(Display Name not set)January 2006 Archives

Remember how “The Passion of the Christ” was supposed to be a wet smack in the face for those jaded sybarites of Hollywood/Babylon? How church basements, not focus groups, would be the new proving ground for America’s blockbusters? After the success of Mel Gibson’s thanato-pic, the theory went, the suits on Melrose would finally get it, and they'd greenlight a host of imitators, full of spiritual intensity and religious relevance.

If today’s Oscar nominations are any measure, it’s clear that Hollywood still doesn’t get it. If Mel were handing out the awards instead of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences--call them the “Mels” instead of the Oscars--which of the current crop of nominees would win big? “Brokeback Mountain,” in which two cowboys get it on in the heart of Red America? “Capote,” in which an effete New York writer seduces a murderer to tell him his tale in ghastly detail, and then roots for the dead man walking to hang for the sake of book sales? Spielberg’s ambivalent take on the events of Munich in 1972?

The Oscar nominations, of course, may not be an adequate measure. “The Passion,” after all, didn’t get a nomination either. But if Gibson’s film has a legacy at all, we’re still waiting for it to show up somewhere in Hollywood. Even the one spiritual film of the year, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” neither sought nor got prior approval from the evangelical Christian community that Gibson rallied before going wide with “TPOTC.”

Now that NBC’s controversial show “The Book of Daniel” is no more, it brings up the question, again: What does a television show look like that is both viable and Christian? Not all spiritual shows are Christian. One of the most successful shows in the history of the medium, “Touched By an Angel,” was a weekly tearjerker that featured angels. But angels are not exclusively Christian, and anyway God’s messengers were closer to Greek Fates, posted at life’s doorways to create an aura of cosmic control and well-being. The show did well in part because it was TV’s version of comfort food.

"TBAA" did, however, focus on human suffering--how to respond to it and God's role in it. This elemental spiritual question seems to be good for ratings. CBS’s short-lived hit, “Joan of Arcadia,” portrayed a family dealing with a wheelchair-bound brother, among other crises. Often, God expected Joan (and us) to translate her own pain into compassion for others.

With five people with edgy problems and visits from the Other Side, “The Book of Daniel” seemed to pattern itself after HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” which for a time was the most spiritually challenging show on TV. Not coincidentally, perhaps, it was intent on the question of why we suffer and die. So why didn't "Daniel" fly? NBC’s mistake, apparently, was putting Aidan Quinn in a dog collar. For every “Seventh Heaven,” there are two or three shows starring priests that misfire, including Dan Akroyd’s brief strut on “Soul Man,” and now “Daniel.”

There's a people in this country clamoring for wholesome but engaging entertainment that speaks their language and addresses the concerns of their Scripture-based lifestyle. I refer, of course, to haredi Jews--the fervently observant, sometimes called ultra-Orthodox. At last, they are getting a movie of their own. Shot in Monsey--a New York ex-urb and one of the major hubs of Orthodox life--"A Gesheft" ("The Deal") is said by its producers to be the first completely Yiddish-speaking movie to made in the United States since the once thriving Yiddish-language film industry collapsed some 60 years ago.

"We decided that religious Jews needed their own movies far from the dangerous influence of Hollywood," explains a press release from Mendy and Yakov Kirsh, who make up Kosher Entertainment. What's so kosher about it? Though full of drama, car-crashes, and lots of dudes in traditional black hats and topcoats, the movie has no women, out of respect for Orthodox rules restricting men from being entertained by the opposite sex. The unisex cast is not as striking, however, as the total dedication to the tongue of Eastern European Jewry: Even an African-American cop speaks his one line in Yiddish. The filmmakers are looking to make a tour of festivals later this year.

The culture has been furiously digesting religious fundamentalism of late, and that process hasn't been kind to Mormons. The history of the Church of Latter Day Saints, after all, has plenty of violence and controversy, and besides, they live way out in Utah. The media, at any rate, seems to regard them as fair game. As this New York Times article makes clear, the Church of Latter Day Saints' anni horribili continue with a movie due out this Spring about the Mountain Meadows massacre of 1857, when a group of Mormons joined forces with Indians to kill 128 non-Mormon emigrants passing through on their way to California.

Mormon faithful might be made hopeful by the fact that Jon Voight, fresh from his role as Pope John Paul II, plays a fictional LDS elder in the film, called "September Dawn." Hopes may be crushed by the fact that the film's director previously worked on such thoughtful screen gems as "The Next Karate Kid" and "Gone Fishin."

Rolling Stone’s story on Scott Stapp, lead singer for the late crypto-Christian band Creed, is by turns hair-raising and eyebrow raising. The magazine details Stapp’s spectacular fall from rock-and-roll grace, tracking him from his rock-free Pentecostal upbringing in Florida to the garishly inebriated performances that resulted in lawsuits from disappointed fans, failed attempts to free himself from successive addictions to Percocet and Oxycontin, and the eventual breakup of the band. At one point Stapp had so worn out his welcome with his fellow musicians that a tourmate from another band donned a T-shirt that read "Even Jesus Hates Creed." Not much of this, the hair-raising part, is news. (It will have you questioning Stapp’s Christianity, though the interviewer notes that Stapp keeps a Bible etched with his name close by during their chat). The eyebrow-raising part comes when Stapp tells Rolling Stone, "My problems were not what ended Creed."

Stapp, who is getting married next month, released his first solo album, "The Great Divide," in November and heads out on tour on Feb. 23rd. It would be nice to think he's got his affairs straight, but as recently as Thanksgiving he had an allegedly alcohol-fueled run-in with the band 311 in a Baltimore hotel bar.

Naveen Andrews, who plays the Iraqi character Sayid on “Lost,” recently admittedly that he had impregnated a woman—pardon, “fathered a love child”—while on hiatus from his longtime girlfriend Barbara Hershey. Unfortunately, that news preempted a bunch of more interesting tidbits...

While on the Blog of Daniel, the Episcopal Church's site for discussion of the NBC series "Book of Daniel"--check out the entry titled “My Bishop Rocks--Literally.” (Click here to go directly to it.) It announces a rare New York City...

When the Washington diocese of the Episcopal Church USA erected “The Blog of Daniel,” a page on the diocesan website that welcomes discussion of the controversial NBC series “Book of Daniel,” I thought: pure genius. Rather than bridle the way...

The New York Times has a few stalwart religion writers, like Laurie Goodstein, whose work saves the editors’ decided parochialism when it comes to religion. (See “Rites,” an oddly inanimate photo series of Jewish, pagan, and other supposedly arcane ceremonies...

In addition to a L'il Kim reality show--chronicling the rapper's last two weeks before going behind bars--BET, the cable station aimed at African-American viewers, is hoping to liven up its lineup with a weekly show called "Meet the Faith." The...

This week’s revelation that Hasidic reggae artist Matisyahu makes a guest appearance on Christian band P.O.D.’s new album is not news in itself. Collaborations between Christians and Jews are increasingly common--Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Gary Schmidt of Calvin College have...

The bestselling non-fiction author alive has lost his television show. The Trinity Broadcasting Network, the nation's largest Christian broadcaster, has suspended "The International Intelligence Briefing," starring Hal Lindsey, whose apocalyptic book "The Late Great Planet Earth" has sold some 30...