I’ll never understand the “religious right” here in the United States.  Understandably, Christianity is the predominant religion here in this country, but I fail to see how the “religious right” in fact has the right to act as the final arbiter on all things religious.  The fact that conservative Christians, and even Roman Catholics to some extent, act as the mouthpiece for Christians here in North America is quite repulsive.   There are many different factions and different issues  and different understandings about Christ being revealed to us in the Scriptures–why do you think Paul wrote different letters to the different churches–and the conservative Christians of Texas certainly don’t speak for the conservative or even liberal Christians of the rest of the United States.

My biggest pet peeve is being spoken for, particularly when I have the ability to speak for myself and did not relinquish that right to do so.  So I get highly incensed when we as Christians here in the United States allow for others to speak for us, and the rest of us sit idly by as if what they say is the only and correct way of interpreting the Scripture.  Secondarily, I blame the media.  In the whole scheme of things, this was almost a non-news story; technically, who cares if the damn religious right or certain Christiant groups don’t like the movie–such is life.  Try being a black man in the United States and watch how black people are treated on the silver screen–don’t get me started.

Again, what I’ve always wondered, is that how did the Roman Catholic church solidify itself in Hollywood as the only Christian religious entity that has power to cast out demons, or the only authority on religious matters in the movie.  By in large the Roman Catholic church has a monopoly in this area–why hasn’t the religious right complained about this?  Doesn’t the religious right largely include many Protestant denominations, many of which are Baptist. 

Hmmm….maybe they’re in bed together….wouldn’t that produce a bastard of a child.

Well, for those chosen ones who read this, I would like your opinions, make sure to leave a comment.

Keep it uppity, JLL

Christian groups slam new Kidman children’s movie

by Tangi Quemener Mon Dec 3, 7:33 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Christian groups are up in arms here over a new children’s film starring Nicole Kidman and based on an award-winning novel by British author Philip Pullman, accusing it of being anti-religious. “The Golden Compass” which opens here Friday is the film version of “The Northern Lights,” the first book in Pullman’s “Dark Materials” fantasy trilogy aimed at teenage readers.The books by confirmed agnostic Pullman trace the fate of a young girl, Lyra, as she becomes drawn into an apocalyptic battle of good against evil, meeting a host of strange characters along the way including a polar bear, voiced in the film by Ian McKellan.Evil in Pullman’s books is represented by the church, called the Magisterium, whose acolytes kidnap orphans across England to subject them to horrible experiments in the frozen northern wastelands.“The Northern Lights” won Pullman the 1995 Carnegie Medal for children’s fiction in Britain, and the final volume in his trilogy, “The Amber Spyglass” was the first ever children’s novel to be awarded the prestigious British Whitbread Book of the Year award in 2002.With its 180-million-dollar big budget movie, New Line studios is hoping to repeat the box-office success of its “Lord of the Rings” series.And it aims to tap into the young audiences of cinema-goers who flocked to the five “Harry Potter” films making them big earners for Warner Bros.But already “The Golden Compass” is whipping up the same controversy which saw the “Harry Potter” series based on the novels by British author J. K Rowling, accused by some on the religious right of promoting witchcraft.The author’s attack on organized religion has been toned down for the film, in a bid to attract as wide as audience as possible, something director Chris Weitz has acknowledged.“In the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots,” Weitz wrote in the British Daily Telegraph.But “if that’s what you want in the film, you’ll be disappointed,” he warned.However, the sanitized version of Pullman’s book has failed to appease the Catholic League, which gathers some 350,000 members, and which has already been sending out leaflets denouncing the film.“The Catholic League wants Christians to stay away from this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books,” said president William Donohue.“Unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books,” he added.The League already took on the movie world in 2006 to denounce the blockbuster “The Da Vinci Code” and its central tenant that Jesus Christ had a child by Mary Magdalene whose descendants still survive today.The US Conference of Catholic Bishops however has been more nuanced in its approach warning in a review of “The Golden Compass” of its “anti-clerical subtext, standard genre occult elements, character born out of wedlock, a whiskey-guzzling bear.”But it adds that “taken purely on its own cinematic terms, (it) can be viewed as an exciting adventure story with a traditional struggle between good and evil, and a generalized rejection of authoritarianism.”“The Golden Compass” will be released in some 3,000 cinemas and only 60 have so far refused to screen it, according to the industry daily Variety. “It’s this undisguised anti-religious theme that has numerous groups in a lather, but perhaps more of an issue for some … will be the film’s lack of exciting uplift and the almost unrelievedly nasty treatment of the young characters by a host of aggressively unpleasant elders,” Variety added.