Quite a Different House

Dolmabahce Palace – Istanbul, TurkeyDolmabahce Palace Dolmabahce Palace Dolmabahce Palace

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to build that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Thanks, Nancy :)

Go See 'Red Tails' This Weekend!

George Lucas struggled for 23 years to make the movie “Red Tails.” The film is based on the true story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military aviators to see combat, during World War II. The film is patriotic, inspirational, and action-packed. It features top-of-the-line special effects. It stars Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding, Jr. 

And Hollywood won’t touch it with a 10-foot-pole.

Why? Because it features an all-black cast. Black protagonists. Black supporting cast. White people are peripheral to the story.

It’s not a story about the plight of African Americans and how a noble white person entered their world and saved the day. (See “The Blind Side,” “The Help,” etc.) It’s an old-fashioned, American-flag-waving war movie. The heroes just happen to be black.

Here’s a trailer for “Red Tails”:

When Lucas couldn’t find a Hollywood studio willing to foot the bill for the production of the movie, he decided to finance it himself. Once he had a finished product in hand, he went back to the studios to seek financing for marketing and distribution. Still, not one studio was interested. “We don’t know how to market this movie,” they said. So Lucas put up his own money again.

Now George Lucas’ movie-making style is not known for subtlety. I haven’t seen “Red Tails” yet, but I’m not anticipating Oscar-worthy dialog or nuanced story-telling.

I do, however, want to support this movie (and I want you to support it too!) for several reasons:

• Lucas said he wanted “to make [a movie] that was inspirational to teenage boys.” For this mom of two pre-teen boys, I love him for that!

• Hollywood creates precious few portrayals of heroic, young black men. Americans of all races would benefit from watching African American males on screen who aren’t thugs, crass sidekicks, misogynistic hip-hop artists, or magic Negros.

• I hope Lucas makes a boatload of money from the movie. I appreciate the emotional, professional, and social investment he has made, and I want it to pay off.

• I want to honor the Tuskegee Airmen.

• Just to tick Hollywood off. I understand: the movie-making industry is a business first and foremost. Studios need to make money. But to not take a risk on this story, when every year they choose to invest in dreck like “Take Me Home Tonight” or “Bucky Larson: Born To Be a Star” instead, is unconscionable.

• It looks like a great popcorn movie.

How can you support the movie “Red Tails?”

• The movie opens this Friday, January 20. Go see it this weekend (on Friday if possible). Hollywood places a great value on opening weekend box office receipts. Take your friends and your older kids. (The movie is rated PG-13, “for some sequences of war violence.”)

• Tell everyone you know about the movie! Tweet about it, post about it, email about it, text about it.

• If you do see the movie and like it, give it a favorable rating on a popular site like Rotten Tomatoes.

To find out more about the making of this movie, watch this Jon Stewart interview with George Lucas:

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Thoughts on MLK’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail"

This weekend our nation will celebrate one of our history’s greatest leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo Credit: Bettman/Corbis, History Channel

Earlier this week, my friend Kristy mentioned a blog post featuring a quote from MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” I had heard quotes from the letter before, things like, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and "Justice too long delayed is justice denied." But I had never read the whole thing through.

So I did. 

And as I read, I marveled at the brilliance of King's writing. But more than that, I was inspired by his incredible leadership.

And yet, I was grieved as well. Grieved that almost 50 years after the letter was written, we still have so far to go. Grieved particularly that white American evangelical Christian leaders like the recipients of the letter—like myself—have often fallen behind the curve in matters of racial justice, or even been on the wrong side of the battle altogether.

Would you join me in celebrating MLK’s birthday by reading his famous letter? I’ve excerpted the portions that particularly struck me, below. To read the letter in its entirety, click here. If you are unfamiliar with the context of the letter, this short Wikipedia entry will help bring the letter to life.

Excerpts from MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”:

…I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth... 

…I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not…the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice… 

…We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God… 

…I felt that the white ministers…would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows… 

…In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: ‘Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.’ And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular… 

…There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being ‘disturbers of the peace’… 

…Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo... 

…But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust… 

...I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle… 

…Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. 

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s not too late for us. We could still turn things around. We can choose to humble ourselves, to listen and learn from our minority brothers and sisters. We can restore honor where there has been shame. We can use our voice to speak for the voiceless, wield our power on behalf of the powerless.

And in so doing honor the name of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Name we worship alongside him, Jesus Christ.

Surge in Number of Chinese Students at American Universities

Photo source: BBC America

In the past two years, the number of Chinese students studying at American colleges has increased dramatically. While India held the top spot as supplier of American international students for the past decade or so, now China has catapulted far beyond them in numbers of students sent.

At major universities in Ohio, Chinese make up almost half of all international students studying there.

Another twist: Most of those new Chinese students are undergraduates. This introduces an entirely new demographic dynamic on a campus.

Why the surge? Some of the reasons:

• More Chinese students than ever before are applying to colleges in their home country. However, the supply of spots available at Chinese universities has not kept pace with the demand.

• The U.S. government recently relaxed the restrictions on the number of student visas granted to Chinese citizens.

• China’s one-child policy allows Chinese parents to focus their resources on a single child’s education. That plus the growth of the Chinese middle class makes an overseas education option more viable.

• American universities are increasingly motivated to create a diverse culture on their campuses.

But the driving factor in the huge increase in Chinese students? Money. Most Chinese parents do not apply for financial aid, but pay their child’s full tuition. For an American university system struggling to make ends meet, there's a huge financial incentive in recruiting and enrolling more Chinese undergraduates.

(On a related note...International students contributed over $21.2 billion to the U.S. economy in 2010.)

The exponential increase in Chinese undergraduate enrollment at U.S. colleges carries huge missiological implications, particularly for those of us who work in a university environment. I’ll be fascinated to see where this trend goes.

Most statistics taken from Open Doors 2011, a collection of data gathered by the Institute of International Education and release to the public in November 2011.

To read an interesting MSNBC article about cottage industries (and corruption) cropping up around these trends, click here.

To watch a 5-minute video produced by BBC America on this subject last year, click here.

2012 IQ Book Club Selections

Wow! Y’all overwhelmed me with the many amazing suggestions for biographies to read this year, via comments, emails, and Facebook! I could probably create three years worth of great books to read…thank you!

That made it very difficult to narrow down the list to twelve, however. I eliminated some suggestions because I had read them before. Some by their length, so we could try to finish them within the month. Some because they were difficult to obtain a copy of. But most went on my Amazon WishList to read some day, even if they didn’t make the cut this year. (And I may have to try to squeeze in Tina Fay’s Bossypants during this year, even while I’m reading these others.) As I often bemoan: “So many books, so little time.”

So here’s the proposed schedule for the 2012 InfiniteQueso Book Club: Year of the Biography:

JANUARY: The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom 

FEBRUARY: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. edited by Clayborne Carson 

MARCH: A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest to Free China's Daughters by Chai Ling 

APRIL: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand 

MAY: My Invented Country by Isabel Allende 

JUNE: Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan 

JULY: Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta) edited by Brian Kolodiejchuk 

AUGUST: Girl meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life by Lauren Winner 

SEPTEMBER: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers 

OCTOBER: A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot 

NOVEMBER: Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza 

DECEMBER: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

I hope you’ll join me in reading some or all of these books. Happy reading in 2012!

IQ BOOK CLUB: Gilead

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson just became one of my favorite books of all time.

Reading it was like eating a super-rich dessert: One part of me wanted to consume it slowly, to just hold it on my tongue and savor every bite. But the other part of me relished it so much I couldn’t stop stuffing my face!* Now it will take me a while to digest.

I knew very little about Gilead before I picked it up. I remember reading reviews of it when it came out in 2004. I knew it won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. I had a vague idea it touched on religious themes. Several friends recommended it.

But it was nothing that I expected.

I loved it as a Christ-follower. I loved it as someone who serves in full-time ministry. I loved it as a child, sibling, spouse, and parent. I loved it as a friend. I loved it as a human.

At first I kept thinking, Oh, I wish I had read this when it first came out! How have I gone this long without reading it? But then I realized I wouldn’t have appreciated nearly as much in 2004 as I did now, in 2011. It also made me wonder how much more I might appreciate it in another 7 years. Or 14. Or 21.

I realize I haven’t said much about the actual book. I find myself at a loss. I think I’ll simply leave you with some of my favorite quotes (it was nearly impossible to narrow down to these)…

“I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you.” 

“Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water.” 

“Grace has a grand laughter in it.” 

“Love is holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.” 

“People talk about how wonderful the world seems to children, and that's true enough. But children think they will grow into it and understand it, and I know very well that I will not, and would not if I had a dozen lives.” 

“I don't know exactly what covetise is, but in my experience it is not so much desiring someone else's virtue or happiness as rejecting it, taking offense at the beauty of it.” 

“The Lord is more constant and far more extravagant than it seems to imply. Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don't have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?” 

“’He will wipe the tears from all faces.' It takes nothing from the loveliness of the verse to say that is exactly what will be required.” 

“There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient.”

Who else loves Gilead?

*I finally decided I would purchase a copy of my own and read it again, next time at a more leisurely pace.

Funniest Tweets of 2011

So I recently ventured back on Twitter. For the most part it’s been a positive experience. I do love stumbling upon random things like this:

HappyPlace.com recently posted “The 50 Funniest Tweets of 2011.” Here were my top 10 favorites:

To view the entire list, click here. Warning: many of the top 50 are quite offensive.