To KM,

Both you and Bryan seem to have really hit on a valuable resource with this World Association for Christian Communication. And I agree with what both of you have drawn out. A particularly valuable quote from what you quoted, which I think both introduces and sums up what we should do as Christians is as follows:

"Christian communication should be an act of love which liberates all who take part in it. Consequently, the Gospel, being the Good News for the poor, needs to be constantly reinterpreted from the perspectives of the poor and oppressed."

The rest of the points (1 through 6) on Christian communication you quoted from them were really good, and should definitely make it on the wiki. Although, I think it would be wise for us to also include some realism and some caution, because while I agree that all those points about Communication can be true... they are not always true... not merely givens (due to fallenness and corruption in the structures and powers controlling Global Media)... and I think they can only be the most helpful to us when they are all active goals in our efforts at Christian communication.

To Bryan

I agree that Media Literacy is an important movement. It's a tough balance to strike, however, because in the Christian subculture it would difficult to talk about it without people fearing that you are asking them to watch everything and then make the judgement calls, and there are too many people still focused entirely on just never watching anything rated R, for example. But education about how to understand and view media responsibly is a must... not only for the sanity of individual media consumers, but for us to be able to work within that realm we must be able to play the game from the inside and make decisions from the same informed mindset as those who are media/communications experts.

The most valuable stuff I saw from you this week, Bryan, was the exhortation from the World Association for Christian Communication. Particularly the comment about the need for Christians to engage global mass culture for the sake of the disenfranchised and others who have been given no voice. We have seen in our research, and generally agree amongst one-another that the corporate-driven mass media industry does not always help raise the voice of the voice-less, however that is a unique contribution the Christian community can make--integrating inentional and skilled involvement in the Arts and Medias with our call from Jesus to seek out and serve the "least of these."