Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Fly the flag at half mast
I've decided, due to financial constraints, to not renew my subscription to Books and Culture. Fortunately, they're online (that's how I found out about the Plantinga review; otherwise, I would have waited for the paper issue to arrive, usually by the third week of the month in question). But still, it's nice having the actual thing in my hands (at least, it was nice). I highly recommend the magazine to all lovers of books.
Plantinga's Review of Dawkins
Is there anyone who can write like Alvin PLantinga? I enjoy reading even the stuff of his I don't understand (which is lot...anyhoo). Here's his review of Richard Dawkins' latest book.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Has James Cameron sunk Christianity?
Doubtful. See these two posts by Ben Witherington and Darrell Bock.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Fast Food Nation
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
The book’s humourously nostalgic cover art belies the scariness of its subject. I finished reading and recalled all the times as a kid I ate at McDonald’s. The nostalgia was somewhat nauseating. . Schlosser’s work has already garnered much attention, with even a motion picture made from it.
Schlosser begins the book with a description of Cheyenne Mountain, one of the most secure military combat operations centers in the world. It houses units of the North American Aerospace Command, the Air Force Space Command, and the U.S. Space Command. This is as well a guarded facility as one is liable to find anywhere. It can sustain itself for a month, with electrical generators, reservoirs of water, medical/dentist office, fitness center, and of course food. And yet, Schlosser describes the absurd juxtaposition of this most secure military site with a lone Domino’s deliveryman driving past signs reading “DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED” and heavily armed guards, unloading his arsenal of pizzas and collecting his money. If somehow the U.S. (including Cheyenne Mountain) ever gets wiped out by a nuclear attack, Schlosser writes, “future archeologists may find other clues to the nature of our civilization – Big King wrappers, hardened crusts of Cheesy Bread, Barbeque Wing bones, and the red, white and blue of a Domino’s pizza box.”
This book examines the effects, as well as the causes, of the fast food industry’s being firmly ensconced in American culture. Schlosser writes: “What people eat…has always been determined by a complex interplay of social, economic, and technological forces….A nation’s diet can be more revealing than its art or literature.”
The industry began with a small group of hamburger outlets a only few decades ago in California and has now spread throughout the world.
Fast food can be found everywhere: movie theaters, Wal-Marts, school cafeterias. In 1970, Americans spent $6 billion on fast food. In 2001 they spent over $110 billion. According to Schlosser, “[Americans] spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music – combined.”
The McDonald’s Corp. is now the source of 90 percent of America’s new jobs. They went from 1000 restaurants in 1968 to around 30,000 today. It is the country’s largest purchaser of beef, pork and potatoes. It owns the most retail property in the world. The biggest portion of the corporation’s profits come not from selling food, but from collecting rent. In a survey of American children, Santa Claus was the only cultural icon more recognized than Ronald McDonald. And the Golden Arches are more familiar than the Christian Cross.
Schlosser writes, “the…success of the fast food industry has encouraged other industries to adopt similar business methods….Almost every facet of American life has now been franchised or chained, [f]rom maternity ward[s] to…funeral homes….a person can now go from the cradle to the grave without spending a nickel at an independently owned business.”
It’s an interesting note of history that the pioneers of the fast food industry, which is so “dedicated to conformity” were iconoclasts, entrepreneurs who went against the grain. Many never attended college.
Schlosser writes, “Fast food has joined Hollywood movies, blue jeans, and pop music as one of America’s most prominent cultural exports. Unlike other commodities, however, fast food isn’t viewed, read, played, or worn. It enters the body and becomes part of the consumer. No other industry offers, both literally and figuratively, so much insight into the nature of mass consumption.”
The most humourous section is chapter 5 where Schlosser describes his visit to a chemical factory that provides the smells and scents for fast food. What you smell as walk through those restaurant doors is the chemical concoction of some scientist in Dayton, New Jersey. The most disturbing part is chapter 9: What’s in the meat. The statistics and stories he shares are chilling and heartbreaking, especially the descriptions of children who were poisoned with E.Coli O157:H7 from eating undercooked hamburgers.
If even a third of what Schlosser has written is true, then there is reason to be concerned. I haven’t eaten fast food in a while, and if I had any inclination to eat some more, this book has stamped it out. Anyone who, upon reading Schlosser’s book, continues to eat fast food would have to be described as either incredibly obtuse or astonishingly brave.
The book’s humourously nostalgic cover art belies the scariness of its subject. I finished reading and recalled all the times as a kid I ate at McDonald’s. The nostalgia was somewhat nauseating. . Schlosser’s work has already garnered much attention, with even a motion picture made from it.
Schlosser begins the book with a description of Cheyenne Mountain, one of the most secure military combat operations centers in the world. It houses units of the North American Aerospace Command, the Air Force Space Command, and the U.S. Space Command. This is as well a guarded facility as one is liable to find anywhere. It can sustain itself for a month, with electrical generators, reservoirs of water, medical/dentist office, fitness center, and of course food. And yet, Schlosser describes the absurd juxtaposition of this most secure military site with a lone Domino’s deliveryman driving past signs reading “DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED” and heavily armed guards, unloading his arsenal of pizzas and collecting his money. If somehow the U.S. (including Cheyenne Mountain) ever gets wiped out by a nuclear attack, Schlosser writes, “future archeologists may find other clues to the nature of our civilization – Big King wrappers, hardened crusts of Cheesy Bread, Barbeque Wing bones, and the red, white and blue of a Domino’s pizza box.”
This book examines the effects, as well as the causes, of the fast food industry’s being firmly ensconced in American culture. Schlosser writes: “What people eat…has always been determined by a complex interplay of social, economic, and technological forces….A nation’s diet can be more revealing than its art or literature.”
The industry began with a small group of hamburger outlets a only few decades ago in California and has now spread throughout the world.
Fast food can be found everywhere: movie theaters, Wal-Marts, school cafeterias. In 1970, Americans spent $6 billion on fast food. In 2001 they spent over $110 billion. According to Schlosser, “[Americans] spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music – combined.”
The McDonald’s Corp. is now the source of 90 percent of America’s new jobs. They went from 1000 restaurants in 1968 to around 30,000 today. It is the country’s largest purchaser of beef, pork and potatoes. It owns the most retail property in the world. The biggest portion of the corporation’s profits come not from selling food, but from collecting rent. In a survey of American children, Santa Claus was the only cultural icon more recognized than Ronald McDonald. And the Golden Arches are more familiar than the Christian Cross.
Schlosser writes, “the…success of the fast food industry has encouraged other industries to adopt similar business methods….Almost every facet of American life has now been franchised or chained, [f]rom maternity ward[s] to…funeral homes….a person can now go from the cradle to the grave without spending a nickel at an independently owned business.”
It’s an interesting note of history that the pioneers of the fast food industry, which is so “dedicated to conformity” were iconoclasts, entrepreneurs who went against the grain. Many never attended college.
Schlosser writes, “Fast food has joined Hollywood movies, blue jeans, and pop music as one of America’s most prominent cultural exports. Unlike other commodities, however, fast food isn’t viewed, read, played, or worn. It enters the body and becomes part of the consumer. No other industry offers, both literally and figuratively, so much insight into the nature of mass consumption.”
The most humourous section is chapter 5 where Schlosser describes his visit to a chemical factory that provides the smells and scents for fast food. What you smell as walk through those restaurant doors is the chemical concoction of some scientist in Dayton, New Jersey. The most disturbing part is chapter 9: What’s in the meat. The statistics and stories he shares are chilling and heartbreaking, especially the descriptions of children who were poisoned with E.Coli O157:H7 from eating undercooked hamburgers.
If even a third of what Schlosser has written is true, then there is reason to be concerned. I haven’t eaten fast food in a while, and if I had any inclination to eat some more, this book has stamped it out. Anyone who, upon reading Schlosser’s book, continues to eat fast food would have to be described as either incredibly obtuse or astonishingly brave.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Best Opening Lines...
...for books that is. This is one person's list of the 100 best first lines from novels.
Favourite Hymn #8
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Speaker pay-scale
The way we pay Christian speakers is an indication of how much we value their time and expertise. Read John Stackhouse's views on this.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Death in the City – Chapter Five
Death in the City – Chapter Five: The Persistence of Compassion
So what was the result of Jeremiah’s faithfulness in preaching to his own “post-Christian” society? “They gradually increased [his] punishment…stocks, to a prison, to a dungeon.” It takes great courage to stick to an unpopular message. Giving up would be much easier. Evangelicals can exist in their little ghettoes if they wish, ignoring the real dire situation facing their culture. Or they can follow the way of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah never saw any change in his lifetime. One can assume his trials were psychological as well as physical. We need to speak out for truth regardless of whether we see any immediate results. But, Schaeffer warns, those who are faithful to the truth will also experience times of discouragement. They will pay a real price psychologically. “It is possible to be faithful to God and yet to be overwhelmed with discouragement as we face the world….So many people seem to think that if the Holy Spirit is working, then the work is easy. Don’t believe it! As the Holy Spirit works, a man is consumed.”
Schaeffer sums up his take on Jeremiah. First, in such a time as ours, a negative message is required before a positive message can be given. Before giving the gospel, we must spend time explaining modern humans’ existential dilemma – to show that they are “more dead” than they could imagine; that is, morally dead because they are separated from God.
Second, we must acknowledge that our culture is under God’s judgment. We must emphasize this reality. Third, Christians who say they believe in truth must practice truth. Relativism will rust the church from the inside out. The outside will look shiny and new while the foundation rots away until it’s too late to repair it. Schaeffer quotes from his book The God who is There: “The full doctrinal position of historic Christianity must be clearly maintained; it would seem to me that the central problem of evangelical orthodoxy in the second half of the twentieth century is the problem of the practice of this principle.”
Fourth, we must understand that knowing truth and practicing it will cost us much, in terms of, for example, our family life, academic life, professional life, etc. Fifth, though the price be high, we need to keep on preaching the truth.
He writes: “Christianity is not a modern success story. It is to be preached with love and tears into the teeth of men, preached without compromise, without regard to the world’s concept of success. If there seem to be no results, remember that Jeremiah did not see the results in his day. They came later. If there seem to be no results, it does not change God’s imperative. It is simply up to you and to me to go on…whether we see the results or whether we don’t. Go on.”
So what was the result of Jeremiah’s faithfulness in preaching to his own “post-Christian” society? “They gradually increased [his] punishment…stocks, to a prison, to a dungeon.” It takes great courage to stick to an unpopular message. Giving up would be much easier. Evangelicals can exist in their little ghettoes if they wish, ignoring the real dire situation facing their culture. Or they can follow the way of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah never saw any change in his lifetime. One can assume his trials were psychological as well as physical. We need to speak out for truth regardless of whether we see any immediate results. But, Schaeffer warns, those who are faithful to the truth will also experience times of discouragement. They will pay a real price psychologically. “It is possible to be faithful to God and yet to be overwhelmed with discouragement as we face the world….So many people seem to think that if the Holy Spirit is working, then the work is easy. Don’t believe it! As the Holy Spirit works, a man is consumed.”
Schaeffer sums up his take on Jeremiah. First, in such a time as ours, a negative message is required before a positive message can be given. Before giving the gospel, we must spend time explaining modern humans’ existential dilemma – to show that they are “more dead” than they could imagine; that is, morally dead because they are separated from God.
Second, we must acknowledge that our culture is under God’s judgment. We must emphasize this reality. Third, Christians who say they believe in truth must practice truth. Relativism will rust the church from the inside out. The outside will look shiny and new while the foundation rots away until it’s too late to repair it. Schaeffer quotes from his book The God who is There: “The full doctrinal position of historic Christianity must be clearly maintained; it would seem to me that the central problem of evangelical orthodoxy in the second half of the twentieth century is the problem of the practice of this principle.”
Fourth, we must understand that knowing truth and practicing it will cost us much, in terms of, for example, our family life, academic life, professional life, etc. Fifth, though the price be high, we need to keep on preaching the truth.
He writes: “Christianity is not a modern success story. It is to be preached with love and tears into the teeth of men, preached without compromise, without regard to the world’s concept of success. If there seem to be no results, remember that Jeremiah did not see the results in his day. They came later. If there seem to be no results, it does not change God’s imperative. It is simply up to you and to me to go on…whether we see the results or whether we don’t. Go on.”
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