Agenda Watch!

I have started a new Blog. It's called Agenda Watch. It is satirical. Go to it. Tell others of it.
www.agendawatch.blogspot.com

For the Love of All that is Holy this is hilarious!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vR6g0BFQBDs&search=easter%20bunny

We're The Man!

"The Man." The Enemy of subversive people worldwide. "The Man" is the cops, the government, the corporations, the French, your boss, the System, the LAPD, whoever... "The Man" is different to different people, ya know? Screw the Man...right? Down with the Man. Oh yeah, you feelin' that? The Man is pretty much whatever institution you find to be an oppressive force keepin' you/us down.
I've been thinking about The Man in two different ways lately. One, the Man as the Church. And two, the Man as evil.

One, the Man as Church. I was talking to my friend Curt at Borders two days ago. We were talking about Brian McLaren's new book "The Secret Message of Jesus." It's good by the way, I recommend it. A 4 out of 5 I'd say. Anyway, McLaren is one of the forerunners of a new kind of christianity. Well not NEW, because as far as I'm concerned it's actually the OLD way, but it's new to us now (a shame). Anyway, I got to thinking...ya know? Christianity use to be the subversive, counter-culture, alternative way of living that was Stickin' it to the Man. It was radical. It was dangerous. It was subversive. It was scandalous. It was a revolution. But it was also love. It was something so ridiculously original and crazy it had to be right. It was Stickin' it to the Man with love. The early christians were like hippies living on the fringe of society. But the love, life, and truth of the message was so amazing that their numbers grew and grew and grew. What?
And eventually this message, this movement, this revolution was so threatening (but not with violence) to the oppressive systems of religion and government (Rome was the biggest Man of them all) that they began persecuting the believers. The Church leader Tertullian from the 2nd century says of the Christian persecution: "The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow: the blood of Christians is seed." He said this in the face of the Man. THAT IS SUBVERSIVE! And it was true. No matter what Rome did, they could not stop this sect of people from growing. These people that actually believed in One God, who only a hundred years ago had come in the flesh as some peasant, and taught that through faith in Him and in Love that they could actually live life eyes open, make the world better, and eventually be with God forever. I mean, what?!?! It was spreading like wildfire, even in the face of death and torture. But the Christians kept going, kept loving, kept worshipping, kept meeting, kept forgiving their enemies, and kept their faith in Jesus Christ. What a perfect plan God had. Crazy, yes, but also perfect. The Kingdom of God would advance, and take over the world. But not by any violent means. Not by mere intellectual persuasion. Not even by common sense. But as a quiet, stealthy, steadily advancing organism. Humble in it's speech and walk, but confident and immovable in it's faith, and tenacious in it's love. How wonderful and beautiful! Down with the Man! To be a Christian was to be a part of something that felt dangerous and revolutionary. I would imagine a girl who liked a boy who was a christian back then telling her mother about him would hear something like, "Are you crazy? Don't even think about it. I want you to settle down and date some nice boy, not one of those crazy Christians. You wanna get yourself killed hanging out with a crowd like that?" It's like back then WE were those crazy counter-culture punk rockers with tattoos and piercings all over with crazy ideas about life. Except instead of giving the Man the middle finger, we turned to them the other cheek. Intead of blowing up buildings, we prayed for them as they released the lions on us. Instead of criticising those that Roman society had no place for, we let them into our community. And it grew and grew and grew...

UNTIL...

WE BECAME "THE MAN"!!! And that's what Curt and I talked about the other day. How We, the Church, have become The Man! I don't think it was ever suppose to be this way, honestly. Now I don't know where I stand completely on Calvanism vs Armenianism as far as Predestination, or where the line is drawn between what God plans and allows to happen, or what is free will vs not, or whether GOd allows big bad things to happen. But I'm not so sure that I am willing to believe that it was ever God's intention for us to become The Man! This is where I wish A LOT of people read this thing, because that sentence alone could spark quite a robust debate. Along with this one: Did God know we would become this? Did He, in his omniscience (whatever extent of that might be), realize that we would become so impotent, so safe, so tame, so stuffy? Before I go any further, let me say that I don't believe the church at large is ineffective, I'm speaking in generalities about the Western Church in general. I'm speaking about the institutional church that could be quite readily characterized as "THE MAN."
So here we are today...the same Christianity that 2000 years ago was dangerous, countercultural, subversive, opposing violence, promoting a new kind of community, offering a new exciting way of life, stickin' it to The Man...
But today, we are the Man. We're getting it stuck TO US! We're the "Roman Empire" if you will. I mean, sure we still claim to promote many of the same things we did, namely, Jesus Christ and such. But people roll their eyes at us now. People laugh and joke about us. I know that that will happen. I know some and many will always hate Christianity, Jesus said so. But there is a difference between someone hating us because of what we stand for and who we are (which is the way it should be) and someone rolling their eyes with boredom or laughing with indifferent callousness (as it often is). WE ARE THE MAN! I don't know if you've seen "Raging Bull". But the church is like Jake LaMotta, the great and ferocious boxer. In his heyday he was a force to be reckoned with. He was dangerous, edgy, a fighter. He was lean and he captured the attention of anyone who saw him in that ring. But he gave into pride, jealousy, and insecurity. At the end of the movie, he owns a club, where he stands up and tells jokes and eats and drinks and gambles. He's 80 pounds overweight, short of breathe, and the only thing he commands is uncomfortable laughter from his audience at his forced humor and comment. He's a shadow of who Jake Lamotta was, or is suppose to be. A weak, soft, tame version. We are Jake Lamotta.
People (especially when younger) instinctively rebel against whoever The Man is in their lives. It's built into us. The church thrives in the beginning, I believe, because the church was an alternative way of life. Life in God through Jesus was hope. It was crazy, Screw the Man, kind of hope! It was the outlet for all of humanity, in their attempt to Fight the Man. And I'm not talking about governments there, I'm talking about THE MAN that I haven't addressed yet. See, I believe that every human has that gnawing feeling that something is holding them down. Keeping them down. Sometimes it is governments, laws, people, war, disease, etc... Those things can be part of the issue. But all of those systems, corrupt and clean, are ALL being run by an even larger system of injustice and evil. This system is The Man's THE MAN! And we all inherently have this pissed off feeling that things are the way they are. We hate war! We hate violence! Abortion! Unjust courts! Lying dictators! We hate all of that, but no matter what we do on the surface (laws, petitions, activism) as good as they can be on one level, they can not even touch the ultimate system behind it all. The Enemy! Evil! Satan! Whatever you call it or him, it is responsible for the Effed up state everything is in. And that is what made Christianity (and as far as I'm concerned, MAKES) so POTENT! It actually addresses the most base and important issues. It deals with the superficial issues like war, justice, poverty, etc...but at heart it is about what it really on everyones mind..that unseen thing that has us killing each other and ourselves. It's about letting Jesus guide our hearts and minds and decisions. THEN, we can address the other issues at hand.
So, the church was fighting the Man! (Rome, but more importantly EVIL) But then we became the Man! What happens when the Subversive group ends up becoming the man? Well, the same thing that happened when the Vietnam generation grew up to become the Man...nothing happens! Progress stops. Status Quo is maintained. The cycle is perpetuated.
UNLESS...

Petition For Patsy

Hey huddled masses. I haven't been on a rant about Pat Robertson in a while. And I won't be. But I DID come across a petition online that has like 700 signers so far. The petition asks Robertson to either resign or stop saying stupid things (paraphrase). So here's the link. Read it and sign it.
http://www.petitiononline.com/caps1606/petition.html

The Trenches Are Dug

The reason the trenches are being dug in so deep on the "Right" and the "Left" is because no one is learning anything new. Well, they are certainly learning more about what they already believe, but their focus is so narrow that they are not actually expanding their minds at all.
It's about the Left learning more and more about how to prove that they are right; and the same with the Right. See, learning something new always begins with acknowledging that you-as you are now-could be wrong!
And this is where we are messed up. Everyone today begins with the presupposition that they are right! This mentality automatically puts them on either the offensive or the defensive...instead of in a dialogue.
We have Conservatives who continue watching Fox News for their information and Bill O'Reilly and Limbaugh for commentary. Liberals turn to CNN for their news and get their comment from Al Franken and certain Hollywood pundits. And of course, the trenches get deeper and deeper and deeper. Egos are fed. Sources paid. Arguments rage on. Friendship ended. Statistics slanted (on both sides). Lies are told (well, half-lies). And so on.
And all in the name of being "less slanted" than the others. And who suffers? Well, everyone, I guess. Though they don't all realize it. But people are getting dumber, less informed, and narrower as a result. It's actually an irony that in an age when people know more, are well read, intellectual, and up-to-date, we are actually quite dumb and shallow. We are like a pool that is 300 feet wide, but 2 inches deep.
You have some liberal on the street who got all his statistics from Al Franken, his tenacity from the NY Times, and his rhetoric from George Clooney. Let's say he bumps into some conservative on the street. This conservative got all his stats from Rush Limbaugh, his tenacity from Bill O'Reilly, and his rhetoric from the Christian Coalition. What transpires is a farce to say the least, and a tragedy to be nearly accurate. As they argue, neither one is hearing the other, only waiting for their chance for rebuttal. The Liberal spouts a statistic about something social that is actually about 90% accurate but is somewhat out of context, to which the Conservative angrily shouts back a statistic in response that is only about 40% true, and then the Liberal with some condescension and arrogance in his voice says something defaming about George W. (that in reality has nothing to do with anything in this context), to which the Conservative says something about the Liberals having no values using statistics that he got off of O'Reilly Factor, to which the Liberal responds with some statistics (the exact opposite of his Conservative friend), that he got from Al Franken. Then the battle gets heated when the liberal mentions Global Warming. The liberal and the conservative go at it hard on this heated and most contemporary of issues. Of course (and this is quite amusing and confusing to me) both of these fellows have gen-U-ine statistics from bon-A-fide scientists to back up each of their respective claims. The liberal can give stats to show that the earth is heating up and it's the results of our damage. He's got real numbers here. From real scientists, in real fancy schools, using real fancy language and technology. And then the Conservative goes "oh yeah? I got numbers of my own." And indeed he does. He too has real scientists saying real things, using real numbers. Hmm, amazing! And they go back and forth and back and forth! Statistics, and then counter-statistics. Points, then counter-points. Logic, and then counter-logic. Testimonials, then counter-testimonials! And with each shot, the trench is dug deeper. The liberals get stronger in their position that they-and only they-know how to run things. And the conservatives the same. Just for fun, as you listen to this conversation, see how many times you hear the following buzz words:
Agenda
Culture Wars
George W. Bush
WMD's
Activist Judges
Traditional Values
Illegal War
Gay Agenda
Environmentalist Agenda
Liberal Agenda
Conservative Agenda
Religious Agenda
Secular Agenda
Hollywood's Liberal Agenda
Agenda
Agenda
Agenda
Fear
National Security
Civil Rights.

Man, that was fun. But I had to stop because I could just keep on listin! It's like an orgy of mis-information out there! Of buzz words. Of sound-bytes. Of Headlines. And yes, agendas.
Of course, the truth is out there for us to find. But it has been divided up in the camps. You can find 30% of the truth there on Fox News, and 30% on CNN, 15% on the Daily Show (which I love!), 5% here, 5% there, 10% way over there, and finally 5% somewhere else. Of course, those stats are not scientific, in case you were wondering. And I'm sure someone reading this is already finding their underwear in a knot ("Oh, I don't know, I think Fox News is more like 90% true!") to which I say: Thank you for illustrating my point to yourself.
The reason you can only find a certain degree of truth in each of these places is because none of them will report something that they disagree with.
See, most people have already settled on what they believe is political and social truth. Their opinions have been chiseled in stone in their brains (and in some cases their hearts). And they don't see their opinions as opinions, they see them as bonafide scientific fact. Therefore, anything that is contrary to those "facts" is untrue and biased. Even if the new evidence is 100% true. It's like someone taking a position that rocks are soft objects, and sticking to it. They really believe that rocks are soft. Now there could be some news report on some station that has scientists and everyday people on it, holding the rock, banging it on things, throwing it through windows and such. Then they come to the conclusion that rocks are indeed hard. The person could then turn off the station infuriated. They'd say "That god-awful hard rock agenda! I hate that station, they only report that slanted hard rock foolishness!" Immediately they turn on their favorite station, that reports the Soft-Rock theory of life. I know that was a ridiculous illustration, but I made my point. We refuse to grow when we don't allow ourselves to realize that we were wrong about something. I mean, by definition, you can't grow or learn until you realize that what you have previously thought was wrong.

But in todays society, we have so many choices of information outlets, that we can choose only to plug in to the ones we ALREADY AGREE WITH! So you have people who only watch a certain news station because they agree with it's views, and only listen to certain radio stations because they agree with it, only visit certain websites because they agree, only read newpapers and magazines that line up with their idealogies. And so you go back to what I said originally. People who are shallow, narrow, dumb (but learned...I hope you get the irony), and are full of themselves because all they do is fill their life with POV's that agree their own and put down others!
I'm convinced that political and social truth is a combination of the Right and Left (which I am convinced is the political and social way of Jesus). I try to fill my life with points of view that are across the spectrum (this might draw concerned looks from friends and co-workers at times), that are very different and similar to my own, that rub me the wrong way and the right way, that offend me and assuage me, that challenge and comfort me, that make me feel closed-minded and open-minded. I love it. I get called a Left-Wing Liberal by my conservative friends and family. I get called a Conservative by my more Liberal friends. See, that makes me feel good...like I'm on the right track. But most of all...whenever I hear a person speak on TV or on the Radio or in Life...I'm prepared to be wrong. I am always ready to switch positions on something if I am confronted with what seems to be new light. In my life so far, I have switched from conservative to liberal on many issues. And vise-versa. I usually end up on the middle road for most issues. And it's not that I am an ideological prostitute (like John Kerry seemed to be), and I'm certainly not an idealogical machinegun (like W.). It's just that I want to REALLY know what is right. And because there are so many layers of shite to peal away before you find what the truth of the matter is, sometimes truth starts looking different the less it's clouded by points of view and spin. Suddenly it looks less easy and headline-ish and it usually ends up looking more complex, beautiful and difficult...like Jesus or "Fargo".
Anyway, I feel like writing a book right now, but I know YOU don't want me to do it on this blog. Maybe one day I'll be able to get a book contract and I can be a spin-doctor. I can write a book and push my agenda of not knowing what in God's name is going on!

Ted Baehr of MovieGuide.org

Okay, sorry. I really wanted to resist going on any rants for a while, because I have been trying to work on the whole "doing it" thing I talked about in my "on a personal note" post. But I cannot help but to comment on this deal.
And this is one of those deals where it should be as easy as saying to myself, "just don't go to that website, no one is making you read this." And technically it is that easy. But everyonce in a while, just like when you drive by a car stopped by a cop, you have to look. (what is it, alcohol, crack, stolen vehicle?) This website I will describe is like that. I find myself looking up movie reviews or essays, and I come across it in the Google search results, and against my better judgement out of pure, morbid cuiosity, I click on the hyperlink, and off I go...to get pissed off.
The website is movieguide.org
The Man is Dr. Ted Baehr.

He is supposedly a movie critic. He is absolutely NOT a movie critic. He is a man with an agenda. He cares not for art, or film, or anything having to do with those things. It is evident in his "reviews." All he really wants is to remove anything objectionable from movies. Of course, his favorite things to harp on is anything homosexual and anything anti-american or anti-capitalist. And just so you know, I'm not inferring that he hates those things, he LITERALLY labels movies ANTI-CAPITALIST, i'm not kidding even one single bit.
To be fair, he does have two separate ratings. One is for content and the other is for the quality. For instance, a film like "Good Night and Good Luck" would receive two ratings. A GOOD one for quality, but a BAD one for it's content. Even though it is rated PG and has NO bad content, unless of course you don't like the message it's stating.
A few months back I was having issues with this same site, and was mulling about it for a while. Then I started to realize, well, this is a specialized site. It is geared toward Christians who might actually care what he is saying, so I thought "I guess he is doing his job, and is only reporting all these absurd details because his target audience really wants to know."
But then, today, only an hour or so ago, I realized that I was wrong. I was looking at some reviews for the movie"V for Vendetta" which I saw, and thought was pretty good. And upon my google search, I saw His review. I knew it would be a hoot, because the hero of the film is essentially a terrorist, and I could only imagine how hyped up Teddy Bear would be, so I read it. Anyway, that is not the point. My point is that one thing led to another, and I came across his "Rotten Bananas: 20 worst movies of 2005." I read his list. I wish I hadn't, because I became so incredibly angry, I almost lost my cool in a big way. I almost reacted in an email to ted baehr that would've been bad even for me. Essentially I would've returned his anti-christianity with some more of the same. So I didn't send the email. So I decided to blog about it, to get out my anger.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49037

The above web address is the article itself. I had to post it, because I don't want people reading my slanted view of this man, so I decided to let him speak for himself.
As you can see, this man has serious issues. I can understand people not appreciating some of these films, especially Brokeback and Transamerica (personally, I thought Brokeback was one of the 5 best films of the year), however, if you look at the Award Titles, you can obviously see that this man has got problems.
Sexual Predator Award? Benedict Arnold Award? Hitler Youth Brainwashing Award? Osama Award? Lucifer Awa-?
What in the hell is this man talking about? You know, this would be hilarious if it wasn't so scary! I'm not kidding, this man is filled with hate and bigotry. As I said before, I use to think that he was just a prude with a website that is so anal because he is serving his constituency. But after I read this article, I realized something. That is not the case. He REALLY IS like that! That's not his "movieguide.org" personality, that's really him! He really is that sick and twisted! He really does want all movies to be pro-american, pro-capitalist, pro-christian, pro-momdad2andahalfkidsandonedog, anti-gay, anti-controversy, anti-truthtelling!

Munich...worst compromise with terrorism? The Brothers Grimm...worst perversion of morality in fairy tales? Oh... my... God!?!?!

Maybe you're thinking I am taking this too personally. I'm sorry if I am, but I can't help it. People are reading this shite thinking "Oh, well, he's an authority, and I'm a christian so I can't think for myself, so I guess it's true! Hollywood keeps putting out this godless moraless filth!"
And it makes me angry.

And it makes me kind of sad. When I read those Awards titles, and the other comments that he has made, I don't just see stupid, adolescent jokes. That would be easy to dismiss from my mind. But what I read in the subtext, in the tone, is real genuine bigotry and hate.

""These films have been chosen not necessarily because they have sex, violence, nudity or profanity, but because they have a worldview antithetical to the biblical, conservative worldview. They communicate philosophies that, in the final analysis, are anti-human, anti-God, un-American, false and immoral – and that can only lead to disaster. """ -Ted Baehr

This is his final comment on these films. anti-human? un-american? UN-AMERICAN? UN-AMERICAN!?!?!?! What in the HELL does that mean? You don't even understand how angry this makes me. Who is this guy? Where did he come from? What gives him the authority? And what complete moron would give him credence in their life? And since when is being American a Christian value? Is this guy serious?

Anyway, you might be thinking "what moron gives this guy credence? apparently you, Lee Krempel. You are the one taking him seriously!" That would be a good observation if you were making it. However, it would be a false interpretation of what I'm saying. Only a moron would take Dr. Baehr's opinion seriously and use it as a tool for judging art. However, I believe Dr. Baehr himself and what he stands for SHOULD be taken seriously. If he were just some crazy guy on the fringe somewhere, then I would ignore him, and dismiss him as inconsequencial. But he is actually recognized by people and his opinion is apparently valued in some circles. And unbeknownst to them, common everyday well meaning christians are reading his reviews, taking them seriously, not seeing films for themselves to see if what he says is true, and there you have it.
Anyway. I don't think this is just important for people who take their film seriously like me. This is important for all true christians to understand, because what this really is, is a form of christianity that is simply untrue. It's not the real faith. Jesus was not a white, middle class, conservative American. And that is what Mr. Baehr is portraying. It's evil. It's untrue.
Anyway, I might have further thoughts on this later.
PEACE

BACK WITH A VENGEANCE!

Actually I am not back with a vengeance. In fact, I don't really even know what to say. I just saw how long it has been since I posted, so I felt obligated to write something. Anyway. Oh by the way, in case you don't know, I have a MySpace page also. It really exists for no other reason but to promote this blog. It's this. www.myspace.com/teardownwallsnow
Yeah, so...