Like a Thief in the Night

When I was a boy in church, sometimes the sermons our pastor preached didn’t seem relevant to me. So during the service, I would often open the Bible to Revelation because the dragons and the blood hail and the curses seemed much more exciting. Out of a similar motivation, several years ago I picked up the first Left Behind book by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins and read about 70 pages. And from what I can tell, the newest movie adaptation of the story starring Nicolas Cage is born out of the same twofold purpose: to entertain us and to scare us all – into becoming Christians.

For those of us familiar with the Left Behind story, it doesn’t seem like much has changed. When the rapture happens, pilot Rayford Steele (played by the one and only Nicolas Cage) is flying his plane, while daughter Chloe Steele (played by Cassi Thomson) is in the mall with her brother. In a flash of white, half the plane’s passengers and several mall shoppers disappear, leaving behind only clothes and personal items. Within minutes, there’s fighting, looting, people getting trampled in doorways, cars bursting through walls, airplanes crashing into parking lots, and everybody panicking and screaming and freaking out. And on the one hand, from my red velvet chair in the theater, it seemed a little bit unrealistic that things would so quickly turn to mass looting, violence, and rioting – but then on the other hand, it’s also pretty difficult to imagine how people really would react in a rapture-type situation.

Church members generally aren’t drawn to Christian movies by the promise of good acting – we are drawn because we want to see biblical truth translated up onto the silver screen. But if our creative impulses, at their very root, come from being made in the image of our God, the Creator, then we should understand better than anyone the value of the balance between beauty and truth. God himself embodies that balance. And even if this new Left Behind isn’t exactly bringing us the same kind of cheesy, made-for-Christians-only type of movie production, so many of the characters still seem to act so unnaturally, and much, if not most, of the dialogue still feels contrived. 

Some people might want to call the film “good for a Christian movie,” but I say that it’s terrible that we ever even use that phrase at all. It shouldn’t be the case that "Christian" movies are held to a lower standard than “secular” movies. As beings made in our Creator’s image who also have the ability to create good things, God’s very being calls us to a much higher standard than that. We Christians should be setting the standard in every area of art, beauty, and truth if we want to truly reflect God's image to the world.

Regarding the plot’s central idea: I don’t even know how common it is to believe in the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture. Growing up in Arkansas in the Bible Belt, that was one of the main ways people in church thought about the end times. But I guess over the past few years, the books I’ve read and the people I’ve heard speak have encouraged me to think less about leaving earth at the end to go to Heaven and more about bringing Heaven to the earth in the here and now. This is not to say that I’m great or even good at doing that. But I’ve also heard it said that the answer is usually found somewhere between two extremes. So as a church, have we become too obsessed with thinking about our future? Or is it possible also that some of us have become way too focused on the present?

Evan is a 2014-2015 team member with a degree from the University of Arkansas in English Literature.

A Team Member Says Goodbye

Team Member Interns travel around the country as part of a team of four—two guys and two girls. Teams speak at schools, churches, and conferences about worldviews, pop-culture, discipleship, technology, and so much more. 

If you're interested or know someone who would be interested in being a traveling Team Member Intern for the 2014-2015 school year, please go to apply.axis.org for more details. Deadline to apply is May 15, 2014! We currently have spots available for 2 guys and 5 girls.

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I had the amazing opportunity of working for Axis for a year and a half. Looking back, I am amazed at how God was able to use me. He broke me and stretched me in so many incredible ways. 

Starting out, I had no idea what I was in for, and even after all this time at Axis, when I try to describe what I got to do, I can never do it justice. After my first trip, I had many people asking me how it was, what I thought, and if I liked it so far. Though it was a great first trip, I recall summing it up in three words: “It. Was. Hard.”

The biggest thing I have learned through my time at Axis is that God is able to use every situation. He is able to use me when I feel insecure and not good enough. There were times on the road when I felt so empty and drained, but God showed up, no matter where I was and no matter what I had done. I fail so often, but He has continued to show His grace and power every single day.

When I started, I was scared to simply start a conversation with high schoolers (they are intimidating!). But God started out strong with challenging me. He showed me a lot of doubts and insecurities I had not realized I was struggling with. Speaking to large groups has a way of doing that to you. And every time I presented, I felt like God was teaching me more through the presentation. When you start to talk about the same stuff over and over and ask students to ask themselves deep questions about their lives, it’s hard not to ask yourself the same questions. 

I have learned a lot about what the family of Christ looks like through my Internship with Axis. Yes, I have my biological family and my close friends, but traveling around the country has shown me how big my family really is. With every school, church, and host home we went to, my family got bigger and bigger. Now I have family all over the country—family that laughed, talked, and prayed with us and impacted us in more ways than they know. 

Every team I have been a part of has taught me something different and valuable. I learned about leadership and respect from my team directors. I learned about love and community from my fellow team members. I learned from the people that work at Axis what a servant heart looks like and was humbled by it many times. 

Don’t get me wrong—there are definitely differences and frustrations while traveling simply because of the nature of relationships, but what I learned from being in these relationships with others is love. It sounds so simple. Christ talks about loving others so much throughout the gospels, and He considers it the greatest commandment. Love. That is how we should be different—by how we love. 

Love is a decision, not just a feeling. In Scripture, Jesus calls us to love not just our neighbors but also our enemies. It is easy to love people who love you back, but I have learned that it is difficult to love when someone is hard to love or when he/she doesn’t love you back. When there are students who do not care or when I am frustrated with a team member, I still need to love, especially when it’s difficult.

Overall, Axis was more than just a job for me. When I look back on my time with Axis, I see faces:

Faces of the team members who were strangers initially but who turned into family and taught me so many things. 

Faces of host families who were so gracious to open their homes to us. 

Faces of administrators and teachers who were so encouraging and who work so hard to love their students amidst spiritual warfare. 

Faces of parents who want, so badly, to relate to and understand their kids because they love them.

And faces of students who have touched my life. Students who have had the courage to tell me their life stories that break my heart. Students I can pray for and have had conversations with and can see God’s amazing work in their lives. 

That is what Axis is about. And it is the hardest, most rewarding part of the Internship. 

—Kaitlin

Famous Words in Webcomic Form: "Zen Pencils" Gives New Voice to Powerful Ideas

Image credit: Gavin Aun Thang & Zen Pencils

Somewhere between Calvin and Hobbes, Mohandas Gandhi, and Steve Jobs, there's an Internet gem called Zen Pencils.  And it's changing lives.

At its most basic level, Zen Pencils is a webcomic, part of a genre of art and story-telling born from the unique technological and self-publishing opportunities of the Internet. (Examples range from XKCD, an innovative and sardonic comic told entirely with stick figures, to Sheldon, a three-panel strip about a naïve and rich child genius and his talking duck.)

But Zen Pencils is unique in its genre. Each beautifully crafted strip is created from a quotation by some of history’s and literature's greatest figures, including Nelson Mandela, C.S. Lewis, and Carl Sagan. The footnotes to these comics are well-researched and insightful – a great reason to read the comic in its own right.

Zen Pencils is the result of creator Gavin Aung Than's decision to make a living as a freelance artist, instead of through a graphic design job. The project went from virtually unknown to signing a book deal in a little less than three years. The entrepreneurial bent is obvious in comics like “Make Gifts for People” and “What If Money Was No Object?” The comic also seems to favor the work of famous anti-theists like Richard Dawkins and Caitlin Moran.

Most importantly, Zen Pencils is having life-changing impacts on its readers.  The accompanying blog is full of stories of readers who decided to take a leap and do something they never had the courage to do before, like take an overseas trip or start a business. Clearly these are powerful words.

Ultimately, Zen Pencils asks a new generation to wrestle with the dangerously powerful ideas that continue to shape the world, in a creative way all its own. With that idea, Axis couldn't agree more. We’re all for something that encourages an apathetic and distracted generation to leave its apathy behind and begin thinking, even when it’s hard. And it's an added bonus when that thinking leads to action and changed lives.

The best thing any parent can do throughout the journey is be there . . . to ask tough questions, to guide them, to offer wisdom, to listen to their questions and doubts, to love them, and to help them become thoughtful adults who know why they believe what they believe.

Lucas Zellers is a regular contributor to the Axis blog and a former intern.

Another Middle-East Crisis: What to Do When It's Hard to Care Anymore

This week I met with a friend – let's call her Liz – who asked me to pray for the political crisis in Ukraine. With Russian phrases peppering her language, she told me about her visit to the region last year, when she fell in love with that harsh corner of the world and the brave, stubborn people who call it home. She told me how it broke her heart that protestors burned in the streets while President Obama and the international community postured and made threats, with all of us moving closer to a war that everyone fears and no one seems able to stop.

If I can be frank about this, it felt like wading through molasses. My generation came of age when the World Trade Centers fell in 2001, and since then we've had Bin Laden, Hussein, Kony, Katrina, Somalia and Sudan, and now Crimea.

The molasses at work here isn't new. Medical professionals know it as secondary traumatic stress disorder (STSD), and it's a real problem for care professionals who deal with physical and emotional trauma on a full-time basis. Psychologists call it compassion fatigue, and it can be a serious detriment to charities and missionaries trying to pay for making a difference. 

We lay folk call it being just plain tired. And I'm sorry to say that everyone deals with this.  Everyone with a TV, a radio, or an Internet connection is constantly inundated with images and stories that display the tragedy of an entire world's brokenness. (I recently subscribed to the Twitter accounts of three major news networks – then reduced that number to one after they completely obliterated my homepage.) Most of it tugs at our heartstrings by design. But there comes a point where caring is no longer possible.  

And that's where I found myself on the issue of Crimea—struggling to fulfill the words of Galatians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in doing good.”

What I've learned since is that God's compassion begins where ours ends.

“My strength is made perfect in your weakness,” God said to Paul. If you're finding it hard to love, to give to charity, or even to just plain care anymore, spend time taking in God's acts of love and grace toward you. Experience His power to care beyond what you would have on your own. I'm not saying it's a cure for psychological problems, but it is helpful to me as a husband, a Christian, and a citizen of the world.

Liz inspired me that day by reminding me that the world is bigger than me.  And I need Someone bigger than me to deal with it.

Lucas Zellers is a regular Axis contributor and former intern.

Guest Post: Dr. Bill Brown on Bill Maher's "Hey God, you're a [expletive]!"

Recently, Dr. Bill Brown and his wife joined Axis' Board of Directors. We are excited to have them join our team as we seek to bridge generational gaps and translate culture.

Dr. Brown has served as the president of two Christian universities, is a prolific writer, and currently speaks around the country about how Christians should engage the culture with the heart and mind of Christ. To learn more about Dr. Brown, please click here or go to his blog, Radical Life.

We are excited to share with you his most recent blog post about Bill Maher's controversial and heated review of the new movie, Noah, which hits theaters March 28. We hope you enjoy his perspective!

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Last Friday, comedian Bill Maher told his audience that God was a “psychotic mass murderer.” He was discussing the soon-to-be-released Hollywood version of the biblical story of Noah, and he had harsh words for the Lord.

“Hey God, you’re a [expletive]!”

Maher was in rare form: “But the thing that’s really disturbing about Noah isn’t that it's silly; it’s that it’s immoral. It’s about a psychotic mass-murderer who gets away with it, and his name is God. . .What kind of tyrant punishes everyone just to get back at the few he’s mad at? I mean, besides Chris Christie.”

And he wasn’t finished: “Hey God, you know you’re kind of a [expletive] when you’re in a movie with Russell Crowe, and you’re the one with anger issues. […] Conservatives are always going on about how Americans are losing their values and their morality. Well, maybe it’s because you worship a guy who drowns babies.”

Bill Maher is considered smart and funny and unafraid to dialogue with those who disagree with him. On his weekly HBO talk show, “Real Time,” he allows his guests to explain and defend their views – although Christians and conservatives are usually few and outnumbered and the heated debates end in a Maher tirade and dismissive humor.

What makes his statements worth response is not merely that he has a large following among the skeptical/atheist/cynical crowd (which he does), but that, tucked away in the inner recesses of his observations, are frequently genuine substantive questions. . . .

To continue reading his post, click here.

Sin Should Never Be Entertainment...And Other Nagging Ideas That Are Inconveniently True

As I watched the premiere of the new ABC TV show, Mixology, last week, I had an oh-my-word-I’m-turning-into-my-mom! moment. Why? Because I’m pretty sure this is what I looked like the entire 30 minutes:

[Luckily, my mom’s never had that haircut, so I’d have that going for me.]

If you’ve ever watched The Big Bang Theory on CBS and thought it was full of inappropriate humor…HA! It’s got nothing on Mixology. But it’s my own fault. After all, the entire premise of the show is a bunch of people at a night club trying to find someone to hook up with. What did I expect?!

As you can imagine, the jokes are crude and the circumstances far too contrived. Sure, there were some funny lines, but the longer the show went on, the bigger my grimace became. I’ll attribute that to a little thing called the Holy Spirit.

Yes, in this instance the Spirit of Truth was nudging me, reminding me that the ideas in the show grieve God [which is why I felt like my mom—she's always been extremely obedient to the Holy Spirit. As much as my 16-year-old self would be shocked, I'd be glad if I were even remotely like my mom!]. And as His follower, I should seek to love what He loves and hate what He hates, not love—or be entertained by—what He hates. 

But sometimes it’s hard to do that. We live in a culture that is all about being entertained and amused, with no thought of how what’s entertaining us could be affecting us or others...or grieving our Father. One reviewer of the show—one of the few who were not outraged by the misogyny, sexism, and crude humor—said, “Not every show on TV these days needs to be more than just pure entertainment.” And actually, I agree. God created humor. Humor and laughter are gifts from Him to us. So it’s not wrong to enjoy something that makes us laugh.

But she continued on by asking, “Why can’t we all just enjoy a comedy at face value? Do we, as an audience, need to re-learn how to laugh at a simple joke?” Based on the recent proliferation of memes, sitcoms, and funny YouTube videos, I’d say that our culture knows better than most how to appreciate humor and a good laugh. So that’s not the problem.

The problem is that, at face value, all this comedy offers us is the opportunity to be amused by things that go against the very nature of our loving God. After all God’s done for us, I should think that that would be the last thing we want to do. And, inconveniently, the things that go against God's nature are also the things that bring dysfunction, discord, and ultimately death.

Sin should never be entertainment. Ever. Sin breaks God’s heart, not because He's no fun, but because He knows what brings flourishing, harmony, and life. So if we’re becoming more like Him, sin should break our hearts, too.

However, with Mixology, the red flags are obvious and easy to heed. But I can think of many, many instances where I knew I shouldn’t be entertained by something but still laughed—or watched every episode of every season. Maybe I need a remote control that zaps me when I ignore that little nagging voice in the back of my head…

Melanie is the Associate Director of Research for Axis.

More than a Monster Movie: Godzilla Reboot Asks Tough Questions about Nature and Science

Godzilla is back and better than ever in a new reboot due out in May.

For someone who spent his childhood engrossed by Toho's classic Godzilla films (to six-year-old eyes, the rubber suit is completely believable as a kaiju-butt-kicking boss), this will possibly be the biggest movie of 2014. Pun intended. (Watch the trailer here.)

Director Gareth Edwards' take on Godzilla portrays the 350-foot-tall, radioactive lizard as less of a monster-battling hero and more of an apocalyptic disaster, in a new twist designed to be more realistic and emotional. That realism is anchored by performances from a star-studded cast that includes Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe.

Yes, Godzilla can be realistic. In fact, I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that this movie touches on one of the most fundamental questions of mankind's existence.

I can see the doubt in your eyes, so hear me out. Most religions in the world can be divided into one of two categories: spiritualism or naturalism. The difference is in whether they consider the spiritual or physical worlds to be more important; in other words, what is man's relationship to nature? And that's precisely the question the newest Godzilla flick explores.

The Godzilla franchise has its roots in the nuclear atrocities of World War II and a long history of tangling with the morality of nature and progress. “Is a giant monster ever going to come out of the ocean, flatten a city, and leave lots of radiation behind? No,” Edwards said in a recent interview with Wales Online. “But have cities ever been destroyed and radiation traces left everywhere? Yes.”

Edwards went on to explain the connection the franchise has to the Hiroshima bombing: “At the time, Japan wasn’t able to make movies about how they suffered through events like that,” he said. “Yet they could make a giant monster movie which touched on all those things – it was like therapy for them, I guess.”

“The arrogance of man is thinking that nature is in our control and not the other way around,” Ken Watanabe's character warns in the newest trailer.  

So before you dismiss this as a next-gen, high-budget, rubber-suit monster flick, take a minute to consider how it can introduce fundamental questions of religion and the purpose of science into discussions in your home. Take every thought captive—even thoughts of Godzilla—and let art's ability to ask good questions lead you and your family deeper into life.

***Image courtesty of http://www.godzilla-movies.com/media/godzilla2014-poster4-high-resolution.jpeg

Lucas Zellers is a regular Axis contributor and former intern.

3 Worthwhile YouTube Subscriptions

My YouTube “watch history” is embarrassing. It's my favorite social medium, an endless supply of entertainment and information – and I spend way too much time on it. I mean, there are so many movie trailers I have to watch, and someone's doing a "Let's Play" of Bioshock!

For many, YouTube is synonymous with wasting time; some of the top videos trending now are Ellen DeGeneres pranking Bruno Mars and Nicki Minaj's latest music video. But Youtube's cultural impact is almost immeasurable. It's the digital community of our generation, and as such its potential to be misused is only matched by its potential to benefit.

Our world is very good, but cursed. Technology like the Internet was developed as a part of the human mandate to have dominion over the earth. Youtube specifically was created to facilitate community and creativity. So it doesn't have to be a waste of time, and the difference is in how you use it.  With that in mind, here are my top three worthwhile accounts to follow on YouTube.

3.  BigThink

If you're looking for four-minute introductions to the current trends in fields ranging from philosophy to science to economics, BigThink is a great place to start. The videos don't come from a Christian perspective, so don't expect this content to be theologically uplifting. Rather, the benefit of this channel is that is provides an honest introduction to the arguments Christians can expect from a secular perspective.

Where it comes from:  The YouTube channel is the video arm of a consulting firm by the same name.  BigThink bills itself experts and delivers it in an easily manageable format to individuals and companies.

What to watch first: Michio Kaku, a prominent theoretical physicist and speaker, lays out a scientific theory with massive spiritual implications in “The Universe in a Nutshell.”

2.  Soul Pancake

Poured from a “brain batter of art, culture, science, philosophy, spirituality, and humor, SoulPancake is a light and fluffy breakfast of life's big questions.” One of the channel's most remarkable achievements was introducing the world to Zach Sobiech, a 17-year-old songwriter diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer called osteosarcoma. Zach succumbed to the disease in May of 2013, only months after his diagnosis, but his song “Clouds” became an Internet sensation. SoulPancake was created to start conversations about things that matter, and it does a very good job.

Where it comes from:  The channel was founded by actor Rainn Wilson, who is perhaps best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on NBC's “The Office,” following his release of a book by the same title. "I believe in God. Some don't. Every person has some kind of spiritual life, even if they think they don't," Wilson told USA Today in 2010. "There's no agenda with SoulPancake." 

What to watch first: President Obama explains to his nine-year-old counterpart, Kid President, how to change the world.   

1.  Smarter Every Day

Think Bill Nye on a budget. There is a close-knit and prolific community of YouTube users dedicated to making science interesting through the web video medium, and Smarter Every Day is a fan favorite.  Destin's unique charm and minimalistic filming style showcase endlessly fascinating physics questions answered with often explosive methods. Every video ends with a Bible reference displayed briefly on the screen, above an icon of Reepicheep, the adventurous talking mouse from C.S. Lewis' Narnia stories.   It's these subtle reminders of faith working with science that put Smarter Every Day in the top spot.

Where it comes from: Destin is a rocket scientist and family man from Huntsville, Alabama, who began the channel as a way to save money to send his kid to college.

What to watch first: AK-47 Underwater: Exploring the physics of bullets with a swimming pool and a high-speed camera.

What are your favorite YouTube Channels to follow? Let us know in the comments.

Lucas Zellers is a regular Axis contributor and former intern.

What to Do With the Ham-Nye Debate

By now, you might be tempted to pick sides and conclude in favor of one or the other. But there's something I'd like you to know about the recent debate between Bill Nye “the Science Guy” and Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum.

Nobody won. Though the debate was well conducted, civil, highly instructive, and illustrative of the struggle for Christian thought in the scientific community, nobody won.

From the beginning, this debate was not set up to declare a winner. I've experienced enough academic or parliamentary debate to know that it has a specific, complex structure and set of rules, which allow it to conclude the truth or falsehood of a given statement (i.e. have a resolution). A skilled judge could follow the arguments presented and refuted by both sides and “flow” the sum total of those arguments to either the affirmative or negative side, without any prior knowledge or bias toward the topic of debate (a concept known as tabula rasa, Latin for “blank slate”).

This debate lacked the specific structure that makes academic debate work: the topic of debate was a question, not a statement that could be declared true or false; a specific set of arguments was not presented and discussed throughout; and the speeches given were not ordered or timed so as to maximize give-and-take on those arguments.

This debate was not mud in the eye for evolutionists or a trouncing for creationists—it was never supposed to be. It was more intellectual theater than academic debate—which is probably just as well, because I've also experienced enough academic debate to know that it can be insufferably boring.  

That being the case, I'd like to present a more effective way to react to this debate: treat it as a snapshot of the tension between the scientific and Christian communities, as well as an itemized list of the most important arguments being discussed, and use it as a primer for a comprehensive self-education in this intersection of science and philosophy.

Bill's face and Ken's hands --
also very consistent throughout the debate

Rhetoricians spend a lot of time looking at what students do repeatedly, as a way of helping them realize their shortcomings and improve their technique. The process holds true here: the fundamental issues of this debate are the ones to which the speakers constantly returned. Nye constantly referred to “science as practiced on the outside,” “conventional scientists,” and “the mainstream,” while Ham referred to a perceived exclusion of creationists from the scientific community and portrayed evolution as a religion of naturalism that leads to moral relativism. Nye stressed that the creation model has “no predictive quality” and therefore no relevance to the method of science; Ham repeated that the mechanism of evolution does not introduce new information or function and therefore cannot explain the origin of man. 

Perhaps most importantly, Nye's philosophy treats the acquisition of scientific knowledge as the highest goal a man can pursue—meaning “I don't know” is a perfectly acceptable answer—while Ham's philosophy treats the Biblical account as the final and perfect answer, making scientific exploration a function of worship and divine revelation.

It's apparent from this reading that both men have a definite worldview that answers to their own satisfaction the same fundamental questions of philosophy. The war between these worldviews is being fought in battles like radiometric dating methods, geological layers and the fossil record,  Lake Missoula, the improbability of the Ark, speciation and genetic “kinds,” the Australian land bridge, the expansion of the universe, and plate tectonics. Wherever you fall on the spectrum of origins beliefs, let this debate serve as a reminder that worldviews and debates should be based on evidence. If you wish to reduce the tension between faith and science, then take some time to study these topics and follow the evidence—all of it—where it leads.

The Nye-Ham debate was fascinating and influential because it pitted the man of faith and the man of science against each other. However, reconciling them should be the aim of every scientific apologetic. They are not at odds, as this debate seemed to suggest; instead, they should be one and the same.

You can watch the Nye-Ham debate at www.debatelive.org for a few more weeks. For further reading, consult the following articles:

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/bill-nye-ken-ham-debate-creationism/

http://www.kevinbywater.com/bill-nye-vs-ken-ham-quick-thoughts/

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2014/02/the_ham-nye_deb081911.html

Lucas Zellers is a writer and speech coach working in south-eastern Ohio. He competed successfully at the national level in college forensics for two years and has earned a Bachelor's degree in comprehensive communication from Cedarville University.

The Selfie and Self-Image: Redefining Beauty on Your Facebook

This may not come as a surprise to anyone with an Instagram, but “selfie” is now the 2013 Word of the Year, according to Oxford Dictionaries. The word beat out runners-up “twerk” and “binge-watch” for the top spot. While “selfie” was added to the dictionary in June of 2012, in the last year its usage skyrocketed by17,000%. Celebrity selfies have become annoyingly commonplace. 2013 even gave us the first papal selfie, a controversial presidential selfie at Nelson Mandela's funeral, a selfie from space, and even the first interplanetary selfie (from the Mars rover Opportunity, which is surprisingly photogenic for being a decade old).

What makes a selfie unique from other forms of self-portaiture, and there are many, is two important features. First, it doesn't work if you don't post it. The selfie is inextricably linked to social media.  Second, they're always posed.  Especially with the advent of the front-facing camera, the line between subject and artist becomes blurred. This pose, pic, post formula have led many to say that the selfie is the product of a self-absorbed, narcissistic culture. But in the wake of the Oxford Dictionary's announcement, NBC News called the selfie “an empowering act where you control your own image.”

So maybe the selfie has a more . . . photogenic side. Recently, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty explored the idea that the selfie could be used as a tool to help build self-esteem for girls growing up in a world of photoshopped models and cyberbullies. They enlisted the help of photographer Michael Crook and award-winning director Cynthia Wade to produce “Selfie,” a brief documentary that's been making waves in social media since its release last week. It follows female high school students in Great Barrington, Massachusetts through a photography workshop where they and their moms learn to take selfies together. Watch the short version below.

“You have the power to change and redefine what beauty is,” Cook tells students in the videos. “The power is in your hands, because now, more than ever, it's right at our fingertips. We can take selfies,”  she said. She encouraged participants to focus their pictures on things that they didn't like about themselves. The results were showcased at a formal photography exhibition where viewers could compliment the photos with post-it notes.

The documentary premiered to great success at this year's Sundance Film Festival and subsequent viral status across social media platforms. The documentary is a redemptive work where technology and social media, for once, are the good guys. There's a lot to be said about the subject of self-esteem, and though it may not be a perfect solution, re-purposing the selfie is a step in the right direction.

What do you think? Can selfies redefine beauty? Let us know what you think in the comments. For more pop culture and technology analysis, follow us on Twitter at @axishq and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/axishq