Maranatha's clever "I'm Gunna Apply" video

[Susan R] I don’t think the Glee comparison has merit, by the way.

You may be right. But the connection was made by lots of people who have seen the show. Again, whether anyone at MBBC intended or anticipated that connection is anyone’s guess.

Jay, ask around about Glee. Or Google around. The information is out there for anyone who wants to know.

[DavidO]

[Susan R] I don’t think the Glee comparison has merit, by the way.

You may be right. But the connection was made by lots of people who have seen the show. Again, whether anyone at MBBC intended or anticipated that connection is anyone’s guess.

Jay, ask around about Glee. Or Google around. The information is out there for anyone who wants to know.

I understand the comparison because Glee is popular now. But is it a viable comparison? Students at MBBC can not only sing and dance, but quite possibly the school could be chock full of abusive, adulterous teachers, as well as being a safe harbor for homosexuals and lesbians? Why not compare it to The Monkees? The Partridge Family? Josie and the Pussycats? Scooby-Doo? K.I.D.S. Incorporated, The Mickey Mouse Club, Schoolhouse Rock, the New Zoo Revue, Sesame Street, The Electric Company…? And that’s just off the top of my pointy lil’ head. Glee is just the latest of a looooong line of musical TV shows, but it ALSO just so happens to be a really abominable show. I think the comparison sounds like an unearned sideswipe at the college.

I don’t think anyone making the comparison intended it beyond the musical number. The other baggage (well known to most) is one reason it might have been wise to avoid making that kind of video in the first place.

EDIT: So I’ve gone on well beyond the import of the topic, primarily because I’m amazed at the nature of the backlash objections to the video have garnered or the lengths to which people have gone to put lipstick on this oinker. Having talked far too much, however, I’ll shut up.

Dave,

I don’t have to look up Glee, because Glee isn’t the issue. It’s the standards that you are using to paint the MBBC video as ‘worldly’. You haven’t defined the term, yet you insist that the term is appropriate. When pushed to defend why that term is appropriate, you say to go look up Glee, which has nothing to do with the MBBC video.

Let me ask this - will the MBBC video still be ‘worldly’ in ten years? Fifty years? A thousand years? If so, then how does our Christian brethren living in 2120 know this with certainty from the Scripture? Can they do that without living by the subjective standard that you’ve applied here (namely, that the video is ‘worldly’)? I think you and I both know the answer to that question.

You can choose to stop posting now, but all you’re doing is dodging the question and conceding my point. I’d prefer that we continued the discussion, but the choice is yours.

[DavidO] What of any substance will this video make that demographic think?

Well I don’t know because …. um … I am 62 … but

I’ve watched the video twice … once partially …. so I am not “an expert” on it

He might think:

• Maybe I should consider MBBC. Hadn’t considered it before but I will give ‘it a look
  
• Maybe I should have “a plan”. As I recollect the video skit started out that the school year was over (last day of school?) and he had not applied anywhere yet
  
• “accreditation” is mentioned fairly prominently. That age group might not think about that at all. The skit highlights the significant of and that MBBC is. (This strikes me as something like saying my extention cord is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwriters_Laboratories] UL approved . Something important!)
  
• What one studies is also (if I understand the skit!) highlighted. There’s the guy who has a puppet major but is unemployed. Not too late for him … enroll at MBBC and get a degree that works! Does the puppet guy http://coldfusion-guy.blogspot.com/2011/11/sad-plight-of-joe-therrien-a… reflect the occupy protester who had a degree in puppetry but was unemployed (a current event!)
  
• Then there’s the school cafeteria scene … hey the food is good here too! (That’s important to a young person!)
  
• The professors spelling out “M” “B” “B” “C”: Demonstrates that the profs are not all stuffy but real people with whom one can connect
  

Conclusion: It’s a well made positive video. I like it and I’m not changing my mind! :)

I like it and I’m not changing my mind! :)

Here’s a more appropriate emoticon for that post-

I like it and I’m not changing my mind! http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php] http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-fc/old.gif

[Jay C.] you … paint the MBBC video as ‘worldly’ … you insist that the term is appropriate.

Actually, I don’t believe I have. Not once.

[Jim Peet]

• Maybe I should consider MBBC. Hadn’t considered it before but I will give ‘it a look
  
• Maybe I should have “a plan”. As I recollect the video skit started out that the school year was over (last day of school?) and he had not applied anywhere yet
  
• “accreditation” is mentioned fairly prominently. That age group might not think about that at all. The skit highlights the significant of and that MBBC is. (This strikes me as something like saying my extention cord is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwriters_Laboratories] UL approved . Something important!)
  
• What one studies is also (if I understand the skit!) highlighted. There’s the guy who has a puppet major but is unemployed. Not too late for him … enroll at MBBC and get a degree that works! Does the puppet guy http://coldfusion-guy.blogspot.com/2011/11/sad-plight-of-joe-therrien-a… reflect the occupy protester who had a degree in puppetry but was unemployed (a current event!)
  
• Then there’s the school cafeteria scene … hey the food is good here too! (That’s important to a young person!)
  
• The professors spelling out “M” “B” “B” “C”: Demonstrates that the profs are not all stuffy but real people with whom one can connect
  

1. Ok.
2. I don’t see this as being that kind of wake-up call, but fair enough
3. If this is their first introduction to the school, ok, also fair.
4. Lame.
5. The video only says its good on Friday. Also, what if one is a vegetarian?
6. False dichotomy. And also gets to the heart of my objection. A sage, sober elder gentleman is someone we must assume we can’t connect with? Shame on our culture if this is the case.

I still don’t like it, also not changing. :|

[DavidO] I still don’t like it, also not changing. :|

When old guys (me) are unwilling to change …. it’s the virtue of old age

Young guys (you) …. stubbornness :)

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php] http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-fc/old.gif

Hey, my beard has a fair amount of white in it. And I’m getting as grouchy as I know how as quickly as I can. ;)

I do wonder if the critics of this video have been to any Christian college or university’s promotional visits to a Christian school or youth group. These events are full of silliness and fun. That does not make it right or wrong, but if Maranatha has mis-stepped, then all schools have mis-stepped since I was in high school - which has been quite some time ago now. Do a YouTube search of your favorite school’s skits that they do for their promotional visits.

[DavidO]

[Jay C.] you … paint the MBBC video as ‘worldly’ … you insist that the term is appropriate.

Actually, I don’t believe I have. Not once.

OK, then. So what, exactly, is wrong with the video then if you don’t classify it as worldly? The similarity to Glee is what makes it wrong for Christians?

-edit-
I went back and re-read David’s posts. There is a lot said about the video not being serious enough, but it doesn’t look like David has actually called it ‘worldly’. My larger point stands though - why is the video ‘wrong’ for believers because someone else says that it is not serious enough?

It should be noted that David Cloud and the FBFI are complaining about the video being worldly, which is where I was confused. He reiterates that claim this morning:

What, though, about adding one’s tradition and thinking to the same level of authority as God’s Word. That would seem to be the issue here.

First, the Bible demands a very strict separation from the world. This is not Phariseeism; it is New Testament Christianity.

Following are just some of these commandments, and they are indeed commandments and not suggestions.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2)…
“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1)….
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11-12)…
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4)…
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).

Separation from the world by a born again, blood-washed, saved-by-grace-alone believer is not Phariseeism. It is obedience to God and conformity to His character and will.

The issue, then, is whether there is a biblical basis for labeling the Maranatha ad worldly. If there is not, then I am adding my opinion to God’s Word and making my opinion and tradition a law for others. That would be true legalism. But I am convinced that there is a clear basis and that my judgment is not therefore mine but is that of God’s Word.

The video ad is not just innocent fun. It is not merely “creative and winsome.” I enjoy life and all of the things God has given us richly to enjoy. I almost laughed myself silly recently at an entertaining video that my son made of his young daughters as “weather girls.” It was hilarious and it was innocent fun. My son’s video, even though it was merely for family viewing and was not produced to represent a Bible College, had no questionable music and depicted no questionable activities. It didn’t present a foreign philosophy and cocky attitude and it didn’t reek of the world. Yet all of that and more can be said of the Maranatha video.

I don’t have time to write a complete study on this, but Romans 12:2 is sufficient. It warns against conformity to the world, patterning oneself after the world, allowing the world to mold us to its image. I believe this is exactly what the ad does. I have studied CCM and the world and philosophy of CCM since its birth in the 1970s. I was in southern California on two visits as a hitchhiking hippie before I was saved at the exact time and place where CCM was born and I was confronted with it as a young Christian and had to make major decisions about what direction I would go in my Christian life. I have studied it ever since and have written several books and produced several video series on it. I have also studied New Evangelicalism and the emerging church and every other element today pertaining to the contemporary philosophy in a very serious fashion.

And I am convinced that the ad represents that world and not the world of a sober Biblical stance.

Cloud throws in one quick reference to Romans 12:1-2, which doesn’t define the world, and eight references to Cloud’s discernment and ability to tell us that it’s not right.

Question Re:

It should be noted that David Cloud and the FBFI are complaining about the video being worldly

Where have you seen the FBFI complaining? Link? Thanks

Comment Re:

[David Cloud] And I am convinced that the ad represents that world and not the world of a sober Biblical stance

Well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility#Ex_cathedra] that settles it for me. :)

[Jay C.] My larger point stands though - why is the video ‘wrong’ for believers because someone else says that it is not serious enough?

I also never stated it was “ ‘wrong’ for believers.” I have stated my objections fairly clearly (again spending more time than the topic merits).

Simply put, I don’t think this is the image the college really wants to cultivate.

reminded of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLglFSV88w4] this inspiring video from World Cup 2010 by this quote…(see around 00:50 into it…)

I do wonder if the critics of this video have been to any Christian college or university’s promotional visits to a Christian school or youth group. These events are full of silliness and fun. That does not make it right or wrong, but if Maranatha has mis-stepped, then all schools have mis-stepped since I was in high school - which has been quite some time ago now. Do a YouTube search of your favorite school’s skits that they do for their promotional visits.