removing slavery and abortion

This weekend I saw the movie “Amazing Grace”.  It was well done (except that a not-so-family-friendly word came up twice).  The acting was great (though I’m usually not one to analyze that) — I just thought they made it believable, which I suppose is their goal.

The story, if you don’t know, is about William Wilberforce, who led the campaign against the slave trade in 18th century Britain.  The title is a reference to the hymn “Amazing Grace”, which was written by John Newton, and he plays a role in the movie.

I’m not going to describe the movie in detail, because you can read that elsewhere or watch it for yourself.  I want to mention a conversation that happened after seeing this movie.

As the movie illustrates well, Wilberforce and his followers faced a long, difficult battle against slavery.  There was a lot of opposition, not only from (misguided) moral reasons, but also because of financial reasons.  It seemed an impossible task at first.  Nonetheless, he fought until he swayed public opinion.  Now, in today’s society, what if someone were to fight in such a manner against abortion?  I realize some people do, and it may seem impossible to overturn, but look at the similarities.  Is it possible to have such a revolution here in America?  Indeed it is, although it would certainly be a long and difficult road, but it should be attempted.  Think about it…

my review of the movie Fireproof

I went to see the movie Fireproof last night, and I have to say it’s AWESOME!  It’s a great story, it’s clean (family-friendly), and it’s laugh-out-loud funny at times, but the best part is that it makes you want to become a better person and improve your marriage.  So I encourage you to go see it, if at all possible.  It’s definitely worth it.

I thought about writing a review of the story, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.  Plus, there’s plenty of reviews online by people more qualified than me, if you’re wanting more details on it.  I will say I consider it one of the best movies of the year.  (I may not see a lot of movies, but I did see Iron Man and Batman: The Dark Knight.  In some ways, this movie surpasses them.)  It’s fine to see (clean) movies for entertainment, but when a movie is both entertaining and it makes you want to live a better life, that makes it awesome.

Also, I thought it was very well-done.  I’m not one to critique acting, but because it was low-budget I had hoped it wouldn’t look like they were acting, and I didn’t have any problems with it.  I thought the acting was realistic.  There was nothing in it that distracted me from the story.

Note that this movie may make you cry.  I normally despise the movies that intentionally tug at your heart-strings (so to speak), but this wasn’t one of those movies.  At times it is kinda sad, but it’s sad because you can somewhat relate to what they’re going through.  (Even if you have a good marriage, there’s still tough times and misunderstandings, and we can all do better.)  I think everyone will be able to relate to what the characters are going through, to some degree, even if you haven’t been close to divorce.

BTW, if you’re a man reading this and you’re thinking, “It’s not gonna make me cry”, then you’ve already got the wrong attitude toward it.  Don’t be afraid of getting in touch with your feelings.  If you’re always hardening your heart so you’ll be “tough” and “manly” and never cry at all, that will hurt your marriage and your walk with God.  (It’s still difficult to say such things, because I’m someone who once went a couple of years without ever crying, but God is showing me how we sometimes need to be broken, that it’s healthy for us.)  I could go on about this topic, but I’ll save that for another post…

One of my friends had this to say about the movie:

If you love your marriage, you should go see Fireproof this weekend, and if you hate your marriage, you should for sure go see Fireproof. ~ Jeff Watson

So I recommend this movie to everyone.  If you can, go see it in the theater, to support this type of movie.  Remember, we vote for what we want from Hollywood with our money.  If movies like this do well, more will be made.  Plus, beyond voting and making a statement, this movie will motivate you to become a better person.

the new Knight Rider movie / TV show

I watched the pilot for the new Knight Rider show, because I enjoyed watching the original Knight Rider when I was a kid.  I wasn’t sold on this new version.  The new version of KITT was cool, but the script for the whole “movie” (as they called it) had some major issues in my opinion.  That’s what I’m going to focus on here, so there are spoilers if you haven’t seen it yet but still plan to.

When KITT was being hacked, he was aware of this, yet could do nothing about it.  That is stupid.  If he were to not recognize it was a hack, like if he thought it might be legitimate, then that’s understandable.  But he said he was being hacked, and there was even a countdown to when they would be through.  (And how he knew that, despite their “surprising efficiency”, is also strange.)  Since he knew someone was hacking his system, it wouldn’t be that difficult to kick them off the system.

When all the main characters were at the motel and the good guys were trying to escape, what were they thinking?  They took their time leaving, taking plenty of time to talk about the past.  And when they finally reached KITT, instead of getting inside where it was bulletproof and they could escape, they stood outside the car, arguing over things, until the bad guys got there and captured them.  Were all the people there really that forgetful of what was going on and how much danger they were in?

One of my biggest gripes was with the beginning, when they were trying to define the characters.  They made the FBI agent look like a lesbian, and it had no place in the entire story.  Were they trying to get “shock value”?  To me, it was disgusting and added nothing whatsoever to the story.

They also made the new driver of KITT to be immature and not very well-rounded.  Perhaps that gives them more leeway with dumb character decisions (like they’ve already done), but it’s not staying accurate with the original series.

I’m not going to make it a point to see the other episodes.  I wanted to see this one because the original was enjoyable, but it doesn’t seem like they will maintain that level of quality.  Some friends joked about how easy it would be to find someone better at it than David Hasselhoff, but they didn’t.  When they remake old TV shows (whether into a new series or a movie), they should aim to do them better than the originals.

a great Christmas movie

Because I have new regular readers since last December when I reviewed The Nativity Story, I’d like to again point to that review.  It is an excellent movie, illustrating the story of Jesus’ birth as detailed in Luke 1 and 2.  And this movie could be a good evangelistic method, too, because some of your family and friends might be more likely to watch this than to agree to listen to a Bible reading over the same material.  Plus the movie is just so moving.  For those of us who have heard the Christmas story many times, we tend to look at it with more of a “fairy tale” mentality, where everything worked out easily.  But in reality, the road that Mary and Joseph trod was not easy.  They had a number of tough decisions to make and they made sacrifices to be in God’s will.  And they had to walk in faith, which is not easy sometimes.

Among the various Christmas movies out there, this is my favorite one.  If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to rent or borrow it.

the controversy of The Golden Compass

The movie The Golden Compass just came out, and from what I’ve heard, I definitely won’t be seeing it.  (So this isn’t a review, but I have read about it, to see what all the controversy was about.)  The commercials make it look interesting, similar to The Chronicles of Narnia.  According to various people, the similarity is no accident.  The author, Philip Pullman, despises Christianity and C.S. Lewis and the Narnia books, so he wrote a trilogy that is anti-God.  In fact, he has said that “my books are about killing God” and that he was “trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief”.  (So you can easily see what his purpose is, and it’s obvious that the books and movies are the sugary candy-coating that helps people swallow his beliefs.)

The parallels with Narnia continue, as this movie begins with a girl hiding in a wardrobe, and she passes through gateways into other worlds, meeting figures from ancient mythology along with talking animals.  There’s also an apocalyptic battle between supernatural powers.  And the girl in it is from Oxford (which ironically is where C.S. Lewis taught), and she may be the only one able to fulfill the prophecy.  Can you see the parallels?  Except in these books, God is evil instead of good, and God is not actually God (but merely the first angel created from “Dust”).

The author has been called “the Anti-Lewis”, and he’s said the Narnia books are “one of the most ugly and poisonous things I have ever read”.  That’s some harsh words!  And in his books, an ex-nun says the Christian faith is “a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all”.  Some have even called the series “The Chronicles of Atheism”.  He’s definitely talking about Christianity, too, because in the book it says this about “the Authority” : “God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty — those were all names he gave himself.”

The first movie has been watered-down, and even the first book isn’t as explicit in the death-of-God theme as the second and third books.  (Here’s a spoiler alert, for the rest of this paragraph, although if you’re still reading you’re probably not interested in seeing it anyway.)  In the second book, a boy acquires a knife that can cut through anything, and its prophetic name means “god-destroyer”.  By the end of the trilogy, God is dead (although it was really just an angel who pretended to be God), and the two main characters have reenacted the fall in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve, except this time they save the universe.  Also, in that universe, each person has a “daemon”, which is part of that person’s soul, and it takes the visible form of an animal.

Sometimes Pullman says it’s just a story, just a fantasy, but he’s said in speeches that stories create the morality we live by.  And from the other interviews he does, his beliefs go along with what he’s written, like about a “Republic of Heaven” that has no King.

You can read more here.

I’d like to include a quote from an interview with the author, so you can hear his stance on the books in his own words :

Underlying the trilogy there is a myth of creation and rebellion, of development and strife, and so on. I don’t make this myth explicit anywhere, but it was important for me to have it clear in my mind. It depicts a struggle: the old forces of control and ritual and authority, the forces which have been embodied throughout human history in such phenomena as the Inquisition, the witch-trials, the burning of heretics, and which are still strong today in the regions of the world where religious zealots of any faith have power, are on one side; and the forces that fight against them have as their guiding principle an idea which is summed up in the words The Republic of Heaven. It’s the Kingdom against the Republic.

And everything follows from that. So, for instance, the book depicts the Temptation and Fall not as the source of all woe and misery, as in traditional Christian teaching, but as the beginning of true human freedom something to be celebrated, not lamented. And the Tempter is not an evil being like Satan, prompted by malice and envy, but a figure who might stand for Wisdom.

The myth has allowed me to link together many aspects of the story in a sort of invisible way which might not be apparent to the reader, but which I have found helpful. For example, it explains where daemons come from, and what happens when we die, and why there are many universes.

And the author also said he didn’t write the books as “fantasy”.  He said :

I think of it as stark realism. … I don’t like fantasy. The only thing about fantasy that interested me when I was writing this was the freedom to invent imagery such as the daemon; but that was only interesting because I could use it to say something truthful and realistic about human nature.

In closing, I’m not going to see the film nor read the books.  I don’t want to support such things.  I know, I’m choosing without seeing it, but I’ve heard enough to make up my mind, especially by the author’s own words.  And from what I’ve read on it, the movie and first book are leading to worse things in the sequels.

Help spread the word to people who might take their children to see this, because they should know what they’re getting into…