Gather around kiddies and we’ll review what we’ve learned this week:

1) Too much Fundamentalism is a no-no for Stuart. After an overdose of Way-of-the-Master and John MacArthur send Stuart into ranting craze. It wasn’t a pretty sight and not something He’s proud of. It was much like middle schoolers drinking too much Mountain Dew or David Hasslehoff eating raw hamburger meat. But thanks to the intervention of family and friends, he won’t go on a fundamentalism binge like that any time soon. Don’t worry, he’s joined a 12 step group led by Doug Pagitt.

2) Miley and Billy get creepy. We’ve learned that overpaid tween sensations shouldn’t have family pictures made. MudPuppy has more on it here.

3) Youth Ministry can be violent. Ever consider the fact that paint ball, nerf guns and Bibleman may promote violence? Well I guess, that may include hazing and ritual canings as well. Dang it! Go to Rethinking  Youth Ministry for more.

4) An old dead man can rock Stuart’s world. Hard to believe, but true. Micah 6:8:

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Those are good walking worlds.

5) Music is always better when it’s free. Yes, and it’s legal too. Layguy show you how here.

Forget Halo 3, Crowder’s new album “Remedy” is out today and I’m excited. I’ll review it when I get it. Here’s the initial reviews online:

The Good (thumbs up!)

Dr. Headly 

CCM

NRT

The Not so good (thumbs down)

The Album Project

If any of you have it, post your reviews here as well.

Buy the album here or on Itunes.

Let me preface this review by saying that I am a movie consumer. I love them. I watch them all the time. I’m a long time Netfix customer. I used to work in the industry (in a small niche, for a small time). Needless to say: I’m not a Christian prude picking at Hollywood.

I have been waiting in eager anticipation for 300 to come out ever since I saw the preview months ago. Movies like Braveheart and Gladiator are my bread and butter. So I was ready to dine on this one.

Some students asked me to go with them to see the first screening of it at 11:59 PM. So I figured that they were going to go anyway, I might as well engage with them. And when students (17-19 yr olds) ask you to go, you some how become the coordinator and responsible (ha!) one. We had a fitting bible study before the movie on Samson. We were jazzed and ready to go. The theaters (there were two!) were both packed and filled with an excitement. 

And that’s where my excitement ended. As one critic put it while describing the movie, “much butchery, some lechery.” It was such a study of pointless violence. There was no plot, no point, and no heart. It was macho-ism gone bad.

Most of you all should know I’m pro guy, but this was beyond anything showing a good use of masculinity. It was bloody and bawdy. The message: Men are blunt objects of war, cold and pumped for killing - and that is a good thing! There was nothing gained in the course of this movie, only loss. And I left it feeling sorry I had watched it.

That to be said, even in disappointment there is good to be brought for it. The discussions hatched on the ride home were good and when you stand in an empty parking lot (till 3:30am), freezing, and talking about how, as men, God has intended us for more than this. That’s priceless.

So in summary: waste your time and money elsewhere. There are plenty of bloody epics that have redeeming messages and values that you can rent (Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator…). This just isn’t one of them. It was a video game with relentless violence and non-necessary nudity (not that it’s ever necessary, but there are times where it doesn’t even serve a point - just random flesh).

Two swords down (not up).