HOW DO WE BE A LIGHT IF WE DON'T LET IT BE SEEN?

Fueled by seeing this ARTICLE in my feed and why it was posted.

I love her bravery and respect her decision considering she’s “been struggling with being in the world, not of it lately.” She goes on to say “I have fallen prey to the alluring pull of flesh, pride, and selfish desires quite a bit recently.”  She also states “Perhaps being alone with Him as my name was announced was protecting myself from where my flesh would have tried to drag me had I been up on that stage”.

I can respect this and I hope one day we can see her grace the stage to accept an award.  The thing that concerns me is Christians post this article and say “she’s a really good Christian,” and some of us cheer her on for not participating in a secular awards show such as the Grammys.  What concerns me about these attitudes is what happens when the Grammys stops giving away ‘Best Christian Performance’ and ‘Best Christian Song’ and ‘Best Christian Album’ awards because she chose not to attend their event?  Do we complain and yell from our holly mountain tops that the Grammys doesn’t like Christians and that they persecute us along with the Federal Government for taking away Ten Commandment statues and Nativity setups on public property and eliminate prayer in schools.  What happens when they take the Christian Awards away?  Are we really being good Christians for not participating?  Why are we on a planet full of savages and heathens if we’re not supposed to interact?  What better way to reach these people than accepting an award for making Christian content because they recognized the quality of it?  Someone listened to what a Christian Artist produced and said, “I think this deserves an award.”

I bid Mandisa all my support to fight her demons, but I ask the rest of you what good comes out of making her the poster child of the movement that further alienates the rest of the world from accepting Christians from even participating in secular circles?  You know, those circles where Non-Christians are?  Those people Jesus said he came for?

BATMAN AND WHY WE'RE GOING TO GET A MOVIE EVERY YEAR

One thing I'm noticing in the New 52 is Batman the comic series vignettes are tighter and getting tighter.  Every story arc, episode, is a 6 issue arc except the first arc, episode, is a 12 issue 2 hour episode.

This paves the way for more trades sales.  Especially now that they're consistantly making New York Times Best Seller lists. With that stamp of approval, it makes it's way onto the special Barnes and Noble shelfs and racks at the library.

On the flip side, DC is testing the waters.  We're seeing a classic story arc turned into an animated feature consistantly every year.  The cost of animation and movie production is getting cheaper (in many ways), paving the way for a live action Batman movie every year in the near future.

This means a lot of Batman.  And why would viewers put up with seeing several stars dawn the cape and cowl consistantly?  In the animation side of it, Kevin Conroy is king of the voice of Batman and Mark Hamill is king of the voice of the Joker.  We're disappointed when a movie or game comes out without their voice but then we realize Bruce Greenwood and John DeMaggio aren't half bad as Batman and Joker.  I think we can enjoy a Ben Affleck as Batman 3 years after Christian Bale.  I think we can enjoy a Diedrich Bater as Batman the next year following a Ryan Gosling  attempt. And it's not like the readers are not used to the character changing appearance every few arcs anyway with the fluctuation of different artists, or every issue in the case of Greg Capullo.

Money talks, and everyone loves a sure thing.  $40 million a year to make a Batman Flick will probably yield more profit in ten years than 3 movies costing $1 Billion to produce.

And eventually, maybe in 20-30 years, every issue will be accompanied by a 22 minute live action webisode because who doesn't enjoy YouTube ads?