Category: Faith

The Education of Shelby Knox

The Education of Shelby Knox

The Education of Shelby Knox (USA, 2005, Directors: Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt, 76 minutes): This film follows the life of 15-year-old Shelby Knox, a teen living in conservative Lubbock, Texas. Though from a conservative Christian Republican family, Shelby is a feisty and compassionate campaigner for sex education in the public school system, feeling that their “abstinence-only” policy is ignoring the obvious, including higher than average rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The film follows her over a period of three years, as she begins to question the easy answers offered by her church, her school, and her community. She works with a city-funded group, the Lubbock Youth Commission, but when local politicians force the group to tone down its activism, she quits and begins working with a group of gay teens to help them start a Gay Straight Alliance group at school. Despite the fact that Shelby herself has pledged to remain a virgin until marriage, she recognizes that not everyone in her community wants (or in the case of the gay students, is able) to make the same choice. This film is a balanced and compassionate look at one young woman’s political and spiritual awakening. In light of the currently raging culture wars, it’s a must-see for people on all sides of these issues.

10/10(10/10)

Harper’s May 2005

There are two related and equally discouraging (but must-read) articles in this month’s Harper’s magazine. Both “Inside America’s Most Powerful Megachurch” and “Feeling the Hate with the National Religious Broadcasters” have me feeling more miserable than ever to be connected in any way with the so-called “evangelical” church.

Despite the tone of condescension and vitriol in Lewis Lapham’s editorial, the articles themselves are, on the whole, clear-eyed. The few exceptions are of the standard “look at the religious freak show” variety and even I find that less offensive than I used to.

Most disturbing is the growing trend toward triumphalism in the fundamentalist churches since Bush’s reelection, as well as the corporatization of the church. Under the guise of diversity, many of the megachurches are actually enforcing monolithic thinking on a whole range of issues, many of them political.

Here’s a telling quote from Chris Hedges’ article, on the National Religious Broadcasters’ convention:

“[Radio host and pastor James] MacDonald quotes liberally from the Book of Revelation, the only place in the New Testament where Jesus (arguably) endorses violence and calls for vengeance against nonbelievers. It is, along with the apocalyptic visions of St. Paul, the movement’s go-to text. Rarely mentioned these days is the Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus who speaks of the poor and the marginalized, who taught followers to turn the other cheek and love their enemies, the Jesus who rejected the mantle of secular power.”

I used to think of the Christian Right as a sort of crazy uncle. You know, still part of the family, but somebody to be a little embarrassed by. But I’m no longer thinking that way. I don’t recognize these people as family at all any more. I wonder how I ever could have.

If it weren’t for progressive Christian voices like those of Jim Wallis (God’s Politics), Brian McLaren (A Generous Orthodoxy) and Anne Lamott (Plan B), I’m not sure where I’d be these days.

Dear Dr. Dobson

Dear Dr. Dobson is a really useful resource for Christians who oppose the anti-gay agenda of Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. It’s part of the larger Soulforce organization, which looks pretty cool.

And of course there’s my other favourite “family” website, PFLAG.

NOTE: I’m posting these links as a resource for anyone who might be interested in this perspective. I’m not interested in engaging in an argument about whether homosexuality is a “sin” or not. I’ve disabled comments on this entry for that reason. Sorry…

Write About It!

The Real Live Preacher hits another one out of the park.

Which caused me to want to write about something that happens to me sometimes. Not very often, but often enough to keep me on the “glass half-full” team. More than many things, this is why I am a Christian. Well, it’s why I’m a theist. The Christian stuff comes from somewhere else, possibly. What am I talking about?

Well, it happened most recently last weekend. I’d spend Friday night “holiday” partying with the GTABloggers, talking and laughing and drinking into the wee hours with a group of people I’ve grown to love. But it didn’t happen there.

On Saturday morning, I reluctantly woke about five hours after I’d crashed into bed, to accompany Brooke downtown. She was running in the Santa Shuffle, a 5K race to support the Salvation Army. I was being a good husband, showing my support for my closest friend and life partner. But it didn’t happen there, either.

It happened after she’d raced away from the starting line. I had about half an hour to wait for her to finish, and I went back inside, into the warmth of a nearly empty food court, where I sat with my coffee and listened to my iPod.

Sometimes I think music is like prayer. It’s a language to express things that can’t possibly be expressed any other way. Words and music blend together to speak about something much much bigger than any of our individual lives. I’ve noticed a certain earnestness and emotional vulnerability coming back into the kinds of music I listen to lately. Irony and cynicism are being stripped away and it’s now ok to be hopeful again. I call this the music of crazy optimism. It’s one of humanity’s most enduring traits. Hope. Longing. And it always speaks to me. Basic truths I try not to forget: life is so so good. And we’re all connected somehow.

I was listening to Modest Mouse‘s Good News for People Who Love Bad News (actually, the title has a sort of double meaning, I guess) and something about these lyrics from “Float On” just made me a bit weepy.

I backed my car into a cop car the other day
well he just drove off, sometimes life’s ok
I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh what did I say?
well you just laughed it off, it was all ok
and we’ll all float on ok, and we’ll all float on ok, and we’ll all float on ok, and we’ll all float on anyway.

I’m not really expressing it well, am I? Well, that’s why we have music, I guess. Go and listen to some that you love.