Wes' Blog Cabin

A-Fleck of Wisdom.

I didn't get to watch much of the Democratic Convention this week because we were at the LCMS National Youth Gathering in Orlando. The Gathering was probably more fun than the DNC love-fest, anyway. I thought their theme this year was a little convoluted and clunky. "The DNC: Our Diversity is only skin deep." I thought they should have stuck with something simple and honest, like 2000's theme, "DNC/Y2K: The extremely rich telling the extremely poor how to vote."

Despite the fact that us HFT folks were hanging out with 37,000 high school kids for 18 hours a day, I did from time to time see TV's in restaurants and hotels that were playing clips of the Democrats' Big Show. I couldn't help but notice that Ben Affleck was all over the place. Was this confusing to anyone else? Ben Affleck? Isn't this the same guy that previously occupied his time and brain space with cerebral artistic endeavors such as Reindeer Games, Jersey Girl and a relationship with J-Lo?

The last clip I saw of him, I was in the airport. Mr. Affleck was having a panel discussion with Larry King and various political pundits...all staring blankly at Benny as he flailed his arms around. Now, the sound wasn't up, so I couldn't hear what he was talking about. But from the looks of it, he was showing the others how Kerry would karate-chop the deficit and any other suckas that got in his way. I'm not a professional lip-reader, but I think I saw him mouth the words, "...drop kick those pansy war-hawks....heeeeyah!..."

Right after this...I'm not kidding...Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs-Ditty P was interviewed, singing the praises of John Kerry. I'm starting to see a campaign strategy forming for the Kerry/Edwards ticket. They are trying to make a direct appeal to those that have dated and/or have been betrothed and/or engaged to Jennifer "Jenny" "J"-"Lo"-"Pez." Apparently, that's a much bigger demographic than any of us realized. In fact, pundits are starting to refer to this voting block as the "Pez Dispensees."

Anyway, I'm just glad that Christians don't take the same approach to evangelism. I mean, can you imagine if we took a relatively talentless "star" that may or may not be qualified to talk about anything and took him or her on some sort of Christian circuit? I mean, what kind of response would...oh, I don't know...say Stephen Baldwin...get if we sent him out with some dudes on skateboards? Kids would see right through that. Right? Just like America can see through movie stars forcing their agenda down our throats? Right?

Maybe I should move to a country without any celebrities or Christians. I hear Canada is nice. Eh?

Pictures.

Hi. My name is Wes. This is my face. Yes, there are two of them on this page now. That is weird. Yes. But I am only sharing this information with you for two reasons.

1.) We just now, for the first time ever, got the ability to put pictures on our blogs. Fun.

2.) This is the only picture of me I could find on the web to stick in here. So here it is.

Thanks for your time. Now back to Postmodernists and the people who love them...

More Blah, Blah, Blahs...

So I just gave a good shout out to the folks that were commenting on this blog at the end of my last entry. But I wanted flush out some of my thoughts specifically about Steve's comments. So I'm going to. That's what blogs are for, right?

Steve, perhaps I can take issue with a something you said...I completely agree with you that Christianity has always been influenced by the culture around it. I do not hold to any pie in the sky ideal that we can avoid this influence. I do, however, very much hold to the ideal that would should TRY to avoid it. I hope we can all agree that Christianity being drug around by the short-sighted whims of mass culture is not a good thing. Maybe we don’t agree with that, I don’t know.

You said, “I think it's better to view things like modernity and postmodernity as prevailing philosophies through which people of different eras view the world and God -- because there's just no way around it!” I still think you’re looking the wrong direction through the binoculars. If we view God through Modernity and/or Postmodernity, we are left with a very small, very shrunken view of God. If we flip the binoculars around, and view Modernity/Postmodernity through God’s eyes, we’ll see these philosophies for what they are...cheap imitations of God...human attempts to create it’s own self-sufficient purpose.

Is it impossible to see the world the way God sees it, without any outside influence from the world around us? Yes. Absolutely. It’s impossible like not ever sinning is impossible. But the fact that it is impossible should not deter us in the slightest from pursuing it with vigor. This is, in fact, a pursuit of holiness, an unattainable yet realistic goal; the goal of having our hearts formed perfectly in the image of God’s heart. Impossible but a worthy...the only worthy pursuit.

Pre-Post-Modern Retro.

So it has been a few weeks since we've had the postmodern discussion about postmoderism. I've had some time to think. Granted, I haven't had much time, but I have had a moment or two. Here is what I am currently thinking about this whole Modern vs. Postmodern hulabaloo.

I think, when it gets down to brass tacks, Christianity is neither Modern or Postmodern. It seems as though Christianity should be clinging tenaciously to the idea that there is Something outside of our limited view. This Something is reliable, trustworthy and unchanging. Maybe I'm way off but that doesn't seem to fit in with either of the Modern or Postmodern camps. Modernists would say there is nothing beyond our own human comprehension. Postmodernists would say that everything is beyond our comprehension. I don't think Biblical Christianity would agree with either of those presuppositions.

It's a bit drastic, but the example I keep thinking of would be people in Eastern Europe near the end of WWII. They basically had to decide whether they agreed with the Nazis or the Communists. I'm sure there were a lot of people that never even considered that, perhaps, both sides were wrong.

I'm not comparing Modernists and Postmodernists to Nazis and Communists. I'm just saying that there seems to be a lot of pressure (from Christians) to get Christians to decide whether they are Modern or Postmodern thinkers. And, let's face it, a lot of Christians just aren't thinkers.

OK, that was a joke. But we should be talking about the idea that Christian thought could possibly stand outside of philosophies that inherently deny the authority or authenticity of a Creator. It seems like we are getting mixed up about how we should be measuring our worldview. It seems like some of us tend to look at whatever new, fun philosophies are handed down to us, then ask ourselves, "How is Christianity like this. I mean, people really seem to be clinging to this new philosophy. So what can we do to squeeze Christianity into it?.."

Still others seem to be doing just the opposite, saying, "Here is a new evil philosophy from the heathens. Clearly, it is evil. Let's go as far away from this new philosophy as we can!"

But both camps are being changed and molded by the new thought.

Maybe we should cling to the work that Jesus did on the cross and to God's revelation of Himself in His Word. Then, let's look at how the world around us has changed, support the good changes, and reject the bad.

I know. It's a very glazed, simple view. But I think there's something to this. Any thoughts from anyone about it? Can Christianity be neither Modern nor Postmodern? Or must we as Christians decide which one we are?

P.S. -- Mad Props to Blaine for his comments on our last discussion entitled Beauty, Pagitt. Mad Props to all y'all. I'm just glad to hear from Blaine. And I like where he's coming from. Peace out.

Were we talking about something?

So we had a nice little something-something going on about ... something. Right? Oh, I remember. We were talking about Post-Modernism, I believe. Well, as per usual, things got nutty over here at HFT Industries, and the next thing you know...blah, blah, blah.

I'd love to pick up this discussion where we left off but I think it's going to be a couple of weeks before that can happen. We're on the road right now and won't be back until after a string of crazy shows.

But, hey, feel free to keep it going. I'm really excited about what people have been talking about. Good stuff.

We'll talk soon. It'll be great. Really.