MEL’S PASSION My friend, Raymond Arroyo, is fresh back from a visit to the set of The Passion in Italy. Has there ever been a film that has ever generated so much buzz in Christian circles? I wonder if Mel minds that the buzz isn’t in Aramaic and Latin… Ray has written a piece about the set of The Passion for The Wall Street Journal. I’ll put some excerpts here…just in case you miss the piece in some of the... Read more

THREE WEEKS LEFT! “Christian communicators need a formation which enables them to work effectively in the media environment. Such a formation will have to be comprehensive: training in skills; training in ethics and morality, with particular attention to values and norms relevant to their professional work; training in human culture, in philosophy, and aestetics. Before all else, it will have to be a formation of the interior life, the life of the spirit.” (John Paul II, Message for World Communications... Read more

“A LEGAL FICTION” Okay, what is going on? While watching Law and Order tonight, the character of the new D.A., played by former Sen. Fred Thompson notes that he opposes Roe v. Wade because it is “bad law.” He goes on to note that there is no “Right to Privacy” in the Constitution, and therefore Roe Vs. Wade was based on a legal fiction. All of this was said without Thompson wearing a T-shirt with a murdered fetus while waving... Read more

ARTIST AS THEOLOGIAN “In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God. It must therefore, translate into meaningful terms that which in itself is ineffable.” (JPII Letter to Artists, Section 12) We need to hear this right now in the Church. “Artist” has perhaps never had a lower connotation among the people of God... Read more

PITHY REVIEWS A friend asked me the other day what I thought of Gangs of New York. “I reviewed it on my blog,” said I. To which my friend replied, “Too many words. Just tell me whether I should see it or not.” So, in an effort to reach and edify this visually oriented culture where it is, here are my reviews of the films of 2002. Chicago – “A Razzle dazzle.” The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers... Read more

SO WHY DO THEY DO IT? AOL ran a poll last week that asked the question: Do celebrity activists affect your political opinions? 472,469 people voted in the poll, with 93% registering a “No” vote. Personally, celebrity activists do sway me. They make me want to be on the opposite side. Read more

MOVING BEYOND THE FISH, RAINBOW, SHEPHERD AND EARTHEN VESSEL I’m going to spend lots of time in this blog, plumbing the depths of the 1999 Letter to Artists written by John Paul II. Here is a paragraph that regularly sends me spinning off into creative pondering. “The art which Christianity encountered in its early days was the ripe fruit of the classical world, articulating its aesthetic canons and embodying its values. Not only in their way of living and thinking,... Read more

TOWARDS A CHRISTIAN AESTETHIC OF ENTERTAINMENT This just in: The Popular Culture is Not Going Away. If we, the People of God, are going to see any improvement in entertainment, we first have to know what actually is the goal in entertainment productions. What is the role of entertainment in human life, and what would healthy entertainment look like? We need to avoid pat answers to this question. Some of the pat answers I have heard from Christians in the... Read more

ACT ONE ON THE WIRE The brilliant and, oh, so culturally astute, Terry Mattingly, has just done a story on Act One. Terry writes for the Scripps-Howard News Service, so this story could be in as many as 600 papers. So far, I found it in the Anchorage Daily News and the Sacramento Bee. I think it is one of the best pieces we’ve ever had done on the program. Thanks so much, Terry! “Praise from Caesar is praise, indeed.”... Read more

“FOR BOMPI” I was a party to Far From Heaven today. This film must have been named by the same ironic little devils that came up with “The Hours.” That title held a dark foreshadowing of how long the movie would seem to theatergoers. This title sets up, in a menacingly madcap way, lots of jokes about where audience members will feel during this movie. Far, far from heaven… The cinematography here is beautiful. The whole look of the film... Read more