ACCORDIONS SHUTTERS

This is a photograph of a portion of an old church in rural South Dakota. As I walked around the little used and poorly cared for building, this image caught my eye. It has a striking graphic quality which, in my mind, stands alone, without any other interpretation. It can simply be enjoyed just for that.

However, as I was composing the photograph, reflecting upon the image, it made me think of the gradual retreat, withdrawal, and blindness of the church of the past few generations. We seem to be solely concerned with what is happening within our own walls; a valid concern to be sure. But there are people outside of our faith communities who need to be invited in; people with real questions, problems, and needs. We, however, seem to be occupied more with building fortresses, finding ways to keep people out, rather than bridges that invite people in.

I speculate that part of this has to do with the politicalizationof the church. We have, to borrow from Ed Dobson and Cal Thomas, been blinded by the political might we've gained over the past thirty years. It's time to tear the covering off our windows, replace the pious stained glass with clear, and engage our culture in a conversation about truth, life as it is supposed to be lived, about Jesus.

the little blotch of sunlight is from the window on the west wall, a window that currently lacks a warm window blind. the insulation power of the warm window fabric i made these with is AMAZING. it stops 81% of heat loss in winter and 79% of solar gain in the summer. i anxiously await cost and energy savings because printing the fabric for these by hand/cutting/sewing and installing these to cover a 6' x 12' window very nearly fucking killed me.