[National Review Online, September 20, 2002]
Let’s Have More Teen Pregnancy
True Love Waits. Wait Training. Worth Waiting For. The slogans of teen abstinence programs reveal a basic fact of human nature: teens, sex, and waiting aren’t a natural combination.
Over the last fifty years the wait has gotten longer. In 1950, the average first-time bride was just over 20; in 1998 she was five years older, and her husband was pushing 27. If that June groom had launched into puberty at 12, he’d been waiting more than half his life.
If he *had* been waiting, that is.
[Our Sunday Visitor, September 29, 2002]
The Four Feathers
Toward the beginning of “The Four Feathers,” news arrives at an opulent Victorian military ball that “an army of Mohammedan fanatics” has attacked a British fort in the Sudan. A clergyman reminds the soldiers and their ladies that “the Lord has endowed the British race with a world-wide empire,” and the soldiers will soon achieve “victories over the heathen.”
[Beliefnet, September 10, 2002]
A year ago everything changed. When the towers fell, we discovered how much we loved this country, and how much we needed each other. We found resources of courage that we hadn't known were there. We saw challenge on the horizon, and rose to meet it.
And then everything changed back.
[Beliefnet, August 15, 2002]
Pride
Here's why we hate those family newsletters we get during the holidays: ”It's been a great year for the Lamplighters! Greg had been hoping for a promotion, but what a surprise when the CEO came to his desk and begged him to take over the company. The whole office chipped in and gave the family a week in Paris to celebrate. Wasn't that nice?
[Our Sunday Visitor, August 25, 2002]
Signs
The Baltimore theatre was packed the day “Signs” opened. At one point, lead character Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) explains that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe that someone is looking out for us, and those who don't. He states his own conclusion: “There is no one watching out for us. We are all on our own.” All over the theater viewers pulled in their breath, and a few blurted “aw!” in sad surprise. It seemed like the loneliest thing a person could say.
[Beliefnet, July29, 2002]
“God Gave Us a Miracle” reads the sign outside a diner in Somerset, Penna. But did He? Did God personally deliver the nine miners trapped 250 feet below ground? Would he have done it even if we hadn't prayed?
“I don't think we got his attention,” a friend tells me. “I don't think he said, 'I'm busy over here creating a solar system, but I'll take a minute and help you out.'”
[Our Sunday Visitor, July 21, 2001]
Men in Black II
One thing the makers of “Men in Black II” want you to know: this movie does not take place in the future. It's happening right now, today; a title at the beginning of the film announces “July 2002” and any viewers who checked their watches right then would feel pleasantly punctual. Of course that title will soon make the film feel dated, but that didn't dissuade the filmmakers. In a sea of movies set in the nebulous near future, they wanted to stress the presence of unseen realities, right here, right now.
[Our Sunday Visitor, June 30, 2002]
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
A French proverb goes, “To understand all is to forgive all.” If we only understood how miserable his childhood was, we’d forgive the ax murderer. If we only knew how strong his lust was, we’d look kindly on the adulterer. There’s a bit of self-protection in this saying: if people only understood me, they’d never blame me for anything; instead, they’d sympathize.
[Our Sunday Visitor, June 6, 2002]
Hollywood Ending
There’s a scene early in “Hollywood Ending” when Woody Allen, playing a neurotic and narcissistic movie director, fumbles through an important meeting saying all the wrong things. The people he desperately needs to impress looked pained, look away, and try to pretend he’s not the disaster that he is.
For the audience, the whole movie is like that.
[Christianity Today, May 21, 2001] It's not a ten-gallon hat; the soft, tall cap of black cloth could have been tailored over a one-gallon milk jug. Fronted by a gold metal cross, the hat tops a Dallas clergy leader who looks more like mountain man than a televangelist. At age 78, Archbishop Dmitri Royster' s face is deeply lined
