two + one sale {links of interest}

Here are a few things which grabbed my attention this evening.

Who Would Jesus Smack Down? written by Molly Worthen for the NewYorkTimes.

Ms. Worthen gives an interesting view into the world of Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll. I haven’t read much about the Seattle based pastor, but the one word I know to describe him is “contraversial”. Some know him as the ‘cussing pastor’ others demonize him for his neo-calvinistic views.

However you want to think about him—I will keep a position of non-judgment since, I’m not a part of his community and don’t really know him besides the sound bites and articles—he is definitely an interesting character for his unique blend of old hard-line reformation theology and hip hard edge contemporary style.

Gaza Debate Goes Virtual posted on Slashdot.

I didn’t really look into the details of this story, but the abstract which you can find at the above link is very interesting. Among other things “- ‘mapping the war in Gaza’ – was launched by Al Jazeera and takes user-submitted reports, tweets, and Microsoft Virtual Earth to track the number of casualties and other developments.” Also there was some kind of demonstration on Second Life, as well as all kinds of twitter & facebook debates.

Jesus Is Not a Brand written by Tyler Wigg-Stevenson for ChristianityToday.

This is the “plus one” since I actually didn’t read it this evening. I read the print issue of Christianity Today whenever I go up to the library. I really don’t like navigating their website, but the magazine usually has at least one article of interest to me. I happened to read the current print issue before it showed up on the web, so I’ve had to wait to post a link. I was really excited about the cover story, it deals exactly with what I’ve been thinking through for the past few months.

What place does marketing have within the church? Is Jesus another product or the church a service to be bought or consumed? These are some of the questions that the article discusses.

The topic that he discusses is a dilemma that is unavoidable for every Christian community in the U.S. I recommend this to everyone who cares at all about Jesus. I say that tongue-n-cheek, but also with absolute seriousness. This is a huge problem, it hits at some of the roots of the idoltry of our nation which have found there way into the church. As a related read, there is the story of Jesus clearing the merchants from the temple (Mark 11).