By religious, I mean movies about faith, not necessarily Christian or so-called family values. Sometimes, the movies ask tough questions. They are not always inspirational. I have never particularly liked movies about Jesus, because, in my opinion, no movie even…
Receiving the Truth
In the first chapter of Romans, as Paul is laying out the general indictment of all humanity before bringing to bear the good news of the Gospel, he makes the observation that what can be known about God has always…
Embrace the variety
I read a blog post recently that really got me thinking. In the post, fellow ABP blogger, Alan Rudnick advocates for services based on differing worship styles to be de-segregated, that is, to be replaced by blended services containing multiple worship expressions….
How to handle those pesky blog ‘trolls’
After blogging for over 5 years, I’ve been on the receiving end of some pretty harsh comments. I’ve found there are two types of negative blog commentator: productive criticism and blog trolls. Blog trolls, like their mythical archetypes, lurk in…
A Plastic Feast, Part 3
In the first two parts of this series I shared some reflections on the Fox-National Geographic Channel’s reboot of Carl Sagan’s classic science series, Cosmos. While the show is a feast for the eyes with its stunning cinematography and computer…
A plastic feast, part 2
In the first part of my reflections on the recent Fox-National Geographic reboot of Carl Sagan’s famous series, Cosmos, I focused on some of the scientific problems in the first episode. Those, however, were far from the only problems with…
A plastic feast, part 1
On a recent Sunday evening I tuned in to watch the Fox and National Geographic Channel’s presentation of Cosmos. While I am a generation too late to have been around for Carl Sagan’s original series by the same title, I…
Why it doesn’t matter if Noah film is inaccurate
Noah starring Russell Crowe has seen success at the box office with the general public but not everyone is happy about the film. Some claim that the Noah story was hijacked and is inaccurate. True, there are parts of Noah…
I see what you did there
This past fall I was intrigued enough by the promos for the Fox drama, Sleepy Hollow, to watch. With the first season now ended, here are some reflections on the show and some of the worldview assumptions undergirding it. For…
Finding our way home
Two seemingly unrelated stories recently captured my attention. One came my way while on an afternoon date with my wife. The other arrived the same night, as I sat down and read a book written by a long-term friend. By…
‘Real Preachers of L.A.’ are for real
As if we didn’t need another “Real (fill in the blank) of (fill in the blank)” reality show, the Oxygen Network premiered “Real Preachers of L.A.“. I suppose it was only a matter of time that preachers/ministers would get their…
Jesus, Easter, and the always-awesome “Office Space”
Once, when I worked at a job that had regular staff meetings that I quite abhorred, I found great and sacred solace in the profound film Office Space. How could it not provide a plethora of holy moments? Here, in this…