Remember the Tom Cruise flick, Minority Report?  It was based on the classic story by Philip K. Dick.   Set in the near future, the police were able to detect future crimes and stop them from happening.  The BBC will soon air a new series with a similar premise called Paradox. It actually sounds quite promising.

The lead director of the series, Simon Cellan Jones, said the series “will leave the audience asking themselves dark, complicated questions about fate, the future and who controls it.”

Read the BBC story here.

Who controls the future?  That is a very penetrating question.  All people are anxious about what tomorrow brings.  There is only One who is worthy to open the seal to the future.  And that is the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5).  We can rest knowing our future days are in God’s hand.

Originally published at Burr in the Burgh.

In 2005, the masterful German director Wim Wenders, well known for the fabulous Wings of Desire, gave us Don’t Come Knocking starring Sam Shepard.  The story was, in fact, written by actor Shepard.

Don’t Come Knocking is the story of Howard Spence, famous movie western star, who in late middle age realizes that he’s squandered his life on boozing, womanizing and whatnot.  Seeking some form of redemption or inner peace, he sets off on a journey to reconnect with family and two adult children he never knew.

One of the adult children, a daughter who is named Sky and played by Canadian gem Sarah Polley, has gone to the place where her father was last seen to stand watch for his return.

The other child, a rebellious alt country musician named Earl, doesn’t want to ever seen his father and wishes he were dead.

Howard Spence is wrung out by years of wild and wanton living.  He goes to the nearest thing he has for a home looking for . . . he’s not exactly sure what he is looking for at first.  Forgiveness? Reconciliation?  He knows he’s not worthy to be called anyone’s dad or husband.  What he finds is not what he expected, but is better in every way.

I have a thirteen year old son who is interested in film-making and has begun directing and producing his own homemade digital masterpieces.  I told him he should watch this movie if only for what he calls the “camera-ology.”

Tenderly told, beautifully shot, exquisitely performed; don’t miss Don’t Come Knocking.

 photo credit: jae michie

My family thoughtfully put some iTunes gift cards into my stocking this year.  So I was downloading some great new music this week and reviewing the other songs on my playlist.  And I came across the Matisyahu song King Without a Crown. I’d forgotten how cool this song is. This is his biggest hit so far and at one point was the most requested song on the famous rock station KROQ in Los Angeles.

Here are a couple of lines from the song:

Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Mashiach now so it’s time we start revealing…

Fight with all of my might and get these demons to flee
Hashem’s rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Hashem’s rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Out of darkness comes light…

Now for you Gentiles who might not recognize the Hebrew words, Mashiach is Messiah or Christ (in the Greek).  It refers to the Anointed One, the savior promised to the people of Israel and all the world.  We know this to be Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary.

Ha Shem is how an ultra-pious Jew might refer to the Deity.  It literally means “The Name.”  So to avoid breaking the commandment about taking God’s name in vain, His actual name is not uttered at all.  He’s just “The Name.”

I’m not up on yet on what Matisyahu has been doing lately, but the phenomenon is striking.  Here we have a Hasidic Jew performing for hip Gentile kids, Jews of all sorts, and a smattering of Rastafarians, along with everyone else.  He is successful at getting his message out there through his art form, a very explicitly religious message.

As a Christian, I can relate to Matisyahu’s longing for the Savior.  I too want the Messiah  to come and save us all from the present order of things.  I long for the eternal glorification that awaits all the faithful.  Of course, I believe that the Messiah did come 2000 years ago and has fully atoned for the sins of the world.  Now I hope for His return.  But were you aware of the Jews who are still serious about their expectation of a personal Messiah?  Here’s a minor celebrity who is explicit about that expectation in his music.  Interesting.

Be sure to check out this February 2006 article about him in Rolling Stone.

Coming Later: My review of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs.  Plus ready yourselves for hearing about my infatuation with the music of Sufjan Stevens and Yael Naim.

Her latest publication is: Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession. It’s evidently a spiritual autobiography.  Here is a CNN piece on it.

It is clear that Rice has become a very keen student of the New Testament.  Her latest books on the life of Jesus display a broad grasp of scholarly literatute.  I, for one, am curious about her memoir and anxious to read it.

Dr. Hazen, the head of the Christian Apologetics program at Biola, points out that Maher never bothers to consult any serious scholars for the defense of Christianity, choosing instead to display fringe expressions as if they were representative.  His approach is lazy.  Of course, out of the billions of religious people in the world, you can highlight examples from kitsch to extremism to make your case the religion is useless at best, dangerous at worst.  Isn’t this the basic “straw man” fallacy where you caraciturize your opponent, making it easy to knock him down while avoiding a real confrontation of serious ideas?

Hazen notes that one of Bill Maher’s favorite attacks is that boring old canard that the Bible is unreliable as a historical document because the Gospels were all written generations after the death of Jesus.  One of my favorite refutations of that proposition comes from this article in Skeptic Magazine.  Non-Christian historian, Robert Sheaffer dismantles the more ludicrous claims of The Da Vinci Code, including the idea that the Gospels are late documents.

- Reprinted from The Burr in the Burgh

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,418885,00.html

More recently, however, to the chagrin of many of her fans, Rice announced her conversion (or re-conversion) to the Roman Catholic faith of her childhood.  No longer a writer of baroque horror stories populated with blood-sucking fiends, she has dedicated the rest of her life to writing about her Lord, Jesus Christ.

Many Christians were skeptical when they learned that Rice plans to produce a series of novels on the life of Jesus.  The first two installments have already become best-sellers (Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana) and she’s only getting started.

You might be surprised, as I was, that she’s remarkably reverent and orthodox as she weaves plausible and deeply researched narratives about Jesus.  Rice has explained her path back to Christianity from atheism in numerous interviews.  She offers a taste of her upcoming memoir on her website.  It’s entitled “Called Out of Darkness” and I have high expectations.

Few, if any popular authors are as well informed about biblical studies as Anne Rice.  Certainly, she has read much more in the field than most LCMS pastors.  In First Things magazine online, Father Dwight Longenecker interviews Rice about her vampires, her Christian faith, and her books on Jesus.  I commend it to you.

St. Paul wrote: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things (Phil. 4:8).”

Many Christians read this passage and focus on the pure & lovely.  But notice that the first word Paul uses is TRUE.  Think on the truth.  Not every truth is delightful to behold.  According to the pure & lovely standard, narrowly understood, one might need to exclude important scriptures such as the beheading of Goliath, the global destruction of the flood, the slaughter of the priests of Baal on Mt. Carmel, or the torture and murder of Jesus.  Those are horrifying scenes indeed.  I know of people who have been deeply upset to learn of such excessive violence in Holy Scripture.  In some cases, their very faith was shaken.  The book of Ecclesiastes often takes fire for being, in the eyes of some, a hopeless text.  The Gospels are blamed for inciting hatred against the Jews.  The epistles of St. Paul have several rather harsh blasts of holy anger.  My point is that the Bible itself contains much distasteful content.  It is, at times, disturbing, unsettling, and infuriating.

Other important works of literature may not pass the pure & lovely test either, including the plays of Shakespeare (Macbeth, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus), Homer’s Odyssey, the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Graham Greene, and John Steinbeck to name only a few.

Some Christians will disagree with me vehemently, but I think the latest cinematic Batman episode, The Dark Knight, written and directed by Chris Nolan, is a work of genius.  Yes, it is dark.  Yes, parts of it are hard to watch.  But it tells the truth, at least part of it.  An important part.

I’m no expert on the work of Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, but I am familiar with his great work entitled “Dark Night of the Soul.”  That phrase has come to refer to those times in the life of a person when God seems particularly distant, when the soul is alone with his corruption.  That’s what this movie is about.  The Joker is the archetypal man.

Much of contemporary culture is infused with a deadly optimism about human nature.  And this is a demonic lie which blinds people to the depth of their need for someone more than a super-hero, a true white and noble Knight to rescue them.

Mutilation.  Disfigurement.  Anarchy.  Random violence.  Betrayal.  It’s no Frank Capra flick.  Chris Nolan did not make a “feel good” picture.  But he did make a great movie that tells the important truth of mankind’s deep inbred narcissism.  Without external restraints, we are worse than savages.  Apart from restoration in Christ, all people are disfigurements.  Deep beneath the veneer of civility, all human beings are unfunny clowns who appear to thrive on mayhem.  At one point, the Joker says, “Madness is like gravity.  All people need is a little push.”

One extremely useful insight the film conveys is the utter meaninglessness of evil.  We don’t want to believe that.  We constantly want to explain away our bad behavior, to make excuses, to justify ourselves.  I steal because I’m poor.  I hate because I’m ignorant.  I kill because I’m a victim.  Ultimately, that is just baloney.  We do those things because we are bad.  That’s all.  Sinners sin because they are sinful.

The Joker says, “Do I really look like a man with a plan, Harvey? I don’t have a plan. The mob has plans, the cops have plans. You know what I am, Harvey? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do if I caught one. I just *do* things.”

Alfred, Batman’s butler, gets it.  He says, “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

In the dark night of the soul, when God is absent, there is no meaning, no purpose, no direction.  Even an evil direction would be more bearable than having none whatsoever.  Of course, Chris Nolan’s masterpiece knows nothing of the dawn, the Morning Star (Rev. 22:16).  But if you can sit through the 2 1/2 hours of “Dark Knight” and not exit craving the sunshine, you are made of cement.

The untimely death of actor Heath Ledger several months ago, makes his performance particularly bitter to watch.  What a loss.  His Joker strikes me as one of the most amazing on-screen performances I’ve ever seen.  Of course, it goes a bit over-the-top.  It has to.  Otherwise most of us would scarcely notice.  As Flannery O’Connor once said, “you have to make your vision apparant by shock, to the hard of hearing, you must shout.  And for the almost blind, you draw large and startling figures.”

In my judgment, this is not a movie about Batman.  It’s about the Joker.  Which is to say that it’s about me.  The Joker is a mirror, a truth-teller of unpretty realities.

After watching the new season of American Gladiators last night, I confess, I wanted to be one of those muscle-clad, super-metallic-suit-wearing, Amazonian female Gladiators that just annihilates the contestants. Call it healthy aggression. And mind you, I am a product of the original “American Gladiator/Bionic Woman/She-Ra” generation.

In good fun, if you check out the link, please do us the favor of posting your “Gladiator Name.” Mine was Elina the Destroyer.

Disclaimer: This in no way indicates any theological or evangelical tactics and training of the seminary…except for the class, “Crisis Pastoral/Diaconal Care”…haha, just kidding.

Over the last couple of years I’ve read a number of books on or about depression in different ways. When I could concentrate enough to read. Two books I read early on I’ve mean to write about for some time:Speaking of Sadness
By David A. Karp

Karp is a sociology professor at Boston College. He is not a Christian. However, Dr. Karp’s book is profound. He has suffered from depression himself, and so the book is part auto-biographical, part sociology, and part explanation of what is happening to you and how others around you are reacting to it.

Some of the topics he discusses are disconnection, illness as identity, medication, coping, family, and depression’s impact on our society. It was probably the sections on disconnection and illness as identity that were the most useful to me. Depression forces one to withdraw into yourself. You shrink, so that you feel like you are in a deep dark hole and can only barely see out at all. Friends fall by the wayside, family even. Many a divorce has had depression as one of the chief causes. So to understand how and why this disconnection is happening is quite important.

Perhaps equally important is the concept of illness as identity. I remember having a conversation with my wife’s brother once. He said that he hated being called a diabetic. He had diabetes. In his mind, the illness did not define him, and so he wanted to create separation between himself and the illness. That can be done with physical diseases and illnesses to some degree. No one says “I am a flu-er”, you say you have the flu. Even this has it’s limits. Paraplegic. Diabetic. These are but a couple examples of where the illness is incorporated socially into the identity of a person.

But with mental illness it is different. Because depression and mental illness are so invasive, because we can’t seem to separate our minds from ourselves, depression quickly gloms itself on to the identity. You are marked as unclean or not quite right in the head. There is a social stigma that goes along with depression. Are you trustworthy, or will you just crash? Jobs, family, church, all of these areas an more can make depression become a part of you. I am surprised that no one has coined a term like “I am a depressionic” or something to that effect. Karp addresses this phenomenon with a great deal of insight.

Now where is the Gospel in a secular book like this? There isn’t any, directly. He goes through the journey down into the valley and back up again. It is descriptive, with many helpful insights along the way. I would highly recommend this book, for example, to anyone suffering from depression and especially to their family. It is very good for understanding this. What he doesn’t do (and I have yet to find) is a real treatment of the relationship between mental illness and faith. How is it that I can cry, “I trust when dark my road” and yet mentally not believe there is a future for me? Is the mind the sole place for faith, so that if my mind isn’t right, it must mean my faith isn’t right?

God forbid. Faith is a gift, not an achievement. It is a gift that God continues to give, no matter how difficult the circumstances. In fact, the harder it is, the sweeter God’s gift will become. Even if you don’t feel it. Even if you can’t see past the next fifteen minutes. That doesn’t mean God abandons you. It means that he is hidden for a time so that He may reveal Himself more fully to us at the proper time. There is hope. There is a future. There is a Messiah who comes.

-DMR

PS come see my blog at I Trust When Dark My Road

Has anyone seen this new game show, “Moment of Truth,” yet? Its twisted and not-so-secret reality entertainment on Fox, has people at home asking themselves, “Could I bare my most private secrets (sins) to the public to win money?” Hooked to a lie detector, the host asks very personal questions to the contestant. If the participant lies, they lose. If they tell the truth, they get to go on to win more money for a shot at the Grand Prize of $500,000. And if they do not want to answer a question after completing a certain level, they can walk away with the money that they earned. Sounds simple right? Well, on top of that, their closest family and friends are sitting right in front of them, where the questions many times involves them, as the participant keeps advancing to higher levels. I watched just a little bit of it last night, and I have to tell you, one can either feel the tension or relief when a participant answers truthfully…and when they do, the emotions can turn uglier with anger or disbelief from their closest kin and the audience.

It is interesting how money can motivate telling the truth; or is it sad? I guess from a Christian standpoint, as soon as we see a speck in our neighbor’s eye, we do well to be careful not to miss the log in our own. However, it is seemingly detrimental that a participant is willing to risk their relationships in front of a national audience (and anti-biblical) not just to possibly lose them, but to not have any immediate reconciliation. Unless the participant and kin are very well aware of the rules and possibilities, I don’t understand how much public confessions like those are worth it to them. But then again, money has an allure…and is a 1st Commandment issue.

The fact of the matter is that our current earthly reality IS drenched in sin. We make a public confession of this fact every week, if not more. Furthermore, there are means by which sins that are heavy on our hearts are can go, namely to Private Confession and Absolution. Also, Matthew 18 directs us to resolve conflicts one with another, and not drag other people into it unless the other party is unwilling to listen. Pastors and deaconesses are trained not to be surprised by sins brought to them, because we understand the realities of our fallen world and flesh. Which ought to make it easier to face them when needed, and then ultimately be absolved by a Pastor through Holy Absolution; in essence, by Christ.

I wonder if there will ever be a program called, “Ask for Forgiveness.” It could be hosted by an ordained LCMS pastor, and after a participant’s confession of faith, they and viewers can listen to the Words of Absolution over and over again. Would that be marketable? Probably not, but who would like to wager that some people would be off of their anxiety medication and leaving their therapists? Jesus Christ is the source of Forgiveness, and in His Crucifixion and Resurrection, the ‘Moments of Truth’ that mattered, we were atoned for.

I am sorry to hear about Ledger’s death. I suppose I was a fan. I am certainly sympathetic for those he leaves behind. Yet this is a motivation and reminder for all who know the truth to be vessels of salvation for the world. Jesus said, As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. (John 9:4)

Eastern Promises

Cronenberg has a bizarre repertoire of films with a flair for the grotesque. Not only are his movies often graphically violent, but they serve as veritable meditations on the effects of violence, both emotionally and bodily. And in that sense, I hate to say, I think he may have a spark of genius.

Personally, I do not have a high opinion of most of his work. His most recent two films, Eastern Promises and A History of Violence, however, do deserve a bit of attention. It would surprise me very much, in fact, if Eastern Promises does not earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Viggo Mortensen does a truly brilliant job portraying the ultimate thug as part of the Russia mafia in London. He captures the accent, look and mannerisms masterfully.

Director Cronenberg began his career making low-budget horror films specializing in yuck. E.P. is not a horror film by strict definitions, but is very similar thematically. And there is no shortage of yuck. Two fundamental themes for the horror genre are transformation and identity. Many literary forms ask the question “who am I?” but horror asks “what am I?” and “what am I becoming?”, with typically unhappy answers.

The definition of a monster is a being who should not exist but does, or a being that cannot be classified. For instance, Frankenstein’s monster is a being who should not exist but does. He is the fabrication of a scientist who plays God and attempts to manufacture new life out of old body parts. And Darth Vader is also a monster because we don’t know what he is. He’s hard to classify. Is he man or machine?

So horror asks, “what is it?” Dead or alive? Man or machine? Male or female? Plant or animal? Earthly or extraterrestrial? Sane or insane? Healthy or sick? Clean or unlcean? Think of the horror monsters you’ve seen and you’ll find that these are the questions most often at play. The significant thing is that they urge us to ponder what it means to be a human. When does a being cross the line of being non-human to human or vice-versa? Etc. With today’s bio-ethical dilemmas and the advances of research in genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, cloning, chimeras, etc., you will see more and more, I predict, horror stories asking such questions.

In what sense does Eastern Promises handle these basic horror themes?  It’s not a horror movie, per se.  But it does chillingly illustrate the dehumanizing effects of violence.  Though I can’t say that I recommend it, here is what I value in this film. It assumes and teaches that violence changes human character. Not being the object of violence, necessarily, but the subject.

My pastor, Rev. David Petersen, posed a fascinating question in Bible class last Sunday, a question that he found in the work of Peter Kreeft, I believe. Suppose your child were a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. Now suppose, your child were approached by the sadist Dr. Josef Mengele who proposes to spare your son or daughter if he or she will assist him in his experiments. So the choice is this: Assist Mengele in torturing others or be tortured by him. Now how would you want your child to choose?

Many would say that since they don’t want their child to be harmed, they’d prefer him to assist the doctor and be spared the torture themselves. But what is truly more damaging, to be tortured or to torture?  I agree with Pastor Petersen’s point that to do violence to another person damages the doer in more deep and lasting ways.

In his own way, I think Cronenberg makes this point. The monsters in this world are not those who’ve been damaged externally but those who do the damaging. They became spiritual freaks, if you will, disfigured on the inside.

How do atheists celebrate Christmas? The ever articulate, never boring, Dinesh D’Souza asks this question here.

My other question is WHY do atheists celebrate Christmas?

The new atheists like Sam Harris, Philip Pullman and Christopher Hitchens like to claim that religion, and Christianity in particular, is responsible for the bulk of the world’s woes. If I believed that to be the case, I would find it disingenuous to participate in any fashion in the global commemoration of the birth of Jesus.

But then again, people who try to seriously argue that religion, and Christianity in particular, are a blight on human history are not especially clear thinkers. Have Christians or others done horrid things supposedly in the name of Christ or His Church? Yes, sadly. But the burning of witches and heretics is not all there is to say about Church history, surprising as that may be for some.

If you affirm the value of clear balanced argument, then I commend a book to you by Dr. Alvin Schmidt called How Christianity Changed the World. You will find that everywhere the Church has exerted cultural and social influence, that society became more humane, more compassionate, more peaceful, and generally more prosperous. I liked the original title of his book, Under the Influence, but I guess the connotations were distracting.