The cross before me the world behind

I was born and raised in a devout Christian family. Not the type of family that is unrealistically conservative in their Bible thumping, but to parents that are global Christian leaders. They are educators: teaching at seminaries all over the globe, equipping future Christian leaders. They are pastors, preaching the gospel in every church and fellowship that they meet. They are missionaries, they supervise and create large missions in the third world that educate, clothe and feed orphans who otherwise would not know the love of Christ. They are mentors who lead forums, advise pastors, mediate seminars and present workshops on issues that our faith comes in contact with.

It amazes me that wherever we are, whatever the culture, context or zip code, we are always approached with the "Dr. Arles, I have read your book and….," or "Dr. Arles, please speak at our forum on the church's response to the 4-14 window."

For the past week, I have been my Dad's driver. We have been invited to the offices of various presidents and pastors from all realms of ministry, missions, seminaries and churches throughout Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

I'm currently sitting in the library of dad’s alma mater, Asbury Theological Seminary, in Wilmore Kentucky. Chapel today was inspirational. The worship was powerful and echoed through the halls of Estis Chapel. The message on the call to global missions by their new president, Dr. Timothy Tennent (who of course, knows my Dad), was thought-provoking. Then there was the lunch forum that featured a panel of President Tennent, Terry C. Muck - a former editor of Christianity Today, a scholar who is an expert on Sufism, and Dr. Arles. They tackled a plethora of questions on the topic of Christianity and Islam and the increasing concerns of Islam's growth in America.

It’s encouraging to hear outcry’s from these learned Christian communities about how perhaps we focus too much on going outside our borders to baptize the third world. Perhaps we are neglecting our own blatant struggles in our local Christian families. Perhaps we are ignoring the terrible division in our communities. Perhaps we have taken this beautiful Eastern-born religion, westernized it out of our own capabilities, and are now struggling to find our real identity. It’s clear for everyone to see that institutionalized religion has a horrible knack of corruption, exploitation, hatred and hurt. For centuries, our communities have struggled with it.

I don’t know what the purpose of this post is. My mind has just been buzzing with all these issues and my own thoughts and perspective on the church and its role.

By no means is my life a reflection of my parent’s piety. By no means am I to judge, or is anyone other than Yahweh to judge. I do not want to enter a seminary, and I constantly struggle with living up to Jesus’ standards. But I do have an opportunity to sift through my thoughts and express my feelings.

One thing I do believe in, is unity. One thing I love to witness, is unity in diversity. The beauty of my religion is that it is personalized. To my faith, it is a phenomenon in itself that Jesus is a unique being and different to a six-year old country boy on a Texas ranch, as he is to a 68 year old Nepalese lesbian.

But yet, despite that unique concept of Christianity, we have so much division. So much contradiction in our subjective perspectives on the Bible’s teachings seem to corrupt our faith. This was a concept that I have heard over and over. The repetitive call for a united front is old news.

Here in the Bible belt, this division is obvious. It’s common to stop at an intersection which has a church on each corner, each hailing from different denominations. The sad reality is that each church is struggling with numbers and with raising the funds to sustain it and yet the thought of unifying into one large church is deemed impossible.

Is that not madness? As you can tell, I struggle with this.

More Than Words

“Whatever words we utter, should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” Buddha knew exactly what he was talking about. I think PR and Journalism folk, and most people with common sense, can relate to the enlightened one’s words.

But others, like Chris Brown, need to pay close attention.

As we all know, Brown is in a huge predicament. What he did was horrible and it will take a long time for him to gain the forgiveness and support of his fans. He is working on rebuilding his image and with making public appearances, apologizing on various media outlets and doing his community service (picking up trash), it seems like he’s taking the right steps.

Well, all untill he decided to pick a fight with Oprah. Yes, the billionaire-business-mogul-Oprah. It’s as if Rihanna was not a worthy enough target for Brown, so he decides to climb up a few rungs of the Forbes ladder and choose Oprah. Why would anyone want to anger the world’s (arguably) most influencial woman?

After the Chris Brown debacle, Oprah devoted an episode to domestic violence and condemened Brown’s actions, clearly supporting Rihanna. Brown was upset with Oprah. He expected her to be more supportive considering he appeared on her show and even put on a concert for her school in Africa. When asked about what he thought about the show, he said, “It was a slap in my face.”

Really? Were those the best words Brown could come up with? Did he even think about how appropriate they were? “A slap in my face?” Wow, now those were choice words!

People, including celebrities, have all the right to express their emotions. But why not take the time to filter and polish those words to accurately reflect what you feel? Why not take extra caution when your words are spoken from a public platform and think about how your words fit the context?

This is a simple PR exercise: find the best words to paint the picture. Websters, Shift+F7, Dictionary.com, in today's day and age, there are no excuses. I don't know what Brown's publicists were thinking, and I'm sure this will become a case-study of 'why your celebrity/CEO/spokesperson/brand endorser needs to be prepped before public appearances.'

But, it’s a lesson that we all can learn from. Choose your words wisely. Actions do speak louder than words, but sometimes, words can be pretty loud as well.

Yeah, We lost a lot of good men out there..

Doesn’t change suck? I couldn’t come up with anything more profound. I really didn’t want to. Considering that I feel like a teenager when I think about change, I find this rudimentary question appropriate.

Moving house, graduating high school and college are great experiences. But to me, they were more bittersweet than joyous. All the memories, all the friends and all the mundane experiences that are often taken for granted are suddenly extinguished. It’s as if, like all the candles on a cake, they are abruptly blown out. Except this time, you’re not an overzealous birthday boy/girl waiting to tear open presents, you’re an adult ready to familiarize yourself with a new environment.

I had the pleasure of attending a wedding this past weekend and in the process, reconnected with a number of people from college. One of my old roommates from the Beaver, (a house on our college campus) AKA the house of legends, and his wife stayed with us for the weekend. It’s amazing how I hadn’t seen or talked to some of our old friends in years, and yet, as soon as we were face to face, every memory and significant incident returned with ease.

Isn’t it crazy how a few months of the nine-to-five, business-clad routine changes a person? We had all changed. I hadn’t seen a number of these people in years. But it felt great to be able to have no small-talk, have no awkward silences, but to just jump into conversation as if we had just played a round of pong last weekend at the Trophy House. (Another Anderson hot spot).

It felt natural. Amidst all the change: rings on fingers, ironed shirts, titles next to our names, new hobbies, expensive cocktails instead of cheap beer in hand, it felt natural. Laughter and good times are never forgotten.

So now, after an extended weekend of story-telling and re-enactments, it’s back to the grind. Everyone has soberly and somberly headed home. It’s back to the office, back to the grind, back to the professional life. But at the next reception, or the next homecoming or Super Bowl party, re-living freshman year comes natural. It’s as if a few of the candles were re-lit and don't have to be blown out for a while.

So what did I take back from it? (This is a question I have learned to love) It’s as simple as this: Change is inevitable, so learn to adapt quickly. But along the way, never take anything for granted and make the most out of everything. Get to know everybody, even the little shifty kid in the back of Intro to Psych, the one that smelled bad and was addicted to Pokemon. Because you will see him again.

And finally, learn to love wedding season, take notes from Jeremy Grey and John Beckwith. After having seven to attend this summer, I have to admit, it’s my favorite time of the year.

"Hey! I'm the new face of Public Relations!"

A very public workout routine with Reggie Bush, drama-filled episodes of Keeping up with the Kardashians and a disappointing run on Dancing with the Stars. Those could be chapter titles of Kim Kardashian’s life.

But turn the page, and here’s a new and equally disastrous story. Kim is creating and executive-producing her new reality TV show that is supposed to “show the ins and outs of the Public Relations world.” The show will star her two friends: Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck who work for Command Public Relations.

I took a look at the Command Public Relations website. It’s a joke. I also looked up the twitter page of “PR guru,” or “PR powerhouse,” Jonathan Cheban. His posts are full of repetitive exclamation marks “!!!!’s,” “OMG’s”and “LOL’s.” One of his recent posts read: “Don’t be a bore. Be a WHORE!!” (He chose to capitalize it, I just copied it verbatim).

This is just what our industry needs. PR has already been tainted by the nonsensical world of PR that MTV’s PoweR Girls tried to “reflect.” BBC TV then chimed in with Absolutely Famous adding to a ridiculous image of PR. And today, most people think that our most popular PR guru is Samantha Jones!

Kardashian will provide the public with just another means to raise an eyebrow at the thought of Public Relations.

No, a PR professional does not have the glamorous role of rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. You don’t sleep your way through your client list to seal the deal. It’s not just event planning or crisis consultation for celebrities. If it were, then Dennis Rodman would get my vote to be the next president of PRSA (our professional association).

Sadly, and thanks to Kim Kardashian, most people will continue to think otherwise.

Herpes, Gonorrhea, Schism, HIV-AIDS... Wait a minute... Schism?

The term ‘schism’ has been plastered all over SportsCenter today. I find it quite amusing that it’s such a powerful term and yet most of the involved athletes, when asked about the term, didn’t know what it meant. Jared Allen, an animal on the gridiron, thought a schism was an STD; he thought that absurd because he said “we preach abstinence around these parts.”

The term carries a lot of burdened Christian connotations such as the Roman Catholic schism between the Eastern and Western orthodox beliefs. Common synonyms would be: split, discord, rift and gulf.

More commonly, and in this context, it would signify a division. Such as the division that Brett Favre’s emergence in the Viking’s locker-room has ruptured. Or the tremors of disaster in the city of brotherly love and the overall hype that Michael Vick’s return has created.

That is a schism.

But should these be schisms? I’m sure that once Favre starts winning games, there will be calm waters up in the land of 10,000 lakes. He can’t expect to make friends if he carries on retiring and returning every pre-season. But as he stated “I’m not here to make friends.” Besides, those friendships will soon directly correlate with his W’s in a Viking jersey.

Vick’s predicament is a completely different issue that I’m not going to get into. But I fully believe in second chances. It’s harsh when authorities choose to pick out a guinea pig. So I’m glad that Vick gets a chance to return to his profession and I hope that we can all remember that football is his job. He’s just another man. I don’t know what to think about the Vick-McNabb relationship though. It could either be a great run or just another disastrous duo in Philly.

So that’s the schism Mr. Allen. No, it is not an STD. It’s a little disagreement that your Vikings need to sort out. (I’m glad that I can safely say this to you from a few hundred miles away, from behind my laptop.)

Music and Memories

So I was in Southern Indiana last weekend, driving to a small town in the middle of no where. I love road trips for two main reasons: The scenery and landscape of the surroundings, as well as the tunes/sing-a-long sessions with everyone in the car. In fact, I’m known to make a CD for every specific road trip. It’s something I love and miss doing. (My Sony Vaio is on its death-bed and currently not able to burn CDs anymore. I’m on the verge of replacing her with my first ever Mac. I know, it’s about time!)

But back to our road trip. Southern Indiana really can’t boast of much, but it does provide some picturesque scenery intersected by long, fairly lonesome highways that I’m slowly getting acquainted to.

On this trip, we went through the usual repertoire: Dave Matthews, a few mixes that had John Mayer and Third Eye Blind on them. But then, someone put in Weezer’s Blue album which suddenly whisked me out of Southern Hoosier-dom and into a completely different world. It was a stroll down memory lane.

Rocking out to the Sweater song, Buddy Holly and Say It Ain’t So, with the windows down on a beautiful evening, surrounded by cornfields was just great. But what struck me as even more profound was how this album mustered up memories that I hadn’t even thought about for the past few years.

More than just the Blue album, I feel like any song I listen to can relate to a specific memory. Whether it was my first basketball tournament or the first girl I dated or even my first holiday. I’m sure I could relate a song to any memory I’ve ever had.

Science states that the olfactory sense triggers a strong recollection of memories and that perhaps smell is the largest contributor to the memory process. I do agree with this connection.

But I’m also amazed at music’s ability to rekindle memories. Music is an art. Listen to Beethoven’s fifth or Vertical Horizon’s “You’re a God” and I’m sure you will be stimulated to paint your own imagery and create a fantasy world that is a uniquely subjective phenomena. Bono’s Sunday Bloody Sunday lyrics would probably spark feelings of the Save Tibet campaigns to an Asian, while it could merely bring back the younger drinking days at the local pub to an Irishman. See? Same lyrics, same tune, but completely different perspectives.

What do you think? Is there a song that you could relate to a specific memory? Let me know.

Reaching back to the roots: Tranquility amidst confusion

So I’m back in Bangalore, India. It’s hot, crowded, polluted and yet surprisingly calming. I still love it. There’s something very mystic about the country, something that obviously reached out to various rockers and celebrities through the years like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Kevin Garnett etc. Something here seems to nurture the discovery of inner thoughts, of karma, of nirvana. The country seems to evoke a sense of meaning to life.

I can’t seem to figure out what makes this dirty, smelly country so fascinating. Is it the prevalent religious history that it has? Driving around and seeing all these massive mosques, intricately designed Hindu temples and old Anglo-Indian churches is like leafing through a coffee table book of historical marvels. All these religions, all these cultural differences and yet these simplistic people manage to live right next door to each other and make it work. We’re in a world full of division and seclusion, yet meeting some of my parent’s tenants who are devout Hindus defied these barriers. My parents own a home that they lease out, their tenants welcomed us into their homes and provided coffee and snacks to us, a bunch of foreigners that are obviously Christian. What a humbling experience. It seems like they don’t care about religious differences here, they don’t care about cultural backgrounds or socio-economic status, people here just care about friendship and relationships.

Or perhaps it’s the perfect balance of life in this chaotic country that reaches out to people. All the extremes: the rich and the poor, the traditional and the modern, the conservative and the Westernized traveller. It’s like watching the opening scene of the Lion King and seeing all these different animals from the circle of life celebrate together when they should be feasting off each other’s flesh.

I can’t comprehend how everyone gets along. It’s mind blowing. I mean can you imagine a John-Deer-clad farmer from Iowa living next door to a Puerto Rican illegal immigrant on one side and a Harlem-raised baller on the right? Not just that, can you imagine them grilling out together and baby-sitting each other’s kids on a daily basis?

Yeah not a realisitc picture huh? But it happens here in the Indian sub-continent.

I saw this sign yesterday that was really inspiring. Gandhi’s influence on mankind is still prevalent with simple slogans like this. I have a lot of thoughts on this quote and I’m sure everyone who reads it will feel inspired. Yet, it’s hard to follow.

I feel like i’m back home. My mind is constantly sifting through thoughts, emotions, memories and concerns, the traffic is insane and the poor are everywhere. But the food is great, everyone is still profoundly happy, and we met a Michael-Jackson tribute cover band who invited us to watch them at a few local bars. What a crazy country. God bless it.