Download or read book God Loves the Freaks a Guide to Subculture Ministry written by Stephen Weese and published by . This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God Loves the Freaks points to a serious issue facing the church today - reaching out to subcultures and those who are considered the freaks of society. The "American Christianity" cult that many churches belong to accepts only members who dress, speak and act exactly the same way. We have somehow turned the church into an elite club where only those who follow man-made cultural rules are welcome. Why is it acceptable for someone to show up in church in traditional Chinese clothing, for instance, but not for someone to have a pink mohawk? The church tries to change the freaks of society, or worse, turns them away at the door. Jesus reached out to those in society who were different, who were outcast - the freaks. Stephen Weese paints a vision of a church living by grace, in unity; without the legalism that divides and causes us to shun others based on outward appearance. God looks at the heart and he loves everyone, including the freaks. If God loves the freaks, shouldn't the church as well?
Download or read book God Loves the Freaks written by Stephen Weese and published by Stephen Weese. This book was released on 2006-11 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God Loves the Freaks points to a serious issue facing the church today -- reaching out to subcultures and those who are considered the freaks of society. The "American Christianity" cult that many churches belong to accepts only members who dress, speak and act exactly the same way. We have somehow turned the church into an elite club where only those who follow man-made cultural rules are welcome. Why is it acceptable for someone to show up in church in traditional Chinese clothing, for instance, but not for someone to have a pink mohawk? The church tries to change the freaks of society, or worse, turns them away at the door. Jesus reached out to those in society who were different, who were outcast -- the freaks. Stephen Weese paints a vision of a church living by grace, in unity; without the legalism that divides and causes us to shun others based on outward appearance. God looks at the heart and he loves everyone, including the freaks. If God loves the freaks, shouldn't the church as well?
Download or read book Hipster Christianity written by Brett McCracken and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2010-08-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insider twentysomething Christian journalist Brett McCracken has grown up in the evangelical Christian subculture and observed the recent shift away from the "stained glass and steeples" old guard of traditional Christianity to a more unorthodox, stylized 21st-century church. This change raises a big issue for the church in our postmodern world: the question of cool. The question is whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This probing book is about an emerging category of Christians McCracken calls "Christian hipsters"--the unlikely fusion of the American obsessions with worldly "cool" and otherworldly religion--an analysis of what they're about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the church's relevancy and hipness in today's youth-oriented culture.
Download or read book A Theology of the Drug War written by William A. Walker III and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a political and theological reflection on the violence and injustice that has taken place in Mexico and Central America since 2006 as a result of the drug war. In order to understand and respond to this conflict in the age of globalization, William A. Walker III combines the work of philosopher Enrique Dussel and theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar to develop a theology of the drug war that transcends both a Eurocentric conception of the world and a merely political account of salvation. Walker also highlights examples of Christian and church-based approaches to practicing neighborliness and resistance to drug trade-related violence, challenging both Christians and non-Christians to participate in the creation of a more just and merciful society.
Download or read book Set Apart written by Daniel Cronquist and published by . This book was released on 2009-02-01 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the Christian Faith through Japanese Animation Outside of our memory in a forgotten dream, lies a world surrounded by walls. There, in an abandoned dormitory far from town, live the haibane. Not quite human, they hatch from cocoons and grow grey wings. They are set apart. Whether you have a strong interest in Japanese anime, little interest, or none at all, this book will point out the amazing similarities between the fantasy series Haibane Renmei and the story of God's working with mankind. It is unique among Japanese animation stories. It is a story of redemption, salvation, and hope. While not directly a Christian story, the characters and themes found within this series reflect much of God's truth. This book is a journey for the reader showing God's truth can be found even in the most unlikely of places.
Download or read book Albion s Seed written by David Hackett Fischer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1991-03-14 with total page 972 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.
Download or read book Desire Work written by Melissa Hackman and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-10 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In postapartheid Cape Town—Africa's gay capital—many Pentecostal men turned to "ex-gay" ministries in hopes of “curing” their homosexuality in order to conform to conservative Christian values and African social norms. In Desire Work Melissa Hackman traces the experiences of predominantly white ex-gay men as they attempt to forge a heterosexual masculinity and enter into heterosexual marriage through emotional, bodily, and religious work. These men subjected themselves to daily self-surveillance and followed prescribed behaviors such as changing how they talked and walked. Ex-gay men also saw themselves as participating in the redemption of the nation, because South African society was perceived as suffering from a crisis of masculinity in which the country lacked enough moral heterosexual men. By tying the experience of ex-gay men to the convergence of social movements and public debates surrounding race, violence, religion, and masculinity in South Africa, Hackman offers insights into the construction of personal identities in the context of sexuality and spirituality.
Download or read book Unraptured written by Zack Hunt and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you rapture ready? As a teenager in the buckle of the Bible Belt, Zack Hunt was convinced the rapture would happen at any moment. Being ready meant never missing church, never sinning, and always listening to Christian radio. But when the rapture didn’t happen, Hunt’s tightly wound faith began to fray. If he had been wrong about the rapture, what else about his faith might not hold water? Part memoir, part tour of the apocalypse, and part call to action, Unraptured traces how the church’s focus on escaping to heaven has it mired in decay. Teetering on the brink of irrelevancy in a world rocked by refugee crises, climate change, war and rumors of war, the church cannot afford to focus on the end times instead of following Jesus in the here and now. Unraptured uses these signs of the times to help readers reorient their understanding of the gospel around loving and caring for the least of these.
Download or read book A Farewell to Mars written by Brian Zahnd and published by David C Cook. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We know Jesus the Savior, but have we met Jesus, Prince of Peace? When did we accept vengeance as an acceptable part of the Christian life? How did violence and power seep into our understanding of faith and grace? For those troubled by this trend toward the sword, perhaps there is a better way. What if the message of Jesus differs radically differs from the drumbeats of war we hear all around us? Using his own journey from war crier to peacemaker and his in-depth study of peace in the scriptures, author and pastor Brian Zahnd reintroduces us to the gospel of Peace.
Download or read book New York Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1996-06-24 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York magazine was born in 1968 after a run as an insert of the New York Herald Tribune and quickly made a place for itself as the trusted resource for readers across the country. With award-winning writing and photography covering everything from politics and food to theater and fashion, the magazine's consistent mission has been to reflect back to its audience the energy and excitement of the city itself, while celebrating New York as both a place and an idea.
Download or read book The World of Anna Sui written by Tim Blanks and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anna Sui is one of New York’s most beloved and accomplished fashion designers, known for creating contemporary original clothing inspired by spectacular amounts of research into vintage styles and cultural arcana. She is especially famous for her textile prints. Sui joined New York’s intensely creative cultural underground in the 1970s, forging important relationships in the worlds of fashion, photography, art, music, and design. The World of Anna Sui looks at Sui’s eclectic career as a designer and artist, both through her clothing and studio. Through interviews with fashion journalist Tim Blanks, the book explores Sui’s lifelong engagement with fashion archetypes—the rocker, the schoolgirl, the punk, the goth, the bohemian—and reveals their inspiration and influence. Complete with detailed photographs of garments, sketches, moodboards, runway shots, and cultural ephemera, The World of Anna Sui is an inside look at this iconic New York designer with a worldwide cult following.
Download or read book Going All City written by Stefano Bloch and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “We could have been called a lot of things: brazen vandals, scared kids, threats to social order, self-obsessed egomaniacs, marginalized youth, outsider artists, trend setters, and thrill seekers. But, to me, we were just regular kids growing up hard in America and making the city our own. Being ‘writers’ gave us something to live for and ‘going all city’ gave us something to strive for; and for some of my friends it was something to die for.” In the age of commissioned wall murals and trendy street art, it’s easy to forget graffiti’s complicated and often violent past in the United States. Though graffiti has become one of the most influential art forms of the twenty-first century, cities across the United States waged a war against it from the late 1970s to the early 2000s, complete with brutal police task forces. Who were the vilified taggers they targeted? Teenagers, usually, from low-income neighborhoods with little to their names except a few spray cans and a desperate need to be seen—to mark their presence on city walls and buildings even as their cities turned a blind eye to them. Going All City is the mesmerizing and painful story of these young graffiti writers, told by one of their own. Prolific LA writer Stefano Bloch came of age in the late 1990s amid constant violence, poverty, and vulnerability. He recounts vicious interactions with police; debating whether to take friends with gunshot wounds to the hospital; coping with his mother’s heroin addiction; instability and homelessness; and his dread that his stepfather would get out of jail and tip his unstable life into full-blown chaos. But he also recalls moments of peace and exhilaration: marking a fresh tag; the thrill of running with his crew at night; exploring the secret landscape of LA; the dream and success of going all city. Bloch holds nothing back in this fierce, poignant memoir. Going All City is an unflinching portrait of a deeply maligned subculture and an unforgettable account of what writing on city walls means to the most vulnerable people living within them.
Download or read book Leaving Mundania written by Lizzie Stark and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exposing a subculture only beginning to enter the imagination of mainstream America, this is the story of live action role-playing (LARP) games. A hybrid of games—such as Dungeons & Dragons, historical reenactment, fandom, and good old-fashioned pretend—LARP games are thriving and this book explores its multifaceted culture and related phenomenon, including the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval reenactment group that boasts more than 32,000 members. The history of LARP is detailed and is shown to have arisen from the pageantry of Tudor England and is currently being used as a training tool for the U.S. military. Along the way, the author duels foes with foam-padded weapons, lets the great elder god Cthulhu destroy her parents' beach house, and endures an existential awakening in the high-art LARP scene of Scandinavia.
Download or read book American Jesus written by Stephen Prothero and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2004-09-18 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Deep Dive into America's Complex Relationship with Jesus There's no denying America's rich religious background–belief is woven into daily life. But as Stephen Prothero argues in American Jesus, many of the most interesting appraisals of Jesus have emerged outside the churches: in music, film, and popular culture; and among Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and people of no religion at all. Delve into this compelling chronicle as it explores how Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, has been refashioned into distinctly American identities over the centuries. From his enlistment as a beacon of hope for abolitionists to his appropriation as a figurehead for Klansmen, the image of Jesus has been as mercurial as it is influential. In this diverse and conflicted scene, American Jesus stands as a testament to the peculiar fusion of the temporal and divine in contemporary America. Equal parts enlightening and entertaining, American Jesus goes beyond being simply a work of history. It’s an intricate mirror, reflecting the American spirit while questioning the nation's socio-cultural fabric.
Download or read book The Youth Worker s Guide to Helping Teenagers in Crisis written by Rich Van Pelt and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2005 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There's a kid in your youth ministry who hasn't somehow been affected by crisis. There's not a youth worker on the planer who won't benefit from the principles and practices in this book." -Kara Powell, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for Youth and Family Ministry at Fuller Seminary Because when it comes to crisis, it's not a matter of if, but when Anyone who stays in youth ministry very long will encounter significant crises. Family break-ups, substance abuse, sexual assault, eating disorders, cutting, suicide, gun violence... But without proper and immediate care, crises like these cause years of emotional pain and spiritual scarring in students. Rich Van Pelt and Jim Hancock want to help you prevent that from happening. Through their experience and expertise, you'll learn how to: - Respond quickly and effectively to crisis - Balance legal, ethical, and spiritual outcomes - Forge preventive partnerships with parents, schools, and students - Bring healing when the damage is done When crises happen-and they will, ready or not-there are practical steps you can take. Van Pelt and Hancock provide field-tested advice and specific, biblically based guidance for each stage of crisis. Keep this book on hand as the go-to resource when you need it most.
Download or read book Strength for His People written by Steven Waterhouse and published by Westcliff Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains mental illness from a Biblical worldview. It may serve as a guide for christian counselors working with schizophrenia and related problems such as depression, why God allows suffering, mental illness vs. demon possession,
Download or read book Hello Cruel World written by Kate Bornstein and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrated transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein has, with more humor and spunk than any other, ushered us into a world of limitless possibility through a daring re-envisionment of the gender system as we know it. Here, Bornstein bravely and wittily shares personal and unorthodox methods of survival in an often cruel world. A one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive outside the box, Hello, Cruel World is a much-needed unconventional approach to life for those who want to stay on the edge, but alive. Hello, Cruel World features a catalog of 101 alternatives to suicide that range from the playful (moisturize!), to the irreverent (shatter some family values), to the highly controversial. Designed to encourage readers to give themselves permission to unleash their hearts' harmless desires, the book has only one directive: "Don't be mean." It is this guiding principle that brings its reader on a self-validating journey, which forges wholly new paths toward a resounding decision to choose life. Tenderly intimate and unapologetically edgy, Kate Bornstein is the radical role model, the affectionate best friend, and the guiding mentor all in one.
