[Beliefnet, September 24, 2003]
Most of us have yet to see Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion,’ but we’ve gained one sure impression: it’s bloody. ‘I wanted to bring you there,’ Gibson told Peter J. Boyer in September 15’s New Yorker magazine. ‘I wanted to be true to the Gospels. That has never been done before.’
This goal means showing us what real scourging and crucifixion would look like.
[Books & Culture, September-October 2003]
Does being a Christian mean always having to say you're sorry? When outsiders look at the Roman Catholic rite of confession (now more often termed “reconciliation”), they suspect it is driven by feelings of masochistic self-hatred, and sustained by claims of sacerdotal magic. Why should we have to spend this life groveling over sins, if Jesus already paid for them on the Cross? Why should we speak sins out loud to another person, when it could remain between us and the bedpost? And why should we believe that a priest stands between us and God, forgiving or retaining our debts as he chooses?
Two new books from Roman Catholic authors
[Our Sunday Visitor, September 14, 2003]The Magdalene SistersYou know how, when you're changing channels and land on an old movie, you can guess when it was made? Cinematic “looks” change with fashion, and it's easy to tell opulent, color-drenched early-60's style from the sparer 70's or smoky 40's. In “The Magdalene Sisters,” a film about the “Magdalene asylums” operated by the Irish Catholic church, director Peter Mullan displays his genius for capturing the look that today's moviegoers crave-one that proclaims authenticity.
[Our Sunday Visitor, August 17, 2003]
Seabiscuit
“Seabiscuit” is the best big-story, big-heart movie of the summer. You know the type: it has underdogs, or rather an underhorse, and three men drawn to him by a common dream. Strings and cymbals crowd the soundtrack to the point of bumping elbows, and the action goes to slo-mo, then to black-and-white. An unseen narrator solemnly drops stones into the pond: “It was the beginning and the end of imagination at the same time,” and the middle too, I'll bet. Later, the Works Project Administration is described as “showing somebody really cared,” which must be how it won the Strawberry Shortcake award.
[Again, June 2003]
Often in conversations with Christians of other traditions I find myself explaining the Orthodox view of sin. For most Western Christians, sin is a matter of doing bad things, which create a debt to God, and which somebody has to pay off. They believe that Jesus paid the debt for our sins on the Cross-paid the Father, that is, so we would not longer bear the penalty. The central argument between Protestants and Catholics has to do with whether “Jesus paid it all” (as Protestants would say) or whether, even though the Cross is sufficient, humans are still obligated (as Catholics would say) to add their own sacrifices as well.
[Beliefnet, July 16, 2003]
I can't be the only Christian reading “Beyond Belief,” Elaine Pagels' celebration of Gnostic theology and texts, and thinking, “What's so heretical about this?”
This best-selling book, and its accompanying train of reviews and author profiles, presents a familiar cast of characters. The Gnostics, developers of a variety of Christ-flavored spiritualities in the earliest centuries of the Christian era, are enthroned as noble seekers of enlightenment.
[Today's Christian, July-August 2003]
Will I Be Married in Heaven?
Q. Since the recent death of my wife, a godly “Proverbs 31” woman, I have been wondering if our marriage will continue in heaven. --John R., via e-mail
[Beliefnet, June 2003]
The bridal season is in full swing, and many of us have already clutched more little plastic champagne stems than we can count. As I look back over my own 29 years of marriage-most of them years as a pastor’s wife, with the unique perspective that gives on other people’s marriages-there are two mistakes I think a new couple can make. The first is to take marriage too seriously. The second is to fail to take it seriously enough.
[Our Sunday Visitor, July 20, 2003]
Spellbound
Last month the movie buzz was about “The Matrix Reloaded” and its “What is reality?” theme. Joke's on us, because movies are inherently unreal. From the time you step into that darkened auditorium, you're a guest of Tinsel Town.
But there's another kind of movie which sets out to challenge this assumption. Documentaries are based on the irrefutable premise that film can capture reality more truly than any other art form. The 1922 silent, “Nanook of the North” set an early high standard. It depicted the harshness of Alaskan life with such directness that reporters flocked to the tundra to interview the star. Too late: he had perished, starving to death on an ice floe. That's reality, brother.
[Beliefnet, June 2003]
The topic “Jesus and Women” calls forth such a varied cast of characters that it's hard to focus on just one of them. At the forefront is his mother, of course, followed swiftly by the many young, vigorous women who served or questioned him, who were healed or protected by him. Far in the back of the crowd there is a nameless woman who is easy to miss. She is bent double with pain.
Jesus heals her, but she doesn't get to be the center of attention long.
