BlogRodent: Pentecostal Rumination & Review

Recently, I posted my Spider-Man Bible Study / Discussion Guide. Simultaneously, I dropped a few comments on some blogs that referenced a different Spider-Man Bible Study produced by Fuller Theological Seminary's professor Craig Detweiler.

Some GodBloggers have been critical of the whole "movie-based Bible study" enterprise. Not surprising, really: using Hollywood movies to teach Biblical truth is a little like using dance to teach worship, or wine to serve Communion. There may be a place for it, but it's going to generate controversy somewhere.

I've been asked before to justify how I could write a Bible study with a movie as its context. After all, if I'm writing a

My Spider-Man 3 movie-based Bible Study is here, at long last! I have permission from CTI to provide the study here on my site. Over the next few days or weeks, I'll post the previous combo-study I wrote for Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2 as well.

Warning: the following contains spoilers! Stop now and do not read below this paragraph if you hate knowing anything beyond what the trailers reveal.

Spider-Man 3
The greatest battle lies … within

The first two Spider-Man films established Peter Parker and his super-heroic alter-ego as a popular and profitable theatrical draw: Spidey is loveably unstoppable and Peter Parker is the nice boy everybody wants to see "get the girl."

But Spider-Man 3 severs those silky threads of comfortable niceness, dumping Peter Parker and Spider-Man into a dark abyss where evil infects the

Update: The Spider-Man 3 study can be found here.

In early 2005 I wrote a Bible study for the Spider-Man 1 & 2 movies, currently only available via ChristianityToday.com. Last week I stopped by the offices of Christianity Today International and "volunteered" to freelance the Bible study for Spider-Man 3, as well, opening May 4 in a theater near you. (Here's the official site. Here's the IMDB site.)

So, this coming Tuesday, thanks to CT Movies editor, Mark Moring, I will attend a screening of Spider-Man 3 at 10 AM in downtown Chicago. Wahoo! After that, I will put on my thinking cap, review my extensive notes, think hard and start writing about the many redemptive themes from the film to weave into a Bible study useful for small group discussions and

I've blogged on tragedy before:

• Church shooting at Sash Assembly of God, Sash, Texas and a survivor's reaction ("God Protected Her")
• Katrina ("On Moral Levees," and "Nature, God, Blame and Shame")
• Former A/G youth pastor, Eric Brian Golden, who murdered his wife ("Youth pastor slays wife, confesses. Why, oh why?", with several updates)
• And 9/11, five years later ("September 11 and a Terrible Joy")

But since the massacre at Virginia Tech, I've been at a loss for words. I've wanted to try to research this to put it into perspective for myself and perhaps my readers — as if anyone could. But it's still too grisly and horrifying. I

I was surprised to read of a recent arrest at Central Bible College when some folks arranged a non-violent protest and an attempt to "dialog" with allegedly "homophobic" school officials over Gay, Lesbian, and Transgendered issues recently:

Central Bible College: Our First Act of Civil Disobedience (via Soulforce)

The blogger, Brandy Daniels from Wheaton, writes:

We arrived to Springfield, Illinois [knowing] at the beginning that it was likely that Central Bible College would not be as pleasant a stop. We relentlessly pursued conversation with the administrators at the school, who told us again and again that our voice was not welcome, that this was a conversation that the school did not need or want.

Arriving at CBC, the protesters found the school ready, with police and security from Evangel, CBC, and the General Concil all around (all hands on deck, apparently). After loitering on the sidewalks just off

Michele, blogging at Reformed Chicks Blabbing and Life Under the Sun has taken over where the former "Christian Bloggers blogroll" (defunct since October, 2006) has left off. Her mission: Get every orthodox Christian blogger linked up. It's an ambitious task. I'm here to help.

While not as selective nor exclusive as my own PneumaBlogs list, Michele does have requirements. If you want to join the Christian Blogosphere BlogRoll, visit her site.

Click here to view the blogroll right here right now. Then bookmark!

Greed is the surprising accompaniment to almost all our sins.

We all like lists. They help create organized presentations, and they are easy to remember. Perhaps that is why God chose a list format to present some of his most well-known laws. But what if we took that list — the Ten Commandments — and reduced it to its essence? What basic sins would we identify? One hopelessly alliterative preacher condensed the Decalogue to a clever three-point quip: man's chief temptations are "gold, girls, and glory." Gary Downing, in his article "Accountability That Makes Sense," agrees, calling them "the three issues with which we all struggle: money, sex, and power."

But perhaps we could distill even further, to a sort of grand unifying sin: greed. It is the misplaced love and desire that drives broken

While things are confusing down here, we can always trust in the hope of heaven.

About an hour northeast of Indianapolis on April 26, 2006, a tractor-trailer drifted across the Interstate 69 median. In its path: ten students and staff in a Taylor University van. The tractor ripped through one side of the van, scattering wallets, purses, and debris across the dark roadway and sending five souls into eternity.

In the accident's aftermath, one survivor was identified as Laura VanRyn, and officials contacted her family as she was airlifted from the site in a comatose state. Over the next several weeks the VanRyn family kept constant and prayerful vigil at her bedside while she struggled out of her coma.

Then came the shattering revelation: the young woman they lovingly watched over did not answer to the name Laura VanRyn. Instead, a battered and broken stranger lay in her place: fellow Taylor student and

In some cultures and eras, apostates face certain death. In America, it's the church that's dying from apostasy.

Apostate — it's not exactly a common word. But for those doomed to hear its rare pronouncement, it can mean imminent death or serious eternal consequences.

Like repentance, apostasy implies a rejection or abandonment of a practice, ideal, or belief. And one religion's penitent is another one's apostate.

This irony became apparent in the first formal court case involving charges of apostasy in Kuwait. The court found Hussein Qambar Ali guilty for converting from Islam to Christianity in December 1995. Since Shari'ah law in Kuwait (and many other Islamic societies) prescribes the death sentence for apostasy, the court called for Ali's execution, along with the termination of his marriage and the distribution of his possessions to heirs.

"Apostasy in the Islamic world is serious," said Ali. "Anyone, even an ordinary person, has the right

For some time I've wanted to provide some sort of real-world ranking system so that those of you who want to know who the "big fish" are can find them, and so those of you who have successfully worked your blog into the stratosphere would get a little praise for your effort.

After thinking about it and hacking around with some online tools, I finally have an easy way for me to quickly determine the Technorati Ranking of every blogger on my PneumaBlogs list. (The Technorati ranking is determined by the number of links to a site by other bloggers within the last few months. So it's sort of like a "vote" by other bloggers.) Upon seeing the results I was surprised at some of the lesser-known bloggers making it to the top of the heap.

Congratulations!

In a mad dash of creative craziness, a few more things have popped up on the PneumaBlogs tool-set. So, for your blog-reading enjoyment, here's a quick summary of everything not covered in my previous post ("PneumaBlogs, PneumaSphere, PneumaSearch").

FireFox Search Plug-in

< ?php include ("/home/rtatum/public_html/blog/pneumatools.txt"); ?>

First off, fellow PneumaBlogger Christoph Fischer ("my cup of coffee") saw that I'd created a Google Co-Op tool to search within the entire set of PneumaBloggers (PneumaSearch) and he went off and quickly fabricated a PneumaSearch MyCroft extension for the FireFox search bar. What this means is that if you use FireFox and if you use the built-in FireFox search bar, you can quickly add a tool to your search box that will allow you to search only within the PneumaBlogs universe of bloggers.

Thanks Chris!

Squidoo alternate for PneumaBloggers

In case you haven't noticed, over the past several days I've been trying to bring my "Pneuma" pages up-to-snuff within the new design and to make them all a bit more usable.

Just now I've added a third page to my collection: PneumaSearch. Yes, that's right, I've gone crazy with the whole "Pneuma" prefix, just like I've irrationally appended "Rodent" to everything else. I guess, in the tradition of Web 2.0 mash-ups, I'm the PneumaRodent. But that may be carrying things too far. (Talk to my editor about it.)

Anyhow here's what's new:

I've finally gotten around to evaluating everybody who's been asking for consideration, and it shows. My paltry list of 70-80 PneumaBloggers has shot up to 130+. That number could change daily, or weekly.

Also, previously, I've used the built-in "BlogRoll" or "Links Manager" function of WordPress to manage my ever-growing

My friend and fellow PneumaBlogger, Frank N. Johnson over at Strategic Digital Outreach, was recently highlighted on GospelCom's GospelCon blog. In “Flawed Follow-Up or a Flawed Philosophy of Evangelism?” Frank writes:

[T]hose of us involved in Internet evangelism in the West have, in many cases, devalued face-to-face relationships and neglected (or even abandoned) the local aspect of Christian community. … [W]e … are much too quick to assume that virtual community is just as ideal as face-to-face community. …

It is my strong conviction that the unbeliever must be immersed into Christian community prior to conversion in order for the unbeliever to understand that God loves him/her and to understand the purpose of Jesus' mission on earth

Last year, on October 3, I did a live interview with John Hall and Stephanie Fraschetti from Word-FM about the "Jesus Camp" documentary that was then the height of Evangelical fear-mongering (start here if you don't know what I'm talking about: "Jesus Camp: Brainwashed in the Blood — or Is it Spin?"). At least that was before the Ted Haggard fracas blew up.

Not long before this interview took place, I had also been interviewed by MSNBC for its program, "The Most." (If you're interested, see "Jesus Camp and BlogRodent on MSNBC."). It was interesting experiencing these two interview formats back-to-back. I enjoyed being on "The Most" as a floating-head talker, but I really enjoyed chatting with John

I have been silent on the outing of Ted Haggard, not because I have nothing to say, but I needed to know more of the story before writing anything. And I needed time for my heart to break.

Now that most of the relevant data are in, I will do my usual thorough job of reviewing most of what has been written and produced on the matter so I can serve up a concise lengthy treatise.

Stay tuned.

[tags]BlogRodent, ted-haggard, new-life-church, homosexuality, drugs, methamphetamine, charismatic, pentecostal, national-association-of-evangelicals, nae, colorado-springs, colorado, sexual-sin, sin, moral-failure[/tags]

An alert reader notified me that on Tuesday, October 17, Eric Brian Golden admitted to murdering his wife, DeeDee Marie Golden late one night 11 months ago, on November 17, 2005.

If you're new to this blog, I wrote about Brian Golden previously. He was an ordained Assemblies of God minister, serving as youth pastor at Southside A/G, in Savannah, Georgia. Here are the former posts:

Found yesterday on the AG-NEWS announcement list:

AG News wants to know if podcasts of sermons/messages by the local church is widespread.

Take the short AG News poll and let us know! Click here to begin...

I took the poll.

I listen to a lot of sermons and other spoken word content on my PocketPC. I load it up each week with chocolaty goodness and fill my mind while commuting the two hours I spend driving each day.

Here's to hoping the A/G decides to promote podcasting by the local church. Though, not every church needs to (or should) podcast, it would be good to get some of our better preachers more exposure.

Meanwhile, check out my good friend John Abela's online audio initiative for A/G preachers at:

Yesterday, I wrote about values, and what I think they are — especially how our values are revealed by behavior, along with some suggestions on how to assess your own core values.

So, I was asked some pointed values-questions by email from an online friend who knows my position. I thought I'd post my replies here so you, my Gentle Readers, can get to know me a little better. This was a useful exercise for me, perhaps it would be for you, too?

I've always been suspicious of the word "values" when used as anything other than a verb. As in:

"Johnny values his bicycle."

I'm suspicious because it feels like a noble word that has been debased by liberal educators in order to pander "values-based" curriculum. (Remember the dreaded "values clarification" exercises?  — see my thoughts on this at: "The Basis for Christian Ethics.")

Unfortunately, for those who don't recognize absolutes in morality and ethics, then one man's "values" are as good and worthwhile as the next with the only distinction being, "How's that working for you?"

This is a review of The Apostle that I dashed off back in 1998, about half a year after that film was released. I wrote it for a discussion list that is now defunct. I thought, in light of the other recent movie I reviewed (Jesus Camp, it would be interesting to resurrect this from the ol' mail archives.

Since I wrote it eight years ago, it's a little rough around the edges. But I'm posting it with minimal editorial changes--mainly for the sake of time.

Enjoy ... and if you get a chance to rent this flick, I think you'll enjoy it, with the few caveats I mention below.

After all the debate about Robert Duvall's move, The Apostle, I finally got a chance to see it in one of the cheap second-run theaters locally.

I recently received this question in an email:

« Where does it say that we are not to torture others? No where in Scripture does it say "Thou shalt not torture." »

While it is true the proscription against torture can be nowhere found in the Book, we can also say that nowhere is doctrine of the Trinity explicitly spelled out. But this is an argument from silence, which says that because a text is silent on an issue, it has nothing to say to the issue.

But this argument from silence ignores the whole testimony of Scripture as to the expected character of the righteous man.

I would find it extremely ironic that the same God who instructs the righteous to care for animals would not expect us to extend similar care for prisoners (Proverbs 12:10, Deuteronomy 22:4, Exodus 23:5, Deuteronomy 25:4).

That two unbelieving directors don't understand Pentecostals — or Evangelicals — isn't surprising. That they produced a film rife with ignorance and bias is also unsurprising. But that ordinary people who can normally tie their shoes and avoid bad movies like Gigli don't see how insufferably biased this documentary is … well, that's just depressing.

Now the admirably snarky and witty artist, Julie R. Neidlinger (a fellow Pentecostal who's actually been to the A/G campgrounds featured in the film), has blessed us with a post that might help. Julie has been guest-commenting, blogging here and there, and strenuously trading comments, attempting to defuse the snap judgments and shallow rhetoric inspired by the film and its trailer. And, frankly, she's about fed up.

At 2:40 PM (CST) on Tuesday, September 26, I "appeared" on MSNBC's 'Net review: The Most, with Alison Stewart. Alison's producer spoke with Mark Moring, editor for the Christianity Today Movies channel, wondering if he'd be willing to answer a few questions about Jesus Camp on-air.

Since I'd seen the documentary and recently written an article for CT Movies, he deferred to me. I nervously accepted the opportunity.

I appeared not as a representative of Christianity Today (my employer), but as "a Pentecostal blogger" writing for Christianity Today Movies.

For three minutes, I fielded three questions:

• "What did you walk away from this documentary thinking about Evangelical camps for kids?"
• "Becky Fischer ...

Jesus Camp, what an experience. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's investigation into the hidden world of one Pentecostal kids' camp simultaneously delighted me, fascinated me, and embarrassed me. I love this film. I hate this film.

It angers me.

For those who haven't seen the trailer, by now, the premise is simple: follow three pre-teens from Missouri heading to a summer camp owned by the Assemblies of God in Devils Lake, North Dakota (Lakewood Park Bible Camp). Document their experiences there, and follow up on the aftermath. Simple enough.

But the devil, as they say, is in the details. Or, in this case, the future Evangelical Army of God is in the details. As Ewing and Grady have noted, their initial raw footage had no real drama: "There was absolutely no conflict. … it wasn't dynamic enough." So, toss in a conflicted profile of the "Kids on Fire" camp director, Becky Fischer; include a few oddball characters for color and commentary; stir up dissent using Air America radio host Mike Papantonio and his uninformed Greek chorus of callers. Then get a major Charismatic Evangelical to appear in the documentary to give your subtext some heft and legitimacy and tie it all together with a neat little bow called George Bush and the Supreme Court.

Marc, over at Spudlets, posted a reflection on 9/11 and its aftermath, now five years gone.

At the very least, whether it’s the day after or five years later, it comes down to how you have made a difference with the life and talents you were given. Have you loved deeply and given much? Can’t do anything about yesterday, today is a work in progress, and tomorrow holds out hope for something better. It’s up to us to grab that opportunity.

Amen.

I've been reflecting on this as well, and commenting elsewhere about suffering and tragedy. So, Marc's post prompted me to say more. And and I thought why not share my thoughts here, as well?