[recorded for NPR “Morning Edition” December 2003; postponed to wait for a “news hook,” eventually lost in a system crash]When reports of human cloning first began appearing in the news, a lot of us had the initial reaction, “You're kidding, right?” They weren't kidding. This bizarre field of medical research is rarin' to go. We don't have much time to consider the question: should it?
The idea of a full-grown human clone is creepy enough, but what about cloning for medical purposes--making an embryo with a patient's cells, then killing it to use in the patient's treatment? Even here we know instinctively that something's wrong. We know it isn't right to mix up a baby in a test tube and then, when it starts growing, chop it up for medicine. It isn't right to make medicine out of people.
[Our Sunday Visitor, December 28, 2003]
What becomes a legend most’ The old answer, ‘fur,’ wouldn’t be as popular today as it was when Blackglama mink draped legendary stars like Lauren Bacall in a glamorous ad campaign. What makes something a legend, a classic, is not easy to identify, but the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy has got it, hands down. ’ The Return of the King’ is a crowning conclusion to the trilogy, and also arguably the best of the three films, though none are disappointments. That’s something that can’t be said of most movie-sequel series.
[Our Sunday Visitor, December 28, 2003]
The Last Samurai
It turns out that guys are just as sentimental as the next guy, but what they get sentimental about is killing people. Run somebody through with a lance, shoot an arrow through a heart, slice a neck with a sword—pretty soon, everybody’s hugging and blubbering.
[Our Sunday Visitor, December 7, 2003]
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
The opposite of “chick flick” is “guy flick,” the kind of film that's expected to appeal to “real men.” It has predictable elements: big explosions, naked girls, and high-speed chases. “Master and Commander” is a different kind of guy flick, because it's more thoroughly about “real men,” who have normal-size, realistic powers rather than superhuman ones.
[Our Sunday Visitor, December 14, 2003]
Elf
Step up and shake hands with the movie that is going to be playing in the next room every Christmas for the rest of your life. “Elf” appears to have been planned with that small-screen destiny in mind: uncomplicated camerawork usually features one big image in the middle of the screen, an image you can identify without squinting even as far away as the refrigerator.
[Today's Christian, November-December 2003]
Q. I'm a new Christian, but I still have some sins in my life that I am having a hard time getting away from. I keep trying but I feel like a failure to God and to myself every time I stumble. How do others in my situation handle this' How does God look upon people who love him and know better, but still trip along the way' --
[Our Sunday Visitor, October 26, 2003]
When a movie is set in South Carolina and involves a racial theme, I get my dukes up. I grew up in Charleston, and I'm well aware of sad history, but I've seen too many stories in which every character with a Southern accent is turned into a cloven-hoofed monster, for the sake of dramatic tension.
My dukes got mighty tired during the course of 'Radio,' as almost every character with a Southern accent treated Cuba Gooding's character with respect, affection, even big bear hugs.
[Today's Christian, September-October 2003]
Q. May Christians participate in state or private lotteries? Will such an act bring dishonor to Jesus Christ? --M.J.K., Republic of Seychelles
A. Lotteries raise a host of related questions. Should Christians ever get involved in something decided by chance? Do you buy a lottery ticket, hoping to win the Daily Million' What about tossing a coin to see if you should take that job in Chicago? Is it OK to play bingo, if it's sponsored by a church?
[Essay included in “The Church in the Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives,”Leonard Sweet, editor (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003)]
This book contains five essays on the question of the Church’s engagement with culture, and to what extent we should change, or preserve, its message and its method. This essay was my contribution.
*****Why is this essay written in question and answer format?
It is intended to reference the penultimate section of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” This section, called “Ithaca,” concerns a late-night conversation between Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. It is cast in the form of a series of objective, impersonal questions and answers, for example, “What seemed to the host to be the predominant qualities of his guest?”
[Our Sunday Visitor, October 26, 2003]
School of Rock
Take a good look at those rolling eyebrows'you're going to be seeing them for a long time. In 'School of Rock' Jack Black inhabits his character, Dewey Finn, with such appealing manic energy that there's no question a comic star is born.
What makes Black such a winner' Probably his startling lack of self-consciousness.
