Ethos - 3.30.06

Posted on Myspace on 3.30.06:

Tonight Carmen, Melissa and I attended the first night of "Ethos: a Dialogue of Faith and Culture" up at Colorado Christian University. It was awesome! We heard a rather dry lecture specifying the differences between fundamentalism and authoritarianism (both are very bad).

I was most intrigued by what Brit Barry Taylor had to say in his lecture "Faith and Film." He talked about how our culture is all about mystery (i.e. 17 versions of "Law and Order," "CSI," "Lost," etc.) and enchantment. How that desire people have can be an open door to thinking about the spiritual. He pointed out how all five of this year's Oscar-nominated films dealt with moral issues: "Goodnight and Good Luck," "Crash," "Brokeback Mountain," "Capote" and "Munich." I hadn't thought about it, but what he was saying was that pop culture is thinking about morality. And perhaps a key role as Christians is for us to use culture as a starting point for meaningful dialogue. I'll write more on this later. Food for thought, though.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night as it's supposed to be rather controversial. Hooray. I love controversy.