Couldn't Help Noticing

Not so huggable

I honestly can't decide which of these quotes from the website of Holy Huggables, a website which sells Jesus and Moses children's dolls, is more ironic. This:

Currently we offer:

• Jesus Huggables with Blue Eyes;
• Jesus Huggables with Brown Eyes (limited supply)
• Moses Huggables.

or:

We aimed to develop a cuddly doll that could provide children—as well as the rest of us—with a reminder of the 10 Commandments Moses brought down from the mountain.

Um, and what was that third commandment again?

Eurovision Taste Contest

Our family discovered the delights of the Eurovision Song Contest on Friday night. I have to say, we haven't laughed so much in a long time! Sir Terry Wogan is just a hoot with his caustic comments. But even he wasn't as funny as most of the acts.

And the funniest thing of all? The eventual winners! Lordi—Finland's entry—definitely won my prize for being the tackiest band with the worst lyrics and close to the worst music (yeah, I know—that's a big call when we're talking Eurovision 2006!).

But with words like this:

The walls come down like thunder
The rocks about to roll
It's the Arockalypse
Now bare your soul

and a chorus of:

Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!

...what's not to like?

Secretly I was hoping Lithuania would win. I thought their lyrics were perfectly in keeping with the subtlety of Eurovision:

We are the winners of Eurovision
We are, we are! We are, we are!
We are the winners of Eurovision
We are, we are! We are, we are!

So, you gotta vote,
Vote, vote for the winners
Vote, vote, vote for the winners

Now, all I have to do is think of a Christian perspective on all this....Nuh, can't think of one. I just think it's too funny not to mention.

The Da Vinci Code on film: upping the ante

(This just sent to us by Greg Clarke of CASE.)

It's lavish, it's entertaining, and it wants to rewrite history.

It's also preposterous, enraging and gives Christians their best opportunity in decades to explain why we believe in the ancient faith that Jesus was God in the flesh, come into the world to rescue us from sin.

We'll have a lot of work to do convincing viewers that the film's basic plot-line is made up and can't be historically true. Seeing is believing, and seeing on the big screen can make a speculation seem rock-solid.

There's plenty here to talk about: where the New Testament came from, what we know (and don't know) about Mary Magdalene, the glory and shame of the Church throughout history, and the understanding of man and woman in Christianity.

Sir Ian McKellen (who plays Holy Grail authority, Sir Leigh Teabing) is on record as saying the Bible should carry a disclaimer, warning readers that it is fiction. The religious stakes are high, and those around the film want to have it both ways: they keep saying “it's just a story”, but keep suggesting that traditional, biblical Christianity is, too.

Can Christians convince today's theatre-goers to open up a Bible, perhaps a history textbook, and see for themselves the difference between the film's suggestions and the records we have?

Mystery props up mystery in this film, and viewers who have read the book will certainly have a head start in holding the complex plot together. For those with eyes to see, there are extra treats, such as the one-second cameo, Hitchcock-style, of two writers, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, who popularised the view that the Knights Templar were protectors of the Magdalene myth. (Ironically, such bonus moments in films are now given the Christian nickname, ‘Easter eggs!’)

To build your faith on this film would be like trying to balance a glass pyramid on its point. But that is what many people are happy to do, and Christians now have the joyful but difficult task of convincing Da Vinci Code fans that faith doesn't have to be that difficult, that precarious and that improbable.

I am looking forward to the challenge!

For more information, see the CASE website, Challenging Da Vinci.com, or Greg's book, Is It Worth Believing?

A New Solution to an Old Problem

A little while ago, there was an article in ESPN The Magazine that millions of American men would have ripped out to show their wives. Most of these men don't normally think that their wives are interested in an article from one of the most popular sports magazines in America. Yet, one article in the recent edition will catch the eye of both sexes. I can imagine the scene now, as if taken directly from a sitcom. The beer-bellied man shoving the pages at his wife saying, “See! She understands! Why can't you be more open-minded?”

The reference is to the marriage arrangement of NBA basketball star Andrei Kirilenko and his wife Masha Lopatova. Masha, a pop music star in her home country Russia, discloses her angst at Andrei's numerous road games and superstar status: “Male athletes in this country [USA] are extremely attractive. They get chased by women. It's hard to resist. It's the way men are by nature.”

So, she came up with what she calls “Andrei's allowance”. According to the article's writer, “Once a year he can have sex with another woman. One night. No affairs, no divided loyalty. She can live with that. It was her idea, offered as a gift.” How is it that she can live with that? “When I'm aware and I let him do it, it's not cheating,” Masha says.

What is Andrei's response? The article is about his fit into his conservative coach's offensive system, so the following response may be a double entendre, “If something is not allowed you, you want to get it, if it is allowed to you, you will not need it.”

Of course, men all over the country will think this is great logic. Unfortunately, this is a most absurd justification for infidelity. The irony is that Masha proclaims her knowledge of man's nature but then completely falls prey to naïveté on the same subject. Does she really think that if Andrei accepts her “gift” and acts upon it that there will be no divided loyalty? That it would be only one time? Further, if she knew that tonight was the night that Andrei was accepting her ‘gift’, how much will she be able to “live with it” as she sits at home reading a nice bedtime story to their young child?

Hopefully, our imaginary beer-bellied friend will have a wife who will see through this charade. Unfortunately, Andrei and Masha are ever so real. As Tony Payne and Phillip Jensen say in Pure Sex, “Sexual immorality, such as adultery, is profoundly destructive. And when a society has abandoned itself to it, as ours has, the effects are disastrous.” The effects are clearly seen in Andrei and Masha's relationship and the millions of men who may think that this couple is on to something.

An Unexpert Opinion

Couldn't help noticing that over at Slate, they're sponsoring a site with the ambitious name of Meaning of Life. It's aim is to interview experts on matters of religion and life. The experts are a fairly impressive-sounding roster of professors of theology/divinity, award-winning scientists, science lecturers and experts on meditation.

Unfortunately, it seemed to this decided non-expert that despite their varied backgrounds, they were saying a fairly similar thing throughout. “No, God doesn't exist, or if he does, all religions lead to God, or at least, God would let us all in.” “Sure, faith can coexist with reason, even though faith sure is a puny fella next to the Goliath that is science.”

Maybe I should put that last paragraph differently. Maybe I should say, they're completely unanimous in what they don't say. They don't say that maybe God is Living and True and waiting to judge us for our sins. They don't say that there's a chance it's more important what God says about us, than what we theorize about him. And they certainly don't say that Jesus is the only way to him, and the only way to rightly acknowledge Jesus is make him your Lord.

Wait, that last sentences is not quite true either. One interviewee, Keith Ward, even talks about how, “Jesus says, ‘Unless you take up your cross and follow me you cannot be my disciple’ and ‘He who loses himself will find himself’”. Somewhat unfortunately, the interview goes on to talk about Ward's book which concludes that “it is reasonable to say that ‘the same (Christian) God is worshiped in many diverse faiths’.”