final days forum

Bernie Mac and 'Hot Buttered Soul'

We won't be able to replace the two icons of African American culture -- comedian Bernie Mac and singer Issac Hayes -- who died this weekend. Newcomers may arrive on the scene and follow behind them, but they will be the branches of the tall trees these men rooted among us.

Both men were to be featured this November in a new movie, "Soul Men," which is named after the song, "Soul Man," which Hayes wrote with David Porter, according to TVGuide.com.

Bernie Mac, born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, had that gift to dig insightfully into the cracks in human nature and find humor in it. "The Bernie Mac Show" on television, and the film, "Guess Who?" and the "Ocean's" film series display his gift at its best. How Bernie Mac intrepreted parenting is refreshing and authentic in his television series. TV Guide named him #47 among the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time"  in 2004, according to The Internet Movie Database. In "Guess Who?," Bernie Mac is the face of Americans across the country, growing in his understanding of his daughter's choice to pursue an interracial marriage, yet, by the end of the movie, displaying fatherly wisdom to her fiance. In the Ocean series, he was a fitting player that helped give the films their comic strength.

Issac Hayes will always remind me of growing up in East St. Louis. I remember days cleaning up the house while his album, "Hot Buttered Soul" played on the stereo, a melodic accompaniment, a soundtrack for my adolescence in the 1970s. Hayes represents what I miss most now in contemporary music. So many singers then (think Marvin Gaye, Nancy Wilson,  Dionne Warwick, Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield, and Donnie Hathaway, just to start the list!) sang of angst, loss, hope, tenderness, and struggle. Play songs like "Walk on By," the theme from "Shaft," or "Soul Man" and I'm immediately transported to my teen years and home.

Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes, thank you for planting such tall trees for us.

Judy Howard Ellis

Links courtesy of www.idmb.com, www.groovesharklite.com, http://www.ninasimone.com/, http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Donny%20Hathaway.html, http://classic.motown.com/artist.aspx?ob=ros&src=lb&aid=1, http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/curtis-mayfield, http://missnancywilson.com/, http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-News-Blog/Todays-News/Bernie-Mac-Dead/800044883?rssDate=12345678, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Man_(song)

Mirror, mirror: Who's the fairest of them all?

Narcissism lures us with gloved tentacles, and it's not just John Edwards who fell captive. Anytime we operate in the world with excessive self-interest, we are like the young man in mythology who falls in love with his own face,  or the conceited queen in Snow White, whose worldview centers on her rivals because life is a perpetual beauty pageant.

Last week I watched Mr. Skeffington on Turner Classic Movies, which told the story about how beauty is only skin deep, and that selfishness is more shallow than that. Bette Davis powerfully portrays Fanny Trellis, whose beauty brings throngs of men into her presence -- even after she marries the dour Job Skeffington (played by Claude Rains) -- as she basks in their adoration. Fanny is cruel, selfish, and throws away the love of her husband and daughter as she pursues passion for her own face.

The story takes a twist when diphtheria ravages her face. She transforms into a ghoulish figure of eyeliner, mascara, face creams, and wigs as she childishly attempts to adorn an aged face. One crazy scene is when a ringlet falls from her head as a former suitor from her youth woos her again. Fanny soon learns that the cash-strapped suitor always wanted her because of her looks. Now he wants her for money.

Even those of us who call ourselves Christians can be choked by narcissism's gloved, but brutal grip. While we wag a finger at the Paris Hiltons of the world, shake our heads at the egotism of politicians (take your pick: Senators Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton or former President Bill Clinton), and pooh-pooh the indulgences of the megarich and celebrities, what rages inside our own hearts? Are we narcissistic about our own religious practice? Is our concern for others based on our love for them and our understanding their inner brokenness? Or is our concern based on our own narcissistic standards of performance? When our pursuit of youth surpasses the needs of our children, who need our time, our direction and our example, are we living in vain?

I thought I understood beauty blossomed from within. Sure, Lord. I got this. Your word says in Proverbs 31: "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."  (NIV) But then I contracted Graves' disease, which later caused my eyes to bulge. I began to experience the truth of that verse! I'll never forget when a friend I had not seen in years could not believe it was me when he saw me. His surprised reaction stung. But it was a good thing. The memory of that encounter and others force me to submit to God's beautifying work inside me and give that the priority. Even if God heals me right at this moment, may I continue learning His beauty lessons.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all? Jesus...the image of the invisible God.

Judy Howard Ellis

 

Links courtesy of: http://www.pantheon.org/, www.wikipedia.org, www.courant.com, www.imdb.com, http://www.tcm.com/index.jsp, http://www.bettedavis.com/, http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Park/6771/, http://www.parishilton.com/,www.barackobama.com, www.johnmccain.com, www.hillaryclinton.com, http://www.clintonfoundation.org/, http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/hyperthyroidism/HYE_eyes.html, http://www.ibs.org/bible/

'The Dark Knight' & the Agent of Chaos (Part 2)

Day 147. May 26., originally uploaded by Maryam S..

"The Dark Knight" offers several themes that could be elaborated on, but I'm focusing on the characters of the Joker and Harvey Dent. As I said in yesterday's post, the Joker gives us a pattern of some of Satan's schemes.

Applying the struggles of Dent's character to the Christian experience, Satan wars against men and women -- made righteous by the blood sacrifice of Jesus -- who seek to repair the causes of inner brokenness instead of burying them behind glamourous facades. As God's enemy, and as the enemy of the souls of the redeemed, Satan relishes in having followers of Christ wallow in pretense. He hates authencity. He likes Dent's outward glow -- golden but shallow!

In "The Dark Night," the Joker presses his crazed fingers into Dent's inner wounds, the places Dent didn't get healed before he became Gotham's righteous crusader. Had Dent possessed the world view that God ultimately wields all justice and corrects all injustice, and then found rest in that world view, he would not have sought his own revenge when the pain of losing his girlfriend -- and losing the war against crime -- was more than he could bear.

Dent's story is a well-told cautionary tale within a larger, complex story about Batman. (Isn't it funny where we can learn a truth of God?) As Dent shows us, outward change without the constant inward working of the Holy Spirit falls short of the authencity God desires and plays into the religious pretense Satan loves to produce. Satan knows that when the Christian is real, self-aware of his weaknesses and focused on the complete strength of God, the Christian is formidable.

I love this quote from one of my favorite preachers, Charles Spurgeon, about Joel 2:13. The passage refers to rending our hearts, not our garments, and turning to God. Spurgen is quoted on the site, www.gracegems.org, as saying:

"Men will attend to the most multiplied and minute ceremonial regulations; for such things are pleasing to the flesh; but true religion is too humbling, too heart-searching, too thorough for the tastes of the carnal men; they prefer something more ostentatious, flimsy, and worldly. Outward observances are comfortable; eye and ear are pleased; self-conceit is fed, and self-righteousness is puffed up: but they are ultimately delusive, for in the time of death, and at the day of judgment, the soul needs something more substantial than ceremonies and rituals to lean upon. Apart from vital godliness all religion is utterly vain; offered without a sincere heart, every form of worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery of the majesty of heaven."

Judy Howard Ellis

'The Dark Knight' & the Agent of Chaos (Part 1)

 

Trailer for "The Dark Knight" courtesy of XxjalaldevilxX

Brutal, excecuted with cinematic skill, and obscene in the violence of intimidation that it infers, the message of "The Dark Night" sobers the soul.

As critics already have raved, Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is worth an Oscar nomination. As an actor, Ledger traveled to an unseen realm to achieve a form of artistic expression that reveals the twisted, thirsty and never-satisfied place of evil.

The Joker exists with no rules, no honor. He names himself an "agent of chaos" to the grieving, angry, and maimed Harvey Dent character, skillfully played by Aaron Eckhart. Bereft of his love interest, his handsome face cruelly deformed by fire, Dent is the character that followers of Jesus should study.

On the surface, Dent seems to descend from righteous prosecutor to reckless vilgilante because of the loss of his girlfriend, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who was killed while he survived. His descent began earlier in the film, when he could not rest because Batman (Christian Bale), had a close, and enviable, relationship with police officer Jim Gordon (Gary Oldham). Dent also delighted in the humiliation of his enemies -- the criminals he sent to jail -- an always dangerous path to tread.

By the time the Joker informs Dent that he is an agent of chaos who stirs the fears of people, the Joker doesn't seem just like the neighborhood wacko killer. His intentions are methodically satantic as he probes the inquity in Dent, along with the simmering anger, control issues, and flawed sense of justice squirming beneath the surface of the Dudley Do-Right prosecutor image.

Satan, like the Joker, wants us to settle for surface change in our lives. Surface righteousness is an open doorway for Satan to generate destruction as an agent of chaos.

More tomorrow.

Judy Howard Ellis

Links courtesy of msn.com, wikipedia.com

Welcome back 'Indiana,' but 'Prince Caspian' wins my heart

'"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," with its five-day opening expected to possibly hit $151 million according to Variety, has knocked "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" from first place at the box office. And that's too bad. "Prince Caspian" is a better movie and was worth me seeing it twice.

Truly. With every munch of buttered popcorn and Junior Mints, "Prince Caspian" captivated me. The movie bears an earnestness to depict a story with flesh-and-blood characters. Director Andrew Adamson and co-producer Doug Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series, took risks by altering Lewis' beloved story. But Adamson and Gresham made a strong film based on Lewis' story, as bloggers Carissa Smith of Christ and Pop Culture and John Mark Reynolds of The Scriptorium Daily have commented. 

The new "Indiana Jones" movie, however, is like welcoming home a favorite, world-traveling uncle who never lacks a yarn to tell. But this time, 'uncle's story possesses a been-there, done-that feel. We indulge him because we feel nostalgic and, well, he's part of the family. But really, the freshest part of "Indiana Jones" is the reinstatement of Karen Allen's character, Marion Ravenwood. Allen always belonged in the series because she deftly spars with Indiana, played by Harrison Ford. Allen's character puts hair on Indy's chest. Unfortunately, the new film limits their delightful repartee and Marion and Indiana surrender too soon.

But "Prince Caspian," though at times it mimics Peter Jackson's treatment of "The Lord of the Rings," the film bears more unexpected and satisfying turns. Where "Indiana Jones" settles into the comfortable folds of car chases, evil looters, and an artifact that mesmerizes and terrorizes, I'm still musing about aspects of "Prince Caspian." For example, why didn't Aslan show up more? Then I remember the grim lion statue first glimpsed in the Peneski's children's world -- cold, seemingly disengaged, but actually deeply embedded in their lives. The Aslan of Adamson and Gresham's movie makes me think of God's sometimes subtle, but always effective ways. Like the Pevensie children, I often run ahead of Him, only to fall back desperately into His arms.

"Prince Caspian" has had a tepid showing at the box office, but the film still makes me ponder theology in the movies -- days after I've seen it. This weekend's box office winner, "Indiana Jones," just makes me smile.

Andrew Adamson link courtesy of www.imdb.com

Doug Gresham link courtesy of www.christianitytoday.com

Karen Allen and Harrison Ford links courtesy of www.msn.com

C.S. Lewis link courtesy of the www.cslewisinstitute.org

Good vs. evil is still hot

A cynical culture may sneer at happy endings and do-good characters, but that's on the culture. A major reason comic book stories like Marvel Comics' Iron Man and the TV cartoon series Speed Racer appeal across the generations is because they celebrate the always satisfying theme of good versus evil.

Iron Man Trailer courtesy of buzzfocus on YouTube.com

Critics often downplay such stories if the characters seem like souless cutouts with no vices. I don't have a problem with complicated characters who are shaded with meaning. Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the world-weary industrialist Tony Stark was exquisite. But Downey's character also tried to do the right thing, in his own seen-everything fashion. The back story of Racer X, played by Matthew Fox in Speed Racer, possesses a mysterious, romantic flavor. Not many today are willing to stay unknown and in the shadows.

So why not enjoy Iron Man and Speed Racer overcoming-- if only for a little while -- their adversaries? Enough is happening within our culture to warrant morally based courage. What purpose does it serve to tell stories that do not teach and transform? Especially when we need leadership in every walk of life and in every part of the globe.

Speed Racer trailer courtesy of devildodo on YouTube.com

Remarkable goodness springs from the hearts of people who choose the right thing every day, even when it means sacrifice and ridicule. Let's do more storytelling about those people and their choices. The culture easily depicts the nightmarish side of life -- much like watching the first 15 minutes of local TV news, where mayhem trumps every other story -- but the culture is often sophmoric when telling stories about the redeeming power of lives well-lived.

And that's why such stories -- even if they are lifted from the pages of comic books and the fixed expressions of cartoon characters -- are so terribly needed.

Five reasons to remake the original 'Star Wars'

OK. Just so everyone knows. My husband, Oscar, often listens to me as I work out ideas, and constantly makes great observations. Typically, I always respond with: "That would make a great post!"

This time, Honey, I give you all the credit for this one.

We were watching "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" last night and Oscar observed once again that George Lucas should remake the first "Star Wars" offerings. Technology, Oscar said, has caught up with Lucas' storytelling and those stories ache for a redo. Check out this 1977 trailer of "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" :

Video courtesy of antisubliminal on YouTube.com

Oscar is so right. Mr. Lucas, if you happen to read this post (I wish!) I thank you for a robust Web site, StarWars.com, and, of course, the upcoming animated series, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." (View a sneak peek video.) Your recent Q&A about the film was very cool. August, the month of the film's release, looks wonderfully bright!

But fans of the movies thirst for more. Please consider five reasons you should reinvest in the "Star Wars" dream:

• Just because. It's not often we get to "play it again," but gathering an outstanding cast (with the consultation of any living stars from the older films) and employing today's technology to enhance the story -- not tell the tale -- would be an extraordinary experience for sci-fi and fantasy fans. Take time to figure out who has the soul of Luke Skywalker, the daring of Princess Leia Organa, and the menace of Darth Vader. Please don't follow the Hollywood game of choosing a known talent or popular music celebrity who lacks the chops for the role. Although usually considered a commercial move, offering audiences a well-told and well-acted tale will bring in tons of money.
• Fans miss the epics.  Just last night my sister, Stephanie, was surfing channels and longed for some epic action on TV. "The Lord of the Rings" triology kept lovers of epics satiated for awhile, but after The Hobbit hopefully keeps up the tradition in 2010, we will need another larger-than-life story to compel us to line up at midnight showings of great movies. An inspired, updated, and well-made "Star Wars" would blaze new territories at the box office as the film attracts fresh audiences.
• "Star Wars" is great for political world peace. This might seem a stretch, but the galatic lifestyle of the "Star Wars" characters, how they worked (and warred) with various life forms -- is a teaching moment for this generation. What "Star Wars" hinted at with its galatic point of view, we're now experiencing through our global economy, culture and conflicts.
• "Star Wars" is  a powerful example of the battle between good and evil. Mr. Lucas, good and evil themes may merely be storytelling devices for you, but I believed God used you. Really. The crafty Emperor's manipulation of Darth Vader, and his attempt to control Luke, reinforced the idea that there is a reason to cling to the straight-and-narrow. You may not have intended for a Christian interpretation of the films, and others say they are New Age-oriented, but as a young believer, I knew who the Emperor was to me. The Emperor's creepy temptations were just like Slew Foot's.
• "Star Wars" featured a major character who was black. Some sci-fi yarns have made me wonder if people of color had been exterminated from the universe. Billy Dee Williams's role helped change that. Bring back Williams's character through a solid actor and create roles for other actors of color.

Thanks so much for reading, Mr. Lucas. If you need more ideas, Oscar and I would be delighted to take your call. Just delighted.

P.S. Please don't resurrect Jar Jar Binks.

Links courtesy of StarWars.com, imdb.com, lordoftherings.net, and wikipedia.com.

'Expelled': God, fairies, angels, and hobgoblins

God has a wonderful sense of humor.

The zany stuff in my own life is evidence enough (that's another post!),  but I think He laughs because He loves to wrap Himself in mystery, He loves the chase of hide-and-seek. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it is the glory of kings to search it out" (Proverbs 25:2).

His actions are unhurried, confident, focused. He doesn't feel pressured to reveal everything right away because finite folk throw tantrums when their brain freezes from wrestling with the unanswered. Questions from the Bible may keep us up nights, but they never make Him bat an eyelash. We may squabble about where Cain's wife came from or whether the earth is old or young, but God seems to stand near us listening -- simply taken by our processing the deep things that lie within Himself.

With the debate about intelligent design, He is His most enigmatic, and, seemingly, the most amused. Scientists who never would tiptoe near a theological thought may cling to Darwin like Saran Wrap, but God is near to them. God leaves gaping questions, drops tantalizing clues and is inexplicably drawn by expressions of faith. Faith that reaches for Him, even in the darkness, unlocks His heart, if not His secrets.

In his new movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," actor Ben Stein tackles the cultural wars that have ensued in the debate about intelligent design. The satirical documentary opens tomorrow, and if the savvy trailer is an indication, this could be a quality film. The part I'm look forward to watching is Stein interviewing someone who says God is as unlikely as fairies, angels and hobgoblins to be the Creator.

Now that makes me smile.

Courtesy of Expelledthemovie on GodTube.com

Jesus + 'The Bad Seed'

Oprah and author Eckhart Tolle, as I wrote yesterday, teach principles that view Jesus as a spiritual supplement. But many Christians live out the principle of Jesus-as-supplement every day.

We may have invited Christ into our lives and now have a relationship with the Father, but our self-efforts wither the vitality of the union. We inwardly believe lies about what Christ did for us. What the crucified and risen Jesus did was incomplete, so we tack on the same nefarious Jesus+X equation:

• Jesus+my efforts to be absolutely perfect=a good relationship with God.
• Jesus+my refusal to wear makeup =a good relationship with God.
• Jesus+my snubbing those who does not know Him= a good relationship with God.
• Jesus+my church attendance=a good relationship with God.
• Jesus+my cuss-free, drug-free, illicit-sex-free efforts= a good relationship with God.

You get the point. (Even people who think they know Christ practice such as equations, but let's concentrate now on those who really do.) Christians are God's own, but this devilish thinking reeks in the eyes of God. We do not take into account God the Father's commitment to make us whole. We ignore the work of the Holy Spirit to create wholeness in us a little bit every day.

Our efforts to reach perfection without relying completely on Jesus remind me of the pigtailed girl, Rhoda Penmark, in the 1956 film,"The Bad Seed."  Her outward perfection is jewel-hard, a manifestation of a polluted heart.

("The Bad Seed," courtesy of Shasta018 on YouTube.com.)

Rhoda's corrupted heart led her to kill others. When we believe the crucified and risen Jesus is not enough, that He is only a spiritual supplement, that we do not have to surrender to God's work in us to reach His standard of perfection, we cut off ourselves from heaven's bounty. For as Paul says in Galations, the life we live in the body, we must live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

The "perfection" we seek to obtain is merely bewitchment.

More tomorrow.

Film link courtesy of www.imdb.com.

Clues from Frederick Douglass about 21st century revival

The other night I was reading the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, and it was the perfect read. (Here is the book online at Berkeley Digital Library SunSite.) And that's not because I'm African-American and Black History Month is in a few days, or that we just celebrated the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

The book was on my shelf and it seemed the time to be soothed by Douglass' insightful prose.

The tales of the mass abuse he witnessed as a slave was not what made me sit up in bed two nights ago. Douglass' discussions about one of his masters, and how Christian conversion failed to alter his behavior toward his slaves is what stirred me. Of course, I know that many a slave master confessed Jesus while wielding the whip, but I was struck by a very contemporary irony as I read the famous observations by Douglass:

"In August, 1832, my master attended a Methodist camp-meeting held in the Bay-side, Talbot county, and there experienced religion. I indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to emancipate his slaves, and that, if he did not do this, it would, at any rate, make him more kind and humane. I was disappointed in both these respects. It neither made him to be humane to his slaves, nor to emancipate them. If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his conversion, he relied on his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty. He made the greatest pretensions to piety. His house was the house of prayer. He prayed morning, noon, and night. He very soon distinguished himself among his brethren, and was soon made a class-leader and exhorter. His activity in revivals was great, and he proved himself an instrument in the hands of the church in converting many souls..."

What Douglass observed as a young slave echoes today. As 21st century Christians, we have been too often guilty of wailing for the lost while condemning and neglecting and mistreating the very same. We reach out to the world with soiled, loveless hands and do not know it.

Consider the tragic statements by a woman at a Baptist congregation in Kansas, regarding the death of Heath Ledger, whose films are cited on The Internet Movie Database. FoxNews.com reports the woman connecting the Australian-born actor's shocking death this week with his role in 2005's Brokeback Mountain, a film about two gay lovers. The Kansas congregation wants to protest any U.S. gathering in honor of Ledger, whose cause of death is still unknown.

Mind-boggling. Is this the way we show the Lord we ache for holiness and revival? Satan so easily pollutes and deceives with religious reason.  The same foul ruses continue to distract and poison and cripple Christians, much like they did to Douglass' master in 1832.