Posts Tagged ‘ Catholicism ’

Theologians Say “Sit Down and Shut Up!” About the President’s Religion

August 27, 2010
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Theologians Say “Sit Down and Shut Up!” About the President’s Religion

by Mike Gray Is a discussion about President Obama’s faith off limits? Some would say yes, and urge censorship in the media. Here’s the text of a letter issued by the Eleison Group a few days ago: As Christian leaders—whose primary responsibility is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with our congregations, our communities, and our world—we are deeply troubled by the recent questioning of President Obama’s faith. We understand that these are contentious times, but the personal faith of our leaders should not be up for public debate. President Obama has been unwavering in confessing Christ as Lord and has spoken often about the importance of his Christian faith.  Many of the signees on this letter have prayed and worshipped with this President.  We believe that questioning, and especially misrepresenting, the faith of a confessing believer goes too far. This is not a political issue. The signers of this letter come from different political and ideological backgrounds, but we are unified in our belief in Jesus Christ.  As Christian pastors and leaders, we believe that fellow Christians need to be an encouragement to those who call Christ their savior, not question the veracity of their faith. Therefore, we urge

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‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’ Imagines Christianity Disproven

June 30, 2010
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‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’ Imagines Christianity Disproven

Law and Order: Criminal Intent, the long-running spinoff of the recently canceled TV crime drama mainstay Law and Order, has on fairly regular occasions manifested the overt progressivist and anti-Christian bias of its forebear Last night’s episode is one of the most blatant instances yet. It’s a pity because the show has interesting story lines and the central characters, NYC police detectives played by Jeff Goldblum and Saffron Burrows, are intelligent and fairly likable. Unfortunately, last night’s story line is neither. In “Palimpsest,” detectives Nichols and Stevens investigate a case involving two wealthy Manhattan antiquarians who apparently killed each other in a sword-fighting duel. (That kind of insanely bizarre situation is common for the show.) Also involved in the story is the schizophrenic adult daughter of one of the dead men, whom Nichols used to date before her illness became manifest. The story centers around the search for an ancient book purported to be a contemporary Roman account of the trial of Jesus Christ, which we are told is believed to contradict the Gospel narrative by absolving the Jewish religious hierarchy of any responsibility and suggests the trial was entirely political in intent. All of this, we are further given

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German Cartoon Evokes Catholic Outrage

April 20, 2010
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German Cartoon Evokes Catholic Outrage

A cartoon on the cover of a German satirical magazine has evoked outrage among Catholics, as was clearly its intent. Story here.

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‘Apparitions’: Interesting but Overly Fanciful Story About Possession, Exorcisms

March 13, 2010
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‘Apparitions’: Interesting but Overly Fanciful Story About Possession, Exorcisms

As a phenomenon surrounded by mystery and controversy, demonic possession would seem to be made to order for dramatic treatments, especially in the horror realm. Yet except for the novel and film of The Exorcist, it’s a subject area that hasn’t received much prominent attention from writers of fiction. (An informative and rather chilling nonfiction book on the subject is Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans, by the late Fr. Malachi Martin). The BBC miniseries Apparitions, now playing on the Chiller Network in the United States, is an interesting exception. The series finale will appear Sunday night at 8 EDT, and the prior five episodes will be shown beginning 7:30 that morning and replayed beginning 1:30 p.m. It’s worth watching for a sensationalistic but compelling look at this strange phenomenon. The series, written by Joe Ahearne, benefits from a complex and generally praiseworthy protagonist. Father Jacob (Martin Shaw), a kindly but strong-willed, middle-aged Catholic priest in Britain who has a gift for exorcisms but has left that ministry, is drawn back into that service by the plight of a young girl—not a churchgoer—whose father is possessed by a demon. The girl’s father is a

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More on Lord Darcy

March 7, 2007
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Matthew Bowman of Christendom College posted a very interesting comment on my article on Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy tales, which I think adds some value to the discussion. Matthew’s comment indicates some reasons why the stories are so interesting, and suggests that a renaissance of interest in them is possible. Here is Matthew’s comment: Well, I have to say you’ve got good taste in fiction. I only read Lord Darcy for the first time at the tail end of last summer, as I was getting ready for the new semester at college. I’d first heard about it from my father, thouh only iin very vague terms — basically just "alternate universe where magic is used to solve crimes." Years later, following some "you’d probably like this links" on Amazon, I came across a book that sounded good. Noticing it was a Baen book, I immediately switched over to Baen.com to read the sample chapters. The first story blew me away. It not only sounded like the story my father had alluded to years before but couldn’t remember the title of, it was also a fantasy story with a strong base in Roman Catholicsm. (I later found out that Randall Garrett

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Rocky Balboa, Christian Warrior

December 31, 2006
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Rocky Balboa, Christian Warrior

Your correspondent has been very busy with other work during the past week and has neglected his work here, for which he apologizes profusely. During this hectic time, however, we did manage to take a couple of hours to see Rocky Balboa, the sixth and supposedly last of actor/writer/director Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky films. Stallone has promoted the film aggressively to Christian audiences, pointing out that he has become much more greatly committed to Christianity (and jolly good for him!), specifically the Catholicism in which he was brought up.  Stallone says that the character of Rocky Balboa always had a strong element of Stallone’s Christian thought behind him: It’s like he was being chosen, Jesus was over him, and he was going to be the fella that would live through the example of Christ," Stallone said. "He’s very, very forgiving. There’s no bitterness in him. He always turns the other cheek. And it’s like his whole life was about service. Those are reasonable claims about Rocky, and of course his Christian name is a clear and rather charming reference to the disciple Peter (whose name, Petra, means "rock" and whose clear statement of Jesus’s divinity was the "rock" on which Jesus

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Religion in “Bones”

November 16, 2006
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Religion in “Bones”

Another in our ongoing chronicle of fictional TV programs’ treatment of religion . . . In last night’s episode of the Fox mystery-criime series Bones, "Aliens in a Spaceship," Jeffersonian Institution scientists and crimefighters Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Hodgins are buried alive by a serial killer—known as the Grave Digger—and held for ransom, which the corporation to which the demand was made is unable to pay. After a timely resurrection, Brennan and her usual partner, FBI agent Booth (David Boreanaz), are in a Catholic church. Booth rises from his knees after prayer and sits beside Brennan in the front pew. They discuss religion, as they frequently do. Brennan takes her usual straight-materialist-atheist position, and Booth speaks from his Catholic point of view. Neither tries to persuade the other to change their mind, though both are firm in their convictions. What is exemplary about the scene is the maturity of their conversation about religion. Brennan sees it all in scientific, materialistic terms, as a matter of probabilities that sometimes come to pass, and Booth sees it in more spiritual terms, seeing God looking down on their team and answering Booth’s prayers so that the team can continue to do their work.

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Religion in “Prison Break”

November 14, 2006
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Religion in “Prison Break”

In the latest of our continuing series of observations regarding TV’s treatment of religion. . . . Last night’s episode of the Fox TV action drama Prison Break, "Bolshoi Booze," included a very interesting sequence in which the protagonist, escaped convict Michael, has just robbed a store and shoved the elderly clerk to the floor, staring down coldly as the man looks at him in terror. Michael stops in an alley, and in his facial expression and posture he shows great remorse over what he has just done. (The theme of the episode is how easy it is for people to allow themselves to let end justify means.) As his face contorts in anguish, Michael looks up and sees a cross on the steeple of a nearby church. He stares at this cross for several seconds, with the camera lingering on the cross as seen from his point of view. Interestingly, Michael doesn’t return the stolen items. He desperately needs them if he is to make his escape to Mexico and save his brother’s life. What he does do is go into the church, a Catholic sanctuary, and give his confession to a priest. The two discuss, in a very

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"Culture is the expression of the guiding philosophy of the day."—Murray Rothbard
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