Joe Eszterhas and amazing grace
Wednesday September 10, 2008
Categories: Religion (general)
I blogged on this before, but here, in his own words, is Joe Eszterhas' brief account of his conversion. Excerpt: I call it that, too. Why did God save the life of a man who had trashed, lampooned, and marginalized...
Filed Under: conversion, Joe Eszterhas
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Rushing out the door to take my daughter to school, and have only had time to read the excerpt, but I am sobbing. Sobbing. This is what it was like for me, too. Thank you so much for posting this, Rod. Can't wait to share it...
Margaret
what tripe. when he gives away the enormous pile of money he made from "trashed, lampooned, and marginalized Him most of his life" and otherwise makes amends, I'll be impressed. Until then, I must conclude that Esterhaz's god, like many people's gods, is a most convenient god.
I rejoice for Joe E. This is very inspiring to me, especially as I have two young adult children involved in the entertainment world who have rejected their faith at this point. I will pray without ceasing until something like this happens in their lives!
Hillary Rettig: when he gives away the enormous pile of money he made from "trashed, lampooned, and marginalized Him most of his life" and otherwise makes amends, I'll be impressed.
Precisely. As the Romans used to say, "you have touched the thing with a needle."
"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me." (Mark 10:21)
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward." (Matthew 6:5)
In those days, there was a certain hypocrite, Joseph by name, who besmirched his life with all manner of corruption: and when he had been stricken with sickness, cried out for healing. And the Lord in his mercy granted him healing. And Joseph being thankful prayed in the churches and on the street corners, yea, even carried the cross among the multitudes and wrote many things in a book much read by the hypocrites. And he had great treasure on earth for the bounty of the Lord is boundless.
And again there was a certain young man, a soldier wounded in war who was among the poorest of the poor: and he sat in his wheelchair in his room and prayed thus "Lord, if it is thy will, restore my legs that I may walk again to Thy temple and carry Thy heavy cross, for mine is light, but not my will but Thine be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Wow, Hillary. It's a small person who can't rejoice in the spiritual, mental or physical regeneration of another human being, like the one described here. Congrats on being a such a mean, small-hearted woman. Way to go, you. Or something.
"Am I am witness" - cool typo, especially in context.
"But the FOOLISH THINGS of the world God chose in order to shame the wise, and the WEAK THINGS of the world God chose in order to shame the strong, and the BASE THINGS of the world and the DESPISED THINGS God chose - the things that are NOTHING - in order to nullify the things that are... so that NO ONE could boast in God's presence."
What a God.
What a Savior.
What a WTF to the elite "the foolishness of the Cross" is.
Deo gratias. Another prodigal has come home to the arms of His Father. The angels in heaven rejoice!
Thanks, Roland - I appreciate the support. If I were a religious person, I would find the pervasive hypocrisy among religious people excruciating.
Anne, suggest you read Roland's post. And, btw, doesn't the bible say "hate the sin, love the sinner." if you want to criticize my post, go ahead - but don't extrapolate from that to my personality. I rarely mention this on the net, but i am foster mother to four Sudanese refugee teens, and am in the process of donating a kidney to a stranger - does that sound mean and small-hearted to you? how do your good deeds stack up? Or Esterhaz's, for that matter?
The issue, as Roland agrees, is not Esterhaz's regeneration but his apparent hypocrisy. If he winds up walking the walk and giving away his ill-gotten gains, then that is something to be happy about.
Hillary
Hillary,
Newsflash: Christians are all hypocrites (as is every human being) and we know it. That's one of the reasons we're Christians!
"All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." ~Isaiah 53:6
Thanks be to God for Joe E's coming home to Jesus.
"... how do your good deeds stack up? Or Esterhaz's, for that matter?"
Posted by: Hillary Rettig / www.lifelongactivist.com | September 10, 2008 10:20 AM
We don't know how Esterhaz's good deeds stack up. He didn't feel the need to tell us. How do we know he's a hypocrite? I got the distinct impression from this piece that he has radically changed his life and is deeply ashamed of his old one. That does not make him a hypocrite; just a sinner who has accepted the healing forgiveness of God and is trying to live out his convictions.
Interesting. I just finished reading Eszterhas's 700+ page memoir, "Hollywood Animal." Far from disliking him at the end of it, I was quite impressed by him.
He's a man of many parts, and a very good writer, but I suspect what he does as a memoirist doesn't necessarily translate into screenwriting. Some of his best screenplays such as "Telling Lies in America" and "The Music Box" were 180 degrees from "Basic Instinct." It says more about the instincts of the Hollywood moguls who loved his "commercial" scripts like "Basic Instinct," "Jagged Edge," and "Showgirls" than it does about the quality of Eszterhas's character.
As to his conversion, I don't presume to judge someone else's conversion experience or the state of his or her soul.
"God is good."
Yet when horrible things happen, God isn't bad. Nice work if you can get it!
"God is good."
Yet when horrible things happen, God isn't bad.
My model for that is Jesus Christ.
He knows what suffering (including yours and mine) is all about. But it wasn't the end of the story.
"Music Box" was a terrific film, with an ending that hits like a punch to the gut - as Alicia points out, maybe Eszterhaz would have had a very different career if Hollywood were more interested in complex stories that deal with serious topics.
It's not for any of us to judge, Hillary. He's taking up his cross, like all of us sinners, and doing his best, you hope. Good luck and Godspeed to him. As long as he stays away from the Joel Osteens of the world, good for him.
"Musc Box" was a great film. By all means, watch it. Issues of morality, family, honesty. I could never do it jsutice here.
And, btw, doesn't the bible say "hate the sin, love the sinner."
Not in any translation I've read. In fact, there are some passages that indicate that God hates the sinner, not just the sin.
At least as much to the point, God is gracious. Romans 9:10-21:
"when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"
There's no denying that this is hard stuff. But this is who the God of the Bible is.
"The issue, as Roland agrees, is not Esterhaz's regeneration but his apparent hypocrisy. If he winds up walking the walk and giving away his ill-gotten gains, then that is something to be happy about."
Maybe he is, we don't know. Giving alms in secret instead of in public is one of the commandments, after all. If he announced that he was giving millions of dollars to AIDS orphans, he'd be called a hypocrite for announcing what a great Christian he is.
It's nice to see that someone has been brought up out of the gutter and made new.
Thanks, PA and Bugg. If you have a chance to read Eszterhas's memoir, you find out even more about the story behind "The Music Box," and it is fascinating.
Eszterhas's first screenplay was for a movie about the tragic history of the U.S. Labor movement, "F.I.S.T." about the Teamster's Union and how it came to be corrupted by the Mafia. (He wrote it but Stallone claimed the credit until the film bombed at the Box Office.)
The issue, as Roland agrees, is not Esterhaz's regeneration but his apparent hypocrisy. If he winds up walking the walk and giving away his ill-gotten gains, then that is something to be happy about.
The issue, as Roland agrees, is not Esterhaz's regeneration but his apparent hypocrisy. If he winds up walking the walk and giving away his ill-gotten gains, then that is something to be happy about.
dangermom: It's nice to see that someone has been brought up out of the gutter and made new.
Yes, I agree with you here.
Oops - sorry, post at 3:39 was incomplete.
Hillary Rettig: The issue, as Roland agrees, is not Esterhaz's regeneration but his apparent hypocrisy. If he winds up walking the walk and giving away his ill-gotten gains, then that is something to be happy about.
dangermom replies: Maybe he is, we don't know. Giving alms in secret instead of in public is one of the commandments, after all. If he announced that he was giving millions of dollars to AIDS orphans, he'd be called a hypocrite for announcing what a great Christian he is.
Yes probably would be by some, unfortunately. The hypocrisy is the public vaunting in his book of his apparent cure which is especially dubious in my mind in that he is a successful writer who is attuned to the prevailing trends in book sales, particularly religiously themed books.
But the subtheme I had in mind is the nature of his cure. That people are cured of various diseases by means natural or supernatural is not the question. Eszterhas' may be a miracle, a contrary-to-nature intervention of God without which he would have died. This is impossible to verify.
But the veteran with the severed legs offers a different prayer, a prayer steeped in humility before the inexorable will of God, not unlike that of Christ in Gethsemane. But also a prayer tinged with the mordant irony that his is an infirmity that God is powerless to heal, or at least has never willed to heal on this earth. And such a miracle would be eminently verifiable. But even the Infinite has a limit and the Omnipotent a debility.
dangermom: It's nice to see that someone has been brought up out of the gutter and made new.
Yes, I completely agree with you here.
(Sorry if this post duplicates - not sure what's happening on my end.)
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