Every once in a while I flip over to MTV to take the pulse of pop culture. Gotta see what them kids are looking at these days. Guess what I learned? Britney Spears has a new video out. Culturally relevant again, I see.

The song itself is pretty catchy. It's called "Womanizer". A scathing critique of some dude who has a bunch of girl friends and uses women. Britney stands up to him. Lets him know he's not getting any attention from her. Really, it might be her best song in a long time. I mean, it's obviously a sliding scale, but still.

Things take a turn for the dumb with the video, however. This lady who is singing out against womanizers spends half the video...naked. I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but I'm serious. I would post the video, but it's essentially porn. She is laying completely naked in a sauna, covering only the most private of parts. Even for MTV it is pushing the envelope. The rest of the video finds Britney dancing around in her underwear.

Ok. Stop. This song could have stood on its own. But Britney's handlers come in and under the guise of creativity womanize her. In the process, they talk her into being complicit in her own objectification.

Now the video is on MTV. We all know that pop music is both a reflection and influence on pop culture. So now we are communicating to girls that they should liberate themselves from promiscuous men by cutting them out of the process. Why let someone else objectify you if you can just sell yourself and keep all of the profits?

But then I guess it isn't that different from what has happened in mainstream hip-hop and the black community. I mean, Robert Johnson (the founder of BET) is about as helpful to the black community as a plantation owner.

This is crazy.

Renew and Restore

We spend a good deal of family time at the hospital. One of the downsides of residency. Though I will give it to Stacy's program, they are totally cool about resident's families coming for a visit. They have a pretty nice resident lounge with a big tv. All of the other residents make time to chat, even though they have a buttload of stuff to get done. I'd totally rather be in my own living room, but at least we don't get shut out.

One of the best perks is the food. It's hospital cafeteria food, so nothing to write home about. Nonetheless, there is always food when we go to visit. And drinks. Lots and lots of drinks. Stacy is very in tune with my drink preferences, so I often find a Sierra Mist, a fruit puree or a Vitaminwater waiting for me upon arrival. Talk about service.

A few weeks ago I popped open my Vitamin water, and boy was it tasty. So yummy. I downed that sucker like nobodies business. Curious as to what kind of liquid delight Vitaminwater had come up with, I checked out the label.

Special edition Sex In The City xxx antioxidant Vitaminwater featuring blueberry, pomegranate and acai. Oh boy.

Never before had I partook of such an erotic drink. Nothing like a little bottled sin to quench the thirst. But man. It was so good. And now I'm hooked. Every trip to the hospital, I'm picking one of those up. I figure that once the movie tie-in is over, that particular flavor is going to disappear, so I'd better live in sin while I still have the chance.

So yesterday, I'm at the store to pick up a banana to go with my lunch. And I get the urge. The urge for the unholy trio. I found one in the cooler near the checkout lanes and approached the cashier. I averted mine eyes in shame as she rung it up. I was hoping she'd just slip it into a brown paper sack and let me on my way in peace. Not so much.

"Ohhhhh. This stuff is the bomb. I used to drink it all the time."

Hmm. Apparently, I'm not the only fan. I was curious as to why the cashier didn't drink it anymore, however.

Diabetes. Too much sugar in the Vitaminwater.

Just goes to show you. Don't drink too much xxx Vitaminwater. You'll get diseases. I haven't heard of anyone getting pregnant from it yet, but I'm sure they are out there.

Renew and Restore

I've been a pretty cynical American for the past few years. Very discontent with our foreign policy. Very discontent with our reputation and standing in the world. Very discontent with the way that we had defined ourselves and been defined.

But over the past 18 hours we've taken two huge steps in our history. A black man accepted a major party nomination for the Presidency. And then today, the Republicans (!) announce that they will be presenting a woman for Vice President.

So it's a good day. And I'm proud. Because I feel like we have grown and it is now all but assured that no matter what happens in November, the result will be historic. Huge walls have been blasted through, and will continue to crumble in the coming months.

Today is a good day. And I'm proud to be an American.

A little practical piggy back on my last post...

The other day I caught the last minute or so of the new Madonna and Justin Timberlake video. I didn't like it. My first thought was, "Dang. Madonna's lost it. She's just not the artist she used to be."

Flash forward a couple of days later. I'm sitting in my car and I hear this song that sounds amazing. I turn it up. I'm bobbing my head. Feeling it.

Yeah. You guessed it. Same song.

As I was pondering this crazy phenomenon, I started to think about what gender and sexuality had to do with my differing opinions of the same song. If I am really honest with myself (and everyone reading this on the internets), then I have to admit that part of the reason that I didn't like the song when I saw the video was due to gender and age bias. I wasn't really thrilled with the idea of a 49 1/2 year old woman dressed in a flesh-colored body suit with black knee high gogo boots, who just so happened to be dancing with a young man.

Now some people probably look at that and commend Madonna for breaking gender stereotypes, and proving that a (nearly) 50 year old woman can be sexy. It is a statement that continues to be played out over and over again. It's something I attribute to the Desperate Housewives phase. In the eyes of some, we have made progress.

I'm not sure that it's progress, though. I just think that the music industry has proved they are equal opportunity exploiters of female sexuality. The age of sexy is going up as the likes of Madonna continue to define themselves in terms of sensuality. But at the same time the age of sexy is going down as media types (women media types, I might add) are willing to publish sensual photos of teenage entertainment sensation Miley Cirus.

Good for the media. Give them a cookie.

I think that healthier signs of progress will be when people (myself included) aren't judging the value of something based on sexual and sensual bias, be it intentional or unintentional. Progress will be made when we can respect the beauty and value of middle aged women in a way that doesn't force them to virtually put out. Progress will be made when we get to the point where we are able to halt and reverse the increasingly disturbing trend of sexualizing our teen entertainers.

Fair Dinkum

Over the past 10 days I have had the opportunity to attend two events hosted by the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA). I cannot express how much respect I now have for this organization. They are amazing in the scope of their work, as well as in the depth and intentionality with which they go about their business. Should you have the opportunity to go to any of their events, I strongly suggest you do so.

My first encounter with MOCSA was an afternoon-long workshop for men to help raise awareness about the cultural norms that contribute to sexual assault. It was such an important workshop to go to, as I feel the two populations I am passionate about serving (churches and the inner city) really struggle to create environments that are safe for women. Not just safe in that you don't have to fear some scary person jumping out at you from behind a bush. But safe in holding women in high regard, and not buying into the subtle (and not so subtle) misogynistic habits of American culture.

The workshop was helpful in that it does a great job of helping participants identify some of the gender stereotypes that are hurtful to women. It is also a safe place for men to discuss how they might have contributed to these paradigms, and what they can do to change them. It was both thought provoking as well as action inducing.

The next week I visited the local YWCA for a poetry night that MOCSA hosted. I'll tell you what, it was one of the hardest events I have ever attended. While there were some male poets, there were also some very powerful poems by women on the theme of experiencing sexual assault. It was really heavy, and at times very uncomfortable to listen to. It made it all real. But I was at least glad that I didn't come away just thinking it was a nice event. If I didn't have that visceral reaction, I would really worry about the condition of my heart.

Fair Dinkum

So, I'm in class yesterday. It's pastoral counseling, and this particular session is about premarital counseling. Ho hum, ho hum. Then, we get to the inevitable question about how pastors should speak to couples about sex. Now we're getting somewhere. But then we end up getting to a whole lot of nowhere, so my neighbor and I start whispering to each other.

Neighbor: You know, some churches pretty much view sex as a sacrament.

Me: I'm almost to that point (thank you very much, Lauren Winner for enlightening my mind with your book)

Neighbor. Yeah. At least on the first Sunday of the month.

And that folks is what I like to call "Grade-A Seminary Humor". Don't forget to tip your waiter.

Fair Dinkum

Sometimes I don't get Christians. Like the other day I am hanging out with a group of people and we are just talking about life. Someone mentions UNICEF and asks if I've ever heard of it, which of course I have. FC Barcelona pays them almost $2 million per year for the next five years in order to wear their logo on the front of their shirt (read:jersey). It's a huge deal because Barcelona has never had a logo on the front of their shirt even though it could reap them over $25 million in profit each year. This is how most football clubs make money, and will be seen this year in the US for the first time this year when Major League Soccer clubs are allowed to strike sponsorship deals.

There is a lady at the table who is getting a little worked up as we talk about UNICEF for a minute, and I should tell you that I love this lady. She is the most amazing prayer warrior I know. But she goes on this kick about how she can't stand UNICEF because they distribute condoms and don't do enough to promote sexual abstinence. Now UNICEF is a big program, so I wasn't well-versed in all aspects of what they do so I didn't argue. But then I went back and did some research on what UNICEF is about. Having done that, I've come to a conclusion I'm certain about:

Christians are crazy if we throw UNICEF under the bus. Look, I'm all for abstinence. It will be a value that I stress to my kids. It is an important value in my ministry. But just because UNICEF hands out condoms doesn't mean they aren't doing some really great things for people in the Third World. UNICEF gets what the church doesn't get. AIDS in the Third World is a very complicated deal that needs to be addressed on a number of different levels. That's why they work on "protecting children from violence, exploitation and abuse." That's why they speak out on a regular basis against the sex trade and work to liberate women from it. Unlike most Christians, UNICEF understands that to tackle the AIDS pandemic we need to promote gender equality because "the empowerment of women and girls [is] the way to a sustainable and just society."

If Christians want to get pissed off at something, get pissed off at ourselves because not only have we dropped the ball when it comes to addressing practical solutions to deal with AIDS, but we are so out of touch with the contributing factors to the problem that we think speeches on abstinence will be enough for the situation to resolve itself. This didn't become a big problem overnight and it won't go away overnight either.

By the way...Even though UNICEF does have a component that included condom distribution and education it also talks quite a bit about sexual abstinence and mutual fidelity. Just thought you should know that. If you want to know more about UNICEF, then check out their website. If you want to know more about AIDS and other big issues plaguing AFRICA, check out DATA.

Fair Dinkum