American Gangster

I saw the movie American Gangster last night and I have mixed feelings about the movie. I came away with it with a bad taste in my mouth for various reasons. The foremost reason would be the high expectations with which I entered the movie. I find that when I enter a movie and have no or low expectaions, I tend to like the movie more. As usual, high expectations for a movie led to disappointment when the movie could not meet them.

How did the movie not live up to expectations? Here are a few reasons:

1. The characters where not developed sufficiently. It was clear the movie was going for a Heat feeling in the movie in which both criminal and detective are profiles throughout the movie. This can be a dangerous approach if it is not done well. The challenge is too make the viewer care about each character, while developing different aspect of them, while moving along the story. Unfortunately, American Gangster failed on all levels concerning Roberts. Frank Lucas was much better developed then Richie Roberts in these categories. Most scenes with Roberts felt forced and inconsequential to the moving forward in the film, esp the subplot of his custody battle (which upon research is not even factual). It also detracted from the character development of Lucas. The writers would have been much more successful if they had merely stuck with Roberts as the typical cop without giving his personality different aspects.

2. The story was choppy throughout. The movie did not seem to try to cover all aspects of Lucas' operation and did not spend enough time on any of them. For example, we are told of the businesses which were used as distribution points when Roberts is describing the operations of Lucas, but we were never shown them set up. The only attempt at this was a montage of distribution which did not make it clear that business fronts were being used.

3. There were too many subplots going on. Since there we so many, none could be fully or even adequately developed or explored. Here are a few subplots of which only a couple should have been used and developed: junkies dying from Blue Magic, junkies ruining their lives with drugs, Roberts partner, Roberts turning down the money, initial startup money for Lucas, custody battle with Roberts, womanizing of Roberts, connection with Italians by Lucas. There are more, but these are just a few.

4. Movie assumed to many conclusions from viewer. There is a fine line between making the viewer use their brain to figure stuff out and frustrating the viewer with too little context. American Gangster definitely relied on the viewer to make huge conclusions based on little scenes. Here are some examples: Roberts turning down the million, cops stealing the drugs, that the drug was even Heroin. Again, lots of examples. These are just a few.

Overall, the movie tried to do too much. But if had a good premise, plot and was acted and filmed well. I would give it a solid:

6/10

Catholics and Justification

I found another great source of theological discussion online. The White Horse Inn. The website is here: http://www.whitehorseinn.org/.

I just listened to a fascinating discussion about the Catholic understanding of justification entitled, Roman Catholics and Justification.

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/The_White_Horse_Inn/archives.asp

This topic of Catholic and Prodestant views of justification in one which I know little about. It made headlines recently when Frank Beckwith, former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, reverted back to Catholicism. The reason he sited was the doctrine of justification. He believed the Catholic explanation to be more Biblical than the Prodestant view. I did not know much about the Catholic view other than the straw men and charactertures that Evangelicals can create when talking about such topics.

I would have told you that Catholics believe that we must work to be saved and our merits are what save us before God. However, after listening a bit to this interview, I think that is a vast oversimplification of their ideas. I would love to do more exploring on this topic.

Guilianni

How could an intelligent man actually say these words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRwAzoIQEyU

Wow! I am speechless. Guilanni will never get my vote.

Ron Paul's Economics

I am fascinated by Ron Paul's attitude toward the Federal Reserve and monetary policy fascinating. Check out these links. Tell me what you think.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8pLpI5rzKI&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVCStbbIvDg

Over affirmed

I think I have been over affirmed for my life to this point. I have always had people telling me what a great person I am or what a good job I am doing. It has made me too reliant of compliments of people to my overall sense of worth.

I had the epiphany when my boss gave me a compliment that I did a good job and it made me feel really good. In fact, it had way to much of an impact on me.

My affirmation should come from Christ. He alone is where I need to get my worth. My worth is because of the great God that I serve and the fact that I am his child. His greatness elevates me and gives me value.

Just a thought.

Random Media Intake

So I love to interact with different kinds of media. From TV to movies to radio podcasts to random articles on the Internet to sermons. It is pretty random sometimes. I figure I will start posting what I am listening to and some brief thoughts about the media.

Last night, I watched Scrubs on NBC. The show's main theme was that JD needed to grow up and start acting like an adult. He said something like 'I used to always think that you grew up by just getting older, but know I realize that it is a conscious decision and takes work.' I have often thought this exact thought and agree with this comment. So what does it mean to 'grow up?' I still don't know the answer to that question, but a big part of it seems to be not complaining about your life all the time and just doing what has to be done. There are countless things that must be done in life that aren't fun and exiting, but just have to be done. A child will refuse to do these things and instead go do some things which is fun. An adult just does what needs to happen without complaining. Just some thoughts.

Another lyric based entry...

As long as I am quoting song lyrics to find truth, here is another one. The great philosopher Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows says, "for all the things I'm losing, I might as well resign myself to try and make a change". On the surface this seems like a rather depressing lyric about someone whose life is going nowhere. But my friend Matt used is to point out the truth of sin. When we live in constant sin (or any sin for that matter) we are losing so much. We are sacrificing an intimacy with God which we may or may not have ever experienced before. Because of all that we are losing, really the only course of action which makes sense is changing. Unfortunately, we rarely understand this and just seek to fill the ever-largening hole with more sin.

Sufjan Stevens

For those who don't know, I am a huge fan of Sufjan Stevens. He writes witty lyrics combined with great musical ability. One song which is especially powerful to me is his song about John Wayne Gacy Jr. on the "Illinois" album. This song chronicles the killing of many young boys by serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The first time I heard this song, I could not even make it through because of the images present. However when I finally made it though, I discovered a great line near the end of the song.

After singing about the atrocities of molesting and killing boys and young men, Sufjan sings, "And in my best behavior, I am really just like him. Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hidden." At this point of the song, I was furious at how someone like Gacy could take human life so easily, but struck to the chord that Sufjan was right. I am really no better than Gacy. Often we measure ourselves against others to determine how good of a life we are living. Depending how who we measure ourselves to this can make us feel really good, or really crappy.
What we need to keep in mind is that we are all fallen sinners. We might be a little better than our neighbor, but compared to the standard set by Christ we are not even close. This point is put well in the nature of distance. If two people are standing on opposite ends of their house in Illinois, it would be foolish to talk about who is closer to Thailand. Technically, someone would be closer, but the proportions are to absurd to matter. Saying we are morally better than someone can be thought of as equally absurd.

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus tells the crowds, "...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." The Pharisees were the most perfect keepers of the Jewish law around, yet Jesus said you had to be more righteous to gain his favor. Basically, you cannot gain God's favor through your works. We are all so far from the mark of true righteousness and holiness that comparisons lose all value.

This does not give us license to disregard the moral standards which Christ layed out. Obeying these standards is in our best interests, it makes life work best. We should strive to obey our Father out of love and self-interest, but never should we think our actions make us any more favored in the kingdom.

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Ultimately, our goal is to bring glory to heaven. Just as a kingdom brings glory to the king, so the Kingdom of Heaven brings glory to the King of Kings. The Westminster Catechism says the chief end of man is to glorify the LORD. In this verse, Jesus similarly says glorifying God comes from being "a light in the world." When we shine before men, they glorify God. As I read this fairly straightforward passage I was struck by the phrase "so they may see you good works." Men are supposed to glorify God because of our "good works." Our faith does not cause others to give God the glory, our good works do.

You are the light of the World

I got to the next section on the Sermon on the Mount today about being the "light of the world." The passage reads "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house."

As I was contemplating the meaning of this passage in the morning I addressed the passage as if Jesus was talking directly to me. Instead of "You are the light of the world" I read "Chris is the light of the world." This seemed to me to be to self-inflating, although definitely still challenging. If I was the light of the world, the implications and responsibilities were overwhelming.

However, I then received an email about the importance of community. Suddenly, I realized that Jesus was not addressing solely me, but an entire group of disciples. A city is not made up of one person, but a group. Much in the same way a light is made up of many sparks. I started to rethink about the passage and it became much more alive. Jesus said a "city on a hill cannot be hidden," but a single person on a hill might be hidden. What makes the church such a force in the world for the Kingdom is a group of disciples who are like-minded in their service to the King of Kings. Truly the early church was a "city on a hill" which shined bright despite the cultures attempts to shut it up or ignore it.

As I am getting ready for the philosophy class which I will teach I a reading about the history of the spread of Christianity. It is very interesting to read about this from a secular perspective. The cannot explain it. It does not make any sense why a small band of followers of possible messiah could have spread their message so quickly and effectively. They did not do so by the sword or forced conversions (until much later in church history) and by the middle ages Christianity was the dominant thought in most all the western world. This is only explainable because the church was truly the light of the world. They refused to be hidden and shined brightly for the kingdom. What a challenge today. Does our church shine like a beacon on a hill or a we just another institution competing for people's time?