I still hate all things chick flicks

Christian Living No Responses »
Dec 262009

I still hate all chick flick movies, soaps, most sitcoms and chick flick books. I already posted about this once and really nothing has changed. While I’m on this rant, I really don’t like most movies aimed at young kids.  I lump those movies in the same bucket as chick flicks.

What is it that I can’t stand? The constant bombardment of the fairly tale love story.  It’s everywhere and many times it’s the whole point of the movie/tv show/book.  And really, that is the last thing I want my kids (no matter how old) to learn from Hollywood and the entertainment biz. The boyfriend & girlfriend junk  in kids stuff might only be there subtlety but go ahead and look for it.  It’s there. I mean really, why does kid stuff have to have a romantic angle to it?  I can’t stand it. So count how many movies are completely absent of it. Count how many movies where the love story is more than just a bit part. I bet you are surprised.head-in-the-sand

I think that most Christians have their heads in the sand on this issue.  Yes that is harsh. Flame away. But tell me, how many Christians follow the same dating & marriage model that is pushed on them from all the media? I think the percentages are high. Way high. And in case you have missed it, the model does not begin with God and have a foundation of making Jesus king in every area of your life.  Why do we want to model our lives on anything but biblical values? I fear that so many want to have both; the fairy tale love story and then mix in some spirituality. I’ve seen how that ends too many times. Oh, and don’t get me started on how bad most Christians date. I posted about that already too.

Okay so I know I am making HUGE generalizations here and I will leave some wiggle room for the exceptions.  There are some. I don’t think I am way off in left field though. And I’m not defending guy movies as there can be just as much junk in them (like Transformers 2). I just think people have a lot harder time distinguishing between real life and chick flick love stories. It’s just not that hard to blur real life with a multimillion dollar love story  production created to tug at people’s hearts at just the right spot.The message gets absorbed knowingly or not and it is influencing everyone exactly as designed. Relationships are not better because of it. Most of this leads to dissatisfaction in relationships. It’s pretty tough to live up to a Hollywood story.

Do you agree or do you think I’m nuts? And what is the answer? Really I’m not pushing for boycotts. I would be lying though if I said I wasn’t pushing for people to be much more choosy. And to be conscious of what is going in their brains which inevitably impacts their hearts.

P.S. I saw Avatar the other day and while the 3D technology was incredible and the special effects stunning, I could have done without the love story sub-plot in it. Just trying to be consistent here.

Posted by Matt Lane at 12:47 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

People that I never thought that mattered

Christian Living No Responses »
Dec 222009

Here is a partial list of people I have at some point in my life put in the bucket of “People that I never thought that mattered”…

  1. Waitress/Waiters especially when they check in too little or too muchstupid-people
  2. Fast food cashier/drive thru person
  3. People driving that I think should not be
  4. Telemarketers
  5. Unhelpful sales person (you pick the store)
  6. Gas station cashier
  7. Person serving you $4 coffee
  8. Anyone I want to call stupid, ignorant, moron or jerk

I listened to a sermon from Matt Chandler a few weeks back and he made a statement along the lines of “their souls matter so act like it”.  That stuck.  What do you think?

Posted by Matt Lane at 5:45 pm

Half The Bible Does Not Have Jesus

Bible, Christian Living, god 2 Responses »
Dec 142009

Actually if you are counting books, there are 39 that do not mention Jesus. And if you just look at content, it is almost 70% of the Bible that does not have anything to do with Jesus.  Or that is what many believe.

How many times have you heard the stories of the Old Testament but never heard them connected to Jesus?  Okay maybe once or twice as an adult MAYBE. So how about when kids are taught? Almost never and it just kills me.

Too many times Old Testament stories are taught as great moralistic events that we should internalize as examples to learn things from. They are taught disconnected from the New Testament and unrelated to Jesus and have little redemptive value. Most of the time they are presented as random stories that might or might not be historical but are fun to read because they are entertaining. Murder, sex and money. It’s all in there.OT4dummies

Truth is, there is a metanarrative. As one pastor says, some people fit the Bible “… somewhere in between Aesop’s fables and Joseph Campbell’s myths. But Christians don’t believe that. We believe the Bible is the metanarrative. It is the overarching story under which all of history is to be understood and interpreted. We reject reducing the Bible to yet another good story. It’s the story of who God is, what God has done, what we have done, and what God has done to save us.”

If you don’t teach and preach Jesus, you are just another religious zealot trying to hopelessly convince people they need to stop doing certain things and to do other things better. If that is you, cut it out. Don’t leave Jesus out of the Old Testament. Or the New Testament for that matter. (Yes I have heard that done too).

Without Jesus, we have nothing and conversely Jesus is everything.  I want to do and say nothing that tries to proves that otherwise.

Posted by Matt Lane at 12:56 am Tagged with: , ,
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