Christmas Video Countdown Part Two

The videos I posted yesterday were fun, but I want to be serious today and show a clip from Morgan Spurlock's documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?" I know it's not very "Christmas-y" but I think it's something you should watch and really think about.

#8) What Would Jesus Buy?:



"More consumption, less satisfaction...how about, less consumption and more satisfaction."

Wise words.

It's sad to think that some of the clothes we wear and the toys our kids play with have caused injuries and cost lives to people who get paid only cents per day working 19 hour shifts. Is that what Christmas has become? Does this kind of Christmas have anything to do with Christ? Absolutely not.

Inspiring Minds Monday ~ Spurlock

Last Thursday I talked a little bit about Morgan Spurlock and said that he was worth talking about later on down the road. Well, it's later and as I was traveling down the road I saw Morgan hitchhiking so I decided to pick him up. That last sentence was completely metaphorical for those of you who are still thinking to yourself "Duh, what?"

I've never been interested in watching documentaries until I watched Super Size Me. The thing I like about Morgan's documentaries besides the humor is the fact that he brings some issues that are generally unknown to light and encourages people to think differently about what they think they already know. His documentaries for the most part remain unbiased, in other words, he's has his opinion on things but he doesn't try to get other people to think like him. When he did Super Size Me, he wasn't out to shut down McDonald's and the other fast food restaurants. He was simply spreading awareness of what's out there and what can happen to you if you're careless with your diet.

I've seen three of Morgan's documentaries and I look forward to see what he has in store for the future. I'm going to talk about each of the documentaries I've seen.





The first one I saw, of course, was Super Size Me. Morgan documents himself eating nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days straight. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He made a rule that if the cashier asked him if he wanted to Super Size his meal then he had to say yes. He also made a rule that he had to try everything on the menu at least one time. Not all in one day of course, but throughout the 30 days, and he could not eat anything but McDonald's food.





He spoke with his doctor before doing this and he was strongly advised not to go through with it. But he went through with it anyway. By the end of the first day he became sick. Blah.





This documentary wasn't just about him eating McDonald's for thirty days. Morgan approached the public school systems and learned that many times the schools will buy very unhealthy food to serve in the cafeteria just to save money. Not to mention all the soda and snack machines that are found in schools. Some schools though have gotten rid of the soda and snack machines and have a much healthier food selection in the cafeterias. They found that students perform much better in these schools, mentally and physically. He interviewed some people, including Don Gorske, a tall, skinny, lanky, Guinness World Record holding, Big Mac enthusiast who has eaten well over 23,000 Big Macs since 1972. That averages out to 2 Big Macs per day. That guy must have some kind of freakish metabolism, but the one thing he never does is order the fries.

Don Gorske

By the end of the experiment, Morgan gained 24 pounds, a 13% body mass increase, and suffered from mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and liver damage. It took him 14 months to recover and get back to his original state of health.

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The second documentary I saw is called "What Would Jesus Buy?" Morgan didn't star in this one but he produced it. The star of this documentary is a character named Reverend Billy. And he is quite a character.





Reverend Billy is the stage name and character created by activist Bill Talen. He takes on the persona of Reverend Billy and goes out with his crew "The Church of Life After Shopping" formerly known as "The Church of Stop Shopping" He looks like the stereotypical TV Evangelist with the big hair, even bigger mouth, and the attire to go along with it. Even though I don't agree with all of Reverend Billy's tactics, I do appreciate his attempts to make consumers aware of what major corporations and mass media are up to. Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping also bring up issues such as economic justice, environmental protection, sweatshops, and the Iraq war.





Overall, I like the character Reverend Billy. I think he's misunderstood because many people think he's just another crazy street preacher and don't realize it's just a character. He has a great message to share about consumerism.

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The third documentary is one I mentioned last week called "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?". Morgan stars in this one. The documentary starts out with Morgan talking about his unborn son and the dangers of this world. He figures that if he's going to make this world a safe place then he's going to have to do what the US military hasn't been able to do yet; find Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but that isn't what the film is really about.





Morgan starts out by taking a survival class in case there is a threat of danger while he travels. As he travels to different countries in the Middle East he finds that the common people of those countries are a lot like you and me. They're not all anti-American. In fact many people of those countries have a positive outlook on America and some just don't have an opinion about America. The ones who think America is a selfish, fat, wealthy country think that way because partially that's all they see in their news media, and partially because it's true. America makes up less than 5% of the world's population, yet consumes 25% of the world's resources. On average, one American consumes as much energy as 2 Japanese, 6 Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 307 Tanzanians, or 370 Ethiopians. (Those last few facts were not covered in the documentary but I wanted to throw those in there.)





Throughout the documentary Morgan askes random people where Osama is. Nobody knows and almost all of the people he askes could care less about Osama and they don't want to have anything to do with him. Many other people he interviewed basically said that Bin Laden's fundamentalist view of the Islamic faith is way off and that people who follow the true Islamic faith are very peaceful people and do not try to kill or hurt others that do not follow Islam.





But like I said before, it's only the extremists and the wackos of a particular group that make it onto our television sets. It almost seems the thing that has happened with Islam in the Middle East is the same thing that has happened with Christianity in America. Things get distorted beyond recognition.





I won't tell you anymore about these documentaries. I suggest going out and renting these films. They're filled with humor, interesting facts, and things that will make you aware of what's going on in this world. Plus, you've gotta love that handlebar mustache.

Deep Thought Thursday ~ Just Be

The other day I watched a documentary by Morgan Spurlock called "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" He's the guy that directed the documentary "Supersize Me" and was the producer of the documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?" He also did a short series called "30 Days" which lasted only eight episodes but I haven't seen those yet. But today's post isn't about Morgan even though he is worth talking about later on down the road.




I don't want to spoil the "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden" documentary for you but there is an important point that came up in that film. As Morgan traveled to places like Morocco, Israel, Egypt, and Afghanistan in search of Osama he learned that the people of these countries are just like anyone else. They get up, they go to work, they spend time with their families, and they watch TV. They laugh, they love, they live. Not everyone is involved in Al-Qaeda or terrorism, even though that's what the news media seems to want everyone to think.

One thing the news media is infamous for is only showing the extremists of a particular group. Last Monday I talked about an extremist group that thinks they are representatives of Jesus Christ and the church even though their ideas and actions are many times the opposite of Jesus's teachings and actions. This group has received a lot of media coverage. You can read that blog here if you haven't already. It's the same thing that happens with media coverage in the Middle East, they only show the extremists, the people in the streets with anti-American signs. The media doesn't come right out and say it, but they twist words and ideas to try to make people think "Here is this group of people, this is what they do, this is why we should hate anyone who refers to themselves as belonging to this group." They do it subliminally in a way. I can't say that all the news media outlets are like this because then I would be stereotyping them. There is a good movie called "Mad City" and it stars Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta. This film is a good example of how the news media can get out of control by manipulating stories for the sake of ratings.

So many of these extremist groups tend to get violent. Not always physically violent, but violent in their words as well. Eboo Patel, the executive director of Interfaith Youth Core once said, "The violent people of all religions belong to one religion, the religion of violence." By the way, Eboo is one of the coolest names I've ever heard.

I've said before that I do not promote universalism which is basically a mish-mash of all faiths and religions into one uneven clump, but I do promote getting along with people of other faiths and religions without conflict. I also don't believe in making people into projects. What I mean by that is acting like you are befriending someone just to try and convince them to believe what you believe. That is so wrong, it is not true friendship. I just want to live my life by trying to follow Jesus's teachings and if anyone asks why I live my life the way I do I will share that with them and if that interests them and they want to experience and explore that, then great!

It was St. Francis of Assisi who said, "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words." When I hear that it reminds me to just be myself instead of trying to convince people to belive what I believe. Too many people try to practice their faith or religion as if it's some kind of chore and they have to do this and they have to do that. I just want to say stop doing and just be. Live your life and take what you believe and just be who you are with that. Don't try to be someone you're not because people will see how fake you are. Don't pretend to be someone's friend, just be a friend. Don't pretend to love, just love, unconditionally, regardless of what others believe. Don't pretend to be perfect, just be imperfect, make mistakes, have doubts, ask questions.

I want to end this post with this statement: If we are to achieve world peace it will not come about because everyone believes the same thing, it will come about because we will all agree to disagree with each other. Unfortunately we will never see world peace because there will always be those who disagree with this statement.