Session 1 w/ Dr. Os Guinness

Once again, thanks to Al Andrews & Porter's Call my head hurts, in a good way.

Some friends and I, as well as some other artists and music industry personalities were able to be a part of some learning sessions with Dr. Os Guinness yesterday morning. Wow! I have admired his work and have been inspired by him for several years now. This guy goes deep.

Os Guinness is an author and speaker who lives in the Washington DC area. Yes, he is the great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer. He was born in China during World War II where his parents were medical missionaries. A witness to the climax of the Chinese revolution in 1949, he was expelled with many other foreigners in 1951 and returned to Europe where he was educated in England. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of London and his D.Phil in the social sciences from Oriel College, Oxford.

Os has written or edited more than twenty books, including The America Hour, Time for Truth, The Call, Invitation to the Classics, and Long Journey Home. His newest book, Unspeakable: Facing up to evil in a world of genocide and terror.

Here are some take-aways from the 1st session. (I will not be able to unpack everything from this session or the next).

• The Christian Right has been wrong in NOT showing love. They usually end up demoralizing others different than them.
• Bertrand Russell once said, "Most Christians would rather die than think".
• There is the "ABC mood" going on in modern culture; The Anything But Christian mood.
• Everyone is speaking, but no one seems to be listening. There's incredible noise in our culture. We have cultural A.D.D.
• Europe is suffering from Church and State separation. If the US continues on leaving it's roots, it will suffer the same outcome as Europe. Anything that separates from it's root cannot continue on a healthy path.
• The "religious right" needs to rest from it's radical separation or the US is in trouble of a huge chasm being separated from others by demonizing them.
  
• Leaders outweigh followers. You can't change the culture w/o changing it's leaders. We must have the actions and vision to be influencers. Where are most Catholics trained to go influence culture? New York or Washington D.C. Where are most Evangelicals trained to go influence culture? Wheaten, Colorado Springs, or Orlando. Fundelmentalism is a modern reaction and is NOT traced back to Jesus.

Sorry if some of this is not self explainitory. I encourage you to read as much of Dr. Guinness's work as you can.

I will be posting about the 2nd session (artists only) as well.