Why I'm Note Renewing My Subscription to Relevant Magazine

    I got an email in my inbox today asking me to renew my subscription to Relevant magazine. I've had the subscription for nearly 2 years now, and originally only described because graphically, they are a pretty good magazine. However, over those two years, and the years I look back at them since they started, they're not what I want in a Christian magazine. They're nowhere near what I'd want in a Christian magazine that seeks to be...well, relevant.
     In their email, they stated that the goal of Relevant magazine has been to "provide you with a magazine that pushes boundaries, asks questions, spots trends and challenges worldviews—all while helping you pursue God in everyday life." However, for what I want in a magazine that helps me pursue God in everyday life, the magazine is no closer in doing this, than watching Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino.
    In fact, in a recent issue, they reviewed Gran Torino and had a lot to say about it. Okay, not really. The review stated that the movie "embodiment of the Eastwood mythos." As for the character Eastwood played, it states that you won't like him, but as he opens up, you'll respect him. For a magazine that desires to help you draw closer to God, the characteristic of being able to know the truth and tell, as seen from God's point of view would be helpful, but is sadly absent.
    I watched Gran Torino, much to my regret. I remember that I had wanted to see it in the theaters so much, but never got the chance. Then it came out to the local video store, or for me and most of America now, the Redbox, I had to walked by it for weeks before I could rent it. And during all this time I had not read a single review to prepare me for what was in store. Of course if I had read this review, I would have been even more excited than I was.
   This was not the case as I sat down with my wife, pushed the play button, and exposed myself to F-word after F-word, after....well, another F-word followed by a dozen other four-letter words, offensive language, and other words and phrases not socially attractive. In the 119 minutes of the film, we can find around 82 F-words, and over 100 profanities all together.
    Though the story contains many good points about redemption, friendship, etc, etc, the question still remain: Do you want to subject yourself to all of the baggage contained in the film just for a few glimmers of "life lessons" or whatever you want to call it? Sadly many would have no problem with it. That "many" though, should not include a magazine that desires to help you get closer to God. This is especially true in light of what God has said about words: Life and death are in the power of the tongue; But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man; You are snared by the words of your mouth.
    What is the price you pay for subjecting yourself to this, or anything else that is not spiritually healthy. The Bible tells us that "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." If faith comes by hearing God's Word, what comes in hearing other things, such as a tidal wave of profanity?
   My point is not to attack Gran Torino, or Relevant magazine, but a for a publication that says their goal is to help me get closer to God, their recommendation of such a movie does exactly the opposite.
  In the same issue, the cover story was titled, "The Inspired Life of Zooey Deschanel." However, in my reading it, there was not much inspiring about it. In fact, I've found that many of their cover stories, and stories in general talk a lot about spirituality, religion, but not so much about Jesus, Christ, the Holy Spirit, or things that would actually pull you closer to God. The only boundaries that I've seen pushed are the ones that ask the readers to follow their example in a life that may fight injustice around the world or talk about it at least, stand up for the environment, and tell you about "really cool music," but leaves you lack a deep, personal relationship with Christ that is guided by the Holy Spirit, as Jesus intended. 
   The latest issue I have in my hands has a cover story titles, "The Winding Spiritual Road of Jeff Tweedy & Wilco." While the article does look at Jeff Tweedy's "spiritual" life (like we all does not have on), not once does it look at his Christian life. That is  because he doesn't have one. While you can always catch a glimmer of spiritual nuggets from anything, a magazine that desires to get you closer with God uses something that does little of that.
     The Bible focuses on the righteous, the Godly to point out characteristics, traits, and examples of how to live our lives in a Godly, righteous manner that is pleasing to the Lord. However, this is not hoe Relevant does it, as most of their articles tries to "bridge" the gap between the Christian and non-Christian through focusing on culture, Hollywood stars, and those who have had spiritual experiences in life, or stood up for causes that they agree with. However the only thing that can bridge the gap between teh non-Christian and the Christian is Jesus Christ, yet he is absent from most pages on Relevant magazine that do not contain an advertisement.
    The way to get closer to God is not by showcasing those who have "tried" several religions or who have fought for causes you may agree with, or trying to put a new spin on faith, but by the tried and true methods Jesus demonstrated and talked about. Getting closer to God is as easy as studying your Bible-His message to you, His love letters to you, by fellowshipping with Him in prayer, and by praying and being led by the Holy Spirit--a doctrine that has become too taboo even in Christianity today.
   These are the things that need to be spoken on, not a sixteen point plan of how this worked for so and so, but how to listen to the voice of God so He can lead you. I'm not against Relevant, I'm for them so much, but I will not spend the money God has entrusted in me on a publication that goes against what I know to be correct from God's Word.   

Vince McMahon Is An Idiot

    If you don't know who Vince McMahon is, then I don't blame you. He is the head of the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). He is credited as being one of the smartest men in the wrestling industry. He took a small territorial company and turned into a world-wide business that has offices in a few different countries. Not too shabby, don't you say? However, In all my years of watching wrestling, which for the last almost ten years it has been off and on, I've noticed that wrestling has gone from wrestling entertainment to entertainment wrestling.
    Though McMahon has taken a company and made it one of the best small businesses in the country (ranked in Forbes' top 200), the product he delivers to people is lacking in....well....creativity. In the past 10-12 years the one thing I've noticed that wrestling has emphasized more vulgarity, sexuality, violence, and de-emphasized wrestling. Now I know you're thinking the violence part is an oxymoron, but instead of focusing on wrestling, they have gone to fighting. And it's not just fighting, but well, theatrical assault and battery.
    Wrestling has come from the sideshows and carnivals to returning to the sideshows on the television set. You have midgets wrestling normal people....wait. No, they're not wrestling. They're just running around trying to be caught like a leprechaun. You have the vixens showing off everything they possibly can without getting pulled from network TV, and then showing a little more on cable TV, and of course showing almost everything on pay-per-view. All this while marketing to kids as well. On Friday nights if you're not going out like normal people, you might sitting in front of TV watching soap operas that happen to mix a little bit of wrestling in with it.
    And all this is to do two things---make money and get ratings, which in turn, makes money. Anything that the simpleton mind can think of, the WWE will throw up on the TV. If it doesn't work (like killing of the boss), we'll just pretend it didn't happen. If people don't tune in to watch it, get rid of it. And that includes your own wrestlers. Who cares if it's not the wrestlers fault. After all, they're just following what the uncreative writers told them to do. And what would they do? Go against the writers and get fired for sure, or do what they say and flip a coin on whether or not they'll be there in a few weeks. Not like a contract means anything. You may have a contract, but that can always be torn up...just not by the wrestlers.    
    Who cares if you've been casts as a Muslim American (even if you're Italian) and told to go out and re-enact a beheading that is quite similar to those terrorists are doing on the next website over. Although, it will not be the writers fault, or the boss' fault, who even though he's a "genius" didn't see the crap about to hit the fan. And when it does, is it the writers fault? The bosses fault? Of course not. They're all geniuses. However, it is the wrestler's fault because he went out and did what he was told to do. And why? He likes to put food on the table.   
     But it's okay if a certain storyline doesn't work. Why? They'll just push a few half naked women out to "strut their stuff." And afterwards, before hand, or during, they can market to your kids and mine so they can watch the great programming on TV...or the half-naked women. Whatever you call it. This is the formula--half-naked women, silly story lines with oddities and other off the wall ideas, flashy and not so flashy wrestlers and other personalities who get on the microphone and talk a lot, oh, and some wrestling.
    I'm not against wrestling. I love wrestling. I loved wrestling. When I was a kid I used to sneak out of bed and watch it. I used to get up Saturday morning and watch WWF Superstars. But what I watched then was wrestling. And it was entertainment. What's on now is entertainment, along the lines of Jerry Springer, and some wrestling. Its ideas that are thrown together that people hope work. It's half-naked women that "creative writers" feel the show can't do without (and apparently are kid friendly). As Zell Miller said about the democratic party, "I didn't leave the democratic party. The democratic party left me." Real wrestling has left me. It's anything except well thought through, creative, imaginative ideas, put together rolled into a ball with wrestlers knowing what they do best and allowed to do it, to form a product that is creative and suitable for what it is being marketed as. It is not people with great ideas being shot down because you don't like that person or because there's some sort of "political motivation" behind it.
    It's not ideas like spending as much time developing and thinking on the "mid-card" segments as you do on the headliners, because God knows you can't have people that are popular on the mid-card. It's not ideas that actually make sense. It's not having to step so far out of reality you think that you have to disconnect from logic and reason to watch and believe.
    However, in a world of bulky "entertainers" and "superstars," not wrestlers; a place where we're asked to disconnect from reality for a little bit, one of the biggest things we're asked to believe is that Vince McMahon is a genius. A man who cannot sell some of the greatest wrestlers in the world to the world without having to throw in some sideshow attractions and some busty brunette busting out of her clothes, is not a genius. A man who does not realize that to make a great product you must concentrate on all the product, not just the most important parts, is not a genius. A man who markets near pornography to kids, who sells sex and violence and labels it "kid friendly" is not a genius. No, he is an idiot, in all sense of the word. And no matter how nice he may be, how many people kiss up to him, or hate him, or love him, or think he's great, or evil. Truth is truth, not mixed with politics or opinions, or the invitation to disconnect from reality. Vince McMahon is an idiot.  
    Note: There are great wrestlers out there. There are great writers out there. Most of them more than likely work for Vince McMahon. However, that still does not changethe fact that Vince McMahon is an idiot.  

The History Channel: Contradiction On Cable

The other day I was sitting around watching Cities of the Underworld on the History Channel, a station that I love and hate. On this episode they are looking at the underworld of Jerusalem. Now when it comes to religion, the History Channel is another one of those channels where you’d be wise to get your information somewhere else.
    The thing that is just so ’head scratching’ (I guess that would be a good word) is that they are looking at the underworld here and talking about archeology and all that kind of stuff. (I won’t note the thousands and thousands of archaeological evidence that they and tons of other people, channels, etc ignore when doing archaeological stuff on Biblical subjects....that’s not what this is about). What is amazing is that in the same conversation, the same talk, that they will question the Bible and it’s accuracy, yet at the same time use it as a reference for what they are discussing. And I don’t mean in the sense that "this is what the Bible says," but in the sense, "we know from the Bible that so and so had so and so."
     There’s even the nice line that Meggiddo and the battle of Armageddon is where "Jesus and Satan duke it out." Just so we all know, that is not what happens in Revelation or at the battle of Armageddon.
     This isn’t the only mistake that the History Channel makes when it comes to religion. On another show I watched just the other day, I do believe it was Battles of the Bible, they talk about the military strategies of Biblical battles. One ’battle’ they talk about is between the Egyptians and the Israelites when they left Egypt. (Just so we all know, there was no such battle. There was the Israelites leaving Egypt, guided by God, and the Egyptians chasing after them). Of course in this whole show not one time do they consider the possibility that God was with the Israelites and that there were supernatural forces working  in the midst of the two peoples.
    This just shows what God Himself has told us, the world does not know Him. In everything, they try to naturalize the works of God in whatever outlandish way possible as long  as they can erase the possibility that God is real and helping a people that are known first throughout the world as a people of God.

Bicycling Idiots & My Right To Hit Them

Just last week in Tulsa, there was a woman that was hit and killed while riding her bicycle. On top of that, the man who hit her drove off. Thankfully the cops found before the night was over. I'm sure she was riding in accordance with the law and mean no disrespect to her or anyone else who has been injured or killed while properly riding their bicycle.
   However, in the past few weeks, I have seen more morons riding bicycles than ever before. This morning on the way to work I had an idiot, yes, an idiot decide that the "do not cross" sign meant everyone except him, as he continued down the sidewalk, and across the road where traffic was driving. That traffic was me-followed by many other larger, heavier vehicles.
   Common sense should tell one that in a battle of a 40lbs  vehicle (give or take) and a 2 ton+ vehicle, you don't want to challenge the 2 ton one if your on the 40 lbs one......and an idiot. But then, common sense is lacking in this breed of humanity.
   I do not understand it here. We have sidewalks all over, yet the bicyclist ride on the road. I do not know of any law prohibiting them from riding on the sidewalk. The other day I had to sit behind one such idiot as they thought they could go as fast as a car. Of course they were never proven wrong in a way they would understand-namely a car going faster than them in the same lane, in the same mass of space.
   I used to ride my bike all the time, especially in college. Of all the rules there were, I knew one very well. I'm a bike, you're a car. You win.  

News & Notes From Around The Web

I heard this morning on the local morning show that Ellen Degeneres is going to be the new judge for American Idol. I really don't care, I don't watch the show. If satan was the host then maybe I would care a little more. But then again, maybe he is. It is American IDOL. I kid. I kid.
However, this does make me wonder: If I was a homosexual, could I get a job as a judge on a top rated TV show. I mean, we all know it has nothing to do with her qualifications. And adding a homosexual does make the show a little more gay-friendly-especially since the contestants wait until the show is over to come out of the closet, thus destroying any hope of pulling in the gay demographic for that season.
Honestly though, look at the qualifications. Ellen has been a stand up comedian, had her own comedy show, come out of the closet, destroyed her own show because 'comedies can not survive on gay alone' (don't even bring up Will & Grace), then went on to have a successful daytime talk show. In none of her experience has she sung, been a music producer, started a band, or managed a singing act. But she hasn't missed an episode of the show since it came on. If that's what it takes to get on a show, I want to take Kutner's place on this season's House MD.
Honestly though, if business executives, store managers, sports team higher-ups, or anyone else in the employment field ever hired someone for a job on the same amount of lack of qualifications as American Idol has for Ellen, that person would find themselves looking for a new job. Why? Because the idiocy of hiring someone with no prior experience for something such as a music critique show, reeks of stupidity. Of course, if the only reason they did hire her was because she is gay, to draw the demographic, think of how well that would go over (if it is true). The homosexuals would be offended, well some, for a TV show just trying to 'buy' their viewership, and the rest of the world would be offended as well, or at least should be. It is illegal to fire someone almost solely on the basis of being a homosexual, but it sure is alright to hire one on it.
Elsewhere around the web Hugh Hefner is getting divorced. Didn't see that coming. Studies have actually shown that men who look at pornography alot find their wives, significant other, less attractive no matter how beautiful they are. But then again, any marriage built on sex, and between a 70 year old and a 20, maybe 30 doesn't really seem to stable to begin with. No telling how many people's lives Mr. Hefner has ruined with divorce, molestation, rape (all which studies have proven pornography can be tied to), but hey, at least we can stick it to him by ruining a few marriages.
That's all the time I have now. Next time-something more interesting....hopefully.

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