Home for Random Thoughts

[Gob]

"Should I do your ear hairs?"

Could be worse, she could ask if you wanted them, permed, braided, coloured or styled.

[oldr_n_wsr]

She did, he just won't admit it.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Wrong, guys! That was the nasal option

[Joe Guy]

That reminds me of when I met an elderly Sicilian Mafioso kinda guy at a wedding a few years ago. I couldn't figure out why he had a couple black threads dangling from his white shirt and it turned out to be chest hairs...

And no, I didn't find out by pulling on one of them... His wife commented on them and grabbed the hairs and tucked them back in...

[oldr_n_wsr]

Wrong, guys! That was the nasal option

So you had to pay extra for that?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Yep - paid through the nose. All of this was predicted hundreds of years ago by Nostrildamus

[Long Run]

"Should I do your ear hairs?"

Could be worse, she could ask if you wanted them, permed, braided, coloured or styled.

I've actually seen someone walking around with a thicker, more styled, hair than this.

[Lord Jim]

[PMS Princess]

I decided I needed a change and go short (it's been 20yrs). I cut 7inches off last night. Not sure if it's going to cooperate (silver ones seem to have a mind of their own) but it sure feels nice when riding the motorcycle.

[PMS Princess]

I once thought Dubstep was something like Lord of the Dance or Western line dancing. Oh the shame!

[Econoline]

Has there ever been anyone, anywhere, at any time since the beginning of recorded history, who has purchased a motor vehicle because of a radio or television commercial?

[Gob]

I decided I needed a change and go short (it's been 20yrs).

That's from your head, not your ears I take it?

[MGMcAnick]

Has there ever been anyone, anywhere, at any time since the beginning of recorded history, who has purchased a motor vehicle because of a radio or television commercial?

Yes

[MajGenl.Meade]

Just saw the new Ben-Hur.

Whoopi Goldberg was really good

[RayThom]

Ben-Hur’s Watered-Down Christianity
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ben-hurs-wa ... 1472167001

[MajGenl.Meade]

Yeah, Jesus was just a random hippie. The previous version was better

[Crackpot]

Can you copy the full article? The link won't let you read without paying.

[RayThom]

Ben-Hur’s Watered-Down Christianity

By Charlotte Allen
Aug. 25, 2016 7:16 p.m. ET

This year’s remake of “Ben-Hur” bombed, and it bombed big. The film took in $11 million its opening weekend against a $100 million production budget. It isn’t only that the chariot race can’t compare with William Wyler’s 1959 classic. It is the Christianity.

Over the past decade, many faith-based films have tried to replicate the astonishing box-office success of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which earned more than $600 million world-wide. Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the husband-and-wife executive-producer team behind “Ben-Hur,” have had success with the formula. Every episode of their History Channel miniseries “The Bible” garnered at least 10 million viewers.

Following Mr. Gibson’s big-screen template, the couple pitched “Ben-Hur” in prerelease to the pastors and flocks of evangelical Christian megachurches. This may be why the new “Ben-Hur” expands the role of Jesus, who in Wyler’s film appeared only fleetingly. The new film has Jesus ( Rodrigo Santoro) making several significant appearances in the life of protagonist Judah Ben-Hur ( Jack Huston).

While the filmmakers treat the Messiah with utmost reverence, he offers only a mix of platitudes about peace and forgiveness. This watered-down Christianity mirrors the sentiments of today’s fearful-to-offend evangelicalism, which often seems more concerned with wooing new followers than offering a complete understanding of Christianity’s demands and rewards.

“Love your enemies,” Jesus tells a young Judah. Later, he pacifies an angry mob of Jewish-nationalist Zealots with more boilerplate, telling them that violence against the oppressive Roman regime won’t solve anything. A few scenes later, an impressively costumed Morgan Freeman, playing the wealthy Sheikh Ilderim, who becomes Judah’s chariot-racing patron, also points out that violence isn’t the answer. If you’ve got Morgan Freeman, who needs Jesus?

Christ’s specifically salvific role, which made him the center of Christian theology for the past 2,000 years, goes missing in the film. As portrayed in “Ben-Hur,” he is neither the Messiah, nor the king whose kingdom is not of this world. Jesus’ death on the cross has no particular religious significance here. The Passion is depicted as almost accidental, as Jesus is swept up in Pontius Pilate’s broader purge of Zealots. Jesus’ death serves as nothing more than an opportunity to set a good example by forgiving his enemies.

It isn’t that Mr. Burnett and Ms. Downey, Christians both, don’t believe critical elements of the traditional Christian creeds, such as the importance of the Crucifixion. They simply hesitated to incorporate them into this film. They even play down the healing of Judah’s leprosy-ridden mother and sister at the moment of Jesus’ death. This spectacular miracle is the 1959 version’s climax, in which a torrential rainstorm cleanses the city of Jerusalem along with Judah’s heart. Yet it remains an afterthought in the new film.

The lead characters—Judah and his boyhood-friend-turned-enemy, the Roman commander Messala—receive similarly shallow treatment. In Union Gen. Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel and the 1959 film, ruthless ambition motivates the young Roman. Judah refuses to help Messala rise in the Roman ranks by naming Zealot names. Messala then falsely accuses Judah of attempting to murder the Roman governor.

In the 2016 movie, Messala ( Toby Kebbell) is motivated by nothing more than vacuous insecurity. In a back-story unique to this film, Judah and Messala are adoptive brothers. But Messala, who continues to worship pagan gods, feels rejected by Judah’s Jewish family. The Romans don’t trust him either, because his grandfather helped to assassinate Julius Caesar. His denunciation of Judah is a desperate effort to prove himself. Underneath it all, however, Messala only wants to be loved.

So this is the new “Ben-Hur,” with a happy ending all around. “I can’t hate anymore,” says a tearful Judah, who has taken to heart Jesus’ last words about forgiveness. This is an affecting moment, yet hardly a message specific to Christianity. That is, unless your notion of Christianity consists solely of family values, generosity and tolerance. Those ideas matter, but even today’s doctrinally challenged megachurch evangelicals might find the film’s moral message wanting.

The makers of the next Hollywood Jesus movie would do well to take another look at why “The Passion of the Christ” succeeded. Mr. Gibson didn’t hesitate to imbue Jesus’ crucifixion with every ounce of theological meaning he saw. Jesus, the wholly innocent son of God, died for our sins. Mr. Gibson was determined to dramatize what he believed this atoning sacrifice actually entailed—suffering that corresponded to the enormity of human depravity.

This baffled and repelled secular film critics. However, it struck a chord with its intended viewers. And it contained a lesson: Don’t underestimate the sensibilities of an evangelical audience.

Ms. Allen is the author of “The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus” (Free Press, 1998).

[MajGenl.Meade]

Very penetrating analysis. Thanks, Ray (and CP for asking).

[Big RR]

eta: this quote

even today’s doctrinally challenged megachurch evangelicals

Meade--any idea who these are? Are they the megachurch Assemblies of God et al., or the more new age megachurches like Church Alive (and are these churches properly called evangelical christian?).