Holy Affection

"As perversion grows in a society, people begin to withhold their affection so that they won't be perceived as sexual predators. As people withhold their affection, a famine of love begins to grow in the land. In a society starving for affection, love-deprived folks begin to lower their sexual standards to obtain some affection. As they break their moral barriers to do this, perversion increases. This, of course, causes even more people to withhold their love, and the beat goes on and on. Thousands of years ago, the wisest king ever born, King Solomon, wrote, "...to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet" (Prov. 27:7). To love-famished people, even perverted affection is better than no love at all."

"People are starving for true love that is manifested through an embrace, a holy kiss, or reassuring compliments. But for this culture to be restored...we have to have pure hearts, clean motives, and healthy minds before we restore holy affection."

"I want to emphasize that you can and should have healthy, nonsexual soul ties with people, whether you are married or not. It is normal to have loving, affectionate friendships with people of the same heart."

Kris Vallotton in "Moral Revolution"

KONY 2012

So I feel out of the loop having only just watched this today, but here it is. The new video by Invisible children on Joseph Kony. This is exciting to me in more ways than one. Obviously it is exciting to have the prospect of justice being carried out on the earth. However being an aspiring film maker, seeing the power documentaries can have to change the world is also highly encouraging.

It is 30 minutes but it is well worth your time. Please note, and having done some research myself I believe the filmmakers agree, that this is a short, simple film. It is not an all encompassing detailed account of the conflict in Uganda and in Africa. It is meant as a gateway. A gateway for you to do more research on your own about the conflict and a gateway for you to voice your opinion on what you think should be done about it. I also encourage you, (as you always should) to not just accept what you see and hear. While I definitely support Invisible Children and what they are doing I think it is also important to understand why people do not support them and what they have received criticism for. Here is an interesting blogpost with a counter argument that you could check out after you watch the video. The comments and discussion below it are interesting as well. Also you can check out Visible Children.

Personally I think that no matter what, Invisible Children has already been successful. They have more people talking about this issue than ever before. There is an increase in knowledge of the subject as well as new ideas and opinions being presented that can help the world work towards a solution.

Anyway, here it is. If you don't have 30 minutes I have posted the 1 minute trailer below it. Also if you have never seen the original Invisible Children film I would encourage you to find a way to view that sometime as well.





Updated March 11, 2012
Detailed info from IC about their current status:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html

The Proposal

Here is my film for my Production Processes class. I Co-wrote the original script. I also was the Director on the shoot and did all the Editing for this version.



Here are a couple production stills from the shoot that took place back in early November.

Unconditional Acceptance

"When someone knows the good, bad, and ugly of our lives and they still choose to love us in spite of it all, we experience unconditional acceptance. Some people define intimacy as "in to me you see." People who are afraid of intimacy never really feel loved. They discredit any affection or affirmation that is given to them because they believe that if poeple really knew them they would reject them. Therefore, they conclude that the only reason poeple love them is because they don't know who they really are."

-Kris Vallotton in "Moral Revolution"

Return to Glory?

This might offend you.

I was in my prayer room this morning. I had IHOP on. They were praying and interceding like they do. They went into a time of rapid-fire prayer for orphans and the raising up of spiritual fathers; it was great. Then this guy comes on and prays that the LORD would return this country to the ways of its fathers. You know Washington and Jefferson and Madison. He went into a spiel about ending abortion and all that jazz about how America is so terrible and we need to get brought back to our former ways. Which you know sounds great…unless you’ve actually studied anything about the history of the United States. Most of our Founding Fathers were not Christians; they were deists. In other words they believed God existed but that he was super distant and didn’t really do anything on the earth. Also most of our founding fathers, including Jefferson and Washington had slaves and killed Native Americans (check out Abe Lincoln). All of them agreed that all people were created equal but women couldn’t vote or own land.

So pretty much what this guy was praying was LORD end abortion and return us to the days when slavery was rampant, genocide of the Native Americans was a daily and celebrated occurrence, and women weren’t really seen as people. Now I’m all for ending abortion, but we (especially as a church) need to stop glorifying the old days of our country. We were NOT morally better people then than we are now. It just looked different. Instead we need to wake up and realize that God doesn’t want to go back. He wants to do something new. He wants to do something He hasn’t done before; he wants to bring a renaissance. It’s not going to look like it did before it’s going to be a “new birth.” “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).

Wake up Christians, I know you think America is God’s chosen country…it’s not. That’s Israel. However, if we repent and we go after the new thing that God is doing, if we allow God to change the way we think and bring us into a new way of doing things, a new way of doing “church,” a new way of doing government, a new way of doing business, a new way of doing media, a new way of taking care of the poor, a new way of doing community, then God will use us. He will use us in a BIG way. But it’s not going to come from going back to what we had before. It’s got to be something new.

You are Beautiful

It's true.