This is why church freaks people out.

A friend sent me the link to this video. Watch and enjoy, or not. However, watch it all the way through. It will be worth it.



This worship leader tells the folks to take their shoes off and hey, why not their socks? Some Christians would call me a pessimist, in fact some do, however, I have a really hard time believing that Christ could even take these guys seriously.

I took a class on the Psalms this semester and I learned about the "Prayer book of the Bible." There are guidelines to praise and worship. Now, don't get me wrong, I am NOT one who is a stickler about sticking to guidlines, but I don't understand how worship so often completely ignores the power of lamenting.

Anyways, this Christian worship scene has become ridiculous. These guys took the music of a popular song by Dead or Alive and turned it into laughable worship.

These are the guidelines given in class:

• Praise Jesus, not man
• For the LORD, not the world
• New song, not old song
• Clear message, not vague or deceptive
• Emphasize message, not music or musician
• Local church, not concert hall or club
• Feed spirit, not flesh
• Dedicated to LORD, not worldly

 So, this group took music that is secular and tried to fit it into Christian music.

New song, not old song: It's not new song, it's old secular song.

Clear message: What does "spin me right round, Jesus, Right round! Like a record, Jesus, spin me right round now!" even mean?!

Emphasize message, not music or musician: Fail.

Local church, not concert hall or club: Fail.

Feed spirit, not flesh: Their toes I suppose felt nice, but their spirit?

Anyways, contemporary Christian music does not make sense to me. It's loud and obnoxious and frankly the guys who were playing looked like tools. Rock on, man.

Virtual Make-over: Here is your beauty.

I stumbled onto this website a couple of days ago. It is a virtual make-over. Just upload a picture and you can change your hair color, eye color, and even the color of your skin.

Wait, what? The color of your skin?

This is the picture that was used as an example for the site.

The Before picture is of an African-American woman with curly hair and lovely dark skin. The After picture is of the same woman, but with lighter skin and long flowing hair. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen! This is beauty. Light skin and flowing hair.

And what of the term, "Virtual Make-over?" What does that mean? This is what you COULD look like— pity you don't.

This is only one avenue society has chosen to steer our idea of what beauty is. Billboards and commercials are one thing, but now we can make unnatainable beauty interactive.

Second Life. What?

Second Life came to my attention about a month back in my Mass Media and Popular culture class. For those of you who do not know, Second Life is a virtual network where people can sign on for free to live vicariously through avatars in a world parallel to our own. People can socialize, participate in campaigns, trade virtual property, attend classes that are credited by universities, and travel the virtual world.

No, this is not the synopsis for the newest science fiction movie: it is real life. Well, Sort of.

Second Life was launched in 2003 and has attracted institutions, such as our own George Fox University, to buy “platforms” or virtual space and students and professors can sign on to interact via avatars. Students can attend conferences given by experts and visit places all over the virtual world, or “the grid,” as Second Life members call it.

It sounds fantastic, right? Here’s another perspective of this popular virtual network. When a new member signs on to Second Life they can design their avatar. Imagine a woman who has reached her mid life crisis, is 40 pounds heavier than she’d prefer, and is single with no prospects of finding her knight in shining armor. So, she signs on to Second Life and is given an opportunity to shave off those 40 pounds, dye her hair blonde, and give her lips that Angelina Jolie could not compare. Then she could make all of the virtual love she wanted to an array of wildly attractive men.

Yes, Second Life can be used as an academic tool to bring people together (although, I don't know why video chat won't get the job done) but it can also be another way for the disconnect between people to get stronger and harder to overcome.

Kevin Alderman is considered the Second Life “Porn Mogul.” His alter ego is an avatar named “Stroker” and he profits off of selling members “sex beds” and other such “tools” to achieve virtual steamy pleasure. Alderman believes and says, “When someone new comes into Second Life [sex] is probably one of the first things they want to explore.”

Now we’re given another level of moral ambiguity. Is it okay to sleep with someone in Second Life if you’re exclusive to your partner in real life? Alright, so maybe a person doesn't participate in sex in Second Life, but some people pour the same level of emotions into Second Life relationships as they do in their real life relationships, if not more.

Missing Pretty Girl Syndrom (Missing White Woman Syndrome)

I gave a presentation last week to a senior capstone class. I'm a junior. Talk about nerve wracking! The presentation was one Race and Media. Ya, you try to narrow that down into an hour long presentation. There were so many things I wanted to discuss and it's so hard to bring up the "race issue" on my campus of predominantly caucasian students. Ya.....

All of the points I made were well recieved except for the "Missing Pretty Girl Syndrome."

Missing Pretty Girl Syndrome is the thought that the media coverage of missing persons is disproportionate leaning heavily in favor of missing beautiful white women.

Elizabeth Smart is one of the best examples of Missing Pretty Girl Syndrome.

Smart was kidnapped in 2002 when she was 14 years old. She was found nine months later. Her abductor, Brian Mitchell, was identified by a biker who had seen Smart's story featured on Larry King and recognized Mitchell from a sketch drawing.