by Jay Caress

Amicus Associates has ‘branded’ itself with the slogan Connecting the Disconnect.

When we began to think about this venture, that phrase had a very specific meaning—connections to be made between people who might not otherwise be connected—and that still applies to our purpose, though our purpose has become broader and deeper as we have pursued our vision.

The Big Disconnect

We live in a disconnected world, no doubt. Alexsandr Solhenitsyn called it A World Split Apart in his famous 1978 Harvard address (Listen to address below).

The primary disconnect we inherit is that between the human race and our Creator: the objective fact of Sin and humanity’s disconnect–indeed the whole Creation’s disconnect–from God. St. Paul writes in the letter to the Romans that ‘the entire creation groans’ in its separation from the Creator, but he also asserts that God ‘subjected it in hope’ to this period of separation, this present darkness, which has been aptly called a vale of tears. Yet God is hopeful of redeeming us and has made hope itself a touchstone, a virtue we may grasp onto to connect with his invisible Kingdom.

As Christians each of us has been personally reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, the sin-disconnect has been reconnected through the powerful ministry of the Cross, the Resurrection and the Holy Spirit’s gracious presence in our lives. But all is not healed; all is not reconnected yet. We walk with Him here on earth, yet still we struggle with our own fallen humanity even as we seek to be perfected in Christ.

And the world? Obviously it’s still not connected. Just look around. It’s important to remind ourselves that the entire world system, though it may be tempered with grace because of the presence of God’s influence still felt through His Spirit, His laws, His Church and His people, is not only disconnected from God but disconnected from the knowledge of God.

Therefore the moment we Christians venture out into this world system—in politics or business or any social interaction—we must become either missionaries or pawns. We cannot serve two masters.

The Elite Disconnect

The world system operates differently than the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ Gospel has been characterized as a Whosoever will, may come message.

Those familiar with the ways of this world may attest that as a kingdom, it doesn’t work quite that way. The gospel of this world is more like this:

Whosoever will, may come (if you network, flatter, scheme, maneuver, network some more, flatter some more, maneuver some more and yes, and maybe work hard, too!) Until…

At the end of all this, whether performed in business, politics, education or even church-related bureaucracies and movements, one hopes to find oneself among the Elite. C. S. Lewis’ wonderfully recognizable Mark Studdock (recognizable because he’s like all of us) in That Hideous Strength finds himself unintentionally woven into a deathly web of evil because his driving goal has been to attain the ‘inner circle’ of his University’s faculty.

In the world system, Elites are in control. Some Elites are more visible than others, and some of the least visible may be the most dangerous. But control, power, prestige and eventually intimidation is what they’re all about. George Orwell knew this. Solzhenitsyn knew it from bitter experience. Even the framers of our Constitution had a glimmer of it as they designed a government system of three branches, so that one branch’s power could check the other. But they couldn’t foresee what Elitism would one day do to Washington.

The same is true in Hollywood. Hollywood is ruled by an Elite, but not so much a corporate elite—though elements of the Studio System remain—as an intellectual elite which finds expression and power through the media it controls.

Now whether or not strictly speaking Sean Penn or Jeannine Garafolo or any number of these folks are actually intellectuals by any objective standard isn’t the point. The term Intellectual Elite here means an elite of the mind, whose membership privileges and influence stem from adherence to shared values, values which are greatly disconnected from those held by many in the fly-over states.

So why aren’t there more outspoken, concerned good people making themselves heard in Hollywood? One, they aren’t given a chance, two, some genuinely pick their battles and do more than we know out of range of the camera, three, because their careers might be at risk. All of them need support and encouragement from us outside the walls.

Connecting the Disconnect Redux

We still believe that it’s possible to breach the wall, or–in the more modern vernacular–hack into the system.

But it will take the connecting of another kind of network. A counter-Elite network, if you will. A Company of the Committed who will work together to nourish and solidify our relationships with our Creator, through Jesus Christ, His gospel, and His Church and then as courageous Christian artists, as financiers, and as prayer-warriors make a valiant attempt to keep Truth alive in an age which doubts that it ever lived.

Won’t you join us?

———
Listen to the 1978 Alexsandr Solhenitsyn A World Split Apart Harvard address:

by Jay and Gail

We have recently made a new connection! Guillermo Navarro (Willie), originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the founder and Director of the University of the Nations film program in Kona, Hawaii. He and his wife, Patricia, came to Kona to stay for six months and have been there for sixteen years! as Willie has pursued his dream of being a filmmaker.

He also founded the filmmakers group 24 Frames of Light which has produced over seventy short films that have competed in many film festivals around the world and won numerous awards.

Willie has been honored for his new feature film Relapse which has been chosen to receive the Aloha Accolade Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the 2009 Honolulu International Film Festival.

Here is a quote from the award notification letter:

Our judges felt that your film demonstrated superior and standout filmmaking and is deserving of one of our most esteemed awards. Your film was among the very best of the several hundreds of films submitted from over 30 countries around the world.

Relapse is a story revolving around about the deadly drug Crystal Meth, which has become a tragic problem not only in Hawaii but around the world. Please look carefully at the website www.relapsemovie.com to find out more about the film and check out the University of the Nations film program.

We know that this award is very encouraging to Willie and Patricia and the crew and students at the University of the Nations. We applaud their efforts and ask you to pray for them. Good going, Willie!

by Gail Caress

You know that rare moment when something coalesces and comes together in a quintessential point? Neither do I, usually. But at the intersection of reading Allen Bloom, Dallas Willard, G.K. Chesterton and watching the eighty-first Academy Awards show came such a moment.

I won’t bother you with all the lugubrious details of the Oscars if you didn’t watch them and don’t happen to know what I’m talking about. Hopefully I can explain it without that. I have been trying to analyze my reaction to Hollywood’s annual celebration but my mind kept going off on all manner of tangents. But as I finished re-reading The Closing of the American Mind by Allen Bloom, I turned back again to the Introduction and read:

“Openness is the only virtue which all primary education for most of the last fifty years has dedicated itself to inculcating.”

Thus everyone is taught subtly, and not so subtly that:

“The true believer is the real danger.”

So as the Oscar evening was filled with magnificent dance numbers and a high standard of glitzy production value, what came through was the vilification of those who truly believe. For if one truly believes in something, he can’t be open to all possibilities.

Now I’m not only blaming Hollywood for this. Things just become public and popular there first (then in Canada, then in Christian culture ☺). This is because those in that business obviously have the literal stage on which to play it loud and clear.

Schools and universities are responsible for this as well. Even if you only go through 8th grade (which is what I teach) or just go to a community college, or a state university and not an elite ivy league, it’s all the same. This was true even in 1987 when Bloom was writing his book.

“There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the University believes…that truth is relative. They are unified only [in that.]”

But, you may say, that’s not true of our Christian universities. I’m afraid it is. There is the New Evangelism approach suggested by an Emergent Christian professor who gives an example of his style of evangelism in Christianity Today:

I don’t know if what I believe is true, but let’s talk.

So the age-old question comes back to haunt us: Does the media reflect of affect culture? I think we have to say both. It’s a cycle where one is empowered by the other.

The message that came from Hollywood at the Oscars is very clear: If you truly believe something and part of that something is that the definition of marriage is the union of one man and one woman, or if your belief leads you to have a moral objection to a huge-screen backdrop of multiple film clips of men kissing each other, then, as Sean Penn rebuked us, “you should be ashamed.”

Or if you truly believe in God, according to the speech given by the Academy-chosen presenter for Documentary Film awards, then the world’s problems are your fault.

We who truly believe are dangerous. Openness is the only virtue. There are no absolutes; everything is relative.

So are Hollywood and the schools and universities the only ones responsible for this problem?

Unfortunately, I feel the blame lies also with us, the true believers. Most of us live in fear. We don’t say anything ‘controversial’ in conversations with colleagues or acquaintances. (And we almost don’t even write about it newsletters!) We don’t say what we truly believe, because we’re afraid people will think we’re closed-minded “single issue” fanatics. And we don’t act on what we believe mostly because we’re too lazy. (I am most certainly speaking to myself, and not to those of you who are doing amazingly courageous things.) We are keeping a prayerful vigil, we say to ourselves. God will handle it all. Sure He can, but doesn’t He want us to cooperate with Him? Why are we so many times silent about our faith and our true beliefs?

Recently an historically traditional evangelism crusade organization has made the decision not to mention the devastation that abortion or homosexual lifestyles can bring in fear of alienating the broader local community, this in a series of crusades targeting serious social urban issues.

Life is much easier on all fronts if we don’t truly believe, or at least if we don’t bring it up–in the spirit of “getting along”.

We can get mad at Hollywood, but until we deepen, speak up about, and act upon our ‘true beliefs’ we won’t be a danger. We’ll go out without even a whimper.

Ben Stein’s controversial documentary – Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

These are not in any order of preference or importance and not all are suitable for family viewing.  And of course the list is not exhaustive. Details may be found on the movie’s website, imdb.com, or on netflix.com.

• Bella                                                              
• Once
• Braveheart
• A Man For All Seasons
• Amazing Grace
• The Bourne Trilogy
• Expelled
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• Juno
• The Terminator Trilogy
• The Ultimate Gift
• Our Mutual Friend*
• Fireproof
• Martin Chuzzlewit*
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
• David Copperfield*
• Facing The Giants
• The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising
• The Song of the Lark*
• The Right Stuff
• Emma
• Pride and Prejudice
• Sense and Sensibility
• Wings of Desire
• The Lives of Others
• Far Away/So Close
• Quiz Show
• Chariots of Fire
• Hotel Rwanda
• The Mission
• Groundhog Day
• The Great Raid
• The Keys of the Kingdom
• Forrest Gump
• The Dialogues With Solzhenitsyn
• Babette’s Feast
• The Scarlet and the Black
• Farewell To Israel
• Once Upon A Time In China (1&2)
• Children of Men
• Pope John Paul II
• Where The Heart Is
• You Can’t Take It With You
• Joe Versus the Volcano
• The Incredibles
• Lost In Translation
• Crimes and Misdemeanors
• Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• The Princess Bride
• 3:10 To Yuma (1957)
• Schindler’s List
• My Left Foot
• The Passion of the Christ
• Return To Me
• Magnolia
• Vanilla Sky

*Masterpiece Theatre

William Wilberforce stands as the single person most responsible for changing England’s attitude toward slavery and the slave trade; however, in America the single person who most powerfully touched and changed our attitudes regarding this issue was an artist, a novelist named Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the second-best selling book of the 19th century, outsold only by the Bible.

When we speak of the opportunity to create culturally renewing art, we know from history that it can be done. And it has been done with movies. In the turbulent nineteen sixties, movies like Lilies of the Field and To Kill A Mockingbird helped Americans to understand and to begin to accept the dramatic social changes happening around them. In the backwash of Vietnam, movies like The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now opened up discussion of that war and engendered a belated compassion for its veterans.

This powerful art of storytelling through film is becoming more and more important as we look to our future. As we move more deeply into a postmodern, post-literate age, ideas communicated in the time-honored ways using propositional truth, civil discourse, and an appeal to rational thought fall on deaf ears and cold hearts.

We have seen the role that film, television and music can play in our time to subtly (and not so subtly) weave doubt and even destruction into the fabric of our families and society as they change a life or even a commonly held cultural belief — sneaking in, as it were, while the lights are out and the images are larger than life, or the sitcom is so clever, or the song about suicide has such a good beat and a haunting melody.

But this entry to the hearts of men (and women and children) does not have to be a bad thing.

J.R.R. Tolkien discovered a key to the human heart in the last century:

There are truths that man knows exist, but they cannot be seen – they are immaterial, but no less real, to us. We remember the poem, a painting, a song, or a story precisely because when we first experienced them, they changed our way of perceiving the world, and our feelings about life. The imaginative experience modifies our sense of reality, and satisfies our deep need.

Tolkien had only a glimpse of what the future might hold. He had no idea that one day powerful cinematic characters and images taken from his Lord of the Rings trilogy would expose the Ipod culture to nobility, sacrifice, and heroism in a way not otherwise possible. His friend and colleague C.S. Lewis did not dream that the Narnia films would speak to millions around the world. But it has escaped no one’s attention after the fact that these films have been enormously popular (and profitable) at the box office and on DVD and other media.

Can only epic fantasies renew culture? No, so can stories of ordinary people with struggles and joys and trials who make choices, fail, find hope, laughter, despair and redemption. Stories like this teach the world not in a pedantic way but shoulder-to-shoulder, using circumstances that are familiar but with a startling transcendence. Jesus knew this. “There was man who had two sons…”

Is the Entertainment Industry only that? Or does it now also serve as a shaper of values, a teacher, a grand network of peers who are polled for life’s decisions while books, parental advice, and logical discussion fade to the perimeter? Art that is True and derives its life from an objective realty is vital and authentic. It is not a slave to the passing fancy of the age, but a servant of real personal freedom and redemption.

The difficulty of gaining a fair hearing in our current political and academic arenas stands in sharp contrast to the power of art to change, hopefully to ennoble people today, working in the deep places of the heart. We must take advantage of the tremendous opportunity and challenge afforded by storytelling in film (and television and music) to shine light and hope and wonder into the gray shadows and withering remnants of civilization.

“Those who tell the stories rule society.” — Plato

“In America today it is quite clear who the storytellers are: the filmmakers.” — James Spiegel (philosophy professor at Taylor University)