[ BOOKS ] [ Q & A - Catholic ] [ EasternOrthodox ] [ _HARM CHRISTIANS? ] [ For Women ] [ LINKS ] [ Hebrew Roots ] [ why CAFTA is BAD ] [ Politics ] [ GIBSON/PASSION ] [ MORMONISM ] [ Pastor's Corner ] [ for NEWBIES ] [ Purpose Driven ] [ Israel ] [ PRAYER ] [ Modern Versions ] [ Welcome ] [ OiL & RESOURCES ] [ HELP WANTED ] [ KJV/ Versions ] [ archeology ] [ P.A. & SHARIA ] [ VATICAN & JERUSALEM ] [ Satanology 101 ] [ Textual Criticism ] [ _INTRO TO XOFC ] [ The Trinity ] [ _CODEX ALIMENTAR ] [ WORD-FAITH ] [ MIDDLE EAST ] [ Anglican ] [ Lutheran ]

*<A HREF="http://www.baptisttop1000.com/cgi-bin/1000/show.cgi?id=xofc" target="_blank"> <IMG SRC="http://www.baptisttop1000.com/cgi-bin/1000/counter.cgi?id=xofc" BORDER=0></A>

[ Home ]

YOU CAN INFLUENCE TV

(Agape)(Mar 15)...A new poll suggests fears that "The Passion of the Christ" would trigger anti-Semitism were unwarranted. A nationwide survey conducted for the Institute for Jewish and Community Research finds that 83 percent of Americans familiar with the film say it has made them neither more nor less likely to blame today's Jews for Jesus' crucifixion. Nine percent said Mel Gibson's film actually has made them less likely to blame today's Jews, while less than two percent said they are more likely to fault modern Jews or Jewish institutions. The Institute's president, Gary Tobin, adds that discussion of the issue has probably been good for Christian-Jewish relations.

A ‘PASSION’ REVIEW: A MASTER STORYTELLER PRESENTS A CRUCIFIED CHRIST


ASSIST News Service

HOLLYWOOD, CA  (ANS) -- Hollywood is notorious for typecasting, but the truth is we all typecast in some form or another, consciously or unconsciously putting people into little boxes and then insisting they stay there. (Pictured: Jim Caviezel plays Jesus in The Passion of The Christ).

And perhaps that is why, when I heard Mel Gibson was making a film about the crucifixion, I immediately formed an image of Mad Max on the Via Dolorosa. My standard joke became, “Danny Glover and Mel Gibson arrive at the end of the movie to rescue Jesus from the Cross.”

Yet, artists grow and mature - which is why Woody Allen, who once made one-liner comedies, and Clint Eastwood, who once starred in spaghetti westerns, are now respected Academy Award-winning directors.

For that matter, so is Gibson, with an Oscar for Braveheart.

All that to say: The Passion of The Christ reveals Gibson as a maturing filmmaker in his prime as a storyteller, and the movie makes it nearly impossible to keep him typecast as the star of the Mad Max/Lethal Weapon-styled movies.

The Passion of The Christ is both beautiful and brutal, capturing an authentic human spirit that is often missing in biblical movies, those where everyone tends to act stiflingly serious and talk in pious this-is-all-so-important tones. Gibson’s “Passion” is full of real people who laugh and cry and sweat and – yes, they bleed.

The essence of a great poem is that it gets you to look at the familiar in a different way, and in that sense, this film is poetic. Just the fact that it is presented in the original languages allows you to see a familiar story and hear familiar words but from an entirely different angle (there are English subtitles). This is a film layered with artistry and historic metaphor, and if you look closely, I think you’ll see Gibson’s homage to some of the great master paintings of Christ’s Passion.

The poetic artistry starts with the opening frames, set in the Garden of Gethsemane, where you immediately realize this is no tepid tale, one traditionally told with a blue-eyed, blonde, surfer-dude Jesus sprinkling love and faith across the cinematic landscape as if it were pixie-dust tossed from Tinkerbell’s wand. (Think good thoughts and you, too, can fly!)

Gibson’s Jesus has dark, ethnic features (probably closer to the way Jesus actually looked), and he’s so distraught as he begs the Father to release him from the suffering set before him that spit and snot drip from his face. A few moments later, you get a sense of the overwhelming abandonment Jesus must have felt when he returned to his disciples only to find them sleeping, and then he is tempted to break with the Father by an embodiment of Evil that re-appears throughout the movie. The temptations are not just about saving himself; they attempt to fan into flames a sense of despair. (Pictured: Mel Gibson with Jim Caviezel in the filming of The Passion of The Christ).

The film’s pacing is taut and the tension simmers, but never boils over because of some well-crafted flashbacks that deepen the film’s emotional core. These flashbacks also explain some of the key relationships and critical events that led to the final twelve hours of Christ’s life.

Of particular note is a scene with Jesus, lean and calloused, working as a carpenter, engrossed, not in theology, but in carefully crafting a table. Evidently, one can be the Son of God and still find purpose and enjoyment in the ordinary tasks of life – a biblical message we often ignore.

This scene not only gives a rare glimpse of Jesus as a carpenter, but as it plays out, you see the playful interaction between Mary and Jesus as a mother and son who enjoy each other’s company. The scene reflects Gibson’s gift with humor, and it pulled an audible laugh from the audience.

Mary, portrayed by Maia Morgenstern, is shown as a real woman, full of faith but gripped by grief. No saintly icon, she struggles under the weight of what she is witnessing. The most memorable moment in the movie for me was a later scene, after the scourging of Jesus, where Mary got down on her hands and knees and began to mop up the blood with a cloth. Having watched my own wife care for two dead children, I thought the scene rang absolutely true in revealing a woman in grief and shock.

Jim Caviezel plays Jesus. He met Gibson when the director was developing a film on surfing (go figure!), and Caviezel came in to discuss a part. In the midst of the conversation, Caviezel said he wanted to suggest another film that would be far more important, and then the actor reached into his pocket and pulled out a pamphlet about Christ crucified.

What Caviezel didn’t know is that Gibson had been researching and thinking through the “Passion” movie for over a decade, and it was in that moment Gibson says he knew he was supposed to make the “Passion.”

Caviezel as Christ is clearly modeled after the Shroud of Turin, an ancient burial cloth inexplicably imprinted with the image of a crucified man, similar to a modern photographic negative. There are some who believe this is the burial shroud of Jesus and the image provides a supernatural picture of Christ. In some scenes, Caviezel mirrors the shroud’s image, including the bruising and blood droplets.

Related to the Shroud, the film is naturally informed by a Catholic text (Gibson is a Catholic believer) and so some of the scenes dramatize the extra-biblical explanations for ancient holy relics, or the extra-biblical stories of what may have happened as Christ walked the Via Dolorosa to Calvary.

Regardless of your own beliefs, the scenes serve the storyteller well, and provide the necessary emotional depth to move this movie beyond a grueling glimpse into Roman cruelty.

Another way Gibson keeps you directly involved in the story is through the use of startling point-of-view shots based on the “eyes” of different characters. For instance, you’re upside down as Jesus is carried, head hanging upside down, from the scourging, and you’re on the ground looking at the feet of Jesus through the eyes of the woman saved from a stoning.

“Passion” is a tightly shot film, built largely around close-ups and medium frames that keep the images personal and within reach; don’t expect an abundance of Cecil B. De Mille-styled panoramics. Rather, Gibson keeps the story focused on the messy, little details that reveal what happened on the streets of ancient Jerusalem during this one dawn and day.

For instance, I like the fact that Peter’s denials of Christ are impulsive and quick, near hysterical denials made in the grip of fear, as opposed to the typical telling where the whole world comes to a stop to hear each denial. Unlike us, these men didn’t know the end of the story, and it’s likely they responded with real fear and confusion.

This kind of authenticity is refreshing in a biblical play, and that’s as good a transition as any into the violence of the film. Gibson says he wanted to shock people, forcing them to see just how horrific the Passion must have been, and I think he succeeds. By the end of the film, it’s doubtful you’d even want to see Osama Bin Laden put through the torture Jesus willfully receives.

But the violence is never gratuitous. This is a much more serious and aesthetic film than something like Mad Max or Lethal Weapon. The violence is there because it is a story about the bloody, violent, cruel death of a man. Frankly, I have trouble watching something like E.R. because I dislike the gore, yet, there was only one moment in the “Passion” when I had to look away, and that was during a particularly brutal moment when the Romans whipped Jesus.

While we’re on this subject, the movie is rated “R” because of the violence. Gibson, noting the graphic violence, says, “I don’t think kids younger than 13 should see it.” I would agree with this assessment.

Is Gibson’s “Passion” a perfect film? Of course not, what film would be? I thought the opening minute or so was too dark and a baby-carrying embodiment of Evil during the scourging scenes confused some of the people around me (we were watching a rough cut).

Yet, one way I gauge a good story is whether it leaves me wanting more and whether it makes me feel like jumping into the world of the characters. Certainly at the crucifixion, you want nothing more than to get away from the oppressive and horrendous cruelty, but the final 20 seconds of the film, a creative take on the Resurrection, leaves you wanting to walk out of the tomb with Jesus and see the joy of his disciples.

But most of all, I longed to join this joy-filled Jesus in his carpentry shop, becoming a friend as well as a disciple.

If you push past all the hype and all the controversy, and even all the plans of using the film for evangelism, I think you’ll find The Passion of The Christ is a great work of art, the product of a gifted storyteller striving toward a master work.

There was a time when the arts often spoke about God, and it wasn’t shocking to have a major artist create a work based on biblical themes. In fact, it was often through funding from the church that great artists were able to create their masterworks. Perhaps Gibson’s gritty, bloody film will usher in a new age, where the church returns to supporting artistic expression as a means of telling the old, old story.

Friday, February 20, 2004

Further Points about the Movie:

A GREAT MOVIE, PREPARATION & THE GOSPEL

Please Note: While XOFC does largely endorse the viewing of this film for Christian Adults, we encourage CAUTION about taking CHILDREN to see this movie. Violence/Pain is an adult subject matter. We encourage Parents to make their decision after Seeing the film without Children First.

Please Note: Where this film encourages a sharing of the Gospels, a discussion about Jesus Christ, we continue to view the release of this film as something which - as a rule - is positive. Many Baby Boomer Christians will be shocked to learn that this movie is the FIRST TIME that many people from younger generations

have EVER heard of Jesus Christ, beyond the unfortunate use of his name as a swear-word, or understood 1. Who He Was & Claimed to be and 2. what He came to accomplish. 

Obviously, we encourage everyone to read the story of Jesus Christ and His Ministry in the Gospels, the first 4 books of the New Testament section of the Bible. 

To the extent that this movie lines up with the Bible, that is the extent to which we endorse it. To the extent that this movie does not line up with the Bible, that is the extent to which we do NOT endorse this film.

However, for someone to go and see the film and believe that they are actually seeing Jesus reflects a great deal of ...shortsightedness ? We have never said that seeing the movie constitutes seeing Jesus. Our presuposition was never that the real Jesus could be captured on a piece of film. Was this your belief ?

We encourage the viewing of this movie - for Christians - because 1. so many Millions of people have already seen it and 2. because it serves the purpose of discussion and contrast between it and the Bible. 

Thursday, March 31, 2005

YOU CAN INFLUENCE TV

By Beverly Caruso
Special to ASSIST News Service

LAKE ELSINORE, CA (ANS) -- If you're a typical Christian you probably have considered - at least once - selling or giving away your television set. You've become disgusted with the selection of shows, or frustrated with yourself for watching questionable content. You may be angry that your children are exposed to certain material. Maybe you've felt helpless about having any influence over what is aired.

You can have influence!

Here are five steps to take toward influencing what is broadcast on television:

1. Be selective in what you and your family members watch. Television is a business. Advertisers pay for the shows because viewers watch the shows and buy their products. Producers make the shows because viewers watch the shows and keep the advertisers paying the bills.

Those advertisers make their decisions about which shows to spend their money on based on ratings. This is determined by professional agencies that use scientific methods to determine what percentage of viewers are watching specific shows. If you don't like or approve of a television show change the channel or turn off the set.

2. Complain in an effective way. Too often we Christians are quick to form a national campaign against what we don't like. More often we simply complain to one another. You may be unhappy with a show and know others are unhappy also. To be effective, let the advertisers know about it. But do so politely and as a local group.

When 500 members of a church in Topeka, Kansas, or Bonn, Germany, notify a sponsoring manufacturer that members of their church have agreed not to purchase his model of car as long as he sponsors an offensive show, the manufacturer will pay attention. He knows that if the group is unhappy, there are probably other groups as well that won't buy his car. This means we'll need to pay attention to commercials aired during a show and write down the sponsors’ names. Then we'll have to research to learn the address of the corporate office and the CEO. And most important, we'll need to take the time to pray about how to write in such a way that our message will be received.

3. Unite your efforts locally. We tend to think that a national campaign will be most effective. Often it works just the reverse. Protests against the movie, "The Last Temptation of Christ" created massive media attention. Many in the movie and television industry believe that the movie would have flopped and quietly disappeared without those well publicized protests. They may be correct.

4. Affirm those who broadcast things you want kept on the air. Protests are not enough. If you do like a show, let the sponsoring manufacturers know. Most letters and phone calls from television viewers are negative. When a sponsor receives positive feedback he pays attention.

The same is true of producers and network executives. Let them know which shows you like and why. Be specific.

5. Pray. Perhaps our most effective tool of influence is our least applied. Perhaps we are praying against those shows we disapprove. Are we praying for those that have positive qualities? There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Christians in the television industry trying to improve the selection and quality of programs that reach our homes. We can pray for them. They may not be able to keep all offensive content off the air. Yet when a Christian actress suggests to her director that alternate words would better communicate the story line, and therefore offensive words are not broadcast, she has been effective. When a Christian script writer gets his story accepted by a popular show's producer, he will influence thousands of lives.

We will not reform the television industry easily. It won't be accomplished this year. You and I can adopt a producer, an actor, or a writer - not necessarily a Christian. And we can pray regularly for him or her.

Our prayer groups can adopt a certain show. We can learn about it, about the people behind the camera as well as in front. We can pray for God's Spirit to draw them unto Himself; we can pray for Christians to be hired to live godly lives inside the industry; we can pray for God’s conviction to constrain the decision makers; and we can pray for Christian viewers to do the responsible thing - whether it's to change the channel or to turn on their computer and send a letter to the sponsor.

We can make a difference.

HOW TO CONTACT THE DECISION MAKERS

by Beverly Caruso

Sidebar for - You Can Influence TV
250 words

Locating television, cable or satellite networks is often difficult, but not impossible. Those inside the U.S. can usually be found with only a few clicks from a search engine. Words to search for include: contact us; comments; feedback; about us, etc.

In other countries, it may take more intensive research. Once you’ve located the information, keep it handy so you can refer to it each time you want to make contact. Then share that contact information with others who might take action.

In the United States:

ABC, Inc., Program Director
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
Phone number: (818) 460-7477
For ABC's Primetime and Daytime shows, as well as our Movies and Specials and ABC Sports: Audience Relations Department at netaudr@abc.com

CBS Television Network, Human Resources Department
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

CBS TV City, Human Resources Department
7800 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90023
CBS has a feedback link and form at: http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/info_faq_applications.shtml

NBC - 4001 Nebraska Avenue NW, Washington DC 20016
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
NBCUNI.COM FEEDBACK

For Cable Companies - check your telephone book or television user's guide.

To locate corporations, if you don’t find them with a search engine on the Internet, call your local public library. A Reference Department librarian may look up the information you need. Or go there and ask for the appropriate reference books. You'll find addresses and chief officers listed.

******************************************************************************

Wednesday, August 3, 2005 

SLOPPY REPORTING: RECENT STUDY ON MOVIEGOERS, RELIGION, MORALITY, AND POLITICS CONTAINED BIAS

By Tom Snyder 

HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) -AUG 3/05 - A recent study on moviegoers, religion, morality, and politics reported by Variety, the leading trade publication in Hollywood, was biased against religious Christians and Jews, says Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®, a non-profit publication of The Christian Film & Television Commission™ advocacy group.

"Our staff found several major statistical errors in the study and in Variety's news story about the study," Baehr said.

First, Variety claimed, in a June 29 article written by Gabriel Snyder, that the moviegoing habits "of Red State fundamentalists aren't that different from Blue State types."

However, the actual study by MarketCast of Reed Business Information, which also owns Variety, found that religious people in the study were 24 percent less likely than non-religious people to see movies rated R for sexuality and 32 percent less likely than non-religious people to see movies rated R for violence.

"This is a significant difference," Baehr noted.

Secondly, the study claimed that those who were "conservative" in their religious doctrine were more likely to see violent R-rated movies than liberals, 29 percent compared to 18 percent.

The movies rated R for sexual content included SIN CITY, UNFAITHFUL, AMERICAN PIE, 8 MILE, CRASH, and BRIDGET JONES DIARY. The movies rated R for violent content were COLLATERAL, BLACK HAWK DOWN, KILL BILL VOL. 1, MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, TRAINING DAY, and MYSTIC RIVER, MarketCast Vice President Henry Shapiro told MOVIEGUIDE®

"The study fails to note, however, that religious people who are more conservative have less of a problem with using violence to defend themselves and/or protect the lives of others," Baehr said. "They are also more likely to favor the death penalty than religious liberals."

Baehr added, "MOVIEGUIDE®'s own statistical survey of movies shows that violent movies, whether rated R or not, make more money at the box office than non-violent movies, but they also show that movies with no sexual content make much more money than movies with sexual content, especially movies with explicit or extreme sexual content."

Finally, the MarketCast study, Shapiro said, uses the ratings system developed by Hollywood and its Motion Picture Association of America, but Baehr noted that MOVIEGUIDE® ignores that ratings system to use its own, more detailed, biblical standards.

MOVIEGUIDE®'s standards also take into account the cognitive development of children, teenagers and adults.

******************************************************************************

The Best way to help us - whether you agree with us or not -  is by praying for our ministry: Have the courage to stand with us in Prayer: Lord thank you that I am able to learn more about you. Thank you for saving me and continue to help me to not take that for granted. I pray that you would help the team of people who established and are working on this website, and who are trying to help others to understand your love and kindness. I pray that you would give them great spiritual discernment, to know how to have the wisdom to communicate the gospel in truth and love without sacrificing accuracy in the process. I pray that you would continue to help them communicate the truth that only by going through Jesus Christ alone and no one else - can anyone be truly reconciled to God....I pray that even if I do not have much time, that you would send to them spiritually strong and aware Christians who will pray for their ministry regularly and often, and that their impact would be glorifying to you... I pray that you would protect them spiritually and continue to meet their needs and concerns, so that they would be able to continue to help others. Give them the knowledge, the information, the resources and the wisdom and discernment which they need.  Please bless their work and encourage them spiritually and help them to continue to be strong and to Want to follow you. I thank you for your goodness and ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  Thank you for praying for us. We greatly appreciate it. We will be posting this in quite a few places on our website, since not everyone visits the same pages or topics. The more people pray for us, the more that we can do to help others.

Click on the Picture to find out more

[ Home ]

Exclusive: Mel Gibson’s father speaks to The Portugal News

Core Universal Rights

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief