Hilarious New Tim Tebow T-Mobile Superbowl Commercials

These gems were too good not to post…  You’re welcome:

Secular Worship Services, Part One: The Grammys

The longer I live the more convinced I become that all of life is worship.  The only thing that changes is the object or subject of our affection.  With such a view in mind, you begin to see liturgies emerge in common cultural forms.  Liturgy is just a fancy theological term for a customary worship service.  This post is the first of a series of posts examining several common secular worship services in America.  Later posts will examine the Superbowl, the Oscars, Disney, and college football.

I caught the lion share of the 2014 Grammy’s after the fact, hence the tardiness of this post. I’ve never been super big on all the hype, pomp, and patting on the back – not to mention the huge amounts of filler, commercials, and non-musical content.  What was particularly interesting was the sharp focus of the Grammy liturgy.  The whole show was bizarre, raunchy, and exactly what you would expect as a liturgy of the secular decline of the West.  Pop culture in particular has embodied the descent of Western civilization back into a season of sensate culture.  The liturgy roughly follows something of Western Christian worship service:

Welcome

LL Cool J rehashes more or less the same speech he gave last year about how music unites humanity.

Call to Worship

Beyonce – Drunk in Love.  Visuals are inappropriate for print here.  Suffice to say that it is an ode to drunken fornication.  Beyonce’s visuals matched the raunch of the lyrical content.  More of the same Cold War sexual arms race for Western attention.

Worship in Song

Katy Perry – Dark Horse.  This performance was equal parts Illuminati (cue the conspiracy theorists) and witchcraft.  It featured more of the same attempts to distance herself from her evangelical upbringing by summoning disparate and cliche ridden neo-pagan mixed metaphors.

Sermon/Homily/Sacrament

Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, and Madonna – Same Love.  The sermon came from Queen Latifah.  The concert hall is visually transformed into something like a cathedral and a kind of wedding ceremony ensues.  We are invited to take part in the sacrament of the 33 heterosexual and homosexual couples as they exchange their wedding vows.  You can watch it here:

Benediction

Nine Inch Nails – Copy of a.  This final performance was drenched with irony from Trent Reznor.  The lyrics heavily resound with a scathing critique of our sensate culture and reverberate with echoes of Ecclesiastes:

I am just a copy of a copy of a copy

Everything I say has come before

Assembled into something into something into something I am never certain anymore

I am just a shadow of a shadow of a shadow

Always trying to catch up with myself

I am just an echo of an echo of an echo

Listening to someone’s cry for help

There is nothing new under the sun…

Check back for the next in the series.

The Candy Shop

This is an intentionally dark and eerie allegorical short film well worth your time.

George Bush 9/11 Interview by National Geographic

In honor of this time in our nation’s history spend a few minutes of your weekend watching this special by National Geographic:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Best Links of the Week

 

Obamacare and job growth

Thorough article analyzing “Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science” (HT: Nancy Pearcey)

50 pictures of some pretty crazy church architectures (HT: HG)

Christian-ese that should be put to rest

 

Fake Apple Store in China

Scathing anecdotal piece of UCC minister complaining about all the conversations with people who are “spiritual but not religious”

Thank you for sharing, spiritual but not religious sunset person. You are now comfortably in the norm for self-centered American culture, right smack in the bland majority of people who find ancient religions dull but find themselves uniquely fascinating.

Sad but true comic:  “The Evolution of Intellectual Freedom” (HT: BL)

I always look forward to 9Marks eJournals, this one entitled, “How Much Should You Pay Your Pastors?” was particularly good.

NYTimes article, “One Size Fits Nobody” on the crazy world of (women’s) clothing sizes

Thrice new single, “Promises”

 

ps.  Sorry it has been forever since posting… for the handful of you that find these posts interesting

Best Links of the Week

The End of Church Planting?  Interesting article that isn’t as provocative as the title.  Definitely worth a read and a place at the table for missiological theory of church planting, challenging the dominant paradigm of the entrepreneurial paid pastor/planter.

How to use rewards/frequent-flyer credit cards to create a self-fulfilling profit loop (buy certain gold coins, get rewards/miles, deposit gold in bank, pay off credit card with gold deposited into bank).

Third Millennium Ministries has its own iPhone and Android apps.  The content of ThirdMill is truly top shelf.  I am of the opinion that Third Mill is probably one of the most important ministries of our time and all on a shoestring budget.  If you care at all about the Gospel and the future of the church you ought to donate to them.  I am thankful that there are actually some forward thinking strategists that are creating excellent scalable content capable of penetrating that glaring lack of theological training of pastors worldwide.

The Decline of the Nuclear Family.  Some pretty staggering statistics and commentary on the status of family in the U.S.

Mayim Bialik (Blossom, Amy Farrah Fowler) of Big Bang Theory is actually a PhD and published in Neuroscience (HT: BL)

Mortgage companies are still ‘robo-signing’

Centrist Tom Coburn has an interesting debt proposal – I was definitely not expecting a proposal from one of the ‘Gang of Six’

77 year old Congressman confronts gun wielding intruder

An interesting piece giving some provocative thoughts regarding the Cosmological Argument

There are several layers of awesome to this Pepsi ad (coming from a staunch Coca-Cola fan):

Best Links of the Week

USC forced to vacate 2004 BCS National Championship

Fascinating article on Eric Spoelstra, the unlikely and humble head coach of the Miami Heat

BOA gets foreclosed on by a homeowner – sweet poetic justice

Provocative article, “The Studied Irrelevance of American Foreign Missions”

Hashtags for Books

You know your state is a mess when your states own CFO says not to buy bonds in your state (Illinois )

62% top tax rate could be 2 years away

Interesting thesis posited over at American Thinker, entitled “The Coming Deflationary Contraction”

Twitter-based Hedge Fund

61% say all or most abortions should be illegal

Bulgaria’s underground black market

Iran can produce a nuke within 2 months according to recent report

Daily Economic Briefings Disappear from Obama’s White House Schedule

Great article about how to handle frustrating worship experiences (HT:  Greg Willson)

Pretty incredible story of a friend of a friend who gave birth in the front seat of their car in broad daylight

Hilarious clip from Southpark, “Poof It’s Gone”

“I Got it at Ross”

Best Links of the Week

The Invisible Stock Bubble

Russell Moore has an interesting piece on the parallels between what Romance Novels do for women and what Pornography does for men.

Here is a nice rebuttal of Harold Camping and the whole world ending on 5/21/2011.  Also a man spent his life savings putting up those billboards everywhere.  This highlights the need for doing theology in community.   Doing theology on islands doesn’t turn out well.  Also, the ministry has an estimated worth of $72 million, although this may be a bit misleading as the lionshare of this is in FCC licenses.

Reportedly on 60 Minutes this evening, George Hincapie weighs in on Lance Armstrong and the use of PEDs.  This is interesting because unlike Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton, Hincapie actually has credibility and is probably the cyclist closest to Armstrong.  Would be pretty sad if true.

Ray Lewis says one unintended consequence of the NFL Lockout will be a rise in crime.   I think I am actually inclined to agree with Lewis and am wondering if he read Freakonomics recently.

Some pretty bold words from a former economic adviser to Barack Obama on fiscal and monetary policy as it relates to the dollar

N.T. Wright weighs in on Stephen Hawking’s comments about heaven

War Dog

Where the 12 Apostles Died

Tim Challies annual, “Where & Why We Buy Books”

Medvedev warns of new Cold War over missile defense shield

Egyptian Saif al-Adel now acting leader of al Qaeda

Iran reportedly building rocket bases in Venezuala

Dark Tower trilogy of movies and two tv series may be nixed.  For those who don’t know this is some of Stephen King’s best work and was a very seminal body of work for the television show LOST.

San Francisco man reportedly “cured” of AIDS

Several Hedge Fund managers buying up massive amounts of farmland

Some Wikileaks documents of Gitmo files shed light on enhanced interrogation techniques and unintentionally bolster their effectiveness

Shallow Small Groups:

Really well produced and themed time lapse:

Best Links of the Week

Ireland is raiding private pension funds to help get out of their debt mess… scary stuff and should serve as a caution to those in the U.S.  And in somewhat related news…

PIMCO ups their ante against government debt

Fannie Mae asks for 8.5 billion from taxpayers

The AP makes an interesting case for releasing the Bin Laden photo(s)

Cell phones are potentially at the center of the mysterious decline in U.S. bee population

Fortified modern house

28% of U.S. homes are underwater

WSJ Article, “The Coming Postal Bailout”

Treasury auctions will break U.S. debt ceiling

Prison rape in Iran

NASA Gravity probe confirms Einstein’s theories

Al Jazeera article on Pakistan PM’s addressing of the Bin Laden mess

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes (HT:  Lisi):

Pretty incredible frisbee trick shots:

Best Links of the Week

Love, Forgiveness and Basketball – some backstory on Chris Paul and his relationship with his grandfather

How Taxpayers Subsidize March Madness – pretty fascinating article

Dissension growing between Putin and Medvedev as Medvedev wants to stay on as President in Russia.  This is a more important story than meets the eye.  Most Americans think Russia is irrelevant but they really ought to pay attention to what is going on there.  In my estimation, Russia is making a major comeback and is completely flying underneath the radar in the shadow of India, China, and the usual Mid East drama.

Kevin DeYoung has a nice piece on, Money and Possessions in Proverbs

The Coming Physician Shortage

21 Disturbing Statistics Regarding Student Loans

Seth Godin on the difference between hard work and long work – definitely a helpful distinction

WSJ Article, 1 in 7 americans on food stamps

Feds suing more anti-abortion activists

Osama Bin Laden articles:

Dalai Lama reaction

Gave rabbits to 12 year old neighbor (kinda creepy and reminds me a bit of Benjamin Linus)

Some breakdown of the compound and some more here

Probably the best write-up of the raid I’ve seen yet is from NPR

Bin Laden compound gets bad reviews on Google Places

Part Two of the Keynes vs. Hayek Rap Videos:

Purdue’s record setting Rude Goldberg machine: