Michael Kress: October 2007 Archives

Patton Dodd may believe God likes the Colorado Rockies, but over at J-Walking, David Kuo wonders if Jesus wants the Rocks to lose the World Series.

Are they pointing to a Heavenly Father-Son rift? Hardly. David's not saying Jesus has anything against this team. Far from it. He just believes that a loss will glorify God and embody the team's spirit and faith even more than a victory: "How extraordinary would it be for the Rockies to gather on their field if the Sox win and applaud? What an amazing witness for the transformative power of Jesus would it be if the Rockies doused the Sox in champagne and celebrated their victory and praised God all the time."

With the Sox down 0-2 in the Series, we may soon get to see whether it happens this way or not. It would be amazing, but somehow, I'm guessing that the agony of defeat will be out the spirit of charity at that moment. Here's hoping David's right, and I am wrong, though.

Yes, it's true. Eventually, it was bound to happen: a reason to watch TV. And not just any TV, but specifically "Curb Your Enthusiasm," featuring the social misfit Larry David himself. Sure, the benefits are specifically for schizophrenia patients whose doctors use the show in therapy to spark reactions, but nonetheless, let's raise a glass to the good old TV for doing its part to help those in need.

Larry David, group therapy, and a bunch of schizophrenics sounds like the set-up for a bad joke--or a "Curb" episode--but three years ago, an astute psychology student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill named David Roberts realized TV's potential to help his patients, who were particularly uncommunicative in group therapy:

During a break one day, Roberts, watching television in the hospital's lounge, noticed that a change had come over his patients, who generally seemed immune to basic social signals. "They were laughing at the ironic commercials," he said. "They were laughing at 'Friends.' They were laughing at all the places I was laughing." Many showed a fluency in the kinds of social communication that Roberts had been struggling to teach them in therapy. "We watched a scene from 'Monk' where Tony Shalhoub won't shake hands with anyone for fear of germs, and walks away awkwardly. I asked a man who'd been an inpatient for ten years, and who was generally blank, what had happened, and he shook his head and gave me a wry grin. Unspoken communication is huge for someone like that."

So what does God look like to you? A few weeks ago, we posed this question, promising that the best 10 responses will win copies of "Evan Almighty on DVD." More than 300 of you submitted entries, and here are our top picks. In no particular order, the winners are:

God has no face and has no color - until we believe in him. When we do, we see what we think he looks like. No fancy tricks, just a face that we know well, love well, and respect well. Perhaps He looks like a well loved father, brother, uncle, friend or neighbor. All we know is that He is total security personified. As for color, if we truly believe - then that is not an issue.
-- J Green

We are all made in the image of GOD, he looks like US. I asked my 11 year old son what he thought GOD looked like...he said he is everywhere and in everything and every living creature. He would be as bright as the brightest star, the warmest smile and the kindest eyes and you could feel the love and peace when you are near him. If he hugged you, you would never feel pain, hate, frustration or fear. ... I thought that was a wonderful description.
-- Lori A

God looks like the homeless man, dressed in rags and dirty, wrapping the coat he found in a dumpster to a homeless child, shivering in a downtown doorway at 2 am.
God looks like the five year old giving his sister his ice cream cone when she dropped hers.
God looks like me, when I let the elderly man behind me in a grocery line go first.
God looks like the divine spark of compassion in every one of us.
-- RhodaFriend

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Oscar-nominee Ryan Gosling plays another challenging and off-beat role: A young, socially awkward man who is in love with... a life-sized doll he buys off the Internet. Yet somehow, "Lars" ends up as a sweet story about community, faith, and love. Go figure. Watch two clips here, and then read our interview with Gosling and "Lars" director Craig Gillespie:

Video: Meet Bianca, the 'Real Girl'

Plus: Watch Another Clip: A Church Meeting

As I've mentioned in Idol Chatter before, the novelist Tom Perrotta was a college writing teacher of mine and had a major influence on me professionally, so I've avoided reviewing his work in the media. But in his latest novel, "The Abstinence Teacher," Perrotta takes the story to Beliefnet's turf by portraying what happens when an evangelical church is planted a sleepy, heretofore secular New Jersey suburb. So I can't resist, and with that disclaimer, here's my review of this parable of the national Culture Wars writ small, a book that is sad, funny, and always entertaining.

Perrotta has made a career out of fictionalizing, painfully and hilariously, the soullessness of American suburbia. After moving the action to Massachusetts in his last book ("Little Children"), he returns here to his usual stomping grounds of New Jersey. And as usual, we see adults acting like kids, and kids caught in the middle, the victims of their parents' immaturity, whims, and custody battles.

In "The Abstinence Teacher," Ruth Ramsey stands in for the secularists, a sex-ed teacher who's in trouble with the school board for teaching it a little too enthusiastically--and forced instead to use an abstinence-education curriculum. Tim Mason embodies the Christians in town, a former druggie saved by Jesus (and Pastor Dennis) who coaches soccer in part to spend time with his daughter, who lives mostly with her mother.

Not having HBO, I am only now plowing through the "The Sopranos"--all of it--on DVD and am still far from the much-dissected ending. But not living under a rock, I am well aware of the diner, onion rings, Journey song,...

"Music Within" tells the story of Vietnam vet Richard Pimentel (Ron Livingston), who returns home with a severe hearing loss. Coping with his own new disability, Richard befriends a genius (Michael Sheen) with cerebral palsy, another veteran (Yul Vasquez) suffering...

"Thou Shalt Laugh 2: The Deuce"--like its predecessor and namesake "Thou Shalt Laugh"--features Christian stand-up comedians whose acts are clean and appropriate for the whole family. This one is hosted by Tim Conway, of "Carol Burnett Show" fame. (Patricia Heaton...

In "Martian Child," John Cusack plays a recently widowed science fiction writer who forms an unlikely family with a close friend (Amanda Peet) and a young boy he adopts--who claims to be from Mars. Scheduled for a Nov. 2 release,...

Beliefnet has launched its new social network! We hope you'll use this exciting new feature to create profiles, express yourself through your journal, post pictures, audio, and video, and join groups to talk about movies, tv, music, and everything else...

Lisa Williams, a spiky-haired Brit, talks to the dead on Lifetime's "Life Among the Dead," now in its second season. And now you can win a free "reading" with Lisa. Check it out on Lifetime's website here....

As if there was any doubt that the prolific multi-hyphenate Tyler Perry rules the world, "Why Did I Get Married?"--his second release of the year--topped the weekend box office, grossing a reported $21.5 million, almost double its nearest competitor. Congratulations,...

Al Gore now adds Nobel Peace Prize winner to a resume that includes Oscar and Emmy wins--not to mention his Beliefnet Film Award for "An Inconvenient Truth." The news of his Nobel seems like a good reason to revisit the...

Under the headline "Does God Read?", my friend Daniel Septimus has this witty observation over at Mixed Multitudes on MyJewishLearning.com: Maybe God really isn’t great. If He were so great, wouldn’t He have made sure Christopher Hitchens wasn’t nominated for...

Sean Astin and Rachael Leigh Cook star in this inspirational movie about a baseball coach and his small-time, highly successful high-school team, which must learn to cope with major changes and still find a way to win. Opening Friday, watch...

Faith in Hollywood? Yes, it does exist, and our Beliefnet Power List of the Most Powerful Christians in Hollywood proves that Christian faith can survive--and thrive--in the entertainment capital of the world. Click here to see who made the list...

"Evan Almighty," starring Morgan Freeman as God and Steve Carell as a modern-day Noah, is out on DVD, and we've got 10 copies to give away. But first, we want to know: What do you think God looks like? The...

The very prolific Tyler Perry has yet another new movie coming out, his second release of the year (not to mention his TBS sitcom "House of Payne"). In "Why Did I Get Married?" a group of couples go away to...

"Aliens in America" debuted last night on the CW. It's a sitcom about a Midwestern family that takes in an exchange student hoping for a cool, popular (European) boy to elevate the social standing of their geeky son. Instead, Raja...

A couple of weeks ago, we posted a giveaway contest for free DVDs of "Beyond the Gates." The question was "What's the hardest decision you've ever had to make?"--and you responded with stories of gut-wrenching, heart-breaking life choices that make...

Dear New York Mets, I imagine that today, one day after your historic late-season collapse, you may be looking for a little religion, something to hold fast to, an anchor amidst the uncertainties and difficulties of life. Let me recommend...

"The Office," my favorite current TV show, has never been big on faith-focused storylines--except for its hilarious Diwali episode last year--but this year's season premiere, which I finally caught online last night, was a major excpetion. Religion on "The Office"?...