Sunday, April 13, 2008
Bits of Info
Monday night, I went to a screening of For The Bible Tells Me So, a fantastic documentary I had already seen at Full Frame in 2007 that brings up interesting issues related to the intersection and conflict between Christianity and homosexuality. I also interviewed the director, Dan Karslake (you can read the article I wrote for the paper on my blog), who is one of the nicest filmmakers I've ever met. I recorded the interview, and am waiting for his permission to publish the file online, but until then, here are some interesting tidbits he brought up in the interview, as well as the Q&A after the film:
1) Conservative Christians have been the biggest audience for the film and overall have responded well to it. However, he has received several negative emails, some of which even contain death threats, by people who have not yet seen the film but automatically condemn it because it deals with homosexuality.
2) The only interviews with conservative biblical literalists in the film are in the form of archival footage. Karslake is very disappointed that is the case, but said that originally his goal was to interview people like Pat Robertson and James Dobson and many other conservative literalists. When they first heard about the film, five people in this category immediately jumped on board and agreed to be interviewed the film. However, when they read on the film's website that it would "explore all interpretations and viewpoints" on the issue, they dropped out right away and decided not to participate. They also made sure to influence as many other such people as they could, so that in the end Karslake was unable to find a single high-profile biblical literalist to appear in the film, after checking with hundreds of prospects.
3) Many gay and lesbians who attend screenings of the film and hear about it are very hostile towards the idea of discussing the Bible, and wonder why it's worth bringing up. He feels that it is important to understand the Bible and interpretations of the Bible since it directly influences how many people treat homosexuals, and reports that after seeing the film, many homosexuals "actually end up liking Christians."
4) Karslake is saddened that usually when young gay people are confronted by issues of their faith, it pushes them towards suppression and suicide. Ironically, he himself found as a college student at Duke that it was his faith in Christ that helped him accept his own homosexuality rather than reject it.
Anyways, he's a fascinating guy and I would encourage all readers to check out the film, which is available to rent from Netflix and Blockbuster. He also announced that his next film is going to explore the issue of world poverty, and how according to UN estimates it would take around $500 billion to practically end it, yet the USA is spending its money on other things (like the war). According to Karslake, even if the USA was just to put $50 billion towards this issue, it would probably inspire other countries to do the same. It will most likely be a few more years before the film is completed, though.
***
As mentioned a few posts ago, I have begun contributing again to a film-podcast with Erik Blythe and others. His podcast, RandomChatter, has been split up into multiple little sub-podcasts, and I am going to be the backbone behind the movie review-related one, MovieChatter. I am also going to try and be a major contributor to the main podcast, RandomChatter. Look for the first episode of MovieChatter to launch within the next 48 hours if all goes well, with a discussion of the movie Street Kings.
***
Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica has started, and I am pleased to report that they haven't done anything that really pisses me off yet. Granted, they haven't done anything amazing, but they're setting the stage for what could potentially be the show's best season and a spectacular finale. We'll see what happens.
***
While I was at Full Frame this past weekend, I received an email from the NCSU film department about a woman who is looking for help making a documentary. I had the opportunity to meet with her at Full Frame and discuss the project, and it looks like I will be joining with her at several times this summer to help with filming. She appears to be very excited about working with me (she was looking for someone with skills related to film studies, sociology or journalism, and I'm studying all three) and hopefully things will go smoothly so that I'll be able to help her out. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about the film at this point, except that it's related to different strands of Christianity and how Christianity is changing in this day and age. This will be my first time working on a large-scale project as part of the crew, so I'm excited.
***
I finished reading The Reason For God. Holy crap. What an amazing book. This is one of the best logical, rational arguments for Christianity I have ever come across, and it is done with humility and wit as well as with thoughtful reflection. More on this later, possibly.
***
I am thinking about undergoing an experiment in spiritual discipline in an effort to improve my overall commitment to God and hopefully gain valuable insight both about Him and about myself. I am going to pray about it for the next 24 hours and will hopefully have a decision made by Monday whether or not to pursue a course of action. More details if I decide to go through with it, but please pray that I will receive guidance since it is an experiment that could have interesting consequences for both good and/or bad.
Quotes of Da Moment:
"Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?" --John Calvin
"The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it. How do you know your belief is true? It would be inconsistent to require more justification for Christian belief than you do for your own, but that is frequently what happens. In fairness you must doubt your doubts. My thesis is that if you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based, and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs--you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared."
--Timothy Keller, The Reason For God
1) Conservative Christians have been the biggest audience for the film and overall have responded well to it. However, he has received several negative emails, some of which even contain death threats, by people who have not yet seen the film but automatically condemn it because it deals with homosexuality.
2) The only interviews with conservative biblical literalists in the film are in the form of archival footage. Karslake is very disappointed that is the case, but said that originally his goal was to interview people like Pat Robertson and James Dobson and many other conservative literalists. When they first heard about the film, five people in this category immediately jumped on board and agreed to be interviewed the film. However, when they read on the film's website that it would "explore all interpretations and viewpoints" on the issue, they dropped out right away and decided not to participate. They also made sure to influence as many other such people as they could, so that in the end Karslake was unable to find a single high-profile biblical literalist to appear in the film, after checking with hundreds of prospects.
3) Many gay and lesbians who attend screenings of the film and hear about it are very hostile towards the idea of discussing the Bible, and wonder why it's worth bringing up. He feels that it is important to understand the Bible and interpretations of the Bible since it directly influences how many people treat homosexuals, and reports that after seeing the film, many homosexuals "actually end up liking Christians."
4) Karslake is saddened that usually when young gay people are confronted by issues of their faith, it pushes them towards suppression and suicide. Ironically, he himself found as a college student at Duke that it was his faith in Christ that helped him accept his own homosexuality rather than reject it.
Anyways, he's a fascinating guy and I would encourage all readers to check out the film, which is available to rent from Netflix and Blockbuster. He also announced that his next film is going to explore the issue of world poverty, and how according to UN estimates it would take around $500 billion to practically end it, yet the USA is spending its money on other things (like the war). According to Karslake, even if the USA was just to put $50 billion towards this issue, it would probably inspire other countries to do the same. It will most likely be a few more years before the film is completed, though.
***
As mentioned a few posts ago, I have begun contributing again to a film-podcast with Erik Blythe and others. His podcast, RandomChatter, has been split up into multiple little sub-podcasts, and I am going to be the backbone behind the movie review-related one, MovieChatter. I am also going to try and be a major contributor to the main podcast, RandomChatter. Look for the first episode of MovieChatter to launch within the next 48 hours if all goes well, with a discussion of the movie Street Kings.
***
Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica has started, and I am pleased to report that they haven't done anything that really pisses me off yet. Granted, they haven't done anything amazing, but they're setting the stage for what could potentially be the show's best season and a spectacular finale. We'll see what happens.
***
While I was at Full Frame this past weekend, I received an email from the NCSU film department about a woman who is looking for help making a documentary. I had the opportunity to meet with her at Full Frame and discuss the project, and it looks like I will be joining with her at several times this summer to help with filming. She appears to be very excited about working with me (she was looking for someone with skills related to film studies, sociology or journalism, and I'm studying all three) and hopefully things will go smoothly so that I'll be able to help her out. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about the film at this point, except that it's related to different strands of Christianity and how Christianity is changing in this day and age. This will be my first time working on a large-scale project as part of the crew, so I'm excited.
***
I finished reading The Reason For God. Holy crap. What an amazing book. This is one of the best logical, rational arguments for Christianity I have ever come across, and it is done with humility and wit as well as with thoughtful reflection. More on this later, possibly.
***
I am thinking about undergoing an experiment in spiritual discipline in an effort to improve my overall commitment to God and hopefully gain valuable insight both about Him and about myself. I am going to pray about it for the next 24 hours and will hopefully have a decision made by Monday whether or not to pursue a course of action. More details if I decide to go through with it, but please pray that I will receive guidance since it is an experiment that could have interesting consequences for both good and/or bad.
Quotes of Da Moment:
"Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?" --John Calvin
"The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it. How do you know your belief is true? It would be inconsistent to require more justification for Christian belief than you do for your own, but that is frequently what happens. In fairness you must doubt your doubts. My thesis is that if you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based, and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs--you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared."
--Timothy Keller, The Reason For God
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 4/13/2008 02:04:00 AM 
