If an idea, opinion or belief, regardless if it is morally wrong or untrue, is proclaimed long enough, it will eventually be believed by the masses as truth and fact.

Take pre-WW2 Germany for example. An upright nation, became morally and ethically corrupt solely by the clever use of Hitler’s propaganda machine. Point taken.

Back to Israel. I am naive enough to believe that most people who condemn Israel’s treatment of the Gaza/West Bank situation aren’t Jew hating fascists… Hopefully they are simply misinformed.  Victims themselves of believing the lie that has been retold for decades.

So, for all those that do not wish to be ignorant of the facts, nor guilty of sounding silly by reinforcing historical error… please take 6 minutes to educate yourself.  Peace.

Media advertisements are a window into our social worldview.  They portray the perceived cultural norm, what we think is important and what makes us happy.

Interestingly, our perceived cultural norm, what we think is important, and what makes us happy changes dramatically from decade to decade.

I demonstrated how fickle we are when it comes to physical appearance preference in the post: Mr. X and the perfect body, but I stumbled upon a retro magazine ad which, once again demonstrates how insane we really are.

The “Skinny girls don’t have oomph…” ad appeared in a 1954 issue of Battle Comic (apparently, girls were into tanks back then).

It’s no secret that I love books.  I’m extremely thankful for global gatherings of booksellers like abebooks and biblio.  When browsing such sites it becomes apparent that there are some very (understatement of the year) bizarre books out there.  Books that will never be bestsellers but are worth buying just for their conversation starter value.

Below are some of my favourites.  Imagine them on the coffee table;-).

(rollover mouse to see book title)

In our pursuit of making our faith relevant to our culture, are we missing the point somewhat?  Don’t get me wrong – I am passionate about presenting the Good News in a way that our culture can understand, but I must ask the question: Are we more concerned with the packaging than we are with the content?

Put another way… if a person was dying of thirst, would he care what the bottle looked like?  Of course not. The real challenge is then, not making the packaging more desirable, but how to convince our culture that Jesus is the only person that will give them thing that will truly quench their thirst.

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this is a very deep well. Where would you get this living water? And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his cattle enjoyed?”
Jesus replied, “People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me some of that water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to haul water.”John 10:10-15 (NLT)

As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God.  Psalm 42:1-2a (NLT)

Comic relief below.

There has been a modern revival of vampirism in recent years.  Although AIDS has put a dampener on sucking your girlfriend’s blood, no one can deny there is a growing subculture which embracing everything vampish, and its popularity has spilled over into mainstream pop-culture.

What is modern-day vampirism? Simply, the party by night, sleep by day mentality. Dressing in black, celebrating everything macabre and sensual. What is its origin? To cut a long story short, the early Slavs and Britons had a strong belief in vampires (living corpses empowered by evil, craving blood as sustenance) up until the early 1800s. Some occultists today believe supernatural vampirism to be a fact (another post perhaps?).

If I was to ask who is the most popular vampire in history – an overwhelming majority would say Dracula (although my kids might say Sesame Street’s The Count). Have you ever wondered how the superstar of horror was inspired?

Dracula was very much a real person, called Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (or more commonly known as the Vlad The Impaler, or Draculea (1431-1476). He was a madman who massacred more than 100,000 men women, children, and babies during his lifetime in the most sickening, disturbing ways imaginable. And to drive the point home (pun intended) let me go into detail – but please be warned, the next paragraph isn’t nice to read (skip it if you want).

The atrocities committed by Vlad included impaling, torturing, burning, skinning, roasting, and boiling people, feeding people the flesh of their friends or relatives, cutting off limbs and drowning.  As his name implies… Impalement was Vlad’s preferred method of torture and execution. An oiled stake was slowly forced through the anus until it emerged from the mouth. Death by impalement was slow and agonizing and victims sometimes endured for hours or even days. One claim says he impaled 10,000 in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu in a single day (and I bet you thought Transylvania was only a fictional country).

Sorry you had to read that – but again I wish to make a point, which is simply this…

The origins of vampirism is nothing short of pure evil. The original vampire, Vlad Dracul, was nothing short of pure evil. The vampires in books and films of yesteryear were nothing short of pure evil.

But times have changed.

Pure evil has become not-so-bad-pretty-good-actually evil. The repulsive has become romantic. The villain has now become the hero. We, the pop-culture consumers have made the slow (but sure) transition from hating the vampire, to cheering for him… or her.

Is anyone else concerned?

3% = perfect body proportions.

If only 3% of women have one, that means that 97 out of 100 have ‘imperfect’ body proportions (imperfect being the opposite of perfect).

97%= imperfect body proportions.

The dictionary defines the word ‘imperfect’ as:  characterized by faults, mistakes, etc.; defective.  Not good news for you ladies reading this who are in the 97%.

Good grief.  Have any of you actually wondered who decided what was the perfect body shape (and what wasn’t) in the first place?

Let’s call him (or they) Mr X.

Fact #1: Most people are slaves to Mr X’s personal opinion.

Whoever Mr X. is, he sure wields a lot of power…  Or perhaps we give him that power when we choose to believe he is right?  Has anyone actually taken the time to think if Mr. X is wrong?  Have we become so stupid that we absentmindedly believe what he says without any hesitation?

Fact #2: Mr X can’t make up his mind.

The ‘perfect’ body seems to change from generation to generation. Breasts, the waist, buttocks and legs have all been in or out of fashion. Women (and men) have subjected themselves to endless bodily transformations, ridiculous contraptions, and dangerous fads followed to force their bodies into fashionable shapes (as highlighted in the book “Vanity: A Very Peculiar History”)…

• 450BC: Lean muscular physique (Greece)
• 1400s: Small bust, big stomach (Europe)
• 1600s: Cellulite, fleshly rounded figures (Europe)
• 1800s: High rounded bust (Greece), Fatness & large stomachs for men (Germany)
• 1870s: Large backside (Western Cultures)
• 1900s: Wasp waist – ridged corset distorted spine’s alignment (Western Cultures)
• 1920s: No bust – chest flattening corsets, Boyish look (Western Cultures)
• 1960s: Adolescent figure (Western Cultures)

How much of a hold does mysterious Mr X have on you?

Fast forward to present day and I hardly go to the flicks anymore. Firstly, because it is too expensive, and secondly because most of them are full of inappropriate material.

The good news for Christian movie-lovers is that there are a few excellent websites in cyberspace that review and critique movies from a Christian perspective and other secular sites that list questionable content so we can be clued up before we shell out $15 on a ticket. Here they are:

Plugged In Online (by Focus On The Family)

Christian Spotlight On Entertainment (Readers give comments on each movie.)

Screenit Parental Reviews (Lists everything objectionable, by category.)

Internet Movie Database (Click on the Parents Guide: View content advisory for film content.)

Common Sense Media (Another excellent site with reviews for video games and TV shows also.)