Posted on 12/04/2006 7:52:47 PM PST by Pyro7480
'The Nativity Story' Movie Problematic for Catholics, "Unsuitable" for Young Children
By John-Henry Westen
NEW YORK, December 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A review of New Line Cinema's The Nativity story by Fr. Angelo Mary Geiger of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in the United States, points out that the film, which opened December 1, misinterprets scripture from a Catholic perspective.
While Fr. Geiger admits that he found the film is "in general, to be a pious and reverential presentation of the Christmas mystery." He adds however, that "not only does the movie get the Virgin Birth wrong, it thoroughly Protestantizes its portrayal of Our Lady."
In Isaiah 7:14 the Bible predicts the coming of the Messiah saying: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." Fr. Geiger, in an video blog post, explains that the Catholic Church has taught for over 2000 years that the referenced Scripture showed that Mary would not only conceive the child miraculously, but would give birth to the child miraculously - keeping her physical virginity intact during the birth.
The film, he suggests, in portraying a natural, painful birth of Christ, thus denies the truth of the virginal and miraculous birth of Christ, which, he notes, the Fathers of the Church compared to light passing through glass without breaking it. Fr. Geiger quoted the fourth century St. Augustine on the matter saying. "That same power which brought the body of the young man through closed doors, brought the body of the infant forth from the inviolate womb of the mother."
Fr. Geiger contrasts The Nativity Story with The Passion of the Christ, noting that with the latter, Catholics and Protestants could agree to support it. He suggests, however, that the latter is "a virtual coup against Catholic Mariology".
The characterization of Mary further debases her as Fr. Geiger relates in his review. "Mary in The Nativity lacks depth and stature, and becomes the subject of a treatment on teenage psychology."
Beyond the non-miraculous birth, the biggest let-down for Catholics comes from Director Catherine Hardwicke's own words. Hardwicke explains her rationale in an interview: "We wanted her [Mary] to feel accessible to a young teenager, so she wouldn't seem so far away from their life that it had no meaning for them. I wanted them to see Mary as a girl, as a teenager at first, not perfectly pious from the very first moment. So you see Mary going through stuff with her parents where they say, 'You're going to marry this guy, and these are the rules you have to follow.' Her father is telling her that she's not to have sex with Joseph for a year-and Joseph is standing right there."
Comments Fr. Geiger, "it is rather disconcerting to see Our Blessed Mother portrayed with 'attitude;' asserting herself in a rather anachronistic rebellion against an arranged marriage, choosing her words carefully with her parents, and posing meaningful silences toward those who do not understand her."
Fr. Geiger adds that the film also contains "an overly graphic scene of St. Elizabeth giving birth," which is "just not suitable, in my opinion, for young children to view."
Despite its flaws Fr. Geiger, after viewing the film, also has some good things to say about it. "Today, one must commend any sincere attempt to put Christ back into Christmas, and this film is certainly one of them," he says. "The Nativity Story in no way compares to the masterpiece which is The Passion of the Christ, but it is at least sincere, untainted by cynicism, and a worthy effort by Hollywood to end the prejudice against Christianity in the public square."
And, in addition to a good portrait of St. Joseph, the film offers "at least one cinematic and spiritual triumph" in portraying the Visitation of Mary to St. Elizabeth. "Although the Magnificat is relegated to a kind of epilogue at the movie's end, the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth is otherwise faithful to the scriptures and quite poignant. In a separate scene, the two women experience the concurrent movement of their children in utero and share deeply in each other's joy. I can't think of another piece of celluloid that illustrates the dignity of the unborn child better than this."
See Fr. Geiger's full review here:
http://airmaria.com/
Thank you for discussing things rationaly and not resorting to yelling (Typing in all caps)
Indeed my favorite verse.. Number one of many many favorites..
What a promise and declaration.. worthy to sell all you have for this pearl of great price..
There are cetainly new testament things which supercede the Jewish religion which misinterpretated many things. I would certainly argue that the New Testament definition of the Saints supercedes Old Testament misunderstandings.
NOTE: In new testament times they did not call each other christians but "holy ones"/"saints".. Non believers called them christians.. they called each other holy ones/saints..
You are wasting your words. He spent years studying Judaism. What made him an inerrant apostle of Christ was not his study of Judaism.
Perhaps Blogger is referring to this:
Gal. 1:15-18 : 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.
I think it most likely that Paul spent those three years in solitude in prayer, meditation and study on what Christ had revealed to him. Only after these years did he begin his full-time ministry.
Well, the prayers that Blogger posted all show a theme. Even from the first one we DO see a fundamental problem:
Mary, Help of Those in Need
Holy Mary, help those in need, give strength to the weak, comfort the sorrowful, pray for God's people, assist the clergy, intercede for religious. Mary all who seek your help experience your unfailing protection. Amen.
Here we have a list of different tasks being asked of Mary. One of the many is to pray for God's people. But that is what you tell us is your entire request of Mary, to pray for us. This obviously does not match. Helping, giving, comforting, praying, assisting, and interceding are all listed as separate requests. Just this one example, among the others Blogger cited, and still hundreds more that are out there, I'm sure, tell us that there is MUCH more going on here than the simple solicitation to Mary to pray for us.
The last thing in the world I think of when reading these prayers to Mary is mediation. These are action requests. "Mary, do this for me now", etc. When I ask my friend for prayer I do not say "Steve, give strength to the weak, and I experience your protection of me." After reading the prayers that Blogger posted, that comparison is now officially COMPLETELY out the window as far as I'm concerned. (Thank you, Blogger :)
That should be intercession.
"I didn't think there was any HTML in that to make it go all squishy!"
Its the Greek words which caused the problem. Whenever you use them, you have to close each paragraph, both before and after the Greek with the appropriate HTML tag. I learned the hard way! :)
Very little faith is blind.
The people you trust are also the ones who wrote the history books.
At some point in time, you are trusting that what the priests and historians are telling you is true. That is faith.
A creed is NOT Scripture. It is not a complete statement of everything that we believe is Christians. Frankly, it doesn't need to be because we HAVE Scripture. So, even though the creed doesn't have a statement on the atonement, it matters not because I do not take the creed as authoritative. Rather, it is a statement of faith. Incomplete, but valuable for a general understanding.
"You have yet to answer my question why is God under obligation to die for us?"
John 3:16, "And this is the way God loved the world, He gave His only Son to die for us...".
Absolute Biblical Truth.
Great sequence of it. Praise God.
Oh, please. There are significant differences in the way the East and West view Mary, purgatory, Church authority, sin/grace, and a number of other issues. About the only thing you two agree on is the Eucharist.
What I am pointing to, as was Kosta, is the "Oneness" and "Catholicity" of The Church, something which lacking in virtually all of "Protestantism". Now it is apparent that "Protestants", despite the fact that they virtually all recite The Creed (another one of those spiritual things The Church gave you, either don't understand what they are praying or they positively reject it.
And where does the Orthodox stand on the Nicene Creed? There are very few of the early creeds that I believe Protestants would "reject".
I have been in a number of church in all parts of the world. I can assure you that, while their services may vary, Protestants have this "oneness" also. That being said, there are some Protestants churches I would not enter. However, after reading some of the problems with the Catholic Church, there are a number of them I wouldn't attend if I were Catholic. I suspect the same is true about Orthodoxy.
Protestantism may be the rejection of "teaching authority" of the Church, but let's look at what that means. You have told me that Orthodoxy is very complex to understand and take years of reading and immersion to fully grasp it. Protestants simply state, "Repent, believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved." We don't need much more "teaching authority" than that.
LOL! You remind me of the, BY FAR, best e-mail scam (and abuse by the responder) I have ever read. It is hideously long, but worth every minute (if you like my sense of humor :). The only thing you need is a working knowledge of the very basics of "Star Wars". This African scammer has no clue. :) If you haven't already seen this, enjoy:
I probably need to meditate on that one more.
A great verse.
Thanks.
Interesting.
Didn't know that.
Thanks for helping me learn something.
This is the site I go to for laughs. The letters are terrific and the scams of the scammers are great.
http://www.419eater.com/
Can you cite any sources for this? After all the Greek bishops which came together in the 7 councils were pretty good speakers of Greek. I think they'd know what words meant.
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