culture gone bad

As much as I love Chicago sometimes; its diversity, endless activities and sights – sometimes the city makes me go crazy. At the core of Chicago culture is good ole fashioned Midwest culture. The culture that was founded on farming, thrived in industries like steel, cars, and logging, and was populated by trains and canals. Here in Chicago though, it’s where ‘friendly’ goes to die. Common courtesy dwindled away like the train in the 20th century. Mores treated as if they never existed.

It all started about four years ago when I moved here. I was at a red light patiently waiting for it to turn green. Next to me was a turn lane. Across the intersection was my lane and to the right many parked cars. The light turned green. I let off the brake and on to the gas. The car to the right of me instead of making a right turn slammed on the gas, sped in front of me, cut me off before it slammed into the cars parked in front of it, and preceded to pass me for absolutely no reason. That day I didn’t know it, but it would only be the first of hundreds of times that this exact scenario would happen or something similar.

I’ve seen cars in the left lane of a two lane road cut off the rest of traffic to make a right turn. I’ve seen cars pass me illegally down a highly populated street going 80, skipping stop signs, only to catch up to them because they were stopped at the light. I’ve seen cars drive backwards down one ways. I’ve been honked at to go at a light even before the light turns green. I know if I leave room for a car to fit itself in while driving on the highway, that a car will manage to fit itself there. I’ve seen cars swerve to the break down or on ramp just to be in front of another car while in a traffic jam. I know at any time a car from a side street or side parking lot may dangerously pull out in front of me.

I know when I go running I have to make sure cars actually stop at stop signs before running across the cross walk so I don’t get hit. I know when I run I will have to get out of every single person’s way because not one of them will get to their side of the side walk or move over for a runner. I know while taking a walk I have to do the same thing.

Living in Chicago sometimes is like always having an invisibility cloak on. These are the new mores of Chicago. It’s a society of neighbors that don’t even look at each other or say “hi” when walking by. A society that sees more birds flying than friendly waves.

Not everyone is like this. Every time I go running I give the guy that sells the watermelons on Peterson a smile and he reciprocates. Sometimes I get a friendly greeting at a store or restaurant. And just last week while going for a run two little girls actually stopped their game on the side walk to move over and let us run by.

I don’t think I ask for much: just that people obey basic traffic laws, respect each other, and give up half the side walk when passing each other.

oh! gravity where are you?

So, I decided to take a look at a Switchfoot song to review. Switchfoot, which is my favorite band, are rooted in rock and deep lyrics. Their latest album came out in December 2006 and was titled Oh! Gravity. The band sits on the fence as a non-Christian or Christian band. Not because the band chooses to: because neither Christians nor non-Christians will take the band for themselves. The band is in the fuzzy grey area and I think they like it that way. A “Christian” band or not, their lyrics lead only to one thing – God.

Or so I thought as I wondered around a review on the title track ‘Oh! Gravity’. On the website Jesus Freak Hideout, a Christian music website, their review of the album and song Oh! Gravity was anything but good. They insult the album for “dwelling too much on materialism and consumerism”, and “ambiguous political leanings”. In the end the album was deemed forgettable.

Forgettable is exactly what has happened: forgetting the poor, the hurting, our enemies, and the ‘sinners’ of this world.

The political left, bent on pointing out the world’s (especially the United States’) problems with materialism and consumerism reminds us that a song like ‘Oh! Gravity’ is exactly what we should not be forgetting. Composer, Jon Foreman points to God’s love and what Christians should be striving for in these lyrics.

“There's a fracture in a corner bar
In the back seat of a parked car
By the liquor store where the streetlights
Keep you company till the next night
In the same town there's the same scar
In the same glow of the liquor store
By the freeway where the headlights
Keep you company till the next night”

You can feel the pain and anguish in the lives that are being forgotten in the lonely and hurting in the bar. You can see the innocence being lost in the back of the car.

“In the back room of the Pentagon
There's a thin man with a line drawn
With a red jaw and the red bite
Watch the headline on the next night”

Politics or love? The review thinks it is politics. Maybe it is just a case of love. A love for one’s enemies, and an idea of life for everyone beyond war, violence, and murder. The album does dwell a little on materialism and consumerism. Is that such a bad thing? Did not the prophets of old warn of false idols? Did not Jesus speak about not being able to love both God and money?

Just look at today’s global economic crisis and see what materialism and consumerism has done to the world, to the poor, to the sick. Although the album and song received some poor reviews the band was right on where both Christians and non-Christians lives and love for God should be.

Full song lyrics here.

cheezburger pleeeze!

I don’t normally endorse chain restaurants. 1) Because they normally don’t induce anything unique. 2) They are usually unhealthy. 3) and, I can get something that tastes better anywhere else.

Jess and I however went out last Friday to Five Guys Burger and Fries. And they serve up a great burger. The actual restaurant has a great atmosphere, unlike some other places. The fries: they actually taste like potatoes. And they give you a ton of them. Five Guys is a smaller chain, much like these guys, and has obtained praise and admiration - unlike these guys. It’s one of the best burgers I’ve had.

earth day: reflections on doubting thomas

Today is Earth Day. It’s the day when Christians and non-Christians can get together, drive down the highway and throw their fast-food bag and leftover fries to the side of the road and no one will care. Wait. What? No, that is the one day when we come together not to do that. Earth Day is a day, or a week in some communities, to clean up the messes we have made in parks and roadsides. Earth Day does seem to bring Christians and non-Christians together. Everyone agrees, at least, that the trash on the side of the road doesn’t look good.

On every other day though it seems that just like with politics, morals, and so on there is a deep divide between Christians and non-Christians on the environment. Just look at global warming. As most non-Christians take global warming to be a fact, still many Christians find it to be a hoax, unimportant, and total boo-hockey.

The gospel lesson from this week was about Doubting Thomas which can be found in John chapter 20. As my pastor pointed out this Sunday, Thomas gets a bad rap. He gets a bad rap because Thomas doubted. His faith was bent on seeing and not just believing. Thomas will forever be seen in a bad light as Doubting Thomas. Thomas has something in common with the majority of Christians today. Just like Thomas had to see and touch to believe, so do Christians have to see and touch to believe that there is global warming. It’s a kind of sad irony. With all the cold weather and snow this winter it seems to make doubting that much easier and believing that much harder.

Yet, Earth Day was not founded because of global warming and neither was this argument. Caring for creation isn’t just about global warming. It’s about caring for earth and all of God’s good creation. What does it say when we destroy something God has created? What does it say about resurrection hope, that like the disciples a week after Jesus rose, when we don’t care about creation?