Some friends and I were watching a series of Youtube videos tonight in which the creator had recut popular movies to give them a very different meaning. Among the most impressive was a recut of the classic thriller, The Shining. If you can’t see the video, watch it on Youtube.
It really is very impressive how only a few nuances and a total contortion of context can give you a completely different impression of the movie and what it’s about. If I’d seen this preview and took my kids to see it, I’d be looking for my money back.
At the risk of over spiritualizing, I have to say, it reminded me how crucial it is that we pay close attention to the context of our scriptures as we’re reading them. And it’s even more crucial that our teachers do the same.
Unfortunately, for a huge portion of the church (*ahem* Lakewood and the like), a fouled up context is delivering people as nasty an impression of Jesus as this preview gives us of The Shining. Congregations need to demand good contextual teaching from their leaders and we should demand it from ourselves.
Comment by Connor — August 23, 2009 @ 9:53 am
Speaking of taking things out of context, or at least taking them to a pretty atypical conclusion… http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/us/16gospel.html
Comment by William — August 23, 2009 @ 11:05 am
Phew. That’s a doozie.
Comment by ric — August 24, 2009 @ 10:24 am
First of all, that video is amazing.
2nd, I had to google lakewood to understand the context… Which reminded my last weekend while traveling back home, I runed on the tv in our hotel room and Joel was preaching. I lingered for a moment to catch his sermon point. He was doing something like God rain on the just and unjust alike but soon (?) he will redistribute the wealth … taking it from the un-just and distributing it among the righteous. The entire stadium erupted in applause.
So I guess the truth is actually being preached… but they listeners are identifying themselves with the wrong characters in the stories.
the irony.