“But among evangelicals, morality and spirituality are usually the primary determinants of the quality and acceptability of art, at the expense of aesthetic and cultural considerations. Pious themes, jejune lyrics, sweet-sounding music, didactic dialogue and Pollyannaish endings characterize much evangelical music, movies, fiction and television programming” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 327. Amen. But …
Oh Great
“According to a recent report, overseas film earnings are growing at twice the annual rate of the domestic market; Hollywood accounts for about half the movie market in Japan and two-thirds of all movie tickets sold in Germany, France and Italy. Generally about 70 percent of films shown around the world are U.S. productions” (William …
Every Collar Obedient
“The Enlightenment tradition insists on the primacy of ‘timeless truths’ and says that as long as a student gets the answer right, nailing down that timeless truth, it does not matter if the answer came out of a disheveled, greasy head. It does not matter if the student mumbling the timeless truth is slouching around …
And Where Would We Be Without Music Videos?
“The ‘Fab Four’ first captured the serious attention of critics and intellectuals with their cinematic debut in A Hard Day’s Night (1964), considered a precursor of today’s music videos” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 218).
What Do You Mean, “Others”?
“What might be called the ‘casual imperative’ has established itself in the American mind as the ultimate desideratum. Whatever else you do in the morning when you dress, make sure you make yourself comfortable. Of course, we should dress for comfort, but the biblical view is that we should also dress for the comfort of …
Black and Tan
“Rock was a derivative of two other popular music traditions in the rural South that existed alongside the Anglo-American one: the country or ‘hillbilly’ music of rural southern whites (country blues and gospel, honky-tonk and bluegrass) and the African-American tradition (blues, rhythm and blues, jazz and gospel music).” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 209).
A School With AIDS
“Lack of discipline will kill your school — a school without discipline has no way to fight off ‘infections.’ If a school is unwilling or unable to fire administrators or teachers, expel or suspend students, the school will take on the mission desire by those the school refuses to let go. The troublemakers can determine, …
When the Seers Are Blind
“In a series of cases beginning in 1957, the Court judged that obscenity and the representation of sexuality were not the same thing and that ‘material dealing with sex in a manner that advocates ideas . . . or has literary or scientific or artistic value or any other forms of social importance may not …
Adrenaline Covers A Multitude of Sins
“More often that not, Christian schools are run by school boards. Not surprisingly, if the board is wise, the school is blessed. If the board is foolish, the school suffers. Sometimes the school is lucky. The period of luck is usually the early years. The founders are dedicated and would crawl over broken glass to …
What Huxley Called “The Feelies”
“[T]he court delineated between the transmission of culture and the provision of entertainment, and relegate movies to the fulfillment of the latter. This is most ironic, because the film that led to this case, Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, had demonstrated the power and potential of film as an intellectual and artistic medium. Now, …