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13 Sept 2016

A Creative Illustrated Approach to the Bible

One way to deal with our troubled times, our modern day predicament whatever this might be, is to hark back to the past in order to seek solace, answers or simply to solidify the grounding of our core beliefs - faith for instance - that sit within the cultural territory of our heritage. And the revisited, nurtured grounding might just give us that extra footing so we can face the present more comfortably, with more assurance. Look at it like a watered, tendered, tilled garden. Or a book whose written content is interlaced with pertinent illustrations.

The Biggest Story by Kevin DeYoung, illustrated by Don Clark, via Invisible Creature

The purpose of this article is not for me to go all religious on you or for you to feel put off by the seemingly heavy topic of religion. The approach to and treatment of topics like religion (or philosophy for that matter) shouldn't need to be heavy either. I believe that the key to get children and adults interested in a book like the Bible, the way to make it appealing to them is visually: colourful, purposeful, unleashed creativity! I believe in the healing power of graphic design and how its magic and soothing, positive aura help tackle the (potentially) life-changing publications like the Bible, and outreach to a new audience or get them rediscovered. If I were to head the Ministry of Education, graphic designers, illustrators and other creatives would hold a pivotal role!

As a collection of sacred texts in Judaism and Christianity, compiled under the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Bible guides Jews and Christians in their spiritual journey. Christian believers should be somewhat connected to, acquainted to or familiar with the Bible, depending upon the depth of our relationship with faith and how much of a practicing believer we are.

ibid.

The Bible, whose complimentary copy deposited by The Gideons in hotel rooms might be the closest some of us will ever get to in physical terms, and the closest opportunity to the path to spiritual enlightenment, yet a book which we might sadly only open if deprived of lighter reading matter, mobile devices or other forms of hotel 'entertainment'. Now if the Bible, or an introduction to it - which might suffice - were a pictorial feast like The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden, written by Kevin DeYoung and illustrated by Don Clark, in a carefully-summed up, loving way that resonates with faith neophytes, chance is we would take more than a last-chance-saloon interest in the Bible!

Illustrations have the power to reconnect us with serious topics, and reawaken us, rekindle the flame within. For some, it might just be enough. Others might delve deeper, reach out for a de-facto copy of the Bible and start reading the Scriptures and maybe befriend the local church. As an aside, just think what a little illustrative licence would do to Tolstoy's War & Peace?

ibid.

Cultural heritage is certainly what children need so they get their sense of identity and belonging and grasp some form of understanding about the greater things in Life, the greater scheme of things that span the seen and the unseen, without adults tampering with it, getting all metaphysical and complicating it like only we know how.

By the way, I didn't grow up within an overzealous Christian family but my mum made sure we would attend church at least once a month. I was christened as a baby and when I was about 9 years old followed catechism, a weekly hour-long religious education syllabus provided by the local priest or his aide as a way to prepare us kids for catholic communion.

ibid.

To be honest, I can't remember a thing from my religious classes. Most of all though, what left a lasting impression on me and provided me with the tools that in turn helped develop my curiosity in God and the Universe, my spirituality, my critique, my imagination also, and the on-going willingness to find out more were those illustrated books that I had got from my parents and other relatives throughout my childhood. They were almost as visually-pleasing as The Biggest Story and they sure left an impact.

Richly-illustrated, graphics-driven, full-page decorative, symbology-strong children's books like The Biggest Story are bound to appeal to the young and the less so. They are the most enticing introduction to the Bible, a book that needs no introduction and yet that is daunting for a non-practicing Christian to open, or for a curious non-believer or the member of a different faith. Learning and personal development should be fun and visual appeal will facilitate it.

Limited edition 6" x 8" 'Ascension' print, ibid.

The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings us Back to the Garden, by Kevin DeYoung and illustrated by Don Clark, was published by Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois in 2015, 132 pages. Kevin is the senior pastor at University Reformed Church (PCA) in East Lansing, Michigan. He serves as a council member at the Gospel Coalition, as Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary and is a PhD candidate at the University of Leicester. Don is an artist and the cofounder of Invisible Creature, a widely respected and award-winning design studio based in Seattle, WA. The book is available to purchase from Invisible Creature and Amazon. Don't miss out on the free 25-page PDF preview!

ibid.

"The Biggest Story is a delight to the eyes, ears and hearts of its readers. With rich illustrations and even richer text, the biggest and best story is presented in all of its vivid colors - every dark shade and every bright tone. Parent and child alike will feel the ache of the fallenness of human nature and the comfort of an always-faithful God. From our family to yours, we wholeheartedly commend this book!" - Matt and Lauren Chandler

7 Sept 2016

Political Correctness: Weapon of White Destruction

Over the last 30 years or so, political correctness has seeped in, crept up, infiltrated every corner of our public and private lives. It was that dashing yet slightly overdone, uninvited guest that showed up with the RSVP card from the invited guest. It had all the credentials, wore all the bells and whistles, and most importantly was chaperoned by The Establishment, whose premise was/ is to make us citizens more polished and inclusive and thoughtful and tolerant. Boy, did that sound good to anyone willing to embark on a little journey of self-discovery and self-empowerment! So we allowed the thing in. It acted politely at first, obliged to the petits-fours and family photos in our living rooms, but it remained nonetheless focussed on its mission. It talked to us but it wasn't long before it was talking at us, yet convincingly enough: it made sense and we bought into the spiel.

Installation by Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr

Institutions and the mainstream media have purported the Establishment's social engineering programme, inspired by PR spin doctor Edward Bernays, or by pseudo sciences like the controversial NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and other mind control programmes aimed at channeling political correctness into us and make us more docile and acceptant of the borderless, multicultural, disempowered, deindustrialised, state-controlled, libertarian, UN Agenda 21-compliant One World end game. To this end, PC has morphed our behaviour, conversations, discourse, observations and thoughts, discreetly and politely at first before making itself compulsory and unavoidable. In a nutshell, you must embrace political correctness in order to align with the redefined societal values and be accepted.

There's no two ways about it: political correctness is the most insidious form of free speech repression. It is meant to deprogramme the mind of certain values and markers and re-engineer them like you rewrite a line of code before embedding it back into the mind through politics, media, education, religion and the tyranny of elite-funded humanitarianism.

Political correctness goes beyond the news channels and delves deep into the arcanes of power, reframing the mindset of the workforce within public institutions and private companies. The Common Purpose programme in Britain is one such example. In the USA, the controversial Common Core is a diktat from the U.S. Department of Education that is, for instance, instilling new computational methods that defy logic and common sense.

By exerting a paradigm shift, political correctness was/ is meant to change us. It got entangled with our value system, it struck where it hurts: family, race, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, education, religion, politics, and communication strategies. It decided on how we were supposed to think and act. The leftist, feminist, family-hostile agenda has had a field day with PC. If you crave examples, The Guardian and The Huffington Post are two models of political correctness that jump up my nose like a bad case of hay fever.

Kay Francis in Mandalay (1934), pict source

Political correctness was never meant to be politically correct. As a result, its divisive tactics aimed at the silent majority ended up overstepping the mark, outlasting its stay and forcing itself onto the very fabric of our Western societies like a blob of bubble-gum stuck to a shoe. A welcomed intrusion at first that forced itself into the collective psyche under the guise of promoting fairness, diversity and equalitarianism and giving a voice to the oppressed, it ended up gaffing and offensive. For the PC brigade had waged a war on the hard-working traditional white middle-class families, labelling them unfair, supremacist, bigot, racist, privileged, educated, sexist, homophobic, anti-feminist, and/ or fat-intolerant... Just tick the boxes and add to the list! And let's not get started on those micro-aggressions...

Blank it out at your peril, yet we have now reached a peak and might be on the verge of blowing a fuse. Early on in his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has blasted political correctness. He set a precedence for he managed to overrule the sacro-sanctity of mainstream media and get his message across to the American voters in ways that bypass the mainstream media altogether who had point blank hailed him a racist and a bigot.

The good news is that the aura - the taboo even - surrounding political correctness is fracturing down. Not down the mainstream but upstream thanks to the likes of WikiLeaks, Breitbart News, Infowars, UK Column, Nigel Farage, Anne Marie Waters and countless alternative journalists, writers, broadcasters, political activists, free thinkers and whistleblowers who are daring to question global governance and enjoin us to reclaim our Western identity, our national borders, our cultural heritage, our traditional Christian family values, our freedom of speech, and good old common sense. Governments are stepping up legislation in a view to control freedom of speech and clamp down any form of dissent that goes against the grain. Now it is all up to us whether we keep playing the recorded tune or finally get our word out.

Silenced, a Mike Cernovich documentary

Further Resources:

Below is a (working document) list of 'populist' personalities and alternative information channels that rock the (Establishment) boat and are described as not being politically correct per se: