November 16, 2007 | 11:34 am

‘How Hollywood saved God’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Hanna Rosin has an article in this month’s Atlantic titled “How Hollywood saved God.” This is familiar territory for Rosin, who just published “God’s Harvard” and has written before about the evangelical Christian movement in Hollywood.

This month, New Line Cinema will release The Golden Compass, based on the first book in a trilogy of edgy children’s novels written by the British author Philip Pullman. A trailer for the movie evokes The Lord of the Rings, and comparisons have been made to The Chronicles of Narnia. All three are epic adventures that unfold in a rich fantasy world, perfect for the big screen. But beyond that basic description, the comparisons fall apart. In the past, Pullman has expressed mainly contempt for the books on which the other movies were based. He once dismissed the Lord of the Rings trilogy as an “infantile work” primarily concerned with “maps and plans and languages and codes.” Narnia got it even worse: “Morally loathsome,” he called it. “One of the most ugly and poisonous things I’ve ever read.” He described his own series as Narnia’s moral opposite. “That’s the Christian one,” he told me. “And mine is the non-Christian.”

Pullman’s books have sold 15 million copies worldwide, although it’s difficult to imagine adolescent novels any more openly subversive. The series, known collectively as His Dark Materials, centers on Lyra Belacqua, a preteen orphan who’s pursued by a murderous institution known as “the Magisterium.” Or to use the more familiar name, “the Holy Church.” In its quest to eradicate sin, the Church sanctions experiments involving the kidnap and torture of hundreds of children—experiments that separate body from soul and leave the children to stumble around zombie-like, and then die.

The point of Rosin’s article is that after five years and a bunch of rewrites, not to mention $180 million in production, producers have taken the anti-religious out of Pullman’s epic. I think.

See, I don’t have a subscription to The Atlantic anymore. (I rarely enjoyed reading it.) So all I got for free online are the two paragraphs above. If any God Blog readers have a subscription, please, inform us of what the article is really about.

November 16, 2007 | 9:53 am

‘Circumcision accident’ from JTA

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Bloggish warns you not to click through to this story.

    Really, you can try and find out what’s behind that provocative headline on our home page nifty JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) Java [tm] news ticker, but why would you?

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November 16, 2007 | 9:33 am

JJ editor: ‘Writers Strike is a Jewish issue’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

My editor at The Jewish Journal, Rob Eshman, disagrees with the premise of my Wandering Jew column last week, in which I argued that the writer’s strike is not a Jewish story. Here’s the nut:

Indeed, “Hollywood writer” is among the most Jewish job descriptions anywhere, which is why, as this long-anticipated strike approached, my editors asked me to report the news through a Jewish lens. The difficulty, however, is that this really isn’t a Jewish story. It’s a business story that just happens to deal with an industry built largely by Jewish immigrants and sustained by their successors.

In his column this week, Rob writes:

The Writers Strike is a Jewish issue.

How do I know that? Because everyone is saying it’s not. The writers who are demanding a larger share of DVD rights and residuals for their work and the producers who refuse to give it to them both say, repeatedly, that despite the fact that so many of them happen to be Jewish, the strike is not—as Jewish writers and producers told our senior reporter Brad Greenberg last week—a Jewish issue.

To paraphrase a Clinton-era favorite, you can be sure that when everyone is saying it’s not about being Jewish, it’s about being Jewish.

Strip away the brand-name products and gossipy inside Hollywood milieu of this strike, and what you have is a question of fair compensation and just treatment of labor.

It is a question our sages wrestled with, beginning with a law laid down in Leviticus 25:14: “And when you sell something to your fellow, or buy from the hand of your fellow, don’t oppress each other.”

How shallow has our Jewish life become and how silent have our pulpits fallen when we blithely accept the idea that a 4,000-year-old ethical tradition has nothing to say about how we do business?

Certainly, Jewish ethics should not be dismissed in how the Jewish writers and producers treat each other in this labor dispute. But I don’t think that makes it a Jewish issue—that makes it an issue influenced by Jewish values. The same could be said for most of the things that happen in certain pockets of Los Angeles where Jews abound.

Sometimes, as in the ongoing case for and against expansion of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a controversy becomes a Jewish issue because it deals with more than just morals and ethics but actual Jewish interests and institutions. I just don’t think the plight of TV and film writers—even if it was once an almost entirely Yiddish operation—fits into this category.

But, then again, Rebecca Spence at The Forward spoke with the same union leader I did, David N. Weiss, and got the exact opposite angle from very similar responses.

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November 16, 2007 | 1:14 am

The Jews for Ron Paul

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I do not understand why Ron Paul is so popular on the Internet, though I did once find him to be worth a good quote. Anyway, JTA has a story out about the few Jews backing the maverick Republican running for president. (That’s Ron Paul, not Crazy Rudy.)

Paul’s candidacy was dismissed early on due to his support from white supremacist, Libertarian and other fringe groups, but the campaign has begun to pick up steam on college campuses and on the Internet, in part due to his staunch anti-war stance.

A longtime Texas congressman, Paul raised $4.2 million on Nov. 5 from 37,000 individual donors who agreed to give as part of a “money bomb” on Guy Fawkes Day, the anniversary of the failed plot of a British mercenary to kill King James I in 1605. In September, he announced that he’d brought in $5.2 million in the previous three months, putting him ahead of John McCain in the Republican money race.

Even as Paul makes headway in some circles, organized Jewish support for his Republican presidential bid is nearly nonexistent, thanks to the candidate’s longstanding stance against providing foreign aid, including U.S. assistance to Israel.

And last month, The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) pointedly did not invite him to participate in its candidates’ forum. His reported support from extremist groups hasn’t helped win him favor among Jews.

Still, Paul commands a loyal, albeit small, Jewish following. This Jewish support has followed the same pattern as Paul’s backing from other groups—coming from out-of-the way places on the Internet and taking mainstream media and political organizations by surprise.

In addition to Perry’s Jews for Ron Paul, there is Zionists for Ron Paul—an outfit launched by Yehuda HaKohen, an American immigrant to Israel, and some of his friends back in the United States.

Some of Paul’s Jewish supporters believe that it would be best for Israel if the United States kept out of Jerusalem’s affairs. There are also those who believe that American aid to Israel is dangerous because it feeds the perception that Jews wield too much influence over U.S. foreign policy.

“Many of us believe the current relationship between the United States and Israel is a very unhealthy relationship, like that of a man and concubine, or a slave and master,” HaKohen said.

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November 15, 2007 | 11:26 pm

‘GOD STILL LOVES US’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Thanks to Jeff for sending this photo. It’s, I imagine, from the diamond district in downtown L.A.

Comments?

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November 15, 2007 | 8:23 pm

In Israel, peace not now

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

U.S. diplomats are making a strong push for the American Jewish community to support the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian peace summit at Annapolis, which is silly because so few Israelis and Palestinians respectively support Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas.

Rick Richman at Jewish Current Issues says that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is still saying the same convoluted and unfounded thing:

Most Palestinians now believe that Israel will always be their neighbor and that no Palestinian state is going to be born through violence.

I’ll tell you what, I spent my Sunday at a StandWithUs conference at Bnai David-Judea focusing on the prospects of peace, and optimism was not in the air.

Khaled Abu Toameh, a Palestinian affairs reporter for the Jerusalem Post and NBC News, said it isn’t—Fatah is too weak, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas too unpopular to sincerely negotiate a solution.

“Even if he gets 100 percent, he can’t implement it,” Abu Toameh said. “He doesn’t have the power.”

Mitchell Bard, executive director of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, followed with a similarly downtrodden tone. Muslims, he said, have time on their side, with a birthrate much higher than Israeli Jews and the hope of future nuclear weaponry.

“So you wait,” Bard said. “Why would you want some crummy little state in Gaza and the West Bank, when all you have to do is wait?”

(skip)

“The gap between Fatah and Hamas is narrowing,” Marcus said, pointing to soccer tournaments named after suicide bombers, textbooks approved by the Palestinian Authority that say the presence of non-Muslims on Palestinian land is an affront to Allah and an image used on Fatah TV that shows the Palestinian flag covering Israel on a map, with an emblem in the middle that states, “Palestine—2007.”

For this reason, Abu Toameh said the time is not ripe for negotiations: “The Palestinian street is very radical, very bitter. I’m sorry to say it, but I don’t see where we go from here.”

“There are many Israelis who are prepared to give up large parts of Arab Jerusalem,” the Jerusalem resident later added. “I think it is a mistake. If we had a really good government on the Palestinian side, I would say bring them in. But with Fatah and Hamas, I would run away.”

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November 15, 2007 | 4:29 pm

Barry Bonds indicted for perjury

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The feds couldn’t have indicted Barry Bonds before he broke Hank Aaron’s home run record? This just in.

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November 15, 2007 | 1:05 pm

A Christian responds to atheism

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Stan Guthrie at Christianity Today offers this “Reader’s Digest version” of why he’s a Christian:

Let’s face it: Atheism is in. Not since Nietzsche have disbelievers enjoyed such a ready public reception to their godless message—and such near-miraculous royalties. But even that hasn’t put them in a good mood. Snaps Christopher Hitchens, who wrote God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (although not, presumably, the pronouncements of atheists), “Many of the teachings of Christianity are, as well as being incredible and mythical, immoral.” A feuding Richard Dawkins suggests that believers “just shut up.” Apparently, they didn’t get the tolerance memo.

Other authors—including Douglas Wilson and Francis Collins—have quite capably refuted the new atheist shtick. But remembering Bertrand Russell’s famous essay, “Why I Am Not a Christian,” here is a Reader’s Digest version of why I am.

Creation: The universe, far from being a howling wasteland indifferent to our existence, appears to be finely tuned through its estimated 13.7 billion years of existence to support life on this planet. ...

Beauty: Beethoven’s Ninth, a snowflake, the sweet smell of a baby who has been sleeping, and a sunset beyond the dunes of Lake Michigan all point to a magnificent and loving Creator. And isn’t it interesting that we have the capacity—unlike mere animals—to gape in awe, to be brought to tears, before them? Truly did David say, “What is man, that you are mindful of him?”

New Testament reliability: Compared with the handful of existing copies of seminal ancient works such as Homer’s Iliad, the New Testament’s provenance is far better attested. There are thousands of NT manuscripts in existence, some made within mere decades of the events they report. Scholar F. F. Bruce said, “The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar.”

Scripture: Unlike other religious texts, the Bible gives us the good, the bad, and the ugly of its heroes: Abraham, Jacob, David, and Peter among them. Further, Scripture’s message rings true. ...

Jesus: Christ’s life and teachings are unparalleled in world history, as any Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim—or atheist—worth his salt will admit. Napoleon reportedly said, “I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. ...

The trilemma: C.S. Lewis, commenting on Christ’s claim to divinity, said: “You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Resurrection: ...

Progress: ...

Testimonies: ...

My experience: Finally, as a forgiven sinner, I testify to an imperfect yet growing sense of God’s peace, presence, and provision since receiving Christ more than a quarter-century ago. Despite occasional setbacks, my faith has deepened and strengthened, whatever life brings.

And that includes the angry rantings of atheists.

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November 15, 2007 | 11:52 am

One courageous Palestinian freedom fighter

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I’m not a fan of the suicide bombers who consider themselves servants of Allah and the Palestinian cause. But Khaled Abu Toameh, he’s the kind of Palestinian freedom fighter I can get behind (his mother was Palestinian, his father an Israeli Arab). Why? Because Abu Toameh is a journalist like me, only he reports on the inner workings and scandals of Fatah and Hamas. Better yet, he writes for the Jerusalem Post.

When I was in Israel last summer and saw his name in the paper, I wondered how he could possibly stay alive. Sunday, I heard Abu Toameh speak at a conference at B’nai David-Judea, and was blown away by his candid assessment of the pathetic peace process—really, political theater—that is leading two wildly unpopular leaders, Olmert and Abbas, to an upcoming summit at Annapolis. (More on that later today.)

“People often ask me, ‘What went wrong with you? When did you change? Are you a Zionist Arab? You started out working for the PLO, now you’re writing for a Jewish paper,’” said Abu Toameh, who began his career as a journalist for the party of Yasser Arafat. “I find it sad that as an Arab Muslim I have to work for a Jewish newspaper because that is the only place that will publish my stories freely.”

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November 14, 2007 | 11:11 pm

‘Mormon Robin Hood’ robbin’ banks

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Julio Cesar Rodriguez says he stole from the rich, gave to the poor and got caught because he didn’t cover his face when he tried to knock over the San Fernando Citibank.

Prosecutors charged the 32-year-old Arleta man with 14 counts of robbery and attempted robbery Tuesday in a string of bank jobs dating back to 2004. Though his arraignment was delayed until later this month, police said he has admitted his guilt and cooperated with the investigation.

The Los Angeles Police Department alleges Rodriguez snatched close to half a million bucks out of bank vaults throughout the northeast San Fernando Valley. When Detective Ursula Guillory of the Robbery-Homicide Division asked what he did with the proceeds, Rodriguez offered a shocking answer.

“He said, ‘I spent a little on myself, then I went down to Skid Row and handed it out,’” Guillory said. “He went on to tell us about all the rest of the robberies.”

She’d been tracking him for months, based on DNA evidence obtained from the scarf he used to cover his face in an earlier robbery in Van Nuys. He’d scribbled lines from the Book of Mormon inside alluding to 1st Nephi 3:7. Guillory asked him about the passage, and he said he belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Now I’ve got a bank-robbing, Mormon Robin Hood,” she said. “He was very cooperative and said he wanted to be responsible. He said, ‘I don’t want to waste your time, detective.’”

 

That’s the top of an article in today’s LA Daily News by the always excellent Brent Hopkins. A contributer to the It’s A Crime blog, Brent sent me this note when I told him I liked his story:

Now I’m not an expert in all the tenets of the Mormon faith, but I’m guessing that “don’t rob banks” fits somewhere in between “don’t drink coffee”, “don’t smoke cigarettes” and “spread the word of the Joseph Smith and/or the Lord.”

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November 14, 2007 | 4:54 pm

Catholic bishops turned away from Western Wall

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Should crucifixes and other evocative Christian images be barred from the Western Wall? I just got off the phone with an Orthodox rabbi who wasn’t so sure what the right response would have been when a group of Catholic bishops approached the Kotel yesterday in fall Christian regalia.

Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch refused to give the bishops access to the site and avoided meeting the ecclesiastic delegation of approximately 20, led by Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schonborn.

Rabinovitch denied that the incident, which took place Thursday, smacked of religious intolerance.

“Crosses are a symbol that hurts Jewish feelings,” said Rabinovitch who refused to elaborate on precisely how or why the crosses were so offensive.

“I feel the same way about a Jew putting on a tallit and phylacteries and going into a Church. I would be the first to rebuke such a Jew for not behaving like a mensch.” Rabinovitch added that he was surprised the Catholic clerics refused to hide their crosses.

“They did not have to take them off, just hide them. I’ve never encountered a Christian who has refused, including the Pope.”

 

This reminds me a bit of Ariel Sharon’s military-led visit to the Temple Mount in 2000, only the bishops’ visit, thank God, has not sparked a guerrilla war.

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November 14, 2007 | 3:14 pm

Georgia governor leads prayer for rain

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

ATLANTA—Bowing his head outside the Georgia Capitol on Tuesday, Gov. Sonny Perdue cut a newly repentant figure as he publicly prayed for rain to end the region’s historic drought.

“Oh father, we acknowledge our wastefulness,” Perdue said. “But we’re doing better. And I thought it was time to acknowledge that to the creator, the provider of water and land, and to tell him that we will do better.”

Hundreds of Georgians—ministers and lawmakers, landscapers and office workers—gathered in downtown Atlanta for the prayer vigil. Some held bibles and crucifixes. Many swayed and linked arms as a choir sang “What a Mighty God We Serve” and “Amazing Grace.”

As Perdue described it, “We have come together, very simply, for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm.”

“It’s got to be worth a shot,” said David Mais, 34, an Atlanta resident who is worried his carpet cleaning business could suffer from the drought. “I do think we need to do a lot more, but hopefully prayer will unite us.”

As metropolitan Atlanta’s water supplies drain to record lows, many across the Southeast have criticized Perdue and other Georgia officials for failing to introduce more stringent conservation measures.

The rest of this story from the LA Times is here. It’s clear to me that God answers our prayers if we are earnest in seeking His help. But God doesn’t reward poor stewardship, which reminds me of a story I wrote last year about a group that traveled far and wide to Hollywood to pray for lower gas prices:

The Rev. Beatrice Williams drove 110 miles to Hollywood on Wednesday to beg the Lord for lower gasoline prices.

“There is victory when we stand together,” Williams said, after joining eight others in prayer. “We will overcome, and we will overcome this if there are enough people who believe that God cares.”

Standing beneath the Gothic Revival tower of Hollywood United Methodist Church - and across from a Chevron station charging $3.43 a gallon for unleaded - the group asked God to comfort those paying more while driving less.

“We give you praise and honor and glory. You are king of all kings. You know our needs,” Bishop Donald Downing, pastor of Heart to Heart Christian Center in Fort Washington, Md., prayed as cars zipped through the intersection of Highland and Franklin avenues, occasionally honking.

“These high gas prices, Lord, bring them down, oh Father.”

These prayer warriors were hoping to induce the same miracle the effort’s organizer, Pray Live, claims it brought about in Washington, D.C. After about 50 attended a gathering in late April, national fuel prices dropped a few cents.

(skip)

Gasoline experts have been offering advice for months on how drivers can reduce fuel prices: empty the trunk, combine errands, keep tires properly inflated, maintain a steady speed.

“People seek - what is the word I’m looking for? - relief in many ways,” said Jeff Spring, a spokesman for the Automobile Club of Southern California. “We would recommend they continue to try to cut their use of gas to try to lower the prices. Reduced demand will lower their prices.”

What about asking for help from above?

“I’ll leave that question up to the theologians,” Spring said.

I think Lance Warner, a 22-year-old history student at Georgia State University, hits the nail on the head in the Times article.

“You can’t make up for years of water mismanagement with a prayer session. It’s lunacy!”

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