"Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. " Ephesians 5:15-16
Purpose of the Blog: 1)To get people to start using film and other forms of media to teach young people. 2) To facilitate discussion about philosophy/theology/ideology primarily among Apostolics. 3) To encourage engagement with film and media at an analytic level so we can better understand how to live as Christians and engage with or against different aspects of our society. Paul talks about how, "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." I think Paul definitely had in mind here the different competing ideologies of our days.... And Christianity being something that is in no way exempt from being frustrated by the ideologies of today.
But don't misread this blog as an attempt to preach against the false "spirits" of this age in which I assume my belief system is the correct one. I do think the first analysis should always be at our self in which we critique our own self, beliefs, and culture and ask why? Why do we do what we do? What are the "Truths" about my lifestyle that I have assumed that may not actually line up with God's will in our life?
If you are from my other blog, www.stuffapostolicslike.blogspot.com, you will have noticed for some time that my posts have been far and far less over the past year. The simplest explanations are: I am bored with the content of SAL, and I changed churches last year and am quite in love with my church and thus when one's enjoying God's work within a church, it's harder to pay attention to the intricacies that make an Apostolic Church what it is.
But there is a new interest that I didn't think I could express in a way that people would think worth reading. Primarily, I love analysis. The analysis takes many forms but essentially uses "tools" of philosophy and theology to critique culture. This blog will be an attempt to express some of my analysis which I hope can be a help to the reader...
The idea of this blog is that I think about a movie I haven't watched or watched a long time ago. I then try to imagine a "secret" message the interprets the film in an ideological light against it's surface meaning. Standard example through time-
If a movie was made in the 1950s we know some historical contextual details. Say we find a movie made during that period, and it's surface story is about a guy who falls in love with girl but needs to prove that he is worthy of her interest by beating up the school bully. Reading between the lines would suggest that this movie is really about America trying to prove to itself and to the world and/or democracy that it is worthy to be it's protector against the bullying communist menace during the Cold War period. If the same movie plot was written during the 1990s (after the Berlin Wall fell), we might find an additional ending where we find the bully is so mean because he has a troubled household, and thus after beating up the bully, the hero goes back and saves the bully... AKA The USA beating Soviet Union and going back to assist the broken nation to democratic recovery. Now a days, the bad guy will probably not be a bully, but an envious nerd who conspires to get the girl of the hero, or do harm because he does not get the attention the hero gets. This of course would be how we perceive the Muslim Menace who conspires on ways to do evil to the Alpha Male of the World (the United States)...
Some of the movies analyzed will be for an interpretation in regards to Christianity but some might just be a critique of culture as a whole (primarily what films say about the Modern Ideology vs. The Postmodern Ideology).
. It's important to note that that my interpretation of any film is not a conspiratorial secret in the stupid "Da Vinci Code" way, but rather more based on the conviction that we are all living out an ideology or belief system unawares. Thus the films will be critiqued on a more subconscious or even unconscious level. Even if one says they don't believe in anything, their lifestyle will demonstrate that on a deeper level, the person really does believe in a certain system because their actions show them participating in the ideology of that system (for example, a person will say there is no meaning in life but yet they chase money with a vicious ambition, and thus their actions demonstrate that they really believe in the capitalist system)....
There may be some big words used throughout this blog, and I apologize for that. It's not too show off, nor to confuse. I want this blog to be as readable as possible, but within philosophy, the vocabulary used seems to be from a whole different world at times....
If a post or point within a post is too confusing or needs some explaining, please leave a comment with such a complaint and I will try to address it within the post itself....
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