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The Meaning Crisis; This Is Us

April 22, 2022 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid”? We attempt to give an answer in this new episode of the Your Sunday Drive podcast by looking at a popular Atlantic article with that title from cultural commentator Jonathan Haidt. Points of discussion include social media, its influence and some possible ways to curtail its negative effects.

Sure… social media is a problem and has amplified our fragmentation, like languages at the Tower of Babel, but isn’t there a deeper issue? Yes – what’s currently being discussed as “The Meaning Crisis” by a growing number of voices, such as Jordan Peterson, Bret Weinstein, Jonathan Vervaeke, Paul Vander Klay, Johnathan Pageau, Tim DeRoche and others. We look at this current moment, try to unpack some of its causes and history, and ultimately contextualize it with the Christian faith.

Popular (and excellent) show This Is Us reaches its final few episodes and Nate has thoughts. What does our current pop culture have to say about things like love and marriage? How should a Christian respond when non-Christian ideas about such topics are presented and even celebrated in our pop culture?

Come along for Your Sunday Drive – quick conversation about current events, politics, pop culture and more, from the perspective of a couple of guys trying to follow Jesus.

Hosts: Matt Hill and Nate Polzin. Presented by the Church in Drive of Saginaw, MI, as often as possible. Please visit churchindrive.com and facebook.com/thechurchindrive

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: atlantic, Christian, church, culture, haidt, history, meaning crisis, pageau, peterson, Podcast, politics, pop culture, Social Media, television, this is us, vander klay, vervaeke, weinstein

Lincoln’s Dilemma – Evolving toward freedom

February 16, 2022 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

Abraham Lincoln – The Great Emancipator. Well, yes and no. In Lincoln’s Dilemma, showing on Apple TV+, we see a much more complicated picture of Lincoln’s presidency, especially as it relates to the abolition of slavery. The series, directed by Jacqueline Olive and Barak Goodman, is done in a style popularized by Ken Burns, in which historians share their insights as we see pictures of that historical era.

The four hour-long episodes outline the evolution of Lincoln’s choices in regard to slavery. His goal during the election was clearly to preserve the Union, and he clearly stated that if that required slavery continuing, that such was acceptable to him. We learn that while there were some who wanted slavery completely abolished, there were many, even in the north, who were perfectly happy for it to continue. The Civil War does not begin in attempt to end the practice. Emancipation came about in large part as a military weapon. This too evolved with time through the war years, until Lincoln eventually pushed for the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. (He knew it had to pass Congress before the war ended and southern states would return.)

This is something of a demythologizing of Lincoln. That is very evident when the film looks at the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, and the controversy that grew around it in 2020. Lincoln is seen as a giant of American history—and for good reason. This series also, though, shows a more nuanced man. He was very much a politician who knew how to work the system. He was slow to come around to the idea of Emancipation—in part because there would be a political price to be paid.

Part of the series revolves around the reluctance of Lincoln to move toward emancipation, and the rhetoric of Fredrick Douglas to push for it. The two men met only three times, but the interplay of their ideas is clear in the series. Lincoln was slow to embrace the idea of emancipation, thinking the restoration of the Union was paramount. Douglas was a constant voice demanding that it be part of the nation’s plan.

There is little of Lincoln’s personal life included in the film (with the exception of the death of his son Willie). That means we see little of the development of his moral and theological ideas. Lincoln’s religion is a subject of great debate and conjecture. He never joined a church. Yet he was very comfortable with biblical and religious language. It’s hard to understand Lincoln and his motivation without trying to delve into those waters (murky though they are).

The series is more than just a look at a historical figure. It is designed to help us think better about the racial issues that still confront us as a nation. As one of the historians notes: “What we are seeing today is really dramatic evidence of when you fail to talk honestly about your history.” The racial tensions that continue today are very clearly connected to what happened during Lincoln’s time and the aftermath of the Civil War. To better understand today, this series asks us to look back at our history for a more complete understanding so we can move on to what will hopefully be a better future.

All four episodes will be available on Apple TV+ on February 18.

Filed Under: AppleTV+, Reviews Tagged With: Civil War, history, slavery

The Meaning of Hitler – Does History Mean Anything?

August 12, 2021 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

Hitler. A name that for much of the world connotes absolute evil. But that name is burnt into history in such a way that we continue to struggle with the legacy that left millions dead. Petra Epperline and Michael Tucker bring us The Meaning of Hitler, a film framed by the 1987 book by Sebastian Haffner. The film is not so much an attempt to discover the meaning of Hitler in history as it is trying to understand why that worldview, something we see as so evil, continues in many ways in today’s world.

The filmmakers began the project during the time of the UK voting on Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, and rising nationalist and anti-immigrant movements in many places. There was a very clear shift going on in the world that reached something of an apex at Charlottesville, and the rally of the extreme right that featured Nazis prominently. Since that time comparisons to fascism and Nazis have flown in accusations (going towards both the right and the left). Trump was often compared to Hitler. Was that a fair comparison?

The film begins with an interview with writer Martin Amis, who talks about the similarities (and the dissimilarities) of the two. It follows Hitler’s life and career through comments by a series of historians (including both the Hitler apologist David Irving and Deborah Lipstadt, whom Irving sued for libel [cf. the film Denial]) who shed light on the history and the present from different perspectives.

Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s THE MEANING OF HITLER. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.

The film looks at Holocaust denial, the return of anti-Semitism in various forms, and the ways history is being rewritten so that the very concept of truth is being questioned. The film even questions whether a film such as itself can really find the truth amidst so much conflicting opinions and the rhetoric that fills everything around Hitler and his legacy.

Until a few years ago, I might have thought that the world had moved past that ugly period in our history. But like the filmmakers, I too have been shocked, deeply saddened, and at times angered by the growing sentiments (that I especially notice in my own country) that parallel the kind of authoritarian nationalism that was such a key part of Nazism. And while the filmmakers point out, Trump is not Hitler, they also point out the many ways Trump has used very similar techniques.

The fact that we do makes those comparisons, justly or not, between Hitler and modern situations (that are not limited to the US), is the reason that this film is needed. It allows us a chance to question the rhetoric of both sides. More important, it allows us to see ourselves in an evolving historical moment that may well lead either away or closer to the kinds of abuses of the past. If we associate Hitler with absolute evil, will these comparisons change the way we see that evolving world?

The Meaning of Hitler is in select theaters and available on VOD.

Photos courtesy of IFC Films.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews, VOD Tagged With: documentary, history, Holocaust, Holocaust denial, nazi germany, Neo-Nazi, World War II

What’s the Deal With 2020? Hamilton, Cancel Culture & Legacy

July 23, 2020 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

your sunday drive podcast

2020 is nuts. Pandemic. Polarization. Social upheaval. The election. We try to put our arms around where the year is and where it might head next, seeking how we might respond from a Christian perspective.

Everyone is talking Hamilton (again). We discuss this cultural juggernaut in terms of its artistic value, how it relates to our current climate, what it says about legacy, and more.

Come along for Your Sunday Drive – quick conversation about current events, politics, pop culture and more, from the perspective of a couple of guys trying to follow Jesus.

Hosts: Matt Hill and Nate Polzin. Presented by the Church in Drive of Saginaw, MI, as often as possible. Please visit churchindrive.com and facebook.com/thechurchindrive

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: 2020, cancel culture, christian podcast, church in drive, Hamilton, history, Legacy, Lin Manuel Miranda, Pandemic, politics, religion, washington

Viceroy’s House: History on the Personal Scale

September 1, 2017 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

In 1947 hundreds of years of British rule over India came to an end with the creation of two countries: India and Pakistan, and the largest mass population migration in history. Viceroy’s House is a kind of Upstairs/Downstairs view of that history. Director Gurinder Chadha, who was born in Kenya and grew up in London, says that she grew up “in the shadow of Partition”. Her grandparents were part of that mass migration. Although the events have been covered before, she has found a new way to bring this story to the screen that allows us to not only see the history, but the personal stories of those involved.

The story begins with the arrival of Lord Louis Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville) who has been tasked with being the “last Viceroy”—to oversee that granting of independence to India. The “upstairs” part of the story involves Mountbatten, his wife Edwina (Gillian Anderson), daughter Pamela (Lily Travers), and the political situation involving the negotiations with the Indian leaders, Mohandas Gandhi (Neeraj Kabi), Jawaharlal Nehru (Tanveer Ghani), and Muhammed Ali Jinnah (Denzil Smith). While Mountbatten has often been saddled with blame for Partition, this film shows him and his family to be good people in a hard situation—and that he may have been set up to take the blame.

While all of this is taking place, there is also the world of the various Indian staff at the Viceroy’s House (the seat of the colonial government). We get into that “downstairs” world through a love story involving Jeet Kumar (Manish Dayal), a new personal valet to Lord Mountbatten, and Aalia Noor (Huma Qureshi), the translator for Mountbatten’s daughter. Jeet and Aalia are from the same town, but because he is Hindu and she is Muslim, their romance has never been approved.

The interaction of these two perspectives to the historic events unfolding makes this a much more human story than a historical story. Although we see the disruptive and violent effect of Partition that displaced millions of people (and killed perhaps a million), we are emotionally drawn to the personal stories of Jeet and Aalia, and to a lesser extent of the Mountbatten family. It is the personal anguish that the decision to divide the nation—and in effect the lovers—that becomes the metaphor for the broader turmoil of Partition.

One of the interesting parts of this historical event is that for hundreds of years Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims all lived side by side—and were united in their opposition to the British Raj. But when independence became a possibility, the alliance seemed to break apart. (According to the film, this was secretly encouraged by the British government.) Neighbors whose families had coexisted for generations now had to choose their allegiance.

Although set in a history of seventy years ago, the film mirrors issues that continue to vex the world. We allow divisions between people to be the norm in many ways. We see it in the racial conflicts in the US, in the anti-immigrant movements here and in Europe, in the targeting of synagogues and mosques for vandalism and terrorism. In the film we hear Gandhi state, “All religions are true. We are brothers of one soul.” Gandhi strongly opposed Partition. He believed that even though we have serious differences, we must learn to live together and to love one another. Yet in seventy years we do not seem to have learned how to overcome those divisions. Perhaps because we fail to see that we are indeed brothers and sisters of one soul.

Photos courtesy of IFC Films

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: British Raj, Gandhi, Gillian Anderson, history, Hugh Bonneville, Huma Qureshi, India, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lily Travers, Lord Mountbatten, Manish Dayal, Muhammed Ali Jennah, Pakistan

you are (are not) your history

February 1, 2016 by Matt Hill 2 Comments

Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton
was an opportunity for me
to reflect on my identity,
which includes:
– being a huge NWA fan as a teen
– now being 40
– feeling the need to purchase
two cans of a particular
brand of malt liquor
to view the movie with,
cuz, you know, 8-ball
– only drinking one of
those cans during the movie

film-wise, i felt the flick
was solid as the streets

did it market to me?
indeed.
did it feel like a bit of
revisionist history
produced by
Dre/Cube?
yes.
did i still love it
with the pure nostalgia
of a
malt-liquor-swilling
mid lifer?
f’sho.

what struck me though
is that,
like the characters of
Straight Outta Compton,
we’re *all,*
in the end,
incongruent-ish blends
of our past
(our memories
and regrets
and histories)
and our future
(our hope
and growth
and potential)

we’re *all,*
in the end,
incongruent-ish blends
of things still
holding us back,
and things we’re
growing away from –
things
we were
and things
we’re becoming
and things
we might become

you can take the rapper
out the streets,
but you can’t take the
streets out the rapper,
until,
eventually,
you do.
until,
actually,
both happen
all the time.

i bought two cans.
i drank one.

of course,
ultimately,
“with man
this is impossible,
but with God
anything is possible”

so says that
ancient change agent –
Him in whom
meets history
and future
so fantastically,
both globally for all,
and individually,
for each

if we’ll have Him

Filed Under: Editorial, Reviews Tagged With: change, Christian, dre, eazy-e, God, growth, history, ice cube, movie, review, spiritual, Straight Outta Compton

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