My wife and I are both reading the Hunger Games right now. We’ve not seen the movie, but I’ve heard nothing but good things so far.
I don’t often frequent Jezebel.com, but my coworker shared a link to a particularly interesting article about reading, mental images and specifically racism and the Hunger Games books and movie.
Specifically, some movie-goers were annoyed, upset and angered at the fact that Rue, one of the central supporting characters, being cast as a black girl, even though she was pretty specifically described as being exactly that in the book. These really are great and interesting reads that delve into how we perceive characters in literature and movies. Warning, language and snark in both articles.
The second one totally gets at some things that I’ve been realizing when I read, and some questions that I’ve been asking as well.
EDIT: There, Nifer, you happy? I linked to your Tumblr!
Oh hey there, Path. How are you? It’s been a while. How’s start-up life?
Oh, I’ve been good, you know hanging out with Facebook and Twitter, and a lot with Instagram; and you?
I’m sorry to hear that.
No, no, don’t think that; you’ve got a great personality. You’re inventive and unique, and I like the people who hang out with you a bunch, it’s just… well… you’re a bit antisocial still and I tend to hang out where people actually are a lot. I think it’s just that our paths don’t cross very often.
Yes, yes, I know your name is Path… yes I know you’re supposed to be more limited and all that, it’s just that I only have so much time in my day that I can put into “social” networking, and most (not all) of the people I really want to interact with don’t hang out with you!
Yeah. Yeah, it’s not you, but it’s not me either it’s just life, you know?
Hey, I’m traveling next week, how about this – I’ll get ahold of you then and you can come to Austin, too, okay?
Alright. Well, have a good one, tell Google+ I said, “What’s up!”
Tonight, during the 3rd quarter of the New England Patriots & Denver Broncos playoff game an ad ran with children reciting (preforming?) John 3:16 in what I think is a pretty cute way… I had to say I liked it. But, as soon as I saw the Focus on the Family logo come up, I knew that there would be a good bit of Twitter buzz about it. Sure enough, within 30 seconds of the commercial there were about 100 messages. The only ones that were’t strongly for it or against it were merely funny.
Social media doesn’t tell the whole story. It can’t because people only share what they choose to share.
“Tebow mania” and the sheer amount of vitriol toward Focus on the Family compounds the truth that the Gospel is one of two things to people who resist it: a stumbling block or foolishness.
So, here’s how the response on Twitter breaks down:
- All of the people who liked it were already Christians, people who weren’t Christians didn’t like it.
- The use of kids was either “cute”, “powerful” and “classy”; or “manipulative” and “disgusting”.
- The connection to Tebow was mentioned pretty often, some thinking he paid for it. Others pointing out that FotF chose not to play it during the 49ers game.
There were a few mentions that all of the children were white. (I can’t confirm this, but I saw it a few times.) [EDIT: About 5 minutes after I posted it I found it on YouTube. This isn’t true at all, the first child was African American and when they have all the kids together it’s apparent that there are a LOT of minority children.
But, Twitter has a blind-spot. There are a significant group of people that haven’t said anything about it: people who have been drawn toward Christ because of it. Realistically, people are not going to come to Twitter and say, “that kids John 3:16 commercial really made a difference.” But, Isaiah 55:11 promises that God’s Word does not go out without effect. The people it’s affecting are not here.
This is one of the ways that social media will always fall short. The first people that will hear about the commercial’s effectiveness will be spouses, parents and perhaps a few pastors tomorrow morning.
For people in ministry, we have to remember this – social media can be effective, but it’s affecting people in real life (I like the term “meat space“) and we may never see how.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. — 1 Corinthians 3:7-9
