We watched the new animated movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs last night.   This is actually not a movie review, but I am sure some of the more uber-religious are going to ‘have at me’  for watching worldly films.  Someone called me a “phony not a pastor” a couple of weeks ago because I watch Hollywood movies.  Always keep in mind that those who protest the loudest are often the ones with the most skeletons in the closet.  This is as tame a family film as you will find anywhere.  It is a lot of fun, completely zany and surprisingly original for a change.  It has a great father/son relationship message and although I’m not certain if there is any deliberately intended social commentary, of course… I see one.

The story takes place in a little sardine fishing village called Swallow Falls on an island in the Atlantic. Because their only industry is sardines and nobody really likes sardines, they have to eat them all themselves and life is a very boring culinary existence.   A young nerdy inventor named Flint Lockwood desperately wants to make a name for himself and builds a machine that can turn water into food.  The machine ends up being trapped in the atmosphere over the island and it begins raining food on the delighted townspeople.  Predictably, things start to go horribly wrong as the food begins to mutate and becomes bigger and bigger.  I will stop here and avoid the spoiler alert.

Now I am not sure if the movie is making a statement on genetically modified food (GMO) or not, but I couldn’t help but see one.  Bio-genetic engineering is quietly going on behind the scenes at an astonishing pace.  There are already many foods that you eat everyday that are genetically modified and you don’t even know it.  For example; you cannot buy margarine that is not made out of Canola.  Check the label, even if the lid says olive oil it is probably mostly made from Canola oil .  Canola was originally developed from rapeseed (an industrial oil seed) using traditional plant breeding technology to reduce inedible erucic acid.  Whether we got a healthier oil out of it or not is a matter of debate.  In 1997 however agri-biz giant Monsanto took it a step further.  They trans-genetically modified (cross species breeding) Canola in order to make it resistant to their Round-up herbicide.  To be specific they inserted the gene of the enzyme 5-enolypyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase  from the CP4 strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens as well as the glyphosate oxidase gene.  Say what?  I won’t even get into the fact that Monsanto owns the patent on the GMO Canola variety and will sue farmers for trying to plant their own seed that they have grown from it.  Of bigger concern is the fact that scientists do not know if the forced insertion of one gene from one species into another gene of another destabilizes the organism, encourages mutations or produces abnormalities.  Likewise, no one knows if or how eating mutated food could affect people’s own DNA.  Neither Canada nor the US require labeling of GMO foods.  Virtually all of the Canola that goes into making your table margarine has been genetically modified.  You are eating it every day.   

There are hundreds of different foods that are now genetically modified.  One bio-tech company engineered a soybean with a gene from a Brazil nut, to aid in pest resilience.  Brazil nuts are not prone to bug infestation.  Many people are allergic to Brazil nuts, some to life-threatening levels.  If someone with a severe allergy to Brazil nuts were to eat this specific GMO soy in tofu, they could have an outbreak. Fortunately in this case, a laboratory test picked up on the allergen and the soy never made it to our supermarkets.  The argument justifying all of this is the need to feed an increasing global population.  The concept of giant over-sized fruits and vegetables is not science fiction anymore.  A frost resistant tomato was developed by adding a gene from the fish Flounder.   That’s just kind of creepy.  

Bio-genetic engineering gets even scarier when it comes to humans and animals.  We all marvelled in 1997 when scientists is Scotland cloned the first sheep.  Her name was Dolly.  What many don’t know is that Dolly died of old age at 6 years old, about half of the normal 11 or12.  Australia’s first cloned sheep didn’t make it to 3 years old.  The animals were full of diseases typically found ony in much older sheep.  Human cloning is now entirely possible.  I am quite certain it is not being considered because we don’t have enough poeple on the planet.  The real agenda is therauputic cloning.  In other words, cloning for the purpose of harvesting spare body parts.  One day wealthy movie stars will be able to have spare parts cloned so as they age and become unemployably ugly they can go in for a full upgrade.  I wonder if Donald Trump’s clone will be bred with the same hideous hair?  The ethical considerations in all of this are frightening, but the spiritual ones are even worse.   Man is starting to play God.  We are creating new life forms that God never originally intended. 

The original sin of Adam and Eve is sometimes missed as being about eating fruit.  The temptation was really to become like God.  The serpent said to them,  “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Gen 3:5.  The disobedience was one thing, but the level of human ambition to be like God was a serious act of high treason.  Cloning and genetic engineering is the latest demonstration of man elevating himself to the level of God.  It may just be the ultimate example of human arrogance.  Maybe we can’t stop it, but one day God will, and I don’t want to be party to it.  He will not share His glory with any man.

For the last 6 or 7 years Winnipeg churches have been partnering together in an amazing campaign called Love Winnipeg.  We got the idea from Love Abbotsford which does a one day blitz of random acts of kindness in their city.  We expanded on the concept and do two full weeks.  We don red Love Winnipeg shirts and hit the streets to pick up garbage, remove graffiti, feed to poor, clothe the homeless, plant flowers, mow grass, rake leaves, paint fences, visit nursing homes and on and on. 

The campaign kicks off with the Red See Rally.  Thousands of red shirted christians gather at the Manitoba Legislative grounds and then we fan out to clean up the streets and spread the love of God.  This year we got rained out on May 30th so we have rescheduled to Sunday June 13th at 3 PM as a wind-up instead.  If you are in the city on Sunday, come join us!   Our church has adopted an area of town called Osborne Village.  The Village is one of Winnipeg’s most unique places with a mix of trendy shops, street kids, drug culture, homosexuals, etc.  We found a dozen street kids living under the Osborne bridge.  A group of our young people cleaned up their somewhat disheveled abode.  We hauled 99 bags of garbage out of the Village in just over an hour.  Here are some of us last year as we were gearing up to head into Osborne Village.

June 6th we did what we call Caring for the Core.  The 85 or so participating churches concentrate our efforts on the somewhat economcally depressed core area of the city.  We do dozens of major carnivals in varous neigbourhoods.  The people come out in droves and are gracious and grateful for the food, fun and fellowship.  Church of the Rock’s chldren’s ministry did a project called Love on Wheels.  A group of men fixed up a couple of dozen bikes and gave them away at one of the carnivals.   They were all gone in just a couple of minutes. Every age group in our church gets involved.  It is touching to see our suburban young adults interacting with the inner city kids. 

 Everyone gets into the act.  This little girl is maybe 10 years old and spent the whole day face painting other kids at a street party on Sherbrook. 

Over the course of the two weeks 1000’s of lives get touched with the love of God.  It is easily the most effective thing the church in Winnipeg does over the course of the year. 

If you live in another city there may be a campaign going on there.  If not, talk to your pastor about getting one started.  Even if only a few churches get involved at the beginning, others will join.  Our tag line is; The only thing missing is You!  Here’s our promo video.  Enjoy!  No, better yet, get involved!

I spent this past weekend in New York celebrating my mother’s 80th birthday.  (Don’t tell anybody how old she is, it’s a secret)  Manhatten is a fabulous city.  More shops, restaurants, skyscrapers and theaters than you can see anywhere in the world.  18,000 yellow taxis on an island that is only 2 miles wide and 13 miles long and teeming crowds of people in the streets literally 24 hours a day.  Times Square is one of the busiest and most exciting places that I have ever visited.  City by-laws require that at least 20% of every building MUST be covered with illuminated signs.

There is one hot spot that you won’t read about in the tourist brochures – Times Square Church.  The church was founded in 1987 by David Wilkerson.  If that name rings a bell, it should.  Wilkerson is best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade.  In 1958 he came to New York specifically to try to share the gospel with 7 youths accused of murder.  It’s an incredible story detailed in his book. If you haven’t read it you should.

God used him tremendously in those early years and eventually he founded Teen Challenge, arguably one of the most effective drug and alcohol program of all time.  Today there are 550 centers around the world.  In 1987 Times Square was not the popular tourist spot it is today.  The economy was struggling and the area was shabby and dangerous having been overrun with pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and X-rated theaters.  Wilkerson felt led by the Spirit to establish a spiritual presence in the area and founded Times Square Church. 

In 1991 he purchased the Mark Hellinger Theater for $17 million.  It is right in the heart of Times Square and is one of the biggest and most prestigious theaters on Broadway.  The arts community was appalled at the time having lost their flagship venue and has been trying to buy the theater back now that Broadway is back in vogue.  The latest offer was $50 million.  The church is not selling, they are still on a mission.

On Sunday morning I took my mother to the 10 AM service and the place was standing room only.  There was 1600 people in the theater and another 1600 in the annex next door watching it on video screens.  Although in general, the service was a little traditional for my tastes, I was wholly impressed with what they are doing.  They have 3 packed out services every single Sunday.  The worship band was as good as any other band on Broadway and the 100 person choir brought tears to my eyes as I realised that God was being praised in a city where most people worship the almighty dollar.

Unlike many places in the new world, New York was not founded by people seeking religous freedom.  It was a established as a Dutch colony by people looking to make money.  To this day you can literally feel the presence of a spirit of greed.  It is a very expensive place to visit (or live) and eventually you just become numb to how often you have to open your wallet and part with your money.  Time Square Church was the one place I felt like I wasn’t spending my money but investing it.   A great missionary once said, “Don’t give me a little cabin in the corner of glory-land, but an outpost at the gates of hell.”  I pray that  more and more churches, like Times Square Church, would see that as our mission.

My kids love the movie Avatar.  My son owns the Blu-ray version and still went to see the movie for his 3rd time at the IMAX theatre last night.  Make no mistake about it, it is unquestonably the most technologically advanced and visually stunning movie ever produced.  At a cost of $500 million it is also the most expensive. 

Canadian writer/director James Cameron brilliantly included every element necessary to produce an international box office hit.  Action, drama, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and incredible groundbreaking special effects… although there was little of what I would consider real comedy.   A bit of a downer for a guy who spends most of his TV time on the Comedy channel.  I am really looking forward to the upcoming release of Bean Atar.

Somehow, to the shock of many, Avatar did not win Best Picture at the Oscars.  Nevertheless, it is still being lauded by many as the greatest motion picture of all time.  Probably not surprisingly to most of you, I am not one of them.  I did enjoy the unique concept and the overall experience but the unoriginality of the storyline and the obvious predictability of the outcome was a bit comical.  It should have been entitled “Pocahontas Meets the Smurfs in Outer Space”.

I have little comment either way about James Cameron’s overt environmentalist message or his broad handed swipe at the insensitive racist American imperialistic capitalist pigs that he lives among in his newly adopted home in Hollywood.  The real problem I have with Avatar is Cameron’s shameless pagan religious message.  Cameron has an axe to grind with Christianity.  He personally funded the production of Simcha Jacobovici’s The Lost Tomb of Jesus.  It was a combination of terrible science and contemptible intellectual dishonestly to try to disprove the resurrection and the deity of Christ.  The holes in the logic were so big you could sail the Titanic through them.  It is not worth even talking about and almost nobody bothered to see it anyway. 

Avatar is a different story because the whole world has seen it.  $2.7 billion at the box office so far.  Make no mistake about it, Avatar is a religious movie.  Most christian critics would call it neo-pantheism… the belief that Nature and God are one in the same.  More specifically, that Nature is god.  That there is no personal or creator God but that the divine nature is found only in the Cosmos itself  and all that it contains.  Cameron calls it Eywa or The Mother…  you know… Mother Earth!  Eywa sounds oddly familiar to Yahwah, and Pandora looks strangely like what one might imagine as the Garden of Eden.  The Na’vi (naive?) have perfect super-model slender bodies and are for the most part naked and innocent.  It all seems like a remake of the story of Adam and Eve in the garden.  Oh, and the brutish Americans have been cast as the deceitful serpent.  (Personally, that’s why I think it didn’t win best picture at the Academy Awards, but it did at the Golden Globes.)  There is even an unlikely saviour in Jack Sully, the dumb but good looking paraplegic jarhead.  But that is where the biblical comparison ends.

Cameron’s religious message is actually better described as Animism than Pantheism.  Outside of organized religion Animism is the oldest and most common religious philosophy on the planet.  It is the spiritual belief that souls or spirits exist not only in humans but also in animals , plants, rocks and natural phenomena.  Most primitive pagan cultures practiced animism which almost always included some form of ancestor worship.  Hollywood has not invented a new religion but has recycled the oldest of them all.  Again and again the message in Avatar is stated that all plants and animals are interconnected.  Eywa acts to keep the ecosystem of Pandora in perfect equilibrium. Living things on Pandora connect to Eywa through a system of neuro-conductive antennae; this explains why Na’vi can mount their direhorse or ikran steeds and ride them immediately without going through the necessary steps required to domesticate such wild animals.  It is a bit like a huge biological Internet; the trees being computer servers that store information. The Na’vi can upload or download memories from it using their tails.  The Tree of Souls grants the Na’vi access to the psychic essences of their deceased, which is how the Na’vi communicate with their ancestors.

James Camerson explains it this way,  “Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected, all human beings to each other, and us to the Earth. And if you have to go four and a half light years to another, made-up planet to appreciate this miracle of the world that we have right here, well, you know what, that’s the wonder of cinema right there, that’s the magic.”  Avatar was just in the wrong category at the Oscars that’s all.  It should have won for Best 3D Religious Science Fiction Film of the year.

I think every Christian should see Avatar.  (Warning: There is some course language, but nothing you wouldn’t hear on prime time television.)  We need to see it first, just for the entertainment value, but more importantly to be aware of religious message Hollywood is selling to the masses.   We are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our friends and family.  If you know what the lie is, it is much easier to communicate to them the truth.

I must confess I have not had a lot of time for radical, tree-hugging environmentalists.  When they won’t allow you to build a hotel at the base of a ski hill like Sunshine, Alberta, it just annoys me.  The ski area has been there for 50 years.  Area wise it is a tiny dot in Banff National Park, and if there wasn’t a ski area there, no human being would ever visit that exact spot, ever!  This week, however, I found myself thinking about the environment.  It was hard not to with one of the biggest environmental disasters in human history unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.  As of this writing the BP oil spill was still leaking crude into the Gulf at a rate of 5000 barrels a day. There is no guarantee that they can stop the flow and the damage that can result should be frightening to any thoughtful person.  While this was going on I was camped out in California’s Redwood forest at a leadership summit.  You cannot stand at the bottom of a 400 year old Redwood or Sequoia and not be overwhelmed with the majesty of God’s creation.  These trees are so immense they make you feel like an insect not a person. 

When I was growing up referring to someone as being ‘green’ either meant they were an envious human being or an alien from outer space.  Today the word ‘green’ is synonymous with being environmentally friendly.  The word is grossly overused and often abused.  Manufacturers label everything as ‘green’ in a shameless attempt appeal to environmentally conscious consumer.  Often times it means little more than the packaging might be able to be recycled.  Big deal!  When GM came out with their environmentally friendly hybrid pickup truck it got 17 mpg.  The conventional V8 got 15 mpg.  Probably a net environmental loss when you consider the extra manufacturing outputs and $5,000 price premium. 

Probably the biggest scam going on today is the selling of carbon credits.  Air travelers are being guilted into paying $100’s for some opportunistic entrepreneur to plant trees for them to offset their carbon footprint.  Major industrial polluters around the world can buy carbon credits that supposedly compensate for their continuing dumping of toxins into the atmosphere.  For me the biggest joke is the emphasis on CO2 emissions in the first place.  We are so pre-occupied with Al Gore’s A Convenient Lie… that CO2 emissions from your car are causing global warming… that we have almost completely forgotten about the real problem of millions of tons of toxins and poisons that are still being dumped into our water, air and soil at an alarming rate.  Click HERE to read my blog GLOBAL WARMING AND OTHER MYTHS.

Christians have been remarkably slow at getting onside with the environmental movement.  There are two reasons, both theological.  One has to do with the misinterpretation of Gen. 1:28  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”   Many christians actually have a human-centric belief that the planet is here for our absolute pleasure.  To indulge and imbibe at whatever the cost.   We have therefore been slow to condemn the burning of the rain forests or the devastation that has been left in the wake of some (arguably not all) oil sands operations right here at home. 

The second reason is found in one the last books of the bible.  We are told the whole thing is going up is smoke one day.   But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2Peter 3:7)  Many of us have just shrugged our shoulders and said, “Well, God is going to toss the whole mess into the oven one day anyway, I might as well just enjoy myself while it lasts”.   We forget that the Genesis mandate was all about stewardship. We seem to have neglected the part where he said be fruitful.  Being fruitful requires maintaining the planet in a state where it can… well… produce fruit.  We have failed to recognize the value God Himself puts on creation.  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. (Gen 1:31) 

When God put Adam in the garden He instructed him about stewardship, again.  Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to TEND IT AND KEEP IT. (Gen 2:15)   Make no mistake about it, we have a responsibility towards God’s creation.  The big difference between us and the tree-huggers of the world is this; their humanistic worldview means their future is entirely dependent on the sustainability of the planet.  It is all they have.  As Christians our hope is in the Creator and not the creation.  It is immensely different.  Our interest in saving the planet should be born out of the utter awe and respect for the God who created it all, not a sense of our own self-preservation.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse  (Rom 1:20)  The God of the universe is revealed in His creation.  I believe that when the church gets with the program we are going to kill two birds with one stone.  Firstly, as I have already said, to honor God’s creation.  But secondly, to gain favor with the very people we are trying to reach with the gospel. Left leaning environmentalists are often the same people we contend with on issues of abortion or same sex marriage.   They often feel we have nothing in common with them and they tune us out before we have a chance to point them to Christ.  Maybe, just maybe green christians will not be seen as just aliens from outer space.

Although I am not a weekly viewer of the TV show The Office, I do find myself tuning in if I am home on a Thursday night.  The ensemble cast is brilliantly eclectic and they all have interesting quirks that makes for some very entertaining television.   But it is the boss of Dunder Mifflin, Scranton, Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell) who is almost painful to watch.  Every week he says things so embarrassing that I cover my own mouth.  “This is our receptionist Pam, if you think she is cute now you should have seen her a couple of years ago.”

He is so socially inappropriate that it is funny.  That’s the point actually.   His unique ability to sexually or racially stereo-type is a running gag.  In one episode Oscar says, “Both my parents were born in Mexico, and they moved to the United States a year before I was born, so I grew up in the United States… my parents were Mexican.” ” Wow“, says Michael, “that is a great story. That’s the American dream right there, right? Um, let me ask you, is there a term besides ‘Mexican’ that you prefer? Something less offensive?” Then when Michael attempts to assemble a basketball team, Oscar responds, “I can play, if you need any help”. Michael rebuffs him, “I will use your talents come baseball season, my friend. Or if we ever decide to box.”

The thing that makes Michael Scott so funny is that he is usually not trying to be nasty.  He is hopelessly unaware of how mean-spirited he comes across.  He is obnoxious, narrow-minded and has no social graces.  Michael actually thinks he’s a wise boss, trying to teach, motivate, and entertain his employees.  Instead, his ignorance, desire to be popular, and enthusiasm, combine to produce some outstandingly inappropriate comments!   He is a caricature,  no manager would last 5 minutes in the corporate world being so insensitive.  Michael Scott is the world’s worst boss.

The reason we laugh at him is that we all know someone who is somewhat like him.  We were once traveling abroad with a group of friends.  One of our party was trying to impress upon us the dangers of venturing out at night alone.  After explaining that there were sexual predators in the region, he said to us, and to one of our group (who might be described as a dowdy middle-age woman), ”They’ll go after anything… even you Rachel!”  Ouch!  Smooth move Bonehead.  A Michael Scott moment if there ever was one.  Pop culture has now given a name to this social inappropriateness.  It is called the Michael Scott Syndrome.  Life imitates art.

I watch The Office in awe wondering how the writers can dream up so many inappropriate remarks for only one episode.  I can only think of one or two stupid things to say on TV every week.  Michael is so incredibly obnoxious primarily because he has no sense of self-awareness.  It is all rooted in his insecurity and self-centeredness.  He has no idea how people really see him because he can only see things from his point of view or vantage point.  Although taken to the extreme on The Office, Michael Scott Syndrome is far more widespread than we might think at first blush.  Our goal in interpersonal relationships needs to be twofold; to seek to understand AND to be understood.  We are better at the later.  We want others to see our point of view so we talk incessantly, usually about our favorite subject… ourselves.  No one enjoys a one sided relationship where there is no effort to seek to understand.  Instead of listening to you, when they do give you a chance to speak, they are busy thinking about what they are going to say next.  It usually sounds something like, “Oh, that’s nothing, do you know what happened to me”! Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.  (Phil. 2:4)

In any relationship we need to spend at least as much time listening as we do talking.  If you are always doing the talking, you are not learning ANYTHING that you did not know before.  You are probably far more boring and tedious than you could possibly ever tolerate from another.   And you don’t even know it!  Michael Scott Syndrome is when it is all about ME.  Millions suffer from the disease and there may be no cure.