Tuesday, December 28, 2010

XHURCH NATIVITY


Photo: Eva Schifter

I posted some photos of the Xhurch's Christmas Nativity at Flickr.

(You may also view it as a slideshow with musical accompaniment here.)

The Xhurch's Christmas Nativity took place Thursday, December 23rd, between the hours of 5 and 8pm at the Xhurch. (The Xhurch, for those who don't know, is a small repurposed church in Portland, OR that has been remade into a home studio/gallery/event space. It is also home to GOD, LLC.)

The Xhurch's Christmas Nativity was a purely nostalgic nativity—a "non-theist's" nativity. It was an opportunity for a small contingent of irreligious types to create the conditions for a warm holiday scene, complete with mood lighting, low-volume Christmas music, homemade hot chocolate, homemade hot apple cider, and pews to sit and sip and reflect on the nativity.

A statement was issued to accompany the nativity which can be read here.

Special thanks to everyone involved in making the nativity a success, and to a delightful audience.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Xhurch Nativity



Duh! It was in the cards all along—the xhurch was to host a quality nativity this holiday season! And so, myself and a select group of godless cohorts have been busy constructing animals and costumes and mangers for the affair, which will take place on Thursday, December 23rd, between the hours of 5 and 7pm.

The Xhurch's Christmas Nativity also marks my first concerted venture into the visual arts realm in years. Please come and enjoy the tranquil scene, have a cup of hot chocolate, and give yourself over to nostalgia's warm embrace. Or be made breathless by the terrestrial embodiment of your literal reading.

Read the Nativity Statement

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

R2D2 Christmas Tree



A friend posted this on Facebook. Needless to say, I thought it was worth sharing. I suppose then I should have "liked" it...

It did get me thinking though—anyone have any interesting Christmas tree photos they'd like to submit? Any C-Tree-POs? Even plain-old Christmas trees can be interesting. Don't feel like you have to floor me. You couldn't possibly. Trust me I've seen EVERYTHING.

Submit to: submit@xhurch.net

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Bill Moyers on the origins of the religious 'impulse,' according to Joseph Campbell

I borrowed a great book from a friend: The Power of Myth. In it, decorated journalist, Bill Moyers, supplies the manuscripts from his interviews with Joseph Campbell in the years just before Campbell's death in 1987. The stuff of these interviews became the popular PBS documentary series, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth.

Campbell had a way of stringing stories together that was basically mesmerizing. He had a sort of benevolent, paternal authority about him—a grandfatherly command over conversation. In a way, he seems to embody a bygone masculinity. This passage isn't meant to illustrate any of that, but it does provide an interesting account of what is sometimes called the "religious instinct."

Bill Moyers recalls Joseph Campbell's view:

He imagined that this grand and cacophonous chorus began when our primal ancestors told stories to themselves about the animals that they killed for food and about the supernatural world to which the animals seemed to go when they died. "Out there somewhere," beyond the visible plain of existence, was the "animal master," who held over human beings the power of life and death: if he failed to send the beasts back to be sacrificed again, the hunters and their kin would starve. Thus early societies learned that "the essence of life is that it lives by killing and eating; that's the great mystery that the myths have to deal with." The hunt became a ritual of sacrifice, and the hunters in turn performed acts of atonement to the departed spirits of the animals, hoping to coax them into returning to be sacrificed again. The beasts were seen as envoys from that other world, and Campbell surmised "a magical, wonderful accord" growing between the hunter and the hunted, as if they were locked in a "mystical, timeless" cycle of death, burial, and resurrection. Their art—the paintings on cave walls—and oral literature gave form to the impulse we now call religion.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

'Benevolent domination:' Rorty on dealing with fundamentalist students

This is straight from the Wiki-page on Rorty which I was exploring last night...

With respect to confronting religious fundamentalism in a university setting, Rorty says:

“It seems to me that the regulative idea that we heirs of the Enlightenment, we Socratists, most frequently use to criticize the conduct of various conversational partners is that of ‘needing education in order to outgrow their primitive fear, hatreds, and superstitions’ ... It is a concept which I, like most Americans who teach humanities or social science in colleges and universities, invoke when we try to arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic, religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own ... The fundamentalist parents of our fundamentalist students think that the entire ‘American liberal establishment’ is engaged in a conspiracy. The parents have a point. Their point is that we liberal teachers no more feel in a symmetrical communication situation when we talk with bigots than do kindergarten teachers talking with their students ... When we American college teachers encounter religious fundamentalists, we do not consider the possibility of reformulating our own practices of justification so as to give more weight to the authority of the Christian scriptures. Instead, we do our best to convince these students of the benefits of secularization. We assign first-person accounts of growing up homosexual to our homophobic students for the same reasons that German schoolteachers in the postwar period assigned The Diary of Anne Frank... You have to be educated in order to be ... a participant in our conversation ... So we are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable. We are not so inclusivist as to tolerate intolerance such as yours ... I don’t see anything herrschaftsfrei [domination free] about my handling of my fundamentalist students. Rather, I think those students are lucky to find themselves under the benevolent Herrschaft [domination] of people like me, and to have escaped the grip of their frightening, vicious, dangerous parents ... I am just as provincial and contextualist as the Nazi teachers who made their students read Der Stürmer; the only difference is that I serve a better cause.”

– ‘Universality and Truth,’ in Robert B. Brandom (ed.), Rorty and his Critics (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), pp. 21-2.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Prophetic indeed...

What Maxwell fails to acknowledge are the ambitions of his own enterprise. The faithful yearn to see their doctrines gain ultimate acceptance, ever striving toward theocracy. Ridicule and marginalization are societies tools for regulating irrational, and/or unpopular beliefs.

Friday, November 26, 2010

November update: God LLC's faith intact

Another Thanksgiving has passed, providing another opportunity to converse with relatives on the topic of faith and spirituality—a sort of faith-o-metric probing I due each year, with no such plans or intentions.

But alas, coming from a big family such as mine means being one among a plurality of beliefs and opinions and making an effort to understand one another. I feel fortunate to be a twig on such a diverse family tree, especially one that gets along so famously, and teaches me so much. I'm reminded often of my minority status as an atheist.

Still, the topic of spirituality continues to occupy me, in fact it enacts the most high-functioning part of my brain, that tier reserved for an uncharacteristic seriousness, or what might get called "discourse."

What is that special thing that happens when large groups of people get together with a unified purpose? That sense of oneness?

What is that feeling of elation you get when a scenic vista is reached amidst a day-long hike?

What happens in the brains of Pentecostal churchgoers during a cathartic outpouring of song and dance?

What I've realized is that I have my own way of describing these experiences. And it's important to recognize that I do so by way of a mix-and-mash of inherited vocabularies (things I've read/been taught, conversations I've had, life experiences that have shaped me). This is true for everyone; we are shaped and limited by our use of language, and I'm lately coming to terms with the rarity of my current vocabulary, that what I take for granted as prevalent, or common wisdom in describing 'spiritual' matters, is in fact newfangled, an emerging but underutilized dialect.

Evolving alongside this dialect is a new one for the faithful as well. A morphing set of ever-nebulous descriptions that shun the specific in favor of unity and tolerance. A Shack-esque permutation. In one sense, this is a good thing, as it means less blatant unthinking, less partitioning off of the mind to allow a refuge for pure unreason—but I wonder if the religious will wake one day soon and realize that really there is nothing concrete left to stand on; that what they really wish to hold onto, aside from the promise of a neatly grounded morality, is this notion of the 'spiritual,' and the comforts of ceremony. Both are notions which, I feel, can be redescribed; in psychological terms; in scientific terms; and through poetry.

As for the alleged supernature professed by most of the world's religions, with their stories of miraculous interventions and divine oversight, I continue to see these matters through a pane so pure, so clear—as clear and as pure as the most crystalline holy water, distilled from the tears of all of heaven's most chaste angels—that these accounts are merely hearsay, the memetic flotsam of our more primitive, fearful and ignorant ancestors, and it troubles me, when others can't see what appears so obvious; that the Jesus story, and all those of the world's religions are purely terrestrial, not divinely inspired, entirely without supernature—at least none that we can sensibly comment on.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Absurd seeming church names

Ever notice how some church names are downright unintelligible? Or read less like a welcoming handle, and more like a jumbled-together string of keywords from a website's meta tag?

Take these for example:

Assemblies Of God Faith Christian Fellowship
Sound Doctrine Missionary Temple of Praise
Apostolic Assembly Of The Faith In Christ Jesus
Christian Science Eighth Church Of Christ Scientist
Greater Solid Rock Church Of God In Christ
Mt. Zion Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas
Praise All Day Church of the Redeemer Christ Our Everlasting King

It's almost as if there's a master list of select church jargon that gets assigned to some lottery balls, and the first four or five to pop up indicate the name of a new sect:


Come on in, the fire's warm!
Photo: Jason Rinka

Here are some others that are funny for one reason or another:

Ark Of Safety Church Of God In Christ
Holiness Or Hell Church Of God In Christ
Boring United Methodist Church (Boring, MD)
The Entire Bible Church
C.R.A.C.K. House Ministries (Christ Resurrects After Crack Kills)

Friday, November 19, 2010

Petty Friday: The Jesus Coin Holy Medallion Of Life

Courtesy of the Miami-based, The National Center For Religious Collectibles, you too can own this "special keepsake of His Eternal Love."



That's right, "in these uncertain times, don't be without this most important symbol of hope."

And if you're having second thoughts, remember, "True collectors recognize the majesty of this hand sculpted, master-crafted collectible."

HE WHO BELIEVES HAS ETERNAL LIFE!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Xhurch update: Part II

I forgot to mention. I found out some interesting history on the church. A neighbor tipped me off that there was an historic photo of the church at the Oregon History Museum. So I visited the OHS website to see if I could access it online but struck out, so I called their office and they referred me to the research library, to whom I sent an email soliciting historical materials. They got back rather promptly with two photos and a newspaper clipping(!)—all dating to-or-before 1952.

The newspaper clipping, stamped October 9th, 1952, told of a neighborhood controversy that was spurred when the church—then a synagogue—was in the process of being sold to, as the article states: "a negro congregation." Nothing like old periodicals to prove the impermanent nature of language.

Having the names of the two congregations involved in the sale, I was then able to poke Google's brain for more info, and Google responded faithfully, like a giant sea anemone that first turned inward—all its tentacles aflutter, and then spat back a name—that of a man called Samuel Gruber, who has a blog: Samuel Gruber's Jewish Art & Monuments.

His September 10th, 2010 entry pretty much tells it all.


The Xhurch, circa 1950. Photographer: unknown

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Xhurch update


As you may have read, October was a chilly month here. The heat has since been turned on however, and now I eagerly await my first bill so that I can know the cost of the relative luxury I've been enjoying within the newly warmed church walls. Seriously, I have high hopes for this bill. I feel that most of the obvious places where heat was bound to escape have been plugged up.

In the meantime, I've gotten use to cooking on two small camping-style burners and with a toaster oven (a highly efficient way to cook for up to two people). Also, my sleeping situation has changed somewhat, at least for the time being. Previously, I had unwittingly recreated the sleeping conditions of my infant-hood, when I shoved two pews together to create a cradle-like bed—the 'manger' as I liked to call it. Lined with wadded-up newspaper to level out the sleeping surface and then layered with two sheets of egg-crate foam, this was a surprisingly comfortable arrangement. Now I'm on a small mattress on the floor. Neither are as comfortable as my old queen-size bed, but I'm avoiding my former mattress in favor of stowaway-ability. It's important I'm able to make my bed disappear with no fuss to free up space for other of the church's functions.

At large, the xhurch feels more and more like home. I've become accustomed to a radically different color palette. The light and objects found here are strikingly distinct from anyplace I've ever lived. This is owed largely to the deep red carpets and blue-green stained glass windows, which mediate every bit of light that enters the building. I've found that it's best if I start the day by getting outdoors (even if just for a walk around the block) so as to expose myself to true daylight, and avoid the feeling of being shut-in. Working from home, and generally eating here too, the tendency is to be indoors a lot. It takes surprising discipline sometimes, especially in wintertime, just to get out.

I guess the good news is, I like my cell. There are trade-offs of course—I've outlined a few. But the church is a most-nurturing workshop, endlessly flexible, warm and spacious—accommodating, but just moody enough to keep my interest. I think I'll stay awhile.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Richard Dawkins stands and talks with Wendy Wright

Wow. Where to begin. I think what makes this interview remarkable (and I haven't even watched past Part 1/7) is the way it's staged. It reminds me of the unsteadied, hyper-realistic quality that modern sitcoms have—where the line between reality TV and the traditional sitcom is blurred to the point where now, not only are the cameras shaky—reminding us there are operators behind them—but it almost seems normal to have an actor turn and face the the viewer in furtive acknowledgment, or for a confessional aside.

The participants in this interview do not do this. In fact, their ability to ignore the camera is astounding. But, it's clear both players—especially the perma-pleasant, plastic faced, crazy-eyed Wendy Wright—are aware they are making a media appearance.

Meta critique aside, this interview—while being viewer crack like a sitcom—is a momentous example of the cultural divide between Faith and Reason. A distillation of the all-cliched debate between a hard-nosed, incredulous (and in this case, admirably accommodating) scientist, and a hard-line, provincial, painfully oblivious, psychologically walled-off, unable-to-see-past-her-own-nose, faith-head.

It's the sort of thing where if you encountered it at a cocktail party, you might roll your eyes and kindly steer your date toward more promising company. Or perhaps (depending on your temperament) you might just shrink and repel from the ungodly awkwardness.

Of course, there's always those doting spectators who linger quietly on the periphery. Easy enough to be one of those on the internet.

Okay back to the fireworks (Part 2/7).

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Catholic Church sees decrease in nuns and monks, members of clergy

As BBC reports, the Catholic Church has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of "members of the consecrated life"—basically, nuns and monks, but also priests and deacons. This, despite a reported overall increase in Church membership to over 1.1 billion.

Inherently skeptical of such attempts to quantify religiosity, I did some poking around online. If the National Council of Churches' Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches is any indicator, then it can be expected that such statistics (which are reported annually by participating churches to the NCC) are representative of the state of the Church two years prior to the year of a given report being published, as the 2010 numbers are representative of polling that occurred in 2008. Given this two year lag time, I would be interested to see the 2012 figures given the torrent of controversy that engulfed the Church earlier this year.

BBC correspondents also pointed out the increase in membership "failed to keep pace with the overall increase in world population."

Even still, if the Catholic Church continues to grow in the face of all the scandal that plagues it it will not be to my surprise, as the troubled third world is being evangelized evermore; a nettlesome side effect of the much needed help they are receiving.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Meow Kids

Every once in a while you encounter something and you know right where to put it.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Petty Friday: The Truth About Mormon Undergarments

Of all faiths, Mormonism is perhaps the most open to ridicule on account of its relative newness. Minted in 1830 by the self-proclaimed prophet, Joseph Smith Jr., the Book of Mormon (though penned in the 19th century) is written using 17th century english.

Fast-forward 180 years and we see the Mormon meme in action:

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

"Banned" Mormon Cartoon

When's Momanism the movie coming out? This would be radical in 3D!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Omen, Children Of The Corn, Suspiria, and other ungodly horror films



It's freaky movie month here at the xhurch, and having always fancied myself a horror buff, I realized recently (while browsing an "all time best" list) that there are countless titles—many classics even—that I've never really seen.

A handful, as it turns out, I only think I've seen—an effect of having walked the Hollywood Video horror aisle umpteen times in my pre-teen years.

Fast-forward to the present and a trip to the back room at Movie Madness is all it takes to realize the oceanic depths of the genre.

But The Omen, how had I never seen The Omen.

The less you know going in the better, I say:

The Omen
Children Of The Corn
Suspiria
Pet Sematary
Jaws
The Exorcist
Rosemary's Baby
The Shining
The Thing
Let The Right One In
Phantasm

This list is no doubt a fragment.

Suspiria is a movie to see.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Energy $avings + Cold Xhurches



I'm thinking about energy savings and efficiency a lot lately. The xhurch is getting cold. But I'm just talking like 55 degrees-cold and it already feels coooold. I'm trying to imagine 40's or god-forbid, 30-anything. So I'm looking at heating it, but I gotta find a way to do it affordably. Weather-stripping and frugal usage I think will be the key. At a minimum, I'll have to heat the place enough to keep the pipes from freezing, but I also have to work, and you can't type very well in Bugaboos.

I guess the point is, that I'd kinda planned on roughing it this winter. Wearing a parka and sleeping with a scarf tied around my head, where dreams of sweet Spring would surely be dancing. Well, it's October, and while I haven't said uncle just yet, I can anticipate saying it real soon. So I called NW Natural, and they gave me a good tip. Ceiling fans. Do I have them? they asked. Why, yes. Yes I do. This will help keep the warm air from simply rising and collecting in the 3,200 cubic feet of vaulted ceiling space, 9 feet above where it's of any use to me. And so, while turning on the fans seems like a counter-intuitive thing to do in the winter time, this just may help keep me a little warmer on a budget.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Park51: Just Another Community Center, or Sly Theocratic Implement 'Victory Mosque'—You Decide!

The whole "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy has been sensationalized. I've thought to cover it here, but why stoke the fire. Plus, if I allowed every public interest story with a religious motif to obligate me, I'd be committing myself to a life of solitude and digital abandon.

That said, the recently released artist's renderings for the proposed Park51 community center (formerly, Cordoba House) have spurred my interest. What they depict is a strikingly contemporary design, featuring an irregularly-patterned, honeycomb-like facade (reportedly based on abstractions from traditional arabesque patterns), and a crystalline interior that, as the above linked AP article put it, "could be an annex to Superman's Fortress of Solitude."



But aside from the somewhat adventurous look of the proposed community center/prayer facility, I'm interested mostly by what the look has to say about the mood of the building's proprietors. Clearly its meant to signal a break from the past. But in what direction does it point? And to what extent is its modernized aesthetic merely an appeal to secular society? Essentially, how much can the immutable doctrine of Islam really be expected to change?

Here's the best of three articles I read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/03/park51-building-ground-zero-mosque

Thursday, September 30, 2010

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey

Some interesting findings at the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life.

What a fantastic resource. What an immaculate website. If I weren't so un-enthralled by data sets, I would spend all day here. This is data design at its best. Crisp. Clear. Impeccably organized. Behold the elegance of the drop-down charts found here.

I'm made to think of Edward Tufte, who has some fine books on this stuff. I'm sure he'd approve.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

False profits



So yesterday took a turn for the fortuitous. First, I encountered this Slate article by Hitchens, which got me thinking about the "sort of free pass" that secular white America gives to black religious contingents.

Hitchens says:

"Many other charlatans have benefited from the clerical racket, and the most notorious of them—Jerry Falwell, Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart—have been white. But there is something especially horrible about the way in which the black pulpit gets a sort of free pass, almost as if white society has assured itself that black Americans just love them some preaching. In this fog of ethnic condescension, it is much easier for mountebanks and demagogues to get away with it."


(A well elucidated point, I'd say. Something I've thought about but never put a finger on.)

That same evening I caught up with my friend Simon who happens to be reading God Is Not Great (and enjoying it, it sounds). In the book, Hitchens references a documentary: Marjoe. Simon watched it, said I might like it. He was right.

This film is somewhat mesmerizing. The title's namesake, Marjoe (a combination of the names Mary and Joseph), is a charismatic preacher, but a completely disingenuous one. Raised by professional evangelists who had him trained to spew the gospel at the ripe age of three (seriously, the results make Joe Jackson seem like a slouch), Marjoe went on to rebel and leave his life of church-itude behind, mixing instead with the free-spirited milieu of The Sixties. After some time, and after 'normalizing' to some extent, Marjoe returns to his life of preaching—only this time with a film crew.

Together they precede to dupe church honchos and followers alike, raking in ill-won donations, and exposing the ungodly art of religious charlatanism. It's really something to behold.

In one of the film's most memorable scenes, Marjoe gives a rousing (albeit characteristically canned) sermon at a mostly black Pentecostal church where the energy is downright effervescent. It's this scene that caused me to think back on the Hitchens article.

There's something so pure and genuine seeming—not about the preachers at black Pentecostal churches (at least not the ones featured in Marjoe)—but about the overall energy put forth by the congregation, the band, the gospel choir, the little old ladies with their little old lady hats and their hands in the air. It seems to defy the prejudices I have for other, stuffier, more stifling models of religious assemble, where instead of joyful outbursts you get solemn pageantry.

Now, I'm not excited about people continuing to delude themselves in either of these time-honored fashions. But for my money—or rather, had I to choose a church to preserve for posterity—I'd choose the Pentecostal faith for its sheer vitality and evident catharsis. What can I say, it plays on my sympathy. Part of what I think Hitchens was getting at.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Church improvements continue

Hey all. Sometimes I feel like a big jerk on this blog. Then other times I feel like so totally justified. These are growing pains people!

Anyways, onto the most recent improvements around the ol' church (for those who are curious).



Finally got that kitchen sink installed (actually, that got finished a couple weeks ago).

Just this past week however I managed to find a temporary home for six of the fourteen pews that have been congesting the nave (i.e., my living room) for the past month.



The eight remaining pews will at times be a burden, but will also come in handy in certain applications. A blessing and a curse, as I like to say.

I think I'd like to start another weblog to deal exclusively with the church project. A place where others can feel encouraged to share their stories of church rehab/reuse. I think it will be called xhurches. I think a coffee table book will eventually follow. Or a coffee table digital-data-display ebook download, or whatever it ends up being when I finally get around to it.

Consider this an open invite to share any knowledge of church adaptations. I think I'm aware of two others in town. Gonna follow up.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Nothin up top but a bucket and a mop...



Jaycob got himself well inside the hole in the ceiling of the pastor's office. No bucket or mop, or bird books, but there was a 5-gallon drum of cottonseed oil that looks antique-y. I asked the internet if it was, it didn't know.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Portland churches

So I was driving out to deep Southeast last Monday and I noticed an abundance of churches, which got me wondering; how many churches are there in Portland? A google search for "portland churches" yielded this chicken pocked portrait:


Since then I've seen some other cool ones around. Maybe I'll begin to document them. Here's a few I captured that day with my iPhone:






Also, this is off topic but that same day I encountered this blatant reuse of the Hollywood Video lettering:

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

21st Century Minimalism

Part of me feels like my new life at the church is the confluence of a system of streams and tributaries, all channeling the stuff of dog-eared pages and trickling past efforts into a wide river of dreams and unrealized potential. It's a bit overwhelming.

I'm continuously reminded of connections. Reading articles online, skating to the taco stand, washing dishes; all these activities have a way of reminding me of the multitudinous influences that have resulted in what, for me, amounts to a "value system." I use quotes because, though I've grown accustom to the analogy, a 'system' connotes a much higher degree of rigor than I'm capable of embodying.

Still, there are values that have and continue to shape my decisions and, in turn, my direction—some of them steadier than others. I like to think of these 'systems' as being comprised of singular units, or cells or something of that sort. Each full of an idea or an influence and connected the whole in an array of untold complexity. We often encounter these influences similar to how a cat encounters the edge of a table, that is, we brush up against them—often as a matter of contingency, to use a word of one of my favorite philosophers.

This is never more true than while surfing the web.

Recently I've encountered a number of articles outlining an emerging cultural trend—that of an emerging frugality, or 'minimalism'. The gist can be gleaned from the title of a recent BBC piece, "Cult of less: Living out of a hard drive."

The idea here is that, with technology fastly weaving a virtual alternative to the physical world, a new world of cleaner lines and fewer possessions is imminent. Fewer possessions also means less space required for living. It's a simple concept, something we've probably all thought about—something best exemplified by the virtual "office" analogy, complete with "folders," "files" and a "desktop." These are all physical objects that were once a requirement for "doing business."

(As I'm typing this, I'm wondering what industries aren't currently undergoing a revolution. Computers are changing everything. Read Virnor Vinge's, "The Coming Technological Singularity" for an unsettling perspective on this.)

Contributing to this new 'minimalism' are two other obvious factors—the economy and our environmental woes. Not only are we adapting to a sharp economic contraction, we are also undergoing a shift in consciousness regarding the environment. Sobering climate reports and population growth trends have strained the call for sustainability, and this has in turn further suppressed economic growth. So in effect, there is a triple convergence of influences (technology/environment/economy) all directing us to reassess what it means to survive and to thrive. Unfortunately, the waking world is slow to catch on.

Business (perhaps inherently conservative) is still stuck in the old model which demands wasteful and redundant commutes, back and forth, back and forth. Having worked a traditional office job (with a traditional commute) I understand the advantages of a synergistic work environment where face-to-face interactions and accountability are the imperative. But the time has come for business leaders to recognize the new landscape that technology allows and strike a balance between "synergy" and technology.*

This means boldly weeding out waste. If I had to summarize what it is to be a 21st Century Minimalist, or among the "Cult of Less"—and believe me I'm not trying to claim fellowship, my friends would laugh themselves out of their chairs! (I have a tendency to accumulate things... some call it "hoarding")—if I had to summarize, I would start by saying it is a faction fundamentally averse to waste. This is something I identify with readily. Somewhere along the way, I became hyper-aware of waste I create. It's become a bit of an obsession—now, it's to the point where I'd rather not create any, but this is of course wishful thinking, subject to endless interpretation and circumstance.

Nonetheless, it's an ideal that's part of what makes the church (God LLC's new home) such a grand upgrade. The church is a place that I believe affirms this notion of "less." It's the embodiment of a value system—an adapted space which devalues religious worship, champions reuse, and despises waste. A dust speck on a dense and vibrant local landscape, where daily amenities are accessible by foot or by bike. A place where work gets done on a computer (much entertainment derived there too), where a proper desk is overkill, a filing cabinet hardly necessary, a television/souped-up stereo/entertainment center shunned, along with CD racks, DVD racks, etc. A bookshelf may yet be serviceable, as I still fetishize books, but not phonebooks!

What is more (or less?), the absence of walls—those intimate envoys of space instruction that can at times feel like your fussy mother went and cleaned and organized your room for you while you were out—makes way for a lovingly open plan, whose airy expanse looks to the occupant for instruction.

For some time now I've wondered (for about as long as I've been certain that religious orthodoxy is on the wane), what will become of the world's churches? Not the world's famous churches, but the run-of-the-mill churches, the humdrum chapels bespeckling the countryside, the modest worship houses and mid-sized naves, too many to count, in our cities and towns.

According to the lispy Slovenian philosopher (and atheist), Slavoj Žižek, "Churches should be turned into grain silos or palaces of culture."

What I'd like to impart is that adaptive reuse, particularly that of churches, is an exciting prospect. At the intersection of sustainability and preservation, the new minimalism, and the old conservatism.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

xhurch Improvement



I apologize if this forum turns into a home improvement blog in the coming weeks, but my new environ requires a few renovations and upgrades. The most pressing of which, you might imagine to be a shower. But in fact it is a kitchen sink. There is little dignity in asking your friends "hey can I grab a shower on my visit?" but there is even littler dignity in meticulously scraping residual food into the garbage before washing your dishes in the bathroom sink.

Thankfully, I have a talented and motley pool of friends from whom to call upon for their many varied services and generosity. Today's task will require the expertise of Reggie, a skilled plumber and all-around rad dude.

In preparation for today's work I had to school myself in the ways of random orbit sanding. This is not rocket science, and in fact, I got a brief demo from Isaac (the friend that loaned me the sander, also a rad dude). This generosity and community-building is one of the imminent joys of a project like this, and still I'm surprised and grateful at the willingness of friends to contribute their time and resources.

Okay, it's easy to get sappy when there are sponsors to thank. This God, LLC Church Improvement update was brought to you in part by Porter-Cable Quicksand® random orbital sander:

Monday, August 16, 2010

Repurposed Church



God, LLC has recently relocated. The new digs: a humble but lovely church in NE Portland. I think it goes without saying that I am smug to inhabit such a once-holy venue—what with its pews and pulpit and stained glass windows. But as the veneer of sacredness quickly wears off, I'm struck by the brisk pace at which a space can be transformed from "holy" to ordinary.

Not that a live-in church is exactly ordinary.

In its olde role, as a proper church (that is to say, before I moved in) the building struggled to fulfill its intended function; the outside, unremarkable, nondescript, too small and outdated to impart credibility or attract prospective newcomers; the inside, similarly unimpressive, too tiny to accommodate anything more than a micro-congregation, at least by today's standards.

(In this respect [were I a little more like Oregon's own, Edmond Creffield], I'd image it a good place to start up a new faith—or a new 'radical' arm of some existing faith. Or a cult. Funny that we make these distinctions.)

But in its new role, as a new "church" (that is to say, since I've moved in), such a venue becomes a cavern of possibility. Its design is meant to invite, to accommodate, to direct attention forward and upward—but upward toward what? What shall we exalt here in this newly scrubbed cabin? this church without a name? this place now one-fewer for the spreading of simple, dogmatic memes?

These are the questions I am wrestling with of late. Pawing at more like. I have some ideas. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Rootin' for you Hitch.

Maybe I should just change the title of this blog to Hitch, LLC. At least for a few months. Hitch, LLC: Diagnosis and Progress...

Just read this article from Hitchens at Vanity Fair:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-201009

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Christopher Hitchens has throat cancer

The brazen and embattled atheist, Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great and a recent memior, has been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. The survival rate for such cancer is disheartening (the five-year relative survival rate is well under 50%, even for cases where the cancer is localized [see American Cancer Society report]).

Also in the above-linked report are recommendations for prevention, which read like an inverse to-do list of Hitchens' daily regimen. The heavy-set, enfant terrible is known for leading an indulgent lifestyle with plenty of drinking and smoking.

That said, his public stance against all forms of religious zealotry has been nothing short of heroic. God, LLC wishes him the best possible recovery.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Repent Christians. Repent Now.



Six-story-tall "Touchdown" Jesus burns to the ground in Monroe, Ohio, after being struck by lightning. I've embedded the official press release above, but there's all sorts of junk floating around the web:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10321466.stm

Friday, June 4, 2010

The Shack: Didn't read it.


Continuing on in my as-of-late curatorial role, I bring you more spotty coverage.

The Shack: Wanted to read and review it, but didn't. Keep seeing it at Freddie's and am aware that it has made quite the splash in believer circles and among those pining. But, alas, time sinks elsewhere.

And now, thanks to this splendid review, my desire to read it is abated!

Thanks, Slate:
http://www.slate.com/id/2255741/