Why You Should Check out the movie "Uncle Nino"

“Do you have a maid living in your house?” a friend asked me when I was in high school.

“What?” I asked, completely confused.

“Well, there’s this strange lady that answers your phone and she doesn’t know any English. Every time I call, she just goes on and on in a different language.”

Do human beings have a lot to learn from ants? Do scientists have a lot to learn from Christians? Will we find out before we come to a crisis point?

I’ve always been puzzled by fools for Christ. They just never made sense to me. How is being crazy saint-like? A picture of a drooling person paralyzed with hallucinations comes to mind. Matted, messy hair, maybe drug addicted--but not saintly. It just doesn’t match with what I was taught, growing up in a Greek Orthodox church. In Sunday school, I learned about disciplined and wise leaders of the faith who stood up to pagans and put their lives on the line for Christ. I don’t recall ever hearing about “fools” who were also known as saints. Not until coming back to the church in my adulthood did I hear of these anomalies.

I missed Pascha. I had a bad cold with a low fever that happened to come and go over the wrong weekend. Nothing serious.

If you're Orthodox, I don't have to tell you how that felt.

The April 2 edition of Newsweek Magazine featured a piece (just in time for Western Easter) by journalist Andrew Sullivan. It is a heartfelt piece, urging its readers to ignore (i.e. reject) all forms of contemporary Christianity and to embrace Jesus instead. Reading this thoughtful essay, I could not shake the feeling that Mr. Sullivan was intending his piece to be edgy and radical.

A long drive is ahead of us. Audiobooks have been downloaded to our various electronic devices, and we’re ready to melt away hours of monotonous cross-country driving. My kids are all too familiar with drives lasting hours and even days. This has long been a part of our lives – partly intentional and partly just the hand we’ve been dealt. Audiobooks are not the only form of entertainment we have used to pass the time on these trips, but it is the primary form for this journey. I had planned to listen to children’s books and write lesson plans in my mind during the drive, but at the last moment, I decided to follow along with the book my daughter was starting – The Hunger Games. Once again, as in years past, it was the perfect catalyst for a discussion.

It's not a bad word.

Recently, I was in a leadership training class. We were directed to pick one thing that most influenced our interactions with the world around us. The choices were: age, income level, gender, education, etc. We weren’t given much time to think about our choice. I found myself walking toward the giant sign that said “religion.” A huddle of about twenty people stood right next to me. I was pleasantly surprised to see others had joined me in my choice….until the instructor walked towards me.

“Which group are you in?” he asked.

“I miss my TV,” my daughter’s classmate lamented to me. We were on our third day of an elementary school camp. Though we had luxuries like heated cabins, running water, and our days were occupied with endless outdoor activities, there were no TV’s in sight.

“Do you have a TV in your room?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said.

“What do you watch?”

“Whatever I want,” she replied. “I go to sleep with it every night.”

With Easter fast approaching, Orthodox Christian Network has decided to fight fire with fire, releasing its own YouTube video in response to a viral video by Jefferson Bethke entitled “Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus,” which gained national attention this year, receiving over 20 million views on YouTube.

On a walk through a nearby suburb of Seattle a few months ago, my husband and I noticed a large banner in front of a popular mega-church: “Free parenting class!” The sign read. We were curious.

“Let’s go in!” my husband said. We had always wondered what this church looked like inside.

As we walked up the steps and into the glossy, posh surroundings – it felt we were in an elite social club. Young couples like us flowed through the doors before and after us. Men and women stood in clusters, chit-chatting while sipping their grande lattes. Everyone was having a good time. No one even noticed we were there (and we were okay with that).