Wednesday, December 07, 2005

letting off steam

from the files of don't these Christians have something better to do (like watch Lost), come these sites and stories...

Alliance Defense Fund's Its Okay to Say Merry Christmas Campaign- because we know Christmas is really about buying lots of stuff, as long as it is the name of Christ's birthday.

One lawyer is fighting the war on Christmas. Thanks God. Jesus needs this man's legal skills to survive secularization and be used to promote consumerism-because that is why he came.

In case anyone thinks the mainstream press is the only group dedicated to agenda driven reporting that obscures the issue, check out WorldNetDaily's headline and then read the actual story regarding the situation faced by Christian Peacemaker Teams. unbelievable.

The Baptist Press wants us to know about a new book uncovering (hold on to your hats, this is big) the Beatles' drug use. They are noting if not culturally relevant... along with a new study showing wine use is not beneficial (they decide, then report). They are also reporting on a school in Wisconsin ALLEDGEDLY stripping Christ from Silent Night, noting like a little unsubstantiated gossip among friends.

Phil Boatwright, who does not like books because they have too many words, says Narnia is better than Harry Potter because the Potter movies require you read books to comprehend the film. I can say nothing in response to this.

Speaking of Narnia, I am attending the area premiere tonight. I will be representing the Ministry I work for at this event sponsored by a Christian Talk Radio station that specializes in right wing political talk radio masquerading as Gospel (oh the joys). I must say that I am completely creeped out by this Disney cross marketing scheme in which it is a secular movie to the general audience and the Second Coming of the Passion to churches (you know, the single biggest evangelism event in 2000 years- oops).

The way churches are using this film is not relevance. It is crass marketing and scheming. The way Disney is using churches once again shows that the Christian subculture will believe anything as long as the popular kids stop picking on us and act like our friends when convenient (see violent filmmaker Gibson and evangepresident Bush).

Is it really coincidental that Southern Baptists dropped their boycott of Disney right before the advertising began in Lifeway stores for a Disney film? Do they really think we are that dumb? Do we really need Aslan action figures sold in Christian bookstores? Is it possible to dumb down a great book by crass marketing and tacky toys (and sermons by pastors downloading ideas from someone's website since they have not read the book for themselves)?

Here is Lifeway's own Narnia website promoting a film by a company that still has the same policies it did when Baptists began their boycott.
At least the movie will be good. I will report on tacky marketing attempts tomorrow.

6 comments:

kidpositive said...

from phil boatwright's 'assessment' of the movie:

The atmosphere and look of the production are reminiscent of the magic good old Walt himself brought to his best productions...

Their hesitancies to give any spotlight to Christianity aside, all the themes important to Lewis are in the movie and it is unquestionably the retelling of Christ’s love and our need to be His warriors, His ambassadors.


absolutely amazing. there are two things i want to say in regard to this:

A) i don't think this movie is going to be as great as fans would like it to be. it seems like lord of the rings was successful, so some studio execs decided that making and releasing narnia near christmas would be a great move for their quaterly profits.

B) you need to stop reading the Baptist Press. i don't think there's any way it can be beneficial for you. in fact, i would venture to say that allowing that bad of writing into your brain is actually making you dumber. remember, it's much easier to pull someone down that it is to pull them up (you should know that. probably used it once or twice as a youth pastor).

DJ Word said...

i have actually stayed away from it for months. However, while researching an upcoming posting (on the lack of regard for the torture issue from Christian press), I surfed around a few minutes while searching for something.

These things caught my eye and made me laugh a bit (I was actually going to comment on the dangers of reading such stuff and what it does to the mind).

james said...

A fantastic post rick. Fantastic. Keep 'em coming.

james said...

And by the way, I just watched the 9 minute trailer for T.L.T.W.A.T.W.

...it looks utterly fantastic! Made me a little teary-eyed

Anonymous said...

you're so uplifitingly and passionately pretentious in a charming way Rick. You make me smile. I'm going to try and come visit you in a few months. Good stuff by the way, my favorite links yet probably.
-Linda McG

g13 said...

the harry potter bit cracked my ass up.