Joyful Easter. Fifty thousand years of accumulated experience by the 70 – 100 billion Humans who have lived on this planet have led us to know at least one thing: the dead don’t return. Continue reading »
8
April
This we know: the dead do not return.
13
March
Revolution?
welcome back. you belong here.
I was asked this last week about Barna’s new book Revolution. I confess that by-and-large I don’t read Christian books. Barna’s book is no exception. So while I couldn’t comment on the content of the book, I did comment on the title, Revolution.
Continue reading »
4
March
The Culture Code –Part 4
Welcome back. You belong here.
Thoughts on the Culture Code, by Clotaire Rapaille
Part 4: Keep Dreaming: America in the eyes of Europe
So far in this series of thoughts based on The Culture Code, by cultural anthropologist and marketing Guru, Clotaire Rappaille, we’ve talked about Emotional Imprinting and the meaning of “toilet paper”, “sex” and “love” as well as the meaning of “shopping” and “Christmas” in America.
Before we reveal the one word, the “Code”, that unlocks the heart of the American, let’s take a moment to answer the question, what one word or “Code” captures the European view of America?
28
February
Babel Revisited
Welcome back. You belong here.
Jacques Barzun writes:
It is a noteworthy feature of 20th century culture that for the first time in over a thousand years its educated class is not expected to be at least bilingual.
Dean Briggs of Harvard College (c. 1900) noted that
The new degree of Bachelor of Science does not guarantee that the holder knows any science. It does guarantee that he does not know any latin.
In Los Angeles many people speak [or read] at least two languages often times three or more. Not through intentional education really but through the happy side benefits of immigration. Immense global migration patterns and economic forces are moving Asians east and Latin Americans north. Only those from “back east” [i.e. the Midwest] did not benefit linguistically from migration to the City of Angels.
How much did we lose when we as a culture lost language? Are we Babel revisited? How important is it to add Spanish or Mandarin or Hebrew to our menu of self education? What do you think?
So many universes to explore. So little time. God I love this planet.
Welcome to the future.
8
January
The Culture Code — Part 2
The Culture Code – Seduction, Sex and Love in America
- Last week’s principle: Emotion is the energy required to learn anything
- Last week’s example: Toilet paper
- A Conversation on The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille
Today let’s talk about seduction, sex and love. Yes, you’ll want to link to this article and forward it to all your friends. Clotaire Rapaille, author of The Culture Code, pegs American culture as “stuck” in the adolescent stage. He attributes this to the fact that we never had to “kill the king” to become who we are. [Unlike the French who killed their king and supposedly grew up]. Rapaille totally misses it here. Not with regard to the fact that America is in the adolescent stage. Of course we are. You know, 40 is the new 30. And since 30 is the new 20, we’re all just barely out of our teens. We are an adolescent culture. He errs in his assessment that killing the king is what adolescent cultures need to do to become mature cultures.
In any case, Rapaille offers interesting insight when it comes to love, seduction and sex. In America the Code for love is FALSE EXPECTATIONS. The culture code for sex is VIOLENCE. [Dead on, in my opinion.] The code for seduction is MANIPULATION. Continue reading »
2
January
Decoding Culture– Part 1
Welcome back. You belong here.
The Culture Code – Why we live and buy as we do
As Christ followers in the west, we must take advantage of our priviledge to “exegete” scripture. What are these ancient people trying to say to each other about what is meaningful to them? We must also “exegete” the cultures of 21st century Nashville or Miami, Edinburgh or Dusseldorf, Paris or Barcelona, Tokyo or Sidney. What’s particular to a context? What’s universal? Last week I read The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille. [Yes, the author is French but let's give him a chance.] Rapaille is also an immigrant to America. Like me. He’s a cultural anthropologist that consults half of the Fortune 100 companies on
marketing issues.
In a way, Rapaille does what every thoughtful missionary has always done. He decodes culture. This task, once the domain of overseas workers, has come “home” and become part of the work for every church planter, pastor and leader in the West. We live in a changed culture and the clues to communicating with and reaching people have changed. Rapaille discusses several items of interest. Among these are
11
December
REEL Time: Mel Gibson’s APOCALYPTO
Welcome back. You belong here.
Mel Gibson’s new movie, Apocalypto, though released in December, is not exactly your holiday fare. Mark Marsden and I took some time this past Friday to review this gory, action filled historical fiction. Emphasis on the fiction.
While not seasonally appropriate, Apocalypto does provide some fodder in our search for a spiritual anthropology. We can avoid the criticisms of whether or not Mel is trying to demonstrate the horrific ugliness of non-christian cultures in comparison to the Roman Catholicism he espouses. Of course he is. But he also shows within the film both the potential ugliness and pristine humanity of non-christian cultures as compared to each other. Gibson’s film can lead to a fruitful discussion as to whether or not there is within human cultures –even Christian ones — a “heart of darkness”. [Allusion to Joseph Conrad's work intended].
The peoples who practiced human sacrifice, or cannabalism in the Americas or in Europe, were after all people like us. What changed us? Or, have we really changed? After all, power, fear, superstition and greed still drive the human machine.
In relative terms, we might also discuss the merits of the expansion of western culture. Would people really have been better off in net terms without the gains in science and technology, law and culture that the western expansion provided? This is a movie sure to inspire conversation along the ideological chasm between left and right in western culture. And that’s a good thing because clarity is sometimes more important than agreement. What do you think?
Register before the holidays and save.
HUMANA 2.0
Join Erwin McManus (Mosaic), David Arcos (Mosaic), Alex McManus (IMN, VOXTROPOLIS.COM) in Orlando, Fl this Feb.
25
June
The Present Future – Corn Tamales “con crema”
Welcome back.
In 1946, only 8,000 homes, all of which were in the USA, had television.
As a child growing up in El Salvador, I remember anticipating the afternoon Disney cartoons. My younger brother, Erwin, and I would sit behind TV trays, eating corn tamales “con crema”, faithfully waiting for the “snow” to stop and the black and white cartoons featuring Mickey and Donald to come on.
Things change. Today, we carry our computers, televisions, and telephones with us. I can watch my favorite shows on the road by storing them on my ipod. We can call each other as we travel in our cars. Blackberry. The one word says it all.
Tomorrow will push things even further. These portable technologies will become embedded in our bodies. One major problem today –for me anyway– is that I lose my car keys. Sometimes I lose the entire car, but that’s another story. That problem will be solved by voice recognition, or finger print access, or telepathetic access to a wireless device in our brains that will open the door to our cars via “blue tooth”.
Credit card, driver’s license, passport, email…you name it. It will be embedded in us. That’s a long way from 1946. One thing, however, continues to be the same and, I project, will not be altered by future technology.
Corn tamales “con crema” will still be really good.
See you in the Mystic,
Alex McManus
————————————————
News and Updates:
- Apply now for the 2007 cohort of the International Mentoring Network
- Register today for the IMN regionals –Chattanooga, Detroit, Montreal, Providence
21
April
Africa
I’ve been meeting with a couple of hundred women and men,
some deeply embedded in dangerous and harsh fields.
I’ve listened to first hand accounts of Muslims traveling
by the cover of night for a chance to hear of the mystic…
of mystic warriors traveling by camel over the most
hostile terrains for the chance to guide others towards the mystic…
of soldiers blinded by a mystic light and kept from
seeing recent converts hiding in nearby quarters for months at a time…
of radically converted guides changing from one set of clothes to another seconds before authorities came to arrest them…and escaping capture.
I’ve been teaching on the subject of spiritual warfare and spiritual wellness…
but I’ve been learning too. And remembering.
VOX of the day: Top 10 Reasons to go to ORIGINS
photos: giraffes running; me on safari in search of the mystic; death waiting; chameleon; tall tree; red tree. photos: Lucas McManus, Alex McManus.
into the mystic…
Alex McManus
21
February
A Mystic Leader’s Crash Course: Light
Welcome back.
A Mystic Leader’s Crash Course
Part 3: Light
The role of the leader is
- to describe the world we live in
- to strive to live in the world he describes with moral authenticity
- to call others to join him in a quest to save the universe
Describing the world in which we live is increasingly complex given the way 21st century media gives us immediate awareness of the diverse histories, experiences and movements that make up our world.
I would like to suggest four images to 21st century leaders as a help in describing the world in which we live.
- darkness
- light
- wind
- clouds
Light. Here’s the most basic, primal reality: God is creating the universe again via the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Light illuminated and warmed a world in darkness not from within the Temple nor within the church, not from within the scriptures nor within the Sunday morning sermon, but on the “outside” where the rest of us live. The cave from which he rose and the places where he appeared were outside. It was outside that light proved itself stronger than the deepest darkness. 
darkness and light; Derek Langley, 2005
The God who spoke and raised Jesus from the dead is He who spoke and said, “Let there be light.” There is nothing else standing behind this primal reality, nothing else which must be referenced in order to undergird this basic truth. In fact, beginning a statement of core convictions with statements about the Bible or the Church puts the cart before the horse. As indispensible a treasure as are the Scriptures and the Church, they are secondary to the God who made the universe and is now making the universe again.
With the same authority with which He spoke all things into being, He now makes all things new by raising Jesus from the dead. This is good news for the world “outside” that lives without reference to the vital clue of scripture.
Because the resurrection happened “outside,” the resurrection stands as an event that can be interpreted and debated, believed in or rejected, considered or ignored by everyone in the world. The conversation about the light of Christ must never isolated within the community of faith but must be conducted “outside” where it happened. This is good for those “outside” but it is definitely good for those “inside.” It keeps us honest.
Those outside who know the depth of darkness, who come to see the light, love the light all the more. Suddenly everything is different. Nature is creation. The Bible is scripture. Human beings are creatures. The second things become second again and in finding their rightful place represent God in the world.
What do you think?
Into the Mystic…
Alex McManus
flags in Montreal: September 2005, Alex McManus