Todd Havens: May 2008 Archives

Here at Idol Chatter we often have to dig around through the pop culture items we cover to come up with a relevant religious, spiritual or ethical angle for our readers. It's often a challenge!

Case in point, I watched a movie that opened last Friday in Los Angeles (and opened a couple of weeks ago in New York) called "Bloodline" which follows a team of documentary filmmakers as they investigate whether Jesus of Nazareth married Mary of Magdala and had children, thus creating a royal bloodline, and whether that lineage made its way to Rennes-le-Château in Southern France from the Middle East almost two millennia ago. With a synopsis like that, I'm taking the rest of the day off!

If this reminds you of Dan Brown's phenomenally successful "The Da Vinci Code" you're right on track. Both Brown and Bruce Burgess, the director of this compelling film, were struck by the ideas put forth in the 1982 bestseller "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," which claimed that a secret society called the Priory of Sion was created to protect the assets, foremost the secret of such a royal lineage courtesy of Jesus and Mary, from the Catholic Church and, by default, the masses at large.

Have these leave-no-(literal)-stone-unturned filmmakers found undeniable proof of the greatest cover-up of all time? Is that mummified female corpse "of unique Middle Eastern heritage" that they discovered in a tomb in France actually Mary Magdalene or one of her children?

Every parent wants a better life for their children, better than the one they had. It'd be pretty astounding to hear fledgling parents at a dinner party say, for example, that they'd like to put as many obstacles as possible in their kid's path or quote "no pain, no gain" as a mantra of childrearing.

"Oh no, we’d never use rails on Timmy's crib...why, he's going to run a major corporation one day!"

You just don't hear such statements. But if you heard that a Jewish, Stanford-educated physician decided to give up all of life's creature comforts to raise nine kids with his wife in a 24-foot trailer as they toured North America, shunning a traditional school education for a steady diet of surfing, natural foods, and family bonding time, would you call that a triumphant middle-finger gesture to The Establishment? Or would you call it child abuse?

Here we are at the final chapter and the final class, Gang! On Monday night, the Oprah and Eckhart "A New Earth" web event concluded with a special 2-hour finale. That class, based on Chapter 10 "A New Earth," is now available for viewing at Oprah.com or here at Beliefnet.

Oprah started off the class by thanking everyone from around the world for being a part of her historic "global conversation on consciousness" and for contributing and sharing with her and her staff week after week. It reminded me of what a phenomenal, safe, borderless place she had created for those who were interested in joining her on her consciousness-raising journey.

Just as she thanked her viewers, I'd like to take this quick opportunity to thank Beliefnet and the readers who've stumbled across these commentaries or sought them out week after week. I'd like to personally thank you for your time spent here.

Now onto the exciting conclusion!