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September 13, 2003
God is not at all opposed to fashion magazines!
Thanks for the update.
A NYTimes Mag interview with the brain behind the Resolve NT.
We use the New Century Version. It translates the Bible thought for thought instead of word for word. The King James translation reads at a 12th-grade reading level. Most people in our country today do not read at that level. The New Century Version reads at a fifth-and-a-half-grade reading level, which is about the average where people can comprehend.
For our previous, lengthy discussion of Resolve, Go here.
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» Does this outfit go with my crucifix? from Too Much To Dream
Via Amy Welborn comes this news of a new edition of the Bible -- one "designed to resemble a fashion magazine," called Revolve (yes, they even renamed it). It's supposedly aimed at teenage girls, because as we all know, teenage... [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 13, 2003 9:37:31 PM
» Bible in Disguise from LilacRose
When I first heard about Revolve, the New Testament of the Bible in the form of a fashion magazine (like... [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 20, 2003 7:39:17 PM
Comments
Dang. That's scary. I was reading at a twelfth-grade level in ninth grade. [/BOAST] Sure, the post-Elizabethan prose of the KJV is a bit difficult to plow through. Not that that stopped my (Presbyterian) Sunday school from making me read from it when I was six.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at Sep 13, 2003 9:33:36 PM
Since when have the interviewers in a Q&A gotten the last word? Save for the last sentence of this article, you could argue that the interviewer was probing but not antagonistic. But her final aside was a cheap shot, appropriate only for the op/ed page.
Posted by: Shaun Gallagher at Sep 14, 2003 1:08:29 PM
After the last discussion here about this magazine, I ran the basic idea of it past my 25-yr-old who is in grad school. Her response..."The Church has failed to reach young people and will continue to fail until it wises up and looks at what the Protestants are doing and gets with the program. If you want the young people, you have to go where they are and look around to see what's working. Catechisms are not going to do the job." I've paraphrased, but that was the gist of it.
When she was in high school, she wanted so much to have a working youth group at our parish that she spent hours working with a lady who was trying to get one going. It failed.
She also tried coaching 8th grade volleyball with the idea of getting the youth involved. In order to have the privilege of doing this, she had to first attend all Parish Council meetings for a year. Her practice schedule was turned in as required, but practices were constantly being cancelled at the last minute, making it difficult for her to notify all of the team members, and also difficult to get the team working together. She had the full support of the team parents, but she disagreed with a member of the Parish Council over use of the facilities for team practice. He lost his temper with her and she was so afraid that he would do something physical to her at the next meeting that she begged her father and I go come with her for protection, which we did. Shortly after this, this member of Council was singled out by our pastor for special recognition during Mass, and consequently my daughter couldn't bring herself to attend Mass at our parish church for the next six months, during which time she went to Mass at surrounding parishes until getting over her anger.
My daughter is one jaded Catholic who does not involve herself with parish activities any more.
Sadly, after my bad experience with parish involvement at our prior parish, she was determined to show me that I was wrong by getting successfully involved in our current parish, with the above result.
Posted by: Carrie Tomko at Sep 14, 2003 8:00:41 PM
Every time I hear a story like Carrie's (and I've heard a billion of them, or had similar experiences myself in one way or another, over the years) I want to say:
If one bad witness drove you away, would one good witness bring you back?
As for whether or not Resolve the fashion Bible, or any of the other "wildly successful" evangelical methods of bringing teens closer to God, is the way to go with Catholic teens, I have two thoughts:
First, as far as Resolve is concerned, I can respect the general effort, but ultimately think there's a problem. That is, if you make something permanent and enduring like the Bible look like something as disposable as a teen fashion mag, it will be treated as such. Magazines are for flipping through and throwing away. The Bible is not.
Second, as another poster pointed out in one of these discussions, there are huge cultural differences between the average evangelical family's approach to faith and the average Catholic family's. Evangelicals of all ages seems much more comfortable and get lots more group support in putting their faith out in the open, talking about it, etc. For the average Catholic, including teens, it's a much "quieter" process. I don't know if Catholics will ever be completely comfortable with Protestant efforts like Resolve. I know I'm not.
Posted by: Cheryl at Sep 15, 2003 10:16:23 AM
Andrea Harris mocking the Bible? How shocking! (he said with as much sarcasm permitted in a single sentence). Apparently spouting trash on her site (Too much to Dream) isn’t rewarding enough. She now feels the need to export it! Ms Harris says, "Sure, the post-Elizabethan prose of the KJV is a bit difficult to plow through". This is typical Andrea. A good analogy would be honey flowing from a pig’s a**. She goes on to say, "Not that that stopped my (Presbyterian) Sunday school from making me read from it when I was six". Those barbarians! What will they do next? Oh perish the thought! Prayer? Lord have mercy! Will it never end? Sorry about that! Got carried away! Given her lofty opinion of herself, I'm not sure Ms Harris is trying to point out that she had to read the Bible as much as she wants it to be known she COULD read it at the age of six. Good news! This harrowing experience with the BIBLE has not cause any harm. Just visit her site and you can see for yourself the Bible has not had any influenced on her in any way. (If you don’t count the talking ass in the Old Testament) Amy I know the topic here is serious so I apologize to you and your readers but I can’t give Harris a free pass!
Posted by: Wayne at Sep 15, 2003 9:01:23 PM
I had this posted on the earlier comment page instead of the trackback, oops.
"
If this bubble gum approach is not the answer for Catholic youth, then I am truly curious as to what is? What else coild possibly work and briong about comparable success? (I ask that honestly)"
I do belive that teh answer could very well be these guys http://www.radixguys.com/
i've seen their videos, i had the opportunity to see them in person, but I am one of the shy people who shy away from youth groups and the bubblegum approach. I am married now and no longer a teen, but it's not a so distant past that i cna't remember it. Teens are not as stupid as they can sometimes act, they dont' want to be treated like idiots, in contrast I think the whole teenage identity is one that consists of a search to be seen as a practical thinking individual who's only fault is to lack experience. I went to a protestant youth group when I was a teenage catholic and do you how I felt? the whole thing felt shallow and hokey, I only went because my boyfirend at the time asked me to go and I thought it wouldn't hurt. these radix guys are something I've never seen before, they tell you the truth, they don't water it down or make it seem appelaing, but the presentation is so appealling. I highly recommend the "How Far Can You go ?" video to anyone who has contact with a youth group, preferablky catholic because it is very catholic and i do not think other denominations would appreciate the infiltration of Catholic media into their youth groups. Besides the video mentions Mary the Mother of our Lord, and protestants as far as I've obseverved do not want to hear anything about Her ever. I am not trying to sell the video, even though i think it would help their valuable ministry, but their approach is the best I've seen.
Posted by: jennifer at Sep 16, 2003 10:48:51 AM
