Villagersonline : blogs : ryan : something interesting

From: ryan
Date: Thu Feb  8 11:48:22 EST 2007
Subject: something interesting

Responses
emily: No Subject (2/12/07)

Patricia: pictures (2/14/07)

Responses (sorted by date)
Patricia: pictures (2/14/07)
emily: No Subject (2/12/07)

I thought this was interesting. TED is the Technology Entertainment Design conference, which probably means as much to you as it does to me. I'd never heard of it prior to this morning.
TED is an annual conference for designers and artists held in Monterey, CA. According to its website, attendees `hear not just the latest ideas in Technology, Entertainment and Design, but also Business, Science and The Arts…in fact ANY subject area offering something fresh and important.'
TED's 2008 offering is attempting to answer some pretty big questions about life. In fact the theme is `The Big Questions'. You know, questions like `Who are we?' `What is our place in the Universe?' and `What is Evil, and how do we fight it?'
There are several speakers addressing each question. They range from a paleontologist to a museum curator to a windmill designer to a mother. Each offers a unique perspective on the question they endeavor to answer. What was striking is that only one `title' involved a direct, unambiguous affiliation with faith - a religious mystic providing input on our place in the Universe (along with a theoretical physicist, an astronomer, and a humorist). Nowhere in the agenda is a priest or pastor or rabbi or imam or any other sort of religious leadership figure.
So I'm wondering what this says about our culture, about artists and designers in our culture, and about religious leaders in our culture. Any ideas on what is going on here, if anything?

http://www.ted.com/ted2008/index.cfm

Edit this blog
Write a response Email the author

From: emily
Date: Mon Feb 12 18:48:12 EST 2007
Subject:

Your blog touches on some half-formed questions that have been roiling around in my mind about spiritual leaders. There seems to be a growing trend of mistrust and disillusionment in the classic ways of choosing a spiritual leader.
At my brother's ordination there was a marked tension regarding the idea that pastors should even be ordained and set apart. It was the up and coming pastors themselves (mainly from the nearby Regent College) who were questioning whether they even wanted to be ordained. The veteran pastor doing the service gave a bit of a defensive speech about how it was right and good to ordain pastors. He said it wasn't obnoxiously "elevating them above the rest" - it was just recognizing that God was calling them to something special."
There were still suppressed chuckles and exchanged glances among the young pastors-in-training. The pastor seemed to be pretty savvy and gave up trying to justify ordination. He switched to more of a "we believe in this guy" direction and everyone seemed to be content with that.
Later my brother said that it was a big thing at the college then - whether pastors should get ordained and set apart from the rest of the body of Christ. Some were thinking that ordination was an unhealthy elevation of one of the many gifts. Others were thinking that to take it away is an unhealthy expression of indifference for authority and an unwise move towards chaos in the church structure.
Interesting. It does appear that indifference for authority (as opposed to rebellion or disrespect) is just happening all around as an accepted thing. But I'm guessing that deep down, people want leaders just as much as they always have. So I think I might be asking your same question in a different way: are we changing the face of who are spiritual leaders are? Do we trust artists to be honest and have integrity in discussing "the big questions" more than we trust titled religious leaders? Oh well, probably so.
EmilyMc.

Edit this response
Write a response

From: Patricia
Date: Tue Feb 13 20:35:28 EST 2007
Subject: pictures

A picture is supposed to speak more than a thousand words. We have learned so well how to twist spoken and written language. I suppose that a picture in any form might be just a little more faithful and enduring in times of rigorous questioning. I wonder if this generation looks to pictures for a new (new?) way to express that which is hard to express in words. Pictures are capable of speaking to the parts of us that are beyond mere thoughts. When I consider this, I am less surprised that artists would ponder the Big Question. Someone must have wanted to know badly enough to call a meeting with other people to whom they could relate. It's cool to see that the question hasn't been burried, the hunger is still felt. It encourages me to be more creative again myself.

Edit this response
Write a response Email the author

Write a blog