Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, MTV, VMA's - Reflection of American Culture

I woke up this morning to the Twitter and Facebook world exploding with tweets about Miley Cyrus raunchy performance at the VMA's last night.

Most of the tweets, posts, and news reports lambast Miley Cyrus.

I get it.

Some have lambasted Robin Thicke and others who charge that there's a double standard when Miley Cyrus is being criticized and Robin Thicke isn't.

I get that too.

But here's the thing: the reason why Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, MTV, the VMA's do what they do is because the American public wants to see that crap.

If people don't watch, buy their music, turn the radio off or tune to another station when their songs come on, then there is no story.

Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, MTV, VMA's are a reflection of American culture.

We have been pushing the boundaries of decency so far that what is truly offensive and shocking is permitted, celebrated, imitated.

That's what saddens me.

Stalkers or Followers of Jesus

Your typical American Christian:

• Wants to know much about Jesus as possible - his life, his friends, his life-style, his routines, his habits, his tendencies, etc.
• Memorizes sayings of Jesus
• Studies the characteristics, motives, thoughts, and intentions of Jesus

The major problem with all of the above: this is what stalkers do.

Jesus never asked us to stalk him. He asked us to follow him. 

Following Jesus not only is about knowing things about Jesus, but being changed and transformed by Jesus. 

So which one are you? 

God's Dream for the World

God's dream for the world is about the redemption of all creation, not just individuals getting into heaven; it is about the restoration of life as God intended it to be; it is about realigning life around God and God's ways.

Alan Roxburgh

Thoughts from Watching Elysium

This past weekend I had a chance to see the movie Elysium.

The story takes place sometime in the near future. The planet earth has been abandoned by the rich due to the violence, the pollution, the disease, etc. The rich have deemed earth to be unliveable.

The rich live on an idyllic setting called Elysium. On Elysium there are no illnesses. There is no hunger. There is no pollution.

The people living on planet earth long to live like the rich on Elysium.

One of the interesting things about Elysium is that they have the technology to cure all illnesses.

As I was talking with my brother-in-law about the movie I could not shake the thought that people had the technology and the ability to cure all diseases, and yet  they refused share that technology and ability with all people? Why would anyone want to keep such technology for only the few? Why would they only limit healing for the rich? Why wouldn't they use the technology for all who needed healing? What kind of people would be okay with keeping such technology to themselves?

It made no sense to me.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks...we have enough food and technology right now to eradicate world hunger.

Not another human being need to ever die again because they did not have enough food. We already have all the food to feed all the people on the planet.

We already have the technology and the infrastructure to get the food to the hungry.

So here's the million dollar question?

Why aren't we doing what we know to be absolutely doable today? Why are people dying of hunger?