“Leave Christianity in Narnia, says New York Times columnist ; Racism, Sexism, Sectarianism, Too.”

Ted Olsen

“Afghanistan’s Taliban shuts down more aid ministries, and links to dozens of other news stories around the world.”

Christianity Today August 1, 2001
Shulevitz: Don’t mess with those racist, sexist Narnia books Judith Shulevitz’s Close Reader column, which regularly appears as the conclusion of The New York Times Book Review, seems at first to be a defense of C.S. Lewis against those who want to “distance the Narnia chronicles from ‘Christian imagery/theology,’ presumably for fear of scaring off non-Christian parents.” It’s even called “Don’t Mess With Aslan.” But after Shulevitz praises the books for “reanimating the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Gospels … which is why so many of us love the Narnia stories so fiercely, whether we’re Christian or not,” she begins describing exactly how he does so. But wait. “Lewis reproduces the Passion of Christ, complete with nasty Jews” (The White Witch implicitly invokes Shylock’s pound of flesh, she argues). “Muslims also haunt Narnia—or rather, cartoon infidels, a turbaned, dark-skinned people called Calormenes, who … are a greedy, cruel, proud, enslaved and enslaving race.” Uh-oh. “A rather clerical fear of the female also pervades Narnia. Women are good when schoolgirls, mostly evil when grown. … There’s anti-Catholicism here too, at least if you accept one scholar’s thesis that the story of the ape who makes a false Aslan out of a donkey in a lion skin is an attack on papist idolatry.” Yikes! Who’d want to read such bigotry, especially to children! Somehow, Shulevitz lists all of these odd accusations, then concludes, “The Narnia chronicles are glorious, and they’re also very dark, like the literary traditions they’re steeped in. No matter how much their outmoded mores may trouble you, you can’t alter them without destroying the soul of Lewis’s creation. Embrace Narnia or reject it, but don’t bowdlerize it.” Weblog isn’t so sure that Lewis would appreciate the … um … support.

Taliban shuts down two more aid agencies While members of Germany-based Shelter Now await trial in Afghanistan for promoting Christianity through their relief work, the Taliban has begun expelling other aid organizations. Kabul-based International Assistance Mission has been working in the country for more than 35 years, having survived communist rule and other oppression. Now the agency, which ran two eye hospitals and several health clinics, is closed and the 50 or so workers (mainly American expatriates) have been given 72 hours to leave the country. Likewise, SERVE (Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprise), a Christian ministry with offices in the Netherlands, Britain, and elsewhere, has done refugee work, housing, health education, solar technology, and disability training. No more. “No one is left here and we are not allowed to let any foreigners in,” a Taliban official outside the International Assistance Mission said. “All foreigners left this morning after we closed their offices.”

Mandatory Labor Day link:

  • Religious leaders take on labor dispute | Clergy enter San Francisco’s oldest labor dispute—Local 2 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union versus the downtown Marriott Hotel (San Francisco Chronicle)

Religious freedom abroad:

Irish priest murdered in Philippines:

Other murders:

Kidnappings:

Sexual abuse:

Sexual ethics:

Law and the courts:

Life ethics:

Books:

  • Spiritual spoofs | The Mantra of Jabez and Right Behind are part of a rarity in evangelical Christian life: humorists who poke fun at churches’ sacred cows (The Washington Times)
  • The trials of Jabez | New books say prayer bestseller gets it wrong (U.S. News & World Report)
  • The Prayer of Jabez continues to enlarge its territory | After half a year as a New York Times bestseller, Wilkinson’s book continues to be a phenomenon. (The Hartford Courant)
  • Author angers the Bible Belt | Philip Pullman’s humanist tales of good and evil are a far cry from CS Lewis and A A Milne. But to the horror of the religious Right, they are a runaway hit. (The Observer, London)
  • Holy realists | Alan Wolfe reviews Grant Wacker’s Heaven Below (The New Republic)
  • When morals bend to personal choice | Alan Wolfe talks about his new book, Moral Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice. (The Christian Science Monitor)
  • My morals, myself | Personal rules, as described in Alan Wolfe’s Moral Freedom, mean trying to have it both ways (John Leo, U.S. News & World Report)
  • Humor and insight in a Christian’s observations about Jewish life | Harvey Cox shares his sojourn in Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christian’s Journey Through the Jewish Year (Los Angeles Times)
  • Cupid with a saintly streak | Heroes and heroines don’t romp through Christian romance novels, but they do have heavenly encounters (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  • Bible teachings inspire pictures | Robert Flores’ book illustrates the New Testament epistles of 1 John, James and Jude (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, California)

Catholicism:

Science and studies:

Popular culture:

  • D’oh and the deity | The Simpsons has sometimes been called sacrilegious—rather than satirical—for its jabs at clergy and the faithful alike. But religious commentators, especially this year, have looked at the animated series and found plenty to like (Associated Press)
  • Doubts don’t deter Christian rappers | Just as Christian hard-rock and metal bands fought for critical legitimacy and retail shelf space in the ’70s and ’80s, Christian rap and hip-hop artists are now struggling to gain acceptance and support from their brethren (Billboard)
  • Spirituality on celluloid | Film festivals in Seattle, Los Angeles, examine faith and evil (The Washington Times)
  • A Web site `that could shake the world’ | KillingtheBuddha.com is an online “religion magazine for people made anxious by churches” (Kathy Shaidle, The Toronto Star)
  • KCET probes the nation’s faith | Los Angeles station is devoting prime-time hours to issues of life, death and sexuality (Los Angeles Times)
  • Michelle Shocked brings a more spiritual edge on tour | But singer’s enduring appeal has been her music, not her religious convictions (The Boston Globe)
  • Slayer censor “God” | Band designs additional, less offensive artwork for new record (Rolling Stone)

Church advertising:

Sports:

Other important stories:

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

See our past Weblog updates:

August 30 | 29 | 28 | 27

August 24 | 23 | 22 | 20

August 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 |13

August 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6

August 3 | 2 | 1 July 31 | 30

July 27 | 25 | 24 | 23

July 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16

July 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9

Explaining the Ineffable

Elesha Coffman

“In Heaven Below, a former Pentecostal argues that his ancestors were neither as outlandish as they seemed nor as otherworldly as they wish to seem.”

Christianity Today August 1, 2001
“[H]ow does the scholar explain a behavior pattern that, quite literally, makes no sense in the halls of the mainline academy?” Historian Grant Wacker posed that question a few years ago, in an essay printed in the collection Religious Advocacy and American History. He tries to answer it in his rich new book on early Pentecostals, Heaven Below (Harvard), which argues that these “Holy Rollers” were neither as outlandish as they seemed nor as otherworldly as they wished to seem.

Wacker is in a strong position to make this argument. He was raised as a Pentecostal and still calls Pentecostals “my people,” though he now identifies himself “simply as an evangelical Christian.” He’s also a Stanford- and Harvard-educated scholar who teaches American religious history at Duke. His ear is trained for the concerns that both his subjects and his peers might raise.

For example, his chapter on worship begins with the acknowledgement that early Pentecostals would have had little to say on the topic, because “in their minds worship was something one did, not something one theorized about. After all, had not the Holy Spirit delivered them from all that Romish nonsense?” Anticipating the complaints of his colleagues, Wacker often introduces items of evidence with the phrase “chosen virtually at random” to blunt accusations of proof-texting—letting his conclusions rule the data, rather than the other way around.

Wacker should not be accused of slighting his data. He follows the scholarly convention of throwing heaps of evidence (and footnotes) at his topic, but rather than clogging up the book, this source material is its beating heart. Details introduce figures from Pentecostalism’s early days (1900-1925) in all their colorful passion—evangelist Burt McCafferty, who cut through 14 inches of ice to baptize a convert; Canadian speaker B.L. Fitzpatrick, who got into a fistfight over a question regarding the nature of God; preacher Aimee Semple McPherson, who told Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover to “order your minions of Satan to leave my [radio] station alone.”

Yet Wacker asserts that early Pentecostals occupied space within the fringes as well. In fact, in most respects the movement’s makeup closely matched the demographic profile of the United States. Where earlier scholars (specifically Robert Mapes Anderson, author of the 1979 book Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism) found a sect composed overwhelmingly of the poor, illiterate victims of rapid modernization, Wacker finds laborers with average schooling and average upward mobility. Certainly early Pentecostals differed from the general public in a number of ways; they were less rigid about race and gender, less patriotic, and much more restrictive regarding social activities, for example. But they weren’t the exotic species their critics lampooned.

Once Wacker had retrieved early Pentecostals’ stories—largely through meticulous analysis of their many periodicals—he had to decide what to make of them, what interpretive framework to impose. In the essay mentioned above, Wacker likens such endeavors to the work of missionaries, “for [historians], like missionaries, remain convinced that their schemes are somehow more true, or more useful, or more likely to produce further insight, than the actors’ own.” The task was complicated in this study by the fact that the actors stridently denied having a scheme at all.

Because the Holy Ghost was really in charge, early Pentecostals professed to have no human leaders, no creeds, no business plans, no need for academic training, and no history except the book of Acts. Wacker identifies this aspect of Pentecostal identity as primitivism, “a downward or even backward quest for the infinitely pure and powerful fount of being itself.”

Primitivism explains a lot of Pentecostal attitudes and behaviors, but it leaves several key questions unanswered, starting with the question of how a solely backward-looking movement could survive, let alone explode. Wacker finds those answers in another aspect of Pentecostal character: pragmatism. People who claimed to have no leaders flocked to hear big-name evangelists—and touted those names on promotional posters. Believers with no creeds attacked believers who held different ideas about the Trinity or the necessity of speaking in tongues. Zealots with their eyes fixed on heaven managed to turn more than a few bucks on earth, and avowed anti-intellectuals founded Bible colleges. Cool heads clearly helped to keep revival fires burning.

One area of the Pentecostal experience that has remained largely in the grip of the primitivist impulse is the notion of history. In the 1997 revision of his 1971 book on Pentecostalism, Vinson Synan took time in the preface to justify his addition of the word “tradition” to the title “despite the fact that most Pentecostals have disdained the word ‘tradition’ as belonging to the older and colder ‘established’ churches.” “History” is not even a product category at Pentecostal Charisma House Books. Acknowledging their roots—which certainly extend through nineteenth-century holiness movements, back to early Methodists and John Wesley, further back to Pietists and Dissenters, and through many other stops on the way to the early church—is not something most Pentecostals have been eager to do. Their opinions on this book, if they publish any, should be interesting.

Quoting his colleague David Steinmetz, Wacker likes to say the historian’s task is “to resurrect the dead and let them speak.” Wacker accomplishes that goal in Heaven Below, for which both scholars and lay readers can be grateful. But Wacker goes beyond ventriloquism by reading between his subjects’ lines to uncover traits the actors would not have recognized, and likely would have repudiated. The resulting sympathetic yet challenging account represents a crucial advance in Pentecostal scholarship.

Elesha Coffman is managing editor of Christian History magazine.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

More Christian history, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church’s past, is available at ChristianHistory.net. Subscriptions to the quarterly print magazine are also available.

Christian History‘s issue 58 tells the story of Pentecostalism’s beginnings and early years, and includes an article by Wacker on the reception pentecostalism received from evangelicals. The issue can be ordered here.

Peter Steinfels wrote about Wacker’s book in The New York Times while Alan Wolfe reviewed it for The New Republic.

ChristianBook.com and Amazon.com offer the books mentioned in this essay, including:

Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture, by Grant Wacker; Harvard, 2001; $35

Religious Advocacy and American History, edited by Bruce Kuklick and D.G. Hart; Eerdmans, 1997

The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century, by Vinson Synan; Eerdmans, 1997 [1971]

Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism, by Robert Mapes Anderson; Oxford, 1979

Synan also recently edited The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal.

Previous Christianity Today coverage of Pentecostalism includes:

Brazil’s Surging Spirituality | Churches of all stripes have been growing for decades, as have the controversies and challenges facing evangelicals. (Dec. 4, 2000)

Pie-in-the-Sky Now | Two scholars argue that Pentecostalism, especially in Brazil, is not so otherworldly as many think. (Nov. 27, 2000)

Grow With God | World Assembly of God Fellowship aims to triple its size. (Aug. 23, 2000)

Should We All Speak in Tongues? | Some say speaking in tongues is proof of ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit.’ Are those who haven’t spoken in tongues without the Holy Spirit? (March 21, 2000)

Brazil: Wrestling With Success | (Nov. 16, 1998)

World Growth at 19 Million a Year | (November 16, 1998)

Conversation or Competition | Pentecostals, Roman Catholics in long-standing talks to resolve conflicts, discover some commonalities. (Sept. 7, 1998)

Romancing Pentecostalism | Clark Pinnock’s theology of the Holy Spirit builds a bridge between divided communities within evangelicalism. (Nov. 11, 1996)

Christian History Corner appears every Friday at ChristianityToday.com. Previous editions include:

Eyewitness to a Massacre | The bloodbath that started on August 24, 1572, left thousands of corpses and dozens of disturbing questions. (Aug. 24, 2001)

Live Long and Prosper | Though a recent survey raises questions, the health benefits of faith have been documented for centuries. (Aug. 17, 2001)

Divided by Communion | What a church does in remembrance of Christ says a lot about its history and identity. (Aug. 10, 2001)

Thrills, Chills, Architecture? | The most exciting adventure at St. Paul’s Cathedral would be a time-traveling jaunt through its history. (August 3, 2001)

Deep and Wide| A dive into Reformation imagery yields striking new insights, while a drive-by church history overview largely disappoints. (July 27, 2001)

Shelling the Salvation Army | If William Booth’s church could handle sticks and stones in the 1880s, it should withstand the recent barrage of hateful words. (July 20, 2001)

Historical Hogwash | Two books—one new, one newly reissued—debunk false claims about the “real” Jesus. (July 13, 2001)

Ghosts of the Temple | Soon after Jerusalem fell, the Roman Colosseum went up. Coincidence? (July 6, 2001)

Endangered History | The National Trust’s list of imperiled places gives unnoticed gems a chance to shine. (June 29, 2001)

The Communion Test | How a “Humble Inquiry” into the nature of the church cost Jonathan Edwards his job. (June 22, 2001)

Visiting the Other Side | The Israelites spent time on both sides of the Jordan. Now tourists can, too. (June 8, 2001)

Apocalyptic City

John Wilson

The dream and the nightmare of megalopolis.

Christianity Today August 1, 2001
While cinefiles debate the merits of Apocalypse Now Redux, the restless imagination of Francis Ford Coppola has already moved on to his next film, Megalopolis, scheduled to begin shooting early in 2002. In fact, Coppola’s been working on the screenplay for Megalopolis off and on for 12 years. According to David Germain’s summary in an AP story, the movie “focuses on a man who sets out to build a utopian city. He clashes with big business forces who fear that this dreamer’s notions of societal perfection will undermine their financial interests.”

Coppola fleshes out the vision of the film a bit in conversation with Germain: “I’m trying to say, what’s really possible? Do we really have to live in this kind of pay-per-view world in which everybody’s going to be in debt and a few people are going to own whatever the key resources are?

“Or are we going to live in a world that is really created by artists and scientists, and is just uplifting for people. Because we could.” Coppola adds that in this future he envisions, “Everyone’s going to be an artist. That’s the destiny of the human being. We’re not going to worry about doing dumb work.”

Coppola’s effusions provide more evidence, if any was needed, that even great artists can be idiots. But his “educated stab at future history” also reminds us of the powerfully ambiguous image of the city concentrated in the word “megalopolis.” The first Megalopolis, as we saw last week, was a planned city in fourth-century B.C. Greece, an Attic Brasilia intended to serve as a unifying capital for a federation of city states. This would be a city greater than Athens, the supreme monument to the greatness of Greek culture. You can still visit Megalopolis today, but it is just a small town, a historical curiosity. The dreams that fueled its construction were never realized.

Still, the name of that failed experiment persisted as a symbol of the human ambition to build the City. It was given currency in our own time by the French geographer Jean Gottmann, who lived in the United States for several decades. But Gottmann’s megalopolis, described in a 1961 book of that name, was crucially different from its predecessors. Unlike the classic planned cities over the centuries, Gottmann’s megalopolis evolved without conscious direction. It was an urban system, not a city, far too complex to be “planned” as a city might be constructed from scratch, but not so complex as to defy understanding.

For Gottmann, the megalopolis was bursting with vitality. It marked a new stage in human evolution. And he could be withering about complaints against the “insecurity, criminality, and hostility” of everyday urban life. Such “moaning,” he said in a 1986 essay, is “caused by short memories. Today, even wealthy people dare to go about their business in cities without being guarded by armed escort, which was a necessity, generally accepted, in the cities and towns of yore.”

But for many others, megalopolis is the Inferno. Coppola’s vision for the City of the future is radically opposed to Gottmann’s. Note that the bad guys in Coppola’s Megalopolis, we’re told, will be “business forces.” They would presumably be kindred spirits to the dominant elite in Fritz Lang’s great 1926 film, Metropolis, a dystopian vision of the twenty-first-century City.

Others would dissent both from Gottmann’s vision and from Coppola’s. They would suggest that both visions are infected by hubris. In the vein of Wendell Berry, they would champion the local, the small, the modest human community. Such folk often regard the megalopolis as a kind of cancer; their loathing is palpable.

Certainly these skeptics are right to warn against the perennial snares of utopia. But isn’t their own vision always in danger of sliding into utopian fantasy? Perhaps what we need is new way of thinking about the megalopolis, neither celebrating it uncritically nor falling into despair. This new form of the City is a tangled mix of good and evil. But what else did we expect to find, while we await the New Jerusalem?

John Wilson is editor of Books & Culture and editor-at-large for Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

Last week’s Books & Culture Corner looked at “Megalopolis Forty Years On.”

While out of print, Amazon.com has used copies of Jean Gottmann’s Megalopolis.

An extensive About.com report examines “megalopolis” in Gottmann’s terms and another report tours the Greek city.

Coppola talked to AP’s David Germain about his vision for Megalopolis, but told Variety that he wants it to have a dream cast.

Fan sites for 1926’s Metropolis have lots of information and multimedia.

Visit Books & Culture online at BooksandCulture.com or subscribe here.

Books & Culture Corner appears Mondays at ChristianityToday.com. Earlier Books & Culture Corners include:

The Future Is Now | You want the news? Read science fiction. (Aug. 6, 2001)

Memorable Memoirs | Whether telling us about the Spirit in the South or the crumbling atheism of a Chinese immigrant, these books provide windos into others’ lives. (July 30, 2001)

The Distorted Story of Memoir Inc. | There are many good autobiographies out there, but do those who write about them have to pretend they’re the only books worth reading? (July 23, 2001)

Looking for the Soul of CBA | Nearly anything that can be said about Christian publishing is true to some extent, thanks to the industry’s ever-enlarging territory. (July 16, 2001)

Give Me Your Muslims, Your Hindus, Your Eastern Orthodox, Yearning to Breathe Free | Immigration’s long-ignored effect on American religion is garnering much attention from scholars (July 9, 2001)

Shrekked | Why are readers responding passionately about a simple film review? (July 2, 2001)

Debutante Fiction | The New Yorker should have paid less attention to the novelty of its writers and more attention to their writing. (June 18, 2001)

Saint Teddy? | Yes, Roosevelt paid the usual presidential respects to Christianity, but didn’t show much explicit personal devotion to it. (June 11, 2001)

History Bully | Christian scholars speak not-so-softly over a big sticking point: Theodore Roosevelt’s faith. (June 4, 2001)

‘Taken Up in Glory’ | The Ascension has been forgotten in many Protestant churches, jettisoning an essential part of the Christian story. (May 21, 2001)

Who Won? Who Cares? | Skip the latest ballot reviews and read Italo Calvino’s brilliant election novella “The Watcher.” (May 14, 2001)

Infamy Indeed | John Gregory Dunne suggests imperialistic Americans got what they deserved at Pearl Harbor. (May 7, 2001)

Rantings of a Not-So-Primly Dressed Person With Too Much Time | The Chronicle of Higher Education infuses some not-so-subtle bigotry into its fetal-tissue research coverage. (Apr. 30, 2001)

Frost Fired as Dean of Christian Law School

Todd Hertz

“A scientist claims to have an explanation of Sodom and Gomorrah’s fate, and Colorado Springs non-profits draw a crowd.”

Christianity Today August 1, 2001
Trinity Law School continues investigation, removes dean Winston L. Frost has officially been fired as Dean of Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, California in an ongoing investigation of plagiarism. Frost, dean since 1998, has also been removed as regional president of Trinity International. According to the Los Angeles Times, he will remain suspended with pay until the school decides the fate of his tenured faculty position. The investigation is expected to conclude this week.

Frost was accused earlier this month of using large word-by-word sections out of an encyclopedia for his article, “The Development of Human Rights Discourse: A History of the Human Rights Movement.” But more allegations piled up quickly. University officials are now investigating allegations that the same article also plagiarized a 1983 paper by legal scholar Jerome J. Shestack, and claims that Frost’s master’s thesis also plagiarized.

Frost has blamed the plagiarism charges on sloppy editing by students who allegedly deleted some footnotes and added others for references that were not used.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Trinity International University Provost Barry J. Beitzel dismissed Frost’s explanations in a letter on Friday. The letter read:

It is apparent from your response that you have sought to evade all responsibility for the law review article that you authored. Both university policy and common sense do not support your position that you have no responsibility in this matter. Moreover, your assertion that these allegations of plagiarism are the result of missing and/or erroneous footnotes is a wholly inadequate response.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the allegations are only “the latest stumble in the occasionally rocky career of the evangelical Christian lawyer.”

Scientist finds proof of Sodom and Gomorrah—but not the God part A retired British geologist believes he has found evidence that Sodom and Gomorrah did suffer the fate depicted in the Bible, but thanks to nature and not at the hands of God. Graham Harris says the two cities may have existed on the shores of the Dead Sea in an area shook by a huge earthquake about four and a half thousand years ago.

Harris argues that the earthquake could have ignited flammable methane pockets under the Dead Sea shores, thus destroying the cities. Hmmm—as if God didn’t know the methane pockets were there.

According to the BBC, Cambridge University experiments have backed up the findings. More evidence of the cities is needed to prove they really existed in that location.

Religion is booming in Colorado Springs Colorado Springs seems to be experiencing a surge in Christian visitors to such an extent that a visitors bureau manger calls it a “a real religious Mecca in a way.” With nearly 100 faith-based organizations headquartered in the city, Christian visitors flock in year-round because of such organizations as Focus on the Family, the Christian and Missionary Alliance or the Association of Christian Schools International.

According to The Sun in Baltimore, the last ten years has seen a dramatic rise in religious groups coming to Colorado Springs thanks to a strategic choice by the city to invite in nonprofits. The Sun reports:

Forty-eight percent of the hotel rooms booked through the visitors bureau last year were by religious groups. Secular associations were next at 35 percent. Corporations rank third. In 2000, religious organizations’ conventions made up 31 percent of the total in the city — ranging from 10 people to 8,000 … And while their job base is small—under 2 percent of the city—many of these organizations draw smaller groups of visitors throughout the year to seminars and meetings at their offices.

Faith-Based Initiative:

Religion in the Workplace:

Buddhism:

Archbishop Milingo:

Crime and persecution:

Other stories of interest:

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

See our past Weblog updates:

August 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 |13

August 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6

August 3 | 2 | 1 July 31 | 30

July 27 | 25 | 24 | 23

July 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16

July 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9

July 6 | 5 | 3 | 2

Hostage Pastor Released Unharmed In Colombia

Deann Alford

Wife pledges to stay in Colombia because the kidnappers cannot stop the Lord’s work

Christianity Today August 1, 2001
Colombian pastor Enrique Gómez was released unharmed on August 11 after being held hostage for six months by Colombian guerrillas.

Mélida Gómez, the pastor’s wife, said that their family has no plans to leave their homeland now that her husband is free. “We want Colombia to be known as a country where the power of the Spirit of God is moving,” said Mélida.

Her husband plans to continue as pastor of Bogota’s 18,000-member Bethesda Missionary Center. He is also part-owner of Authentic Radio, a chain of eight Christian radio stations in Colombia. Since his release, the pastor’s life has been a flurry of church services and media interviews, Mélida said.

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (FARC) 42nd Front announced at 5 a.m. on August 10 that it planned to free Gómez in the country’s southeastern mountain zone in Cundinamarca, the province where he was kidnapped on February 14.

Bogota’s El Tiempo newspaper reported that he walked almost two hours down a mountain where he had been held.

When asked why her husband was kidnapped, she said, “He moves multitudes of people, and his is one of the biggest churches in Colombia. [The FARC] believed he was very rich in money, but as he told the press, he’s rich in faith and powerful in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gomez family told El Tiempo that no ransom was paid for his release.

“They can talk and ask [for ransom], but we explained the work of the mission, we prayed and we clamored to God with the people,” Mélida said.”The things of the Lord have their own time, their own purpose. The Bible says all things work together for good for those who believe in the Lord, and nothing deters the will of God. It was a time of growth and maturity for the church.”

El Tiempo reported that Gómez was shackled for the first two months of his captivity by a chain and stick. At night, the rebels would give him a tarp, a blanket and a little tent. Gómez told the newspaper that his captors moved him to at least 10 locations in the mountains during the six months they held him. During the captivity he lost 44 pounds, but the kidnappers always treated him respectfully.

FARC guerrillas captured Gómez on February 14 from his El Peñón horse farm in Cundinamarca. Mélida insisted that the family, consisting of seven children, isn’t worried that FARC will target her husband again.

“[FARC] can’t control the great work that the Lord is doing in Colombia,” she said. “We’ll keep working with greater intensity. Now we’re stronger and greater in number in the Lord.”

Copyright © 2001 Compass Direct.

Related Elsewhere

For more Colombia news, see Yahoo’s full coverage.

CNN’s Columbia: War Without End looks at the violence gripping the country.

A Colombia profile was prepared under the Country Studies/Area Handbook program of the U.S. Department of the Army.

Christianity Today‘s earlier coverage of Colombian kidnappings includes:

Fate of Kidnapped Colombian Pastor Still Unknown | FARC suspected, but so far there has been no word from Montealegre’s abductors. (March 13, 2001)

Another Prominent Pastor Kidnapped in Colombia | Family believes kidnapping is God’s will so that Montealegre can witness to his abductors.

Break in Missionary Kidnapping Case | Captured Colombian guerilla may hold key to U.S. missionaries’ fate. (Dec. 4, 2000)

Plan for Peace in Colombia Is a Plan ‘For Death,’ Say Church Activists | Will U.S. military assistance in destroying coca fields only increase violence? (Aug. 15, 2000)

Death in the Night | Colombia’s pastors endure extortion, kidnappings, and threats as they plant churches and help the poor in a war zone. (June 6, 2000)

Colombia’s Bleeding Church | Despite the murders of 120 church leaders, Christians are fighting for peace in one of the world’s most violent nations. (May 18, 1998)

Fate of Kidnapped Missionaries Still Unresolved | Colombia remains thought to end questions are not human after all. (Mar. 29, 2000)

Twenty-five Pastors Killed This Year (Oct. 4, 1999)

Christians Held As Hostages (July 12, 1999)

India’s Prime Minister Inflames Country With Attack on Improper Evangelism

Ted Olsen

“Newsweek on bad religious books, Christian leaders are the majority of Manila’s deadly hotel fire victims, and other stories from media around the world.”

Christianity Today August 1, 2001
Indian Christians upset with Prime Minister’s conversion comments Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee over the weekend criticized Christian relief agencies and the media’s reporting on religious persecution. At a book release party attended by leaders of the Hindu group RSS, Vajpayee began praising Christian social work agencies, then attacked their Christian witness. “Some have a conversion motive,” he said, “which is not proper.” He also accused the Indian media of devoting too much coverage to the persecution of Christians while ignoring attacks on other groups. Opposition party leaders, Christian organizations, and even newspaper editorial pages are infuriated with the remarks. “How can the prime minister make such a comment?” asked Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi of the Congress Party during a parliamentary session yesterday. “If Vajpayee has facts that Christians are engaged in forceful conversion, then he should put those facts before us.” Otherwise, Dasmunshi says, such remarks destroy “the secular religious fabric of India.” The All-India Christian Council similarly responded, “One stroke cast a dark shadow of doubt on the entire Christian endeavor in national development. … Remarks such as the Prime Minister’s are seen as condoning the hate campaign and the canards, lies and half-truths that are being spread in many parts of the country. They encourage communal and extremist elements.”

Ironically, Vajpayee’s comments came just three days after the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced it was “seriously considering” whether India should be listed as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) regarding religious persecution, saying there are “grave violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by” India’s government, as well as by the leaders of Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, which also may join Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Turkmenistan as CPCs.

Meanwhile, heads of the RSS met with Roman Catholic leaders for the first time in three years “to remove misunderstandings between us and to put an end to both sides making allegations at each other.”

Speaking of religious persecution in India, the militant Hindus accused of the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are again on a hunger strike (an earlier hunger strike, in demand for a fan, ended unsuccessfully after nine days). Meanwhile, the trial of Dara Singh, the alleged leader of the mob that burned the Staineses alive, has been postponed again, this time until September 3.

Most victims of Philippine hotel fire were evangelicals attending conference Most of the Filipinos who died in a Manila hotel fire had come to the capital for a Dallas pastor’s conference, say various news reports. Charisma News Service says that 69 of the 73 killed in the blaze, as well as a majority of those seriously injured, were pastors and church workers. Of the Manor Hotel’s 236 registered guests, 172 were attendees of the conference, which was organized by Pentecostal evangelist Don Clowers and featured Joyce Meyer. The four-day “Destiny Crusade,” held at Manila’s Araneta Coliseum, was expected to draw 40,000.

Newsweek‘s Ken Woodward attacks religious bestsellers“Sociologists tell us that the United States is experiencing a religious revival—a third “great awakening” echoing those of the 18th and 19th centuries,” begins Newsweek religion editor Kenneth L. Woodward in a rare opinion piece. “But if the best-seller lists are any guide, the revival looks more like a collective leaving of the senses.” He singles out three recent bestsellers as particularly egregious examples of “how easily wispy spirituality passes these days as ancient wisdom”: The Prayer of Jabez, Conversations With God, and Karen Armstrong’s recent biography of Buddha. For each book, Woodward offers alternatives. Instead of Jabez, for example, Woodward suggests “any verse from the Book of Psalms, the prayers Jesus himself recited, which ask only for forgiveness and the grace to do God’s will.” In video clips only available on the magazine’s Web site, Woodward continues his invectives, especially for Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations With God. “The books that sell well are in my judgment intellectually and theologically trashy,” he says. “Most of it is pretty low-grade stuff.”

Visual Bible has bled through $10 million in a year and wants $10 million moreCanada’s National Post is strangely optimistic about the prospects for The Visual Bible, a $400 million effort to produce a word-for-word film version of the Bible. The facts, however, seem pretty dim, whatever the spin. “We are at ground zero and have nowhere to go but up,” Doug McKenzie, the company’s new CEO, tells the paper. In a brief overview of the company’s history, the Post reports that a handful of investors ponied up $7.5 million during a reverse takeover by American Uranium. “That capital was used to start production on the Book of Mark. But those funds didn’t last that long and earlier this year Hong Kong-based Pan Zone Inc., a new investor, kicked in another $3.6-million,” the Post‘s Barry Critchley notes. But Visual Bible still doesn’t have anything to show for all that money, and McKenzie is now trying to find $10 million in the next months. Meanwhile, the company is still promoting its two films by South African director Regardt Van Den Bergh, Acts and Matthew.

Worth ignoring Syndicated columnist Robert Scheer‘s latest column is a hackneyed screed against religion. “The pretense that religion is inevitably an ennobling experience stands in absurd denial of a harsh reality reported in daily headlines,” he writes. His list of religion’s ill effects are so predictable you’d think it was written by a high school sophomore: Middle East terrorism, Northern Ireland’s troubles, and the shooting of abortionists are as creative as Scheer’s examples get before he then draws parallels to Bush’s stem-cell decision. The article is lamentable, but rather than waste electricity with a response to such drivel, Weblog has instead found a silver lining: that the Los Angeles Times would print such a hackneyed column gives hope to bad writers everywhere. No matter how weak your arguments, you too can write for the country’s fourth-largest newspaper.

More articles

DiIulio’s resignation and Bush’s faith-based initiative:

  • Defense of John DiIulio | That the Bush administration is about to lose its most vocal advocate for the poor sends exactly the wrong signal. (Samuel K. Atchison, Religion News Service)
  • DiIulio’s loss poses test for Bush initiative | Prospects for passage of President Bush’s faith-based initiative in new peril (The Boston Globe)
  • Falwell to Bush: Pick director with care | New leader of faith-based initiatives should ‘know the clientele,’ he says (The Dallas Morning News)
  • DiIulio’s good-faith effort | DiIulio was an honest body slammer rather than a charming fraud. Too bad that he is leaving. (Sebastian Mallaby, The Washington Post)
  • When church and state collide | The President’s faith-based community-service initiative could end up hurting the cause it intended to help — just ask the Salvation Army (Ciro Scotti, Business Week)
  • This partnership of government and faith succeeds | The Nehemiah program has rebuilt shattered neighborhoods, erecting 4,430 homes in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and suburban Washington, with hundreds more under construction (Samuel G. Freedman, USA Today)

Abuse in the church:

America’s spiritual diversity:

Persecution:

Archbishop Milingo:

  • Deadly sin of pride led cleric to disgrace | Some see Milingo as an emotionally disturbed man unable to handle his own celebrity, who fell into the clutches of a cult canny enough to exploit his vanity and resentment against the church (Rod Dreher, New York Post)
  • Vatican says Archbishop Milingo to meet his wife | Archbishop will tell her of his decision on whether he’s leaving (Reuters)
  • Earlier: Pastors want Milingo, wife to meet | American Protestant pastors with ties to Moon ask for audience with Pope to to ensure that “this black man who is unique in the Catholic Church is receiving the justice that is due and is treated fairly.” (Associated Press)

Church life:

Religion and politics:

  • A believer’s rude reward | Eugene Rivers is a sadder and—we can only hope—wiser man today, after the way his faith in Bush has been rewarded (Adrian Walker, The Boston Globe)
  • African-born mayor faces challenges | Cleveland’s Emmanuel Onunwor is also the associate minister at East Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church (Associated Press)
  • The fodder of their commentary | George W. Bush has been very, very good for the conservative magazine World and the liberal American Prospect (Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post)

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

See our past Weblog updates:

August 20

August 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 |13

August 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6

August 3 | 2 | 1 July 31 | 30

July 27 | 25 | 24 | 23

July 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16

July 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9

“Amid Fears for Future, Jerusalem’s Churches Embark On Prayers for Peace”

Ross Dunn

Week of prayer launched with services held in various congregations

Christianity Today August 1, 2001
Churches in Jerusalem have embarked on a week of prayers dedicated to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that some observers fear may escalate into a new Middle East war.

Warning that “hatred and a desire for revenge is rampant on both sides, Israeli and Palestinian,” the church leaders issued an appeal to “all our people, throughout this land, to join us in intensifying our prayers for peace, with justice, and reconciliation.”

The week of prayer was launched as Israeli military planners began predicting that the current conflict with the Palestinians might last for years and could escalate into a Middle East war.

Nearly 700 people have been killed since the outbreak of the current violence last September.

“We are greatly concerned at the deteriorating situation in the Occupied Territories of the Holy Land,” the appeal said. “Many families have been made homeless; [road] closures have turned towns and cities into detention camps; the number of unemployed has risen dramatically resulting in tens of thousands hungry for the daily bread; whilst our children are confronted daily with a picture of bloodshed, violence, assassinations and murder.”

The church services are running from August 15 to 28. Each evening, a service dedicated to prayers for peace is being held in a different church.

Church of Scotland minister Clarens Musgrave, of St Andrews Church in Jerusalem, said the rationale for the week of prayers was clear.

“Christians need to be involved and one of the things they can be doing is praying about the current situation,” he said.

Not only those present are encouraged to pray. Church leaders appealed to “brothers and sisters around the world, many of whom have already offered generous support, to link their prayers with ours at this special time.”

Anglican Dean Michael Sellors of St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem attended the peace services in the city and called them a great success.

Describing an August 16 service, he said: “The Syrian Orthodox Church [inside the old City] was absolutely full and [with] an atmosphere of peace and prayer.”

In his sermon, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Mar Swerios Malki Murad stressed the important role that church leaders and their congregations play in helping to mediate an end to the conflict, when the parties themselves seemed incapable of ending the bloodshed.

Asked what support the churches were receiving from overseas, Sellors said that the Christian community in the Holy Land had been inundated with telephone calls, faxes and emails containing messages of solidarity.

“For many of us, the knowledge that the people have been praying for us around the world has been most heartening,” he said. “We get anonymous cards, say from Australia, saying we are remembering you and the people of the land in our prayers, ‘may God grant you peace.'”

Copyright © 2001 ENI.

Related Elsewhere

On Jan. 12, the U.S. Department of State warned against travel to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

For articles on the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, see Yahoo’s full coveragearea.

Previous Christianity Todayarticles on violence in the Holy Land:

Strengthen Christian Presence In The Holy Land, Carey Pleads | Middle-East leaders asked to help tone down violence that has killed 650 in 10 months. (August 2, 2001)

Greek Orthodox Priest Falls Victim to Middle East Conflict | Monks worry they may appear as threats to each warring side. (June 21, 2001)

Violence Puts Archaeologists Between Rocks, Hard Places | About half of the planned excavations in the Holy Land this summer have been canceled. (June 27, 2001)

Pilgrimages Drop and Workers Lose Jobs as Middle East Violence Continues | Silence fills places normally crowded with pilgrims, reports British group. (April 11, 2001)

Holy Land Roadblocks | Christian pilgrims learn about Palestinians’ everyday indignities. (Apr. 9, 2001)

Christian Zionists Rally for Jewish State | More than 600 Christians from around the world flock to Jerusalem to show solidarity with Israel as peace process collapses. (Apr. 9, 2001)

Between a Rock and a Holy Site | Muslims have stepped up their efforts to take control of places revered by Jews and Christians. (Feb. 13, 2001)

The Peace Regress | What’s behind the current outbreak of hostilities in the Holy Land? (Jan. 11, 2001)

Conflict in the Holy Land | A timeline of trials for the most contested piece of real estate in the world.

Christmas in Palestine: Hunger and War | Starvation threatens Palestinian villages if U.N. aid continues to be delayed, Vatican official warns. (Dec. 13, 2000)

Between the Temple Mount and a Hard Place | Palestinian Christians want both peace in their villages and justice for their Muslim brothers. (Dec. 5, 2000)

Christmas Plans for Bethlehem Scrapped | Escalating violence cancels millennial celebration in town of Christ’s birth. (Dec. 1, 2000)

Lutheran Bishop’s Appeal from Jerusalem | Religious leader’s letter requests prayer for Christians, Jews, and Palestinians in troubled region. (Nov. 10, 2000)

Latin Patriarch tells Israel to Surrender Lands to Palestinians | Catholic leader says Israel will never have peace unless it “converts all of its neighbors to friends.” (Nov. 1, 2000)

Fighting Engulfs a Christian Hospital in Jerusalem | Lutherans call conflict on their hospital grounds “an affront” to humanitarian purposes. (Oct. 16, 2000)

Israelis and Palestinians Pay Tribute to Pope’s Pilgrimage to Holy Land | Though some at grassroots remain unappeased, leaders of both groups are full of praise. (March 29, 2000)

Prepared for Pilgrims? | As Christian tourism surges, Holy Land believers brave troubled future. (Feb. 10, 2000)

Apology Crusaders to Enter Israel (April 15, 1999)

West Bank Squeezed by Warring Majorities | (Nov. 16, 1998)

Squeezed by Warring Majorities (November 6, 1998)

How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend (Oct. 5, 1998)

Jerusalem as Jesus Views It (Oct. 5, 1998)

Temple Mount on Shaky Ground? | (April 6, 1998)

‘Bad is Good Again.’ Again?

Jeffrey Overstreet

“What Christian and mainstream critics are saying about Rat Race, American Outlaws, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and other movies.”

Christianity Today August 1, 2001

Hot from the Oven

Here’s an outlandish idea: send contestants, one against the other, off on a cross-country contest to win a large bundle of cash. No, this isn’t Survivor III, it’s Rat Race, the latest comedy from the makers of Airplane!, Top Secret!, and The Naked Gun. Jerry Zucker’s famous string of outrageous sight-gag comedies in the ’80s and early ’90s set a new standard for madcap comedy, attempting to get more than a laugh per minute. Back then, of course, they were considered rather lowbrow, but hilarious. Compared to today’s gutter-dwelling comedies that depend on the profane and the taboo for shock-value laughs, Zucker’s movies seem clever and old-fashioned. Will that old Zucker magic still make audiences laugh? Loosely based on the classic madcap farce It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and starring comic geniuses John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson alongside Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. and Oscar hostess Whoopi Goldberg, Rat Race scored high in this week’s box office top ten.

Preview‘s Paul Bicking calls Rat Race “questionable at best.” He faults “less-than-humorous sight gags,” the fact that the characters use some questionable language and, in the midst of this farce’s zaniness, “some of the characters actually lie to each other.” And Douglas Downs at Christian Spotlight on the Movies is greatly distressed: “Zucker, who soared in the comedy Airplane! and the romantic drama Ghost, crash lands in this film. His 80-plus cast did provide work for three of his family members (how nice). Too bad his cast didn’t work to provide a decent comedy. Where are Red Skelton, Buddy Hackett, Bill Cosby, and Jonathan Winters when you need them? Ninety minutes never seemed so long.”

But Movieguide‘s critic points out that these characters’ misbehaviors do lead to the appropriate consequences: “Greedy acts land them in even more trouble. Also, the story ends on a strong moral note, in a slightly redemptive fashion.” Focus on the Family‘s Bob Smithouser agrees: “It all ends with a benevolent twist that puts the immoral scheming in perspective, but the ride is still pretty bumpy. Gags come fast and furious in Rat Race. Many of them are laugh-out-loud funny. And in an era of cutthroat reality TV, the finale has nice warmth to it.” He adds, however, “unnecessary detours spoil the trip.”

Others offer half-hearted compliments. The U.S. Catholic Conference‘s critic says, “Jerry Zucker’s road comedy garners several laughs despite the familiar concept.” “I could’ve used more John Cleese,” says The Phantom Tollbooth‘s J. Robert Parks, “but there were still enough laughs to keep me smiling. Thankfully, screenwriter Andy Breckman mostly eschews the gross-out comedy that’s so prevalent today.” On the other hand, he has nothing good to say about Gooding: “His comic timing is horrible, and he’s reduced to making weird faces and looking surprised. It’s one of the most painful performances of the year.”

A few stood and cheered. Movie Parables‘ Michael Elliott enthuses: “Director Jerry Zucker and screenwriter Andy Breckman concoct some pretty ridiculous scenarios. The reason they work is … they stick with them to the end. No hit-and-run comedy here. They’ll hit us with a joke, then back up and hit us with the same joke four, five, twelve times. For some reason, it makes it all the funnier.” He also finds truth in the film’s assumptions about human nature: “Certainly there is nothing spiritually wrong with being wealthy. It is just when becoming rich turns into an all-consuming passion that we find ourselves treading in dangerous waters.” And Phil Boatwright at The Dove Foundation came away more impressed than anyone. “Knowing the mindset of today’s filmmakers, I expected this remake to be more like the coarse Cannonball Run than the non-offensive Mad World. How surprised and pleased I was that I finally found a comedy that made me laugh so hard, I nearly doubled over. I simply can’t remember the last time a comedy consisted of so much hilarity.”

While Scripture exhorts us not to laugh at the folly of another human being, comedy such as this exaggerates human behavior so that we laugh out of recognition. We’ve all stumbled once or twice out of a desire for personal gain. In a year when television studios are offering a plethora of reality-based shows and new game shows with enormous cash prizes, perhaps Rat Race is a well-timed reminder that money is not the answer, and contests that appeal to our baser appetites bring out the worst in us. Laughing at these desperate, cartoonish money-grubbers is probably a lot healthier than tuning in, week after week, to the addicting soap operas of real people behaving reprehensibly in hopes of winning the world’s rewards. In the end, Rat Race may even be more honest.

* * *

While money-chasing goofballs get the spotlight in Rat Race, American Outlaws wants us to believe that bank robbers are our heroes.

“Bad is good again,” boasts the tag line for this new Hollywood western—as if vigilante justice had ever gone out of style on the big screen! Audiences love to have an excuse to root for bad guys. They act on whims, whether selfish or generous, assuring us we can feel good about doing the same. Audiences also love to see the Law and the Establishment defeated. Forces that bring order limit us, to some extent, and this is easily portrayed as a crime against the all-American ethic: the pursuit of happiness. It can be troubling to look at America’s movie heroes and see how consistently they represent rebellion and anarchy in the name of love. Even if the authority they are fighting is portrayed as villainous, after heroes have saved the day, they rarely offer any kind of alternative “order” that will provide security or stability for the people they act to support. (That’s why God‘s law is so wonderful; obeying it is a liberating thing. The more we follow, the more we are set free from what binds us.)

American Outlaws takes this tradition of rebel-rousing to an audacious extreme, making a noble hero out of the legendary, murderous bank robber Jesse James (portrayed here by Collin Farrell). It’s no surprise the film draws fire from religious media critics.

Movie Parables‘ Michael Elliott feels the movie makes off with the audience’s sense of morality: “Not since Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid has bank robbery looked so appealing. We couldn’t ask to see a more charming bunch of bandits. In fact, this film would have us believing that thievery is downright noble.” He especially criticizes the glamorization of Jesse James. “[Colin Farrell’s] Jesse could be a poster boy for manners and politeness if it wasn’t for all that sanitized killing that the film discreetly keeps at a safe distance. Despite the fact that they committed crimes, killing people in the process, we are manipulated to root for these good ‘bad guys’ and for their success.”

Similarly, Focus on the Family‘s Bob Smithouser responds with Scripture: “Isaiah 5:20 warns, ‘Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil.’ Situational ethics create sympathy for immoral people, inspiring the audience to root for vengeful young outlaws because they’re not as inherently evil as the bad guys working for the railroad.” Beyond the ethical issues, Smithouser finds this western dilapidated, dusty, and doomed to fail: “Clearly targeting the MTV crowd … Outlaws is yet another case of style over substance. And even the style feels tired. It’s not an awful movie, but a hectic one inhabited by characters who look and act like they’re on their way to a western-themed frat party. Yet for all of its obvious demographic calculations, American Outlaws fails to realize that most teens find westerns about as attractive as snakebite.” Likewise, the U.S. Catholic Conference calls it an “awful western”: “Giving the famed bandit’s fabled story a weak comedic spin, director Les Mayfield’s pathetic attempt is slow and aimless despite the many overdone action sequences.” At Preview, Paul Bicking finds that it boasts “the fun and action of classic westerns” but sends the movie to the gallows based on “frequent shootouts and crude dialogue” rather than situational ethics.

Firing back, The Dove Foundation‘s Dick Rolfe defends the movie, arguing that the movie’s whimsical reimagining of history’s account isn’t supposed to be taken as serious history, but as mythmaking. “I enjoyed American Outlaws. It has much to offer in the way of entertainment. All of the characters in this action-packed western are bigger than life.” He is also pleased to see that “the violence is neither explicit nor gratuitous.”

Among mainstream critics, Rotten Tomatoes‘s Victoria Alexander joined other critics in spelling out a more elementary problem: boredom. “The screenwriters must have written this solely because they liked horses,” she writes. “I still don’t know anything about the James Gang or why they got so famous. Jesse and Frank James—the blandest folk heroes in American history!”

* * *

Speaking of robbery, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is director John Madden’s first film since his whimsical Shakespeare in Love snatched a Best Picture Oscar away from Saving Private Ryan. But the movie is probably getting far more attention because of its star. It’s not Nicolas Cage, but the actress playing Cage’s love interest in the film—Penelope Cruz—whose name is up in lights these days because of her confirmed relationship with the recently divorced Tom Cruise. American audiences, more often interested in celebrity and scandal than good storytelling, are lining up to see this rising star now that they have a reason to notice her. (Sound implausible? Turn the clock back a year: She starred in another historical-fiction romance just last year, alongside Matt Damon, the Billy Bob Thornton-directed All the Pretty Horses. The movie disappeared quickly and quietly. This was before the headline-grabbing gossip.)

Cruz plays Pelagia, the daughter of an Italian doctor (John Hurt) tending for an injured Italian soldier (Cage) who can pluck her heartstrings as skillfully as he plays the mandolin. But most critics, focusing on the movie rather than the gossip, were not seduced (although they agree that the Italian scenery is almost worth the price of a ticket).

A critic at the U.S. Catholic Conference writes, “Aside from its majestic presentation … Madden’s mildly engaging romance strikes too many false notes to have real emotional resonance.” Movieguide‘s review reports that the film’s “romantic worldview … suggests that culture (Nazi Germany, for example) corrupts human nature.” But Movieguide’s critic is relieved that this problem is “mitigated by strong moral content and expressions of Christian faith by many of the villagers.”

Mainstream critics criticize it on artistic rather than ethical terms. “Mandolin comes engagingly close to being the assured romantic epic you would want it to be,” says The Hollywood Reporter‘s Mark Adams, “but there is just not enough in most departments—acting, script, direction—to push it into the ‘must see’ movie bracket. The lure … just like the music from that delicate instrument … is tantalizing rather than totally satisfying.” Jessica Winter at The Village Voice is not as generous: “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin billows in any direction that Shawn Slovo’s gasbag script might blow it. The big message seems to be that tolerance is good, but since the film doesn’t differentiate between politics and jingoism, it needs to demonstrate that We’re All the Same Inside, right down to how everybody on the island speaks English with a similar intermittent Mediterranean accent.” She does, however, applaud the film’s rising star: “Ms. Cruz, apparently optimistic about her corner of Hollywood’s gilded cage, once again proves her inability to give a bad performance even under the worst of circumstances.”

Still Cooking

While adolescent humor still ruled the box office, more critics were discovering the much-lauded thriller that Film Forum featured last week, The Deep End.

J. Robert Parks of The Phantom Tollbooth reports the film “is worth seeing just to see Tilda Swinton’s fantastic performance. She is the protective mother caught between a rock and a hard place. The Deep End is an intelligent thriller that’s more intelligent than thrilling.” He does, however, register a reservation others hadn’t observed: “Part of the problem with each film is that it’s hard to make a thriller when the sun is out. Despite The Deep End‘s gorgeous cinematography … and its evocative portrayal of the solitary side of Tahoe, California, the story’s inherent tension is often diffused.”

Send It Back to the Kitchen

Parks also publishes a review of a film opening for wide-release this weekend—John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars. Call it an early warning.

“Well, you see,” he explains, “miners have inadvertently woken up a strange alien force lying dormant in the Martian rocks. The disease-like creature … invades our bodies, takes over our minds, and makes us dress up like Marilyn Manson. No wonder everyone’s killing themselves. The movie’s script is constructed as one long flashback, which makes it pretty clear which characters are going to survive and which are going to be grist for the decapitating throng. Fans of video-game violence will be disappointed … the fight scenes are embarrassingly static, as if Carpenter had forgotten how to make a swinging mace look real. And the numerous explosions are accompanied by extras jumping into the air; they look like bad gymnasts instead of people being cut down by shrapnel. The roar of the crowd was deafening. Or maybe that was just the noise of people scrambling for the doors.”

Similarly, the U.S. Catholic Conference says this “pathetic survival story soon collapses under the weight of constant shootouts, beheadings and explosions as a deafening sound track fails to distract from onscreen schlock.”

Perhaps moviegoers will take comfort in noting the calendar—summer’s almost over. Usually that means some quality filmmaking is just around the corner. How many months now until The Fellowship of the Ring?

Next Week: Apocalypse Now … again. Why does Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece linger in our memory? Why are such memorable and challenging movies so rare? Critics share their thoughts on this classic, and respond to the revised release. Also, responses to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and the latest Woody Allen comedy, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

Earlier Film Forum postings include these other movies in the box-office top ten: American Pie 2, Rush Hour 2, The Others, The Princess Diaries, Planet of the Apes, Jurassic Park 3, Legally Blonde, and Osmosis Jones.

It’s Not Graham-Approved Television. It’s HBO.

Ted Olsen

“Afghanistan prisoners may be seen or even freed, Baltimore’s stained-glass crisis, and other stories from media sources around the world”

Christianity Today August 1, 2001
Franklin Graham angry at benefit film When HBO shows a film, it usually precedes it with a warning about whether it includes nudity (or the ever popular “brief nudity”), violence, or other such objectionable material. But now evangelist Franklin Graham is issuing a warning of his own. The HBO film Dinner With Friends, he complains, contains language and themes “morally inconsistent with the values and work of my parents and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.” Of course, that’s also true of almost all of HBO‘s programming, from Sex and the City to G-String Divas. The difference here is that Dinner With Friendspremiered as a fundraiser for the Ruth and Billy Graham Children’s Health Center. Actress Andie MacDowell, who stars in the film, is also the national spokesperson for the center, which earned $115,000 from the event. Franklin Graham was reportedly upset that the Grahams weren’t warned that the film contained frank sexual discussions and numerous instances of the f-word. But the real news here may be that the film contains no nudity. Imagine that! An HBO film with no nudity! Meanwhile, in the Grahams’ hometown paper, Don Hudson suggests that criticizing the film while not returning the money is hypocritical. But could Franklin Graham really return the money? It went to a hospital named for his parents, not a Graham organization.

Taliban may be relenting Several sources have good news from Afghanistan today. Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil says the International Committee of the Red Cross will be allowed to visit the eight foreign detainees accused of Christian evangelism. (The flip side of the coin: Mohammad Wali, who is in charge of the religious police, said he was unaware of the decision to allow visits, and Taliban chief spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen says “Our stance regarding the visit has not changed.”) But in an even more hopeful sign, Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, the Taliban’s liaison representative to the United Nations, says the Christians will “absolutely” be able to go home soon. Of course the bad news in all of this is that prospects do not look as good for the 16 Afghans also arrested for evangelizing. And The New York Times reports that the arrests will also hurt the rest of the country as conflicts between the Taliban and aid organizations worsen:

In its fourth year of remorseless drought, in its 22nd year of relentless war, Afghanistan may well be the world’s neediest country. The United Nations and hundreds of relief groups provide help that now amounts to more than $300 million a year. But those organizations and the Taliban are often incompatible caretakers, steeped in cultural conflicts and mutual distrust. One dispute follows another, and it seems that when the aid agencies are not threatening to pack it in, the mullahs are threatening to throw them out.

More articles

Popular culture:

Crime and the courts:

Education:

Faith and medicine:

Missions and ministry:

  • Priest to circus workers relishes road mission | The death of animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams brought Father Jerry Hogan’s job to center ring (The New York Times)
  • Missionary plane crashes in Indonesia | Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot, three passengers injured (Voice of America)
  • Wrong place for conversion kick, Buddhists tell Sydney’s Anglican Archbishop | Jensen says he had not intended to single out Wollongong’s Buddhist community (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • Truck-stop ministry refuels souls | Because of the ministry’s impact, some truckers have rearranged routes so they can return for services (The Tennessean)
  • Changing mission | More storytelling, less sermonizing mark more sensitive approach to indigenous peoples (Dallas Morning News)
  • For Christ’s sake, why can’t they evangelize? | How does one align approval of Christian church factions speaking out vigorously on such matters as international borrowing and lending, environmentalism, illegal immigrants, Aboriginal land rights, drug addiction, the status of women, taxation and foreign trade, with outrage over a Christian church leader’s commending Christ to the attention of us all? (Frank Devine, The Australian)
  • Hunger Site seeks sustenance | Not long ago, the Hunger Site ranked as the most-visited online charity site. But then its owners ran out of money and shut it down. Now former beneficiaries are hoping to find a buyer. (Wired News)

Prayer:

Stanley Hauerwas:

  • For God, not country | The un-American theology of Stanley Hauerwas (Lingua Franca)
  • Do the right thing, damn it | Stanley Hauerwas, America’s leading theologian, on laying bricks and taking the Lord’s name in vain. (Killing the Buddha)

Catholicism:

Other religions:

  • Muslim Jesus | Tarif Khalidi of King’s College, Cambridge, talks about The Muslim Jesus, his new collection of sayings and stories that depict Jesus in Islamic literature (NPR’s Weekend Edition, 14.4 or 28.8 kbps)

Sexuality:

  • True love should wait | In growing virgin movements, teenagers pledge to make abstinence a lifestyle choice (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • Bible Belt leads at ‘living in sin’ | In the seven states where the law forbids people to “live in sin”, the number of cohabiting couples has almost doubled from 500,000 in 1990 to 930,000 (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Life ethics:

Integrity in sports:

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“Despite Israeli Objections, Irineos Is New Greek Orthodox Patriarch”

Ross Dunn

“Protesting under a sixth century law, Israeli objections overturned by supreme court.”

Christianity Today August 1, 2001

The Greek Orthodox Church has elected Irineos I as the new patriarch of Jerusalem, overcoming strong Israeli efforts to block his candidacy.

The bishop has now become one of the most powerful Christian leaders in Israel—head of the church that is guardian of most of the holy sites.

The Greek Orthodox Church is also the biggest landowner in the Holy Land, with holdings stretching from Jerusalem to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Irineos, 62, born on the Greek island of Samos, was elected on August 13 in two rounds of voting, eight months after the death of the previous patriarch, Diodoros I. In the first round, 50 priests chose three candidates from a list of 15. Then 17 bishops voted in the second round to elect the patriarch.

For four months, Israel tried to block Irineos and four other candidates from the ballot.

Members of the 100,000-strong Greek Orthodox community of Arabs in the Holy Land believe Israel's efforts were an intervention to prevent a pro-Palestinian patriarch from being elected.

The election result was a great disappointment for the Israeli government, said Jerusalem based Rabbi David Rosen, a leading Israeli inter-faith activist.

"Irineos is seen as less amenable and less willing [than other nominees] to kow-tow to Israeli interests. This result proves the real futility of the effort [to block his election] and [the] assumption you can draw the map to suit your own political interests."

Rosen said that by trying to intervene in the process, Israel had probably ensured that Irineos would be less sympathetic towards the Jewish State.

"If someone had tried to keep me out of the position, I'm not sure I would have a great love for Israel either," Rosen said.

Under a law dating back to the sixth century emperor Justinian, the government of the Holy Land has the right to approve or disqualify candidates for the office of the patriarch.

The list of candidates was submitted to the governments of Israel and Jordan, as well as to the Palestinian Authority. While Jordan and the Palestinian Authority approved all nominees, Israel rejected five. Their objection was overturned by the Supreme Court of Israel.

In an official statement, the Greek Orthodox Church said it would ask Jordan and the Palestinian Authority for the approval of their new patriarch but did not mention Israel.

Under the previous patriarch, Israel bought and leased significant areas of land from the Greek Orthodox Church, including affluent neighborhoods of the city and the land which the official residences of the Israeli President and Prime Minister stand on.

Israel was apparently wary of the Church coming under the rule of a pro-Palestinian patriarch; for fear that this could result in land disputes when long-term leases begin to expire. But the chairman of the Greek Orthodox Church's lay committee in Jerusalem, Mr Yosef Dik, attempted to allay such fears.

He said that the election of the new patriarch raised the hope of opening a "new chapter in [the church's] relations with the community in Israel."

Irineos has a long association with the Holy Land, having arrived in Jerusalem in 1953 and graduating from the church's theological seminary in 1963. He was also the Jerusalem Patriarchate's representative in Greece for many years.

Copyright © 2001 ENI.

Related Elsewhere

Coverage of Irineos's contested election include: Kathimerini, Reuters, and Associated Press.

In July, Kathimerinireported on the attempts to find a patriarch and the alleged corruption of Diodoros I.

Previous Christianity Todayarticles on Diodoros I include:

Briefs: Diodoros I died December 20 (Feb. 5, 2001)

Jerusalem's Church Leaders Tell Summit Not to Separate City's Christians | Christians worried about dividing Old City between Palestinian and Israeli control. (July 7, 2000)

Orthodox Leaders Closer to Unity | Event marks unprecedented display of unity among some of the world's oldest church bodies (Feb. 7, 2000)

Orthodox Land Use Angers Laity (Jan. 11, 1999)

For articles on the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, see Yahoo's full coveragearea.

Previous Christianity Todayarticles on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

Strengthen Christian Presence In The Holy Land, Carey Pleads | Middle-East leaders asked to help tone down violence that has killed 650 in 10 months. (August 2, 2001)

Greek Orthodox Priest Falls Victim to Middle East Conflict | Monks worry they may appear as threats to each warring side. (June 21, 2001)

Violence Puts Archaeologists Between Rocks, Hard Places | About half of the planned excavations in the Holy Land this summer have been canceled. (June 27, 2001)

Pilgrimages Drop and Workers Lose Jobs as Middle East Violence Continues | Silence fills places normally crowded with pilgrims, reports British group. (April 11, 2001)

Holy Land Roadblocks | Christian pilgrims learn about Palestinians' everyday indignities. (Apr. 9, 2001)

Christian Zionists Rally for Jewish State | More than 600 Christians from around the world flock to Jerusalem to show solidarity with Israel as peace process collapses. (Apr. 9, 2001)

Between a Rock and a Holy Site | Muslims have stepped up their efforts to take control of places revered by Jews and Christians. (Feb. 13, 2001)

The Peace Regress | What's behind the current outbreak of hostilities in the Holy Land? (Jan. 11, 2001)

Conflict in the Holy Land | A timeline of trials for the most contested piece of real estate in the world.

Christmas in Palestine: Hunger and War | Starvation threatens Palestinian villages if U.N. aid continues to be delayed, Vatican official warns. (Dec. 13, 2000)

Between the Temple Mount and a Hard Place | Palestinian Christians want both peace in their villages and justice for their Muslim brothers. (Dec. 5, 2000)

Christmas Plans for Bethlehem Scrapped | Escalating violence cancels millennial celebration in town of Christ's birth. (Dec. 1, 2000)

Lutheran Bishop's Appeal from Jerusalem | Religious leader's letter requests prayer for Christians, Jews, and Palestinians in troubled region. (Nov. 10, 2000)

Latin Patriarch tells Israel to Surrender Lands to Palestinians | Catholic leader says Israel will never have peace unless it "converts all of its neighbors to friends." (Nov. 1, 2000)

Fighting Engulfs a Christian Hospital in Jerusalem | Lutherans call conflict on their hospital grounds "an affront" to humanitarian purposes. (Oct. 16, 2000)

Israelis and Palestinians Pay Tribute to Pope's Pilgrimage to Holy Land | Though some at grassroots remain unappeased, leaders of both groups are full of praise. (March 29, 2000)

Prepared for Pilgrims? | As Christian tourism surges, Holy Land believers brave troubled future. (Feb. 10, 2000)

Apology Crusaders to Enter Israel (April 15, 1999)

West Bank Squeezed by Warring Majorities | (Nov. 16, 1998)

Squeezed by Warring Majorities (November 6, 1998)

How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend (Oct. 5, 1998)

Jerusalem as Jesus Views It (Oct. 5, 1998)

Temple Mount on Shaky Ground? | (April 6, 1998)

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