Purple State of Mind

I just got my copy of Purple State of Mind and watched it with my wife tonight. We both enjoyed the film. I highly recommend this movie for small discussion groups. It is bound to start a few deep conversations and stretch your perspective of faith.

OutFOXed: War on Journalism

I've witnessed first hand what happens when people have their worldview shaped by the biased faux news network. You can watch the full documentary online. This documentary is surprisingly fair and balanced.

Sicko

Michael Moore has made another great documentary. I hope this movie will have a huge impact on the ability of America to end "for-profit" health care. The movie takes you on an emotional ride with insights that make you wish you lived in Europe one minute to moments of inspiration and national pride. When did it become patriotic to hate your governments ability to do anything well? The last 30 years has proven that privatization and deregulation do NOT help industries run more efficiently.

Iraq For Sale

I finally got to see the whole documentary. It was not a great film, but the information was very important. The best information may be in the bonus features that detail many of the attempts to pass oversight measures to monitor or limit Iraq spending fraud since the war started. The measures were all voted down and the voting records are displayed which fall very much along party lines. When the leaders of one party (and the leaders of the free world) all have millions in Halliburton stock options waiting to be cashed after they leave office (which can't come too soon), it is easy to imagine why the measures didn't pass and the war profiteers continue unchecked.

Count the statues in this photo

hmmmm... one, TWO.

All kidding aside, I'm glad this important movie won an Oscar. I really wish Al had hired a professional entertainer to narrate the movie. If you haven't seen this movie yet, then please do. I'm not an Al Gore fan, but I was able to look past his statue-like personality and hear his message.

Jesus Camp

My wife and I watched this movie last weekend and it had a wide range of effects on us. Veronica burst into song a few times because the movie reminded us both of familiar camp songs and games we experiences in our childhood. I enjoyed those times, but I can't shake the effect of that view of God in my spiritual formation. In the end, this movie left me feeling very sad.

"Jesus Camp" is a solid documentary that paints a valid picture of the extreme Evangelical Christian mentality. Be warned that it is scary. The kids are cute but the reality is that people are indoctrinating kids with anti-science and nationalistic views of the bible with a heavy dose of bad eschatology. The combination is dangerous and it is happening right now. I do sympathize with the adults in this film. They are responding to a world that seems to be at odds with God's values and their response is a war-like call to combat. I applaud their faith and enthusiasm even if I feel bad that they don't have the tools at their disposal to make better choices. Kids are so vulnerable and it is painful to see them mislead.

The highlights include a visit to planned parenthood, a haunting clip of Ted Haggard, a life size cardboard cutout of George W. Bush and many clips of kids being worked up into a state of hyper-emotionalism complete with speaking in tongues and many many tears.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Veronica and I went to see the move “Who Killed The Electric Car” tonight at the Imperial Theater. I have been waiting for this movie for some time and it was worth the wait. The movie is an eye opener for anyone that is getting sick of the marriage of the oil industry, the automotive industry, and the Republican Party that is running our nation into a disastrous future. Please see this movie, get really mad, and then find some way to get an electric car and run our nations crooked power mongers out of business!

It is so sad that we can’t buy electric cars here. I would pay dearly to have one and be rid of dependence on oil and dirty air. It would feel so good to make a statement that we should no longer be controlled by the people in Detroit that have brainwashed the whole country into thinking that somehow our lives will be better if we have the “perfect” fancy car. I saw a lady driving a BMW SUV today that had a Jesus fish on the back of it right above her “I heart BMW” bumper sticker. Somehow it never crosses peoples minds that the whole idea of following Jesus has everything to do with rejecting the materialistic, power hungry, image conscious priorities of the world.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/

An Inconvenient Truth…

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

This movie should be a much-needed wake up call if we don’t all hit the snooze button and roll over.

A little over 4 years ago I read a book that urged me to answer the following question…

“Like most Christians, you have probably accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, but have you ever accepted Jesus as your political Lord and Savior?”

That one question started me down a process of self-analysis and reevaluation of my social and political views. I always felt that politics in general was corrupt so I might as well vote for the guy that will bother me the least and charge me the lowest amount of tax for the horrible job they did. I thought that faith was private and should not factor into my political views. That was bad logic and poor stewardship of the freedom and responsibility that God gave me. I have long since repented and been “politically saved”. I realized that if the message of Jesus didn’t affect my views about public policy and political allegiance then I was being selfish and missing the point. The politics of Jesus is something that urges us to look beyond political alliances that benefit ourselves and instead have compassion and understanding for the whole world regardless of the inconveniences they cause for us now.

I really don’t care much for Al Gore, but I’ve been waiting for a couple of months to see this movie he created. My wife and I saw it last night and it turned out to be very good despite his really weak presentation skills. I wish they had paid a professional actor to narrate the movie.

Why do so many Christians ignore this message? Too many conservative Christians interpret the message of the Bible to be about how the world will be literally destroyed instead of understanding that the Bible from Genesis to the Gospels to Revelation is telling us how to avoid the destruction of the world. God doesn’t want the world to be destroyed and he is not harboring a horrible plan to end it and rebuilt it. Visions and prophecies of the end of the world are warnings of possible outcomes given our current behaviors not predictions of an inevitable outcome.

I was a little disappointed that the movie didn’t go into more details about the current administrations complete disregard for the environment. President Bush’s appointments of oil industry personnel into very important positions of influence over the governments environmental and energy regulation agencies have been hard to tolerate. I don’t understand how Christians have been so brainwashed about politics.

http://www.net.org/reports/appointments.vtml

http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/6_05/vs.html