Our Princess Has Come
Hi All!
I know it may feel like I’ve been MIA for a spell, but rest assured that I’ve been busily writing at some of my other camps online. Be sure to check out my latest review of Disney’s new film The Princess and the Frog, out in theaters this weekend. Here’s a sneak peek, but be sure to head over to UrbanFaith.com to read the full review:
Months before the film officially hit theaters, black women everywhere were already referring to Princess Tiana of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog like her last name was Obama. That’s how momentous the arrival of Disney’s first black princess felt to us. And while we could compare this landmark animated character to the decade’s other cultural trailblazer, I think Tiana is less President Barack Obama and more Will Smith. I imagine that somewhere in the land of happily ever after, she’s saying to Cinderella, tiara fully cocked to the side while sliding on a pair of black Ray Bans like Smith in Men in Black, “You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good.”
I’ll admit I went to The Princess and the Frog fist-clenched, fully prepared to hate it based on the speculative criticism of multiple writers over the past year leading up to the film’s release and my own angst about the cartoon. I’ve waited 26 years to see myself reflected onscreen by Disney, longing to break through the negative self-image the lack of a black princess has reinforced in my life. With only Oprah and a few others to latch onto as a high-profile black woman in America who is the star of the show, I’ve often thrown myself into playing the role of strong, supportive best friend or faithful employee rather than the leading lady in my own life. Black women are never leading ladies; that plotline isn’t available to us. We don’t get the prince or live happily ever after; we don’t get swept up in fairytales. At least that’s the implied message Hollywood traditionally has sent to us.
Steve Harvey Introduces Jesus Christ
This old video of popular comedian Steve Harvey has been making the rounds on the Internet lately. I can’t believe he gets an entire audience on their feet clapping for Jesus. Wow…it would have been cool if God just strolled out on stage after that and blew everyone’s minds.
Donald Miller: ‘There’s No Social Commodity for Being Christian’
Back in April, Blue Like Jazz author Donald Miller posed one question to an audience of young adults gathered for Sojourner magazine’s Mobilization to End Poverty event in Washington, D.C.: If you took the elements of a good story and integrated them into your real life, what would that look like?
For months that question has plagued me, quietly challenging me to live a more compelling story in my own life. This past week, Miller released his highly-anticipated new book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, which is full of the lessons he’s learned about how to turn an unstructured and random life into a meaningful existence.
This summer, I had the chance to speak with Miller about the new book and asked him what trends he’s noticed in the Church.
COCOA CHANEL: What’s fashionable in faith? What are some of the trends you’ve noticed in the Christian church at large?
DONALD MILLER: I don’t think about church very much. I think because I talk to Christians, people ask me about church a lot. But I’ve never been a pastor. I’ve never been on staff at a church. That’s for much smarter people than me. So I haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about that.
Part of it is because I’m way up here in Portland, and we’re largely an unchurched community. And I notice when I leave Portland and I go to church somewhere how foreign it feels—its literally like you’re going into a different country. It always strikes me as weird. There’s no social commodity for being a Christian here. There’s no benefit. Where you can go to the south or the southeast and one of the things your employer may want to know is, “Do you attend church?” So here, if your employer found out you attended church, it would almost assuredly cost you something. And not that they would be against you, they would just think that you’re weird. And so for us, we’re a small community of people who cling to each other and cling to Christ and live it out in a very real way. There’s no gain.
*****
To read more of my interview with Donald Miller, head over to UrbanFaith.com. Be sure to leave a comment by October 19th to enter to win a FREE copy of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
NBC’s ‘Community’ Talks Moral Relativism
On Thursday night, NBC premiered its hilariously smart new sitcom Community, starring Joel McHale (E! Network’s Talk Soup) as Jeff Wingate, a lying lawyer whose license has been revoked. The show centers on the drama ensuing when Jeff heads back to school and in an effort to win a girl, poses as the board certified Spanish tutor for a study group of misfits at the fictitious Greendale Community College.
In this week’s pilot episode, there was a quick-witted dialogue between Jeff and British professor Duncan (played by John Oliver) about moral relativism.
Duncan: I’m asking you if you know the difference between right and wrong.
Jeff: I discovered at a very early age, that if I talk long enough, I can make anything right or wrong. So either I’m God, or truth is relative. and in either case, booyah.
Duncan: Oh interesting; it’s just the average person has a much harder time saying ‘booyah’ to moral relativism.
I look forward to seeing what this show has to offer in the coming weeks. Obviously, the spiritual content will likely be minimal, but the intelligent humor is sure to be a hit.
Regina Spektor: Laughing With God
Maybe it’s because I rarely listen to live radio these days given the Pandora and LastFM alternatives, but it seems like no one’s making much noise about Regina Spektor’s new album Far, released back in June 2009. It’s a shame because it’s really worth listening to if you have the time.
As always, Spektor’s a delight with her quirky dolphin-esque singing and clever “funny ’cause it’s true” lyrical style. If you’re not familiar with her music from past releases Soviet Kitsch and Begin To Hope, Spektor’s voice is everything you think you’d hate: high-pitched, Russian-tinged, and painfully awkward. But something about it sounds like an aural version of the gangling yet beautiful girl you knew in Jr. High School. Her voice reminds me of the way Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years looked.
On Far, Spektor delivers more of what fans love, artfully exploring religion and spirituality in the playful manner we’ve come to expect. The first single “Laughing With” is about the irony of taking God seriously in the midst of dire circumstances like unexpected plane turbulence or hospital stays, while ridiculing him at cocktail parties or when wishes go unfulfilled.
Relevant magazine recently spoke with Spektor, a self-proclaimed “picky Jew,” to discuss the album and why she thinks God and faith should be the discussed within art. She said, “I just think everything belongs in music. [...] I don’t think there are things that are off-limits. Just like I don’t believe there are things that are off-limits to conversation. I think a lot of bad stuff comes out of people censoring themselves or trying to present an image of themselves or trying to be completely neutral or not even arguing.”
Despite her strong feelings on integrating faith and art, Spektor remains fairly neutral herself when it comes to her personal religion. Though she accepts many of the teachings from her Judeo-Christian tradition, she rejects the things that don’t match up to her own beliefs or logic. “When I read the Bible, a lot of the time it’s been almost like a miniature ‘duck, duck, goose’ in my head. I said: ‘Yes, yes, yes, no. Yes, yes, yes, no.’”
To read more about Spektor’s thoughts on faith, pick up the September/October 2009 issue of Relevant magazine. For a sample of her music, click on the video below to hear her latest single from Far.
Pop & Circumstance
This week’s Pop & Circumstance is now live at UrbanFaith.com. Check out the latest on Vickie Winans new comedy show on BET, Steve Harvey’s Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man…the movie, American Idol after Paula Abdul, and megachurch leader Rick Warren’s new book.
Obama: God, Hit Me on My Blackberry
After wading through the obligatory questions about the Henry Louis Gates’ drama and additional commentary on Health Care reform, President Barack Obama shared an update on his faith in an interview with ABC News. Asked how the presidency is affecting his spiritual life, Obama confessed to Nightline’s Terry Moran that he no longer prays only before bed, as was his habit. “I pray all the time now,” the president laughed. “I’ve got a lot of stuff on my plate and I need guidance all the time.”
One way the president gets guidance from God is through his Blackberry. And while God doesn’t send Obama instant Blackberry messages (because let’s be honest, God probably uses an iPhone), the president’s Faith and Neighborhood Initiatives Director Joshua DuBois does provide daily spiritual direction right in the palm of the president’s hand.
“He has a devotional that he sends to me on my Blackberry each day.” President Obama explained. “That’s how I start my morning. You know, he’s got a passage, scripture, in some cases quotes from other faiths to reflect on.” It’s this type of communication that keeps the president’s faith nurtured and growing while he and the First Family continue their search for a place of worship.
“We haven’t selected a permanent church home in D.C. I mentioned earlier that with all the transitions for the girls, but also, still trying to figure out how to move this big apparatus called the presidency without being hugely disruptive to congregations. How do we time that, how do we think about that? That’s something we’re still sorting out.”
Meanwhile, the Obamas worship at Camp David when they have the chance. Obama praised the service offered at the small chapel, saying, “There’s a wonderful young pastor up there–chaplain–who does just wonderful work.”
Considering all of the resources at the disposal of the President of the United States, it’s fascinating and a bit sobering to see that he still feels a need to draw on a higher power for navigating the tough decisions of his life. Beyond that, it’s humbling to see that the leader of the Free World recognizes his place as an instrument or tool for God’s plans.
Obama summed up his work in vocational terms, saying, “This is something where you just hope that you are aligning your work with His purposes and that you’re attuned to the needs of the people you’re there to serve.”
Click below to watch the video of Terry Moran’s interview with President Barack Obama. His commentary on faith begins around 1:55.
Michael Jackson: Solomon Sans Wisdom
Michael Jackson is dead at 50. And that’s the end of it. On a day already made gloomy by the death of actress Farrah Fawcett, the King of Pop’s earthly reign came to an end.
And while I’m devastated for his family, mourning alongside countless fans around the world, my heart is mostly numbed by the news. After hours of watching media coverage of Michael’s death — the replaying of his music videos, the reaction interviews with celebrities, and the speculation over what will happen with his children and multi million-dollar estate — I am empty.
My sadness seems echoic, its source distant and remote. After all, the Michael Jackson I love died years ago, back in the ’90s before pajama-clad court appearances and fatherhood foibles turned him into a shadow of the king he once was. That Michael, the one from Off the Wall and Thriller who provided the soundtrack for the ’80s and inspired generations of men to float like feathers on their feet, died long ago. And though he’s periodically released new albums like HIStory or Invincible, hoping for a resurrection as if singing careers rise from the dead like Lazarus, I, like many of his fans, have been grieving the loss of the man he once was for decades.
Jon Minus Kate Plus 8: The Gosselins Divorce
So the marriage is over for Jon and Kate Gosselin, the Christian parents of fraternal twins and sextuplets that stole America’s heart when their exuberant and loving family of 10 opened their lives on Discovery Health and TLC. And though I can’t say I’m surprised to hear of their divorce–the gossip mongers have been speculating about it ad nauseum for the past six months–I am saddened by the very public dissolution of the Gosselins’ marriage. No one deserves this. To have to explain a divorce to children, family, and friends is hard. To justify that decision on national television as entertainment for an audience of millions of strangers is cruel and unusual punishment.
And what’s likely to be most disappointing about this news will be…well, the news. It’s 11:30 in New York, only hours since the episode announcing their separation aired, and already the headlines blasting alerts of the couple’s heartbreak are spinning a web of speculation, gossip and cruelty online. The media loves to eat its young and spit them out.
So in case we’ve all forgotten, I wanted to jot a quick reminder (to myself included) that these are real people. Those are actual children. 
The Gosselins aren’t a fictional family dreamed up by producers or knit together by network executives and publicists. Long after we’ve forgotten about the show, perhaps in a few years when we’re greedily consuming the next spoonful of reality drama on television, this family will still exist. We must remember that the comments we make today, the scrutiny and judgment we pass, will live on once the cameras stop rolling.
And I for one don’t need the devastation of Aaden Gosselin weighing on my shoulders. And I certainly don’t want a 15-year-old Leah Gosselin to stumble across my self-righteous words in 10 years while doing a Google search of her family and fall into some sort of crisis. It’s just not right.
So yes, Jon and Kate are divorcing. And our condolences go out to their family, as they go out to all families suffering through a divorce. We pray they find peace in the midst of mourning the loss of their marriage, and we wish them great joy as they forge ahead into a future unknown.
There is much we could say, but let’s leave it that, eh?
Photos courtesy of Michael Pilla, Discovery Communications, LLC.
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