The Palmetto State has stars in its eyes.

Film industry professionals Thursday celebrated a new law they think will expand their industry in South Carolina.

Richard Futch, former casting director for the TV show “Army Wives,” said the Film Rebates Bill, which was passed by the Legislature and signed into law last week by Gov. Nikki Haley, makes South Carolina competitive with neighboring Georgia and North Carolina.

The new law, which provides incentives to filmmakers, will bring more movie and TV productions to the state, he said.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • * South Carolina

In Game of Thrones we’re shown a world of medieval technology, accoutrement, and honorifics, but without chivalry (some lame pretense is made here and there, but it plays no part even in the life of the nobility, and the tale is told solely through their eyes) because there is no Christ to inspire it and no Church to encourage it. The denizens of the land claim a belief, of whatever sort, in “the gods,” who are never specified, whose mythology is never told, and of whom worship seems virtually nonexistent. The latter is the one significant breach with real-world paganism, which always involved true belief and often extravagant liturgics. There is also (as there was with Rome) a most implausible dearth of numinous awe for the natural world. One may have to pledge one’s son in marriage to the daughter of the castle-holder controlling a vital river crossing in order to get one’s army across, but of the necessity of offering a she-goat or woodcock to the river god himself in order to be granted safe passage there is nary a trace.

This is a significant oversight and makes the world a more modern one that the filmmakers should be comfortable with. Nevertheless, we are presented a generally accurate (for Hollywood) portrayal of what theologian David Bentley Hart calls the “glorious sadness” of ancient paganism in which life was short, or at least wildly precarious, and relatively meaningless while it lasted, and death both all too common and all too horrid to contemplate. Pleasures were to be grasped in whatever form they may be readily at hand, and whether they involved cruelty or kindness was a matter of relative taste. Joy may flit briefly by, but only in such a manner and measure as to enhance the agony of its loss and the poignancy of its ephemerality.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Wicca / paganism

It seems to happen whenever Steve Beard hangs out with friends -- especially folks who don't go to church -- talking about movies, television and whatever else is on their minds.

"It may take five minutes or it may take as long as 10, but sooner or later you're going to run into some kind zombie comment," said Beard, editor of Good News, a magazine for United Methodist evangelicals. "Someone will say something like, 'When the zombie apocalypse occurs, we need to make sure we're all at so-and-so's house so we can stick together.' It's all a wink-and-a-nod kind of deal, but the point is that this whole zombie thing has become a part of the language of our time."

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture

...many viewers of TV preachers are women. In the most conservative Egyptian households, women rarely leave their homes and account for nearly two-thirds of television viewers, according to Ipsos, a Paris-based global polling group. During the runoff of presidential elections last June, 76% of women voted for the Brotherhood's Mr. Morsi, propelling him to a win, according to telephone exit polls by Baseera, a private Egyptian polling firm. Overall, Mr. Morsi received 51.7% of the vote.

"The advantage of the channels is that they reach those groups that the mosque will never reach," said Aatif Abdel Rashid, one of the founders of Al Nas who is now a presenter on Al Hafez, another Salafi satellite station.

Al Nas was started by Saudi investors who owned a media group called Al Baraheen in 2006 as a "cultural" station that featured tame music videos, dance routines and religious dream interpretations—a variety show with an mildly Islamic slant.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

Religion should be incorporated into “reality” television shows in order to increase understanding of other faiths, the Archbishop of Canterbury has claimed.

The Most Rev Justin Welby, who was enthroned in March, warned of “dangerous” consequences if religion disappeared from television schedules. Broadcasters who force religion to the margins are helping to “cultivate ignorance”, the Archbishop said.

He praised the ITV documentary series, Strictly Kosher, which featured an internet-dating Rabbi and a flamboyant fashion boutique owner based in Manchester’s orthodox Jewish community, for “stitching” religion into everyday life.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Speaking at a gathering of digital advertisers in New York City last night, Mr Schmidt refused to forecast when internet video would displace television, instead declaring: "That's already happened."

"It's not a replacement for something that we know," he added. "It's a new thing that we have to think about, to program, to curate and build new platforms."

YouTube recently surpassed the milestone of a billion unique users a month. Only the Google search engine and social network Facebook are frequented more often by those browsing the internet worldwide.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Movies & Television • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life

Mr. [Reed] Hastings said he realized that the company’s attempt to both raise prices and separate into two companies, one the legacy DVD-by-mail business and the other the up-and-coming broadband streaming business, was trying to do too much too fast. Angry subscribers abandoned the company in droves (800,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone), revenue missed estimates and the stock plunged.

“I messed up,” Mr. Hastings wrote in an unusually forthright September 2011 blog post. Citing the precedents of AOL and Borders Books, which struggled or failed to make the digital transition, “my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming.” But in the rush to accelerate the transition, he wrote, “In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success.” He also made a video apology.

Mr. Hastings said he didn’t expect the apology alone to “turn it around,” adding, “I wasn’t naïve enough to think most customers care if the C.E.O. apologizes, but I thought it was honest and appropriate.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • History • Movies & Television • Psychology • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life

magine two teams with more than a thousand competitors on each side. Imagine a playing field that stretches three miles from goal to goal. And imagine a single ball that both sides are fighting over.

That is Shrovetide Football, which is played each year over two days in Ashbourne, England between members of the town. In his documentary Wild In The Streets, Peter Baxter tells the story of the game that has been played for centuries.

Read it all and take the time to watch the official trailer video.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television • Rural/Town Life • Sports • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

Hollywood movie critic and author Theodore “Ted” Baehr came to Columbia this week with the hope of persuading Christian parents and children they have a moral obligation to take on the popular culture moguls who traffic in sex and violence in movies, video games and online entertainment.

Baehr has spent a lifetime teaching, writing and lecturing on the importance of spreading Christian values on the widescreen. He has challenged the movie industry through his biblically based movie reviews to recognize that there is money to be made in family-oriented movies.

“I’ve often said we need more Christians in Hollywood and less Hollywood in Christians,” Baehr, the son of a television actor, said.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture

Watch it all. LOLOL.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

A wonderful French comedy-drama film based on a true story. Terrific acting, lovely music, great scenes from Paris, and all deeply touching. The official website is here. Check it out if you have not done so--KSH (Hat tip: Abigail Harmon).

Filed under: * By Kendall • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

It's, like, totally tubular. The '80s: The Decade That Made Us isn't about nostalgia; it's about the history of our modern world that spawned political, technological, cultural, and social revolutions that began in the United States and went on to dominate the world. This cultural programming event is the defining biography of a generation. It's about a decade of people, decisions, and inventions that changed our future, told from the perspective of the unknowing history makers who lived these iconic moments. We worked out, worked harder, played harder and consumed more—because the 1980s was the decade when we went forward to the future....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

In 2004 Sandra and I flew to the northernmost part of Uganda to visit a couple of theological seminaries in the city of Arua. The Ugandan seminary was relatively well appointed. Its faculty joyful. Its students adequately fed and eager to learn. The Sudanese seminary, across town, was a study in contrasts. Bare buildings, dirt floors, underfed students, listless faculty were all testimony to the suffering of Sudanese people who had sought refuge across the Uganda border to save their lives.

Today South Sudan is its own country, thanks to the accord in 2011, by which 8 million Sudanese – mostly African and Christian (as opposed to northern Sudanese who are Arab and Muslim) – ceded from Sudan. People like the seminarians we saw are now moving back home and rebuilding the decimated southern part of the country. When we lived in Pittsburgh we got to know many of the so-called “Lost Boys” who had come to America back in the 1980’s and ‘90’s as refugees. Beautiful young men, many of them had seen the most brutal atrocities the human mind can imagine.

These atrocities are paraded across the wide-screen in a new movie from Relativity Media called Machine Gun Preacher. Starring Gerard Butler as Sam Childers and Michelle Monagan as his longsuffering wife Lynn, the movie tells the true story of one man’s effort to help the suffering children of Sudan....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Sudan • --South Sudan

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

Watch it all (a little over 13 1/2 minutes) or if you need to (second best) read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Aging / the Elderly • Children • Marriage & Family • Movies & Television • Theatre/Drama/Plays • Women • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

I caught this by accident recently and was hypnotized by its beauty. It is simply splendid--on central park, on the seasons, on the birders, and, oh my--on the birds.

You can read more about it here and if you are up for it there is a spectacular bird show there to whet your appetite.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * General Interest • Animals

On a Sunday afternoon several months ago, I was engaged in one of my favorite religious rituals, watching pro football on television. During a break in the game, I reflexively clicked the “mute” button on the remote control. But my eyes stayed fixed on a startling commercial.

The screen showed a balding man with tawny skin and a salt-and-pepper goatee, and seconds later it spelled out his name: Mujahid Abdul-Rashid. The advertisement went on to show him fishing, playing in a yard with two toddlers, and sitting down to a family meal.

One week later, again during an N.F.L. game, the same commercial appeared. This time I listened to the words. The advertisement was for Prudential’s financial products for retirees. Mr. Abdul-Rashid was talking about his own retirement after 19 years as a clothing salesman, and the family time he now intended to enjoy....

Read it all and you can see the commercial there.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

In an interview with Esquire that is generating a surprising amount of buzz—and not just because she appears on the magazine's cover in her underwear—TV and film star Megan Fox talks about her Pentecostal upbringing and her experience of "getting the Holy Ghost." Ms. Fox's account of speaking in tongues is proving particularly buzz-worthy, prompting comment in Christian media as well as mainstream news outlets in the U.S. and abroad.

Why the kerfuffle? Didn't we get our fill of this a couple of years ago with similar descriptions by the Pentecostally raised singer Katy Perry? And what does it mean to speak in tongues?

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture

1 Kings 18:21 describes a crucial moment of decision. It's the final showdown between the God of Israel and a false god called Baal. Elijah calls God's people to choose once and for all between the living God who delivered them, and this false god who has captured their affections: "'How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.' But the people said nothing."

They seem unable, or unwilling, to make a choice. They want to hedge their bets, sit on the fence, and keep their options open. How different are we Christians in the 21st century? Would you prefer to make an ironclad, no-turning-back choice, or one you could back out of if need be? Do you ever find that you're afraid to commit? Do you reply to party invitations with a "maybe" rather than a "yes" or "no"? Do you like to keep your smartphone switched on at all times, even in meetings, so that you are never fully present at any given moment? Will you focus on the person you're talking to after a church service, or will you look over her shoulder for a better conversation partner?

If so, you may be worshiping the god of open options.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • --Social Networking • Media • Movies & Television • Psychology • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Theology: Scripture

For those of you who know the story/like the movie, etc. here is the Baltimore Raven's Michael Oher with his adopted mother after winning the Super bowl, and here he is with his adopted sister.

If interested, you may read a lot more about this over here.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family • Movies & Television • Sports

[Yesterday].. Netflix...release[d] a drama expressly designed to be consumed in one sitting: “House of Cards,” a political thriller starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. Rather than introducing one episode a week, as distributors have done since the days of black-and-white TVs, all 13 episodes will be streamed at the same time. “Our goal is to shut down a portion of America for a whole day,” the producer Beau Willimon said with a laugh.

“House of Cards,” which is the first show made specifically for Netflix, dispenses with some of the traditions that are so common on network TV, like flashbacks. There is less reason to remind viewers what happened in previous episodes, the producers say, because so many viewers will have just seen it. And if they don’t remember, Google is just a click away. The show “assumes you know what’s happening all the time, whereas television has to assume that a big chunk of the audience is always just tuning in,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer.

The producer Glen Mazzara took a similar approach to AMC’s “The Walking Dead” this year. In the second half of the season, which will start in mid-February after a two-month break, “we decided to pick up the action right away — to just jump right in,” Mr. Mazzara said. Fans of the show, he said, have little tolerance for recaps, since many of them will have just watched a marathon of the first half to prepare for the second.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television • Young Adults • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life

Elizabeth and I finally got to this and it was simply lovely in every sense. Touching, moving, well acted and produced--it has all the hallmarks of a true story, based as it is on the diaries of one who worked as a midwife as it is--KSH.

Filed under: * By Kendall • * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • History • Movies & Television • Women • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

One scholar says it's impossible to understand American history without an understanding of the nation's Christian history. Another suggests that it can lead to church renewal. A third says it helps us interpret Scripture, shape our mission, and appreciate God's grace. People of Faith serves most of these needs well.

The series—produced by the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College (Illinois), with support from the Lilly Endowment—shows Christians engaged in public life during the European settlement, the founding of the nation, the Civil War, the 19th-century social reform movements, and the civil rights movement. Christian activity is portrayed as predominantly positive, though not entirely so. For example, the series points out that Christians made arguments both for and against slavery, and that Prohibition began as a public health crusade against a devastating social problem but quickly turned punitive and counterproductive. Subjects that Christians got mostly wrong, notably the treatment of Native Americans, are touched on lightly, if at all.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Parish Ministry • Adult Education • * Culture-Watch • Education • History • Media • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals • * Theology

In 2012, the average cost of a movie ticket in the United States was $7.92.

This doesn't include all of the (expensive) extras that you usually get roped into buying when you hit the theater, such as popcorn, pop and chocolate bars. We are just talking about the actual ticket.

In 1910, the average cost of a movie ticket was $0.07. Adjusted for inflation, a movie ticket in 1910 would work out to about $1.71 in 2013 dollars.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Currency Markets

...surely some things should be left to the imagination? The ancient Greeks knew the meaning of the word “obscene” and obscene acts – castrations, rapes, beheadings and the like – were not depicted in the theatre, but had to be imagined as having taken place offstage, the literal meaning of “obscene.”

Unfortunately for us, we live in the age of blatancy. Everything must be seen in all its disgusting horror or squalor – and usually both. We have been taught since Freud to think that this is somehow good for us. But all it has done is corrupt our morality and obliterate our powers of imagination. We live in an age where every image is an advert. Now I’ve gone and said it: we have forgotten the prohibition on the making and worshipping of images.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Media • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Theatre/Drama/Plays • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Pastoral Theology • Theodicy

Critics say the show takes reality TV one step too far, exposing personal, intimate and sometimes unflattering details about pastors' wives. But Domonique Scott, former first lady of The Good Life Ministry church, tells NPR's David Greene that The Sisterhood was somewhat of a calling for her. "We definitely believe that God told us to do it," Scott says. "Individually, and together as a group."

"I think for us, the assignment was to step out," adds Christina Murray, the first lady of Oasis Family Life Church. "We knew it would probably be a little controversial, but we don't do anything just for people to understand and give us our approval; we do everything for what God is trying to lead us to do." But, Murray says, appearing on The Sisterhood was not a decision any of the women made lightly. "Basically, you're putting your life out there with the control of somebody else."

Read or listen to it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family • Movies & Television • Race/Race Relations • Women

...this past week, Sister Rose of the Daughters of St. Paul moved through Park City’s starry firmament as Sister Rose of Sundance, a veteran film critic participating in this year’s edition of the renowned indie festival. By the time Sundance ends on Sunday, she will have seen upward of 20 films, blogging and reviewing most of them for The National Catholic Reporter and joining in panel discussions for students from religious colleges and seminaries.

In all those ways, Sister Rose was serving not as a sentry protecting religious belief from cinematic product, but rather as a mediator helping to explain one to the other. As such, she embodies a departure both from the religious temptation to police popular culture, in the manner of the Roman Catholic Church’s now-defunct Legion of Decency, and the effort in fundamentalist circles to create a parallel universe of theologically safe movies, television and music.

“To paraphrase a Gospel passage, Christ came into the world to redeem the culture, not to condemn it,” Sister Rose, 61, said in an interview here. “It’s a negotiation. You don’t give everything a free pass. Something has to come out of your convictions and values. But what matters isn’t what the movie contains, but what it means.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

Watch it all. Clean humor, oh so funny.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

In spite of tepid reviews from some film critics, "Les Miserables" is booming at the box office, and that financial success can in part be traced to a group of its biggest boosters: Christians, particularly evangelicals whom NBC Universal went after with a microtargeted marketing strategy.

The story in "Les Miserables" is heavy with Christian themes of grace, mercy and redemption. The line everyone seems to remember is "to love another person is to see the face of God.”

NBC Universal looked to capitalize on those components and promoted the film to pastors, Christian radio hosts and influence-makers in the Christian community.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Music • Religion & Culture • Theatre/Drama/Plays • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

This year's best-of lists could make a history class curriculum, with films about the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the final months of Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. All will factor into an Oscar race that won't be as clear cut as last year's coronation of "The Artist."

Four movies filmed in part or full in Pittsburgh opened in 2012 -- "The Dark Knight Rises," "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," "Won't Back Down" and "Jack Reacher" -- with a fifth, "Promised Land," due in theaters Jan. 4.

Read it all. I am interested in how many you have seen, and what you make of their list--KSH.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

One of my friends sent me this this week, and it moved me to tears. Please do take the time to watch it all (in the ten minute range)--KSH.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Christmas • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military

[My friend] Tom asked whether on Saturday afternoon I would accompany him to celebrate a Mass in Hitchcock's house.

I was dumbfounded, but of course said yes. On that Saturday, when we found Hitchcock asleep in the living room, Tom gently shook him. Hitchcock awoke, looked up and kissed Tom's hand, thanking him.

Tom said, "Hitch, this is Mark Henninger, a young priest from Cleveland."

"Cleveland?" Hitchcock said. "Disgraceful!"

After we chatted for a while, we all crossed from the living room through a breezeway to his study, and there, with his wife, Alma, we celebrated a quiet Mass....

Weighing one's life with its share of wounds suffered and inflicted in such a perspective, and seeking reconciliation with an experienced and forgiving God, strikes me as profoundly human. Hitchcock's extraordinary reaction to receiving communion was the face of real humanity and religion, far away from headlines . . . or today's filmmakers and biographers.

One of Hitchcock's biographers, Donald Spoto, has written that Hitchcock let it be known that he "rejected suggestions that he allow a priest . . . to come for a visit, or celebrate a quiet, informal ritual at the house for his comfort." That in the movie director's final days he deliberately and successfully led outsiders to believe precisely the opposite of what happened is pure Hitchcock.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Theology • Sacramental Theology • Eucharist

Police say a Massachusetts man left his girlfriend's 2-year-old son in a car while he went shopping for Black Friday bargains, then went home with his new 51-inch flat screen television and left the toddler behind.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Police/Fire • Marriage & Family • Movies & Television • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Filed under: * By Kendall • Harmon Family • * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television

Watch it all.

This is from the Carol Burnett Show with Harvey Korman as the dentist's patient.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

The research examined by the commission “clearly shows that media violence consumption increases the relative risk of aggression, defined as intentional harm to another person that could be verbal, relational, or physical,” the report said.

More than 15 meta-analyses, each bringing together multiple studies, have been published on the link between media violence and aggression. The results of all these studies found that exposure to media violence not only increases aggressive behaviour, but also aggressive thoughts, feelings, physiological arousal, and decreases prosocial behavior.

It is mistaken to think that the aggression must be immediate or severe, such as shooting someone, the report qualified. It can take a variety of forms, such as a child being more defiant and disrespectful, or an adult being less open to others.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Media • Movies & Television • Violence

Our son recommended it to us, and a friend from the Midwest said it was very well received in the Chicago area. I was glad I forced myself to read nothing about it, because it was not what I thought it would be. Definitely not suitable for certain viewers and rated as such, but a very good script and cast finely directed by Zemeckis--KSH.

Filed under: * By Kendall • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

Actor Nicolas Cage will reportedly star in what producers hope will be a new, improved movie version of the best-selling, end-times thriller Left Behind.

The project is being developed by Cloud Ten Pictures, which released the first film adaptation of the book in 2000, following it with two other installments from the successful series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins—which have sold more than 64 million copies since the first title came out in 1995.

Cloud Ten founder and CEO Paul Lalonde, who was one of the producers of the original, independently made movie that starred Kirk Cameron, is producing the action thriller that will be "in the mold of a classic disaster film" with Michael Walker, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Jay David Williams of Family Screen Partners is executive producing.

Read it all

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Theology • Eschatology

A scientist who gave up his job in alternative technology to train as a vicar stars in a new TV series starting next week.

Marcus Zipperlen from Penparcau, Aberystwyth, is one of a number of trainee priests who were followed around for a year by the cameras at St Michael’s College, Cardiff. His journey will be featured in Vicar Academy on BBC1 Wales starting on Monday 15 October.

Made by an independent company, Presentable, Vicar Academy shadowed several full-time students, (“ordinands”) from St Michael’s College – Wales’ only theological college – who came from all corners of the country.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * Theology • Seminary / Theological Education

After spending 18 of the last 30 years in Egypt, I am not a romantic when it comes to the realities of religious intolerance, social discrimination and sectarian violence experienced by many Christians due to religious fanatics who claim to be Christian, Jewish or Muslim. I have overheard various “men of religion” refer to Christians using the religious “M” word, “mushrik” meaning polytheist and idolater or “K” word “kafr” meaning infidel. I’ve heard it all and seen a lot. While two wrongs never make a right, Christians of most denominations should never fail to recall the violence, discrimination and persecution we have been guilty of during our own 2,000 year history “in the name of God and Jesus Christ”.

I cannot speak for Muslims outside of Egypt, but I can try to explain the reactions of many to such a film without equating these reasons to being justifications. Most Americans get quite upset when we watch the American flag being burned or trampled on. We at least get upset if someone desecrates the Bible and Catholics get very upset if someone desecrates the Eucharist. Maybe we don’t burn those who do or torture them anymore, but we have in the past. We claim to be “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all” and yet we have always found at least one race, nationality, religion or orientation to focus on and “go after”.

Western societies that profess “freedom of religion” have moved toward “freedom FROM religion”. Personally, even as a Catholic priest, I feel that “religion” in civil democracies have the obligation to form and educate the individual and collective conscience of its followers and to be “a voice of conscience” in society. However, I oppose any religion dictating to government how it should legislate morality according to any particular religious belief system. At the same time, this is NOT the current reality in the Muslim world whether I/we like it or not. Cultural sensitivity must include religious and social sensitivity.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Egypt • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Other Faiths • Islam • Muslim-Christian relations

Liberation is a peculiarly American love. And these days it seems particularly beloved when the liberation is one from the tyranny of faith.

Mainstream culture prizes those who convert to secularism, the side of the thoughtful and the free. We read of their escapes—books in recent years include "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance," by Elna Baker, and "Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots," by Deborah Feldman. And we watch their oppression by religion on movie screens and television—"Jesus Camp," "Sister Wives," "Big Love—and are relieved by the distance between their lives and our own.

And now we have TLC's new series "Breaking Amish," a reality show that follows the lives of five young Amish and Mennonite men and women as they "forgo horses and buggies for New York City's taxis and subways." The Hollywood Reporter lauded TLC for acting "not only as documentarian but as liberator."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture

Watch it all (just over one minute).

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Men • Movies & Television • Sports • Urban/City Life and Issues

On Wednesday 15 men and four women meet to decide who will succeed Rowan Williams. The frontrunners include a Sun columnist, an economist, and chair of the Hillsborough independent panel.

Read it all and take the time to watch the whole 9 1/2 minute video.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

The 14-minute trailer on YouTube enraged Muslims worldwide with its depiction of Muhammad as a womanizer, religious fraud and child molester. Most Egyptian Christians in the U.S. have rejected the movie and say the man and the nonprofit tied to the film are fringe players who are not well-known in the Coptic Orthodox Church, the church for the vast majority of Coptic Christians in America.

A tiny minority of U.S. Copts, however, have used their adopted nation’s free speech protections to speak out against Islam in a way that would not be tolerated in their native Egypt. The few who engage in this anti-Muslim, evangelical activism _ including those behind the movie trailer _ are fueled by that history, said Eliot Dickinson, an associate professor of political science at Western Oregon University who has written a book on U.S. Copts.

“Whoever made this film is such an outlier in their community that it’s completely unrepresentative,” Dickinson said. “But what it does is, it taps into this frustration of always being persecuted back in Egypt and let’s not downplay that. To be a Copt in Egypt now is a very, very difficult life because, especially after the Arab Spring, it’s open season.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Africa • America/U.S.A. • Middle East • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Coptic Church • Other Faiths • Islam • Muslim-Christian relations

A mob of hundreds of Muslim men attacked and burnt an 82-year-old church and an adjoining school in northwest Pakistan during a protest against an anti-Islam film, sparking concerns among the minority Christian community.

The mob broke through the gate of the St Paul's Lutheran Church inside the cantonment in Mardan city, 48 km from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital of Peshawar, on Friday while returning from a rally against the film Innocence Of Muslims.

According to reports from Christians in Mardan, the mob attacked and set on fire the church, St Paul's high school, a library, a computer laboratory and houses of four clergymen, including Bishop Peter Majeed.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Pakistan • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Lutheran • Other Faiths • Islam • Muslim-Christian relations

"I don't accept that criticism," [Kevin] Miller told CP outside the Cinema Village theater. "I know that we have a little fun with Mark Driscoll at a couple of points. I think that we give people who believe what he believes ample time to make their case. We're not having somebody who doesn't believe what they believe kind of present a caricature. We give them, some people would say we give them too much time, to make their case."

Acknowledging that "we don't have every position," Miller adds, "I would hope that this film would build bridges too. I know that some people don't want a bridge. It's going to burn some bridges, and I'm sorry for that. That's not what I would like to see happen."

In Schaeffer's opinion, "Hellbound?" isn't trying to explain God or what people believe about Him.

"The fact, is I don't think this movie is about hell or theology," he said. "I think there's a subtext which totally overwhelms the film. And the subtext is flag-waving, insane retributive ideas of justice..."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Theology • Eschatology

At least 19 people have died as violent protests erupted on the streets of Pakistan's main cities in anger at an anti-Islam film made in the US.

Fourteen people were killed in the port city of Karachi and a further five died in the north-western city of Peshawar, hospital officials said.

Protesters clashed with police outside the diplomatic enclave in the capital, Islamabad, near the US embassy.

Makes the heart sad--read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Pakistan • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

So let's get this straight: In the consensus view of modern American liberalism, it is hilarious to mock Mormons and Mormonism but outrageous to mock Muslims and Islam. Why? Maybe it's because nobody has ever been harmed, much less killed, making fun of Mormons.

Here's what else we learned this week about the emerging liberal consensus: That it's okay to denounce a movie you haven't seen, which is like trashing a book you haven't read. That it's okay to give perp-walk treatment to the alleged—and no doubt terrified—maker of the film on legally flimsy and politically motivated grounds of parole violation. That it's okay for the federal government publicly to call on Google to pull the video clip from YouTube in an attempt to mollify rampaging Islamists. That it's okay to concede the fundamentalist premise that religious belief ought to be entitled to the highest possible degree of social deference—except when Mormons and sundry Christian rubes are concerned.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Theatre/Drama/Plays • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

The appeal for legislation to ban the publication of material that causes religious offence was con­tained in a letter sent last weekend to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, by the President-Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusa­lem and the Middle East, the Most Revd Mouneer Anis. The other sig­natories were: the Bishop in Cyprus & the Gulf, the Rt Revd Michael Lewis; the Area Bishop for North Africa, Dr Bill Musk; and the Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa, Dr Grant Le­-Marquand.

The Bishops proposed that an "international declaration be nego­tiated that outlaws the intentional and deliberate insulting or defama­tion of persons (such as prophets), symbols, texts, and constructs of belief deemed holy by people of faith".

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • The Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Middle East • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Faiths • Islam • Muslim-Christian relations • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Anglican leaders across the Communion have spoken out about The Innocence of Muslims, a film containing anti-Islam content which has so far triggered protests, violence and death in countries like Libya and Egypt.

Both Anglican and Catholic Archbishops in New Zealand have condemned the film, its message and its promotion, alongside the Federation of Islamic Associations President and the city of Wellington’s Regional Jewish Council Chairperson, Race Relations Commissioner and local Bishops.

According to Anglican Taonga magazine, the group labelled the film (which openly defames the Islamic prophet Muhammad) as “irresponsible” and “inflammatory”, saying it was dishonestly made and presented, and designed to mislead, provoke hate, and cause harm.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

[Robert] McKee doesn’t believe in God. But if he did, he’d have to believe in hell.

He said that anyone who believes in God and says there is no hell or that hell isn’t forever is a “wussy.”

“If choice doesn’t have any meaning, life doesn’t have any meaning,” he said in the film. “By eliminating hell, these people are sucking the meaning out of life.”

[Filmmaker Kevin] Miller, who attends an Anglican church in Canada, also believes that people have to face the consequences for their actions. But that doesn’t mean that they have to be punished forever.

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It had actually been online since July, but nobody had paid attention to its crude libels against the Prophet Mohammed until Mr Abdullah's show broadcast clips from it last weekend, calling for the film-makers to be executed.

Within hours the hardline Salafi Islamists who watch his programme, and who have been growing in strength since last year's revolution, were demonstrating in Cairo's Tahrir Square and outside the US embassy, which they stormed on Tuesday, burning the US flag.

Thus came the spark to a week of violent protests against the film, leading to the killing of the US ambassador to Libya on Tuesday evening and assaults on Western embassies across the Middle East, leaving at least nine dead and hundreds injured.

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I finally got to watch this production during the past week after knowing peripherally about the story. Wow--incredibly powerful. And, as usual, there was so much I did not know--KSH. Here is the blurb about it to whet your appetite:

See how one man's conviction and determination helped save 3,000 lives on 9/11.

In 2001, Rick Rescorla was the 62-year-old head of security at the Morgan Stanley Bank. The bank's offices were situated high up in the South Tower at the World Trade Center. Rescorla was convinced that Osama Bin Laden would use jet planes to try and destroy the World Trade Center.

Long before September 11th, he developed an evacuation plan for the bank. The plan and its preparation were hugely unpopular with the Morgan Stanley staff, many of whom thought Rescorla was mad. Ultimately, however, the plan saved 3,000 lives. It was put into effect after the first jet hit the North Tower--even though WTC managers were instructing everyone to stay in the buildings. When the second jet hit the South Tower, Rescorla averted panic and organized a rapid evacuation. Rescorla went back inside to help the injured and trapped get out. He was still inside when the building collapsed and his body was never found.

Filed under: * By Kendall • * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television • * Economics, Politics • Terrorism

In the recently released documentary "Kumaré," filmmaker Vikram Gandhi, who grew up in a Hindu family in New Jersey and graduated from Columbia University, sets out to skewer the ersatz yogic and Eastern philosophies that have been embraced by New Age enthusiasts in America.

Taking a leaf from Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat," Mr. Gandhi adopts the persona of a guru named Kumaré, or divine child. Complete with beard, flowing robes and a pitch-perfect imitation of his grandmother's Indian lilt, Mr. Gandhi/Kumaré heads for southern Arizona, where his spiritual-sounding bromides ("illusion is truth") attract a circle of 15 devotees, who see him as an authentic spiritual guide.

Anyone who has ever rolled his eyes at strip-mall yoga centers, Beverly Hills ashrams or commercial perfumes with names like Atman (Sanskrit for "true self") will appreciate the film's sendup of New Age movements and transplanted Eastern spirituality.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Health & Medicine • Life Ethics • Movies & Television • Philosophy • Religion & Culture • Women

Most Americans knew nothing about "Innocence of Muslims." That's the film that has set the Muslim world on fire, causing protests in Egypt and Libya that led to the death of the U.S. envoy to Libya, Christopher Stevens.

The bottom line is that we know very little about "Sam Bacile," the man who says he produced the film and who says Sam Bacile is his name. The Wall Street Journal caught up with Bacile before he went into hiding. (Update at 3:34 p.m. ET. Some of the claims made in this interview have come under question. We've updated this post — read below — to reflect that.....)

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The more specific you can be the more helpful it will be for the rest of us. We are especially interested in material others might not be aware of that you have found moving or interesting. What specifically brought this to mind is an off handed reference in my most recent sermon to my wife and I particularly liking English and Scottish mysteries. I was then asked about by several parishioners which mysteries and how did we get them--KSH?

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Books • History • Movies & Television • Theatre/Drama/Plays

The US television network NBC was branded an embarrassment yesterday for its coverage of the Paralympics as athletes, sports chiefs and disability campaigners called for better recognition by international broadcasters of the world’s second largest sports event.
Fierce reaction to the widespread blackout beyond Britain of the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday night came after a record number of people tuned in to watch the critically acclaimed event live on Channel 4.
The host broadcaster reported a peak audience of 11.2 million viewers, its biggest for more than ten years.
Conversely, NBC will wait until September 16 before screening its 90-minute special on the Paralympics, including edited highlights of the show.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Media • Movies & Television • Sports • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • England / UK • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Do you hate it when people complain? It turns out there's a good reason: Listening to too much complaining is bad for your brain in multiple ways, according to Trevor Blake, a serial entrepreneur and author of Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life. In the book, he describes how neuroscientists have learned to measure brain activity when faced with various stimuli, including a long gripe session.

"The brain works more like a muscle than we thought," Blake says. "So if you're pinned in a corner for too long listening to someone being negative, you're more likely to behave that way as well."

Even worse, being exposed to too much complaining can actually make you dumb. Research shows that exposure to 30 minutes or more of negativity--including viewing such material on TV--actually peels away neurons in the brain's hippocampus. "That's the part of your brain you need for problem solving," he says. "Basically, it turns your brain to mush."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Media • Movies & Television • Psychology • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market

You know what? We're all screwed up. And the way Christians mess things up is we act like we've got it going on. And if we would just stay in that place of, hey, we're all screwed up and but for the grace of God none of us have a shot here. We need to have a sense of humor about it; that's kind of the way I've always faced my comedy.

Is the church good fodder for humor? Are we any good at laughing at ourselves?

No, we're not very good at it, but we certainly should be able to laugh at ourselves because we can be idiots sometimes. I think that's the appeal for me. People ask me, "Are you religious?" But I don't like the word religious, because the only people Jesus argued with were "religious" people. I think that's why I love doing this stuff with the homeless guys so much, through Atlanta Mission....They take guys off the street and put them up for a year, help them go through detox and get clean. Those guys get it. They get it better than people in church because they're not clinging to their own self-righteousness. When you're living under a bridge, you kind of understand it's nothing based on you. That's why I love working with those guys. They understand.

Read it all and consider following the link provided to the video on Atlanta Mission.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

Watch it all--too cute. "I love monkeys"--lol.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

Phyllis Diller, the cackling comedian with electric-shock hair who built an influential career in film and nightclubs with stand-up routines that mocked irascible husbands, domestic drudgery and her extensive plastic surgery, died Aug. 20 at her home in Brentwood, Calif. She was 95.

Her manager, Milton Suchin, confirmed the death but said he did not know the cause.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Theatre/Drama/Plays • Women • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

Violence, video games, and sex: what effect does it have on children and adolescents? The latest contribution to this debate comes in a book recently published in Australia....

John P. Murray, who has been researching children’s social development for almost 40 years in the United States in a number of academic position, looked into the matter of the effects of media violence.

Some decades ago studies clearly demonstrate that the viewing of violence and aggressive behaviour are clearly related, but they do not establish a cause and effect relationship.

More recent studies do, however, lead to the conclusion that viewing violence does affect the attitudes and behaviour of viewers, he said.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • Children • Movies & Television • Science & Technology • Teens / Youth • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Australia / NZ

"Top Gun" director Tony Scott jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro on Sunday afternoon. He was 68.

His body was pulled out of the water by Los Angeles Port Police, who were the first on the scene.

Several witnesses told police they saw Scott get out of his Toyota Prius, which was parked on the bridge, about 12:30 p.m. Then he scaled an 8- to 10-foot fence and jumped off without any hesitation, law enforcement sources said.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Psychology • Suicide

As Pakistan's media has expanded in recent years, there's been a rise in Islamic preachers with popular TV call-in talk shows. And they've had their share of scandal. One famous TV host fled the country after embezzlement allegations. Others are accused of spewing hate speech.

That's the case for Pakistan's most popular televangelist, Aamir Liaquat, who's just been rehired by the country's top TV channel despite accusations that he provoked deadly attacks in 2008.

Read (or listen to) it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Pakistan • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Faiths • Islam

There were no red carpets, no paparazzi, no celebrities and definitely no God at the recent annual Atheist Film Festival.

Instead, there were more than a dozen films, long and short, about separation of church and state, freedom of religion (and no religion), the conflict between science and religion in public schools and a couple hundred people eager to see them.

“If we don’t do this, who will? said festival organizer Dave Fitzgerald, as people picked up atheist-themed books and T-shirts at the Aug. 10-11 festival. “Atheists are not well-represented by Hollywood, and a lot of people don’t get any exposure to real atheist thought except through things like this.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Atheism

For all the surprisingly rich moral insight of Dark Knight Rises, it is worth pausing to consider if such epiphanies might be obtained in a way that did not require the graphic mayhem.

Put another way, is it time for America’s most gifted filmmakers and other artists to offer a more diverse context for exploring the struggle between good and evil and our unpredictable capacity to make choices that defy our base instincts?

There’s no formula for drawing inspiration from stories and characters that compel an audience’s engagement without desensitizing their conscience.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • * Culture-Watch • Art • Movies & Television • Poetry & Literature • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

The stunning panoramic views of London featured throughout NBC's coverage of the summer Olympic Games make it hard to imagine the devastation that occurred 72 years ago during the Blitz. While it might harsh your Olympic-induced mellow, NBC's Tom Brokaw takes an intense look back at how the city survived the barbarism of Adolf Hitler's Germany in the two years before the U.S. entered World War II with Their Finest Hour (Saturday, 8/7c).

The documentary precedes the final night of competition coverage that includes track and field, and gold medal finals in men's platform diving and women's volleyball. But it's a worthwhile break in the action. "What England went through in 1940 and '41 will endure forever as a lesson in courage, national resolve and the power of enlightened leadership," Brokaw told TV Guide Magazine. "Against great odds, the UK kept Hitler from using this island nation as a launching pad for expanding his evil empire. We owe this country and that time a great debt."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Movies & Television • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • England / UK

For 30 days, Mr [Joe] Garner turned to Craigslist to see if he could find ways to get the food, transportation and shelter he needed on a trip around the US.

Would strangers he contacted online be happy to help?

Read it all and enjoy the video.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Movies & Television • Science & Technology • Travel • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

The media really does influence adolescents' behavior and early exposure to sexual content in the movies leads them to commence sexual activity at an earlier age and to take more risks.

This was the conclusion of a study just published in the journal Psychological Science, titled "Greater Exposure to Sexual Content in Popular Movies Predicts Earlier Sexual Debut and Increased Sexual Risk Taking."

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Choreographer Akram Khan has said he is upset his Olympic opening ceremony tribute to victims of the 7 July London bombings was not aired in the US.

Khan said he felt "disheartened and disappointed" NBC cut the segment which featured him and 50 dancers perform to Abide With Me, sung by Emeli Sande.

Instead, NBC aired an interview with American Idol host Ryan Seacrest and US Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

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But there in Aurora, there was no Batman to stop the killer, no director to cut the scene. There was no plan to it, no plot — at least not that we can see. It’s just a tragedy — another senseless horror in a world that’s known far too many.

Of all the words that can be used to describe the Aurora shooting, “senseless” may be the worst word of all — particularly for those of us who call ourselves Christian. We claim to worship a good, just and all-powerful God — a God who loves us with a passion as broad as the universe itself. We are His children, we say. And God wouldn’t let any harm come to His children … would He?

And the question hangs in the air, waiting, pleading for an answer.

It’s sadly appropriate Holmes took on The Joker’s persona. He, among all of Batman’s archvillains, offers the worst possible answer to that hanging question: God? he chirps, brushing a hand through his caterpillar-green hair. How quaint. How precious. There is no God. There is no meaning. There is no reason in this cold, dark place. The only truth is that there is no truth.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Philosophy • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Theology • Theodicy

Film and television actor Ernest Borgnine, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a lovelorn butcher in 1955's "Marty," has died at age 95, his manager said Sunday.

The thick-set, gap-toothed Borgnine built a reputation for playing heavies in early films like "From Here to Eternity" and "Bad Day at Black Rock." But he turned that reputation on its head as the shy, homely title character in "Marty," taking home the Oscar for best actor -- one of four awards the film claimed.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

She was a journalist, a blogger, an essayist, a novelist, a playwright, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a movie director — a rarity in a film industry whose directorial ranks were and continue to be dominated by men. Her later box-office success included “You’ve Got Mail” and “Julie & Julia.” By the end of her life, though remaining remarkably youthful looking, she had even become something of a philosopher about age and its indignities.

“Why do people write books that say it’s better to be older than to be younger?” she wrote in “I Feel Bad About My Neck,” her 2006 best-selling collection of essays. “It’s not better. Even if you have all your marbles, you’re constantly reaching for the name of the person you met the day before yesterday.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • Marriage & Family • Men • Movies & Television • Women • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

The recent religious comedies of the Carrel/Carrey ilk aren't hostile to religion, per se. Nor do they question the existence of the divine or suggest that believers are suckers.

But they do deliver a vastly diminished deity. The God portrayed by Morgan Freeman in "Bruce Almighty" is not an awe-inspiring lawgiver and judge but a warm, if occasionally demanding, friend of the people. God tells Bruce that the problem with human beings is that they keep looking up to God for help rather than looking to one another.

Maybe these literal representations of man's interactions with God aren't the most interesting divine comedies being made today.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Theology • Eschatology

The threat to freedom of information in Poland, with attempts to limit the broadcasts of the country’s only Catholic television station, is a little known issue in the rest of the world.

On Dec. 19, 2011, the National Council of Polish Radio and Television (KRRiT in Polish) did not grant the country’s only Catholic television station space on the new digital platform, which from 2013 will ensure Poles free access to a series of TV broadcasts.

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Elizabeth and I went Saturday night and loved it. Good story, fine characters and an off the charts cast.

Filed under: * By Kendall • Harmon Family • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

Experts agree that the way celebrities portray themselves on our screens is piling on the pressure for ordinary older women to look just as good.

There's been an increase in the number of women experiencing eating disorders in middle age according to Professor Phillipa Hay, Foundation Chair of Mental Health at the University of Western Sydney. Hay says a rise in body image and weight and shape concerns is to blame. "There may be more pressures on older women to retain the appearance of youth," she says and "there may be more pressures to be a 'super woman' – successful in the workplace and at home and 'looking good' as well."

Celebrities, such as Angelina Jolie, "appear to 'prove' that thinness in midlife bestows many real-life benefits, for example, sexual desirability, happiness, and wealth that may be particularly persuasive," said a recent study in Psychology of Women Quarterly co-authored by Professor Marika Tiggemann, a psychologist and body image expert at Flinders University. The research, which looked at the influence of television shows such as Desperate Housewives on women aged between 35 and 55 concluded that "exposure to thin idealised images in media content may have an adverse impact on body image and eating practices in midlife."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Middle Age • Movies & Television • Women • * International News & Commentary • Australia / NZ

Watch it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

A national survey of more than 12,000 students in grades 5 to 10 has found that television viewing is associated not only with unhealthy snacking while watching, but also with unhealthy eating at all times.

Researchers asked the children how much TV they watched; how often they snacked while watching; how often they ate fruits, vegetables and candy and drank soda; and how often they skipped breakfast.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Dieting/Food/Nutrition • Movies & Television

Watch it all--wonderful, joyful stuff.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * General Interest • Animals • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

Wow. It was really super. Watch it all.

Filed under: * By Kendall • Harmon Family • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

Kirk Cameron was once one of Hollywood's babies, the spunky, handsome teenager who starred in the 1980s hit "Growing Pains," and whose picture was taped inside many a schoolgirl's locker.

But now, Hollywood scolds and even mocks Cameron who, at 41, is a vocal evangelical Christian, and, in the view of many of his fellow celebrities, kind of a jerk.

Cameron's more recent acting and directing projects almost always carry a deeply Christian message, and he knows he is now the darling of only a certain segment of America. He even seems to take some pride in the fact.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

Actor John Schneider says he just wants to make a difference.

Schneider plays the role of Hannah's father in the recent pro-life hit "October Baby," and drifter Sam Doonby in the new movie "Doonby," a pro-life film from a different perspective. Doonby is being screened to pastors and church leaders.

"The hope is that October Baby will grease the skids so that with these preview screenings Doonby can come out [to the general public] in 500 to 600 theatres," Schneider said.

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Bell-bottoms came and went and came back again.

But Dick Clark? He never left. With his toothpaste-ad smile and a microphone always ready, Dick Clark was a fixture in our pop culture for decades.

Maybe you hear his name and think New Year's Eve stalwart, or American Bandstand host, or "World's Oldest Teenager," a nickname he picked up from TV Guide years ago, but Dick Clark was much more than any of those single images.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Music

Toward the end of “A Night to Remember,” Walter Lord briefly nodded to “the element of fate” in the story, which teases its audience with a sense at once of inevitability and of how easily things might have turned out differently. It is, he says, like “classic Greek tragedy.”

He was right. All the energy spent on the mechanics, the romance, the construction, the passenger list, the endless debates about what the Californian might have done and just how many people perished (still never resolved) has distracted from what may, in the end, be the most obvious thing about the Titanic’s story: it uncannily replicates the structure and the themes of our most fundamental myths and oldest tragedies. Like Iphigenia, the Titanic is a beautiful “maiden” sacrificed to the agendas of greedy men eager to set sail; the forty-six-thousand-ton liner is just the latest in a long line of lovely girl victims, an archetype of vulnerable femininity that stands at the core of the Western literary tradition.

But the Titanic embodies another strain of tragedy. This is the drama of a flawed and self-destructive hero, a protagonist of great achievements and overweening presumption....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • History • Movies & Television • Travel • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

The Rev. Ed Grant and Elder Jim Roberts of Calvary Lutheran Church in West Ashley went to see the movie last year, along with perhaps 20 others from church, and were inspired to bring its message to all the men at Calvary, they said.

Grant had a vision that this reached well beyond his church, he said. This was an opportunity to teach Christian values to and encourage self-reflection in many.

"What does it mean to be a Christian man?" he asked.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Men • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * South Carolina

The Trinity Broadcasting Network, which bills itself as the world's largest Christian network, is embroiled in a legal battle involving allegations of massive financial fraud and lavish spending, including the purchase of a $100,000 motor home for family dogs.

Brittany Koper, a former high-ranking TBN official and the granddaughter of its co-founder, Paul Crouch Sr., was fired by the network in September after discovering "illegal financial schemes" amounting to tens of millions of dollars, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court.

"She blew the whistle and got terminated," said attorney Tymothy MacLeod, who filed the suit on behalf of Joseph McVeigh, the uncle of Koper's husband, Michael Koper, who was himself a high-ranking TBN officer.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Media • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Why the U.S. Supreme Court continues to hold its oral arguments away from television cameras remains a mystery and a national shame. On Monday, the court will begin hearing six hours of arguments over three days in a lawsuit brought by more than half of the states in the nation to challenge the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, one of the most important pieces of economic legislation passed by Congress since the New Deal. The stakes of the litigation could not be higher. How the court rules is likely to affect healthcare in this country for generations and could even affect the outcome of the presidential election.

Who will get to witness this historical event? Only the justices, the lawyers, a few reporters and 250 lucky individuals whose tenacity and financial ability will allow them to camp out in front of the court — perhaps for days — before the hearing begins. The court has said it will provide same-day (not live) audio coverage of the oral arguments. There will be no television at all, not even on tape.

We should be outraged by this decision....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Movies & Television

Years ago, networks would debut their cheesiest programs now, throwing on seriously flawed shows to fill time between important ratings periods in February and May. But now, towards the end of the TV season, networks are rolling out their riskiest and most distinctive series ideas - outside the stampede of new shows that typically start in the fall.

Consider NBC's "Awake," which takes a risk by being complex. "Harry Potter" alum Jason Isaacs plays a police detective who wakes after a car crash to find he's moving between two different realities....

[ERIC] DEGGANS: This might be the most ambitious attempt to reinvent the cop drama yet. It keeps viewers guessing by sprinkling clues across two different worlds.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

Illuminating God’s message of grace in popular culture, including in television shows like “Downton Abbey” and others like “Friday Night Lights” and “Parenthood,” is the cornerstone of Mockingbird, which strives to connect Christianity with everyday life.

Through mbird.com, contributors, including Zahl, analyze film, music, television, literature, social science and humor, dissecting the contents through a Christian understanding.

“We are not trying to cover popular culture,” said Zahl. “But we are trying to reach people through both conscious and unconscious parallels in good art.”

Read it all and do go check out the website.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Art • Blogging & the Internet • Books • Movies & Television • Music • Theatre/Drama/Plays • * Theology • Apologetics • Pastoral Theology

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Music • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

[Frank] Carson had left school at 14 with no qualifications and became an apprentice electrician, but at 16 switched to being a plasterer. In his spare time he worked on his spiel as a stand-up comic, a talent that earned him regular appearances on Northern Ireland television. When he was 25 he sold some scripts to the regional BBC station, and became a professional entertainer, touring with the Australian magician known as The Great Levante.

Encouraged to try his luck on the northern club scene on the mainland, Carson was spotted by the television producer Barney Colehan and signed up for his first network exposure on the music-hall tribute show The Good Old Days. Meanwhile on ITV, Carson - having thrice won Opportunity Knocks - was also booked to appear on The Comedians by the producer Johnny Hamp.

This was the show that transformed Carson from an obscure club comedian into a comedy star.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Ireland

Meryl Streep knew what you were thinking Sunday when they called her name at the 84th annual Academy Awards:

“ ‘Awwww, come on, her again?!?’ ” she joked, accepting a historic third career Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady....”

“The Artist” swept the competition, winning five awards, including best picture, best directing for Michel Hazanavicius, and best actor for Jean Dujardin. It may be the quirkiest feature in years to find favor with the showbiz establishment here — black-and-white, French, and did we mention it’s a silent movie? But the charming tribute to Hollywood’s early days had scooped up so many other awards this year it was considered a lock for the Oscar.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture

She told ABC's Diane Sawyer in 2002: "The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy."

Houston tried to stage a comeback with the 2009 album I Look To You, but things fell apart when a concert to promote the album was clearly off-key.

Broadcaster and music journalist Paul Gambaccini described Whitney Houston's voice as "the template for female vocal performers for the last 30 years".

But in the end, he told the BBC, she became the victim of a "self-administered decline" and, sadly, threw all it all away.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Drugs/Drug Addiction • Movies & Television • Music • Psychology

Hollywood veteran Brian Robbins has a new production studio under construction and 35 shows in development. There's a sitcom set in a high-school bathroom, a talk show modeled on "The View" but hosted by young Twitter celebrities and a series about an outlandish teen wrestling league.

Mr. Robbins, a producer and director known for Eddie Murphy movies and TV shows including "Smallville," plans to produce 120 hours of teen programming this year, all of it destined exclusively for the Web. "We consider ourselves a network," he says.

Mr. Robbins is part of a teeming new ecosystem, as some of Hollywood's biggest names—with support from Silicon Valley's deepest pockets—are racing to create new shows, and in some cases, dozens of them, for the Web.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Movies & Television • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life

...a sort of evangelistic outreach is planned in conjunction with the rollout of the documentary. Robinson said moviegoers should not expect to see Love Free or Die in many theaters. Instead, the plan is to make a DVD available to individuals and congregations through the film’s website, with an emphasis on group showings for “the movable middle.”

“We are asking that everyone who sees the movie invite a person — a family member, a coworker, a former classmate — who are among that large group of people who for the most part love us — they know us, they think positively about us — but they still go in the voting booth and vote against us,” Robinson said. “You know about that here in California.”

Robinson repeatedly referred to an iconic “Aunt Betty” as the film’s target audience. “Make it your project this year to call them up and say, ‘Aunt Betty, you remember how we had that little altercation at Thanksgiving? Can I get you out for coffee, and let’s talk about that?’” Robinson said. “And then, it looks as if this will be showing on PBS in the fall, and … we’re working on getting it shown on Thanksgiving weekend. So you’ll be at home with Aunt Betty, and you can have a better conversation this time.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • TEC Conflicts • Lambeth 2008 • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Media • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Psychology • * General Interest • Humor / Trivia