‘The Passion’ producer says American Carol movie part of ‘emerging culture war’

www.catholicnewsagency.com ^ | Oct 3, 2008 | CNA

[Publius804]

‘The Passion’ producer says American Carol movie part of ‘emerging culture war’

Hollywood, Oct 3, 2008 / 03:48 pm (CNA).- Steve McEveety, producer of "The Passion of the Christ," has written a letter encouraging people to see the new movie "An American Carol," comparing buying tickets for the movie to casting a vote in the “emerging culture war.” American Carol producer John Shepherd explained to CNA that the movie is meant to make Hollywood question its animosity towards conservatives.

“In the coming weeks your vote is going to play a crucial role in the battle for the hearts and minds of all Americans -- and it is not your vote in the Presidential election,” he writes.

Claiming Hollywood is “holding an election” in which a vote is the price of a movie ticket, he tells readers “your participation is key to the emerging culture war.”

He says the conflict presently centers on two films released on Friday, October 3.

McEveety describes the first movie, comedian Bill Maher’s “Religulous,” as a “militant pro-atheism documentary.”

He also cites Maher’s own anti-religious words: “We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that -- I think religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies.”

McEveety contrasts the film with David Zucker's “An American Carol,” calling the latter a “pro-America, pro-faith comedy.”

[Jeff Chandler]

I give An American Carol 2½ stars .

[GOP Poet]

I cast my vote last night—opening night :-D. As did my husband. It was great to see the theater nearly filled. Lots of us got there early and it filled up early.

[drc43]

On a scale of??

[Netizen]

Even Obama seems against religion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXY4BC68zB0

The above 1 minute video should be turned into a McCain ad and run in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, so they can see and hear what a two faced lying sack of crap Obama is.

[Paige]

I'm going with my fiance to go see the movie too tick off a moonbat. As for grading the movie, who cares?

Conservatives need to stop collectively complaining and collectively fight for Conservatism to stay alive and well in the USA.

[nmh]

We’re going to see it on Sunday.

How come only 2 1/2 stars?

[dixiechick2000]

Obama “seems” to be against religion?

Snort!

“Keep the change?”

I love it!

[Netizen]

I said ‘seems’ because in that ad he is snide about religion, yet he pretends to attend a Christian church, so I guess he doesn't consider himself clinging to religion, just those rural xenophobic, gun toting mid westerners.

[dixiechick2000]

"just those rural xenophobic, gun toting mid westerners."

I hate to disappoint him, but that describes us white trash Southerners perfectly.

We are bitter clingers to our guns and religion...not necessarily in that order.

I love Sarah!

[eclecticEel]

“Emerging Culture War”? So where exactly has this guy been in the last half century?

[stripes1776]

How come only 2 1/2 stars?

I would give it 4 stars out of 5. It is a very funny movie. It pokes fun at all the stupid ideas that lefties hold dear. For me, it is not a deep belly-laugh movie. But still it often made me chuckle. And ironically it made me very sad a couple of time to see how the left really trashes the America that has given them so much.

It also did something that no other Hollywood movie today would dare to do. It makes fun of Islamic extremists. I thought those parts were really hilarious. I will be buying the DVD.

[nathanbedford]

Actually it is religion which has the potential to set people free from the jail they are in by virtue of their egoism. There is in fact a duality which confronts us but Mahrer gets it all wrong: the choice is not between atheism and zealotry but between the First commandment and bondage to the self.

That is why liberalism panders to the ego. It attempts to turn everything good on its head so that liberals can rationalize gratification of one sort or another. The most obvious example of this is the liberals insistence on sex without consequences and abortion without guilt.

By way of another example, when Bill Mahrer says, “We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that -- I think religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies.” he really means religion establishes a standard to which he does not want to adhere because he wants a standard which he creates free from consequences. He actually believes that he is free only when he is in a state of license. He does not realize that he is in bondage to his own ego. He cannot see it.

The great mystery of religion- and not just the Christian religion- is its ability to loose victims from fetters of their own making whether they be booze, drugs, sex, porn, gambling, arrogance, kleptomania, paranoia, and, yes, liberalism.

A few days ago, I posted the following which some might find relevant:

Understanding John McCain

McCain's Vietnam experience was so shattering that he sees the world through a new lens, the experience so profound that he has emerged from it with a lifelong commitment to country. This gives credibility to McCain's claim that he is a maverick, beholden not to party but to principle and country. This claim to independence is necessary in a political climate in which the present occupant of the White House is found to be unsatisfactory by nearly three out of four Americans. So, the narrative explains why a voter can believe that John McCain is different from ordinary politicians, especially ordinary Republican politicians, and they can believe he should be trusted to embark on a new course away from current administration policies.

At the end of his acceptance speech, McCain recited how he came to be utterly broken but then restored, even redeemed with a new commitment to service to others when a fellow prisoner urged him by prison telegraph not to quit and die but instead to carry on the fight out of respect for his comrades who even then were carrying on the fight for him.

Psychologists and scholars of religious experience, especially Christian scholars, have long been aware of the empowering release generated by total surrender of the will. One can describe this in psychological language, or in Biblical language, or even in evangelical idiom.

Whatever language one uses to describe these epiphanies there is no question that very often they are real and long lasting. Psychologists would begin to explain the phenomenon by reference to the ego. An Old Testament scholar might think in terms of the first and second Commandments and the muscular faith which follows adherence to them. Christians speak of dying to the self, picking up the cross and following the Savior to become a new man-to be born again. Perhaps the most famous example is recounted in the Book of Acts which tells that Saul of Tarsus was physically knocked off his horse by the Holy Spirit. Saul experiences an epiphany, Saul becomes Paul, and is transformed from a murderous persecutor of Christians to a fully committed martyr who becomes the great evangelist of the early church, indomitable in spirit, inflexible in commitment, and-like the other disciples- utterly fearless. Significantly, Paul, the newbie Christian, does not shrink later from taking on Peter the acknowledged leader of the disciples "to his face" to dispute matters of doctrine.

In contemporary history we have the example of George Bush and his transforming encounter with Reverend Billy Graham. Indeed, we have the Reverend Billy Graham's own epiphany in the forest. We have the numberless examples recited daily in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is from the success of this group that countless so-called "12 step" groups have been formed to apply successfully the same empowering message of surrender.

The important thing to understand about these epiphanies is that when they are genuine they are often life-long and tremendously empowering. Lives really are transformed forever. Criminals go straight, alcoholics stay sober, and the miserable are made happy. In fact, these newly born spirits enjoy their new condition so much that they seek ways to prolong the joy they have obtained in their moment of sweet release. Almost universally, these people find that service to others is the surest way to prolong that wonderful feeling of well-being.

Isolated, sick, starved and beaten beyond human endurance, John McCain ultimately broke and signed a confession which he mistakenly assumed amounted to a betrayal of his country. Who was this wretched man who lay so anguished in that cell? In his memoir and in his speech, McCain described himself as a kind of a hotshot jet jock, a screwup, a discipline problem in school, and an accomplished accumulator of demerits as a midshipman. Evidently, he was also an enthusiastic swordsman. In short, he was an arrogant SOB. Now, in that cell, he had fallen far. The classic description of the crushing of the ego. At this pivotal moment came the means of his redemption via the prison telegraph: Service to others out of love of country. In his speech McCain declared:

"And I wasn't my own man anymore, I was my country's"

And now we know the rest of the story. This is not to say that John McCain was instantly sanctified in all respects, far from it. He still had to swim his way out of a giant mental, moral and spiritual hangover from his ordeal. His screwing around would cost him his marriage before he could swim to shore. Even today, the old self bursts out in temper. But when one lays this template over the rest of John McCain’s career, one should have little difficulty accepting the story as being essentially true (I for one believe it) and to accept it as a convincing explanation of his career and his conception of his role as president.

Before considering the implications of all of this for conservatives, it is instructive to consider what it means to liberals. [And to compare it to Barak Obama's story]

In a word: "nothing." Liberals do not see it because they cannot see it. They simply do not get it. The whole idea of gaining empowerment through surrendering is as psychologically repugnant to liberals as is the idea of accepting a higher authority in their lives. Consider the Democrat party to be a gigantic creaking contrivance to legitimatize liberals in their insatiable quest to feed their egos. The job of this machine is to provide rationalizations. The obvious examples are sex without consequences and abortion without guilt. These examples demonstrate that the rationalization machine can be quite deadly as it kills 3 to 4 million babies a year. The pernicious doctrines emanating from The Frankfurt School such as moral relativism, feminism, and critical theory find application not just in cultural issues like abortion which kill babies but across the board, touching all government policy and every aspect of our lives.

To repeat, the whole purpose of this Democrat apparatus is to turn thinking on its head and provide a language to liberals so they can continue to play God (especially with other people's lives). Liberals will never about-face and cast away everything that feeds their ego addictions. That is why we hear them using English words but it comes out as a different language.

What about the implications for us conservatives of John McCain's epiphany?

Whatever path John McCain takes if he gains the oval office, we know it will be animated by a spirit which is a hell of a lot purer than that which motivates the posturings of Barak Obama

It goes without saying, that this is why the Liberals viscerally detest and fear Sarah Palin-because she is a walking, talking, breathing, living exemplar of this truth. They hate her because she is good and because good is a threat to the sovereignty of their egos. They do not know why they hate her, they just can't help it.

[XR7]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSJsEVf0pU&feature=related

[Hot Tabasco]

“Emerging Culture War”? So where exactly has this guy been in the last half century?

A war doesn't officially start until somebody fires the first shot. The past half century was only foreplay........

[RU88]

Emerging!??? Has this guy been living under a rock for the last 30 years?

[Caipirabob]

He also cites Maher’s own anti-religious words: “We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that -- I think religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies.”

I think religion guides people to ask: "What is right and what is wrong, by God's will and the benefit of my brother" where Maher's insanity asks: "What can I get away with?"

[Caipirabob]

We saw it yesterday. I'd give it a B-. There were moments that were non-stop laughter that made it all worth while. Depends on your sense of humor. I think "Airplane" was much funnier. The thing about this movie is the humor was too close to repeating the truth, and that was a little too sobering.

I think you'll enjoy it.

[JOLLYDODGER]

If you have the choice between a movie with Leonard DiCaprio or Robert DeNiro and this spoof, go see the spoof. Otherwise, the joke is on you.

[EarlyBird]

I saw it Friday night and loved it. Please note that it is not a big budget film, and it looks it. It’s very funny, though it could’ve been more funny. But as a first strike back in the movie culture war, it’s a must see for everyone fed up with the crap coming out of Hollywood.

Tip: While you watch, try to look at things in the background, and you will find some real gems.