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.

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