Revenge of the thespians

Good afternoon, my young padawans. Good to see you it is. Returned for more training you have. Much to learn, have you. Begin we shall.

With props.

Props to the new chapel music coordinator, our nouveau Darla, Brandon Whiteside for presenting his music with passion and conviction. It was refreshing.

Props to . . . . . . . .

I think that just about covered it.

With demerits.

Demerits to our resident Thespians for presenting us with a completely absurd and melodramatic representation of what life as a college student, or life in general, is like.

Let us now observe a moment of silence for Dionysus and the Muses. May they rest in peace.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

While I appreciate the efforts of fellow students to bring something different to our stage - and truly I do - the skit was juvenile and utterly devoid of meaning. Does Jesus really, literally hold the "armies of Satan" back with his bare hands? I'm gonna go ahead and say 'no.' Unless, of course, you want to argue that Jesus is still a spacial-temporal entity, which I suppose you could do.....[It should be clarified at this point that the classification of alcohol, vanity, substance use, lust, and desire for monetary gain as the instruments of Satan is unfair. Even Paul advocated everything in moderation. Everybody take some rubbers. Oh, and as long as we're on this track, what happened to all the other "deadly sins?" Gluttony? Wrath? Envy? Sloth? If I were one of those sins I would be pissed off that I was considered less of a threat than substance use. I mean, come on.]

It has been my experience that even when an individual is a Christian, the temptation to act outside of the Christian moral system still exists. In the skit, "Jesus" kicks vanity's ass, but I hardly think that such a representation is indicative of reality. Just look around our own campus! If you can't find all seven sins, and the additional curses of alcohol, substance use, and general jackassery active within your own social circle, you are 1) completely insulated [possibly home-schooled] from real life and in line for a huge wake up call or, 2) best friends with the Platter brothers. Either way, you're screwed. :)

Cue the Imperial March.

Enter the dark Lord, Palpatine.

It goes without saying that the skit's portrayal of the "evils of the world" would not have been complete without the inclusion of the venerable Sith Lord. And he was the right choice for the role; Beelzebub, Vader, O'Reilly, and Dobson were all previously committed.

As soon as Palpatine revealed his presence, my Jedi instincts kicked in. I reached into my backpack for my limited edition, titanium cast replica of Luke Skywalker's light-saber [with high performance LED technology, for authentic aura] and began to rise from my seat so as to vanquish the evil Lord. Leia be damned, I had to save Charity! But then, just as I was preparing to strike, the conniving Lord brandished a blaster, proof enough that he had not come prepared for a duel, and I decided to postpone our sure-to-be-epic encounter. Do not rest, Palpatine, for I shall find you.

In all seriousness, this skit was not meant for adult audiences - it is traditionally performed at junior-high church camps. By this point in our spiritual lives I would hope that we have moved past this over-simplified view of life and Christian salvation.

Nice try, thespians. Thank you for attempting to shake things up. Next time please, please, please bring us something age appropriate.

Oh, shit. I almost forgot to comment on Brad's lecture today...shows you just how memorable it was.

Brad decided to use his degree today [finally] and incorporated some psychology into his thoughts about identity. The main thrust of his talk was that personal identity is formed, not by what we "fill" ourselves with, but rather by what we "empty" ourselves for. His idea was that if we're constantly consuming, we will always feel that we need more [that's what she said...], but if we're emptying ourselves for the benefit of others, we will not feel that we are without love and grace ourselves, because Jebus has more than enough of that to go around.

Today was Brad's second sermon on identity this year and he's already running out of material, so there wasn't much to work with. Nevertheless, thoughts: 1) Feeling like we are receiving enough "love and grace" from God only matters because we are told, repeatedly, that it matters. If we were simply conditioned to care for other people and to place their needs and concerns before our own, we wouldn't worry about what we're getting out of it, or care if we weren't. That sounds much more in line with the teachings of a certain first-century, curly-headed, dark-skinned Jew than the idea that we must worry about what we're getting in return for our service. 2) The "consumer" mentality that His Holiness warned us about today does not only exist in the secular arena. In America, Christian individuals are encouraged to: go to church, read Christian books, listen to Christian music, go to Christian schools, buy Christian novelty t-shirts, and wear their favorite gold cross or ichthys lapel pin everywhere they go. If that's not consumerism, I don't know what is. [And I dare say that Christian consumerism is, in some cases, much more dangerous than its secular counterpart.] Perhaps the desire to consume is so American, so deeply woven into the fabric of our society that we cannot escape it, religious or not.

"Girls were bleeding, and there was pushing..." -Brad Strawn

I highly doubt that powderpuff football is as intense as a delivery room. But thanks for allowing me to reexperience breakfast.

I have been hearing whispers around campus that some individuals are afraid, because of my presence, to take the stage in chapel. This was not the desired result. My goal with this blog, as with the Facebook group, is to foster a constructive dialogue about the problems with chapel, encourage student ideas about how to make chapel [and our school] better, and also to push my readers into new intellectual arenas by presenting some challenges and refutations of the points of view presented by different chapel speakers.

As I mentioned in a comment left on one of last week's posts, "[T]ell your friend[s] not to worry [about taking the stage in chapel]. [A]s long as they present something that is forward thinking, challenging, and honest, they will not have to."

Hugs and kisses.

"Keep near me and you will be safe"

Daedalus


P.S. - Jairo: about the "legitmate musician" comment: I was probably out of line.