Just go see it.

I have never cried at a rap song before. This made me do it.
I have never felt so much anger in a theatre
I have never felt so ashamed of myself and my reactions to life before
I have never prayed for someone in a theatre before
I have never understood how powerful the words of scripture could be
I have never realized how grace can change so many lives so EASILY
I have never understood the Psalms until I heard the song Kim wrote and sang.
I have never been so frustrated and felt so helpless on such a large scale

As my favorite quite says I sat huddled in the dark and looked at those in the light so they could show me what it is to be Human.

go see it.  please.

Wow. Let me tell you this movie was a real surprise!  I thought I would be walking into something rather simple and lame.  I thought it was going to be advertising for Nappa.  What I found was a really quaint histo-drama on a very special unique time for California and for America.  It was kind of like Seabiscuit without the national pride.  Now that I think of it that doesn’t surprise me.  It is a movie about selfish people trying to make a difference without knowing how.  It is typical of how California thinks of itself in terms of the country it is part of.  The fact that on their site they compare this moment with the moon landing and 1980 hockey win seems a bit of a non-sequitor.  But I digress from my thoughts on the film.

So this film was pretty amazing in one spectacular detail.  I have been researching to see how true the facts are but have found squat, so I will just go with it an hope that it is based on real events.

Spoilers follow:  as in total spoilers:

So as I walked out of the theatre I felt way better than I should and as David Wilcox would say “I was bugged for metaphorical reasons.”

You see I had just saw something really beautiful and didn’t know why it was beautiful.  It wasn’t until 2 days later that it struck me.  Christ was the entire focus of this film he was the driving story the reason these people were in community and he taught them about love life and how to be better human beings. He even was a perfect creation that died and rose again in this film.  And it was because it was perfect that it HAD to die and rise again.

Now by no means am I saying that this is a Christian Film, I would never condemn a film like that. :)  what I think is that these filmmakers knew the power of Christ imagery and of the story that so much of the world is familiar with that it became their story.  I am sure a lot of it was coincidence or just playing on tradition western storytelling, but it is there.

Ill be short with the explanation then let you play with it a bit on your own.

The grapes and wine are Christ.  OK for all you sacramentals out there you say “Of course Marshall!” I hope so beacuse this movie mad me want to take communion ASAP.  so the one quote about wine from Galileo “Wine is sunlight held together by water” is ever so meaningful. That image Christiologicaly is very cool.

If Christ is the wine in this story some things need to be there.  Well the wine is brought into the world by the unequipped and unprepared.  People society would never imagine a savior coming from.  It should be prophesied.  It should polarize people.  It should die. it should rise again. and finally it should save people’s lives because of the death and rebirth.

In the film the wine does all these things and more.  it even goes through a 3 day death and rebirth.  AND durring its death it is still sweet and beautiful.  In fact the reason for its necessary death is its perfection. and it literaly saves a “nation.”

So due to some missunderstanding of my message caused by my terrible writing I would like to present this again.  This version is much the same but more clear in its intent and purpose.  Thanks!

So when you say porn most people think of sexually explicit romps viewed by college kids and creeps.  and I guess we could say yea that is pornography. but I have been having discussions with people about the media lately and what we decided is that there are more than one type of porn.  Let’s start with a definition to work with.  I’m going to state that porn is something designed to distort reality (read: Goodness Truth Beauty) intending to create a sudden and heightened physiological reaction in the viewer. This by definition should be a bad thing.  I think most people agree on this.The reason that it is wrong isn’t in the actual acts or events but in the representation of reality.  The reality of Pornography is damaging to the viewer if they begin to think the real world is like the porn world.

Sexual Pornography

The first type of porn is the obvious easy to avoid pornography. It is intended to arouse the viewer sexually and draw a compulsive audience.  It has that specific purpose and intent in its creation.  The reason that it is so powerful is that it has shadows of truth in it.  Sex is good, men and women should enjoy a sexual relationship.  But obviously we are no supposed to be marketing, selling or watching it. At the very least porn cheapens sex and makes it boring.  One of the bigger problems that sexual pornography is that with prolonged exposure the distortion of reality is inevitable. If sex becomes a performance or an instrument of personal pleasure instead of a relationship and a communication of love and a expression of Christ’s love for his church then we have lost the whole meaning of sex.

So what other kinds of porn are there? There are a few subjects that can stray into the porn arena that usually are not really considered porn but should be.

Violence Pornography

Movies have a history of dramatizing violent acts.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with this in and of itself.  Violence in films can have it’s use and serve a purpose. Heck the bible has some of the most incredible scenes ever of battle and carnage.  Though the current trend in films is rather disturbing.  We have taken the reality of violence and distorted it into something that audiences seek out for pleasure.  This is disturbing from this filmmakers perspective because this constant distortion of violence changes the  audiences perception of violence in standard films.  The thing is that films like Saw and Touristas, and Death Race distort reality, and to a culture of people immersed and saturated in violence pornography The Godfather turns out to be silly and ineffectual in its message. The most terrifying scenes are now Laughable to my students because they have been exposed to horribly graphic violent acts.  Violence pornography does not just ruin the current films on the market, they actually affect the classics when viewed by modern audiences and this is nearly intolerable to me personally.

Propaganda Pornography (news porn)

The news media has been in the business of propaganda for a long while now (like when it started…or before).  I will leave it at that for this one.  (as a note Colbert and Stewart get a free pass because they are satire not “news” although yes most people my age get their news from them).  Sadly most news suppliers are only thinly veiled propaganda machines with agendas reliant on creating sudden heightened reactions from their viewers.  At least The Daily Show and Colbert Report are honest about what they do.  Don’t tollerate being lied to or decieved, don’t let a talking head distory reality in your home.

Emotional Pornography

This type of porn is what I like to call the Hallmark channel porn.  This type of media is designed to represent a world that does not exist.  This type of media is purely created to infect you with constructed realities designed to withdrawl the highest possible phisiological response from the viewers as possible.  this cathartic emotional enema is nothing more than a cheap drug.  This is damaging because with prolonged exposure viewers will start to look at the world in the same way that the hallmark channel represents, and they will yearn for those carthic moments in real life.  When they dont get them they think there is somethign wrong with their reality so they go back to the media to fill that void.  This creates the same vicious cycle that all of the above create.

Christian Pornography

This is the one that bothers me the most.  You know the type media that I am talking about by now.  As a Christian it bothers me that this type of media has become the most recognizable part of christian culture.  these films represent a world that is only fractionally true.  It presents a picture of being a christian that is false.  It shows Christianity as a push button answer to all the worlds problems.  The scary part is people are acclimated to this type of Christian media and fall into the false reality the same as others fall into sexual or emotional pornography.  This one is the most terrible in my opinion becaus eit deals directly with our creator and redemer.  if our perception of him is manipulated by these films, and we are no longer able to see reality clearly then we could danm others by our actions and words.  we could lead others astray so easily with this type of media and exposure to this media.  my only comforting thought is that the bulk of this pornography is so poorly made that it should be obvious how false its reality is.  but when we make emotional christian pornography it can be like a drug for some people.

I’m not sure what can be done to reduce the effects of these types of pornography besides education people about personal responsibility.  I think it is important to show people that there are some very dangerous types of pornography that are equally as damaging to society and to yourself as any other.  These should be avoided and spoken against.  We should not tolerate it in our community and if we see people consuming this type of media we should speak to them in love and do what we can to help them rehabilitate themselves to the truths of the world. Our goals should be to help those struggling to see the truth and have been led astray by harmful worldviews that can corrupt their life.

If you are finding yourself as a consistent viewer of one of these take some time to consider the way you view the world, and honestly evaluate your actions.  If you find that you are affected by this media in your everyday life you may have a problem.  I know it sounds silly and a little to serious but I believe that the last three forms of pornography mentioned are the most prevalent and dangerous because they are not commonly thought of as dangerous and have been accepted into society.

Be strong and call out porn when you see it and drive it from your life.  Refuse to be manipulated any longer.  Reality is not a construct it is tangible Truth! Don’t let something take that away from you.

Bring your thoughts to the table!