So now I’m expected to have an opinion on Michael Voris, am I? Everybody on Patheos has an opinion on Michael Voris, and no matter what their opinion there’s an army of combox warriors with the opposite opinion. Opinions on Michael Voris are hot these days. Even the great Michael Voris is talking about them. I’m tired of missing out on clicks and shares; it’s time I had an opinion on Michael Voris. Let me see if I can think... Read more
No doubt you’ve heard the good news: the fearless Harriet Tubman is going to be on the twenty dollar bill. Perhaps you’ve seen some of the many tweets going around lately, complaining that Harriet Tubman isn’t smiling or posing nicely in any of her portraits and will look ugly on the twenty dollar bill. There are also lighthearted memes poking fun at the new picture for the dollar, going around Facebook, and I confess I shared one of them myself.... Read more
It’s finally here. Tale of Tales, Matteo Garrone’s first English language film, has finally been released on demand in the United States, so at long last I get to see it. I was excited about this one; I love myths and fairy tales and am especially fond of those rare dramatizations that bring the wild, dreamlike qualities of the stories to life. I don’t even care what liberties they take with the plots of the original stories, as long... Read more
Let’s say you’re in the desert. Most people wind up in the desert at one point or another. Let’s say you’ve been in the desert alone for months. And this is an imaginary desert, so let’s pull out all the stops. There’s nothing here. No scrub grass, no cactus, no tumbleweeds, no interesting rock formations where you can take a selfie pretending to hold them up. There’s nothing but white sand rising up to the horizon, blue sky from one... Read more
I was going to review a film I actually expected to like this week, I really was. I was going to go to see The Jungle Book, but then there was a bomb threat at the local mall, the bus route was closed and I didn’t know if the cinema would be showing movies. I’m not making this up. There was a bomb threat, so I’m going to review another bomb. You see, I’ve apparently typed “pure flix” into my browser... Read more
Ezra, you’ll recall, is the name of the prophet who found the scrolls of the Law and had them read to all the returned exiles. It’s not the real name of my neighbor down the block, but it’s close to it. Let’s call him Ezra. Ezra is a perpetually grubby little boy with autism, epilepsy and a mouthful of crowns; he is his mother’s middle child. His mother is chronically ill herself and she has no other parent to help her with the... Read more
Let’s talk about sex. When I was a bookish homeschooler, I was an odd combination of well-read and ignorant. I read the unabridged Les Miserables at twelve and had to ask what a “woman of the town” was; I didn’t have the courage to ask why it turned your hair gray. I devoured Charles Dickens but didn’t know that Oliver Twist’s Nancy was of that same profession until I was in college. I pored over the un-annotated Complete Works of... Read more
Days ago I inadvertently knocked over a powder keg with my frustrated rant about bad Christian art. Apparently a lot of people agree with me, as that rant has been shared more than any of my other much better posts. And in the comments on these shares, I’ve seen many people asking questions. What should we do? How should we change? What is art, anyway? Isn’t it subjective? Who gets to decide what art is good and what art is... Read more
When I was a very small girl, my family went to Mass at the Cathedral. I loved everything about it. I loved coming inside from the bright sunshine to the dark foyer, all built of sandy stone that looked like it was covered in sugar. There was hardly any light in the foyer; it was blocked off on one end by the grille that surrounded the Baptismal font, like the bars to a cage in a dungeon. There were holy water fonts... Read more
Due to my love of films and my being a glutton for punishment in general, and due to the inexplicable popularity of my panning of God’s Not Dead 2, I have already decided to review another Pure Flix film, I Am Not Ashamed: The Rachel Joy Scott Columbine Story, when it comes out in September. And I’m trying to keep an open mind about it– it’s based upon the actual writings of the Columbine victim herself, who seems like a... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In