1. First off, a timely rejoinder to our many social-media-is-making-us-lonely posts from Paul Miller on The Verge, entitled “I’m Still Here: Back Online After A Year Without Internet”. As the title suggests, Miller unplugged for a solid year, partly as an assignment to try to discover how technology, and the Internet in particular, had affected him (and us) over time. He reports that while the experience was initially incredibly freeing, he eventually found himself right back where he started, i.e. his new habits became just as constraining as the old ones. In theological terms, you might say that Paul’s story…
Art / Children / Humor / Identity / Law / Literature / Relationships / Religion / Sports / Suffering / Technology / TV / Week In Review
Another Week Ends: Techno-Fasting, Google Glass, Tiger Babies, Missional Burnouts, Serrano’s Backfire, Powell’s Joy, and Family Tree
The Gospel According to The Office
Many moons ago, Mockingbird put together and distributed a little teaching series called “The Gospel According to The Office.” When we made the transition to the new site a couple of years ago, it somehow fell through the cracks. The show’s finale seemed like as good a time as any to put it back into circulation. Like the show itself, we don’t vouch for how it may have dated–but it sure seemed like a good idea at the time! You can download it by clicking here.
While we’re on the subject of the show, if you’re at all like me and…
Walter White vs Raylan Givens: The Two Hats of American Law
Alright TV fans, the moment of truth (and consequence) has arrived:
You may download the recording of this session by clicking here. Also, by way of update, The Mockingbird Devotional, from which Ethan reads in his session, will be out next week! Watch this space for an announcement.
The Element In Man For Which Moralism Cannot Account
Some germane thoughts from the late Jaroslav Pelikan, taken from the “Dostoevsky: The Holy and the Good” chapter of Fools for Christ, ht CB:
Wherever Christianity is viewed as a quiet submission to traditional patterns of conduct and an acceptance of social convention, there will be no appreciation of the atheism of Ivan Karamazov. His atheism begins to mean something when it becomes clear that the Christian gospel is a religious denunciation of religion–religion being understood as man’s attempt to relate himself constructively to the Holy. Traditional moralism and conventional piety have often put the objects of their search alongside God…
Daddy Momming: (More) Stress Cupcakes and the Extra Kid at Home
A wheelhouse piece, just in time for Mother’s Day: a litany of confessionals from the mothers of America about their partners-in-crime. It seems–as ever–that Dad could do more around the house, that his “assistance,” if it is there at all, becomes one more thing (or two, or three…) that requires surveillance and handholding and discipline. In other words, for most mothers, the father becomes another child. And for the most part, he is a more difficult child, because of what he should be.
This is not so much a repeat post on the “manchild syndrome” as it is an interesting glimpse…
Give Us Your Real (As Long As It’s Fake)
I haven’t been watching American Idol this season, but that’s about to change. In Sunday’s NY Times Magazine, Heather Havrilesky made a very convincing case for the show’s relevance, claiming that the current season has turned into an authentic instance of our collective idolatry of authenticity (pun couldn’t possibly be more intended) being worked out in real time, on a national stage, via the conflict between judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj. Their dynamic makes for a petri-dish of cultural law par excellence, that is, in their back-and-forth we see the Should’s and Shouldn’ts of the pop landscape articulated with…
Big Foot Called My Unicorn an Antinomian: The Double-Bind of the Law – Jady Koch
Week two of conference video begins! This time with the inimitable Dr. Koch:
You may download the recording of this talk by clicking here. To read the post upon which this talk was partly based, go here. He also references this one at some length.
The Law of Lightbulbs
Andrew Sullivan alerted his readers to a new study whose results should come as no surprise to readers of this blog. The study came from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was picked up by grist.org. Here is how grist.org described the study:
With a fixed amount of money in their wallet, respondents had to “buy” either an old-school lightbulb or an efficient compact florescent bulb (CFL) . . . . Both bulbs were labeled with basic hard data on their energy use, but without a translation of that into climate pros and cons. When the bulbs cost…
One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World – Tullian Tchividjian
Each morning this week we’ll be posting a different video from our recent conference in New York City. A major, major thank you goes out to David and Mark Babikow for making these clips possible. We begin at the beginning:
You may download this recording by clicking here.
Addiction / Art / Church / Conferences / Death / Everyday / Grace in Practice / Law / Literature / Poetry / Religion / Sports / Theology / TV
2013 NYC Conference Recordings: Good News That Never Gets Old
Another heartfelt thank-you to everyone who helped put on this year’s Mockingbird Conference in NYC, especially our friends at Calvary St. George’s Church. It’s a good thing most of the presentations below have to do with grace, as the very thought of trying to top it is incredibly scary…! Speaking of freebies, though, we are once again making the recordings available at no charge; we only ask that those who were not able to attend this year *consider* making a donation to help cover the cost of the event. Download links are followed by an in-line player for each recording.…
The Chelsea Clintons Have Great Energy
An ingenious prank from Jimmy Kimmel, in which the Law of Cool is exposed in all its hilarity and absurdity and severity. But lest we pick on hipsters unfairly, this dynamic plays out just as blatantly in Bar Harbor as it does in Marin County or Austin. When confronted with an attribute with which we’ve identified ourselves, we will lie before admitting ignorance. Reminds me of that ultra-cool Stephen Merritt song about “the books you read, and the books you said you read”:
Reflections on Identity and Bracketology
Congratulations to Louisville, winners of the NCAA tournament, and the team I picked to win in my tournament bracket! Unlike Louisville though, I only came in third in my pool for picking who would advance throughout the annual collegiate basketball tournament. Third out of six participants. Some bracket I picked, huh?
Maybe it’s just me, but this year in particular, it felt like the trend of “bracketizing” things left the sports world and entered pop culture big time. Are you a fan of public radio programming? A Southern Cali public radio station put all your favorite programs on a bracket. Needless…
Books / Church / Death / Humor / Identity / Law / Music / Psychology / Religion / Social Science / Technology / Week In Review
Another Week Ends: Schismogenesis, Megachurch Funerals, Accidental Theology, Smartphone Shrinks, Mean Professors, Nocebos, Zooropa and Elysium
1. The NY Times published a wise op-ed from sociologist Tanya Luhrmann this past week on the the subject of “How Skeptics and Believers Can Connect”. She begins the column by recounting a disconcerting experience she had promoting her terrific book, When God Talks Back, on a Christian radio station. Luhrmann does not self-identify as a Christian, which the host of the show apparently took as a cue to berate her into converting on air (rather than dig into a book that has quite a bit of sympathetic material to relate). Now, God only knows what exactly the motivation/justification at…
brandon: This needs to be the onion article: Man who burns Down Neighbors Yard ...
Zach: "Amen" 27 times to that Bradley post. All that stuff about being "mis...
John Zahl: The British version blows the American version out of the water! One ...
Scot: To this psychiatric-clinic veteran, Amy clearly has the entire range o...
michael cooper: The Office at its best was full of grace-infused irony, and concrete p...