Saturday, June 10, 2006

CHRISTIANITY THE NEW OBSCENITY

The Motion Picture Association of America is crystal clear when it describes why its "PG" rating exists _ it's a warning flag. "The theme of a PG-rated film may itself call for parental guidance," states the online explanation of the rating system. "There may be some profanity in these films. There may be some violence or brief nudity. ... The PG rating, suggesting parental guidance, is thus an alert for examination of a film by parents before deciding on its viewing by their children. Obviously such a line is difficult to draw."

Disagreements are a given. The Christian moviemakers behind a low-budget film called "Facing the Giants" were stunned when the MPAA pinned a PG rating on their gentle movie about a burned-out, depressed football coach whose life _ on and off the field _ takes a miraculous turn for the better. "What the MPAA said is that the movie contained strong 'thematic elements' that might disturb some parents," said Kris Fuhr, vice president for marketing at Provident Films, which is owned by Sony Pictures. Provident plans to open the film next fall in 380 theaters nationwide with the help of Samuel Goldwyn Films, which has worked with indie movies like "The Squid and the Whale."

Which "thematic elements" earned this squeaky-clean movie its PG? "Facing the Giants" is too evangelistic. The MPAA, noted Fuhr, tends to offer cryptic explanations for its ratings. In this case, she was told that it "decided that the movie was heavily laden with messages from one religion and that this might offend people from other religions. It's important that they used the word 'proselytizing' when they talked about giving this movie a PG. ... "It is kind of interesting that faith has joined that list of deadly sins that the MPAA board wants to warn parents to worry about."

Overt Christian messages are woven throughout "Facing the Giants," which isn't surprising since the film was co-written and co-produced by brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, who are the "associate pastors of media" at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. In addition to working with the megachurch's cable-television channel, they created its Sherwood Pictures ministry -- collecting private donations to fund a $25,000 movie called "Flywheel," about a wayward Christian used-car salesman.

"Facing the Giants" cost $100,000 and resembles a fusion of the Book of Job and a homemade "Hoosiers," or perhaps a small- school "Friday Night Lights" blended with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association movies that used to appear in some mainstream theaters. Sherwood Pictures used local volunteers as actors and extras, backed by a small crew of tech professionals. The movie includes waves of answered prayers, a medical miracle, a mysterious silver-haired mystic who delivers a message from God and a bench-warmer who kicks a 51-yard field goal to win the big game when his handicapped father pulls himself out of a wheelchair and stands under the goal post to inspire his son's faith. There's a prayer-driven gust of wind in there, too.

But the scene that caught the MPAA's attention may have been the chat between football coach Grant Taylor -- played by Alex Kendrick -- and a rich brat named Matt Prader. The coach says that he needs to stop bad-mouthing his bossy father and get right with God. The boy replies: "You really believe in all that honoring God and following Jesus stuff? ... Well, I ain't trying to be disrespectful, but not everybody believes in that." The coach replies: "Matt, nobody's forcing anything on you. Following Jesus Christ is the decision that you're going to have to make for yourself. You may not want to accept it, because it'll change your life. You'll never be the same."

That kind of talk may be too blunt for some moviegoers, said Kendrick, but that's the way real people actually talk in Christian high schools in Georgia. Sherwood Baptist isn't going to apologize for making the kinds of movies that it wants to make. "Look, I have those kinds of conversations about faith all the time and I've seen young people make decisions that change their lives," he said. "The reason we're making movies in the first place is that we hope they inspire people to think twice about their relationships with God.

Source



QUEER BEHAVIOUR FROM A QUEER COP

Let's hope he is disciplined for his illegal harassment



A pro-family group in Florida is outraged over the behavior of some police officers last weekend who tried to stop a petition drive aimed at protecting traditional marriage. Last weekend members of the Florida Family Policy Council were at a Promise Keepers conference in Broward County where they were collecting petitions for the Florida4Marriage campaign, an effort to get onto the November 2008 ballot an amendment protecting traditional marriage. The pro-family group had paid a fee to have a booth at the PK event at which it was collecting the petitions in support of the campaign`s goal of gathering 611,009 signatures by July 12, 2006.

Then in what the group calls a "stunning display of unprofessional conduct," several members of the City of Sunrise Police Department arrived at the scene and ordered Council vice president Nathan Dunn to stop collecting the petitions, and then removed the petitions from public view. A discussion ensued, during which John Stemberger -- president and general counsel for the Council -- was summoned to the scene. The group says Stemberger`s request for an explanation of what law or ordinance was being violated was ignored by Police Sergeant Stephen Allen, who it says then began lecturing nearby volunteers on what Jesus taught about homosexuality, claiming that the petition effort was a waste of time and that he was the authority and they should obey him.

"It quickly became apparent that [Allen] was a supporter of gay marriage and personally disagreed with the marriage amendment effort," says the Council`s press release, which includes a picture of Allen kissing another male officer on the cheek in what the family advocacy group describes as a "mocking" gesture.

Stemberger reportedly returned the petitions to the exhibit table after security and event officials informed the police the petitions were authorized to be distributed at the table. At the height of the confrontation, notes the press release, the police sergeant "continued to interrupt with abusive and irrelevant personal remarks" and even threatened Stemberger with arrest if the petitions were not immediately removed from the table. "I stood in between the petitions and the officer and told Allen he had no legal authority," Stemberger said later, adding that he informed the sergeant he "had no legal authority, was in violation of the U.S. Constitution, and would have to arrest me because the petitions were going to stay on the table."

The incident finally ended when an official with the Bank Atlantic Center intervened to tell the officers that no laws or rules were being broken, and that the petitions could be distributed at the table. Allen and the other officers then left the scene.

Stemberger says he has never before seen such "unprofessional and bizarre" behavior from a law enforcement officer. Allen, he says, was "abusing" his authority and "trying to bully law-abiding citizens" just because he disagreed with them. "This is unacceptable and a disgrace to the thousands of good cops in Florida that put their lives on the line every day to protect our families and our liberties," the Council president says.

The pro-family group says the officers` "harassment and intimidation" should be a reminder to families of the culture war that is going on. "If we do not stand up to this type of abuse of power, then our constitutional rights will continue to be violated," says Stemberger.

Source



Haditha aftermath: Political correctness on the battlefield

Anybody refusing to stop at a military checkpoint is asking to be shot, in my view

US military personnel deployed in Iraq are being ordered to undergo training in moral and ethical standards, according to a Pentagon spokesman. The training is a result of concerns over the mounting furor over the alleged killing of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last November.

General George Casey -- commanding officer of Iraqi military operations -- ordered the training two days after US troops shot dead a pregnant mother and her cousin as they traveled to a maternity hospital.

Nabiha Nisaif Jassim was killed along with her cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, when they failed to stop at a checkpoint in Samarra, north of Baghdad. According to The Guardian, a military spokesman said troops had fired at the car, which was being driven by the pregnant woman's brother, in an attempt to "disable" it.

Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, said the ethics training, to take place over the next 30 days, would reinforce the education that troops receive before being sent into battle. It would emphasize "professional military values and the importance of disciplined, professional conduct in combat," he said.

"As military professionals, it is important that we take time to reflect on the values that separate us from our enemies," he said. "The challenge for us is to make sure the actions of a few do not tarnish the good work of the many."

The program is an obvious overreaction to the killing of "innocent civilians" by US Marines, and it amounts to no more than "Sensitivity Training for Combat Soldiers." In short, it's a program initiated to appease the left-wingers who will never be appeased. A soldier's first duty -- the same as a police officer's -- is to stay alive. Police officers know that in a combat situation, you are defending yourself against the unknown and your ultimate goal is to go home at the end of your tour. It must be much more intense for soldiers and Marines deployed in the hellhole known as Haditha, where brutal killings occur on a daily basis -- killings not perpetrated by US Marines.

The alleged massacre is already being compared to the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam, by left-wing politicians, the elite news media and others, who are using the incident to continue their assault on an organization -- the US military -- to which they pay lip-service, but in reality despise.

The American media -- in their rush to judgment -- have constantly denigrated the military as a result of the Haditha incident. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) stated that the incident was "cold-blooded murder." The darling of the left-wing media apparently doesn't know the meaning of the term. On one hand the media claim the Marines were out-of-control -- which indicates a "heated" reaction to their situation -- on the other we are bombarded with Murtha's tirades about "cold-blooded murder," something about which he admits he knows nothing. He even admitted he never bothered to read the preliminary report on Haditha. Perhaps he prefers reading his reports in the arguably treasonous New York Times and Washington Post.

Meanwhile, only one newspaper -- a British one at that -- decided to print a story about Haditha. It is a terrorist stronghold where executions are a common occurrence. These public murders are attended by "innocent" civilians, including children, who cheer the executioners on. While the news media fail to describe the hellish environment of Haditha, Paul Robinson, a former army intelligence officer and an expert on military ethics, is being courted by reporters as he warns that the effects of formal "sensitivity" training would be "blunted by peer pressure, military loyalty, and public desire in the US for revenge and forceful action." "Teaching the individual soldiers is not enough," he's quoted in The Guardian as saying, "Moral leadership needs to be exerted from on high, all the way down the chain of command.

His statement fits right in with the American news media's template for covering warfare in the 21st Century, including a slam at the American people -- as opposed to the American elite -- for being vengeful.

Do we really want to turn our fighting forces into "sensitive" wimps or do we want the toughest, fiercest fighting force in world? Unlike the clowns who make statements about "cold-blooded murder," "innocent civilians," and other comments, I don't know what happened in Haditha. I do know that generalizing about US Marines -- or any military service -- based on the actions of a few is wrong. Same as it's wrong to judge all police officers based on the actions of a few; or judging an entire group such as Muslims based on the actions of a few.

Source



Australia's most Leftist government rejects homosexual marriage

The Bracks Government has rebuffed a push to introduce gay civil union laws through the Victorian Parliament. Independent MP and ex-Liberal Andrew Olexander has drawn up a private members bill permitting officially recognised gay unions in Victoria and this has drawn tentative support from state Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu. However Mr Bracks said his government would not be encouraging the issue in Victoria, and without Labor's support the Bill would probably be doomed. "That is not a matter on our agenda," Premier Steve Bracks said.

Mr Baillieu said he wanted to see how the Olexander Bill was drafted. "I don't have a problem with the notion of civil unions," Mr Baillieu said. "The definition of that is still to be determined, but if it goes to the registration of relationships . . . and helps people manage their relationships when they're together and separating, I'm comfortable."

In an unusual move the ACT Government is planning to use the authority of the Governor-General to recognise the Territory's powers to enact its own laws. Yesterday, the ACT Assembly drafted an address to Governor-General Michael Jeffrey, which will be carried by the Speaker to the vice-regal residence. At least some pro-gay MPs are planning to accompany the Speaker carrying the Assembly's Mace to Yarralumla. The Howard Government's move to overturn the ACT civil union laws has created a storm from gay activists and supporters of states' rights. Mr Olexander's Bill is expected to come before the State Parliament prior to November's state poll.

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