Pop Nihilism and the Allure of ISIS

A thoughtful article from John Stonestreet

What’s with all these stories of Western defections to Islamic radicalism? Well, the answer may be more over here than over there.

News broke recently of two beautiful teenage girls from Austria, aged 15 and 16, who became burka-wearing recruiters for the terror group known as ISIS, or the Islamic State. And their journey to radicalism is not an isolated case.  In my own state of Colorado, a 19-year-old female just pled guilty to trying to join ISIS, too. And then there are the two young American men who died in Syria fighting for ISIS.

Why are young 21st-century Westerners converting to a brutal form of Islam? Why would young people, with seemingly so much to live for, leave the West for terrorism?

This question came up last month in a panel discussion with radio hosts Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager, as well as Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute and myself. We all agreed that the answer was not the radicalism of Islam, but the current emptiness of Western materialism.

The idea that matter is all that matters pervades everything young people see and hear these days. They hear it in science class, from the new Cosmos television series, and even, and as I added especially, in advertising and other media messages. Nearly every commercial message tells us that we’re born to be consumers, that stuff will make us happy and save us from our misery, and that there’s nothing beyond the immediate gratification of this world to live for.

As Dennis Prager said that night, “Secular society produces a lot of bored people . . . Secular society is a curse because ultimately life is meaningless if there’s no God.” The materialistic salvation sold to us promises to fill what Pascal called the God-shaped hole in our hearts … with stuff. But many see the meaningless of secular salvation, and they become bored; others become angry, even murderous.

Remember Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who killed 13 people at Columbine High School? They weren’t Muslims. Then there’s T.J. Lane, a 19-year-old serving three life sentences for shooting to death three high school students in 2012. At his sentencing, in which he taunted his victims’ families with expletives, Lane opened his blue dress shirt to reveal a T-shirt on which he had scrawled the word “killer.”

We’ve always had young murderers, but the nihilism of today is different. Writing in Time several years ago, Harvard’s student body president called it the “Rude Boy” culture. The tough guy of the ‘60s and ‘70s, he observed, would say, “I’m better than you, I can beat you up”—but the tough guy today says, “I flip you off; you don’t matter and neither do I.”

And that’s a whole new level of brokenness. That’s the cultural shift toward nihilism. A few years ago, the rock band Switchfoot hit the nail on the head when they sang, “We were meant to live for so much more. But we lost ourselves.”

This sort of empty pop-nihilism, to borrow a term from Baylor’s Thomas Hibbs, makes even the evil radicalism of extremist Islam look attractive to some. And parasitic ideologies like these find folks in despair easy prey.

Might it be that ISIS finds this shallow ground as fertile soil from which to harvest young souls for its deadly agenda?

Decades ago, even before the Internet and social media took over so much of our lives, Aldous Huxley warned of the capacity of the media to exploit “man's almost infinite appetite for distraction.” Could it be that even ISIS looks attractive to those who, after having their fill, still feel empty inside?

Wait a minute, you say, that’s just a small minority. Not every kid flees to ISIS or thinks of murder as a way to meaning. Well, true, but how many others are living shriveled up lives of perpetual boredom? What addictions and distractions are they fleeing to in pursuit of meaning and purpose? How can Christians point our culture to the One we were made for?

Well, the panel discussion I mentioned earlier can start that discussion. Come to BreakPoint.org to find out how to watch or listen to my conversation with Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, and Steve Meyer on this and other topics relating to God and culture.

For more from Breakpoint on this topic , click HERE

Prayer for Memorial Day

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the

living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all thy servants

who have laid down their lives in the service of our country.

Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that

the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected;

through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

A Call to Discernment

Do you think  that Public Education in South Carolina  is in need of improvement?  So do the LARCUM bishops of SC (of which Bishop vonRosenberg is a member) .  Read on...


To the People of South Carolina,

“You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13-16). Jesus of Nazareth used this simple image to inspire his followers to make a difference in the world. We are bishops of the Lutheran, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and United Methodist Churches in the state of South Carolina. As shepherds of our churches, we are charged to lead the faithful in ways that direct our energies to the building up of the Kingdom of God and to make a difference around us. We believe that Jesus’ desire for the unity of his followers (John 17: 20-23) calls us to work together, and we are conscious as well that “no one should seek his own advantage, but that of his neighbor.” (1 Corinthians 10: 24).

In support of the American experiment in democracy, our nation has realized that education is an essential component to equipping members of society who can in turn help lead the United States of America into a better future. The family remains the foundation of our society’s ability to nurture and develop people of character. Our congregational leaders and people work constantly to empower and lift up families, and we believe this contribution to the good of society — together with the efforts of all religious communities — is one of our most important contributions to our state.

Public education is also an essential component of ensuring that the people of our state are formed to be good citizens, prepared to be contributors to our economy, and given passion for the common good of society. Individual school districts in partnership with the State of South Carolina are primarily responsible for ensuring that the opportunity for a complete and empowering education is available to every child in our state. Unfortunately, our state is marked by disparities in the delivery of education. Many school districts are hampered by a scarcity of resources because they are located in economically challenged, often rural, counties in our state. We believe there is indeed a “Corridor of Shame” in our state. Crumbling buildings, inadequate funding, and low expectations mark too many districts at a time when a 21st Century economy demands more of our people. How can the next generation rise to the challenge of this day and age when they are not given the superior education they deserve? Even in the most successful of school districts, too many students underachieve, or worse, fall through the cracks and do not achieve success. All too easily they can become caught in the grip of poverty.

We, as pastoral leaders, pledge our commitment to support the full flourishing of public education in South Carolina. We ask our congregations — as well as all people of good will— to offer what we can to lift up our schools and those students who face hurdles to reach the best they can achieve in their education. Congregations and members of our churches already offer tutoring, mentoring, supplies, and expressions of appreciation to our schools. We pledge ourselves and the resources we are able to engage through our congregations to address concrete ways to support public education in an intentional way over the next five years and beyond. In this effort, we welcome partnerships with all religious communities and people who share our concerns. Over time, we also pledge to engage in a dialogue with our state legislators to craft and support initiatives to improve public education, especially where these issues are related to the areas of our state with schools that are not equipped to provide a superior education.

Finally, we commit ourselves to pray for our state’s leaders, educators, and students. We are convinced prayer that trusts God and longs for insight helps bring clarity regarding what is important and strength to make a difference for what is good. We invite our congregants and all people of good will to join us in prayerfully discerning how God calls us to make a difference—to be light for our world—in educating students of our state so that they will not only be good members of society, but empowered for their journey to a fuller life.

Faithfully yours,

The Rev. Dr. Herman R. Yoos, III, Bishop
South Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Rt. Rev. W. Andrew Waldo, Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina

The Rt. Rev. Charles Glenn vonRosenberg, Provisional Bishop
The Episcopal Church in South Carolina

The Most Rev. Robert E. Guglielmone, Bishop
The Catholic Diocese of Charleston

The Rev. L. Jonathan Holston, Resident Bishop
South Carolina United Methodist Conference

Happy Easter - Thanks be to God!

A wonderful Easter thought....

"  Adam, along with his bride, walked out a garden into a grave.  The Second [Adam, that is Jesus], along with his bride [the Church], out of a grave into a garden."   RC Sproul

Here are two images..the first is a portion (the left side of the canvas) of the Annunciation by Fra Angelica and the second is a depiction of Jesus Christ welcoming his bride, the Church, into the Garden.

"...Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 15:57)

Holy Saturday

In the darkness of Holy Saturday, whether the day or a life event,  the words of Job stand true.

"I know that my redeemer liveth" - Handel - Messiah, Pt. III

Lynn Dawson, Soprano 

Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

A Good Friday Visual Meditation

‘Christ of Saint John of the Cross’ (1951), by Salvador Dalí 

      
     The Rev. Patrick Comerford, Church of Ireland priest,  writes....my choice of a work of Art for Lent this Good Friday morning is ‘Christ of Saint John of the Cross,’ painted by Salvador Dali in 1951. This painting is in oil on canvas, measures 205 cm × 116 cm and can be seen in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow.
This painting by Salvador Dalí depicts Christ on the cross in a darkened sky floating over a body of water complete with a boat and fishermen. Although Dalí depicts the crucifixion, this painting shows no nails, no blood, and no crown of thorns. Dalí once said he was convinced in a dream that these features would mar his depiction of Christ, and in that dream he was shown the importance of depicting Christ in the extreme angle we see in this painting.  The painting is known as the ‘Christ of Saint John of the Cross’ because Dalí based his design on a drawing by the 16th century Spanish Carmelite friar and mystic Saint John of the Cross.
The composition of Christ is also based on a triangle and circle: the triangle is formed by Christ’s arms; the circle is formed by his head. The triangle refers to the Trinity. While the circle represents, in Dalí’s own words, “the very unity of the universe, the Christ!”  It is different from any other image of the crucifixion. The angle of the view describes the hanging pain of this method of execution, but hides the ordinarily clichéd facial expressions normally seen on representations of the Crucifixion.
In 2009, the Guardian art critic, Jonathan Jones, described it as “kitsch and lurid,” but said this painting is “for better or worse, probably the most enduring vision of the crucifixion painted in the 20th century.”  The painting was bought for Glasgow Corporation in the early 1950s for £8,200, and went on display at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in 1952. In 1961, a visitor attacked the painting with a stone and tore the canvas with his hands. It was successfully restored over several months. In 2006, it was selected in a poll as Scotland’s favourite painting.
Patrick Comerford's Blog is HERE

Maundy Thursday

     The events of Maundy Thursday include foot washing and what has become known as the Institution of the Holy Eucharist or Holy Communion.
    Somewhere between 1494-1498, Leonardo Da Vinci painted his masterpiece "The Last Supper" in the refectory (dining hall) of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy. Almost immediately it began to deteriorate so that by, as early as 1517, the paint began to flake.  One copy of that painting is by Giampietrino around 1520. This painting is thought to accurately reflect much of the detail now lost in the original.   It is reproduced below.  Below that is a remarkable poem by  Ranier Maria Rilke inspired by the daVinci original.  May these bless you this Holy Week.

Click to enlarge

The Last Supper, by Ranier Maria Rilke

They are assembled, astonished and disturbed

round him, who like a sage resolved his fate,

and now leaves those to whom he most belonged,

leaving and passing by them like a stranger.

The loneliness of old comes over him

which helped mature him for his deepest acts;

now will he once again walk through the olive grove,

and those who love him still will flee before his sight.

To this last supper he has summoned them,

and (like a shot that scatters birds from trees)

their hands draw back from reaching for the loaves

upon his word: they fly across to him;

they flutter, frightened, round the supper table

searching for an escape. But he is present

everywhere like an all-pervading twilight-hour.

Here they are gathered, wondering and deranged,

Round Him, who wisely doth Himself inclose,

And who now takes Himself away, estranged,

 From those who owned Him once, and past them

flows.

He feels the ancient loneliness to-day

That taught Him all His deepest acts of love;

Now in the olive groves He soon will rove,

And these who love Him all will flee away.

To the last supper table He hath led.

As birds are frightened from a garden-bed

By shots, so He their hands forth from the bread

Doth frighten by His word: to Him they flee;

Then flutter round the table in their fright

And seek a passage from the hall. But He

Is everywhere, like dusk at fall of night.