Free Reads! MLK Day Edition

There has been a lot of talk about what words we’re allowed to use these days. My two cents: “You are an ignorant imbecile if you say ‘Negro.’” You can’t mix God and politics – it inevitably makes God a pawn for whatever side you’re on. Jesus had no political ambitions. Focus on the Family however, with the unleashing of their 20-something social media expert, that’s another story. Google to China: “Fightme!” With all that’s going on in the world (Haiti) it’s time for U.S. multinationals to reexamine their relationships with host countries and do good by the people and resources they use. Speaking of China, my oldest friend Jens is there with his wife Kimberly to bring home their new daughter SuLe. A new magalog Sustainable Traditions is a kind of clearinghouse for new ideas and expressions of christianity. Finally i’m still rubbing my eyes over The Third and the Seventh, a one-man, all-CG piece that has to be seen to be believed (full screen it). I leave you with this song honouring Martin Luther King, Jr. from the archives of 90s christian rap (karl will appreciate it):
January 15th – Freedom of Soul

Free Reads: 01/10/10, Binary 26 Edition

What? We’re not in a new decade yet? December 2010 ends the 3rd phase of a decade of research at the National Study of Youth and Religion. A lot of really interesting preliminary findings available to sift through here. The Arts Council of England is funding this inspiring app that i’d love to copy/paste. And maybe OpenLayers will let me do it. Plus, did you know you can order replacement parts for most board games and toys? What’s stopping you from building lite-brite furniture now? An inexplicable viewpoint from subdivision planner Rick Harrison (from a Milwaukee Journal piece): “People don’t want to walk five minutes to a park,” said Harrison. “They want to see it outside their window. And they don’t want to see their neighbors and they don’t want to sit on their porch all day.” He calls it “Prefurbia“. Developing new suburbs and exurbs, no matter how “sustainable” we make them, seems like a bad idea to me. State capitalism: the worst of all worlds? And is the Fox News broadcast really the best place to evangelize Tiger Woods? The row over Allah continues: Muslim groups in Malaysia protesting use of the word Allah firebomb christian churches. Still seems like a non-issue: it’s a pre-islamic arabic word that means “the one God”. Case closed? As always, drop your related comments or links below.

Free Reads: 2010, New Year’s Edition

What does it mean to be awesome? “When I think of awesomeness, I want something awe-inspiring, vast and mind-expanding.” A New Theory of Awesomeness and Miracles is awesome. Ends with a thought experiment on building a Go engine out of matchboxes and beads. What is Go? (I googled it for you.) Why here’s a Google map of Scary London from One Grey Eye, a 21st century penny dreadful. And Google Street View artist Jon Rafman has combed through thousands and thousands of images to create his gallery: “Street View [is like an] indifferent universe that doesn’t much care about the human’s [sic] inside it.” True story. Amazing aerial views of Detroit as it is being reclaimed by nature, urban farmers and artists. Salvo Mag take aim at “believing” in Santa Clause. Is the Tate going soft? Stuckists to Conceptualists: “Fightme!” Reminds me of my brief on Art and Moral Chaos. (yes, i referenced myself) Make your own Artistic License with this customizable web app and become whatever kind of artist you want – legally. Slow down this year: Slow Art, Slow Food, Slow Living, Slow Money, Slow Education, Slow Parenting, Slow Cities, Slow Travel; Slow is the new Punk. See you next week!

Free Reads: 12/26, Boxing Day Edition

“Hey Dan,” people keep saying “what ever happened to ‘Free Reads?’” Well faithful readers, I’ve decided to bring back this roughly compiled snapshot of internet artifacts. Unsorted, many-splendored and with as little commentary as possible i bring you the best of what’s interesting. Feel free to comment on any of these links or add something related of your own. True story: in high school there was a cart of discarded books in the cafeteria with a hand-lettered sign proclaiming “Free Reads!”. I never saw anyone take a book from there.

First: What is Boxing Day? Do you “celebrate it”? Hope you bought local for xmas this year. I did, but i also didn’t, so i’m a jerk. Find a local business group like Our Milwaukee in your area and figure out how you can be a more community-oriented consumer in the next decade. Speaking of local, Atomic Records returns from the grave in t-shirt form (get a free sticker with every order!). Also absurdist literature stimulates our brains (what’s the difference between absurdist and surrealist?). R. Crumb illustrates a non-sardonic version of Genesis (i had to look it up too: “disdainfully or ironically humorous”). In related news The Mountain Goats walk through the bible in their 2009 release The Life of the World to Come, and as we wait patiently for Petra’s Rock Band release, we contemplate the place religion plays in video games (hint: not much unless you’re killing “demons”). In other christmas news we tried to make some new stuff this year – like modified books. I spent $12 at the goodwill and came away with some real treasures, including an original printing of The Space Child’s Mother Goose, which has the best cover ever (seen here) and some truly bizarre content. Also Frank Schaeffer gets all up in the dispensational grill of Tim LaHaye in his new book, and The Economist takes Karen Armstrong, the original Freelance Monotheist, to task for her new book. Karen Armstrong herself delivers a skeptical Christmas message with a heart of gold at the L.A. Times. Finally “Was Jesus Rich?” the prosperity theologians would like you to say “yes, please”.

Expressions of Christianity in S. Korea

The BBC has an interesting article about the explosive growth of western-style megachurches (AKA “christianity”) in South Korea. Membership at the most mega-church of all: 750,000. To put that in perspective in America the largest 15 churches combined do not make up even half that number. Yoido Full Gospel Church in S. Korea’s membership is more than 15x greater than that of Joel Osteen’s empire. Serious numbers. Not only that, but S. Korea sends some 20,000 christian missionaries to other countries (Iraq, France, the United States, etc.). Much has been said in recent years of the rise of global christianity (a bit of a misnomer: christianity has always been global) and most projections estimate by 2050 (PDF) the numbers of christians in Africa, Asia and S. America will absolutely dwarf western christians.

According to the BBC article, a big (controversial) chunk of American Christianity – namely prosperity theology – has spread into S. Korea. I wondered what else we exported and how the S. Koreans were making it their own. My friend Nathan, who is Catholic, has been living in S. Korea for a number of years and agreed to answer a few of my questions.

Fightme: Do S. Koreans with traditional beliefs feel threatened by the rise in christianity?

Nathan: I wouldn’t say people feel threatened. Christians follow most of the social aspects of the [traditional] holidays, as most of them call for respecting your family’s dead. Most protestant churches there are very, very evangelical. They set up speakers outside subway stations, and will have high schoolers walk up and down the subway trains. Many of the protestant churches are quite competitive both with each other, and especially with Catholics and Buddhists. The overall effect of this is that often they badmouth other denominations excessively. There will be entire portions of a sermon dealing only with how another denomination is wrong and thus bad.

Fm: Is Catholicism a growing force as well?

N: There is a big divide between Protestants and Catholics. Most Catholics will agree that we are all Christian, but the Protestants of Korea will argue strongly that Catholics are not Christian. I am not sure how this came about, and it may in some way be because of the words used for denoting them in Korean. They mean “Christian” and “Catholic” — most people are not raised realizing that Catholics are one of the many types of Christians.

Fm: Does S. Korean christianity have a distinct Korean-ness to it? what does Korean christianity look like as it is lived out in the community?

N: Protestants who really follow their faith can be quite strict. They do not drink, smoke, gamble, or use the sex industry at all. There are very few people who are that strict. Especially among men in management, drinking/whoring are a strong part of the Korean culture, but that is another discussion. Catholics are fine with gambling, drinking and smoking, as long as they are done responsibly. Doing any of them to an amount that causes health, social, or monetary issues is still seen as a sin. Priests will take groups out drinking after a hard day preparing for some event, but this is not big time drinking. Usually just a beer or two along with dinner. There seem to be more people on average [than in America] who are well-educated about their particular church’s beliefs, however there are also many people that give lip service. Many people go to church for business reasons, and among 20-somethings, it is often seen as a singles club activity where your main goal is to just pick up women. As to the church mentioned in the article, many people I knew attended. Out of the 5 I can think of offhand, 3 were going there just to find a marriage match.

Fm: Any other thoughts?

N: Overall, I think Asia in general is on a Christian (inclusive) upswing. Korea itself is poised to be the next hub for what could and probably needs to be a strong round of missionary and evangelical work. There is a good base there that could refresh other churches worldwide, and hopefully fuel many conversions in the rest of Asia, China in particular.

Other resources: “Does Global Christianity Equal American Christianity?”, Christianity Today