Interlock PrayerNet

One of the concepts of my Ideal Leadership Model is that those who find themselves in leadership positions are not always the wisest or most courageous, but rather those at the right place, at the right time, doing the right things, with the right people.  The Senator Joseph McCarthy was a buffoon and a shameless publicity hound who stumbled on the find of the century – Communist infiltrators in the US State Department.  To this day, no one knows exactly how many there were, but they did exist.  By raising the Communist canard at everyone, however, McCarthy seriously jeopardized American civil liberties. 

As a young teenager, I was hooked on Marvel Comics.  I can remember taking my grass mowing money I earned on Saturdays and running over to Bower’s News Stand on Main Street in Montgomery, Pennsylvania to buy the latest issues of Spider-Man, X-Men, Daredevil, The Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four.  I have found it fascinating that all of these have been made into major motion pictures in recent years.  

The rival to Marvel Comics was Action Comics’ Superman, and DC Comics’ Batman, and yes, they have been made into movies also, but for some reason, these guys never grabbed me like Marvel’s characters.  To me it seemed that other comic books only focused on the conflict between the evil villain and the superhero, but Marvel’s team of writers, Stan Lee and illustrator Jack Kirby, created superheroes that had personalities as well as conflict.  They had real struggles with their powers.  Those portrayed as teenagers like Peter Parker (Spiderman) and Johnny Storm (Human Torch with the Fantastic Four) had the same kind of problems in life, like getting a date and passing tough exams in school, that I had.  The Incredible Hulk and The Thing (Fantastic Four) hated their disfigurement, but had to make the best of it.  They had super powers but they weren’t super people – they were just people.  

Last week I noted that we are in a completely new age in terms of world affairs and diplomacy. This week I want to note the parallel changes happening in the world of media.  Let’s take a little stroll down through the twentieth century and see where we are today.  For the first fifty years, the power was in print media.  Remember the films like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” or “Citizen Kane?”  Those who controlled the newspapers literally controlled what people heard and knew about the world.  But the Dead Tree Media saw its influence eroded with the advent of the little box in the living room known as television. 

Ironically, I wrote last week listing my Top Ten films of 2004, and the seminary course in apologetics had a discussion over several nights on the use of popular films to reach unbelievers.  It has caused me to think more about how we can use elements of culture as a weapon forged to reach the world for Christ.  In traveling to different parts of the world, I have found that in every geographical region there are certain cultural anchors such as a sports team or a particular entertainer that bonds individuals together, but I believe that through the advent of global marketing of popular films, we now are witnessing a medium that speaks more universally than any other in man’s history.  The incredible success of the Jesus film project is one vivid example. 

It has been a busy week so I am writing something a little light.  I had the opportunity to see about thirty first-run films this year either in the theatre, on an airplane, or on DVD.  I like films because they are a welcome diversion from my hectic lifestyle, but also because they are such a reflection of contemporary society.  I believe that motion pictures as a medium tell us more about the best and worst of a culture than anything else. 

Before I give my list, I must give some criteria.  An excellent film for me is one that initially impresses me and stays with me long after I see it.  By this standard, the best film I ever saw was Schindler’s List.  It was the only film I ever saw that made me weep while watching it, but also one that I pondered its implications for months and even years later.  I did not enjoy it in the sense that I wanted to watch it over and over again.  I enjoy comedies and action films, but there is nothing to think about later.  They are like a good meal – satisfying during consumption, but afterwards there is only the memory of the experience.  With that said, here is my Top Five Favorites Films for 2004:

Winston Church once wryly remarked that Americans and Brits were two peoples divided by a common language.  I discovered this personally during my first visit to the United Kingdom in 1992.  I had been invited as a guest at a missions conference in Nottingham, and was sitting in the front row of the crowded hall.  The first speaker got up and began to talk about the work their mission was doing in Latvia, and how they were currently organizing to send a lorry to Latvia.  I sat there dumbfounded.  What in the world is a lorry?  I kept trying to listen to the context, but still could not figure it out.  Suddenly I became terrified that I might be asked to comment about the lorry. 

I am sure that when the story of the 2004 election is written, it will go down in history as the first “Internet” election.  Just like the impact of the Kennedy-Nixon television debates of 1960, there is a profound impact being felt today from a handful of internet junkies who are seriously changing the political landscape, probably forever. 

Last week I noted the Associated Press reporter Scott Lindlaw, in an article carrying the by-line of Tom Hays, fabricated a lie. The AP reported that Bush's "audience of thousands booed. Bush did nothing to stop them."  That story was disseminated to thousands of newspapers and television stations, but as the saying goes, that dog wouldn’t hunt.  Literally hundreds of individuals who were at the Wisconsin rally wrote to blogs with on-line denials, supplied audio and video feeds, all demonstrating beyond any shadow of a doubt that no one booed.  AP was forced to release a revised version of the story but they never apologized, explained what happened, or disciplined either Lindlaw or Hays. Why did AP report it as such?  Scott Lindlaw has been quoted as saying, "My mission is to see that Bush is not re-elected."

Some revolutions happen very quietly, and are only evidenced in retrospect.  We are witnessing before our eyes one such revolution in information today – and it is the advent of ‘blogs’ on the internet.  The word is a contraction from “web logs,” and simply describes an individual who makes a commentary on some issue or idea and allows others to comment on it. 

My first introduction to blogs came when I ‘discovered’ Andrew Sullivan’s website (www.andrewsullivan.com) during the buildup to the Iraq War a couple of years ago.  Sullivan is unique in that he is a gay activist who also happens to be a political conservative.  What makes blogs so useful is that they often quote others and provide links to the original source.  Through Sullivan I found literally hundreds of other sites that provided a wealth of new information.  (I was ‘collecting’ them for awhile, but I stopped when my list went over one thousand.)  I am a political junkie so sites such as Lucianne, Polipundit, and Instapundit are a regular part of my daily internet diet.  The readers comments are usually shallow, but occasionally there is a gem that gets the mind to work.     

Most government reports are not worth sacrificing the number of trees it takes to produce them, but there was one released last week that turned a number of editorial heads in major newspapers around the country.  It was the most recent report of the National Endowment for the Arts survey on literary reading in America, and it wasn’t pretty.  The report tells us that for the first time in nearly two hundred years, “less than half the adult [American] population now reads literature” for pleasure.  There is no silver lining in the 47 page report, as reading for pleasure is way down in every category measured; men and women, old and young, wealthy and poor, educated and uneducated, black, white, Hispanic – you name it, they are not reading.