What would Jesus watch?

It's been a while since I've posted, but I finished my final for the VLI Winter Quarter, so for at least a week or two, I should have some breathing space.

First item to mention is that news.Google.com now lets you customize what you see. I'm experimenting with different search filters to try and capture some interesting faith-based news...caught this from David Crum at the FreePress..

FAITH IN THE 21ST CENTURY: What would Jesus watch? . Crum reviews some new DVD's from a Grand Rapids based group NOOMA. They're from the emergent chruch, Mars Hill. Here's Crum's description of one of their films....

"Well, in 'Bullhorn' (also known as NOOMA 009 of the 10 films available), a nerdy evangelist in a white shirt shows up on screen photocopying hellfire-and-brimstone tracts and packing up a bullhorn as he prepares to shout at people on street corners.

But wait. There's a second preacher in this movie, a very different kind of clergyman who shows up in the next scene, sitting on a wooden bench on a city street in a T-shirt and sandals. His name is Rev. Rob Bell. At 34, he looks like that cool guy in Verizon ads with glasses and spiky hair. In real life, he's pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, near Grand Rapids, a hot new church for twentysomethings. He talks straight and fast about a loving kind of God who accepts everyone 'just the way they are.'

Back to the movie. Bell talks into the camera, as if addressing the hellfire preacher in the first scene, and says: 'Bullhorn guy, I don't think it's working. ... I think it's making things worse. I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind.'

Churches shouldn't look for new members 'like they're notches on somebody's spiritual belt, because they're not,' Bell says. It's those ideas that give millions of young people the 'perception that being a Christian is lame.'

No, Bell says, the whole point of Christianity is to experience God's love, to love one another and never to scare or threaten people.

The movie ends there.

There's nothing in it about right and wrong. And there's nothing in any of the 10 NOOMA movies about women's rights or gay rights or abortion rights or any of the hot-button issues in the evangelical world.

Each movie is all about a specific, plain-and-simple spiritual topic. "Bullhorn" is about the need for acceptance. Other films are about Christian approaches to promoting forgiveness, overcoming rejection or soothing stress.

Interesting. Learn more at Nooma's website