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Bethlehem Is Dangerous!

Posted in Advent 2011, Christian Culture, tagged , on December 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

Don’t you love the Christmas season!  I love the colors and the music.  I love the school programs and the smell of Tannenbaum.  I love It’s A Wonderful Life and the Youtube videos of houses decorated for Christmas that play Mannheim Steamroller!

Everything good comes from God, so I truly believe that while most of the world has forgotten that Christmas is because of Christ, all of the goodness that belongs to this wonderful season of the year is because of His Goodness.

You know Sherrylee and I were just in Bethlehem.  That quaint little town of the song and of all the Christmas plays is now an embattled city, walled off by one side to contain the other, much like Berlin was. To get into Bethlehem, you have to show your passports to soldiers carrying deadly force.  You may be searched; your vehicle will certainly be searched for bombs that you might be bringing into the birthplace of Jesus to blow people up!

The Church of the Nativity is built over the traditional site of the birth of Jesus.  Nothing has been spared to decorate the lowly place of the manger. Gold, silver, jewels, incense, mosaics, paintings—and tourists! Most people wait hours in line to have a few seconds to kneel down before the silver star that marks the spot of Jesus’ birth.

Actually, the word pilgrim is used much more often in Bethlehem and the other “holy” sites in that part of the world than anywhere else we have been.  We Americans think of pilgrims as belonging mostly to our country’s early history and to Thanksgiving, but for centuries the word has been used to describe anyone traveling for religious reasons to what is considered a sacred site.

Christmas is an especially dangerous time in Bethlehem! If you wanted to create terror, the masses of pilgrims in Bethlehem are an easy target!

Perhaps Christmas is dangerous everywhere.  I was just thinking about all the reports of violence on Black Friday as people were shopping for Christmas presents. I was thinking about the thievery that happens daily at every department store where people walk out with unpaid Christmas gifts.

And what about just greed, which the Bible calls idolatry?  Most adults don’t wait for Christmas to get what they want! No, we adults just use this season to teach our children to want things and want more and want a lot!

Yes, Bethlehem is dangerous, and so is Christmas!

So, this year, whenever you hear the tune or sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” remember what that lowly manger can become if we forget about Jesus!

Next: Look for ideas to help your children prepare for Christmas!

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Why Sunday Is Not On Your Travel Itinerary!

Posted in Christian Culture, Traveling Thoughts, tagged , , on October 26, 2011| 5 Comments »

I have a feeling that many, if not most Christians do not plan to go to church on Sundays when they are traveling. Sometimes we haven’t, but most of the time we try to and I’d like to tell you why.

First, why don’t Christians go to church when they travel? Here are my top ten reasons:

  1. Don’t want to take the time away from travel, sightseeing, or relaxing.
  2. Don’t want to take the time to find a church.
  3. May not like the church you find, so then you will have wasted two hours.
  4. Don’t want to take Sunday clothes.
  5. Don’t like going to church with people you don’t know.
  6. You might bump into teaching, worship, or something that makes you uncomfortable!
  7. You might get invited to lunch or something else that would just take up more time.
  8. They might expect you to come to Sunday night or Wednesday night services and that would just be more time out of your schedule.
  9. They might not have anything for the children and we’d just have the kids on our laps for the whole time!
  10. It is not a salvation issue, so why should we?

As I said, we have used some of these excuses ourselves over the years, but we have also been blessed many, many times by finding a church and breaking bread with Christians on Sundays. Maybe I can give you some hints that will encourage you to look for these blessings as well!

  1. If it is part of your travel plan, then you are more likely to follow through. If you don’t plan to find an assembly of saints on Sunday, then you will not. Write it in to your travel itinerary from the beginning—just like tithing from the first fruits.
  2. Do a little research about the available churches. On a recent trip, I spent no more than thirty minutes on the internet, looking for churches of Christ in an unfamiliar city. I looked for things like location and time of services.  If churches are too far away or they start too early or late, then I look for alternatives. These are not deciding factors, but not unimportant.
  3. Try to learn the intangibles from the website.  Is this an open church or pretty closed? Is this a church involved outside of itself? Does this church have only traditional worship?  Almost all of these questions can be answered by looking at a church’s website.  If the church doesn’t have a website—well, that says a lot right there.
  4. Arrive at least 5-10 minutes before services begin, so you can meet a few people. Not only will you meet some nice people, but you will likely find a connection with some church or some person that you both know.  We recently went to church in Savannah, GA that was completely new to us. We didn’t find any relatives, but we did find out that the preacher was a cousin of a missionary that we had worked with in Kiev, Ukraine!
  5. Expect to give, not just to receive.  I find more and more truth in Jesus’ saying that it is more blessed to give than to receive. When we give concern, friendship, our fellowship in communion, our common worship, prayer, then we are blessed! If we attend only to receive, we can still be blessed, but maybe not as much!
  6. Communion is too important to miss! If Jesus thought that breaking bread was important, then….it doesn’t really make any difference what I think.  I must need that fellowship and koinonia often!  We always look for an opportunity to break bread with Christians!
  7. Worshipping with other Christians teaches us the breadth of God’s kingdom. Not every church building, not every worship style, not every sermon has to be the all-time best or even as good as the ones at home.  Being gracious is being Godly!

And your children will only complain about it if you do!  Spending that time with Christians on Sunday is a great discipline for teaching children to put God first—before vacations, before sleeping late, really FIRST!  And that is worth a lot!

Sometimes it just doesn’t work out—we used to call this being “providentially hindered!”  Sometimes we have to miss meals, and  sometimes we have to miss sleep, but we are healthier and feel better if we don’t.

Don’t miss the spiritual feast awaiting you when you travel!

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High Noon in the Garden of Good and Evil in Savannah!

Posted in Christian Culture, Other, Traveling Thoughts, tagged , , , , , on October 13, 2011| 1 Comment »

In Savannah, they call it “the Book!”  They are referring to the novel  Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, which was first published in 1994. It was a bestseller for 216 weeks on the NY Times list. Many probably remember the story from the Clint Eastwood-directed movie, released in 1997, starring Kevin Spacey as Jim Williams.

Unfortunately, the book version is true!  Williams, a local antique dealer, is tried four times and finally acquitted for the murder of a male prostitute. A voodoo priestess, a local drag queen, and a mad scientist threatening to poison the water system of Savannah are some of the quirkier characters who populated Savannah and are part of the backdrop for the non-fictional novel’s storyline. It’s a quirky, tawdry story, and I’m not trying to send you to see the film or buy the book.

Sherrylee and I are in Savannah for a few days, so we keep bumping into two dark elements that are a disturbing, and I am beginning to think that one may have led to the other.  The term southern gothic is the literary genre to which Midnight belongs .  Macabre , supernatural, and grotesque are words often used to describe the genre. Other well-known authors that have used this genre include William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Ann Rice, and Flannery O’Connor, who was born and raised in Savannah.

Southern gothic keeps coming to mind as you tour old homes in Savannah because you keep hearing stories of murder, spirits, and voodoo! The cemetery/ghost tours are among the most popular.  We rode past one mansion that has been abandoned by its owner because he is convinced it is haunted.

This strong tradition of dark magic/religion came to America—especially to the southern slave states–with the early slaves from Africa, then blended with other religions and superstitions into a recognizable and now celebrated southern tradition. Have you been to New Orleans?? Much of Mardi Gras tradition comes from this dark and superstitious tradition.

It’s frightening! It’s the garden of evil side of Savannah!

First African Baptist Church of Savannah, GA

On the opposite side of Savannah from the Bonaventure Cemetery is the First African Baptist Church, probably the first Black congregation in North America, dating back to 1773.  The congregation was entirely slaves, including the first pastors. The current building was built by freed African Americans and slaves, brick by brick made and layed after their day’s work for their masters in Savannah.

If you look closely at the floors of the sanctuary, you find small holes—ventilation holes to the built-out crawl space under the floor.  This church building was Stop Two on the Underground Railroad, used by thousands of slaves, attempting to escape to the north to gain their freedom.  They would spend two or three days sometimes under the floor of the church in a four-foot high space, fed and watered through the holes in the floor by other slaves.  At a safe moment in the middle of the night, someone would lead them through a tunnel from the church to the Savannah River, where they would be ferried in a small boat across to South Carolina for the next leg of their dangerous journey.

As I was thinking about the haunted houses, the voodoo, and the southern gothic on one side of this city, I started comparing it to the hallowed house, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian tradition on the other side.  No one lives in the haunted house! The First African Baptist Church is still a living, thriving congregation of Christians—still serving, still loving, still sacrificing for the welfare of others.

When the clouds roll back and the Light comes on and all the deeds of darkness are exposed for what they are, I know which garden of this city I would want to be in!

 

 

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Great Is Thy Faithfulness, or Is Today Enough For You?

Posted in Christian Culture, tagged , , , on October 9, 2011| 2 Comments »

While a student at Harding in the late 60s, Owen Olbricht, director of Campaigns Northeast,  introduced me to the hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness. We sang it often in devotionals, sometimes in parks, and even once on a local TV station.

Yesterday, after receiving some especially good news, Sherrylee started quietly singing this great hymn again—and I joined in. Her voice is much lower than mine, so when she starts a song, her natural pitch leaves me no choice but to sing the tenor to it. Regardless, however, of who sings which part, that particularly hymn has been a special blessing to us at significant moments in our journey for many, many years now.

Great is thy faithfulness, Oh God, my Father. . . . Thou changest not. . . .where thou hast been, thou forever wilt be!   If you know our story, you know that Sherrylee and I feel like our mission time in Germany were some of the best and most formative years of our lives, but that made it all the harder when overnight literally we found ourselves on a plane back to the U.S.. We felt like we had been ripped out of home, dreams, church, mission—all those things that give purpose to life. How could things change so quickly, so drastically! 

This song reminded us then that God had not changed. He was still in control. He knew where we lived. He knew our pain. He had not abandoned us—nor we Him, so in spite of a traumatic upheaval in our lives, God had not changed and was not far from us.

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest . . . join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.  Life has seasons. Our time in Germany was a wonderful time, but so were our twenty-two years in Oklahoma. We had serious doubts about whether Oklahoma was really where we should be! After all, we were missionaries, not Sooners!  But God was faithful and took that season in Oklahoma and shaped that moment into a wonderful place to raise our family, a meaningful ministry with students at Oklahoma Christian, and a place and time for Let’s Start Talking to take root and grow.

And now in the fall and winter season of our life, the mercy and love of God is even more evident. We continue to love deeply the work we have been given; we are surrounded by not only a God-called team of co-workers, but grown, faithful children– and grandkids who are being taught God’s faithfulness every day.  What more could anyone ask for.  God is faithful, full of mercy and love.

Morning by morning new mercies I see! Strength for today . . . The more I learn as I walk along the journey with God, the less I worry about tomorrow—not because there is less uncertainty, not because there is less catastrophe around the corner, but just because I think I’ve learned that God only takes care of us one day at a time! 

It has something to do with the same reason he gave the Israelites only one day’s worth of manna every day (except on the Sabbath). It’s Jesus in the garden praying in spiritual pain for what was going to happen the next day.  It’s Noah not knowing if and when the dove would return!

As Executive Director of LST, I’m often asked about our five-year plan: where do you want LST to be in five years?  Or we sit and talk about how wonderful it would be if the ministry were supported with an endowment, so that we did not live each year hand to mouth like we have for the last thirty-one years!

My personal fear is that sometimes we are trying to build barns and create our own security rather than depending on the Lord day by day. 

Fortunately, the Lord has never given us that kind of security, not personally nor in the ministry—and I keep thinking that maybe day by day, morning by morning, maybe that is supposed to be enough!

If you don’t know this great hymn, find it on YouTube and listen to it and learn it, so that every day of your life, you have these words in your heart and on your lips:

Great Is Thy Faithfulness, O God, My Father!

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What If God Is Really Doing Things!

Posted in Christian Culture on October 5, 2011| 6 Comments »

I want to tell you about the goodness of God.  To understand this story, I need you to think as if you were reading it in a split screen on your computer though—two parallel stories that converge at the end.

Split Screen One

Monday was the first working day of October and therefore the end of Let’s Start Talking’s Month of Joyful Giving 2011.  Sherrylee leads this month—as most of you know because you received a personal call from her!  (If you didn’t, it’s not too late! J)

Monday morning though she was struggling a little because the final amount raised in the month appeared to be $71,000 short of the goal that had been very prayerfully set.  She told me she was just questioning whether she ought to continue asking , or maybe she had not been prayerful enough and had not really set God’s goal, but her own—all quite normal questions for us humans who only see in a mirror darkly.

Finally, she said to herself, “It is not up to me. God can make this happen—or not!”

Split Screen Two

A regular Christian guy had been in the audience on Saturday night when Sherrylee told the audience that a goal of $200,000 had been prayerfully set, but that we all knew this was a goal we would never reach unless God worked mightily.

He knew he wanted to make a contribution—but that’s all he really knew. Monday—at the same time Sherrylee was wrestling with God’s will—he called the LST office to see how close we were to reaching the goal.  It was then he found out that LST was $71,000 short of the goal.

He decided then that whatever he made that day on the deal he had had been working on, would be what he would contribute to LST.  He even set a time to make the call.  At two o’clock, he would make the call.

At about three o’clock, he and I were sitting in my office. He started telling me his story of seeking God’s will and of his decision to contribute whatever he earned on this deal. I sat there not knowing whether to hope for $500 or $5000! Either one would have been very appreciated.

By the time he told me that he had earned exactly $71,000, we were both on the verge of tears because the finger of God was so obvious, writing out this story long before LST had a goal and long before he even knew that he wanted to contribute.

One Screen

Yes, I do believe that a really huge, out-of-reach goal set prayerfully and a really huge contribution given cheerfully by someone who is truly just a regular Christian guy—not rich, not anything but a true Christ-follower—I believe both are the result of the providence of an amazingly good God!

One of the blessings of growing older is that the accumulation of these kinds of stories begin to truly teach me not to worry about the future, not to be afraid that God will run out of funds to do what He wants to do.

*I have changed a few details to protect the privacy of this person, but nothing that would exaggerate in any way the true impact of this God-story.

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What Do Labor Day and Sunday have in common?

Posted in Christian Culture, tagged , , , , , , on September 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

We don’t labor on Labor Day! We can’t remember when Memorial Day is! No presidents were born on President’s Day!  Most of us celebrated the Fourth of July on July 3rd this year!

Several holidays have disappeared completely from our calendars since I was a boy. We celebrated Arbor Day, Columbus Day, and Armistice Day as national holidays.

We Americans have become pretty pragmatic about our holidays, putting all on weekends so that we can be both more productive and have more days in a block for recreation.

Symbolism is not very important to us anymore. 

We still think the flag is a pretty sacred symbol. We don’t like people burning it! When I was a boy, we had a ceremony at school every morning when the flag was raised. We had to learn how to properly handle the flag, never letting it touch the ground, and folding it properly for overnight storage. It was an honor to be chosen to raise and lower the flag at school.

The other place where symbols used to be very important was at church. Not so much anymore.

Sunday was the Lord’s Day. Some people called it the Christian Sabbath, but we knew that wasn’t exactly right. Sunday was the day Christians had gathered since the first century to celebrate the Sunday resurrection of Jesus. Sunday became the first day of the week.  You wore your best clothes—whether they were your best overalls or your best suit or your one dress—you wore your best clothes on Sunday because it was the Lord’s day.

But things have changed! Some calendars even have moved Sunday to the last day of the week. Churches don’t care whether you come Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, just so you come. You can’t tell anyone to wear Sunday clothes because Sunday clothes aren’t any different from Monday clothes. In fact, they are often more casual than Monday clothes.

The same change is happening with what we used to always call “the Lord’s Supper” and other churches called the Eucharist and/or Communion.  The symbolism around this moment on Sunday was heavy!  First, there was a table in front center of the sanctuary that said “This Do In Remembrance of Me” so that everyone knew why we were gathered.

Unleavened bread was distributed by solemn men—and while you broke a piece off to symbolize the broken body of Jesus, it was quiet so you could remember why you were participating.  Cups were distributed after a prayer that reminded you that this was “Jesus’ blood, poured out on the cross for our sins”—you had to say those words somewhere in the prayer!

It’s different now at many churches! No central table anymore and no silence—ever! The bread is cooked into little squares, so there is no need to break it any more. The audience is instructed that the crackers and juice are about to be distributed—absolutely correct, but somehow an uninspiring, pedestrian use of language for such important symbols.

Just like with our holidays, we have communion efficiently managed down to a seven-minute exercise where, hopefully, nobody prays too long or makes any extra comments because that will make the service run over!

I hope you don’t hear just maudlin moaning about Then and Now! This is not a nostalgic longing for the way we used to do things!

Let me ask you this:  Do you know why Labor Day is a holiday? Most people will not mention organized Labor and Workers Unions in their answer because the meaning has been forgotten.

Is it possible that the symbolic meaning of Sunday’s celebration of the resurrection by Christians around the world for 2000 years could ever be forgotten?  Is it possible that the symbols of bread and wine could lose their meaning? Is it possible that the symbol of immersion baptism could lose its meaning?

I’m not talking about legalism that makes the symbols into Law!  I’m saying that symbols have a valuable place in every community.  And perhaps we should be extra cautious about messing with symbols that have a biblical genesis and have been recognized by Christians for two millennia.

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Has Your God Retired?

Posted in Christian Culture, tagged , , on August 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“A Deity Retires! ” This was the tagline to an article in Der Spiegel about the retirement of the Dalai Lama. The “god-king” of Buddhism is tired of being divine and wants to become just a simple monk again.

He does not want to be a “wish fulfilling jewel” nor does he want to have any further “political responsibilities.”

While Jesus became frustrated with his followers, and God the Father is described as “longsuffering,” I’m thankful that we do not have a God who will abandon us, who will “leave his followers to their own devices.”

So what do you think of this paragraph about the religion that is losing its deity?

Buddhism has become the fashionable religion, from Los Angeles to London, just as the monk Padmasambhava predicted more than 1,200 years ago: “When the iron bird flies, when horses run on wheels, the king will come to the land of the red man.” The Germans are particularly enamored of Tibetan Buddhism, with their dozens of Tibetan centers and tens of thousands of Dalai Lama disciples, who see the Asian faith as the most appealing world religion, and one that generally does not look down on people of other faiths. It preaches peacefulness instead of inquisition, persuasion through meditation instead of missionary evangelism and the hope of attaining Nirvana instead of the threat of jihad, and it treats guilt and sin as concepts from a different, more punishing religious tradition and man as the sole creator of his own fate. What could possibly be wrong with that?   http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,782329,00.html  8/25/2011

What could possibly be wrong with that?

Look at the assumptions about Christians:

  • Christians look down on people of other faiths.
  • Christians preach inquisition and judgment instead of peacefulness
  • Christian persuasion through missionary evangelism is somehow inferior to persuasion through meditation.
  • Guilt and sin are the result of a punishing religion, not the normal response of created-in-the-image-of-God people.
  • Being the sole creator of your own fate is both true and possible—and is superior than being created by a loving Creator and living under His wing!

To the degree that any of the above are true about Christians, they are true because Christians have not acted like Jesus.  Sadly, our human weakness gives rise to false assumptions about our God—all of which should motivate us even more to strive for perfection.  But the flaws of Christians do not in any way diminish the divinity of our Creator! We don’t create God; He creates us!

But does it bother anyone else that this “god-king”, chosen when he was two-years-old because he was believed to be the reincarnation of the original Dalai Lama born in 1391, can simply resign his divinity.

As a Christian, I know that my faith does not rest in a god who will resign, but in I AM WHO I AM,  who was, who is, and who is to come!  I take great comfort in the absolute certainty that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases! His mercies never come to an end.”

Heaven is real. Shangri-la is not!  The Lord our God is One God!

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Movie Review: The Help

Posted in Christian Culture, tagged , , , , , , on August 13, 2011| 4 Comments »

I grew up in Texas and am old enough to remember the bathrooms and water fountains labeled “Colored Only” and “White”. I remember the racial jokes that were told by children as naïvely as “blonde” jokes or “aggie” jokes are today.

From 1969 to 1971, I lived and worked in Oxford, Mississippi, just seven years after James Meredith was enrolled in the University of Mississippi only with the help of the National Guard and after people were wounded, even killed, in the attempt to keep him out!

The Christian Student Center in Oxford was where Gladys cooked meals for Christian students who wanted to eat supper together. She was a wonderful Christian woman, but she had lived in a racist world her whole life and knew the rules in Mississippi. Rightly or wrongly, she did not feel comfortable even coming out front, but preferred to stay in her kitchen. She couldn’t go to church with us—she could only cook for us.

The Help captures that time in a painfully accurate way, but in a way that shows the courage of those women who didn’t march, who didn’t face fire hoses and dogs, but who refused to suffer silently any longer.  You have to see this movie!

Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer) are house maids for young Junior League women of Jackson. They raise their children, cook their meals, and clean their houses, but are not just ignored like the British do their house staff, they are treated like farm animals kept in the barn, brought out whenever you need to work them, and put out when no longer useful. I found it extremely painful to be reminded of how common blatant bigotry was.

Skeeter (Emma Stone) is a white girl who grew up in an ante-bellum home, but perhaps because she herself was an outsider, she found a way past the racism that surrounded her. She wants to be a writer, so she starts trying to capture the stories of the women who raised her and her friends. The women are afraid at first—too dangerous to step out of the crowd—but later events give them courage and Skeeter is their voice.

The characters are rich. I was often reminded of the performance of Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple (1985) that set her on the path to where she is today. The emotions are true. The intensity is real, but broken just enough by truly funny moments.  Even as the film came to a close, I could not completely free myself of the fear of retaliation towards the women—that was all too common.

Although there is some bad language, I think teenagers ought to be able to handle this film if seen with their parents so they can ask questions.

I highly recommend The Help to you.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it!”

By the way, Gladys’ son became campus minister in the same student center where his mother cooked. The white church was the first to integrate in Oxford. The pain is real, but there are some happy endings.

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Insurance or Assurance?

Posted in Christian Culture, tagged , , , , , , on July 20, 2011| 1 Comment »

An insurance commercial that is on TV has captured the zeitgeist of our times:  a dog has a big bone that he keeps moving from one hiding place to another for fear that a bigger dog might come and take it away from him.  He buries it, then digs it up and stashes it, then transfers it to another hiding place where he stands guard over it through storm and rain.  The insurance’s umbrella appears, cover him, and gives him relief! Oh really!

I do not find that insurance gives me that much peace of mind.  We have life insurance—but the premiums go up to a billion dollars a year if I don’t die young! We have home warranty insurance—but we have been denied coverage as often as we have really been able to use it.  We have house insurance—with a huge deductible unless the house burns down! We have car insurance—but about half of the drivers in the state don’t, so what happens if you are in an accident with another person??  No, I don’t find insurance to be that reassuring!

We were in a conversation the other night when someone raised the question of why all the great classics of literature are dark and/or tragic!  Lots of films are that way as well. When was the last time a comedy got the Best Picture Oscar?

I used to deal with that question a lot as a professor of literature. Especially students don’t want to see Hamlet die or the whole fish disappear in Old Man and the Sea.  I bet you have never shown your kids Old Yeller because you were so scarred by watching it as a child! Even Bambi is on the banned list, isn’t it, because Mama Rabbit dies—and we don’t want our kids to have to deal with tragedy.

My answer to my students was that life is absolutely tragic—if you are not a believer in Christ raised from the dead!  Take away Christian hope and there is no relief from loss!  You lose your youth, your health, your wealth, your loved ones, your family, your achievements, your memories! Fifty years after your death you are only remembered by a handful of people and 75 years later they are dead too, so you are virtually forgotten except for your name on the tombstone.  Another hundred years and even your engraved name may be worn off or covered in moss.  You lose everything—eventually!

I once heard a little dialogue that went something like this:

Did you hear about the rich guy who died last night?

No, how much did he leave behind?

He left it all!

If you believe in eternal life through Jesus, these losses are just momentary discomforts.  You know that you have life, that you are loved, that you will be with all who love God, and that you will never cry because of loss again.

The Christian faith is not insurance; it is assurance!  Big difference!  

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Summer Movies for Kids

Posted in Christian Culture, Other, Talking To Kids About Movies, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2011| 4 Comments »

Just got back from taking four of the gkids to the Friday children’s matinee where we saw Despicable Me (2010, PG), which was a surprisingly good film. Somehow we had heard a bad report on it when it first came out, so had avoided it. I loved the little minions, but especially the transformation of one of the villains. Did everyone else think that Vector was supposed to look like Bill Gates??

Anyway, it reminded me of how helpful recommendations for kid films are, and since we have been doing grandkids now for a week and have seen several, I thought I’d give you a short review of several current movies playing.

Cars 2 (G) was entertaining for all of the grandkids, but the younger ones (4-6) lost interest several times.  This sequel brings back characters like Lightening McQueen (Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) from the first movie, but introduces new British car-characters Finn McMissle (Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) for the James Bond – like plot.  In the spirit of Wall-E (2008), this film has an eco-message about oil and alternative fuel, but don’t worry because this message is totally lost on all the children.  It does open good conversations about the need to adapt to different cultures and about the value of every person’s culture—even if it doesn’t seem like culture at all.

Super 8 (PG-13) As you probably have heard, this is a nostalgic piece by J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg, so it is everything you hoped it would be.  I have described it to friends as a mix of Stand by Me (one of my favorite films ever!), Goonies (one of our kids’ favorite films ever), and E.T. (one of everyone’s favorites ever!), so how could it go wrong.  The children are the stars, the government men are the bad guys, and the alien is the victim.  I’m sure the PG-13 rating is for bad language (just like Stand By Me and Goonies) and for some pretty heavy emotions (just like ET).  I would pay attention to the age recommendations on this one, but for teens and you adult kids, you’ll love it.

X-Men: First Class (PG-13) The whole X-Men series has been especially good for a superpower series. For the most part, it has avoided silliness and has maintained some level of real human emotions to carry the characters. Hugh Jackman, the best of the X-men, only has a cameo in this prequel, but even that is done well.  Those of you who have seen the others will enjoy learning the backstory of Professor X and Magneto.  For those who need a redemptive message to enjoy this kind of fantasy, the ongoing conversation about “others” is more significant in this film than in previous four X-men films, i.e., how the society treats people it deems to be different. If you can’t generate a meaningful conversation with your teens from this film, then you weren’t paying attention!

I have given up completely on the Pirates of the Caribbean series. I really like Johnny Depp, but these films deep sixed about two sequels ago! We won’t be seeing Mr. Popper’s Penguins either because Jim Carrey’s films of this genre are the same exaggerated gags over and over again.

Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows 2 comes out this week. Sherrylee doesn’t like the Potter films, so I’ll probably go with someone else, but I have intentionally avoided seeing Deathly Hallows 1, so I could see the whole finale at once. I’d love to see it at an IMAX.  We certainly will take the kids to see The Smurfs and I hear good things about Green Lantern.

Just for you adults out there, I think Midnight in Paris looks like it could be the movie that brings people back to Woody Allen. Many of us who were fans of his earlier films have yearned for something truly interesting and intelligent instead of what he has offered over the last couple of decades: quirky and off-color.

Any word on Captain America: The First Avenger?  I usually don’t care much for revenge films, but I have not really seen what the storyline is yet.

Our grandkids loved Hansel and Gretel which we downstreamed on Netflix, and they loved the Yul Brenner – Deborah Kerr version of The King and I (1956). Anna designated it her now most favorite movie! But she prefers the original name Anna and the King of Siam. That’s a pretty big award for a classic film from an eight-year-old!

Hope that helps you in your summer film watching. I’ll try to update as we see more.

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