The Project

Prohibition

September 2nd, 2010 Comments 1

I’m going to tackle something a little different. For some reason, the prohibition of marijuana has caught my attention recently. I was listening to NPR and there was a story about it, the topic also appeared in a documentary I was watching recently. Either way, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about a particular aspect of it, and I want to present some thoughts that I had.

To give you a quick run down, the de-criminalisation of marijuana is an attempt to make the use of the drug legal. This, for many, is a means of attempting to prevent, or at least significantly reduce the use of the drug. Now, I’m not going to go into the issue because its a complex and multifaceted debate and both sides have comprehensive arguments. I’ll let you do your own research. What I do want to do is focus, albeit obliquely, on one aspect of the health issue.

Part of the debate revolves around the harmful health effects of marijuana use. The argument is that marijuana, like other drugs, pose significant health risks, and should therefore be illegal. I have no doubt that marijuana poses health risks. It is a harmful substance that effects mental health, causes different forms of cancer, and can cause heart complications. I wouldn’t argue that it isn’t harmful. But here’s the thing. If we follow this argument to its logical conclusions, we’d be criminalising the use of a heck of a lot of substances, the first of which would be tobacco and alcohol.

Tobacco
Smoking is a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer). The World Health Organization estimate that tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths in 2004 and 100 million deaths over the course of the 20th century. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as “the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide.”

Alcohol
Alcohol consumption is correlated with an increased risk of developing alcoholism, coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease, malabsorption, chronic pancreatitis, alcoholic liver disease, dementia, cancer, stroke and damage to the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. Long-term use of alcohol in excessive quantities is capable of damaging nearly every organ and system in the body. This is not including other effects such as injuries, violence and fetal damage.

Now, considering that there is no conclusive evidence which suggests that the effects of marijuana outweigh those of alcohol or tobacco, why is the argument made from a health perspective for the prohibition of marijuana? And where do we stop? What about fast food? We should make big macs illegal. Hydrogenated oil and trans-fats ought to be outlawed, and with much more haste than marijuana. The obesity epidemic is killing us, not to mention the strain on the health care system.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the social and health-related effects of alcohol and tobacco (and even fast-food) still apply to some extent to marijuana, and I’m certainly not condoning the use of the drug. My argument is simply that from a health perspective, the prohibition of marijuana is illogical. There are legal substances with proven health consequences that far outweigh that of marijuana.

I don’t think we need to prohibit the use of alcohol, tobacco, or fast-food. At least in the near future, it would be impossible. We’d see an almost unimaginable increase in illegal trade of those substances. But looking at the issue from this perspective gives us an interesting insight into the way in which the prohibition of a substance stigmatises it, particularly when that substance has no more harmful health effects than its legal counterparts.

To be continued…?

20 Things That Happen In 20 Minutes

September 1st, 2010 § 0

Click on the image to enlarge:

Misconceptions: Fruit (Part 2)

August 20th, 2010 § 0

This is the second part to a two-part post on Fruit, which is included in the Misconceptions series. To read part one, click here. In that post, we looked at the concept of fruit from a personal spiritual perspective. Part two will attempt to understand the same concept, but from a more corporate, church-centered perspective.

This post has taken longer than usual to write, mostly because I’ve struggled to find the right approach. This topic is a complex one, and needs to be dealt with very carefully. Essentially, I’m attempting to ask the question of how we can determine the health of a church. Most people would automatically assume that it’s all about numbers, and to dare to think otherwise would be dissent. Unfortunately, fast-growing churches are seemingly ‘untouchable’ and immune from criticism.

Part of me is therefore tempted to write a whole post on why it’s not about numbers, just to defy this entrenched notion. But in reality, I’d be wrong. In some ways, it is about numbers, but in other ways its not. Numbers aren’t just numbers, they’re people, and people in church means transformed lives. Numbers therefore can be a very clear indicator of health, but in saying that, they can also be very deceptive.

For example, growth in numbers can be a testament to the enthusiasm and zeal of members, that the church has an effective mission-focused mandate, and a strong indicator of its presence in the community. On the other hand, high numbers might also mean extremely high turnover (which means that the church is effective at evangelism, but terrible at discipleship), or that the service is entertaining and seeker-sensitive, while actual church involvement and genuine discipleship and transformation is low.

It also depends on how those numbers come about. The church may be built on the foundation of a charismatic personality, a personality that may not have the substance of character that will sustain itself. The growth may also be due to the influx of Christians from other churches, which is particularly true of new church plants. These numbers are superficial.

Also, we are beginning to see churches use mediums to reach people that are questionable at best. We are emulating culture to reach people enmeshed within it, which in my opinion is extremely dangerous, as it’s difficult to separate the message from the medium. When we become copycats of culture, we take the meanings and symbols that are attached to it. In the dogged pursuit of relevance, we can sometimes become that which we attempt to reach, with obvious consequences.

So, numbers can come from steady, healthy growth, but when they come from more questionable means, there are costs involved. There may be numbers, but is there a true faithfulness to scripture? Many would argue that if people are coming, why ask questions? They argue that numbers ought to speak for themselves, and that being critical of fast growing churches is counter-productive. But if we build our churches upon the foundation of sand, one day the house will eventually collapse, and twice as many people will walk away hurt and disillusioned than ever walked into the church that were positively impacted.

It certainly is possible to have a large, healthy church, but it’s equally possible to have a large, unhealthy church (which we can see from a recent article about a mega-church that surveyed its members only to find that more than half the congregation’s core beliefs were ridiculous), and vice versa for small churches. Numbers themselves are not the sole indicator of fruitfulness.

So, church heath, or “fruit”, is not simply a matter of counting bums on seats, it’s a multifaceted equation that encompasses (just to name a few) sound doctrine (from the pulpit and in the pews), longevity of membership (low turnover), active and willful participation, the respectability and proven character of the leadership and elders, evidence of effective discipleship in tandem with evangelism, and most importantly, the emulation of the character of Jesus (the fruits of the spirit as described in Galatians [5:22-23]) through its members.

Quote #17

August 13th, 2010 § 0

“One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.” — John Piper

Looking for God on the campaign trail

August 12th, 2010 § 0

“Looking for God on the campaign trail”
By Tim Costello

“The power of the Christian right or the so-called ‘moral majority’ has always loomed large over politics in the United States. The impact here in Australia of a Christian voting bloc has generally held much less power and attention.

Yet in recent elections John Howard and Kevin Rudd did speak out publicly about their Christian faith and even attempted to lure the Christian vote. There has not been the same overt pitch for the Christian vote during this campaign. Yet, ironically, it may still have a profound impact on an election that appears to be on a knife edge.”

Read the rest of the article here

How rich are you?

August 5th, 2010 § 0

When most of us meditate on Matthew 19: 23-24 [Then Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God], we often think of those with mansions, BMWs, and a six-figure (and then some) salary. We imagine extraordinarily successful business people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, and A-List celebrities like Brad Pitt and George Clooney. We tend to assume that this verse is meant for somebody else, for “rich” people.

If you have a car, you are one of only 8% of people in the world. 92% of people in the world see us driving in our cars and they think “rich.” Do you have access to clean drinking water? Because somewhere around one billion people in the world don’t even have clean water. When we go to the fridge and get something to eat and a glass of water, hundreds of millions of people are watching and thinking to themselves…“man, it must be nice.” When was the last time you went hungry? Somewhere around 800 million people won’t eat today. 300 million of those are children. Every couple of seconds, somebody dies from hunger. Over a billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day.

Experts say that in order to provide water and basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world, they estimate it would cost somewhere around $20 billion. That’s about as much as Americans spend in one year on ice cream. We are so rich. But we look around and we think we have little because we see people who have even more. We are bombarded with images, and the ploy of marketing is to create a sense of depravation. But what isn’t good enough for us, to the rest of the world, would be more than enough. We might need to think again about who Jesus was referring to in that verse.

Want to know how rich you really are? Check out the Global Rich List: http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Speaking of the filthy rich, forty of America’s billionaires and their families have pledged to give more than half of their fortune to charity in a drive organised by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett: Read more here.

I was hungry…

August 2nd, 2010 § 0

I was hungry,
And you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger.
I was imprisoned,
And you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked,
And in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick,
And you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless,
And you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely,
And you left me alone to pray for me.
You seem so holy, so close to God.
But I am still very hungry – and lonely – and cold.

BASIC.

July 29th, 2010 § 0

Trends come and go in our culture and the church seems to follow.

What is church? Who is it for? Is it broken? Can it be better?

Francis Chan asks these questions about the church. He puts it this way:

“If I only had this as my guide… if all I had was the Bible… and I was to read this book and then start a ‘church’ what would it look like? Would it look like the thing that we’ve built here and all refer to as church? Or would it look radically different?”

BASIC is a seven part series of short films – from Flannel, the award winning creators of the NOOMA film series – that challenge us to reclaim the church as Scripture describes it to be. This series will speak to those who have questions about the church and to those who may have lost interest in the church.

http://basicseries.com/

The Story of Stuff

July 22nd, 2010 § 0

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute web-film that explores the often hidden environmental and social consequences of America’s love affair with its stuff. Currently, the film has been viewed over 10 million times on-line and in thousands of schools, houses of worship, community centers and businesses around the world.

The film that takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the real costs of our consumer driven culture—from resource extraction to iPod incineration. Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats, narrates the Story of Stuff, delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.”

Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” —and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.

Leonard’s inspiration for the film began as a personal musing over the question, “Where does all the stuff we buy come from, and where does it go when we throw it out?” She traveled the world in pursuit of the answer to this seemingly innocent question, and what she found along the way were some very guilty participants and their unfortunate victims.

View it here: http://storyofstuff.org/

Black Beauty & The White Knight

July 15th, 2010 Comments 1

Here is the first update on my decision to live: Life Without A Car.

It was a shaky start. I was riding my bike around and had to pop into the library for 2 mins, and put the bike right outside the door. After I emerged, it was GONE! Stolen. So, I had no car, and now, I had no bike.

So, I did some research, called around to a few places and finally found two new additions to my transport family. Meet Black Beauty & The White Knight:

Black Beauty