It stretches 548 feet across the vast, open space of Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London, the national gallery of international modern and contemporary art.  Titled “Shibboleth,” the Columbian sculptor Doris Salcedo has created a jagged, open crack down the length of the museum’s massive concrete floor.  It begins small at the top of the slope as a hairline crack, and then widens as it progresses, gaining depth and creating additional, smaller fissures.

The meaning? 

From the museum:  “A ‘Shibboleth’ is a custom, phrase or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to a particular social group or class.  By definition, it is used to exclude those deemed unsuitable to join this group.”  Or from the Oxford English Dictionary, shibboleth is "a word used as a test for detecting people from another district or country by their pronunciation; a word or a sound very difficult for foreigners to pronounce correctly".

Delving further into the title’s origins, which the artist freely acknowledges and the museum makes known, is the biblical incident recorded in the book of Judges “which describes how the Ephraimites, attempting to flee cross the river Jordan, were stopped by their enemies, the Gileadites.  As their dialect did not include an ‘sh’ sound, those who could not say the word ‘shibboleth’ were captured and executed.  A shibboleth is therefore a token of power: the power to judge, reject and kill…[Salcedo] invites us to look down into it, and confront discomforting truths about our world.”

Museum placards proclaim that, “Shibboleth asks questions about the interaction of sculpture and space, about architecture and the values it enshrines, and about the shaky ideological foundations on which Western notions of modernity are built…In particular, Salcedo is addressing a long legacy of racism and colonialism that underlies the modern world.”

The idea is that such fractures will, in the end, undermine everything which may attempt to rest upon it.

Upon seeing it myself, I resonated with the reviewer in the London Telegraph who wrote “After I left the hall, Shibboleth rattled around in my head all day, and it haunts me still.  When I ask myself why, I realize it is because it looks like a wound, a gash that can’t heal.  It offers no hope, leaving you feeling as empty as the abyss it opens up beneath your feet.”

As I stood over the gaping split, I realized this is not simply a testament to a colonial past, but reflective of our present world which is increasingly divided by all kinds of shibboleths - words that only those of a particular tribe can pronounce, and those who would be included must.  This is particularly striking when it occurs within the Christian faith through those who seem intent on setting up ever-increasing proofs of who truly belongs, who is authentic, who is friend and who is foe.  Rather than C.S. Lewis’ “mere” Christianity, we are growing increasingly fragmented and divided by an ever-narrowing explosion of sub-orthodoxies built on divides such as traditional vs. contemporary, Calvin vs. Arminius, emergent vs. seeker-targeted – and then elevating such conversations to the level of the Nicene Creed.  We can, and should, have robust conversations about such matters, but with a sense of humility that within orthodox Christianity there can be authentic disagreements of opinion.  As Augustine notes, in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.  And much more falls into the “non-essential” camp than many would seem willing to attest.

There are some shibboleths that must be erected.  This is the heart of Jesus’ teaching of the narrow road and the narrow gate (Matthew 7).  But we should be reminded to stand against a pharisaical circle of “new” orthodoxy being erected around the historic creeds, often built in the name of personal taste or opinion. 

Salcedo offers a difficult reminder.  We are marked by divides between north and south, rich and poor, black and white.  There is hope, of course, in Christ – the one who can bridge divides, heal all wounds, and fill the deepest emptiness.  But when His people are the ones erecting such shibboleths, one wonders how deep and wide the fracture may grow before we can bring the unifying news of Christ to bear on a deeply fractured world.

James Emery White

Sources

For the Tate Modern exhibit, including visual pictures and a video interview with the artist, visit http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/dorissalcedo/default.shtm.

London Telegraph article on the exhibit:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/10/09/basalcedo109.xml

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Imagine a website that encourages plastic surgery and extreme dieting in the search for the perfect figure.

Not hard to imagine, right?

Now imagine such a website designed for girls as young as nine.

Welcome to www.missbimbo.com, a website that encourages girls as young as nine to embrace breast implants and face lifts, along with diet pills for weight loss.  In the guise of a virtual reality game, prepubescent girls are encouraged to buy their virtual characters breast enlargement surgery and to keep them “waif thin” with diet pills. 

Aimed at girls age nine to sixteen, the site attracted 200,000 members during its first month of operation in Britain.  The French version of the site boasts 1.2 million players.

The goal of the game is to keep a constant watch on the weight, wardrobe, wealth and happiness of their character to create “the coolest, richest and most famous bimbo in the world.”  Participants compete with other children to earn “bimbo dollars” which are then used for plastic surgery, diet pills, facelifts, lingerie and fashionable nightclub outfits.

Targets are set for users, such as:

Level 7: After you broke up with your boyfriend you went on an eating binge!  Now it’s time to diet…Your target weight is less than 132lbs.

Level 9: Have a nip and tuck operating for a brand new face.  You’ve found work as a plus-size model.  To gain those vivacious curves, you need to weigh more than 154lbs.

Level 10: Summertime is coming up and bikini weather is upon us.  You want to turn heads on the beach, don’t you?

Level 11:  Bigger is better!  Have a breast operation.

Level 17:  There is a billionaire on vacation…You must catch his eye and his love!  Good luck!

According to The Times of London, healthcare professionals, a parents’ group and an organization representing people suffering from anorexia and bulimia criticized the website for sending a dangerous message to impressionable children.  Founders of the site admit that the story in the script for the game had been created by “lads” and no professional advice was sought about how girls may interpret issues surrounding weight loss and gain.

Yet The Times also reported that the site was perhaps simply a reflection of an already existing reality, as its introduction came as research showed that children as young as six were developing acute eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, and increasing numbers of teenagers were undergoing breast enlargement surgery.

Nick Williams, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, said that he was appalled when he saw his daughters Katie, 9, and Sarah, 14, on the site pondering whether to buy their character breast operations and facelifts.  “I noticed them looking at possible breast operations and facelifts at the game’s plastic surgery clinic…It is irresponsible of the sites creators to be leading young girls astray.  They are easily influenced at that age as to what is cool and these are not things they should be encouraged to aspire to before they are old enough to be making up their own minds.”

Since the media firestorm, the site has been temporarily inoperative, with the following statement, among others, on the main page:

*Due to unforseen worldwide interest in Miss Bimbo we have had difficulty in maintaining our game in the manner players have become accustomed. We are sorry for this inconvenience and can assure you that our game will be up and running as soon as possible.

*As a result of this rather surprising media attention we have decided to remove the option of purchasing diet pills from the game. We apologise to any players whom this may inconvenience but we feel in light of this weeks proceedings it is the correct action to take.

*We would also like to sincerely apologise to our players for the media comparison of Miss Bimbo and Paris Hilton. We feel that this does a dis-service to the players whom send their bimbos to university, tea parties or chess tournaments.

*At this time we would also like to remind players that the Miss Bimbo team assume no responsibility or liability for any fashion faux pas, hair style disasters or boob jobs incurred in real life as a result of playing the Miss Bimbo game.

Whew.  Once again moral outrage wins the day.

Now if someone will only tell Mr. Williams from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and the other parents of the 200,000 children who participated on the site to consider taking their concern one step further.

Like keeping their girls off such sites to begin with.

James Emery White

Sources

www.missbimbo.com.

“Outrage at Bimbo website for girls,” The Times (London), Tuesday, march 25, 2008, p. 3 (www.timesonline.co.uk).

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*Editor’s Note:  This was first distributed in March of 2005, and has been re-issued on or near Good Friday since that first release.

good (good) adj. bet’ter, best  I. a general term of approval or commendation 1. suitable to a purpose; effective; b) producing favorable results; beneficial

The amazing thing about Good Friday is that it was - and is - part of the “good” declared by God at creation.  “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31, NIV).  The fall was not good; sin, disobedience, suffering is not good.  But God’s purpose in creation, and the redemptive drama that ensued, was – and is – good.

Some talk of the suffering God knew humans would experience by creating them and giving them free will, and as a result, put God in the dock for placing such a burden on human life.  What is less noticed is how God always knew of Good Friday.  In the rapture of creation, the cross loomed large.  Yes, there would be suffering, but none more so than for God Himself. 

C.S. Lewis writes:

God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them.  He creates the universe, already foreseeing – or should we say “seeing”? there are no tenses in God – the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath’s sake, hitched up.  If I may dare the biological image, God is a “host” who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and “take advantage of” Him.  Herein is love.  This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves.

What an ultimate “good” this must have been; declared at creation, consummated on Golgotha.  But it wasn’t a good designed for God; there is no good to be added, or deficit to be addressed, in His being. 

It was a good for us.

Many books have come out of late portraying the heart of God toward us as a lover pursuing the beloved, a fairy tale where God is the prince, and we are the maiden.  “Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden,” begins Kierkegaard, who first fashioned the popular analogy. 

The king was like no other king.  Every statesman trembled before his power.  No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents.  And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden.  How could he declare his love for her?  In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands.  If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist – no one dared resist him.  But would she love him?

She would say she loved him, or course, but would she truly?  Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind?  Would she be happy at his side?  How could he know?  If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her.  He did not want a cringing subject.  He wanted a lover, an equal.  He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them.  For its only in love that the unequal can be made equal.

Yes, this is the heart of God, and He is on just such a mission.  But the deeper truth lies in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.  We are not a beautiful maiden.  There is nothing becoming in us whatsoever.  Instead, we are desperately criminal, and the only rescue grace would bring would demand storming the Bastille in which we are rightfully held.  This is precisely what He did.  “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8-9, NIV),

And that’s an even better story.  And it’s the one story that the world does not already have, and most needs to hear.

James Emery White

Sources

Webster’s New World Dictionary, Second College Edition.

Lewis, C.S.  The Four Loves.

Hugo, Victor.  Les Miserables.

Kierkegaard, Soren.  Philosophical Fragments.

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Front pages of major American newspapers this week featured the findings of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which released a survey of religious affiliation based on telephone interviews with more than 35,000 Americans titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.” The results depict an extraordinarily fluid and diverse national religious life.  Among its many findings, perhaps the most provocative was that more than a quarter of adult Americans have left their childhood faith in order to join another religion.  If one includes shifts from one Protestant denomination to another, then 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

In an interview with USA Today, Pew Forum research fellow Gregory Smith sums up the findings simply:  “Churn.  Churn.  Churn.  The biggest news here is change.”

So was there any good news?

As noted by an online article in Christianity Today, “Non-Christian religions still constitute only about 5 percent of the American population…America is not going to become a minority Christian country anytime soon.”

So which group had the greatest net gain? 

Time for the bad news.  And this is where most news reports on the survey buried the lead, or simply missed it.

The religious group that posted that greatest gain was the “unaffiliated.” 

According to the survey, sixteen percent of American adults say they are not part of any organized faith.  It should be noted that among Americans ages 18-29, this number rises to one-in-four.  

This makes the disenfranchised the country’s fourth-largest “religious group.”  This up from the mere 5 to 8 percent of the 1980s as determined by the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center.

But let’s drill deeper into the report.

Of the fast-growing “unaffiliated,” only 1.6% is atheist, and 2.4% agnostic. 

The remaining 12.1%? 

“Nothing in particular.”

Hmmmm……..

Let’s keep drilling.

According to the survey, and we are getting into the fine print here, within that 12.1% there are two groups that were fairly evenly divided:  the “secular unaffiliated” at 6.3% (meaning those who say that religion is not important in their lives) and the “religious unaffiliated” at 5.8% (who say that religion is important to their lives).

Now let’s pull this together.

First, people in America have little allegiance to the faith of their childhood – translation:  they are quick to abandon how they were raised (which may say something about how they were raised, but that is another conversation). 

Second, the fastest-growing religious segment in America is the irreligious.  I’m not overly distracted by the 5.8% who are unaffiliated, but say that religion is important to their lives.  All that means is that they have enough of a religious memory to feel bad about distancing themselves from their heritage.  To answer the religious question with “nothing in particular,” but then follow it up with, “but religion matters to me,” is disingenuous.  They may not be philosophical atheists, but they are functioning ones.

But do not hear that as condemning.  My point is that the vast majority of our culture is clearly open and searching, yet with a sizable and growing segment having already given up on the search. 

Which means that the real headline is that this may be the last, best time to reach our nation for Christ.

James Emery White

Sources

For the Pew Forum report, go to http://religions.pewforum.org/.

“A Fluid Religious Life Is Seen In U.S., With Switches Common” by Neela Banerjee, The New York Times, Tuesday, February 26, 2008, pp. A1 and A12.

“Shifting borders of faith” by Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA Today,  Tuesday, February 26, 2008, p. D1 and D2.

“The Problem with Counting Christianity” by Elesha Coffman, Christianity Today, posted 2/26/2008.  To view, go to  http://www/christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/februaryweb-only/109.23.0.html

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