Yeah Right

Well isn't that special.

One of the few sermons I sat through when I was younger that sticks with me all these years later involved the pastor railing against using secular figures to celebrate holy events.  Apparently he'd spotted a Care Bears nativity scene at Wal-Mart and it got his dander up.  I can't even begin to think what he'd do if he saw that someone had taken this:

(In my opinion, Michelangelo's finest work, BTW.) And turned it into this:

(H/T Kotaku)

The Weirdest Thing to Come Out of the Tiger Woods Scandal

The First Church of Tiger Woods has disbanded.
 
Hat tip: Nan

I'll have to check and see if DirecTV carries any Turkish stations...

I suspect Penitents Compete may be DVR worthy:

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?

Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers.

The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion -- Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists.

Full story here.

(H/T Volokh)

Dollhouse Lost

No, the title of this post isn’t about the Joss Whedon’s show on FOX being canceled, though that remains a real danger. Such a cancellation, if it occurs, would be unfortunate as, while Dollhouse did get off to a rather weak start (episode 2's over-done "Most Dangerous Game" story-line almost had me hitting ‘eject’ on the series), it has finally begun to weave the complex story-telling tapestry that’s a hallmark of Whedon’s previous efforts.

So why "Dollhouse Lost" as my title? Well, it’s a reference to what I’m coming to believe is one of the classic literary pieces Whedon may of had in mind as he created the show - John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Read on to see where I’m coming from...

On Fireproof and Christ-centric Movies in General

I recently caught the surprise mini-hit Fireproof. It's a good step for Christian filmmaking, but not a particularly good movie.

Cards on the table, I consider myself a citizen of Jesusland, so while I certainly agree with much of the sentiment and theology espoused in the film, the cold-blooded moviegoer in me wasn't keen on the flat writing, overlong runtime and robotic acting (though props to Kirk Cameron, who's the only one to inflate his character with a modicum of charisma).

The Gospel message is explicit and many of the challenges that besiege marriage these days are touched upon (my personal favorite is Cameron's character decision to get rid of his porn-addled computer, which appeared to be a circa 1994 IBM desktop; oh the debacuhery you could store on that 3 GB hard-drive!) but in the end Fireproof just felt like a combination of an infomerical for The Love Dare and one of those small group Bible study DVDs.

I'm authentically pleased the film did good business and if it even helped one person stumble upon a lifestyle and belief system I put a great deal of stock into, then that's just bananas, but I have to be honest with mysef: if this movie wasn't pro-Christian and, say, had been produced by the North American chapter of the Zoroastrians, I'd no doubt lay into it.  All thing being equal, Fireproof just isn't that great.

And, alas, it follows an unsightly parade of mediocre or below-mediocre Christian movies (the Left Behind movies, The Genius Club).  Once in a while you get something like Passion of the Christ (which has its moments but is largely overrated as a prosteltyization tool) or the Narnia films or, my current favorite Christ-focused movie, Ving Rhames's Saving God, but until our cinematic brethren are able to raise their game, I fear that the Holy genre will remain niche and, worse, not taken seriously.

I'll take a side of Amish craftsmanship with my celebrity gossip

While watching my E Daily 10 this morning over my breakfast of orange slices, eggs, and a chocolate chip cookie, I was engrossed in a commercial for the Amish Built Heat Surge.  It's a fireplace that you plug in.  Numerous things about this commercial confounded me.

1. I thought the Amish didn't use electricity and these are electric fireplaces.  Even if they don't use them, is it cool to condone other people's usage?

2. What the heck are the Amish doing advertising on tv?  Ok, so maybe the spokesperson wasn't Amish, but Amish people definitely appeared in the commercial and they are definitely going to profit from the publicity.

3. I swear one of the Amish dudes was wearing a Gap polo...

More power to the Amish for milking our free market system for what it's worth - I just thought it was against some of their principles. Oh and when I was verifying their rule against power-line electricity on wikipedia I was reminded that the Amish don't accept any form of government assistance or even Social Security.  That's pretty rad.