As someone recently remarked, it might just be destiny that I was born on May 25th since it is traditionally one of the biggest weekends for movies. Star Wars, Spider-Man and this year Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End have all been released on May 25th. It’s a good time to be me. Kara rounded up 15 of my closest friends in KC and some of us even dressed up as Pirates in celebration of my birthday. After some gluttonous California burritos we trekked on over to Kansas City’s coolest theatre, the Screenland Grenada (of which I am an alumni). It was a great day and in my estimation a great summer blockbuster of a movie. It’s long 2hrs 40minutes… so that made me happy. And it looks as if they’ve even left it open to do a fourth film if they so choose. Good times. There’s even a Keith Richards cameo as Jack’s dad. He looks the classic Pirate part a la Dustin Hoffman in Hook.

Kara, being the trooper she is, endured her fifth zombie movie at my hands last week.(1) We went to go see 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to what I think is one of the best zombie movies ever made-28 Days Later. In the original film the “rage virus” is contracted by animal rights activists who break into an animal testing facility to “free the monkeys,” but end up getting their deadly disease instead. We meet Jim, a young man who wakes up in a hospital all alone only to find out that London is a deserted wasteland. The rest is the story of Jim and a few other survivors in London and their attempt to find rescue and escape the zombies. 28 Days Later broke a few zombie-movie formulas and the result was a true horror movie rather than a campy fun zombie flick. The “infected” in 28 Days Later had a virus that turned them into wild violent creatures not the drowsy stumbling walking dead in most films. These zombies sprint! In the end it was other human beings that may have posed the gravest threat in 28 Days Later, the same can be said for 28 Weeks Later.

In the sequel we return to London, long since quarantined. NATO has taken the lead in the “reconstruction” effort after all human/zombie life on the British Isle had been killed or starved to death. We begin the film sometime around when we left the first one, but now with a different set of people. What follows is one of the best zombie-chase-scenes ever (few, though they may be). Without going into too much detail and ruining the movie for you, I’ll say that the “originality” of 28 Days Later doesn’t live on in 28 Weeks Later. Not very much new ground is broken in this sequel but it still is among the top zombie flicks I’ve seen. The social commentary is thick and fans of Romero’s critique of materialistic mall culture in Dawn of the Dead will appreciate the questions about military occupation, blindly following orders and the wisdom of giving people filled with fear guns and unilateral power. Much like the first, this installment pits both zombie and humans against our band of protagonists and it is often the humans who seem to be the greater threat.

(1) 1. Evil Dead 2. Evil Dead 2 3. Dead Alive 4. 28 Days Later 5. 28 Weeks Later

After Shaun of the Dead there was no way I was going to miss the next parodyriffic film from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Hot Fuzz lampoons buddy cop movies like Bad Boys II and Point Break, well not movies like those, but those exact movies. Danny, the sidekick, actually references how awesome these two movies in particular are over and over again. It’s a hilarious jab at the all too formulaic buddy cop genre, but like Shaun of the Dead, respects the genre enough to actually pull off being a decent buddy cop action flick.

Well last night the Red Wings gave up the ghost to the Ducks. They sure made it interesting rallying back from a 4-1 deficit to make it a 4-3 game with three minutes left in the game. Oh well… good season and a much deeper run in the playoffs than in the past several years.

I saw Spider-Man 3 this past weekend with Kara and despite all the nay-sayers I loved it. Well maybe I’d like to watch it again without being surrounded by movie talkers. I am an avid “non-movie-talker” and we were surrounded by moviegoers who did not share my convictions. No matter though, this was a fun summer blockbuster. I grew up reading Spider-Man and this chapter was just another example of those comic book stories coming to life. Sure Venom wasn’t the HUGE bulking dude he was in the comics. But then again the films seem to take the story one tiny step back towards realism and Topher Grace was a good choice for the journalist with a victim-complex, Eddie Brock.

Of the many criticisms I’ve heard of the film a few stand out as odd to me. 1) It was too long. I disagree, I couldn’t get enough and wished they would have spent even more time with Venom. Folks, good movies are never long enough. 2) It was cheesy. HELLOOO! It’s a comic book movie, directed by Sam Rami (Evil Dead). It’s cheesy on purpose! Don’t be surprised when Peter Parker’s “dark side” is still a bit nerdy. But alas, some people just love to hate. I thought it was funnier and more reflective than the previous two installments. Although I’m enjoying it for what it was, a fun spider-man movie, not a hip metaphor for Christian forgiveness. If you want to watch a film about how revenge will consume you and forgiveness is freedom check out the Count of Monte Cristo. There’s no need to turn spider-man 3 into a sermon to get something from it. Sometimes movies are just plain fun!

This weekend I flew out to Doylestown, PA to interview at a Methodist church for a youth ministry position. It was a really encouraging experience. I met with several passionate adult leaders and students over the course of two days and had some very exciting conversations about youth ministry and how God is leading youth ministry in some very exciting and creative directions.

On my flights to and from the east-coast I was finally able to read Mike King’s book, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry. I met Mike two years ago here in Kansas City and immediately felt a kinship with his vision for youth ministry. He began telling me about his book back then so I’ve been looking forward to reading it for a few years now. In the mean time I’ve gotten a big chunk of what was in the book through conversations with Mike at school (we both are attending NTS), church or around town in any of the many places I keep running into Mike. I was surprised that Mike’s candid words all made it through the editing process! By that I don’t mean that Mike is a loose cannon or offensive, but he is an important prophetic voice in youth ministry and it was just refreshing to know that what is on the page is what comes out of Mike’s heart, not a watered-down “easily digestible” youth ministry package.

Mike challenges us youth ministers look past the short-vision goals of increased attendance and into our own souls. Page after page Mike is leading us into a vision of youth ministry that is first and foremost about seeking the face of God. Much of what Mike offers as practical advice in the book he deliberately asks the youth pastor not to try to teach to the youth group next week. This is not a book full of hip postmodern techniques that will wow teens, it is a book about doing ministry out of the abundant overflow of a life lived in intense communion with Christ. What important advice for us to hear! We often are so caught up in “consuming” spiritual practices or techniques so that we can pass them along to youth without ever really letting those practices sink anchors in our own lives. Mike’s book will call you to slow down, listen to God and practice youth ministry out of the overflow of love of God.

Highly highly recommended for those involved in any kind of ministry, youth ministry especially.

A while back I was riding in the car listening to NPR when they re-aired a peabody award winning broadcast of “This American Life” a favorite show of mine produced by Chicago Public Radio. The broadcast was titled Habeas Schmabeas. Here is a description of the topic “Habeas Schmabeas” tackles…

The right of habeas corpus has been a part of our country’s legal tradition longer than we’ve actually been a country. It means that our government has to explain why it’s holding a person in custody. But now, the War on Terror has nixed many of the rules we used to think of as fundamental. At Guantanamo Bay, our government initially claimed that prisoners should not be covered by habeas—or even by the Geneva Conventions—because they’re the most fearsome enemies we have. But is that true? Is it a camp full of terrorists, or a camp full of our mistakes?

What followed was one of those gripping stories that makes you sit in your car outside your apartment for 45 minutes because you don’t want to miss anything by running inside. You can download the entire episode for free here. What I learned offended the American side of me, to hear about how the constitution is simply ignored or put on hold when it is deemed inconvenient to those in power. Don’t we write these rules specifically for hard times when we’d be tempted to abuse power?

From a Christian standpoint what distressed me even more was the de-humanizing abuse many of these prisoners are forced to undergo. Far from buying into the excuses that “this is a different kind of war calling for different kinds of tactics,” I am compelled to reflect on Jesus’ parable of the indebted prisoner who is freed only to turn around and put those who owed him money into prison. What does forgiveness look like in the midst of a world racked by terrorism? Would Jesus put a “temporary hold” on forgiveness in the face of terrorism declaring that new more modern tactics were needed to fight “extremism?” Or is forgiveness a form of religious extremism in itself? I certainly think so. If prisoners do indeed need to be held captive can it be done while still honoring their God-given dignity? Can their captors be committed to truthfulness and honesty instead of secrecy and deception?

We are often told that the world changed on Sept. 11th, that we now must operate in a “post-9/11″ mentality. Does that apply to being a disciple of Jesus Christ? Did being a Christian change on 9/11? Do we get to temporarily set aside things like forgiveness and loving our enemies in the midst of a world filled with terrorism?

OR are forgiveness and love the very ways Jesus taught us to fight such evils?