Mediaculture: Reflections on the effect of media and culture on our faith

FILM REVIEWS

Blue Like Jazz (PG-13) is based on the popular book and follows Don, a 19-year-old in Texas who tries to escape his Bible-Belt upbringing by going to Reed College in Portland, Ore. His dive into pagan behavior is a bit over-the-top, but his turn to a more mature faith is more nuanced than most “Christian” films.

Bully (PG-13) is a powerful documentary that should be seen by all school administrators and boards. It follows over the course of a school year five families with children who’ve been bullied. Two have committed suicide. The film captures scenes of bullying behavior. Must viewing.

BOOK REVIEWS

Gandhi and the Unspeakable: His Final Experiment with the Truth by James W. Douglass (Orbis Books, 2012, $24) shows how those who conspired to kill Gandhi hoped to destroy a compelling vision of peace, nonviolence, and reconciliation. Douglass contrasts Gandhi’s experiments with truth to “the unspeakable political and cultural forces arrayed against truth. This is a follow-up to Douglass’ massive book on JFK, who, like Gandhi, “was killed by a conspiracy that threatened to destroy a democracy.”

Desert Spirituality and Cultural Resistance: From Ancient Monks to Mountain Refugees by Belden C. Lane (CMU Press, 2011, $14) presents the 2010 J.J. Thiessen Lectures at Canadian Menno­nite University. Lane, a storyteller and theologian, combines his interest in geography and the spirituality of Desert Christians from the fourth century. He notes that “in the Scriptures God is always leading God’s people into the desert and up the mountain, taking them to an edge, to a liminal place where ordinary things fall apart.” He draws lessons for today, such as this: “We can know ourselves to be unconditionally loved only in a place where we have no purchasing power, with nothing to give in response.”