Adele’s Pathological Perversion, or We’re Sorry Saint Valentine
On this Valentines day, here is a short meditation on dealing with relational destruction. Clearly I’m a cheery one. Actually, this is provoked by my annoyance with the recent ubiquity of Adele’s song, which I find insidious. Considering that Saint Valentine was martyred––a witness to the truth––I think he would agree with the need for honesty. Especially on a day that is his namesake.
If you haven’t heard, Adele did quite well at the Grammy’s a few nights back. She has a very good voice, and I’m sure a good human being, more or less. However, her song, “Someone Like You” is disturbingly dysfunctional:
Of course such an observation of dysfunction in pop music is nothing new. Indeed, codependency is one of the major pathologies of pop music today (to call it a theme would give pop music too much credit), but here we also have wires crossed in another way: the sublime is beauty; chaos and pain is now what is beautiful; its concept of fittingness is dysfunction.
The video exudes ‘classy’: set in Paris (which, by the way, is a city that I love, and I am particularly fond of the Latin quarter); black and white; Adele appearing rather chic; and a soulful sound to the song, if not haunting. Thus by most standards the video’s appearance of aesthetics,... Read More
Videos: Marketing and the Economy
Here is a brief break from the usual kind of post, because in the past couple of months I found a couple videos that are too good not to share. Riley, a young, thoughtful feminist on marketing and gender: And Econ Stories has a number of spoken word/hip hop videos explaining Hayek and Keynes, and they are very well done in both content and production value. Econ Stories is headed up by producer/director John Papola and Dr. Russell Roberts at George... Read More
Property and Unfreedom in the Negev
On July 24, 2010 I traveled with a group of peacemakers to the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib. Located just north of Beer-Sheva in the Negev Desert, the Bedouin are indigenous Arabs with Israeli citizenship. Forced off their land in 1948, many returned in the mid-1950’s only to be relocated to a restricted area called the Siyag Zone. When we met with the villagers, they were currently in a state of flux. Having been given demolition orders... Read More
Is The State More than the Power of the Sword? (In Conversation with Yoder)
As is well known, a reading of the New Testament in the Radical Reformation tradition (and, in my opinion, an honest reading of it by anyone) displays a standard for disciples of Jesus the Christ that includes a rejection of the power of the sword. This community of disciples embarked on a trajectory that would later include such community standards as those elaborated by Hippolytus of Rome in the Apostolic Tradition, in which those entering the faith... Read More
Focus on the Family Theology turns into Drug Cartel Political Theology
A friend of mine brought to my attention an amazing example of “political theology” on the ground: La Familia Michoacana, a drug cartel and organized crime syndicate in the Mexican state of Michoacán. I am a doubter when it comes to grand narratives of how political action is the direct development of theological ideas, though I tend to believe that theological ideas often bolster or justify specific uses of power. In this case, in which La Familia... Read More
Jobs is dead and I feel… sad? Well, Conflicted.
I want to be very clear here that I do not mean to trivialize death and cancer. Pancreatic cancer is particularly vicious. It is remarkable that Steve Jobs lasted as long as he did. Maybe due to the remarkable amount of money he had — after all, he was able to take up a residence in Tennessee to qualify for a transplant there, which few people have the means to do. Nevertheless, he survived much, much longer than most. However, from Jobs’s... Read More
So Best Really Isn’t a Theological Category
Not until very recently did I quite grasp Stanley Hauerwas’s somewhat famous sentence “Best is not a theological category.” It never quite made sense to me. It never struck me as false humility, even though a latent suspicion still remained. I mean, really, who says that in response to being named America’s best theologian in Time Magazine? But Hauerwas as honest has rung true to me for a long time. Too acerbic? Sometimes. Frustratingly bombastic?... Read More
Justice and the New Universalism
The universalism debate has been kicked up a bit again, at least in my corner of the ‘interweb’. Responding to Lauren Winner’s essay on Rob Bell in the New York Times Book Review, Jamie Smith questions the “hope” and “imagination” of popular universalists (see also Paul Griffiths response to the same article). Kicking the universalist nest in this way was sure to stir up a response, and it has been vigorous... Read More
Usama bin Laden is Dead and I Don’t Feel Fine
I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. [Jessica Dovey and Martin Luther King Jr.] President Obama addressed the nation late Sunday night. He told us that Usama bin Laden... Read More
What is there in a Name? Or how Justice Outside the City is Concerned with Life for All
Thomas previously gave a meditation on why title the blog “Justice Outside the City.” Here are a few thoughts of my own on the title. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968. A year to the day before King was killed, he gave a speech at Riverside Church: “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence.” That was the later King. The earlier King — the 1963 I-Have-A-Dream King — had not yet come to see that the pervasive... Read More