Courtney Love & Michael Stipe (producer of movie)
Michael Stipe (producer of movie) & Patti Smith
BRIAN DANNELLY, DIRECTOR
MICHAEL URBAN, WRITER
Sandy Stern, Producer
Posted on 05/28/2004 1:19:53 AM PDT by kattracks
What do you get when you cross the village atheist with the village idiot? Saved -- the alleged comedy polluting theaters nationwide this weekend.
Recall the wailing and hand-wringing that accompanied the release of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, in February. Given the hysterical reaction to Gibson’s opus, you’d think Hollywood had suddenly become an adjunct of "The 700 Club." But The Passion was an aberration that never would have been made without the influence of its famous producer/director.
Saved is far more typical of the way the movie industry does religion these days. The teen sex comedy is politically correct, tedious, nasty and loaded with anti-Christian stereotypes.
The heroine, Mary, attends a Christian academy – American Eagle Christian High School – a combination of the Valley Girls’ school in "Clueless" and a parody of a revival meeting.
Mary learns her boyfriend has homosexual tendencies. Jesus comes to her in a vision – Jesus and Mary, get it? – and commands the good girl to do everything in her power to save the lad. She ends up pregnant and ostracized by the school’s Bible-belt Barbie in-crowd.
Mary joins the academy’s misfits, including a Jewish girl who claims she’s an ex-stripper – in modern movies, Jews are okay, as long as they’re safely secular – a skateboarder, and a wheelchair-bound cynic, played by a grownup Macauley Culkin, who would have been better off at home, alone.
Naturally, the outcasts are all swell kids, while the Christian students are portrayed as Nazi airheads.
What’s more interesting than this latest cinematic assault on Christianity, is the mind-set behind it: Not how, but why Hollywood hates the followers of Jesus.
Since at least the 1970s, Hollywood’s treatment of Christians has been only slightly more benevolent than al-Qaeda’s attitude toward Jews.
Gone are the kindly Barry Fitzgerald priest, the wise rabbi and the steadfast minister. In their place is a rogue’s gallery of lusting priests, sadistic nuns, perverted pastors and con-men TV evangelists – not to mention ordinary Christians (Catholic or evangelical) who are depicted as superstitious nitwits, malevolent hypocrites, or both.
Saved joins the Hollywood hit parade of blasphemy and slander, includeing:
· The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) – wherein Jesus is given a fantasy sex life.
· Priest (1994) – a good, homosexual priest battles "repression" in his Church and heterosexual incest.
· Dogma (1999) – another reputed comedy, wherein an abortion clinic worker (the perfect heroine, from Hollywood’s perspective) and the great-grand-niece of Jesus (?) saves the world from destruction by fallen angels trying to enter a church to reenter Heaven. Don’t ask. When it comes to an opportunity to bash Christians, no plot is too ridiculous.
· The Magdalene Sisters (2003) – set in a convent school run by nuns who could pass as concentration-camp guards.
· The Order (2003) – teen heartthrob Heath Ledger battles yet another secret order within the Catholic Church bent on no-good.
· The Saint (1997) – frequently, anti-Christian characterizations bear little or no relation to a movie’s plot. They are gratuitous, but damaging nonetheless. This movie opens in a Far Eastern orphanage run by a brutal priest who beats and starves the children and is responsible for the death of one of his charges.
· Stigmata (1999) – the entire Roman Catholic Church is shown to be hiding the "real" Gospel, and a priest tries to murder its last true disciple.
Along the same lines, but somewhat more restrained, there’s the paddle-wielding priest in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and the brother who thinks he’s Mike Tyson in Heaven Help Us (1985).
The above only skims the surface of Hollywood’s anti-Christian crusade. As they do in so many areas, movies shape popular attitudes and perceptions here as well. According to the Barna Group, the percentage of Americans who only attend religious services for holidays or on special occasions, increased from 21 percent in 1991 to 34 percent today.
When it comes to different denominations, Hollywood isn’t an equal-opportunity offender. Here’s a short lists of religious groups it wouldn’t dream of baiting: Unitarians, Presbyterians, members of any liberal, Protestant denomination, Cafeteria Catholics, Reform Jews, Buddhists, Wiccans and Moslems. (Producers and directors may be anti-religion, but they aren’t suicidal.)
Why are traditional Catholics, evangelicals and – to a lesser extent – Orthodox Jews, considered fair game?
Because the Hollywood Left (in other words, 98 percent of the self-styled artistic community) views them as the enemy – more even than the military (which occasionally come off well in action films) and corporate executives, and about on par with the CIA, Southern sheriffs, Republicans and companies bulldozing the Brazilian rainforest.
Hollywood hates authentic Christians, because Christianity is diametrically opposed to its worldview – a dogma reflected in the very deep thoughts of Michael Moore, Tim Robbins and Barbra (color me stupid) Streisand. It's based on the following tenets:
1) Sexual Liberation – the glorification of pre-marital sex (including adolescent experimentation), adultery, homosexuality, abortion and the sexualization of children. This may be contrasted with the Judeo-Christian ethic of sexual restraint/responsibility, and the sanctification of sex within marriage (raising the carnal to a spiritual plane).
2) A Live-for-the-Moment Ethos – the here-and-now is all there is, or as the beer commercial used to put it, "You only go around once; so grab all the gusto you can." This is opposed to the Christian emphasis on life eternal. Christians and religious Jews live not for the moment but for eternity. Hollywood’s seize-the-moment ethic must ultimately lead to a total rejection of the Ten Commandments and all biblical morality.
3) The Cult of Self – or to put it in the lingo of pop psychology: "self-actualization," really self-gratification. From this perspective, putting anything ahead of your own happiness is dumb, if not psychotic. Christianity and Judaism both teach that your life isn’t your own. It belongs to the One who gave you life.
4) Gender Sameness – the bizarre and amply refuted doctrine that men and women are psychologically identical, that gender roles are socially imposed, instead of reality-based. This dogma lies at the heart of liberalism’s push to radically remake the family. The worse invective the Left can hurl at the family (from its perspective) is "patriarchal" and "male-dominated."
5) Militant Secularism – the belief that religious expression should be confined to a white clapboard building, and that traditional faith should play no role in shaping our laws and institutions. Thus, someone who speaks of rights being "endowed by their Creator" (like the Founding Fathers) or saying that America is a nation "under God" (like Abraham Lincoln) becomes an enemy of democracy.
What really enrages the Hollywood Left is the realization that, more than any other group in our society, evangelical Christians – who now constitute the nation's largest identifiable voting bloc – stand in the way of its political agenda: abortion on demand, a contraceptive culture, erotic indoctrination masquerading as sex education, universal day care (the literal Nanny State), the complete societal blessing of gay marriage and hate-crimes legislation that criminalizes religious speech. By attacking Christians, Hollywood is advancing its agenda.
Actually, it is to the credit of Christians that Hollywood considers them the enemy. Similarly, Jews can take pride in the fact that, in the 20th century, both communists and Nazis hated them, as do Islamacists today.
Over the past 40 years, Hollywood has been primarily responsible for the rapid degeneration of our culture. Modern cinema is filled with violence, sadism, sex at its most animalistic, crudeness, nihilism and despair. If Hollywood wants to treat Christianity as the antithesis of all it holds dear, Christians should feel complimented.
Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer who is now a political/communications consultant.
But Hollywood can depend on a lot of Christians to pay money to see these movies, thus making them possible.
I do not think it is a difficult concept to figure out. They do not want to admit Christianity is right, because then they would have to admit they are responsible to their Creator. They are anyway, they just don't want to admit it.
Wow, that's a simple one. Because their Father, Lord and Master, the Devil hates Christians.
You give them too much credit for being concerned about their moral-philosophical position.
I think Rabbi Daniel Lapin summed it up best in saying the left hates Christianity because they understand it's the only thing standing between them and complete cultural hegemony.
If they could just get the Christians to "shut up," there would be no one else of note to question their actions. Without the interference of a recognized moral authority, they would literally be gods in the sense that everything they did would be "right" by definition.
"But Hollywood can depend on a lot of Christians to pay money to see these movies, thus making them possible."
This is so true, making it monetarily possible for liberals to be funded with Christians dollars.
Christians help fund the ones who "hate" and ridicule them.
Saved! (2004)
Starring Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Patrick Fugit, Martin Donovan, Macauley Culkin, Mary-Louise Parker, Eva Amurri, Heather Matarazzo, Chad Faust.
Directed by Brian Dannelly.
Rated PG-13.
"I crashed my van into Jesus!"
Before the Philadelphia Film Festival screening of Saved!, director Brian Dannelly introduced his film as the "anti-Passion".
When a Southern Baptist teenager finds herself ostracized by her peers for being pregnant, she has to go through the rites of passage of being an outcast. Michael Stipe has some involvement with the movie, and has been quoted as having said, "It's like those monster vampire high school kind of movies, only here the monsters are Jesus-freak teenagers."
http://www.savedmovie.com/
Actually, it is to the credit of Christians that Hollywood considers them the enemy. Similarly, Jews can take pride.
The rats can't stand us. We're doing something right.
So the church decides that if they can impress the world by being more worldly and be better at their game than the world that the world will fall on their face and say: "Yes your God is better than ours, and suddenly want to believe." --but this will never happen.
Instead the world which is ever watching sees the sin, the compromise, the hypocrisy -- Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and ten thousand other names. Names that run their lives and ministries by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and a love for the things of the world.
Ministers have succumbed to preaching greed and excess anything goes the world has Rock Idols the Church need Christian rock Idols, the world has Television Idols, the Church need Christian television Idols, the world has Sports Idols By God We are Going to have Christian Sports Idols. The world adores wealth by God we're going to beat them attheir own game and we are going to have Christan millionaires no Christian billionaires,
The world has glitzy shows, and makes great fanfare when they do something we'll, do the same well have carnivals well build our churches like Las Vegas attractions.
See we're Christians wink wink and we can walk into the fire and not even get the smell of smoke on us.
So the world looks on and is having the time of its life watching Christain Idols have sin eruptions, Churches explode, and Ministries implode. It couldn't be better for gather material for a spoof. What Christians never seem to get is that good spoof is based on recognizable incidents or behaviors -- Audiences seldom likes stuff that's made up from whole cloth.
What wrong the Church or the world? In the Old Testament we could quickly find the words to describe the situation -- the Church like Israel of old had played the harlot. The Church has gone awhoring after the Gods of Egypt and Babylon. They have gather to themselves every abomination known to man -- and exactly in kind of the Laodocean Church they say I am rich I am increased with goods. Ponder this there has never been a wealthier, more materialistic, generation than in the US today.
Well boys readem and weep the party's over. Revivals' not coming any more. It's Restoration -- back to the Church of the Christ and Apostles or nothing.
In revelation it speaks of the Great Whore and her daughters and her cup of abominations, and filthiness, that they were all made to drink of.
When you drink of Babylon's cup -- you get the punishments of drinking of that cup with that sip. -- Pretty ugly picture.
There are some very severe things coming down the pike -- and unless believers start going cold turkey with their drug habit of the things of the world -- and seriously getting right with God -- I don't want the say what will happen.
Think about the chill bill in Canada -- it's a warning. How far is Liberalism in the US behind Liberalism in Canada?
You put all your trust in the fact that Bush is a Godly man, well the political situation over here could turn on a dime.
Bush alone can't carry the sins of a nation. He needs Godly people upholding his efforts -- sinful Christians reeking of the leeks and garlic of Egypt and having polluted themselves with the ways of Babylon can't offer prayers for themselves, much less the nation.
You can not take anything of the world and just arbirearily Christianize it. It belongs to the God of this world aka the corrupter. And if you do you put yourself under his rule and it breeds in you corruption.
Need help? I have several free Bible studies I provide Freepers upon request.
Exactly! And this goes far beyond movies that target Christians.
Most Hollywood movies promote an anti-conservative culture. And some are outright Leftist propaganda vehicles masquerading as entertainment. Yet many conservatives seem content supporting the Leftists who make these movies, either by patronizing these movies in theaters, rental outlets, or DVD sales.
These conservatives-in-name-only selfishly put their desire for a couple of hours of mindless entertainment above their self-professed principles. In fact, on this very subject of de-funding Hollywood propaganda (regarding "The Day After Tomorrow"), Freeper "TheBigB" recently flatly stated: "I'm boycotting silly boycotts."
This is why America has become controlled by the Left: because most so-called "conservatives" are all-talk and no-action. They are unwilling to make the personal sacrifices necessary to keep America--and their children's future--on track.
Courtney Love & Michael Stipe (producer of movie)
Michael Stipe (producer of movie) & Patti Smith
BRIAN DANNELLY, DIRECTOR
MICHAEL URBAN, WRITER
Sandy Stern, Producer
Maybe I was trying to be a little too nice, but you are probably closer to the truth. They really are a bunch of scum bags aren't they?
Sex, drugs and violence sells.
Hollywood has run down the path of ever more shocking, more in your face, controversial and reality TV. In reality as an art form it has become a slum.
Red6
They have trouble getting funding to make these movies.
The last Western Hollywood got excited about was "Unforgiven" in which there were no "good guy" characters.
Hollywood would argue that the public has little interest in seeing Westerns anymore. Open Range did not do well at the box office, despite good reviews.
Southern Baptists are a target again. You know you are on the right path when the devil's own favorite agents come at you in big numbers. Thank you, you sorry-assed liberal freaks, for singling us out. Thank you again!
later
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