This week Nick talks to Matt Litton the author of The Mockingbird Parables. We celebrate 50 years of To Kill a Mocking Bird, and talk about his book and his thoughts of teaching this book to his students.
Here are some more thoughts from Matt:
Setting out to write TMP I had been caught up with the realization of religious language losing its power. I grew up in an evangelical, and noticed that some of the language of my own tribe or christian subculture had lost its meaning and effectiveness because I had heard it so many times. More pressing than my own disconnection was that fewer and fewer of my friends knew what in the world we church people were talking about! The disconnect of communication between Jesus followers and culture is sin on many levels -as our culture becomes less “christian” it looks more and more like we are communicating in code. Ours is the language of a ‘divine’ social club – which in many ways (that are mostly inadvertent on our part) – is compassion-less and selfish. Frederick Beuchner’s meditation on the power of “chanting” to help return meaning to words that have lost their flavor or power had me thinking a bit… in post-modern culture – finding fresh ways to tell our story is so incredibly essential.
I have recently stumbled across Peter Rollins and his parables and absolutely love what he is doing. Parable-telling is also, for me, born out of the idea that EVERY story has the fingerprints of God somewhere – that the Gospel narrative is so powerful that it is woven through even the darkest of narratives.
To Kill a Mockingbird is the one book that library associations have said everyone should read before they die – and they voted that ahead of the Bible. It is becoming one of the preferred texts for teaching ethics and morality – it was the perfect American story to turn into parables.
I have more thoughts on parables and the great divide between the language of faith and popular culture’s ability to understand it. I think it is a great challenge in our quickly evolving culture. Parables are powerful because they are story, and we own story, we define ourselves by story. Business culture has locked into the power of story and have essentially begun using parables to sell us for several years now. It is an effective form of communication. Take for instance the AT&T commercial – with the man and woman missing each other on the train. It tells a modern and relevant story about the power of connection. The couple who might miss meeting will eventually have a child who will be President – but thank God for AT&T. It is essentially a parable teaching us about the importance of having that AT&T connection! We have a story about connection that is way more powerful than that one – and an obligation to share it!
As Jesus reminds us, stories have the power to stick with us, and the ability to lay dormant until we are ready to hear their message… think about that next time you go cell-phone shopping.
[Direct link to ep 166 - Matt Litton, The Mockingbird Parables]
Tags: christianity, matt litton, mockingbird, podcast, the mockingbird parables, to kill a mockingbird
This week Nick interviews Anne Jackson about her recent book Permission To Speak Freely. The basic idea came when her blog blew up when she asked her readers what they didn’t think they could say in church. That blog post went viral and Anne wrote an amazing book that talks about her life and the challenge of what someone can or can’t say in faith communities.
