LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY hummingwolf)

"Evangelical youth leader Ron Luce thinks the secular media is demonically-inspired, and he’s fighting fire with fire. Religion writer Jeff Sharlet describes BattleCry, Luce’s angry attempt to infiltrate enemy bastions like MTV and Hollywood."

You can listen now at the link above. Transcripts will be available Monday afternoon (in some U.S. time zone, presumably).

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY brigidsblest)

By Sidney Blumenthal
The Guardian UK
Thursday 23 March 2006

Even some Republicans are now horrified by the influence Bush has given to the evangelical right.


In his latest PR offensive President Bush came to Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday to answer the paramount question on Iraq that he said was on people's minds: "They wonder what I see that they don't." After mentioning "terror" 54 times and "victory" five, dismissing "civil war" twice and asserting that he is "optimistic", he called on a citizen in the audience, who homed in on the invisible meaning of recent events in the light of two books, American Theocracy, by Kevin Phillips, and the book of Revelation. Phillips, the questioner explained, "makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this? And if not, why not?"

Bush's immediate response, as transcribed by CNN, was: "Hmmm." Then he said: "The answer is I haven't really thought of it that way. Here's how I think of it. First, I've heard of that, by the way." The official White House website transcript drops the strategic comma, and so changes the meaning to: "First I've heard of that, by the way."

But it is certainly not the first time Bush has heard of the apocalyptic preoccupation of much of the religious right, having served as evangelical liaison on his father's 1988 presidential campaign. The Rev Jerry Falwell told Newsweek how he brought Tim LaHaye, then an influential rightwing leader, to meet him; LaHaye's Left Behind novels, dramatizing the rapture, Armageddon and the second coming, have sold tens of millions.

( The rest behind the cut... )

The article can be found here.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jargon_john)

I was taken aback by this movie. Not because I was offended by it, but by how much it represented the many fears of this community of God and politics colliding.

Not having known anything about this series before watching, I was amazed at how relevent it is to America today, where a faith-based government holds control on all aspects of its citizens lives.

Thus, I recommend everyone to go and see it. It portrays a possible (and if it were to happen, hopeful) outcome of what a faith-based government would do.

If this is does not meet the community guidelines, my apologies.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jehovahsfitness)

The other night I watched the movie Kinsey about Dr. Alfred Kinsey whose ground-breaking studies on human sexuality rubbed many of his era the wrong way. Qucikly, I found it easy to relate to.

( spoilers )
We have a challange that did not face Kinsey in his time. Just as with the "intelligent" design issue, certain individuals are trying to use pseudo-science to promote a religious agenda. Repeated experiments have shown time and again that homosexuality, masturbation and other sex-related phenomena considered immoral by some occur in nature. Kinsey notes how homosexuality is anything but unnatural, as many believed and continue to believe.

Rather than own up to the fact that they have been fallen prey to a bigoted mindset, many continue to assert that homosexuality is, dispite the consensus of maintream scientists, unnatural and unhealthy. The likes of Dr. James Dobson ignore scientific evidence that would refute their claims, essentiallty rejecting science. As with "intelligent desgin" we have another religious philosophy which has put on the disguise of science. The challenge these days is that those on the religious right have realized that blatant religion cannot win out against science in our modern society, so they have taken to underhanded tactics.

We cannot allow our society to revert to the days when natural sexuality was denigrated to the point that it has caused psychological harm. My question for you, is how can we do it? By what means will love really win out?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

The new evangelical film about missionaries, End of the Spear, stars Chad Allen, an openly gay actor who has been an advocate for equal marriage. And of course evangelicals are having a hissy fit...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/national/02spear.html?ex=1139547600&en=7cc29e24f5b09d1a&ei=5059&partner=AOL

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gairid)

Look! The Christian Right has an answer to Brokeback Mountain.

Here's the synopsis:

Provoked by temptation, a tumultuous affair is about to begin, and it will burn as deep as the desires that brought it to life. Michael Gooden is a God- fearing man who has been married for eighteen years. He has a wonderful wife and two teenage children. But one day he is cornered by an ultimatum that will unleash the desires pent up inside of him. Michael begins an affair that has him torn between guilt and desire and right and wrong. Michael’s wife Sarah is blindsided by his affair. Throughout her struggle to deal with the truth she must find a way to maintain her sanity and strengthen her children for the fiery events ahead. She holds on to her faith amidst the turmoil that plagues her family and her church. Michael abandons his church, family, and home for his new life with his lover Jimmy. His one choice sets off a firestorm of events that will consume everyone in its path.



http://www.sodomandgomorrahthemovie.com/home.htm

Sadly, this one does not include Kirk Cameron in the cast.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

The Beast

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

It is a movie with Christian overtones. This does not make it specifically Dominionist nor an automatic threat to our civil liberties. Please keep this in mind. Thank you.

EDIT: This was posted in response to a deleted entry discussing Disney's marketing strategies.

If anyone doubted the ADL is sick of dominionists, they've put that nicely to rest; their featured article on their front page is all about dominionism:

http://www.adl.org/Religious_Freedom/religion_public_square.asp (which is the speech that Ha'aretz was referring to in their news release)

One of the especially interesting things is that the ADL freely admits this is going to be, in their own words, "delicate":

On one hand, there is an extreme element in the community that believes
it is unsafe to confront Christianity. We heard it, read it, saw it in
the Mel Gibson debate. Rabbi Marvin Hier and I were the subjects of a
“fatwa” because we were supposedly undermining the safety and security
of the Jewish people by supposedly criticizing Christians or
Christianity, when in fact we were criticizing Gibson’s portrayal of
Jews in his film, “The Passion of the Christ.” There are also those who
say that because evangelicals are friends of Israel, “don’t fight
them;” “don’t make them angry;” “don’t upset them.”

This is why the ADL is being *very* careful to emphasize they are not criticising Christianity but rather dominionism--to the extent of explaining not only to Ha'aretz, but also in an editorial in rebuttal to a previous editorial by David Klinghoffer (an Orthodox Jew writer who has frequently championed dominionist causes including attempts to make the Smithsonian Institution include sections on "intelligent design" and has even claimed the Holocaust was G_d punishing the Jewish people).

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY bennu_)

There's a movie coming out next year that looks extremely interesting. It's being done by Brian Flemming, the man who did the documentary "The God Who Wasn't There".
Interestingly, it comes out on 6/6/06.

Here's the basic plot summary:

When her father, a biblical scholar, mysteriously disappears, a Christian high-school student named Danielle investigates. She discovers that he had stumbled across a cover-up of Christianity's best-kept secret: That Jesus Christ never existed. Now that she possesses proof of this dangerous fact, Danielle confronts two strong forces: A band of fundamentalist Christians who will stop at nothing to suppress the truth, and her own desire for Jesus Christ to be real. The Beast dives into factual territory well-explored by scholars but largely hidden from the view of the public.

There's more, including forums at the official site.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY hummingwolf)

Tucked deep inside a massive bill designed to track sex offenders and prevent children from being victimized by sex crimes...

The provision added to the Children's Safety Act of 2005 would require any film, TV show or digital image that contains a sex scene to come under the same government filing requirements that adult films must meet.

Currently, any filmed sexual activity requires an affidavit that lists the names and ages of the actors who engage in the act. The film is required to have a video label that claims compliance with the law and lists where the custodian of the records can be found. The record-keeping requirement is known as Section 2257, for its citation in federal law. Violators could spend five years in jail.

Under the provision inserted into the Children's Safety Act, the definition of sexual activity is expanded to include simulated sex acts like those that appear in many movies and TV shows.

As has been pointed out, child pornography is already illegal, and California already has stringent laws protecting children (including child actors) from harm. What the modifications to this bill seem likely to do is to enable the federal government to crack down on any sexual scene dating back to 1995--including those between clothed actors on prime-time TV--if filmmakers haven't kept records which conform to today's law.

In other words, while there is nothing in the article which specifically mentions the Religious Right, you can bet they'll be goading officials to take full advantage of this provision if the thing gets passed. Similar provisions have been ruled unconstitutional in the past; here's hoping people come to their senses this time around as well.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY anschee)

Hi, I'm Anna. I'm from Wellington, NZ and have been lurking for a while, first time post etc etc. I've previously been involved in campaigning against NZ's very own quasi-fascist dominionists, Destiny Church, which is partly why I'm interested in keeping track of these things.

Anyway, I just had to post this one. Never has the phrase "I don't know whether to laugh or cry" felt so accurate.

'This is the first movie they've enjoyed since The Passion of the Christ. This is The Passion of the Penguins.'

 

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I'm about to lose my regular access to the Web because I'm about to leave Seattle, but I found these two gems while doing my rounds...

Open letter to the Kansas School Board

Disney Classics You May Have Missed During the Boycott

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=6020
http://www.henryinstitute.org/commentary/read.php?article=20050601b (from the horse's mouth himself)

The senior VP for academic administration at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (which has been quite thoroughly turned dominionist by Al Mohler and his cronies) states flat out he's *training* his kids to be little sociopathic monsters:

Moore said a reader objected to an earlier column mentioning he took his two young sons to see “Stars War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” because the film is “way too violent for children.”

Moore went on to say it is only the second movie the boys had ever seen.

“One was a tender, touching Christmas movie about a little boy who discovers that Christmas is all about believing in the miracles within,” he said. “The second was a cartoonishly violent movie in which men go face-to-face with evil aliens; often chopping off limbs in the heat of battle.”

Moore went on to quip that he repents of “taking them to the Christmas film.”

“This is because of my overall philosophy of childrearing,” he explained. “I am aiming to raise up violent sons.”

“I am not seeking to raise sons who are violent in the amoral, pagan sense of contemporary teenagers playing ‘Grand Theft Auto’ video games or carjacking motorists,” he explained. “I want them to be more violent than that.”

“I want them to understand that the Christian life is not a Hallmark Channel version of baptized sentimentality,” he continued. “Instead, it is a cosmic battle between an evil dragon and the child of the woman, an ancient warfare that now includes all who belong to the Child of the Promise (Rev 12).”

Sadly, this is *not* uncommon in dominionist households. They quite literally are instructing kids to be violent because in their mind they're breeding "Christian Soldiers".

And these are also the folks largely responsible for "Justice Sunday" and "Justice Sunday II" (Highview Baptist in Louisville is Al Mohler's church, and essentially the "home church" for the seminary)...

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY deridetenebras)

Remember also that Napoleon Dynamite can be used as great discussion starter to lead to a conversation about the gospel. For example, there's a scene where Napoleon discovers a video in a thrift store that eventually ends up being his 'salvation' (so to speak). This is an awesome illustration of how in one way or another we are all looking for that ONE thing that can make our lives meaningful. Unfortunately, most people look for meaning through accomplishments, money, fame, or experiences. This never ends up working, but God has given us a chance to find our life changing 'video' through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Another element of the movie that ties into evangelism is the whole theme of being picked on and outcast. Oftentimes this is how people really feel inside, despite their attempts to look like they have it all together. People can only discover true acceptance and love by finding forgiveness through trusting Christ.

Full article here

(not sure if this belongs here. feel free to delete.)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

There's an indie movie just out called " Heart of the Beholder". Its a true story about a video store owner oppressed and driven out of business by censorious religious fanatics.

It was made by donated funds, and is finally finished and available on DVD. It's gotten some good reviews, too.\

Stories like this remind us of what our country might be like should we let the fanatics take over. This incident took place in the 80s. If you think that the pickets, boycotts and protests of video businesses have stopped, you're wrong.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

The Times has an article about the upcoming Crusade film, "Kingdom of Heaven" directed by Ridley Scott. It doesn't cast the Crusaders in a good light, and of course the Religious Right is outraged:

CHRISTIAN conservatives in America are marshalling their forces against Sir Ridley Scott’s forthcoming crusader epic, The Kingdom of Heaven, claiming the film is insulting and unfair.

Scott, 67, received death threats from Muslim fundamentalists during filming in Morocco two years ago when King Mohammed VI, who admired his earlier work, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, lent him troops from the royal bodyguard.

Yet it is Christian hostility that may ultimately prove more damaging at the box office. A spate of hostile reviews that are due to appear in the increasingly influential religious press this week will urge America’s 80m born-again believers to avoid the £100m film. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This New York Times editorial expresses quite a few relevant points. An excerpt:

AS Congress and the president scurried to play God in the lives of Terri Schiavo and her family last weekend, ABC kicked off Holy Week with its perennial ritual: a rebroadcast of the 1956 Hollywood blockbuster, "The Ten Commandments."

Cecil B. DeMille's epic is known for the parting of its Technicolor Red Sea, for the religiosity of its dialogue (Anne Baxter's Nefretiri to Charlton Heston's Moses: "You can worship any God you like as long as I can worship you.") and for a Golden Calf scene that DeMille himself described as "an orgy Sunday-school children can watch." But this year the lovable old war horse has a relevance that transcends camp. At a time when government, culture, science, medicine and the rule of law are all under threat from an emboldened religious minority out to remake America according to its dogma, the half-forgotten show business history of "The Ten Commandments" provides a telling back story.

As DeMille readied his costly Paramount production for release a half-century ago, he seized on an ingenious publicity scheme. In partnership with the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a nationwide association of civic-minded clubs founded by theater owners, he sponsored the construction of several thousand Ten Commandments monuments throughout the country to hype his product. The Pharaoh himself - that would be Yul Brynner - participated in the gala unveiling of the Milwaukee slab. Heston did the same in North Dakota. Bizarrely enough, all these years later, it is another of these DeMille-inspired granite monuments, on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin, that is a focus of the Ten Commandments case that the United States Supreme Court heard this month.

We must wait for the court's ruling on whether the relics of a Hollywood relic breach the separation of church and state. Either way, it's clear that one principle, so firmly upheld by DeMille, has remained inviolate no matter what the courts have to say: American moguls, snake-oil salesmen and politicians looking to score riches or power will stop at little if they feel it is in their interests to exploit God to achieve those ends. While sometimes God racketeers are guilty of the relatively minor sin of bad taste - witness the crucifixion-nail jewelry licensed by Mel Gibson - sometimes we get the demagoguery of Father Coughlin or the big-time cons of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker.

The religio-hucksterism surrounding the Schiavo case makes DeMille's Hollywood crusades look like amateur night. This circus is the latest and most egregious in a series of cultural shocks that have followed Election Day 2004, when a fateful exit poll question on "moral values" ignited a take-no-prisoners political grab by moral zealots. During the commercial interruptions on "The Ten Commandments" last weekend, viewers could surf over to the cable news networks and find a Bible-thumping show as only Washington could conceive it. Congress was floating such scenarios as staging a meeting in Ms. Schiavo's hospital room or, alternatively, subpoenaing her, her husband and her doctors to a hearing in Washington. All in the name of faith.

The whole article is worth a read.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

crossposted from my personal LJ.

My thoughts on "TPotC" -- Kids are being taken to this film for reasons of "religious education." Many are too young to read the subtitles. So, the primary impact will be intense, graphic violence. But that's OK; it's Biblically-based. This provides them with automatic psychological shields that will spare them having any traumatic effects. A quote from amara_m's LJ, about her movie experience: "Before the cross was even vertical, the 8 year old in front of me was sobbing so hysterically he was heaving, like he was going to throw up."

Apparently these same protections aren't afforded them when they read something truly graphic like "Harry Potter" and get drawn into the dark side.

I'm sorry, is my sarcasm showing?