Yes, I Know that the President is Black.

I spent the first 5 years of my life in Garland, TX, surrounded by as many different ethnic groups as you would see at a UN council meeting. My brother and I played with a group that included white kids, black kids, two brothers from a Hispanic family, and a Korean boy. There were no minorities or racial issues - just kids who wanted to have fun. (Every child should be so lucky.) I kept this attitude when I moved to a different city where black people and white people treated each other very differently; I found this racist behavior very perplexing, because I believed that racism was something that we only studied in history books.

In responding to President Obama's Sate of the Union Address, MSNBC's Chris Matthews says that he "forgot Obama was black" for an hour. When he was informed that this was a rather odd statement, he commented that Obama was creating some sort of post-racial society in which we couldn't see color, anymore.

I already live there. I don't consider Obama's speeches in the context of black society or as the words of a representative from another culture. Our modern understanding of biology has informed all but the most foolish among us that racism has no foundation; the differences between a white person and a black person are as minor as those between and blond and a redhead.

Of course, I learned all of this on the playground when I was a kid. I hope that Obama's skin color will eventually stop being the only thing these people notice about him, because we can't be in this "post-racial" society until people like Chris Matthews stop bringing it up.

Lessons Learned from Christian Video Games

I remember hearing about Christian Nintendo games when I was a kid, and I think I saw a cartridge of one once, but I never knew much about them. The trend came and went without much notice, but I recently came across a review of one of these games, called Spiritual Warfare, from SydLexia's website and I was absolutely stunned.

I could say that these games are cheesy or derivative, but that's not a big deal. Anyone my age who grew up with video games knows that a LOT of video games were sub-par, so that sort of thing isn't of much interest to me.

What does interest me is the insulting attitude the game had toward social groups. As the character in the game explores different parts of society he comes into contact with racial stereotypes and must throw pears at them in order to convert them. (Yep.) I'll quote SydLexia's review:

...aside from maniacal public workers that plant ludricrous amounts of explosives, you'll encounter men in business suits, wearing color-coordinated skullcaps. Now, I'm not saying that these skullcaps are yarmulkes, and I'm not saying that these businessmen had obscene amounts of bagels and offered to lend me money, but by the time I had made it to the second boss lair, every fruit toss resulted in an involuntary shout of "Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten!", accompanied by a robust Sieg Heil toward my monitor.

The only enemies you'll encounter are airport security, some generic people running around on the tarmac, and Buddhists. If you thought having Jews in the business district and having Jehovah's Witnesses in the residential sector were bad stereotypes, this is even worse. Not only are the Buddhists hanging out at the airport, but they're holding pamphlets, wearing togas, and they're bald. If you manage to avoid their heretical teachings of inner peace and harmony with nature, the warehouse district awaits you.

Other villains you must face include Jehovah's Witnesses, homeless winos, and Hispanic warehouse workers.

The obvious problem here is this villainizing of normal people. Treating Jews and Buddhists like enemies is not a good thing to teach, and this game is shameful for doing so. Some people criticize main stream video games for desensitizing children to murder and mayhem. In an attempt to make a more "Godly" game, Wisdom Tree showed young people how to marginalize other cultural groups - kids would have been better off playing Doom.

I haven't got a problem with Christian video games, but using them to teach children social agendas and to look down on other groups in the neighborhood isn't so cool. (However, going down to Hell at the end of the game and killing Satan is pretty cool.) You can read all of SydLexia.com's review here and you can play the game online here!

Album Review: 'Hello Hurricane' by Switchfoot

(Yeah, this is late. My copy got lost in the mail, so I only recently got to listen to this entire album.)

Hello Hurricane is Switchfoot's latest release, and it does not disappoint for a single moment. The new album contains everything a Switchfoot fan has come to expect from the band: great melodies, driving guitars, and lyrics that make you think while simultaneously rocking out. Personally, I think it's their best work in many years, and I love that they released it on vinyl.

The music is excellent. Each song strikes me with its clever guitar work as the three guitar players confront the listener with a well written wall of melodies that really speak for themselves. It's also incredibly well recorded; the guitars have the exciting sound you would expect from a My Morning Jacket album or an old Smashing Pumpkins tune. I don't know how, but since their sophomore album, New Way to Be Human, Switchfoot has managed to maintain the highest production values in the industry.

Now, I can listen to Switchfoot the same way I listen to Let it Be. Sweet.

Two years ago, I met Jon Foreman (Switchfoot's frontman) during his solo tour at a conference. His acoustic music (discussed here) tackled deep issues and fit right in with the heavy handed philosophical discussions we had been having all day. This is expected in a Bob Dylan-esque acoustic gig, but Hello Hurricane somehow manages to accomplish the same thing in a driving rock album; rarely can a band accomplish such lyricism without sounding corny.

The music is exciting, the lyrics are thought-provoking, and the production quality is through the roof. I can't recommend the album highly enough.

Thinking Through Pat Robertson and His Foolish Words

In a humorous holiday episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the Devil is invited to a Thanksgiving dinner where he is asked to tell everyone what he is thankful for. He looks up and replies, "Pat Robertson." It's a funny joke, but many Christians do feel as if Mr. Robertson is playing for the other team. His odd remarks about Haiti have only continued this trend, because what he said was foolish and completely un-biblical.

What, Exactly, Did He Say?

Here's what he said on The 700 Club, on January 13th:

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it,” Robertson said on his Christian Broadcasting Network show. “They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ “True story. And the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal,”‘ Robertson said. “Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

French historians were quick to point out the flaws in his history lesson.

Is That Sort of Thing in the Bible?

Christianity does not work this way. No part of scripture tells us that God intends to allow natural disasters to overcome any country that involves themselves in sin. Obviously, if things worked this way the Nazis could not have come into power, Stalin would have been struck by lightening, and nations that broadcast pornography during prime time would suffer yearly droughts.

No, there's no precedent for this nonsense in Christianity. Sure, in the Old Testament God punished people as he saw fit, but the Bible doesn't establish a predictable formula for this sort of thing; in fact, His preferred method was to establish good relations with those nations. (See Jonah, for example.)

A lot of questions are unanswered. For starters, how did a bunch of Haitians find the Devil? Does he have a house around there, or is there a way to summon him that French slaves were privy to? Pat Robertson never works this stuff out and the Bible doesn't make it clear that this sort of thing is even possible. The whole story is ridiculous and sounds more like pagan mythology than any part of Christianity.

So...Where Does Pat Robertson Get This Stuff?

Pat Robertson makes news every few months with failed predictions of the future; he has predicted natural disasters and terror attacks that never materialized - often accompanied by the phrase "...that is, if I heard God correctly..." (I don't remember Isaiah ever saying that.) Other times, he is issuing condemnations, like claiming that homosexuals were responsible for Hurricane Katrina; this is a ridiculous notion that is not supported by any statement in the Bible. We are expected to take Robertson's word for it that he is God's prophet, but none of his "prophecies" come true.

So, I don't know where he is coming from. He's certainly not talking about the God that is worshiped at local churches all over the world, nor is he discussing things that are founded in the Bible. The church fathers didn't talk this way, and, for that matter, neither did the villains of the inquisition.

I'm glad that Pat Robertson raised money for Haiti (which is what he was doing when he made these statements), but his message is not the same one that comes from the Bible. I'm not sure what he's doing.

I also don't know who's listening to him; in my entire life, I've never met anyone, in church or elsewhere, who didn't roll their eyes when his name was mentioned.

(Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! Thanks, Glenn.)

Helping in Haiti

Since up to 500,000 people might be dead in the aftermath of the Earthquake in Haiti, it's time to ask ourselves what we can do - fortunately, it's easy for us to help.

I'm pretty sure my readers aren't rich, but we can all afford to give $10 to help out these people, and most of you can give plenty more than that.

My favorite charity is World Vision, and their homepage has a simple link that makes this a quick and friendly process. The Texas Baptists, renowned for their hands-on charity work, are taking up a collection as well, and you can donate to that here.

The Red Cross is already working on this problem, and you can help them out here.

These people need help, and if you donate $20 most of you won't even feel it in your finances. It's worth it, and even small donations make a big difference to these people.

I Like to Think of Jesus as a Mischievous Badger?

Oddee.com published a list of funny things that have appeared when using Google's infamous search suggestions. Apparently, you can get interesting results when typing something as simple as "i like t" into the box.

Maybe there's an entire church out there that worships Jesus as a carnivorous weasel who likes to fool people and they proclaim this truth to Google on a regular basis. I've studied some pretty odd theology, but that church would impress me.

My second favorite:

You can read the entire list here. Of course, this is the internet we're talking about, so some of the suggestions are a bit risque.