Friday Pick of the Week

Happy Friday, friends.  This Friday is particularly bittersweet, as it marks the end of an era, albeit a short one.  Since February I've regularly passed along music that I've been enjoying in the form of the Friday Pick of the Week.  As viva la Re... is going on sabbatical for the coming months, this will be the last regular post until further notice.

I've made efforts to allow the posts to reflect a broad interest in music, from indie local to top 40 and from bluegrass to hip-hop.  This final post is local, at least in a sense.  I had the good fortune to share a neighborhood with Geoff Geis when I was growing up.  In fact, in 7th grade, Geoff and I started a band together.  We didn't go very far as none of us knew how to play an instrument.  Geoff hung onto his musical dream, first by learning to play it, then by moving to Los Angeles to pursue it.  He's doing that still with a couple of acts in the LA scene, and he has just released his solo album Princess that is reviewed here and streamed here.

Today we feature "Cover My Eyes" by Big Whup, a band fronted by Geoff.  Of the naked people, he's the one that's singing.  Enjoy!


Big Whup - Cover My Eyes from Matthew Chevlen on Vimeo.

viva la housekeeping

Greetings friends.  So some changes are imminently in store.  As mentioned before, Rachel and I have each accepted fellowship positions with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ).  The HIVCorps positions are of one year's duration, and we will be back next June so that I can finally get on with my last year of medical school.

Many have asked to how they can keep track of us while we are out of the country.  Given that we are guests of the Zambian government, CIDRZ intends to keep us in good graces, and thus they have a policy that any weblogging shall be done under password protection. In light of this, Rachel and I have created a new blog where you can follow all the happenings.  You can find it here: The Stream Zambezi.  It will require of you a password, which can be obtained from either Rachel or me.  Just send a message.  If you care to follow but don't have our addresses, post below in the comments and I will get the password to you.

This commitment to a new blog means that viva la Re... will be falling fallow this season.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my first attempt at blogging, and I am still amazed when friends and acquaintances tell me they read.  Thank you for your comments and thoughts, and most of all for your willingness to give me voice even when I say things that you don't like.  This Friday's Pick of the Week will be the last post until further notice.

As experimentation has been a theme of late (e.g. Twitter), the new blog will look to branch out a bit from viva la Re...  When I've followed others living overseas, I've noticed tendencies for them to try to relate all of their experiences, which can be a bit daunting for the reader hoping for a three minute diversion.  If you've not noticed, my posts already have a tendency to stretch the limits of a normal attention span (see this post).  Thus, The Stream Zambezi will effort to convey our experience in a sort of digital stream of consciousness through varied media, including photo, video and text.

Additionally, I am going to try to supplement the blog through a Twitter account I have created: StreamZambezi.  Request to follow for updates.  Finally, I am closing the official viva la Re... Twitter account in favor of my personal Twitter account.  You can follow me here.

More evidence for preventative HAART

Two new studies are out affirming recent evidence that medications designed to treat HIV/AIDS can be effectively used as prophylaxis against the disease in high risk populations.  The two African studies both suggest that a two-drug cocktail of highly active anti-retrovirals (HAART), taken as a daily pill, significantly reduced transmission of HIV in sero-discordant couples.  Sero-discordant is a fancy medical term meaning one partner is HIV positive, while the other is not.  The New York Times talks about the findings here.

These findings are the first to affirm protection in heterosexual couples.  One previous study had shown efficacy in gay men.  The research is part of a growing body of evidence that HAART has a role in preventing the spread of HIV that eclipses previous understandings of the drugs.  While the news is certainly a welcomed breakthrough in the global fight against HIV, it also bears it share of challenges.  Just like the findings a couple months ago, this will most likely lead to calls for increased supplies of HAART.  The benefits of such findings will almost certainly benefit Westerners at-risk before those in the developing world.  Can we justify providing prophylactic meds to uninfected individuals while millions who are infected still remain without access to medications?  Regardless of justification, it will almost certainly happen.

Friday Pick of the Week

Happy Friday, friends.  I think it all started with Lisa Loeb crying out "Stay" in those sexy, psuedo-nerdy cat-eye glasses, begging me to come back to live in her VH1 New York City Studio apartment.  As you have probably noticed by now, I have a thing for female pop singers.  When Colbie Caillat's "Bubbly" comes on the radio, I will do whatever it takes (save admitting that I like her) to keep it on the radio.  "Oh gosh," I might say, "I can't stand her. But leave it on this station, I want to hear what's next," all the while my foot taps to the beat.

While I don't love every female pop vocalist, I appreciate a range, from Taylor Swift to Norah Jones.  My most recent guilty pleasure is Adele.  She's got an incredible voice, and as a 21 year old, the songwriting talents to match.  Today's pick is certainly one you've heard before, but you know you just want to click play one more time.  Without further ado, I present "Rolling in the Deep."

Evangelical sex

I read it, I admit.  I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris was a big deal when I was in high school.  A girl I'd dated via the telephone for a few weeks dumped me.  Weeks later she was toting the culprit copy of the book around school, compliments of her dateless friends in the youth group.  Not to be out-Christianed, I eventually picked the book up too.  And while I never bought wholeheartedly into what Harris said, the book did affirm an emerging awareness that was developing in me as a young Christian: premarital sex is chief among all sins.  Conversely, martial sex is the chief among all delights.

As I wrestled through adolescence in the midst of a Southern Baptist youth group, I struggled with loneliness, relationships and physical desires like most other kids.  I had crushes, fell into infatuations, made out with girls and struggled with guilt. From early on I remember praying, "God, I know heaven is going to be great and all, but please let me have sex before I die."  It turns out that my experience was not unique, as teens growing up in Evangelical churches are having a particularly hard time with sex.  In a great post, Dr. Anthony Bradley here discusses recent findings that Evangelical teens are more likely to engage in premarital sex than Mormon, Jewish or mainline Protestant teens.

After high school I graduated on to a highly Evangelical college ministry.  There it was clear that singleness and dating were simply harsh sufferings Christians must endure before arriving at the promised land of Christian marriage.  Everyone was terrified that they had the "gift" of singleness.  Strict gender roles were established to explain the differences between men and women.  Crudely, men wanted sex and respect, women wanted someone to help them with the dishes.  Men's discipleship groups obsessed over lust and masturbation, while women were exhorted weekly to guard their hearts.  We were told things like, "If you can't imagine yourself marrying a person, then don't take her out on a date." Relationships were scrutinized for evidence of God's blessings by both staff members and fellow students.  Those deemed to be falling short were challenged.

It was a perfect combination of oppressed urges and glamorized sex.  Because of the ideolization of sex, the pattern drawn by Reitan in the Bradley post wreaked havoc.  Pornography preyed like a rampant plague.  Dating couples who "crossed lines" were flooded with confused guilt.  Yoked together in shame, my girlfriend at the time and I were in constant conflict.  She stayed because I was a man who could afford her to be a "godly wife;" I stayed because I was scared to be alone.  More than that, we hoped beyond hope that God would redeem our indiscretions if we would stay together - terrified He would damn us to eternal singleness if we parted.

Thankfully, after college, I had some time to grow and mature, to rethink relationships outside of the bubble in which I had operated.  I moved to a new city, broke up with my girlfriend and acted on years of pent-up sexual frustration by dating broadly outside of evangelical circles.  Still possessed of incredible sexual willpower, I didn't necessarily sow my proverbial wild oats.  I still struggled with my desires, but after a few months of mistakes followed by deep shame, I settled down.  Stepping away from rigid boundaries, boundaries once broken that had very little recourse, I stepped into a new way of seeing relationships.  I began to establish values of how I wanted to treat women and myself - with kindness, respect and dignity.  I didn't need each new relationship with a woman to be "the one."  It was only then that I began to know for what I was actually looking.

I am now a year into my marriage, and [spoiler alert for evangelical singles] sex is not what it was made out to be.  Wait before you jump from the building, single evangelical man.  I believed for so long that sex was the answer to everything that was missing inside of me.  If I could just hold out until marriage, all my troubles would disappear.  My lusts would be satisfied, my loneliness would go away.  I was successful in holding out, I guess, depending on the grey area definitions, to my virginity by the skin of my teeth.  But marital sex didn't fix anything.

Don't get me wrong, sex is great.  Though the promised fireworks have never gone off, sometimes everything works out just right and it is wonderful.  But sex is hard, especially if you don't have the advantage of all those repressed emotions gearing you up for it.  Sex in marriage takes work, trying to deal with your relating styles and hopes and expectations.  The marriage bed is a place where you are naked, not simply physically but also emotionally.  You can't really hide anything.  As is true in the rest of life, the hard work is extremely rewarding but requires continual diligence.  I don't feel any more complete, and I still at times am really lonely. It hasn't made lust go away, and it certainly hasn't made me okay.

If I was honest, I would tell you that for years I often saw marriage as a means to an end.  It was the key to the door of eternal sexual satisfaction.  It isn't.  In fact, that door doesn't even exist.  Anyone who says differently is selling something - most likely pornography or Christian morality.

I am no more okay today than I was 12 months ago.  No sex or marriage or drug or mission trip will do that.  But I can take solace, Christian, in that this is not my home.  And I am confident, on this side of Christian marriage and morally permissible sex, that sex is not worth delaying heaven.

Friday Pick of the Week

Happy Friday, friends.  A theme for Fridays past has been keeping it local, and again this week we choose another act Alabama born and bred.  Fire Mountain is a band based out of south Alabama, incorporating folk and rock styles to create rich sound reminiscent of some of Ray LaMontagne's work.  They are relatively new to the music scene, though are taking full advantage of the rapidly changing music business to try to get their music into your ears.  You can find most of their recordings here on Soundcloud, and they are active on Twitter, Facebook and Myspace.  Their recently released album, Live at Standard Deluxe, is available via bandcamp.com for whatever price you choose (even if that price is zero dollars).  They've also been burning up the pavement on their most recent tour, which included a stop at The Bottletree here in Birmingham.  I feel like a cover song is typically a good test of a band's potential (see Alien Ant Farm), and what better genre for a folk rock band to cover than R&B?  Without further ado, I present Fire Mountain's rendition of "DJ's Got Us Falling in Love."


DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love (Usher cover) by firemountainmusic

Are growing income disparities real?

For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. - Jesus

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. - Benjamin Disraeli by way of Mark Twain

Economics are a hard thing.  Utterly dependent on statistics, economists defend theories ranging from laissez faire free markets to strictly regulated communist programs.  Entire think tanks and institutes are dedicated to advocating libertarian and socialist economic policies alike.  The truth is that, not unlike theology, once someone believes that they've gotten their mind completely around economics, they become dangerous.  Enter the politicians.

Americans in the 21st century, even in the throws of a major recession, enjoy the benefits of one of the richest economies in history.  As that economy has grown, the rich indeed have gotten richer, with the top 20% of wage earners significantly improving their lot while the bottom fifth have actually seen a decrease in their already dismal earnings.  However, Steve Horwitz argues below that such disparities are in fact deceiving, arguing that economic mobility actually discredits such disparities.

Horwitz's argument is convincing.  He shows a critical component of understanding poverty - that not all poverty is created equal.  Many who live below the poverty line are only temporarily poor, either just having entered the workforce in a low-paying job, or in-between jobs.  These poor are, as Horwitz argues, remarkably economically mobile - accounting for the lego man's movement all the way to the top earning strata by the end of the presentation.  Horwitz makes an excellent case for maintaining the US's free-market system, based on a utilitarian ethic of the greatest good for the greatest number.

Unfortunately, a Christian's call is not to utilitarian ethics.  We instead are called to care for the least of these, even at the cost of ourselves and our economic peers.  In his example, Horwitz neglects the long-term, permanently poor.  There is in this country a class of people who will never, despite their efforts to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, climb into an upper income bracket.

So many of the homeless men that Rachel works with are African Americans with crack-cocaine addictions.  Interestingly, the majority of these men don't try crack until they are well into mid-life, in their late 30s and 40s.  Most of them had manual or unskilled labor positions, and many of them were "productive members of society" until they decided to take their first hit.  They did what they were supposed to do - find a job and do it (it is funny how college-educated white folks like to remind us that "college isn't for everyone").  Many of them earned decent livings until the reality of their fate set in.  Regardless of their efforts, they would never move out of the lowest income bracket.  Economics are not completely to blame for their decisions - serious trauma is a common theme, and every recovering addict will confess his or her ownership in addiction.  But it is interesting how many of her clients are former members of the lowest 20% of earners.

It would be compelling to see how Horwitz's model would play out if he divided the income brackets into twentieths instead of fifths.  I trust we would see far fewer from the lowest five percent climb into the upper five percent - or even out of the bottom 20%.  Few of the permanent, generational poor have either the education or resources to escape that low bracket.  Add in structural discrimination and a touch of fatalism and you have yourself an economically immobile population.

If Horwitz broke down the statistics even further, he would show that the top 1% of earners in the US earned upwards of a quarter of the nation's income - far more than the bottom 50% of earners combined.  That percentage has increased significantly from the 8% that top percentile took in back in the 1970s.  I question whether even the most driven of the temporarily poor would ever enjoy a slice of that pie.

Treatment instead of punishment

Ten years ago, Portugal shifted its drug policy away from a punishment-based system to one of drug treatment.  The results have been encouraging, as users of both hard and intravenous drugs have dropped to half of what they were, as Molly McDonough of ABA Journal reports here.  This adds to the mounting evidence that US drug policy is in dire need of redirection in the face of overflowing prisons and a multi-billion dollar drug war being held on our southern border.  Props to Michael Stewart for passing along the link.

Independence Day

Gone, gone, gone

Not gone for long

When you're taught to be proud

Of where you come from

- Trevor Garrod

Speaking of revolutions, it is the fourth of July.  You may have noticed here at viva la re, we're prone to take a critical perspective towards a number of things: the Church, politicians, Alabama and the USA.  The tones of frustration can come across as condescending and hopeless.

Here's something that might not come across: I love America.  My homeland has afforded me privileges that I could not have enjoyed if born in most other places and times.  I have been provided with means and education at the sacrifices of countless others, both voluntary and involuntary.  Dissent is an essential component of democracy, and my hope is that as I criticize, I do so with hope and conviction. But even the right to dissent exercised frequently here is constitutionally protected.   I pray that my position of power and privilege will be poured out in pursuit of the virtues of liberty and justice.

The times I find it easy to be critical of America are abounding, for instance a tone-deaf woman in a karaoke bar shouting, "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way!"  But there are also moments when I take immense delight in my nationality.  In few times do I find more pride than Fourth of July fireworks.  One of my earliest memories is standing out of Eck Stadium watching the display with my parents.

And so as Rachel and I prepare to depart the Union at the end of the month, I hope tonight's fireworks over the Vulcan will again stir pride and thankfulness.  Happy Independence Day, friends.  Celebrate well the revolution.

Friday Pick of the Week

Happy Friday, friends.  As you all know, I hope for a somewhat broad range in taste when it comes to popular music.  A few years ago I got on a bluegrass kick for a few months, enjoying music all the way from Bill Monroe and Del McCoury to Cherryholmes and Nickle Creek.  While I appreciate the old, pure stuff, I am partial to "newgrass."  One of my favorite bands of the folk/bluegrass/porch music revival has been Old Crow Medicine Show.  Their self-titled album remains a go to for me when I am in the right mood.

Recently, I was introduced to The Devil Makes Three, a band that reminds me of OCMS.  The group from Santa Cruz, California describes their music as folk-punk.  As you can tell in today's pick (as well as with the Avett Brothers), the strange sounding combination works beautifully - not unlike french fries dipped in a Wendy's Frosty.  For your enjoyment, I present to you The Devil Makes Three performing "Old Number 7."