perspective, we might rethink our choices.
A Blog Involving Taylor Swift
Sorry about being all over the place with my blogs. Been bouncing from book snippets to movie reviews and now to a song review...sort of. I am actually going to use a new popular song to make a point. It is the point of "If I will do it for you, I will do it to you". And the song is "You Belong To Me" by Taylor Swift. Heres the vid.
So there is a song like this almost every year. The "She doesn't love you like me" song. Sorry to any hardcore Taylor Swift fans but it's not an original concept. However, lets treat it like it is for a moment. This song (and vid) is about a girl(Taylor) who is pining away for this guy "friend" of hers(Cute blond boy). In the song, Taylor makes the case that the cute blond boy's current girlfriend doesn't "get" him like Taylor does and she would be a much better match. And you see in the video how he communicates with her. Markers and poster-board. So sweet! They sit on a bench and he brushes her hair back, then his evil girlfriend shows up and ruins it!
But slam on the brakes here.
Lets ignore the fact that the boy is cute, the girlfriend is evil, and the romantics of it all, and lets see this situation for what it is. This is a boy who, for whatever reason, is unhappy with the relationship he is in. This doesn't mean the girl is evil or the issue he is dealing with is catastrophic. Relationships are complex and have their low points. But instead of dealing with the issue with his current girlfriend, he finds another girl to listen to his problems. (RED FLAG!) If I were Taylor, I would walk away as soon as this boy began weeping to me about his girlfriend. Harsh? Maybe. But I am actually doing He and I, a favor. Because even though the guy ends up with Taylor, what is keeping him from doing the same thing with her ?. A real man will not whine about his relationship to another girl, regardless of how horrible it is with his girlfriend. Because REAL MEN will protect a girl's honor. Even after they break up, a real man won't give in to bad-mouthing her to other girls or even getting sympathy from other girls.
So in the end, Taylor gets this boy. But what keeps him from doing the same thing when they have difficulties in their relationship? Because it comes back around to if I will do it with you I will do it to you. If this boy wasn't grounded enough in integrity to stick to one girl per relationship, then whats going to stop him from doing it again?
The reality is if you allow a boy to talk to you about intimate relationship woes, thinking that you are romantically connecting with him, then you are causing him to be emotionally cheating on his girlfriend. And if he does leave her to be with you, there is nothing stopping him from doing the same thing to you.
So there is a song like this almost every year. The "She doesn't love you like me" song. Sorry to any hardcore Taylor Swift fans but it's not an original concept. However, lets treat it like it is for a moment. This song (and vid) is about a girl(Taylor) who is pining away for this guy "friend" of hers(Cute blond boy). In the song, Taylor makes the case that the cute blond boy's current girlfriend doesn't "get" him like Taylor does and she would be a much better match. And you see in the video how he communicates with her. Markers and poster-board. So sweet! They sit on a bench and he brushes her hair back, then his evil girlfriend shows up and ruins it!
But slam on the brakes here.
Lets ignore the fact that the boy is cute, the girlfriend is evil, and the romantics of it all, and lets see this situation for what it is. This is a boy who, for whatever reason, is unhappy with the relationship he is in. This doesn't mean the girl is evil or the issue he is dealing with is catastrophic. Relationships are complex and have their low points. But instead of dealing with the issue with his current girlfriend, he finds another girl to listen to his problems. (RED FLAG!) If I were Taylor, I would walk away as soon as this boy began weeping to me about his girlfriend. Harsh? Maybe. But I am actually doing He and I, a favor. Because even though the guy ends up with Taylor, what is keeping him from doing the same thing with her ?. A real man will not whine about his relationship to another girl, regardless of how horrible it is with his girlfriend. Because REAL MEN will protect a girl's honor. Even after they break up, a real man won't give in to bad-mouthing her to other girls or even getting sympathy from other girls.
So in the end, Taylor gets this boy. But what keeps him from doing the same thing when they have difficulties in their relationship? Because it comes back around to if I will do it with you I will do it to you. If this boy wasn't grounded enough in integrity to stick to one girl per relationship, then whats going to stop him from doing it again?
The reality is if you allow a boy to talk to you about intimate relationship woes, thinking that you are romantically connecting with him, then you are causing him to be emotionally cheating on his girlfriend. And if he does leave her to be with you, there is nothing stopping him from doing the same thing to you.
Robots in Disguise, Shia The Buff and A Fox. Again.
So if you figured out the riddle in the title then you will have already figured out that this blog will be a type of review of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. I actually was asked to do a review on this movie after someone read my Twilight review. So heeeere goes.
I will not lie, I was counting down to this movie as soon as I saw the short trailer several months ago. If any of you have a casual knowledge of what kind of movies I like, then this is no surprise. I squealed when I saw Prime on his way back into theaters. But alas it seems when you build something up so much it has that much further to fall. And in this case, they did it heart-wrenchingly. The heartbreak factor was because the action was suberb. I LOVED the storyline. But they changed some of the essential characteristics of the main players. In this film, The Autobots use petty language and begin displaying brutal fighting moves, ripping the Decepticons limb from limb. Not the Autobots I am familiar with. But that was only a small detail albeit an important one. My problem (shocker) was with the sexual content of this movie. You might say "But Lisa no one is seen having sex in this movie!" You are right there. But isn't that always the case with these so-called pG-13 movies? They don't show "it" but they hint at it, flirt with it, and dance around "it" I like to call it "tightrope" sexual content. It doesn't plunge headfirst into explicit content but rather keeps a delicate balance, just enough to keep the audience "entertained". This tightrope performance is played by two characters. In a starring role is Ms. Megan Fox ,Leading lady from the previous film. In the 2007 movie, Ms. Fox was seen as a possible love interest for Sam (Shia Lebouf). Well in this film she is a full-fledged girlfriend. Such an innocent word, girlfriend. In actuality, she is a sex object from the first moment she is onscreen in ROTF, straddling a bike in the most ladylike of ways. The rest of the movie follows suit. The other role a new lady in a side role but she is not really a lady at all. She is some odd infiltrating transformer that looks like a a hot chick. While trying to seduce Sam (laying horizontally on top of him on a bed), this hot chick's tongue turns into a barbed metal spike of sorts. She then attempts to kill him. Appetizing. And inappropriate content aside, a useless plot twist. So in the end I must call it a draw. I liked the movie. It was entertaining. But the over-the-line content means I cannot recommend it to anyone with a good conscience.
I will not lie, I was counting down to this movie as soon as I saw the short trailer several months ago. If any of you have a casual knowledge of what kind of movies I like, then this is no surprise. I squealed when I saw Prime on his way back into theaters. But alas it seems when you build something up so much it has that much further to fall. And in this case, they did it heart-wrenchingly. The heartbreak factor was because the action was suberb. I LOVED the storyline. But they changed some of the essential characteristics of the main players. In this film, The Autobots use petty language and begin displaying brutal fighting moves, ripping the Decepticons limb from limb. Not the Autobots I am familiar with. But that was only a small detail albeit an important one. My problem (shocker) was with the sexual content of this movie. You might say "But Lisa no one is seen having sex in this movie!" You are right there. But isn't that always the case with these so-called pG-13 movies? They don't show "it" but they hint at it, flirt with it, and dance around "it" I like to call it "tightrope" sexual content. It doesn't plunge headfirst into explicit content but rather keeps a delicate balance, just enough to keep the audience "entertained". This tightrope performance is played by two characters. In a starring role is Ms. Megan Fox ,Leading lady from the previous film. In the 2007 movie, Ms. Fox was seen as a possible love interest for Sam (Shia Lebouf). Well in this film she is a full-fledged girlfriend. Such an innocent word, girlfriend. In actuality, she is a sex object from the first moment she is onscreen in ROTF, straddling a bike in the most ladylike of ways. The rest of the movie follows suit. The other role a new lady in a side role but she is not really a lady at all. She is some odd infiltrating transformer that looks like a a hot chick. While trying to seduce Sam (laying horizontally on top of him on a bed), this hot chick's tongue turns into a barbed metal spike of sorts. She then attempts to kill him. Appetizing. And inappropriate content aside, a useless plot twist. So in the end I must call it a draw. I liked the movie. It was entertaining. But the over-the-line content means I cannot recommend it to anyone with a good conscience.
If I will do it for you, I will do it to you... Part 2
So here is the second installment in this series of excerpts from Justin Lookadoo's book Dateable, titled "If I Will Do It For You I Will Do It To You". This excerpt deals friends who are 2-Faced, as Justin puts it. Lets take a look
2-Faced
Does this sound familiar? You have a group of friends. The four of you are really tight. But whenever one of the friends is not there, everyone else is talking about that person.
"I can't believe what she wore today"
"She will never get him. He is way outta her league."
"Dude, he is so gay"
Whatever, If everyone is talking about the friend that's not in the group, right at that moment, guess what they are doing to you when you're not around. Yep. Exact same thing.
"Oh , but we're best friends. They would never do that to me. Not while you're standing there, maybe, but as soon as you're not around, They will do the same thing to you. Yeah, go ahead and think about your friends right now. 'cause you know what they're doing to you when you're not around.
As always Justin is pretty clear about this message. If I will do it for you (or with you in this case), I will do it to you (when you're not around). The golden rule plain and simple, flying in your face. Really, we shouldn't talk about anyone behind their back, regardless of the consequences to ourselves. For those of you who are Christians, We are called to love our fellow man or woman. And talking behind their backs is harmful and deceitful. Even if you don't follow Jesus though, that's just nasty behavior. It really comes down to treating others how you wanna be treated. Don't want people to talk about you behind your back? Then don't start talking about others behind their backs.
2-Faced
Does this sound familiar? You have a group of friends. The four of you are really tight. But whenever one of the friends is not there, everyone else is talking about that person.
"I can't believe what she wore today"
"She will never get him. He is way outta her league."
"Dude, he is so gay"
Whatever, If everyone is talking about the friend that's not in the group, right at that moment, guess what they are doing to you when you're not around. Yep. Exact same thing.
"Oh , but we're best friends. They would never do that to me. Not while you're standing there, maybe, but as soon as you're not around, They will do the same thing to you. Yeah, go ahead and think about your friends right now. 'cause you know what they're doing to you when you're not around.
As always Justin is pretty clear about this message. If I will do it for you (or with you in this case), I will do it to you (when you're not around). The golden rule plain and simple, flying in your face. Really, we shouldn't talk about anyone behind their back, regardless of the consequences to ourselves. For those of you who are Christians, We are called to love our fellow man or woman. And talking behind their backs is harmful and deceitful. Even if you don't follow Jesus though, that's just nasty behavior. It really comes down to treating others how you wanna be treated. Don't want people to talk about you behind your back? Then don't start talking about others behind their backs.
If I will do it for you, I will do it to you... Part 1
This snippet comes from Justin Lookadoo's book Dateable. It is from this one section that is titled the same as this blog "If I will do it for you, I will do it to you." Even though it is basically the golden rule, (Treat others the way you want to be treated), it still is a lesson everyone would be well off learning. Justin puts it like this:
Liar LiarPoliticians argue against this point all the time. You have some guy who cheated on his wife, abused his power to make it happen, and lied to cover it up, and his supporters claimed, "This does not impact his decisions as President. His personal life is seperate from his professional life." No, Its not! This is a character issue. If someone will lie to cover up a sex scandal, he will lie any time the truth could make him look bad. He's a liar. He isn't a liar in just this situation; he's a liar, period.
Same goes with friends. You might call one up and say, "Hey, I told my mom I'm spending the night with you, but I'm going to sneak out with my boyfriend all night. So when my mom calls, tell her I'm already asleep and I will call her in the morning. Okay? Bye." If your friend agrees to do it, You are both liars.
If someone will lie to your parents to keep you out of trouble, you can't believe anything they say. I know, I know. That's different, right? "She was lying to keep me out of trouble, but she's really not a liar." Yes, she is, and so are you. It's a character issue. People who lie are liars.
This is one issue that Justin deals with. I'd like to follow it up with the other issues he covers, but I will leave you all with this one for now. I apologize for the lack of original material but I really thought Justin put it better than I could. As I said before, it really comes down to the golden rule, but its sort of backwards. Don't expect someone who lies for you to not lie to you.
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