benedson

The redemption of the Superdome?

I've just seen the lunchtime news and the New Orleans super-dome has re-opened after hurricane Katrina. On one level i think great: this symbol of despair has been transformed into a symbol of hope. But as i was watching the news footage of U2 playing and hearing the report mention the prices that people had paid to be there my heart sank. All the people in the news footage were white and presumably had enough disposable income to be able to afford a ticket to this one-off prestigious event.

The party should have been for all the people who spent those long days holed up in the super-dome when nobody else wanted to be there...It seems that opening the super-dome just papers of the cracks of a fragmented city.

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Technorati Tags: Current affairs, Superdome

Mind Body Spirit Fair

We're back at the Manchester Mind Body Spirit fair again in about four weeks time. The stand will be called dekhomai and will therefore be linked with the London fair. There is also a Sanctus1 service that evening, so i hope to make some connection between the people attending MBS and Sanctus1.

The stand offers prayer for healing and we also use the Jesus deck to share the story of Christ with people.

Not a fashion statement

This is the front cover of the (red) independent today, the guest designer is Giorgio Armani. I has a brief chat with Laura about it over lunch and I don't think I'm happy with it! There is millions being pumped into London Fashion Week at the moment and the image of Kate Moss kinda highlights the inequality is the world...It's one juxtaposition too far.

OMG laura's just blogged about this!!

Technorati Tags: Current affairs, Kate Moss

Bonfire of the Brands

I saw this on the news yesterday and here is the blog - It's about a man who destroys all his branded products. Fascinating; on the news they had the video footage and as the products were being both burnt or smashed up with a sledge hammer a few people came along and nicked the products before they were destroyed.

The rise of the brand over the past fifty years has highlighted how selective consumption has become a process of identity construction, Naomi Klein said that successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products. Disney, Nike, Apple, Swatch and numerous other brands have all become means of constructing identity rather than the product. Anita Roddick says that her stores aren’t about what they sell, they are the conveyers of a grand idea – a political philosophy about women, the environment and the ethical business.

Our ways of consuming create social bonds and distinctions; this is the role of the brand. Social groups seek to classify and order their social circumstances and use cultural goods as a means of demarcation, as communicators which establish boundaries between some people and build bridges with others’. Even companies such as Howies and Innocent, which aim to be the antithesis of multi-national companies, are part of this process as they define themselves against the brand. Brand construction and personal identity becomes focused on the anti-brand.

Technorati Tags: Current affairs, emerging church

Howies Sale in Manchester!!

Gen Y research

I was on a panel at Greenbelt about new spirituality and mission. A question was asked about a piece of research called Generation Y that looks at the world view of 15-25 year olds. Well, I wasn't too complementary about the research, but i have to confess that at the time I hadn't read it fully, so I thought that I'd read it and make a more informed response.

I think that is an interesting piece of research but have a number of problems with their methodology and also with the conclusions that Graham Cray draws from it. This piece of research has two elements to it, the first element is to interview 124 young people aged between 15-25 year olds to find out their world view. The second element of the research is to take a group of young people away, they then watch some films, show them images and watch soaps with them and from this draw out the key threads of their world view. This second element of the research is interesting and has some valuable insights within it, but it needs a lot more work before it can be considered a serious piece of research.

My methodological problem is that the research sample is too small and unrepresentative of 15-24 year. 124 is too small a sample to make it a piece of research that has long term value we need it to be about 1000 people. Also, 40% of these people are Christian and therefore the research is unrepresentative. The number of 15-25 currently going to church is less than 10% and therefore the number of people researched who are Christian should be no more than 13. Unfortunately this trebling of the christian representation will have massive implications on the results of the research. Thirdly, the research is conducted in universities, youth clubs and colleges again i would argue that the people who attend these three places do not represent the breadth of the 15-25 year olds in the UK.

The researchers verified their findings by talking to two Dj's on the 'cutting edge of youth culture' - I'm sorry but this is not academic verification of results! They also visited a night club in order to gain a 'taste of young peoples clubbing experience'. Unfortunately, by visiting a club you do not 'gain a taste of young peoples clubbing experience'...you need to be part of the music, the scene, the culture...

My problems with Graham Cray's conclusions is that they polarise. Cray uses the Heelas and Woodhead's research into Kendal, 'The Spirituality Revolution' and says 'If the new age niche is below 3 per cent actively participating each week, we do not yet have a spirituality revolution!' Cray's tone and style suggests that Heelas and Woodhead are claiming that we are in the midst of spirituality revolution when they actually state:

'To summarize our findings concerning the situation in GB today around 4,600,000 are active in the congregational domain and around 900,000 in the holistic milieu. This means that the claim that there has been a spiritual revolution has been exaggerated.'

They do not claim that a spirituality revolution is going on but rather a number of mini-revolutions at a variety of different points and that in 40-50 years we may have seen a revolution...but not yet! Cray is not representing what the authors are saying. It seems to me that Cray has sparked a debate and taken the discussion about the research in a direction that is unhelpful.

Technorati Tags: youth

Approaches to consumerism

There seem to be three different approached to the role of religion in a consumer culture, it is either be reduced, relocated or redefined; all three have huge implications for the emerging church.

Consumerism can reduce church to a consumer choice or it becomes something that you fill your leisure time with, it is relocated. Essential church is privatized, one of the key characteristics of the secularization theory.

However, i much prefer a Durkheimian perspective which leads one to see the sacred in many layers of consumer culture and postmodern life. ‘If, as Durkheim insisted, anything can become sacred, then this could include commodities. Although they are seen by some as mere utilities, they have a symbolic charge that bestows meaning beyond use or price. Mike Featherstone’s view was that more consuming does not necessarily mean less sacred, the sacred is able to sustain itself outside of organised religion within consumer culture. Consumerism is redefined and we can find the sacred within it.

I have some reservations about this approach but also like the redemptive nature of it. There can be a danger that we become puritanical about consumerism and detach ourselves for it when I think that the attitude and the culture need to be redeemed and then redefined.

I just need to check the items I'm selling on ebay now...

Technorati Tags: culture, emerging church, Justice