An opinionated look at current events, culture and faith, since 2005 telling you what to think and why to think it about everything that really matters.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
What a Few Thousand Teens Will See This Summer
Attendees at this summer's Christ in Youth Conferences will see this video on Fridays:
We hope that some heed it.
Props to our friend Adam S for producing this and the previous cinematic experience.
While I am excited by the project of Bible translation, I am less than enthusiastic with methods of recruitment of organizations with that end as well as the twisted millennialist motivation which often drives it. The statistics cited are misleading in the first degree—a proper statistic would relate to how many people in the world can speak a language that the Bible has been translated into.
Indeed, the Word of God, if the Bible indeed be that (and I'm claiming it is, for one) is not contained by the pages between its covers and the words of the pages themselves. How could it be? The Gospel transcends language (all meaning does), so how could language be so important? Meaning eclipses language in every way.
The missional, multi-cultural expression of the Gospel should be of upmost importance to those who take the New Testament seriously, but not the book itself. Notice that Paul's mission is an oral one (how will they be saved without hearing? he asks, not without reading) just like every other NT missionary.
The Jesus tradition was put into a universal language and then those who could read helped others. SWNID knows better that experience with scripture as a whole in the early church was an auditory one. The difference here is between the rugged individualism of being able to read for one's self and the communal event of auditory scriptural reception. It seems to me a ridiculously modernist/American/Protestant/Restorationist idea that Christians would need to be able to read in order to be Christians. I must have missed the part in Acts where converts were taught how to read before baptism.
Forgive my cynicism over an effort I ultimately support.
We get your point theoretically. Practically we do observe that Bible translation has proved a powerful means of furthering evangelism and church development.
I thought it was a marxist attack on late stage capitalism formatted using post modern cut-up concepts first articulated by William S. Burroughs and myself and slammed into the public subconscious by MTV.
So if I have a Lexus, a big house on the water (define big?)and give both time and money to spread the gospel - I'm the anti-Christ?
This is just more reinforcement that success=money rather than educating someone on the real biblical directives on the use of God's resources - (although they did correctly state that money is the root of all evil not evil itself). Very popular though in recruiting uninformed rebellious youth using cool media. Obviously PBT know's it's audience and how to market effectively.
Nuance is lost on teens, anon. The folks who produce videos like this are trying to get teens to make career choices based on values other than greed.
That is not to say that greed can't be used for good. A capitalistic market economy does just that. It is to say that people who by ideology confess to eschew greed ought to be challenged to live up to their confession.
Or let's put it differently: market forces will never get the Bible translated into the languages of the world's poor.
6 comments:
While I am excited by the project of Bible translation, I am less than enthusiastic with methods of recruitment of organizations with that end as well as the twisted millennialist motivation which often drives it. The statistics cited are misleading in the first degree—a proper statistic would relate to how many people in the world can speak a language that the Bible has been translated into.
Indeed, the Word of God, if the Bible indeed be that (and I'm claiming it is, for one) is not contained by the pages between its covers and the words of the pages themselves. How could it be? The Gospel transcends language (all meaning does), so how could language be so important? Meaning eclipses language in every way.
The missional, multi-cultural expression of the Gospel should be of upmost importance to those who take the New Testament seriously, but not the book itself. Notice that Paul's mission is an oral one (how will they be saved without hearing? he asks, not without reading) just like every other NT missionary.
The Jesus tradition was put into a universal language and then those who could read helped others. SWNID knows better that experience with scripture as a whole in the early church was an auditory one. The difference here is between the rugged individualism of being able to read for one's self and the communal event of auditory scriptural reception. It seems to me a ridiculously modernist/American/Protestant/Restorationist idea that Christians would need to be able to read in order to be Christians. I must have missed the part in Acts where converts were taught how to read before baptism.
Forgive my cynicism over an effort I ultimately support.
We get your point theoretically. Practically we do observe that Bible translation has proved a powerful means of furthering evangelism and church development.
Oh, this is a video about Bible Translation?
I thought it was a marxist attack on late stage capitalism formatted using post modern cut-up concepts first articulated by William S. Burroughs and myself and slammed into the public subconscious by MTV.
So if I have a Lexus, a big house on the water (define big?)and give both time and money to spread the gospel - I'm the anti-Christ?
This is just more reinforcement that success=money rather than educating someone on the real biblical directives on the use of God's resources - (although they did correctly state that money is the root of all evil not evil itself). Very popular though in recruiting uninformed rebellious youth using cool media. Obviously PBT know's it's audience and how to market effectively.
Nuance is lost on teens, anon. The folks who produce videos like this are trying to get teens to make career choices based on values other than greed.
That is not to say that greed can't be used for good. A capitalistic market economy does just that. It is to say that people who by ideology confess to eschew greed ought to be challenged to live up to their confession.
Or let's put it differently: market forces will never get the Bible translated into the languages of the world's poor.
I think that the following song would have been a much better choice for the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNX2P7v5S8
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