What Did We Want? A Say in Hollywood! When Are We Getting It? Now!

Protests do work in Hollywood, says Inside.com “In these politically correct times, there’s no question that the studios and networks and their corporate owners hate being surprised by bad publicity upon release of a film or launch of a TV program,” says media news site Inside.com. “And wanting to avoid headaches such as the one Paramount TV suffered through during the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s protracted campaign against the Dr. Laura Schlessinger TV show, the companies are admitting advocacy groups and watch-dog organizations into the Hollywood system like never before.” Folks completely outside the film industry have had the chance to make major changes to upcoming films, changing scripts, storylines, and even distribution methods. The Arab terrorists in Tom Clancy’s Sum of All Fears will be neo-Nazis in the film version due to concerns from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. A negative screening by folks at the Simon Wiesenthal Center put the kibosh on a distribution deal with Sundance grand jury prize winner The Believer (another neo-Nazi-oriented film). The Japanese American Civil Rights League reportedly got a few scenes cut from Pearl Harbor. The article, by associate film editor Josh Spector, doesn’t mention any influence Christian groups have had on Hollywood, but clearly there’s some parallels. The big question is whether this kind of vetting will encourage more protests.

Speaking of protests … The British news media is abuzz with stories and images from Son of God, a £1.5 million ($2.15 million) documentary series on the life of Jesus. The big news is that the filmmakers are claiming to have a more accurate representation of what Jesus might have looked like, based on computer extrapolations of a first-century Jewish skull. “We’re not saying this is Jesus’ face,” says series director Jean Claude Bragard, “but that this is how he is likely to have looked from the scientific information we have.” Okay, so the image does do a few things well: short hair, olive skin, but yikes, check out those eyes. Looks more like John the Baptist to Weblog. If they really wanted to shake things up, they could have left the beard off. (According to Christian History magazine, “beards were out of fashion for men in Jesus’ day, and most men, especially Gentiles and urbane Jews, probably shaved. Traditional Jews wore beards in accordance with Levitical law. Wealthy Jews likely kept their beards clipped, perfumed, and discreet.” Not so much with the BBC’s Jesus.) Unfortunately, the rest of the miniseries, which starts airing on BBC1 on Sunday, looks like more of the minimalist hooey so common to the genre. “It dares to ask surprising questions of the traditional Christian stories and comes up with unexpected conclusions,” Lorraine Heggessey, the controller of BBC1. She and the director assure that both believers and unbelievers will be challenged, but the examples they give are pretty one-sided. Unbelievers will be challenged by the assertions that there really was a historical figure named Jesus, that people really can sweat blood, and that there are healing pools in Bethesda. Christians, meanwhile, are told that Judas probably colluded with Jesus in his “betrayal,” and that Jesus probably never really died on the cross. Claims to Jesus’ divinity are reportedly never discussed in the series. (Sigh.) What the BBC really wants to do with this project is to follow up on its hugely successful Walking With Dinosaurs, a series that digitally depicted the life of dinosaurs as if it were a documentary on alligators or hippopotami. (It’s one the coolest shows Weblog has ever seen.) But there’s a big difference between potentially messing up the mating habits of Ornithocheirus and taking liberties with the story of someone Christians consider God incarnate. (Now that we’ve has thoroughly ripped Son of God despite having never seen one second of it, Weblog would like to thank the BBC for linking to our site as a reference for viewers of the miniseries.)

More on Christians and pop culture:

Mainstream publishers get religion for Christian audience (Inside.com)
Purging flame | Pa. church members burn Harry Potter, other books ‘against God’ (ABCNews.com)
‘Puffy’ Combs gets religion | And Del Toro talks about God (San Francisco Chronicle)
Club-Goer Puff: I’m a churchgoer now (New York Post)
Why some pastors don’t want flocks to read ‘Left Behind’ (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
Revelation: Reinterpreted, over-interpreted — or prophesy? | LaHaye’s Left Behind enterprise not only distorts Revelation’s message. It distracts us from it. (David Waters, Scripps Howard News Service/Abilene Reporter-News)
‘Wildwood’s’ church of critters joins comics | New King Features syndicated cartoon stars Bobo the bear, who is the pastor of Wildwood Community Church, and his congregation of critters (The Detroit News)
Also: Wildwood online (King Features)
Catholic lay leader is re-imagining superheroes | “Jesus is the first superhero, really,” says artist who depicts Stalinist Superman, and IRA terrorist Batman (The Guardian, London)
Christians and other abstainers | Why those faithful who fast aren’t simply chocolate soldiers. A review of Chocolat. (Frederica Mathewes-Green, Beliefnet)

Christian music:

Michael W. Smith to host Dove Awards | Gospel Music Association show won’t be shown live, but tape will be shown on Pax and WGN. (Associated Press)
Revival of Bach hymn a tale of intrigue (The Boston Globe)
Holy rocker | Quiet reverence not Carman’s style (The Dallas Morning News)
Also: Christian showman’s radical approach to faith means few are indifferent to him | “Carman is Elvis for Jesus” says Christian radio host (The Dallas Morning News)
Earlier: What’s Wrong with Carman? | It’s hard to imagine the Jesus who washed feet or who cried at Lazarus’ grave (after all, he knew he was going to raise him!) or who surrendered to the cross getting equal billing with the dragon-killing knight, gunslinger or gangbanger at a Carman show. The Christ of Carman’s concerts and videos is a tough guy, plain and simple, who solves his disputes by kickin’ butt. This is the Christ that the Pharisees wanted to come. (Prism)

Science and health:

Enlisting science to find the fingerprints of a creator | Believers in ‘intelligent design’ try to redirect evolution disputes along intellectual lines. (Los Angeles Times)
Arkansas lawmakers target textbooks that present theories as fact | Bill would require teachers to have their students make note of what is false information and what is theory when discussing evolution (Associated Press/Freedom Forum)
Creation Museum breaking ground | Answers in Genesis hopes to open first phase of the museum by the summer of 2002. (The Cincinnati Post)
Therapy from the couch to the pulpit | People of faith turn to their churches in times of mental health crises. (The Sun, Baltimore)
Fear of God | For thousands of Americans who suffer from scrupulosity, prayer is an obsession, not a comfort, and religion is a source of constant anxiety (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Thy will be done | Blind studies and unanswered prayers (Cullen Murphy, The Atlantic Monthly)
Spiritualists’ powers turn scientists into believers | University of Arizona research says mediums are 83 percent accurate about information on dead people (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Persecution:

A Death in Kenya: Father John Kaiser (Special report, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota)
Brunei takes action against Christian conversions | Dozens questioned for allegedly trying to convert Muslims (Associated Press)
Evening prayer meetings banned | “From today, I am not going to allow any denomination to use the name of religion to make unnecessary noise,” says Mombasa District Commissioner (The Nation, Nairobi, Kenya)
Christian prayer group attacked | Three arrested for violent attack on Christians, Bible (The Times of India)
Three held for distributing Christian literature | American missionaries allegedly distributing Christian CDs and videos. (Gulf News)
U.S. missionaries arrested in Dubai (BBC)
U.S. religious freedom group meets Egypt’s Pope (AFP)
Three-Self leader condemns Falun Gong (People’s Daily, official Chinese paper)
Religion blamed for Vietnam unrest (BBC)
China arrests Christian preachers (CNN)

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