Maybe this movie was 14 years ahead of its time? I've been thinking a lot about The Rapture lately (the film not the mythical upcoming event). The 1991 Michael Tolkin movie starred Mimi Rogers as a swinger who gets born again and glassy-eyed with tragic results. It feels like essential viewing right about now, given what's happening all around this country.
Everywhere you look, fundamentalism and feverish religiosity seems to be rearing their non-rational heads. It's scaring the bejeezus out of me. For those of you out there who haven't seen it and are also feeling scared of the American Taliban (aka: the Christian Right) and their theocratic plans for the country, prepare to see the scariest horror movie ever. For those of you who aren't much concerned about the pattern of fundamentalism as the downfall of civilization but who like watching movies, you should still see it. Mimi Rogers is aces in it. She should've been nominated for an Oscar.
And, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe she had a lot to draw on as she was involved in Scientology for many years (don't know about her current status) and was previously married to both a Scientology counsellor and to the Scientology Missionary Man, Tom Cruise. Not that Scientology is Christian fundamentalism. But it all boils down to the same thing, doesn't it? Any idealogy that is taken to extremes... that controls your life, blocks out rational thinking, that disables critical thinking skills and the ability to see multiple perspectives or embrace diverse choices is not good for you and not healthy for the society either. Civilization requires its citizenry to have these very crucial skills in order to live peacefully with those around them.
Monday, June 20, 2005
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6 comments:
Wow. "supposedly due to schedule conflicts" soundsawfully suspicious to me. Tom Cruise has gone as crazy as W.
Unfortunately, I've also heard that Scarlett the person is kind of a bitch-goddess, even though I remain a fan of Scarlett the actress.
I do agree that people need to be open-minded and understanding, but you must remember that one of the central teachings of the Christian faith is that it is the only true faith. Jesus was very explicit about that. The same can be said of Judaism and Islam. Not all conservative and neo-conservative Christians want to turn this country into a theocracy (I sure as hell don't), but we do want the right to try and convert as many people as we can and believe that our faith is the only true way to God. It's what Jesus commands us to do, and if we don't do it then we're really not following his teachings. I realize that a lot of people screw up in this regard. Just remember though, it's those people who are screwing up, not Christ. I leave you with a quote from the great movie Ivanhoe: "For every Jew you show me who's not a Christian, I'll show you a Christian who's not a Christian."
Well said Nath (can I call you that? There are too many people in my life with that in their name. Nathan, Nathalen, Nathani and you!)
and, yeah, Christian Rights are taking over Australia too.
But we still have Europe if all else fails!
...and Canada!
-Glenn
Seth, I have no problem with anyone's faith. But as soon as their faith extends into political activities and the disruption of the lives of others outside of that faith, we have a real problem.
The climate in this country is dangerous for everyone who is not an evangelical Christian --people who don't want a theocracy be they Republicans, true Christians, or whatever and who persist in voting for the current administration and all of their tentacles are doing a real disservice to freedom and to the true values of this country (which is about freedom for everyone)
The disconnect is really frightening. We can get all up in arms about fundamentalism in other religions and how they've destroyed Afghanistan, the Middle East, etc... but the same people who seem most angry about that want essentially the same thing for this country.
It's disheartening and for those of us who are targeted it's scary as hell. I wish more people would wake up because gays won't be the only targets. It's just an easy place to start.
It's not possible that you can believe Christianity can be the one true faith if you can, at the same time, claim that Islam and Judaism also believe themselves to be the "one" true faith and, at still the same time, be respectful of their beliefs. You can't claim that yours is the one true faith and still respect others' beliefs. It's impossible. One or all of you must be wrong. You sound like a reasonable, open-minded and well-intentioned person, but your argument for conversion is full of contradictions. You don't want a theocracy, but you do want to convert as many as possible to yours, the one true faith. You don't want to stomp on other religions, but you do believe that yours is the only one that's "true".
It seems beyond obvious that the one true faith, if there is one, is faith in the future of humanity, that someday people will all get the fact that their various religions are cultural constructs wrought by generations of a whole cultural "telephone" game, all the way from true prophets like Jesus, Mohammed and Ghandhi down to hatemongerers like Jerry Fallwell, Osama Bin Laden, and our friends in the Bush Administration. Yippee-doo-dah-day.
Anyway. Whatever. Just had to say that.
Christian Love is good.
Christian Hate is bad.
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Haha. I was starting to write all that before Nathaniel's own response had gone through. Well, now there are two.
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