![Hi [YOUR NAME], Films for the Fourth - Freedom and Our Faith](http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/images/july4-2007_top.jpg)
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||
|
What's New? (see all)
DVD Rental Club About ChristianCinema.com Christians In Cinema Blog |
|||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
Hi friend,
I love to travel, and had the privilege of visiting more than 20 foreign countries in the last few years. Most have been nations under the rule of oppressive governments. As I spent time in people's homes, talking with them and learning about their customs, culture and way of life, I realized the incredible freedom that has been mine since the day I was born in these United States.
Pearl S. Buck once said, "None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free." I've had just a glimpse of that truth in places like Russia, Vietnam and Colombia, where today day life-and-death struggles for freedom continue. Many lives are sacrificed, and yet they go on, fighting for that elusive hope.
I wonder, what would I give to keep my freedom? What price would I pay? Because freedom isn't free. It comes at a terribly high price; a price that has been paid by thousands of men and women through our nation's history. And that freedom has meant college students could protest war without fear of unjust imprisonment. It means the press can denounce government officials without fear of censure. It means we have the freedom to worship God or deny God without fear of punishment.
I believe it's important this July 4th to pause and reflect on the history of our great country and remember the intentions of our founding fathers: to create one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
We have some extremely well-done films that provide insight into American History from various perspectives and time frames. You can explore the colonies in a Hummer, fly to Guam with sons of World War II veterans , and learn about the extraordinary faith of our current President, George W. Bush.
This week's feature article comes from our friends at MovieMinistry.com, acknowledging a miraculous event: two Hollywood films in simultaneous release that carry a very strong pro-life message. We can't endorse the films, but we can applaud the stand they take for the unborn.
From the screening room,
Angela Walker
ChristianCinema.com
www.ChristianMovieNews.com
Get 5 DVD's celebrating America's rich and Godly history
America's Godly Heritage - DVD
A excellent primer for those who want to know more about what was intended for America by the Founders. America's Godly Heritage clearly sets forth the beliefs of many of the famous Founding Fathers concerning the proper role of Christian principles in education, in government, and in the public affairs of the nation. The beliefs of Founders like George Washington, John Adams, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Wilson, Geoerge Mason, John Quincy Adams, and many others are clearly presented.
America's Godly Heritage also provides excerpts from court cases showing that for 160 years Christian principles were part of official American public life. You'll see numerous charted statistics showing what has happenedd to America since the courts began rejecting the Founders' beliefs.
America's Godly Heritage is an excellent primer for those who want to know more about what was intended for America by the Founders and what can be done to return America to its original guiding philosophy.
George W Bush: Faith in the White House - DVD
Examine the extraordinary faith and prayer life of President George W. Bush
Not since the days of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln has a president put so much stock in his Christian faith and prayer life for making decisions and leading the United States in its hour of crisis. According to BBC correspondent Justin Webb: "Nobody spends more time on his knees than George W. Bush. The Bush administration hums to the sound of prayer. Prayer meetings take place day and night. It's not uncommon to see White House functionaries hurrying down corridors carrying Bibles."
This program will examine the extraordinary faith and prayer life of President George W. Bush, and how it impacts his personal life and his decisions as the leader of the free world. See how his faith has been unshakeable in dealing with the 9/11 terrorist attack, fighting al-Qaeda, ridding Iraq of the Saddam Hussein regime, rooting out terrorists in Afghanistan, and how his religious beliefs bring personal peace and clarity in a time of terrorism and chaos across the world.
According to Newsweek magazine, "this presidency is the most resolutely faith-based in modern times - an enterprise founded, supported and guided by trust in the temporal and spiritual power of God." This special also explores President Bush's boldness in witnessing and proclaiming his faith to world leaders, and examines his Christian appointees and the Presidential Prayer Team that uplifts him in intercessory prayer. Learn about George W. Bush's faith journey from the barroom to the Oval office. See how the power of faith can change a life, build a family and shape the destiny of a nation. His faith will inspire you!
DVD includes fantastic bonus features!
Saints & Strangers - DVD
Religious influences from the Mayflower to the Great Awakening, from Plymouth Rock to the War of Independence...
2004 Crown Award Winner for Best Documentary (Silver)
What about the hotly debated issue regarding the Christian roots of the American colonies? Was the Gospel the basis of the formation of a nation like none other in history? What role did faith and religion play in the founding of America?
From the earliest settlers in Jamestown, through the fervent patriotism of the pre-Revolutionary period, and the eventual formation of the colonies into the United States of America, this documentary examines the religious and spiritual roots of the men and women who founded our country.
Saints & Strangers addresses religious influences from the time of the Mayflower to the Great Awakening, from Plymouth Rock to the War of Independance. It examines the groups of the faithful who were crucial influences during the colonial period - the Church of England, the Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, and others.
Warriors of Honor - DVD
"Finally, A documentary that is willing to speak plainly about the Christian faith of Jackson and Lee..."
2004 Crown Award Winner for Best Documentary (Gold) "Finally, A documentary that is willing to speak plainly about the Christian faith of Jackson and Lee. It is a beautiful and accurate account of two great Southern leaders and of a war that forever changed our country." Steve Wilkins, Author, Historian
The Revolutionary War united America. Less than one hundred years later a bloody Civil War divided it. Most Americans believe that Southerners fought to preserve slavery; however a much deeper divide existed between the North and South. Two drastically different cultures had emerged on the American landscape.
This Documentary places the war in its historical and cultural context. It guides the viewer through the causes and the major battles of the Civil War while providing insight into the lives of two stalwart men who fought for the South. Both were masterful generals, brilliant strategists and, above all, faithful Christians. The faith of these"Warriors of Honor" governed their lives on and off the battlefield, and their legacies continue even today.
A Black and White film.
Gods and Generals - DVD
An unforgettable story of the Civil War. The more you know about the Civil War, the more you'll appreciate Gods and Generals and the painstaking attention to detail that Gettysburg writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell has invested in this academically respectable 220-minute historical pageant. In adapting Jeffrey Shaara's 1996 novel (encompassing events of 1861-63, specifically the Virginian battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville), Maxwell sacrifices depth for scope while focusing on the devoutly religious "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang), whose Confederate campaigns endear him to Gen. Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall, giving the film's most subtle performance). Battles are impeccably recreated using 7,500 Civil War re-enactors. As the first part of a trilogy that ends with The Last Full Measure, this is a superbly crafted, instantly essential film for Civil War study.
|
A Diamond in the Raunch: Pro-Life Positions Emerge in "Knocked Up" and "Waitress"
by Dr. Marc T. Newman
Knocked Up appears poised to be this summer’s Wedding Crashers – a loud, raunchy battle-of-the-sexes film that brings in big box office. Millions of people will flock to this morally reprehensible film, and laugh it up while watching drugged-out, sex-obsessed slackers slouching through extended adolescence do anything to avoid growing up and taking responsibility for their lives. While viewers wallow in profanity, vulgarity, and general tastelessness, they will also see some amazing live ultrasound images of a developing unborn child in the womb – easily enough to give lie to any assertion by abortion rights advocates that what is in the womb is merely a “bunch of cells” or the purposefully vague “products of conception.”
Identification of this “pro-life” angle in Knocked Up should in no way be considered an endorsement for the film. Sure, there is a redemptive aspect to the movie, but you have to slog through an awful lot of garbage to get to it. Do not go to see it – is that clear enough? But, that said, millions of people will go see it, laugh, and throughout the film view compelling images of an unborn baby. This same weekend, a PG-13-rated film, Waitress, has also found its way into the box office top ten. It depicts a woman’s commitment to her unplanned, unwanted pregnancy and the positive, life-changing effects that follow.
Yes, these films are inappropriate on many levels. But there is no escaping the fact that we are witnessing two Hollywood films in simultaneous release that value unborn life, openly reject the call for abortion, and argue that children can positively affect the lives of those who have them. And that’s a far cry from the “kids as parasitic cancers” rhetoric propagated by some in the population control and abortion rights crowd.
Images Matter
Knocked Up is not shy – about anything. The film is about a beautiful, upwardly-mobile woman named Alison who ends up in a drunken one-night stand with an amusing, but homely, pot-smoking unemployed slacker, Ben. As a result of some miscommunication during their inebriated tryst, Alison becomes pregnant. But neither is the film shy about showing the development of an unborn child as an unbroken stream of events beginning with conception and continuing through birth. The first images the audience sees looks like an educational film about conception. We see initial cell division. Then, at eight or nine weeks, we watch an ultrasound technician point to a flickering image on the screen, which he identifies for the couple as the baby’s heartbeat. Live ultrasound images continue to serve as benchmarks throughout Alison’s pregnancy at sixteen, twenty-four, and twenty-eight weeks, to allow viewers to know just how far along she is.
Knocked Up does not avoid the abortion controversy. Alison’s mother strongly argues that Alison get an abortion – claiming that Alison’s stepsister aborted, and “now she has a real baby.” It seems that Alison’s mother does not consider that grandchildren in utero are “real.” It appears that she never managed to read this little snippet from an otherwise pro-abortion rights editorial published in California Medicine, September 1970:
“Since the old ethic has not yet been fully displaced it has been necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing, which continues to be socially abhorrent. The result has been a curious avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra- or extra-uterine until death.”
Ben’s roommates – Jonah and Jay – are split in their advice. Jonah does everything but command Ben to pressure Alison to abort. But Jay is supportive of having the baby. Over lunch, Ben’s dad tells him that he is happy. Ben wants to know whether his father’s life would have been better had Ben never been born, but his dad just smiles and says, “No – best thing that ever happened to me.” Ultimately, Alison announces that she is keeping the baby, and Ben tells her that he was hoping she would.
No rationale is given in the film for her decision to keep her baby, but certainly seeing the evidence of her child’s beating heart must have played some role. Images of children in utero can help to overcome our culture’s irrational idea that the physical fact and moral worth of the human person that is in a woman’s womb from the moment of conception should be determined solely on the basis of whether or not she is happy about her pregnancy at the time. Sure, Alison cries at this first, conclusive evidence of her untimely pregnancy. But it is not long after that she commits to carry her baby. Knocked Up is an outstanding argument for the need for women to see what is going on inside their bodies when they are pregnant. If your local pro-life pregnancy counseling center is not equipped with an ultrasound machine and a licensed technician to run it – help them get both – quick!
Babies Change Things
Another unhappy pregnancy is depicted in Waitress, a movie about a pie maker extraordinaire named Jenna who is in an abusive relationship with her husband, Earl. Jenna is planning to leave him, but discovers that on the one night that he apparently got her drunk and had intercourse with her, she became pregnant. Even though the child is "unwanted" -- which everyone should understand is a comment on the parents and not on the baby -- Jenna is determined to give birth. Earl wants her to abort because he is afraid that Jenna will love the baby more than him (one wonders how often the decision to abort is made using precisely this kind of selfish reasoning). The toxic relationship between Jenna and Earl makes her ripe for an affair with her doctor, played some places for laughs, but revealing Jenna’s desperate desire for tender affection.
All during the pregnancy, Jenna journals letters addressed to her growing, unborn child, in which she honestly expresses her mixed feelings. And when her baby finally is born, this beautiful daughter changes everything. Jenna finds the courage to leave her abusive husband, end her destructive affair, and meaningfully pour her life into her daughter, like filling into a pie crust.
While not all experiences of parenthood under adverse circumstances turn out well, pregnancy counseling centers are full of stories about parents who counseled abortion to their desperate children, only to beam with delight when the new grandchild arrives. And even if life did not turn out so rosy, none would argue that a 3-year-old should die because his or her life is not straight out of a Rockwell painting. Life is better than death. And lacking the capacity to celebrate life is a character flaw that needs remedy, not an argument for the destruction of others. Movies that move us usually show us characters with traits that we wish we had, or hope to develop. Jenna’s relationships with men are a mess, but in loving her daughter she depicts an admirable slice of life.
Exposure to Truth
Perhaps as Hollywood filmmakers get older, or as more of them see the horrifying consequences of abortion (or have experienced it themselves) we are beginning to see minor shifts in perspective. Hollywood is not in the business of producing “Christian” films -- not even remotely. But it is encouraging to see two films simultaneously occupying the top ten in box office receipts in which the humanity of the unborn child is not lost. Millions of people have seen Knocked Up, and the way it is holding on at the box office, many more will. It will probably do over $100 million in domestic receipts over its summer run -- and then on to the DVD. There, in the midst of the raunchiness, audiences are going to be confronted with the truth of the developing child.
Survival mitigates against people living, long-term, like the stoner crowd in Knocked Up. Films such as these are simply what passes for amusement in our decaying culture. But as people mature out of potty humor, and take on more adult responsibilities, perhaps the images of that beautiful, unborn baby will stick in their minds. Maybe it will nudge people in such a way that they will not be able to quickly dismiss the humanity of their unborn children. As the chaff of raunchiness blows away, this single diamond of truth might just shine brightly enough so that some people will turn away from death, toward life.
Marc T. Newman, Ph.D. is the president of MovieMinistry.com -- an organization that provides sermon and teaching illustrations, Bible Studies, and FilmTalk cards drawn from popular film, and helps the Church use movies to reach out to others and connect with people.
To subscribe, go to: http://www.christiancinema.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
Copyright © 2007 ChristianCinema.com, Inc. PO Box 6430, Visalia, CA 93290