William Petruzzo

My friend Ric sent me an email pointing me to this video. It’s every bit as brilliant as he said it was. While I suspect that I have some pretty deep running disagreements with the organization that put it together, it is really poignant, nonetheless. I hope I’m not stealing valuable blog-fodder from you, Ric.

It helps to read their brief intro to the video to get the point they’re making.

“Have you ever tried really hard to make a point and when people say they get it, you are just not sure they do? Sometimes it takes us seeing our world through new eyes–something that it is hard to do as believers. Sometimes a little bit of juxtaposition does the trick.

We made this video because we sometimes struggle in helping churches to truly understand the disconnection between how we do things and the people we’re trying to reach. Our thought was to showcase the visitor experience in a completely different context and in doing so, we might help churches realize how they might actually comes across to the world we are called to reach.

Sometimes it takes seeing something in a different light to really get it. With this thought, my team and I made a little video called “What if Starbucks Marketed Like the Church? A Parable.”

Again, I’m not in total agreement here, but the video should make you think. If nothing else, it’s certainly is good for a laugh.

Today marks the 365th day of daily, consecutive blogging—without missing a single day! I’m like a hero. Alright, Well maybe not. But regardless, I am proud of myself for sticking to it. But, I admit, I’m a bit compulsive. Usually I like to do things in even increments. Like for example, if I’m going to take a walk, I want to walk one whole block, or five whole blocks. I wouldn’t like to walk two and a half blocks, then get picked up by someone.

So, with this blog, I’m presented with quite a paradox. I’m pleased that it’s now been one even year of blogging, but I’m distressed that it’s an uneven 365 days. What’s a compulsive person to do? I suppose I’ll be trapped in a cycle of blogging until the day I die.

Anyway, In the interest of this post being as much like tv-show-flashback-special as possible, I thought it would be an appropriate to recall a few of the posts over the last year that we especially well read or liked or hated or whatever. So, here we go.

December 18th, 2007 - Top 10 Seriously Epic Songs

This was originally posted on my blog hosted on Wordpress.com before I switched over to my own server. This was written mostly as a pseudo-inside joke between some friends who love to dub things as "epic" with a unique definition of the word. Since it was written last year, it’s had about 4,000 readers. Pretty weird.

June 21st, 2008 - A Good Bible Reading Plan to Plan on Reading

John Piper recommended the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan in his book When I Don’t Desire God (reviewed here). I tried it out and found it to be quite fantastic. This post was a write up encouraging others to try it also. Since then, quite a few people I know have (although I can’t necessarily take credit for that). I’m still using it, and still loving it.

April 21st, 2008 - Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

The documentary Expelled came out earlier this year, I wrote a fond review of the film, citing that it made some good points. But, within hours of posting it a small war broke out in the comments field of the post. I attempted to put a calm on the topic, but reason and personal relations were lost on the comment authors. I ended up deleting the entire thread of inflammatory comments and their retorts (including mine) and closing down commenting on the post altogether. That action however made me into a suspect of being part of the gigantic conspiracy to suppress science in then name of religion (Hmm, news to me). The flurry of negative attention was surprising and a tad comical, but nevertheless, lesson learned: turn the comments field off on all hugely controversial topics. No sense in cultivating irresolvable controversies.

April 24th, 2008 - 10 Ideas for Better Study & Devotion

I can’t remember where the idea for this post was born out of, but I got a fair amount of positive feedback, both in the comments field and in person from folk’s who’d read it. The gist was to share some of the practical things that have helped me, and people I know, to enjoy better times reading the bible and praying.

November 15th, 2007 - The Ever-Being in the Center

This is kind of a prose that was born after finishing CS Lewis’ The Great Divorce. I’m not sure I recall exactly how the inspiration came from that, perhaps just literary style. But, regardless, it was one of the writings that inspired me to start a blog in the first place. It’s still something I’m pleased with, even though I’ve never gone back and made modifications.

Well, I think that about does it for this year.  Check out these hi-lights and drop in your opinion, if you want. As for me, it looks like I’ll keep on blogging every day–at least until we get the calendar officially changed so that a year is an even 400 days!

Bah, good luck with that!

I’m an uncle twice over. Once of a nine year old girl and once of a nine month old boy. I’m not a father, but my family is close and being an uncle gives me a small glimpse into what it must feel like to worry about a child.

Girls are becoming women faster. Boys are becoming men faster. Well, at least in terms of independence and sexuality. The culture seems to gear nearly everything toward sexual value. Girls are made valuable by being counted as sexually desirable, while boys are made so by being able to successfully solicit sex (see American Pie, Sex and the City, the 40 Year Old Virgin and just about anything on MTV).

This is unsettling, to say the very least.

A couple of years back I worked for a not-for-profit company as an entertainment analyst. My first assignment was to watch and document children’s television. I spent nearly eight hours every day for several months watching Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, the Disney Channel and others. What I learned was startling.

Children’s television was once a tool for teaching (see Sesame Street). Today it’s a babysitter, which the media is using very strategically. The goal, perhaps not directly, and I’m sure for many of the writers not intentionally, is to condition children. The earlier people think sexually, the earlier they are spending money on sexually minded or oriented products.

It sounds like a wild conspiracy theory. I thought so too before I got to see it first hand in a highly concentrated environment.

Consider this: Nickelodeon is owned by MTV. During afternoon programming (i.e., as kids are coming home from school) on Nickelodeon, it’s not at all uncommon to see advertisements for programming on the parent network MTV or MTV2 along side advertisements for toys and music. MTV’s afternoon programming includes some of the raunchiest entertainment on television (see the dating show Next on MTV; you’ll only need to watch about 2 minutes. Take note of how young the participants on this show are).

The Disney Channel, which in its basic programming appears harmless, doesn’t have the best track record for producing respectable men and women as roll models (see Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake). The Disney Channel is a cycle. Yesterday I saw Hannah Montana on the cover of a tabloid.

Some days of the week the Cartoon Network has been known to play it’s night time adult programming during the day (see Aqua Teen Hunger Force).

Why do the Bratz dress like that? Why do Barbies have such huge breasts?

Here’s my problem. Here’s what I want to know: why must my nine year old niece wear a bikini? Why is she asking to shave her legs already? Why do her skirts keep getting shorter and shorter? Why do all her favorite songs (sold on kids CD’s) all seem to have sexual overtones? She doesn’t understand these things yet. But she will soon and someone stands to make a killing on her sexually dependant subconscious.

It kills me to think my niece might one day view her own value through her sex appeal. Consider Victoria’s Secret. Why make sexy ads for women, unless the ad is designed to stimulate a woman’s perceived value as seen sexually by men? It kills me to think one day my nephew may be a man helping to drive women in that direction through his own sexual perceptions and standards.

It isn’t about ruining children, it’s about making money and there’s tons of money in sex. So that’s the question. How do you protect a child from a system and industry that begins with Kidz Bop and ends with the Pussycat Dolls? That begins with the Disney Channel and ends with pornography? How do you protect children without sheltering them from the realities of the world? How do you help make them wise, discerning, self-respecting, God fearing?

I have no idea. I’m not sure anyone does.

A friend of mine and I were just getting ready to call it a night when we decided that we were in the mood for a movie. We decided a thriller of sorts was in line for the evening, so we made our way to the Redbox and rented P2. You may never have heard of it. It certainly didn’t win any awards or anything.

The gist is basically a young woman is working late on Christmas eve and while trying to leave is captured by a parking lot security guard who has a sick obsession with her. You can imagine where the movie goes.

Through the course of the movie the security guard attempts to win the woman’s affection in some less than conventional manners. For example, killing one of her coworkers who she had an altercation with. He’s obviously deranged and a murderer, among other things.

By the end of the movie, the woman has managed to turn the tables through a series of pretty clever decisions. She’s been through quite a lot. Been drugged, handcuffed, locked in the trunk of a car, crashed a car, tazered, and bitten by a dog. Finally, she has her assailant handcuffed to a car which is leaking gasoline. He’s now unarmed, blind and nearly unable to walk. But he’s still crazy, and can’t understand why the woman won’t have anything to do with him.

As she walks to safety, he gets upset and calls her an unsavory name. In her anger, she turns and lights the car on fire which burns her attacker alive, and she walks out into the street.

For the record, if I had the choice again, I would likely choose not to watch the movie. It was simply too much gore and not enough suspense.

But, my emotional response to the movie’s ending reminded me of some scripture.

Romans 12:19 says:

“Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, " VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.”

The movie painted the picture of one individual as being pure, good and righteous. 100% victim. Obviously, in real life that doesn’t exist. But in a movie the ideal can. Then, opposite her, we have one who embodies, selfishness and evil. He was a murderer and the entire movie the viewer wishes he would come to justice.

But, in the end of the movie when she burns the man alive, I got a glimpse into the meaning of that verse. Her opponent was incapacitated and completely subdued and defenseless. When she killed him, she liquidated her righteous standing as established in the beginning of the movie. She no longer fulfilled the ideal that was painted for her. She too was a murderer and was equally deserving of a fiery death as he was.

When we intentionally execute revenge when we have been wronged, we join our injurer in his camp of unrighteousness. We become guilty of the same sins as him. Although it feels good to press revenge, the truth is, we are descending into unrighteousness and it will always produce adverse and often painful results.

That also reminds me of a tidbit of scripture which I read this afternoon and although the context isn’t a perfect match, I still think it applies:

1 Peter 2:20:

“For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

Today, I discovered Second Life.

I know a lot of people are already familiar with Second Life, but there a whole lot who also aren’t. Second Life is kind of a like a gigantic online version of the computer game The Sims, crossed with a chat room sporting some pretty cool graphics.

The schtick though is that basically, anything you might like to do in real life, you can do in this virtual world (including fly). In a way, you get to reboot your life. Of course you still have to deal with your first life, you get a second life to do whatever you like with. It’s weird, I know.

In the virtual world, it’s free to move about, visit different places, meet people, talk about things, and so on. But, if you wanted to, you could purchase land. On the land you could build your dream home, a bar, club, restaurant, marina, pretty much whatever you like. Even a church.

That’s what provokes me to write today.

Now, I’m not much of a gamer. I just don’t have the time. But, since the software was free, I thought I’d give it a shot. When I found out just how much real-world like stuff there is in Second Life, I thought I’d go and see if there’s anyone planting churches in this virtual world. And what do you know? There is.

These folks did. I decided to make a trip over to the church. I was pretty surprised at what I found.

The ALM CyberChurch property is pretty much everything you’d expect in a modern day mega-church. Huge panes of glass, lots of grassy fields. Interesting designs and lots of seating. Of course with one pretty important difference. This church doesn’t exist in real life. Well, in tangible life anyways. It is real. Just not exactly tangible.

Almost every facet of the CyberChurch mirrors what you’d find if you ventured out to your local brick and morter spiritual establishment. It’s kind of eery actually. When I visited, although there was no mistaking the cyber-nature of the place, it still had that be-quiet-your-in-church feel to it.

And, like any quality mega-church, the CyberChurch even had a coffee shop decked out with couches and espresso machines.

Upstairs in the coffee shop you can find where the church meets for virtual small groups, or at least I assume, based on the arrangement of the chairs.

The main sanctuary looks like anything you’d find in most churches. When you visit the virtual church, you can either attend their weekly service at 11:00am on Sunday mornings, or you can go at any time and listen to a recording of the last service.

Scattered all around the virtual facility, are signs alerting people to their need to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And this, I think above anything else, created questions in my mind. As I explored the area, there was a certain novelty to seeing what was built. But when I came across these notices, I realized something interesting. I wasn’t seeing the words as reality. Some how they were merging into my subconsciousness as part of the virtual reality I was experiencing. If I began to see the call for repentance as a virtual stimulation, how likely is that to translate into actual, spiritual repentance in my heart?

I won’t pass judgement on whether or not these virtual ministries are effective, right or even good.  It seems likely only time will tell. But I will say, it’s an awfully fascinating turn in church history. Unprecedented.

If you frequent the world of Second Life and would like to visit the church, you can “teleport” there from this link.

I’ll keep this short and sweet.

I just watched Iron Man on a PS3 in high definition blue ray. It was pretty sweet. Sounded awesome. Looked really clear. Definitely a sweet set up. But, if I may interject my personal opinion: this new wave of high-definition entertainment is an excellent example of the vanities described in Ecclesiastes.

We are always craving more and more. Somewhere deep down something says, “just get this… just gain that… if you only had this…”. But the deception is in that that voice never goes away. No matter what you attain to, there will always be something more to reach and desire.

Some people take that line of logic and say we should simply renounce everything material. But I think the more reasonable response is vanity management. Settle for what you have until something better is given to you, or becomes outrageously affordable (i.e., DVD players go for under $40).

Long story short, don’t pant after the new blue ray technology. It’s cool, but it isn’t going to satisfy you. At least not any more than a regular old DVD player will.

* for the record, I’m speaking of temporal satisfaction. Not that good eternal stuff.

I thought this link would suffice for today’s post. I won’t tell you why. But, I will say this. If they finally figure it out, I’ll make this post something else :).

http://www.zamandayolculuk.com/cetinbal/Timetraveltheoryx.htm

Enjoy!

We invented this game:

One person is “it”. The other players toss a Frisbee to each other. The person who is “it” intends to tag a person while they hold the Frisbee. Or get the Frisbee himself. If someone is tagged while they’re holding the Frisbee, they are “it”. If the person who is “it” gets the Frisbee himself, the last person to touch the Frisbee is “it”.

When someone gets the Frisbee, they are only allowed to take four steps in any direction before they must throw the Frisbee to another player. If a player is tagged while they are empty handed, they are frozen and can’t move in any direction. If a frozen player touches the Frisbee in any way, they are unfrozen and able to move again.

If all players are frozen and the Frisbee is in the hands of the one who is “it”, he wins and the game is over.

Who says we ever get too old for children’s games?

The past three days, I’ve posted videos from YouTube that deal with the topic of religion (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5). Namely, Christianity. Whether they be funny, convicting or inspiring, I feel they all have something for us to consider.

Shai Linne is a reformed Christian rapper. I’d heard him before, but I was formally introduced today. This video is actually something more of a podcast. It’s an interview with a radio personality of some kind listening to and commenting on a one of Shai Linne’s songs dealing with theological words. His reaction is interesting.

“Puritan rappers… that’s what you have right there… In most youth ministries, your kids won’t hear something even close to something like that!" Interesting.

The past couple of days I’ve posted videos that I’ve come across on YouTube dealing in some way with Religion. Christianity, in specific (#1 & #2). I feel each video, whether funny, convicting or encouraging, holds some significance for the church and we ought to consider the underlying theme.

Many, I’m sure, have seen today’s video. It’s been around for some time. But no matter how many times I watch it, it never fails to boost my spirits and encourage me to keep seeking and trusting God. I originally saw this video at a conference several years ago, then rediscovered it earlier this year. Regardless of all the cheese, it’s worth watching every minute.

This is an excerpt from a SM Lockridge sermon set to music. Lockridge was a prominent Baptist preacher from 1953 – 1993. I can’t vouch for the man, his ministry or his theology, I can only vouch for the excerpt from this sermon.