It was the best of Gospel-based films; it was the worst of Gospel-based films

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Wa’ethḥannan).

Today’s holidays:  The Nine Days (Judaism), Monday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Dr. Doom/St. Thulsa Doom (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of the Magi: Krishna (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell Restaurants and Markets: Donate, Don't Dump, Usable Excess Food - The Petition Site” and “Forget what Timothy Geithner thinks. We want Elizabeth Warren to police Wall Street.”.

Topic 1:  Tomorrow is 9 ’Av (Tish‘ah be’Av), the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, commemorating the destruction of both Temples and a number of other tragedies in Jewish history.  You can find out about this holiday at OU.org.  Furthermore, “Why I like Tisha Be’Av” presents an unusual perspective to the holiday; while acknowledging its aspect of mourning, the author emphasizes what we have now and in the future which is worth having.

Topic 2:  The final film in my series on Gospel-based movies, Color of the Cross.  As implied by the title of this post, this film is in one aspect the best of the bunch and in other aspects the worst of the bunch.

What is great about Color of the Cross is that the antagonists have motives for what they do.  The writers do not simply parrot the Gospels, but try to make what happens make some sort of sense.  The Romans are consistently cruel and oppressive, as is fitting for people trying to dominate an extensive empire.  Caiaphas, while acting against Jesus, does so because he is under pressure from the Roman soldier Horatio, who demands that all “prophets” (who are potential troublemakers) be turned over to him.  The Sanhedhrin calls for Jesus’s arrest to protect him from a racist mob.  Judas betrays Jesus not for money or spite or hatred, but because he wants to start an uprising to drive out the Romans.

There are two things which are really bad about Color of the Cross.  The first and most obvious is the introduction of racism into the story.  Jesus and some of the other Jewish characters are black, and many Jews are depicted as having trouble with the idea of a black Messiah.  This is an astoundingly bad idea, as the notion of prejudice against anyone based on skin color is completely absent from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.  There is an awareness that some humans have dark skin—e.g., Jeremiah 13:23 implies that the people of Kush (Ethiopia) have a different skin color from Jews—but nowhere is there any claim that dark-skinned people are bad or light-skinned people are good.  Racism did not merely have nothing to do with why Jesus was killed, either in how he was depicted in the New Testament or reality; grafting it into the story short-circuits any serious attempt at exploring why he was killed.

The other thing really bad about Color of the Cross is the lack of serious research.  Clearly the writers made some attempt at studying Judaism, but what they studied was modern Judaism, not that of the Second Temple Period, and the study made was superficial.  The details needed to ensure that the writers looked like they knew what they were doing are absent or wrong.  (To be frank, if they had talked with anyone who could provide the necessary information, they might have well discovered that serious Jews consider the arguments made in the New Testament that Jesus is the Messiah or the Son of God to be invalid, and this film would have not existed at all, or it would have turned out to be a very different film.)  No Jew who knows anything is going let ḥameṣ (leavened grain or grain products) remain in his/her possession anywhere near Sundown the day before Pesaḥ (Passover); neither would he/she identify a miqweh (ritual bath) as “holy water”.  Anyone sufficiently familiar with the Torah would know that the Messiah is not mentioned therein, only perhaps hinted at.  None of the characters has a clue that the minimum that one needs to eat in order for it to legally be considered eating is the volume of an olive, and Jesus makes the bizarre assertion that the lamb used for the qorban Pesaḥ (paschal sacrifice) needs to be a virgin.  And while ṃaṣṣah (unleavened bread) and wine make their appearance at the sedher (the ritual storytelling and meal on Pesaḥ), the writers really have no clue what the whole business of dipping is about and have no idea that maror (bitter herbs) and the qorban Pesaḥ should be present, not to mention the fact that the qorban Pesaḥ is supposed to be slaughtered on the Temple Mount and eaten in Jerusalem.  For some reason, the whole movie takes place in Arimathea, despite the claims of the Gospels.  The costumes for the Priests and Pharisees are blatantly copied from The Passion of the Christ.  And for no apparent reason, Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate, both of whom are mentioned in all four canonical Gospels, are dropped from the story entirely.

In conclusion, Color of the Christ makes some attempt to turn the antagonists into believable characters, but forcing racism into the story is not an improvement, and the research department utterly failed to do their job.

Peace and have an easy fast.

Aaron

Louis Farrakhan is no scholar

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Pineḥas).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Phil Spector (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Stop Antibiotic Abuse on Factory Farms”.

Topic 1:  The daily dose of anti-Semitism gets weirder.  “Louis Farrakhan calls Jews the “worst enemy” of African Americans” and “Farrakhan charges Jews with 'anti-black' behavior” report that Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, infamous for a long history of inflammatory anti-Semitic rhetoric, recently sent a letter to many major American Jewish groups, assailing Jews for alleged anti-black behavior above and beyond anything else anyone else has done, with tones of a conspiracy “theory”.  Bizarrely, the letter also asks for opening dialog.  (The rhetorical faux pas should be obvious even to people who are not particularly bright.)  The response of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is described in “ADL Slams Farrakhan For Blaming Jews For Financial Ruin Of Blacks”.  The most worthwhile thing your humble blogger managed to dig up in looking into this story is the ADL’s “Jew-Hatred as History”, which analyzes what Farrakhan tries to pass off as scholarship; he is apparently fond of overgeneralization, quoting out of context, blaming groups for the sins of individuals, historical revisionism, racism, blaming children for their parents’ crimes, and stereotyping.  This is definitely worth reading to learn how not to do scholarship.

More on anti-Semitism:  “Tom Friedman Slanders Israel” (dealing with double standards) and “Camp David ( 2000 )”.

Topic 2:  More religious persecution:  “48 Va. inmates isolated because of hair” (Rastafarians are supposed to wear long hair) and “After Failed Attempt of Forced Islamization Egyptian Christian Family Under Siege” (and this is happening in a country which is supposed to be an ally of the United States and receiving US aid).

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “MANTISYAHU”:


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Islamic terrorism and communion on the Moon

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Wayyaqhel-Fequdhe).

Today’s holidays:  Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Feast of Israel Regardie (Thelema).

Worthy cause of the day:

Topic 1:  There is no way I am going to escape this, since it was on the news yesterday:  “Pa. woman charged with recruiting jihadists”.  This article deals with Colleen LaRose, an American convert to Islam who became involved with terrorists.  One of the things said in this article struck me as notable:

The case "demonstrates that terrorists are looking for Americans to join them in their cause, and it shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance," U.S. Attorney Michael Levy said.

What was so great about LaRose (so far as Islamic terrorists were concerned) is that she looks like an ordinary American, thus reducing intuitive suspicion of her activities.  Apologists for Islamic terrorism have complained that being suspicious of Muslims of Middle Eastern descent is racist.  Indeed, I have heard of a few incidents of hostility against Middle Eastern-looking people (Syrian Jews, Sikhs) by some Americans who did not have the knowledge or good sense to be able to distinguish from Muslims.  But Mr. Levy has a point:  suspicion against Muslims is not about race.  Islam is the most pro-terror of all the major religions, and it makes sense for non-Muslims to be cautious of Muslims, regardless of what they look like.

I also keep running across this video a lot lately:  “British Islamist Anjem Choudary: They Give US Money, But We Attack Their System”:

Anjem Choudary, interviewed in this video, is an apologist for Islam terrorism and seeks to implement shari‘ah in the United Kingdom.  Interesting is his claim that under such a system the monarchy would be eradicated, which is odd since Muslim countries are highly autocratic, including the Kingdom of Jordan.  Also interesting is that he identifies un-Islamic ideals, such as “freedom” and “democracy”, with idolatry; I hope this is a metaphor, though as a metaphor it has gotten very stale.  Choudary seems to think that everything would be rosy and wonderful under shari‘ah in the UK; please note that countries which implement shari‘ah are not noted for freedom or respect for humanity.

Topic 2:  “Communion on the Moon”:  Just a little historical article I ran across lately.  I had been aware of one of the astronauts transmitting back a reading of the opening of Genesis on the Apollo 8 mission, but I had no idea that Buzz Aldrin took communion on the Moon.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  Yet another LOLcat picture featuring Basement Cat:  “And what”:

Peace.

Aaron

Lyra Silvertongue is going to Hell

Greetings.

Jewish date:  23 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Ḥayye-Sarah).

Today’s holidays:  Saint Day of Leo the Great (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “IBR Message Center | UANI:  Send a United Message:  Sign the petition and urge these companies to stop doing business with the Iranian regime by sending them a message today” and “Take Action | UANI:  Message to the Los Angeles MTA on Light Rail Contract”.

Topic 1:  Chapters 14-19 of The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) by Philip Pullman.  The theology and story get more and more bizarre.  It is revealed that Lord Asriel does not plan on invading Heaven; he is amassing a great army and supplies and waiting for Heaven to attack him at his fortress.  This plan has the fatal flaw that if the Authority never attacks, Lord Asriel can never win.  Presumably the Authority is not a moron—he has been smart enough to be able to retain power for thousands of years—so Lord Asriel had better have a plan B in just in case his plan A would result in him dying of old age before the Authority attacks.


Meanwhile, Mary Malone, ex-nun and physicist, has found herself in another world populated by wheeled creatures known as the mulefa (singular:  zanif, and please, do not ask me why, because I have no clue).  The thing about the mulefa having wheels is plausible because the wheels are not actually parts of their bodies but rather rather seedpods of a tree they have a symbiotic relationship with; use of seedpods as wheels, mounted on the mulefa’s horny axles, is aided by an oil exuded by the seedpods.  Where Pullman gets flaky about the mulefa is that seedpod oil enables the mulefa to see Dust.  The mulefa even have a metaphorical story about a snake introducing the mulefa to the use of seedpods as wheels, which considering that seedpods are fruit should be ringing a few bells about now.  Why oil, which does not have unusual properties with regard to interacting with anything, should be useful for seeing Dust, is not explained, though considering the physics (and theology) of this trilogy is half-baked from the start, I should not be surprised at all.  Mary manages to use seedpod oil to make an optical device that lets her see Dust herself.


There is no way I can omit mentioning what happens to Lyra and Will, the heroes of the story.  They decide to take a trip to the land of the dead.  So far they have only reached the waiting area where the living who accidentally reach that world must wait to die, but what Pullman comes up with so far makes even the bureaucratic afterlife of Beetle Juice seem like sheer ecstasy.  The land of the dead is a dark, dreary place.  The dead must cross a river to the afterlife.  (Shades of Charon and the river Styx).  The living who make it to the land of the dead must wait until they die.  They are neither allowed to return to the world they came from nor provided for, so the waiting area is a squalid refugee camp where the living can remain for decades.  It is also revealed that everyone has a death, a being which follows him/her around and eventually takes him/her across the river to the afterlife.  (Shades of Hermes or the Grim Reaper, only personalized.)  Deaths usually remain out of one’s sight, but in the waiting area some people are on good terms with their deaths and see them constantly.  At the end of chapter 19, Lyra convinces her death to take her and her companions over the river while still alive.  You will have to wait till I read further to find out what happens next, though given Pullman’s attitudes, the afterlife being anything other than hellish would be shocking.  However, this particular journey has a rather mythological feel to it.  I might argue for connections with the journeys of Heracles (Hercules) and Orpheus into the realm of Hades, though considering Pullman’s hatred of Christianity, Lyra may be reflecting Jesus.  Lyra is supposed to be the new Ḥawwah (Eve); this may reflect a title given to Jesus in the New Testament:  “the new Adam”.  Like Jesus, Lyra is supposed to be a figure of salvation, the subject of prophecy, and someone dangerous to the establishment.  Just as Jesus was the product of adultery (Mary was married to Joseph, not the Holy Spirit), so too Lyra is the product of adultery.  And now, just as Jesus died and purportedly rose from the dead, Lyra has gone to the land of the dead and probably will return.  We will see how far the parallels play out.


Topic 2:  “The British Dare to Determine Who is a Jew”.  This article by Rav Shmuely Boteach complains about a recent court ruling in the UK which tries to dictate to a Jewish day school who is a Jew.  Do note that religions frequently have membership criteria, and among them one will never find the opinion of a government.  Considering the source of authority for religious membership criteria are not subject to government regulation, e.g., they are dictated by a deity beyond the reach of human jurisdiction, no government can reasonably expect a government ruling on religious membership criteria to ever be followed.  This is nothing less than a violation of freedom of religion.  The claim that Jewish membership criteria are racist is particularly ill-founded.  One is Jewish if one’s mother was Jewish at the time of one’s birth or if one converts.  Racial background is irrelevant to these criteria, as humans of any race may convert, and the maternal line descendants of said people are considered Jewish in perpetuity.


Topic 3:  “Start Worrying (1994)”:  This Dry Bones cartoon is prescient to the recent Fort Hood attack by a Muslim in the name of Islam in the United States.  


Peace.

Aaron