Greetings classmates! Overall, our group enjoyed watching the video clips and felt they all had something thoughtful to say about the Bible and faith from a historical perspective.

Clip 1: Appears to be a historical-critical view of the Bible, perhaps in search of the historical Jesus. It tells a piece of what the Jewish community of the 1^st century might have been like, according to archeological evidence.
Clip 2 (Veggie Tales): Is a Biblical paraphrase of Solomon, applied directly to the character’s life.
Clip 3 (The Simpsons): is about a church that sells out – a corrupt pastor and congregation don’t mind having ridiculous gimmicks in the church. The hyperbole makes the church selling itself out so absurd that it’s supposed to force the viewer to think about what church actually means. Lisa is the devout follower who stands up to corruption. This idea could be a satire of the prosperity gospel. In the “Simpson’s” clip, the current and past church is represented using the church of today to look a lot like the Temple during Christ’s life.
Clip 4 (American Idol): The American Idol contestants sing “Shout to the Lord.” In viewing this clip in a historical context, we wondered if the contestants were actually Christian – and we suspected that the producers of American Idol were probably trying to appeal more to the Christian audience, which could turn some people off.
Clip 5 (John Stewart): This clip poked fun at Bush and made fun of God for being on the side of conservatives.
Clip 6: The girl wants to make the Bible make sense. Her history is not one engaged with the Bible, and as she encounters it now for the first time, it doesn’t make sense with what she already knows. The other character’s history contrasts with hers, as he has a deep history of faith.
Clip 7 (West Wing): The man claims seeks refuge from his country based on his Christian beliefs. The president clearly has an experience of the facts of religion, but not the faith. The man, on the other hand, has a history both of faith and with the scripture and facts. This story represents the history of victimization of Christians and what is endured by cultures that seek to diminish any presence of Christian faith.  The message being justified by faith is clearly given in this clip.

The clips were brought forward differently by each creator, perhaps as one group member suggested because it represented the issues that were being addressed at the time the video was produced. The seven video clips are quite interesting and unique in their approach to preaching or telling what the producer sees as a story of God that he/she wants their audience to see. In the first clip, the video does a good job of giving simple facts to set up the potential challenges to Jesus’ birth location, perhaps a viewer would get more information out of the clip if they had some Biblical/historical knowledge. However, in the second clip, a segment of a “Veggie Tales” movie, young children with very little knowledge could get a lesson out of the clip, without having any prior knowledge/history to engage them; in the third clip, if you are not familiar with church and take a comical look at some of the actions done by the character “Mr. Burns”, then there was concern that a viewer could walk away with thinking this was all that church was about and not see the comical/sarcastic commentary that is really happening.

One group member said that as a person who loves it when faith is talked about in the secular world, she was okay with the messages given of God in the video clips.  However, many people who are not part of organized religion think that what is being portrayed in the John Stewart clip is what most churches believe and act.

What learning emerges from history? In these seven clips, one group member saw seven different lessons that can be done regarding what is said/done in these movie clips. Obviously when the Simpson or Comedy Central clip are played, one would want to challenge what is said and have a further discussion. One group member, who is a former television and documentary producer, noted that a producer assumes their audience, in general, doesn’t have more than the basic knowledge – is that enough in viewing these seven different clips?

One group member felt that someone would get a lot more out of the clips if they already had a foundation of Bible and faith when they viewed the clips. Another group member said that in general, we can use our history, both corporate and individual, in order to make decisions and create our sense of self. All of the video clips had elements that an educational leader would want to challenge and shape in a different direction.

Using Mary Boys’ grid of questions, we saw that the messages of these clips speak both about faith and what it is to be religious.  The message given of the church, which is often what is thought to be religion, is not favorable.  Both the Simpsons and Stewart representations are negative.  But the message of faith is given through the messages of “The West Wing” and the little girl of the Simpsons, as well as the “River Tam” clip.  In all of these clips, it’s faith alone that is most important part of being a Child of God.

Answering the second question of Boys, “What does it seem to mean to educate in faith?’, one group member looks to the area of Knowledge.  In ”West Wing” and “River Tam”, as well as the “Simpsons”, it’s the depth of knowing that springs forth the doing.  It is the basic understanding of what the Bible says, looking at it with open innocence, that these people represented were able to do.

Another group member was struck by Boy’s question regarding the goal of education and what the producers of the video were trying to accomplish. And another group member responded that to be religious is to have faith in something, which cannot be proven and to also have that faith flow into actions. Without either, one is not religious. As she stated, to educate in faith is to teach a person about the history of faith as well about personal discipline or discipleship…and it requires that one guide the person in experience of the religious.

What is the most important learning goal of the educational leader? Understanding the history of those who are teaching and receiving the teaching is important.  Where the teacher is coming from and what is being taught is important. As well, based on their contribution what is the receiver learning. And we need to remember that history repeats itself, from Biblical to present times.

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