The Joel Osteen Experience

This morning I attended a mega-church worship service for the first time. Actually, we headed over to the largest congregation in the United States. Lakewood Church seats almost 17,000 and, this morning, was around 3/4 full. Joel Osteen spoke this morning on Signs of God's Favour. He is a very engaging speaker and enjoyable to listen to. Lakewood is a charismatic church and much of it's teachings conform to the prosperity gospel, though they call their teaching "Word of Faith," which is actually slightly different.

My first impressions made it hard to take the church seriously. There are rock formations with waterfalls on either side of the stage and the stage rises to bring the band to the center. Fog machines enhance the effects of the lighting and the people in the large choir were colour-coordinated. The opening song proclaimed "Thanks be to God, who always causes us to win." These are not words that I feel comfortable singing.

After this morning, I have very mixed feelings. These people, and there are thousands of them, truly believe in what they are saying. I think that many of them have more faith than in God I do, though I would argue that the God they have faith in is not exactly the God of Scripture. Joel Osteen has experienced miracles and witnessed signs that I never have. Is this because he has more faith? Or is it because he is more attentive to God's movement, always looking for it? Or is it simply because he is more gullible?

My automatic reaction to charismatics is skepticism. I think a better response would be a desire to learn more. What is the truth in it? Are there things that I could learn and grow from? Because the answer is probably yes.

Not a great picture, but it gives you some idea of how large this place actually is.

Past Two Weeks in Review

I'm back! And I don't even know where to start, because it's been a while since I've posted. So, just get ready for a small whirlwind of description.

We've had a ton of rain here lately. In the past thirty days, Houston has seen almost 14 inches. We had two different days with six inches of rain in one day. I thought the drainage system in Abilene was bad, but it has nothing on Houston. The roads get absolutely horrible when it rains. It's not very pleasant to drive in. I was probably one of about three people in Houston hoping the hurricane would hit us instead of somewhere else, as I've never gone through a hurricane before. But alas, we just had to put up with half a foot of rain.

I went to my aunt and uncle's for the 4th. I had a lot of fun playing with my cousins and chatting with family. I'm thankful that I have them here and they are willing to open up their home for me. We watched fireworks on TV, which was new for me. The Macy's and Boston Pop's shows were both fairly fantastic. The fireworks music medley was interesting, however - Black Eyed Peas juxtaposed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The finale was set to music from Spirit, which really made everything worth it.

One of my fellow interns made sopapilla cheesecake the other day. She got the recipe from someone else and the proportions may have been a little bit off. In fact, the cream cheese and the sugar proportions were switched. Instead of putting in 2 packages of cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar, she put in 1 package of cream cheese and 2 1/2 cups of sugar! Instead of 1/2 a cup of butter, she put in 1 1/2 cups of butter. I have never had a dessert so sweet or rich in my life.

This past weekend we had some fun adventures, going to Galveston and to the Houston Zoo. I was proud of myself for driving us to Galveston and back. I even did it without looking at directions every five minutes. I wish we could have spent more time out at the beach, but it was also a very hot day. I was also recovering from several days of being sick. On Sunday, Karen and I went to the zoo for her birthday. It was fun, but extremely hot. This, of course, also meant that most of the animals were just laying around trying to get cool.

Very soon I'll post something that's more reflection and less description of activities. Get ready!

Edward Cullen as a Christ Figure?

As any teenage girl in the United States knows, the Twilight Saga: Eclipse came out yesterday. No, I did not wait in line dresses as a vampire at a midnight showing. In fact, chances are I'll wait for the DVD to come out at Redbox before I view it.

Today I was flipping through a magazine* when I came across this advertisement:

I feel I should begin by saying that I have not read this book and therefore any conjectures of mine are independent from this work. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for books about God. I think it's great to look for God amidst popular culture. I support finding themes and representations of Biblical images in all areas of life. I even approve of reading books like Twilight and drawing whatever moral conclusions are possible from it's pages (though I would argue that a book like Twilight is best used for it's entertainment value). All of that being said, I'm not sure I can support the comparison of Edward to Christ.

Okay, so they both will live forever and both love unconditionally - though Edward only loves one person in this way. And I suppose Edward sacrificed himself for Bella, though once again he's only thinking of one single person. In other words, Edward is selfish. This is probably what gets me the most. He's also a blood-thirsty vampire who has to constantly overcome his nature (i.e. his desire to eat people) in order to even associate with humans. I feel like Edward's abandonment of Bella is also very problematic if he is a Christ figure. I will close out this post by pointing out Bellas extremely unhealthy attachment to and dependency on Edward.

*Christian Century, May 4, 2010