Hey gang, it's Sean.
I've still got much to say about freefall, but life has been busy
and my brains can only handle the task updating my
Facebook status on occasion.
However, I'm just tweaked enough about something to push my
weary mind into some word-making action.
So, who is frustrating enough to shoulder me out of my verbal lethargy?
Wal-mart.
Now, the only way that something like Wal-mart would make it onto
thisblog would be if it somehow related to art or my faith in the
Kingdom of God as Jesus presented it. Today, it does just that.
Pop-punk band Green Day has just released their new album
"21st Century Breakdown" and the retail leviathan Wal-mart
has refused to carry the album because Green Day has not
provided them with an edited edition of the new album.
I'm sure by now that it's public knowledge that Wal-mart only
carries edited versions of albums which contain profanity or
other themes that the Wal-mart-Powers-That-Be find offensive. I will be
the first to say that within our economic system Wal-mart has the right
to carry or refuse any product that it so chooses.
I'm not here to debate politics or
civil liberties.
So, what's my contention?
If there were an icon for American Christianity, other than
the sprawling "Mega-Church", I'm sure that Wal-mart would be in
the running. Although officially Wal-mart is not a "Christian" company,
when former Wal-Mart executive Don Soderquist claims,
"The basis of our decisions was thevalues of Scripture",
separating the two might be a difficult
task in the minds of most people.
Consider what the perception would be if the basis of their
decisions was the values of The Koran or the Buddhavacana.
Could you see anyone being able to differentiate
between that andthem being a
Muslim or Buddhist company?
I can't.
When there is an icon that is so ubiquitous, no matter how iniquitous,
it becomes the default representation in the minds of nearly everyone.
So, simply put if in the collective subconscious Wal-mart represents
Christianityand then, Christians (Christ-like or "little Christ) are to
represent Jesus, it wouldreason that Wal-mart = Jesus, right?
So, why am I upset with a Jesus who doesn't want 13 year-olds to
be able to buy an album with the dreaded f-word in it?
I'm not.
Not really.
I'm angry with a representation of Jesus that is wholesale hypocritical
and, perhaps, thoughtless.
Herein lies the hypocrisy:
You cannot buy a CD with profanity at Wal-mart but
you can buy The Platinum Edition of the movie "Scarface" which
contains that ol' dreaded f-word - or derivatives thereof - 226 times.
(Not to mention that it's about selling cocaine and its
violence is off the charts.)
You can also buy the "Scarface" Gamer Graffix Skin for your
teen's PSP which has Pacino and
"his little friend" drawn and ready to kill.
Cute.
You cannot buy an unedited CD with adult themes,
but you can buy a copy of the film "8mm 2" where a politician
is being blackmailed with a sex video of him and two other women.
The politician and his wife go into the pornographic underground of
Budapest to retrieve the video.All sorts of naughtiness ensues.
And there's bad words. too.
You can get the R rated version at your local Wal-mart
or the unrated version online at Wal-mart(dot)com.
And since they've dropped "bad words" from the music they sell,
you could always purchase it from them in these movies:
Here's a rundown on the biggee: The F-word.
"Dogma" 106 times.
"Knocked Up" 113 times.
(Not quite moral fare. And it shows a vagina...Hmmm)
"The Boondock Saints" 239 times
"Running Scared" 315 times.
"Pride and Glory" 291 times.
"Casino" 398 times.
And if that's not enough for you, there's always
"Nil By Mouth" 428 times.
All available at Walmart or its online outlet.
I'll be honest with you, I'm mostly ambilvalent about "bad words".
I don't think they exist. I could agree with George Carlin and say
There are "no bad words. Bad thoughts. Bad intentions."
or I could quote my aunt, who was a quiet, godly woman,
if ever one existed, who said "There' no word other than 'shit'
when an egg hits the floor."
Words in, words out. I don't generally care.
I don't need cussing to make my rock and roll cool.
I don't need a censor to keep me safe or holy.
What I need is the representation of my God to be one that actually
represents Him. Not so much because I need it, but,
because there are people I love who don't know how beautiful He is or
exactly how wonderful His Kingdom is (and is going to be).
I want to knock down every possible obstacle
to them getting in tight with Him.
Wal-mart, you are inadvertently an obstacle. I wish you'd go away.
Liquidate your inventory to the poor
(many of whom are already in your employ).
Take your smiley face stickers and everyday low prices
and just turn to dust.
And if you're not going to do that
or make sense in your selling practices
then I'm just going to post this and say:
Brothers and sisters, shop there if you want,
but don't be fooled into thinking that they represent Truth.
They don't.
And to the artists. Speak the truth.
Even if its the truth about an egg that splattered your kitchen tile.
Lies and subterfuge do not advance the Kingdom of God.
Nor does God take pleasure in them.
I'm glad that Green day didn't change
just to please a retailer.
I have a feeling that he is more interested in honest sinners
than in hypocritical Christians.
Good day, my faithful readers.
I've still got much to say about freefall, but life has been busy
and my brains can only handle the task updating my
Facebook status on occasion.
However, I'm just tweaked enough about something to push my
weary mind into some word-making action.
So, who is frustrating enough to shoulder me out of my verbal lethargy?
Wal-mart.
Now, the only way that something like Wal-mart would make it onto
thisblog would be if it somehow related to art or my faith in the
Kingdom of God as Jesus presented it. Today, it does just that.
Pop-punk band Green Day has just released their new album
"21st Century Breakdown" and the retail leviathan Wal-mart
has refused to carry the album because Green Day has not
provided them with an edited edition of the new album.
I'm sure by now that it's public knowledge that Wal-mart only
carries edited versions of albums which contain profanity or
other themes that the Wal-mart-Powers-That-Be find offensive. I will be
the first to say that within our economic system Wal-mart has the right
to carry or refuse any product that it so chooses.
I'm not here to debate politics or
civil liberties.
So, what's my contention?
If there were an icon for American Christianity, other than
the sprawling "Mega-Church", I'm sure that Wal-mart would be in
the running. Although officially Wal-mart is not a "Christian" company,
when former Wal-Mart executive Don Soderquist claims,
"The basis of our decisions was thevalues of Scripture",
separating the two might be a difficult
task in the minds of most people.
Consider what the perception would be if the basis of their
decisions was the values of The Koran or the Buddhavacana.
Could you see anyone being able to differentiate
between that andthem being a
Muslim or Buddhist company?
I can't.
When there is an icon that is so ubiquitous, no matter how iniquitous,
it becomes the default representation in the minds of nearly everyone.
So, simply put if in the collective subconscious Wal-mart represents
Christianityand then, Christians (Christ-like or "little Christ) are to
represent Jesus, it wouldreason that Wal-mart = Jesus, right?
So, why am I upset with a Jesus who doesn't want 13 year-olds to
be able to buy an album with the dreaded f-word in it?
I'm not.
Not really.
I'm angry with a representation of Jesus that is wholesale hypocritical
and, perhaps, thoughtless.
Herein lies the hypocrisy:
You cannot buy a CD with profanity at Wal-mart but
you can buy The Platinum Edition of the movie "Scarface" which
contains that ol' dreaded f-word - or derivatives thereof - 226 times.
(Not to mention that it's about selling cocaine and its
violence is off the charts.)
You can also buy the "Scarface" Gamer Graffix Skin for your
teen's PSP which has Pacino and
"his little friend" drawn and ready to kill.
Cute.
You cannot buy an unedited CD with adult themes,
but you can buy a copy of the film "8mm 2" where a politician
is being blackmailed with a sex video of him and two other women.
The politician and his wife go into the pornographic underground of
Budapest to retrieve the video.All sorts of naughtiness ensues.
And there's bad words. too.
You can get the R rated version at your local Wal-mart
or the unrated version online at Wal-mart(dot)com.
And since they've dropped "bad words" from the music they sell,
you could always purchase it from them in these movies:
Here's a rundown on the biggee: The F-word.
"Dogma" 106 times.
"Knocked Up" 113 times.
(Not quite moral fare. And it shows a vagina...Hmmm)
"The Boondock Saints" 239 times
"Running Scared" 315 times.
"Pride and Glory" 291 times.
"Casino" 398 times.
And if that's not enough for you, there's always
"Nil By Mouth" 428 times.
All available at Walmart or its online outlet.
I'll be honest with you, I'm mostly ambilvalent about "bad words".
I don't think they exist. I could agree with George Carlin and say
There are "no bad words. Bad thoughts. Bad intentions."
or I could quote my aunt, who was a quiet, godly woman,
if ever one existed, who said "There' no word other than 'shit'
when an egg hits the floor."
Words in, words out. I don't generally care.
I don't need cussing to make my rock and roll cool.
I don't need a censor to keep me safe or holy.
What I need is the representation of my God to be one that actually
represents Him. Not so much because I need it, but,
because there are people I love who don't know how beautiful He is or
exactly how wonderful His Kingdom is (and is going to be).
I want to knock down every possible obstacle
to them getting in tight with Him.
Wal-mart, you are inadvertently an obstacle. I wish you'd go away.
Liquidate your inventory to the poor
(many of whom are already in your employ).
Take your smiley face stickers and everyday low prices
and just turn to dust.
And if you're not going to do that
or make sense in your selling practices
then I'm just going to post this and say:
Brothers and sisters, shop there if you want,
but don't be fooled into thinking that they represent Truth.
They don't.
And to the artists. Speak the truth.
Even if its the truth about an egg that splattered your kitchen tile.
Lies and subterfuge do not advance the Kingdom of God.
Nor does God take pleasure in them.
I'm glad that Green day didn't change
just to please a retailer.
I have a feeling that he is more interested in honest sinners
than in hypocritical Christians.
Good day, my faithful readers.
Posts
3 comments:
Albeit, it's often easier to have a single music artist record clean tracks than dozens of actors in a movie. And perhaps Walmart has more weight on the struggling music industry than on the booming movie industry.
I'll toss out one other consideration. The fact that those "clean" edits probably already exist recorded and mastered. You see, there is what is called a "radio edit". These songs are usually cleaned up for the airwaves. As such, it's not that much work for the studios to simply swap our the album versions with radio versions and press.
The movie industry really doesn't have such perogative to pre-record such cleaner versions. So it'd entail far more work, more than even Walmart is probably able to leverage.
I just say this, so as not to be too hasty to judge to quickly. Because frankly, if we eliminated conducting business with those that have some fault. We'd fast find ourselve unemployed and out on the streets. But I think as Christians, we're supposed to do what we can. In this case, I think Walmart might simply be doing what they can, but not wasting energy on what they can't.
;-)
I get what you're saying but have you ever watch a movie on broadcast television and seen:
This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen and edited for content"?
Wouldn't that be the TV equivalent of a radio edit? If it's going to be done that one time, why not just go ahead and print out a few million for Wal-mart? I know that's a over-simplification, but my point is that movie edits do exist.
But I'm not saying that you should stop shopping there, in fact I said "shop there if you want, but don't be fooled into thinking that they represent Truth."
I'm just suggesting that we make sure that the Kingdom of God keeps it's distinct otherness by not buying into the idea that certain places (businesses or countries) are somehow "Christian".
Wishing that I was feeling better, but unable to step away from this without offering up something (will be back when head clears-in other words)
The Saj - One would be led to question why the booming film industry wouldn't want to be on top of this - Wal-Mart aside, as it would provide them an entirely new market segment ( I knew that degree would come in handy for something)
Sean- I have to say that it does bother me to pay for a CD that doesn't have the correct song lyrics, and hence don't generally buy at Wal-mart unless it's for Conner as I don't want to watch my 11 year old wandering the house, earbuds intact, screaming some of the unedited versions of the music he likes :). Making a statement however that aligns them with or infers that they represent Christ has the same impact for me as the recently seen dinner plates with Thomas Kincaid prints on them, or wait better yet the bubbly snow globe looking things at the doller store (T.K. also)that i ran across yesterday
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