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category archive listing Category Archives: This Week In Jesus

This Week In Jesus - Grand Theft Culture Edition

May 9 . 2008 – 11.00 am

Well, after a one-week hiatus, TWIJ is back and better than ever. The last two weeks, Jesus has been conspicuously absent from both American Idol AND Oprah, but we won’t hold it against them. Another big story that Jesus was absent from was the MASSIVE release of Grand Theft Auto IV. For those of you who have been living under a rock that was under another really big rock that was surrounded by a really high pop-culture-reflecting fence, GTA has been a staple of the gaming culture since 1997 when Rockstar Games released the first edition of the current four (not including expansion packs.) The latest release sold 6 million copies worldwide in its first week, grossing over $500 million (which was even more impressive than Iron Man’s $100 million take!), and the series as a whole has sold over 70 million copies.

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This Week In Jesus: The Dovies Edition

April 26 . 2008 – 3.19 pm

Everybody knows Jesus loves Him some music. This week, the Dove Awards was broadcast live for the first time in several years, on the new and promising Gospel Music Channel, and Jesus was all OVER it, dude! I wonder what He thinks about the second-rate wannabe-GRAMMYs telecast. If you ask me, I think that He’d be disappointed that it wasn’t a little more fun and a little less intentionally-fractured-to-appeal-to-too-broad-of-an-audience (this week’s TWIJ sponsored by Hy-phen.com).

The Dove Awards are a perfect microcosmic example of what’s generally wrong with CCM as a whole - too few individuals dominating too big of an industry. In Christian music proper, it’s Salem, who dominates radio and print media. For the Doves, it’s the Gospel Music Association (GMA).

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By i got your pop right here | Also posted in Dove Awards, Life, Music, Politics, TV | Comments (0)

This Week In Jesus: Divine Finale Edition

April 18 . 2008 – 12.12 am

What shall it profit a man if he gain the corner office and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36, New International Eli Stone Edition)

 If ABC’s Eli Stone isn’t the best examination of faith ever on television, then I will sell my Tivo. The season finale was this week, and it played like a modern Hebrews 11. Over the last few months on my new favorite show: by faith, former cutthroat, high-powered lawyer Eli Stone found a reason to live, and a meaning for life. He wrestled with the dirty side of faith - the side that you don’t learn about in Sunday School but if you’re lucky, you learn about in life. The side whereby God occasionally knocks you on your ass.

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By i got your pop right here | Also posted in Life, Reviews, TV, Tech | Comments (0)

This Week In Jesus: American Idol worship edition

April 11 . 2008 – 12.10 pm

The biggest story by far for Jesus watchers this week comes to us from American Idol’s “Idol Gives Back” show, which aired Wednesday evening. Aside from the fact that they stole the church’s long-forgotten idea of taking care of orphans and widows (well, I can’t say they stole it, since the church threw that idea away long ago) by raising millions of dollars for needy children, the real story for TWIJers came in the very last performance, in the waning moments of the show. [At this point, I am NOT going to mention that my Tivo didn’t actually catch the performance since the show ran late and it came on after 9 pm at which time my infallible Tivaliscious friend switched to the show I had set to record at 9…I’m not going to mention it because my relationship with my Tivo is pretty important to me and I would never do anything to hurt it…I heart you, Tivo!]What happened in the last few minutes of the telecast was a simple little performance that was almost unexplainable from a conceptual standpoint.

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By i got your pop right here | Also posted in Movies, Music, TV | Comments (0)

This Week In Jesus: Mistaken Identity Edition

April 5 . 2008 – 12.49 pm

This was a great week for Jesus fans, and we owe most of the credit to one fabulous man and one blubber-inducing woman. Matt Lauer and Oprah hit us with a one-two punch, both giving the twist-of-faith story of Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak some serious play. Lauer’s 2-hour Dateline episode aired Friday, followed by Wednesday’s Oprah show. You probably don’t recognize the two girls’ names, but you might remember their story - an amazing one that started with a particularly heinous accident involving nine Taylor University students and faculty. One family rejoiced that their daughter was not declared one of the five dead, and one family buried theirs. The Van Ryns cared for the young woman they were told was their daughter for five weeks before realizing that it was in fact Whitney Cerak. What happened next is truly inspiring.

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By i got your pop right here | Also posted in Life, Music, TV | Comments (1)