And In The Future...
More from the Theater of the Absurd
The City of Chicago has banned any and all clips from the recently released film, "The Nativity Story" from being shown at the city’s annual Christmas Festival.
City officials initially defended the ban by arguing the clips would be offensive to non-Christians attending the month long display, the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier today. The city did not comment on whether the mayor was concerned that ousting the film from the popular festival would offend Christians and the vast majority of Americans who celebrate Christmas.
Officials quickly changed their argument, saying including the clips would be too much commercialism with New Line Cinema “aggressively…trying to sell tickets to that movie,” as a sponsor of the event.
Too late, Mayor Daly... the cat's out of the bag.
I wonder if in the future, the City of Chicago will ban the following;
1. Cancer victims at a Cancer Awareness campaigns. Let's not offend any cancer-free people by trotting out those sickly "cancer people".
2. Italians from Columbus Day parades. Could someone please get those damn pasta-bending Guineas the hell outta here?
3. Veterans from Veterans Day celebrations. No baby-killing warmongers, if you please. We're trying to enjoy Veterans Day!
4. Irish from St. Patrick's Day festivities. Oh great... here come all those drunken Bog Irish.
5. Moms from Mothers Day brunches. ENABLER, ENABLER!!! You've ruined my Mother's Day by showing up!!
More from the Theater of the Absurd
The City of Chicago has banned any and all clips from the recently released film, "The Nativity Story" from being shown at the city’s annual Christmas Festival.
City officials initially defended the ban by arguing the clips would be offensive to non-Christians attending the month long display, the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier today. The city did not comment on whether the mayor was concerned that ousting the film from the popular festival would offend Christians and the vast majority of Americans who celebrate Christmas.
Officials quickly changed their argument, saying including the clips would be too much commercialism with New Line Cinema “aggressively…trying to sell tickets to that movie,” as a sponsor of the event.
Too late, Mayor Daly... the cat's out of the bag.
I wonder if in the future, the City of Chicago will ban the following;
1. Cancer victims at a Cancer Awareness campaigns. Let's not offend any cancer-free people by trotting out those sickly "cancer people".
2. Italians from Columbus Day parades. Could someone please get those damn pasta-bending Guineas the hell outta here?
3. Veterans from Veterans Day celebrations. No baby-killing warmongers, if you please. We're trying to enjoy Veterans Day!
4. Irish from St. Patrick's Day festivities. Oh great... here come all those drunken Bog Irish.
5. Moms from Mothers Day brunches. ENABLER, ENABLER!!! You've ruined my Mother's Day by showing up!!
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
10:19 AM
3 Comments:
Give yourself the gift of a meaningful Christmas.
I went to see this last night, opening night. As a recently baptized Christian, I will tell you that this was a most welcomed, meaningful and revolutionary movie for me. It centers around the mother of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
A superbly crafted and thoughtfully directed movie, it deserves a high rating. It is an unprecedented tribute to a woman who has been relegated to backdrop scenes. Finally, Mary gets to have a movie about her spiritual journey. In my own life, Mary was in the far distant background, giving her fleeting thought if I came across a Nativity scene at Christmas or if I heard the Beatles song, "Let It Be":
"When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be."
It was made for a certain niche -- the ~200 million or so Americans who consider themselves Christians. Two years ago, I was not in this niche, being "spiritual, but not religious." Long story, short, it was Mary who pointed me to her Son, lead me on my own spiritual journey and caused a revolution in my heart, mind and soul.
Those who take the time to learn about her and her role do not, as I was mislead to believe, worship her. They simply respect and venerate her. Leading folks to her Son, as I learned, is her job. In this movie, her character is doing exactly that again for me and viewers who are called to see it.
Ever since she lead me home, Christmas has taken on such meaning as I never imagined. This year, I've started the season -- called the Advent season -- with a faith-based movie that allowed me to slide right into it in a beautiful, gentle and do I dare say, beatific way.
This movie experience is an exquisite gift for the heart and soul. Moreover, it is a feast for the eyes. I went past the inanimate objects of Nativity displays to a visually rich and "fleshed" out Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, shepherds, Magi and stable animals. The director of the movie, Catherine Hardwick, referred to a line in the script: "...the greatest of kings born in the most humble of places."
"Power," she says, "is not a physical power. It's not riches, it's not money, it's not control of governments and nations. It's a deeper power, spirituality."
At the end of the movie, the audience burst out in spontaneous applause. For each of us, Christmas is not at all about holiday parties, frenzied shopping and the trappings and physical accouterments. Now, THAT'S revolutionary.
When this comes out in DVD, it will be a part of our yearly Christmas tradition, reminding us what it is all about.
"Merry Christ-mas!" I hope you will make it meaningfully merrier by giving yourself this movie experience of the life of Mary.
It is an unprecedented tribute to a woman who has been relegated to backdrop scenes.
Thankfully, we Catholics have never had that problem. I honestly do feel sorry for Protestants... they trot out Mary for their Nativity sets once every year, and that's it. And as we both realize, Mary is much more than "the vessel that carried Christ".
Excellent post. Thanks
Also, I understand from comments on blogs and fora, from people who have seen it, that it shows our Blessed Mother experiencing severe labour pains which is blasphemy. As a result, I have no intention of seeing this protestant, un-Catholic and blasphemous movie!
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