Incarnational Evangelism: Preaching the Word to a Words-Weary World
How do the arts fit into missions, evangelism, and worship? Is there such a thing as incarnational evangelism through the arts and culture?
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The Big Short Stands Tall on Explanations, but Gives No Solution
Recognizing that it’s only January, I can already say with some degree of confidence that The Big Short is the best movie that’s going to be released this year. As a movie, it succeeds on every level. The acting, directing, editing, cinematography, music, pacing, and script are all superb. The movie has an eclectic range […]
Continue reading →Why I Gave Up on Finding a Political Solution to Our Obvious Political Problems
In our day, most everyone recognizes our nation has huge problems: inflation, unemployment, poverty, hunger, homelessness, racial tension, fatherlessness, violence, corruption, terrorism, police brutality, government spying, debt, illegal immigration, rising cost of living, and massive loss of rights, just to name a few. Many of these politically important problems are rooted in culture. We have […]
Continue reading →Why Do We Love Superhero Stories So Much?
If the box office and television are any indicator, America is obsessed with superheroes. Nearly every new batch of movies has at least one superhero movie, and superhero television shows seem to roll out every week. Judging from how much money these movies and shows generate, superheroes are our generation’s favorite thing. But why? According […]
Continue reading →Huxley vs. Orwell: Whose Dystopian Prophecy was Closer to the Truth?
In 1949, George Orwell’s publishers sent his old French teacher, Aldous Huxley, a copy of Orwell’s new book, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Then Huxley sent Orwell a letter, both congratulating him for his fine work and gently criticizing his vision of the future: Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning […]
Continue reading →“Blurred Lines” Producers to Pay Marvin Gaye Estate $7 Million for Infringement
In a landmark decision on copyright infringement, a court has decided that Robin Thicke and Pharell Williams did in fact unlawfully borrow crucial elements from the 1977 Marvin Gaye song “Got to Give it Up” for “Blurred Lines”—the top-selling song in 2013. Williams and Thicke are now required to pay the Marvin Gaye estate $7 […]
Continue reading →Hitler Collectibles So Hot Right Now
A painting by a certain “A. Hitler” just sold at auction for $35,235. That was more than three times the price fetched at the same auction for a drawing by Pablo Picasso: It sold for more than three times the $9,500 winning bid for an original Picasso sketch, a whimsical signed drawing in red crayon […]
Continue reading →Is Heaven Tourism Just a Bunch of Malarkey?
The newest mark against so-called heaven tourism may cast doubt on the dubious belief that any mere human has come back from heaven following a near-death experience, but it certainly provides evidence that there is a God. Because who but God could have worked it out that the young man who at first claimed to […]
Continue reading →How Movie Makers can Get Better Cinema Revenues in 2015
The data are in, and it looks like cinema revenues are continuing to decline: Despite a fantastic Christmas at the box office, 81 million people didn’t buy movie tickets this year. Not only were this year’s domestic admissions of 1.259 billion off 6% from 2013’s 1.34B, but the number of tickets sold hit their lowest level since […]
Continue reading →Why are Vinyl Records Making a Comeback?
Vinyl records sales have reached an 18-year high, with many new releases coming out on vinyl as well as compact disc and digital downloads. Of interest is the fact that, whereas the CD seems to be fading in popularity, vinyl continues to surge: According to data from Nielsen SoundScan, in 2007 CDs accounted for 90 […]
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