Religious displays on government land; an issue...

I was pleasantly surprised to see challenges to the old Christmas display issue.

Historically, Christmas displays put up in “public” areas consisted of Nativity scenes consisting of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus in a manger with or without animals, shepherds and sometimes magi bearing gifts.

Such a Christian display does not pass constitutional muster and is in violation of the “separation of church and state” requirement that government cannot promote a specific religion BUT it can display it in a “public” area IF it opens up that area to all religions. In this way the government body is not seen as supporting a specific religion.

Historically, only a Nativity display was allowed but now, with many Americans either non-religious or even anti-religious, that practice has been challenged and especially in 2014.

In Lansing, Michigan (capital) a group calling itself THE SATANIC TEMPLE OF DETROIT put up a Christmas display featuring a Satanic Cross with a snake and a book with the words “The Greatest Gift is Knowledge” which to me means that knowledge defeats superstition which is what many non-religious people consider religious beliefs to be.

The group claims they do not worship Satan so I wonder why the term Satan in their temple name. I will have to delve a little deeper into the beliefs of this group so I can understand what they actually stand for and believe in.

Anyway, the Christians are up in arms saying that these “others” defile the meaning of Christmas (Don’t take Christ out of Christmas) and in essence saying that the United States is a Christian nation and so should behave as such.

To me this is starting to sound a little like what radical Islamists stand for; only their religion is valid on earth.

I am pretty sure these “others” are not promoting their belief system as such but actually taking a stand against Christianity specifically when it is being promoted by a governmental agency.

I feel they are doing this to say that during the Christmas holidays there should be NO RELIGIOUS DISPLAYS on “public” lands period, so as long as government entities put up Christian displays, they will counter with their opposing displays.

I have to agree that religious displays should not be displayed on public land and should be left to private citizens to display whatever they want to on their own private land. I just cannot understand what possesses government officials to try to cram their Christian message down the throats of people that don’t want that message crammed down their throats.

This will take some doing and many challenges until government officials realize that they need to obey the Constitution they take an oath to protect even if they don’t agree with everything in that constitution.

EXODUS: Saw the movie...mixed opinion...

Just saw the movie EXODUS with Christian Bale by Ridley Scott and the strangest thing happened. Right after the movie, a lady got up and yelled “this is total bullshit; do not believe any of it”. I thought she might have been an atheist and was just caught up in the moment but my wife who overheard her in the bathroom after the movie, said she was saying that “this is not the way it happened” which meant that she had a preconceived idea how the story actually did happen.

I am assuming that she is referring to the account as recorded in her Bible or at least to the old “Ten Commandments” movie with Charleston Heston in the 1950s.

I found the need for this woman to voice her opinion so loudly and publicly quite interesting.

As for the movie itself; my wife liked it. I on the other hand, have mixed feelings.

I have stated in many past blogs that the Exodus story is very much doubted by practically all Biblical scholars and treated as a story giving the Jews a historical albeit mythical beginning. There in absolutely no historical or archaeological evidence of a mass exodus out of Egypt or even Jewish existence in Egypt in any great numbers. Evidence shows that the Jews formed into a nation gradually over many years from people inhabiting the Levant area.

But I am not writing to discuss history but a re-telling of a very popular Old Testament story held dear by Christians and Jews alike. 

I have to say up-front that the cinematography and digital effects are great as I expect now of every movie I see.

The problem I may be having with this movie may have to do with me and my preconceived idea how the movie should be done since I am very familiar with the Biblical story. I realize that Scott did not want to just do a re-make but wanted to put a personal stamp on this re-telling of the Exodus story but he did have to follow the storyline as told in the Bible or otherwise he would be re-writing the story thus creating a new story.

I feel Scott tried to make this story more realistic or believable and less about God and miracles and thus, I think, he was trying to say that historically this story could actually be true or show how it could have actually happened.

He does not take God out of the story; he just makes God someone that only Moses sees and talks to and thus making Moses the leader the Jews follow and not the dictates of God per se. 

 He makes it a point to tell the audience that the word Jew means “one who wrestles with God” with the emphasis on wrestles. This fact is illustrated throughout the movie and even at the end when Moses is chiseling out the Ten Commandments (yes, Moses is writing them down) and God says that he hopes Moses agrees with most of the commandments; we are used to a God that commands and not discusses.

The story lacks a smooth progression from Moses being found floating in the Nile, being raised in the palace, etc. Scott must feel that we should all know the details by now but I felt not showing those very well-known details created an uneven story line that had to be filled in during the movie.

Character development was limited to Moses and the pharaoh. The plague scenes were graphic but disjointed since they all kind of happened at once and not the orderly progression of asking the pharaoh to “let my people go” followed by a plague.

Using a young boy to speak for God or represent God is quite fascinating. My wife had no trouble with this concept but I bet many others were just appalled. The burning bush was there but no disembodied deep voice which we expect; just a young boy that appeared very pissed and vengeful.

Ridley Scott is a known atheist and someone that considers religion as the scourge of the earth so did that personal belief somehow transfer into the movie…?

This movie was not easy to analyze so I will have to read up more on others opinions but as far as entertaining goes…not so much for me but others probably yes. So far it is not doing that well at the box office.

WINTER SOLSTICE...The original Holiday Celebration...

We will celebrate the WINTER SOLSTICE on Sunday, December 21^st this year.

It is a CELEBRATION OF LIGHT that has been celebrated forever as the day when nights get shorter and days get longer. It is a new beginning that happens every year and as with new beginnings, people always think optimistically as to what awaits them in the New Year and wish each other the best in this new beginning.

Many call this celebration pagan because it has no connection to Christianity even though it pre-dates the invention of Christianity. I call it a natural celebration because it is a celebration of a natural phenomenon given to us by Mother Earth and it is a celebration we all as inhabitants of this earth, can celebrate.

Every year (and you would think I would have let this go by now) I get all bent out of shape at the letter writers that decry taking CHRIST out of CHRISTMAS. The fact is that JESUS was never in Christmas if you define Christmas as the holidays celebrated at this time of year; no one knows when Jesus was born or even where he was born so injecting Jesus into Christmas is a usurpation of the natural joy of celebrating the increasing of the light.

I don’t begrudge Christians their celebration of the birth of Jesus but I do resent them injecting their celebration into our celebration as if to say their celebration takes precedence over ours because their reason for celebrating is somehow “holier” than our pagan celebration.

I realize that there are traditions that are observed at this time of year and my Polish upbringing came with many of these traditions that we celebrate to this day. There are some Christian (holy) traditions (manger) as well as many pagan ones (Christmas tree), etc. 

As time has passed we have come to keep the tradition of Wigilia which is a gathering of the family on Christmas Eve which is the best tradition of all.

I guess my point is that this time of year is celebrated by many for many different reasons; all important to them and their families. This time of year called collectively “the holidays” does not belong to any specific group or religion and I guess what I resent most is the Christian belief that they were here first and everyone else is stealing their holiday; that is just plain ignorance on their part.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ONE AND ALL…

TORTURE REPORT: Was this necessary?

America does not torture.

I have believed that most of my adult life and was proud of the fact that we as a nation stood above those that behaved like barbarians devoid of any humanity.

I also believed and still believe that torture does not produce results; it just makes no logical sense. During religious inquisitions in our history, the accused were tortured to confess that they were really working for the devil; once they confessed, they were burned at the stake…many confessed just to end the torture as I imagine, many do today.

The Senate report released by the Democrats (not bipartisan) described some pretty gruesome torturing techniques. The purpose of releasing such a report we are told by the Democrats, was to show the world how transparent as a nation we are and that this type of behavior will never happen again.

The news media and the White House warned that there will be repercussions and put everyone on alert…why?

Do terrorists that behead people on a regular basis give a shit that we tortured people? Do you really think people are surprised that after 9/11 we tortured people…really?

I think that immediately after the 9/11 events the CIA just went nuts…the sky is falling…and were willing to do about anything to prevent more attacks. Basically they were reacting and not really thinking; I can’t really blame them although I did expect a little more professionalism from them.

The report and the ensuing hubbub is pure political bullshit with absolutely no redeeming value for our nation and for world peace.

I am becoming more and more disillusioned with the people supposedly running our country. They are definitely not smart and sometimes not even adult…what now.

EXODUS: Can't wait to see it after all the criticism I've read...

I love movies based on religious stories (Bible stories) and have ever since childhood. My wife watches the old TEN COMMANDMENTS every time it comes on, year after year after year.

This year we had NOAH which was an interesting take on the Bible story to say the least. THE RED TENT I have already talked about and how I liked it.

The movie I am waiting for is EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS coming out shortly but I cannot believe all the criticism I am already hearing way before I have even seen it.

One issue that I have heard about is the fact that there are no miracles per se and so the movie loses that religious touch that everybody seems to be after. I can understand that since I believe people are emotional taken with stories that visually present what they already believe.

As in the Red Tent series, God was basically kept out of the story and the story stood quite well on its own merits as a story of a family portrayed in the Old Testament.

The EXODUS story in the Bible is historically very dubious as even archaeological data finds absolutely no evidence of a large group of people leaving Egypt, wondering in the Sanai for years and then invading the Levant. Actually the settling of Israel, according to excavated data, happened slowly over time and not in one fell swoop.

You also would think that with Egyptians chronicling almost all events throughout their history, they would have mentioned something about an Exodus or at least about all the Jewish slaves working in Egypt.

But it is a Bible story and it was written for a purpose and that is to give the Jews a story they could hang their hats on instead of just saying they eventually formed a nation / people after many years hanging around together.

So what is a director (Scott Ridley) to do? Does he tell it just like it is in the Bible or does he put his own spin on it trying to somehow explain the goings-on in a rational and believable way?

Well it is his story to tell after all just like Darren Aronofsky told the story of Noah in his way.

Sure Christians with a fundamentalist bent will complain that it is not how things really happened…really?

Some of the criticisms have to do with casting all white actors in the lead roles and non-whites in all the “lower” roles. Are they looking for believability? Is this a documentary?

I guess we all have some expectations of this movie and I for one will go with an open mind and see if I truly enjoyed it or was it just too bizarre to be a movie in the first place.