November 2006 Archives

If you care about spirituality, go see "The Nativity Story." Much of the film is more understated and muted than the typical church Christmas celebration and may challenge some of the holier-than-thou notions we have of some of the Biblical characters. It film also lacks Santa Clause, reindeer and any remnant of snow. But it’s the most accurate cultural telling of the story we’ve had since "A Charlie Brown Christmas," and stays true to the Biblical record for the most part.

I also liked it because it’s a rare, meaningful film that will be highly valuable for families and teens. As Mary is told of her betrothal to Joseph, she is confronted by the fact that she doesn’t have a hand in choosing. "You are to consider him your husband in all ways," her father says, but she must wait on the issue of "that which leads to family." Mary storms off, in a way that seems natural for a teenager but unnatural for the icon we know as Mary, The Mother of Jesus.

She’s not only a frustrated teen but also an anxious one when she miraculously becomes pregnant. "Are you frightened?" asks her cousin Elizabeth. "Yes," she says with candor and clarity. "Elizabeth, why is it me God has asked? I am nothing," Mary says.

Pastors and priests have sermonized and homilied for years, trying to emphasize how embarrassing it must have been for Mary and Joseph when she was found to be pregnant. But I think the visual image of the bashful Mary and the humiliation and disappointment of Joseph will get through even to the current ( and somewhat permissive) American audience.

She gains courage, of course, from both the angel and the promise of a sign from Elizabeth. Her parents are unimpressed. "Elizabeth has a baby," Mary offers, "even in her old age."

"Elizabeth has a husband," replies her dad. Mary's mother says, "They could stone you in the streets."

"Father," Mary says as respectfully as she can, "I have broken no vow … I have told the truth. Whether you believe is your choice, not mine."

Such it is for all of us, regarding the Christ child. And such it is that "The Nativity Story" is a must for all who desire to learn about the role of Christ in their own spiritual journey.

First, there is the news that religious groups are feeling pressure about not pulling their support for "The Nativity Story" based on lead actress Keisha Castle-Hughes being pregnant out of wedlock. Then comes the news that Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life" and pastor of Saddleback Community Church, is receiving complaints from evangelicals for inviting Sen. Barack Obama to speak at his church.

There used to be a time when the spiritual journey and politics weren’t inexorably linked. And there was a time when acting was just acting, and actors had their own personal lives separate from their work.

I miss the clarity.

If a young woman gets the high honor of playing the part of Mary--and if the movie tells the wonderful story of "The Birth"--I don’t see why a church or religious groups should need to boycott the story of Jesus because of activities in the personal life of Castle-Hughes. Christian groups didn’t support the movie or pick the cast, but they sure should be allowed to support the story!

As for Rick Warren’s issue, I think evangelicals and others in the Christian Church should be careful: When they start criticizing the author of the best-selling religious book (aside from the Bible) in all of history for inviting a probable presidential candidate to discuss solutions to AIDS, they run the risk of becoming the very pharisees that missed the story of Jesus the first time around.

"Our goal has been to put people together who normally won't even speak to each other," said Saddleback in a statement, according to the Associated Press. "We do not expect all participants in the summit discussion to agree with all of our evangelical beliefs ... the HIV/AIDS pandemic cannot be fought by evangelicals alone [and] will take the cooperation of all--government, business, NGOs and the church."

I’m going to order tapes of Obama, and I’m going to take my kids to see "The Nativity Story," and hope that doesn’t get me in trouble with my church friends!

"The Nativity Story," director Catherine Hardwicke's film version of the Gospel stories of Jesus' birth, had its world premiere on Sunday at the Vatican. (It opens in the U.S. this week.) Some 7,000 people, including Hardwicke and several high-ranking cardinals, attended the showing--but not Pope Benedict XVI or Keisha Castle-Hughes, the 16-year-old Australian actress who plays Jesus' mother, Mary.

As it turns out, Keisha, like Mary in the Gospels, is pregnant out of wedlock. But unlike Jesus, who was conceived by divine power while Mary remained a virgin, Keisha's unborn baby has an all-too-human father, her 19-year-old boyfriend, Bradley Hull. So the reports started flying that the spectacle of a high-school-age, obviously non-virgin Mary had proved too much for the pope.

The U.K. Guardian reported that a disapproving Benedict had boycotted the Vatican premiere. The Detroit Free Press reported rumors that Keisha had been dropped from the invitation list by offended Vatican officials. There were even suggestions that scandalized Catholics and evangelical Christians planned to stay home from the movie after the news of Keisha's pregnancy broke in October.

At this point, Bill Donohue, the never-word-mincing president of the Catholic League for Religious, jumped into the fray, accusing the media of cooking up the stories that Benedict had refused to see the movie and Keisha had been shunned. "Despite what some think, Christians do not turn their backs on unwed mothers: They provide services for them," an inflamed Donohue wrote in a press release.

Donohue was undoubtedly right about the pope's reasons for his no-show. The Nov. 26 premier of "The Nativity Story" took place less than 48 hours before Benedict's highly publicized trip to Turkey, which was fraught with uncertainty until the last minute because of security concerns. As for whether Keisha Castle-Hughes was dropped from the Vatican's invitation list on account of her pregnancy (or told it would be a good idea not to appear), we'll probably never know what really happened.

The New York Times, however, reported a statement by Keisha's publicist that she was busy working on another movie--and who doesn't trust the New York Times? Furthermore, both the Catholic and the evangelical media remain positive about the movie, as does the secular press. Consider this Nov. 29 headline in Australia's Herald Sun: "Pregnant Actor 'Great Virgin."

-- Charlotte Allen

Ever dreamed of spending Saturday night with two rabbis? Who hasn’t? Rabbi Irwin Kula and Rabbi Brad Hirschfield of the National Center for Jewish Learning and Leadership are launching "Intelligent Talk Radio," in Portland, Oregon this week The rabbis will spend a midnight hour each week tackling compelling and engaging topics about the American spiritual, cultural, and political landscape.

Going beyond religion, the radio rabbis use their own unique perspectives to provide an alternative to the medium’s usual banter between the left- and the right-wing population. The rabbis, both seasoned media personalities who have appeared on everything from our own Beliefnet.com to Bridges TV to Frontline and The Today Show, will try and uncover the hidden agendas buried deep on both sides of the right/left divide. Topics are said to span from reinstating the draft, to God on the political ropes, to the shootings over PlayStation 3.

Perhaps one of their future shows will be broadcast from a pub, just so Idol Chatter can use the line: "Two rabbis and a radio walk into a bar…"

Former “Seinfeld” actor Michael Richards has barely finished trying to convince the public--as well as the entertainment community--that the racial slurs he uttered at a nightclub do not mean he is racist. But now he is facing new allegetions regarding anti-Semitic remarks he made several months ago.

Richards newly-hired crisis expert, Howard Rubenstein, has admitted that Richards shouted anti-Semitic comments during a performance last April. But he blames Richards' tirade not on his obvious anger management issues, but rather on the fact that he was only "role playing" while on stage.

And while Jewish leaders may not be expressing the same outrage over Richards’ remarks as they did over Mel Gibson’s road rage a few months ago, they are taking Richards to task over something else: Richards claims that he can’t be anti-Semitic because he is Jewish. Jewish organizations have refuted Richards ties to Judaism by pointing out that his family is not Jewish (Richards was actually raised Catholic), and that Richards has not formally converted to the religion.

Rubenstein, however, has continued to defend Richards claim to be a Jew by saying that Richards has had two significant Jewish mentors in his life and agrees with the beliefs and customs of Judaism. Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, responded by saying "You can't feel Jewish. It's not a matter of feeling."

Seems to me like no one--from Jesse Jackson to the Anti-Defamation League--is feeling the love for someone who was once one of the most beloved sitocm stars of the '90s.

It is not cool to dress up as Maria Von Trapp from “The Sound of Music” for your high school halloween costume day, but I didn’t care. Julie Andrews (who played Maria) was, and still is a woman I admired...

Every season, The Real World lets us into the lives of seven strangers "picked to live in a house, work together and have their lives taped to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real."...

Twenty-eight years was a long time to wait for a new album from Yusuf Islam. Back in the 1970s, the artist (then known to the world as Cat Stevens) won over audiences with pop hits like "Wild, Wild, World," "Peace...

Nine chapters into NBC's new drama "Heroes" and I'm utterly hooked. "Heroes" is reminiscent of X-Men, revolving around individuals all over the world who discover that they have special and occasionally frightening powers.The last several episodes revolved around a rather...

Advertise any film as a mixture of romance, science, and fantasy, and I'll come running, no further questions. And so it was with 'The Fountain,' directed by Darren Aronofsky ('Pi, 'Requiem for a Dream'), starring Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman...

As with every other year, Thanksgiving Day signaled the go ahead for radio stations to begin playing endless Christmas music, and the arrival of midnight sparked shoppers to begin the now-traditional mad-dash of buying for the holidays. But the lead-up...

While Mel Gibson blamed his anti-Semitic rant a few months ago (most would say unsuccessfully) on a drunken lapse of judgment, Michael "Cosmo Kramer" Richards' only excuse for his racial epithets directed toward two African-American men is that he was...

Kirk Franklin just won the American Music Award in the Contemporary Inspirational category, adding to his crowded shelf of Gospel Music Association Dove Awards and Gospel Grammys. Yay, Kirk! In fact, his fellow nominees in the categories are very deserving...

In the beginning, there was TLC's Shalom in the Home, starring well-known rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Now, prepare for television to bring another rabbi into your home--in this case, Rabbi Irwin Kula, whose new national public television special, "The Hidden Wisdom...

We've always been made to understand that Sacha Baron Cohen, a.k.a. Borat, is a satirist, not a simple comedian. Otherwise, his anti-Semitic jokes and poo-poo gags would be, well, just that. But this week, Cohen found out the cost of...

Hollywood lost a cinematic legacy yesterday when the director of the such critically acclaimed movies as "M*A*S*H" and "Nashville," Robert Altman, passed away at the age of 81. For decades, Altman set himself apart from other directors by developing a...

When facing a movie like "The Ten Commandments: The Musical"--based on a recent stage production and set for DVD release this week--I always approach it from two angles: (1) Is the product a good/entertaining one?; and (2) Is it true...

The first image you see in Stanley Nelson's new documentary "Jonestown: the Life and Death of the Peoples Temple" is a row of smiling young faces--black and white, teens and 20-somethings--taken under a blue and sunny sky. They look as...

Last season, the VH1 celeb-reality series "Breaking Bonaduce" found ratings success by exploiting former "Partridge Family" star Danny Bonaduce as he spiraled out of control. There was no end to the footage in which Bonaduce was abusing alcohol, steroids, and...

I'm not saying it was our call to boycott O.J. Simpson's gruesome upcoming book and his accompanying Fox interviews that did the trick. (I'm sure you know that O.J. planned to reveal that if he had killed his ex-wife Nicole...

The current James Bond movie is clearly different from most of the other 23 Bond (21 official) movies. The actor is different. The tone is different. The villain(s) is (are) different. There's no "Q," and though "M" is the same...

The relatively minor Jewish holiday of Purim is having its moment in the cinematic sun. First came "One Night With the King," a dramatization of the Book of Esther, which is read in synagogues on Purim and whose story the...

I saw a promo for Monday night's "Studio 60" episode and couldn't help wondering: Is this the week that the show--to coin, or at least adapt, a phrase--jumps the cross?As you probably know, "jumping the shark" has come to refer...

What can be said about the news revealed this week that football star turned B-list actor turned murder suspect in the "Trial of the Century" O.J. Simpson will be soon releasing a book called "If I Did It"? The book...

Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray probes the moral core of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," the video game version of the popular apocalyptic book series by Tim F. LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. (See fellow blogger Paul O'Donnell's post about the...

Okay, this summer’s drunken anti-Semitic rant was a P.R. faux-pas. But just as Mel Gibson overcame his more veiled anti-Semitic reading of the Gospel in "The Passion of the Christ" by coaxing support for the deeply Catholic film among evangelicals,...

The basis for the new film "Zen Noir" is a kind of funny concept. A noir-style detective investigates a murder in a Buddhist temple. When he asks questions, he gets slippery, koan-type answers. "My name isn't me," says one Buddhist....

The HBO documentary "Thin" aired last night, telling the story of four women struggling with anorexia and bulimia. A film directed by Laura Greenfield (also the author of "Girl Culture"), "Thin" introduces viewers to Shelly, a nurse who has been...

Do we control our future? Or is everything that happens to us decided by fate? If there is a creator, do we have a dynamic or static relationship with him--or her? Such deep, philosophical questions don't seem like the stuff...

Are Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes going to be married before they get to the altar? The couple has booked a romantic, 15th-century castle north of Rome, and international singing star Andrea Bocelli will sing. Katie's dad has even overcome...

The "Bachelor: Rome" has taken a page out of "The Real World's" playbook, and it may result in a fairy tale ending. The producers upped the ante this year by finding an actual prince, Prince Lorenzo Borghese--ancestor of Pope Paul...

Their names are wedded for all eternity, and now the world waits with baited breath to see if TomKat--Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes--will finally tie the knot this weekend in Itlay. Speculation is rife that the "Mission Impossible" star and...

While I understand why so many critics gush about the talent of writer/producer Aaron Sorkin, last night's episode of "Studio 60" was a blatant reminder to me that this show is quite possibly more about Sorkin working out his personal...

I read Kris Rasmussen's blog piece as well as the rest of Elton John’s religion-bashing interview, which has been all over the media the past couple of days, and I was stunned at what he doesn't realize about, well, himself.I’ve...

According to Sir Elton John, the world could be a more compassionate place free of "hateful lemmings" if only all religion was banned. In an interview with Observer Music Monthly magazine, Sir Elton says that while he loves "the idea...

"Saturday Night Live" opened with this Nancy Pelosi impersonation--in which Kristen Wiig, playing the Speaker-elect, gives voice to every conservative caricature of (and fear about) Democrats, including the notion that liberals are anti-faith. "And whatever you might have heard," Wiig...

What’s the deal with the networks not wanting to show prayers on sports television? What is so bad about athletes trusting in--or at least pursuing--God?After each game, when the fans are filing out of the stadium and the networks are...

Since the first episode of ABC's winning new comedy "Ugly Betty," the conflict has become more and more evident between the family-centered, ethnically diverse life of Betty Suarez--who lives in Queens with Dad, Sis, and Nephew--and the (almost) all-white (both...

We can be waxing sarcastic on the Britney-K-Fed break-up one day, and the next day a totally different story turns the Idol Chatter mood serious and reflective: "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley succumbed to leukemia yesterday at the age of...

While combing this morning’s shows for traffic and weather before heading to work, I stumbled onto Matt Lauer on "Today" doing reports on faith, heaven, and religion live from the Holy City of Jerusalem. I was struck by how interesting...

Pedro Almodóvar doesn't see dead people, but if you tell him that you do, he'll probably believe it."I don't believe that people come from [the afterlife] in a physical way," the director said when he met with press last month....

Once upon an innocent time, Mel Gibson smuggled a print of "The Passion of the Christ" to John Paul II, who reportedly murmured, "It is as it was," as the credits rolled. Then it turned out JP2 might not have...

Pigs are flying, hell is freezing over, the night has turn to day and the day to night. The impossible has happened: Britney Spears is divorcing Kevin Federline after two long years of marriage.You can't tell me that you were...

Like every other "Lost" fan, I enjoy theorizing with my fellow addicts, and a recent conversation proved intriguing enough to blog. This season, I've been watching weekly with a group of friends and dissecting different possible interpretations afterward. The following...

For anyone raised Catholic, this video of Jesuit priests lip-syncing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" is a special blessing. And yes, wacky wigs notwithstanding, all the men are real priests: here's the very buttoned-down bio of one.Ad Majorem Dei...

With Apartheid in South Africa having officially ended in 1990, a political thriller like "Catch A Fire," which went to wide release this past weekend, could easily feel like it is outdated or, at the very least, feel like a...

I honestly thought that by the seventh episode of producer/writer Aaron Sorkin's backstage drama "Studio 60," he might choose to start backing off the over-the-top religious rhetoric of past storylines just a wee bit. Shows you just how much I...

Watch a clip from "The Simpsons" Golem story:...

The truest "reality TV" of all commences today, as the news networks are lined up for our viewership as much as the candidates are seeking our vote. Why? Because the drama of the entertainment portion of today overlaps with the...

Yes it's election day and the Ted Haggard story news cycle has probably (hopefully?) run its course. But after the treatment on CNN and Fox, Leno and Letterman, and just about every other news and comedy outlet, I found the...

I guess every discussion of Borat--the character brought to life by Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and the film featuring that character--has to begin with that pivotal moment in country-western anti-Semitism, "Throw the Jew Down the Well." We could discuss,...

The question used to be, can a Jesus band ever not sing about Jesus? These days, the question, asked by The Denver Post's Ricardo Baca, has become: Can a band sing about Jesus without being called a Jesus band?Baca sympathizes...

When I was younger, I had heard tell of the Golem, but only truly became acquainted with the legend thanks to the "Kaddish" episode of "The X-Files," in which the legendary clay monster of Jewish folklore is brought forth to...

If you watch the news, read the paper or log onto Beliefnet for news, you've heard about Colorado's Rev. Ted Haggard and his indiscretions. My heart goes out to him, his family, his congregation, and his friends, some of whom...

American Hindus can rejoice that their most important festival, Diwali, has finally gotten a nod from pop culture. Last night on NBC's "The Office," chatty Kelly invited her colleagues to a party for Diwali, which she described as a festival...

Whether he's appearing with Oprah to promote his latest fundraising strategy for aid to Africa or meeting with global leaders to convince them to commit more funds to African debt relief, it's hard to find any negative press surrounding Bono's...

Each year since 1999, beginning November 1st and ending November 30th, writers all over the United States race to type-type-type away at their laptops, desktops, and (for the old-fashioned) typewriters, to get that novel that's been rattling around in their...

"South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker seem to live by Abbie Hoffman's famous saying that "sacred cow makes the tastiest hamburger." Last night's episode featured the controversial topic of teaching evolution in public schools. The kids' teacher, Ms....

While the controversial documentary "Jesus Camp" has inspired plenty of criticism and little box office success, the film has had one significant impact for the director of the camp depicted in the film, Becky Fisher: The camp, Kids on Fire,...

On "Dateline" last night, Madonna spoke about the controversy over her adopting an African baby--and, of course, about that other controversy, over her on-stage crucifixion act. Watch that section of the interview:...

People who find Borat or Jewtopia offensive are also likely to rail against the new release from Reboot Stereophonic Records for its title alone. "Jewface," like other neo-cultural Jewish efforts, is named to provoke even before anyone actually listens to...

Did bookstore mega-chain Borders ban a young adult novel because the book implied sex was as good as soda pop?Borders' recent decision not to stock the young adult novel "Pop!" has caused some puzzlement in the publishing industry. Though penned...