Celebrity Deaths

Although fame and fortune sometimes seems like it is the source of happiness, tragedies like Marie Osmond's proves us wrong. On February 26 of 2010 her son Michael committed suicide by jumping out of his apartment building in downtown Los Angeles. Michael was only 18 years old. In Hollywood it seems to be a repeated event that top celebrities are not happy with their lives and eventually it leads to their suicide or misconducted death. For example, Alexander McQueen also recently committed suicide just earlier this month. So many people want to be in their shoes and have all of their fame and fortune, however events like this shows that those are only materialistic things that can't make them genuinely happy. It makes me sad to think that these people with every opportunity in their reach never find true happiness. But it should be an example to everyone to of course enjoy luxuries of life, but never forget what is truly important and always carry those things close to your heart.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b169305_marie_osmond_history_of_heartache.html 

Evangelical Merchandising

After reading chapter 13 from Understanding Evangelical Media, I was a bit confused. The chapter was called Merchandising Jesus Products. They talked about evangelical merchandise and all the different products out there and if and how it evangelizes to non-believers. It was almost like the book was making fun of the products.

            The book talked about some different products that were Christian products.  They talked about different toys, stuffed animals and video games. The funny thing I thought was that they are all secular knock offs. Evangelicals made build-a-bear knock offs and American Girl Doll knock offs. Both of those items are huge, very popular products however, when Christians try to make it an evangelical product it almost comes off as a joke. In our class presentation Bre and Emilee also talked about Wash Away Your Sins Bubble Bath. I thought this was so random and I do not really understand how an item like that can reach out to people and help get them be saved.

            As the book went on talking about the different products I started thinking about the people that actually buy these items. All these products are marketed towards people that are already Christians that do not necessarily need to hear about Christ because they already believe in Him. On mardel.com, which is a Christian bookstore website, they said, “Mardel is a company dedicated to renewing minds and transforming lives”. But whom are they marketing and selling their products to? A person that does not believe in Christ I do not think would decide to buy Wash Away My Sins Bubble Bath or decide to make Prayer Circle Friends stuffed animals opposed to Build-A-Bear animals. They are advertising themselves to people who already believe in Christianity, so in a way I do not see how these products are used as evangelizing tools.

            After thinking about the people who buy these items I thought if these items really make a difference. I honestly do not see how they do. However, maybe they do work for some people. I think if an item is meant to reach out to other people that do not believe in God then products should be made and marketed towards those people. These products also, I think, come off as a joke. All these evangelical items are imitations that are not made well. If we are meant to stand out as Christians and be different from everyone else, our products and ideas should be just as different and unique. I think that the secular world can easily make a joke out of these imitations and not take these products or even Christians seriously because of our lack of uniqueness.

            Although I think Christians have a good intention for these products, I do not think the message really gets across. Maybe if the ideas were unique and it was marketed toward non-believers, evangelical merchandising can truly be effective. But until then I do not think that they have made a giant impact.

Wholeness

After going to the Torrey Conference I felt that it taught me how a relationship between and man and a women should really be. One conference that I really enjoyed and that stood out to me was called "Dateology" taught by Dave White. This conference was all about how a healthy relationship should be between a man and a woman. It talked about how God should be the center of our relationships and how to keep that as our main focus. The one thing he talked about that stood out to me the most was when he shared the importance of being a whole individual.

I thought Dave did such an amazing job explaining to students the importance of being whole in a relationship. Especially with society these days saying that in a relationship people complete each other and become whole when they come together when that is not how a healthy relationship should be. I read an article about relationships on this website called SHCS and the article was called “Someday My Prince Will Come”. In the article it says, “Distinguishing the difference between fantasy partners and relationships and reality seems to becoming increasingly difficult”. I found this to be so true. Media gives us this false perception of how relationships should be today. It tells us that prince charming is waiting to sweep us off our feet; we just have to seek and find him, when in fact that is not the case. This quote reminded me of something that Dave also touched up on. He said that we should not go look for a relationship in desperation; it should be from a place of wholeness.

             I think these days many relationships are sought out in desperation. People think that if they find that special someone it will make them complete and Dave made it very clear that that is not the case. I found this website called, “How to Find a Husband or Wife”, and it gives seven steps to finding a mate. When I found this website it really disturbed me. It gave the most ridiculous advice. One thing that it says that did not settle well with me was, “Go where men and women are! Women, go to baseball games where you will find a high concentration of men”. I thought this advice was horrible. It is telling women to go out and seek a man when it should be allowed to happen on its own and not sought after in desperation.

I thought everything Dave White talked about was so meaningful. He showed everyone listening the importance of being whole individuals that are strong in God and content in ourselves before we get into a relationship with someone else. Everything that Dave talked about, I think, really showed what a Godly and fulfilling relationship should be like and that was something that society does not show us today and I personally, greatly appreciated Dave’s honest and Godly input of what a relationship should be.

 

 

No Return Home

After reading the article Storm Evacuees Frustrated as Return Is Blocked, in "The New York Times”, I can completely understand why many residents are left feeling helpless and upset. Due to hurricane Gustav in New Orleans many were forced to evacuate and are now left with no money, no food, and no place to sleep. The evacuation started off with great success by getting all residents out before Gustav hit. New Orleans was also very lucky in terms that the hurricane left minimum damage. Many anticipated Hurricane Gustav to be another huge disaster. “The mother of all storms,” is what Mr. Nagin, the city’s mayor, called the hurricane. However, although New Orleans escaped what they thought would be another Hurricane Katrina, many residents are left without a place to stay.  Now that the storm has passed residents began returning to their homes to find roadblocks, this left people stranded in parking lots while running out of food and money. City officials claimed that they were not allowed to go back to their homes because the power was still down and there was a lack of medical care. Although the medical care is understandable to the resident’s safety, why is it taking so long for the city to pull themselves together after the storm? Some residents claimed that they do not think the city thought about what needed to be done after the storm was over. Many residents were very excited to be able to go home and start putting everything back together again and were crushed to learn that they cannot. Quiet a few residents did not seem to care that the power was out. Merlene Demourelle, a resident in New Orleans, claimed, “We’re tired, we’re hungry, we’re out of money, and we want to take a bath. Sleeping in darkness-we’re used to that in New Orleans. Our lights always go off.” A resident named Kim also stated, “We might not have lights, but we can light candles. We have canned goods. We don’t have anything out here. We’re dead broke.” Now many are left thinking why didn’t the city officials think about post storm procedures. They did such a great job getting everyone out, why didn’t they do a great job bringing residents back home? The city claims that they have over a thousand workers cleaning up debris, if things are getting done so quickly then why weren’t residents allowed back in? I really think that although the city of New Orleans did such an amazing job getting everyone out to safety before the storm hit they need to come together and make a plan of how to get their residents back in their city and homes as quickly as possible. It seems really unfair to these people that that they have to sleep in their cars and on the streets with none of their needs met when the storms is over and it is now safe to return home but cannot due to their cities lack of planning.