The Oregon Faith Report - Faith News from Oregon

Family-Faith Film Review: Brooklyn’s Finest

Family-Faith Film Review: Brooklyn’s Finest
By Catholic Office of Film and Broadcasting

Brooklyn’s Finest—Seamy New York police drama chronicling a week in the lives of a cynical patrolman (Richard Gere) on the verge of retirement, an undercover operative (Don Cheadle) desperate for promotion to a safe desk job and a narcotics officer (Ethan Hawke) tempted to steal drug money to provide for his ill wife and growing family. Though Catholic imagery pervades director Antoine Fuqua’s grim journey through Gotham’s criminal underworld, faith provides no meaningful guidance to the conflicted characters as they cross legal and moral boundaries, and as the obscenity laden-script lurches from bloodshed to explicit scenes of sexuality. Frequent bloody violence, including beatings, shootings and strangulation, graphic nonmarital sexual activity, upper female nudity, a few uses of profanity, unremitting rough and crude language.  O — morally offensive. (R) 2010
Full Review

Court says “Under God” not a prayer

Faith Report News Note:

The most unpredictable court in America, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has made an interesting ruling on whether the words “Under God” in the Pledge of allegiance is a religious prayer or a citizen declaration.  Their decision surprised many as reported in the San Fransisco Chronicle.

The federal court that touched off a furor in 2002 by declaring the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance to be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion took another look at the issue Thursday and said the phrase invokes patriotism, not religious faith. The daily schoolroom ritual is not a prayer, but instead “a recognition of our founders’ political philosophy that a power greater than the government gives the people their inalienable rights,” said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in a 2-1 ruling. “Thus, the pledge is an endorsement of our form of government, not of religion or any particular sect.”

Why Oregonians do not give more

Oregon Faith Report Survey,

A previous Oregon Faith Report survey showed that 38% of Oregonians in the faith community had donated to Haiti relief efforts within the first month.  This is an encouraging number.  What about the 62% that had not given?  Can Oregon ministries improve their fundraising efforts?  The results of another Faith Report survey show that the answer is “yes”.

I would donate more to a charity or religious cause if…

When asked about donating more to a charity or church, 48% said the money was going to the right place, 32% if there was less overhead, 12% They allowed credit card or online donations and 8% if they were asked more.   These are legitimate and resolvable concerns that many ministries can adapt to if they wish to increase involvement and fundraising.

Below are comments that were left.

UofO confronts Anti-semitism, free speech and vandalism

UofO broils over anti-Antisemitism vs. free speech debate

Oregon Faith Report News Note: A white nationalist group called the Pacifica Forum has been hosting meetings at the University of Oregon which sponsoring the neo-Nazi National Socialists Movement.   Also occurring have been incidences of antisemetism and anti-gay vandalism.

Joseph A. Lieberman of The Jewish Review reports, “..University of Oregon janitors found swastikas spray-painted on a carpet, a computer and a television screen of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Alliance office in the Erb Memorial student union building. This is the same building where in December Jimmy Marr delivered an inflammatory presentation before the Pacifica Forum that sparked weeks of protests, UO policy reviews and student senate confrontations. During that appearance by Marr, a half dozen individuals from Portland and elsewhere in Oregon who were believed to represent the National Socialist Movement shouted “sieg heil” in unison prior to a showing of slides and videos of NSM rallies.

Eugene church arsonist caught

Oregon Faith News Note,

Eugene has been hit with a rash of fires over the past few days which included multiple times at the Eugene Faith Center.   Police believe they have a suspect who was caught in the act.

KMTR News Reports, “Eugene (KMTR) – After a string of arson fires in west Eugene police have made an arrest.  Eugene officers say a trespasser was at the Eugene Faith Center on West 13th Avenue and arrested Monday night. Two suspicious fires were discovered at the church Monday morning, following a fire on Saturday. Police helped security officers at the church detain Mathew Wayne Rossi, 31, of Eugene.  Police say he was found under a building on the church campus with rolled-up newspapers and several lighters. Police arrested Rossi on charges of first-degree arson, burglary and assault.”  Continue reading.

Bishops upset over pay-phone confession line

From Fox News, The Roman Catholic Church in France is objecting to a new pay telephone line set up to receive people’s confessions, AFP reported.

The phone line, called “Le Fil du Seigneur,” or “The Line of the Lord,” was set up at the start of the Christian fasting period of Lent by a group of Catholics working for a small Paris company that provides telephone messaging services.It doesn’t claim to offer absolution for sins — that’s still left to a priest — but a woman identified by AFP as one of the line’s creator said the idea is to confess minor sins directly to God. The Confederation of French Bishops said the line had not been approved by the Catholic Church in France. Continue reading.

What your son is not telling you. Be surprised.

Georgene Rice of KPDQ-FM, interviews Michael Ross, author of What Your Son Isn’t Telling You. He unlocks the secret world of teen boys, placing emphasis on not only the necessity of fathers, but also on mothers understanding of what goes on in the hearts and minds of their sons.  Michael Ross takes you on an eye-opening journey into the sometimes brutal landscape that is characterized by loneliness and peer fear. He and his co-author Susie Shellenberger give insights into how to better communicate and reach and understand that young man.

Georgene: Give us just a brief glimpse into the teenage world boys face today and the “code of cruelty”.

Ross: Boys are not quite adults. They are playful one minute, but yet think very deep thoughts and very much moving toward an adult world. So, it’s this mix, this pull that they have to deal with. Let’s talk about the physical stuff they deal with. Men have a secret “Guy Code” that expects them to be rigid—don’t blink, don’t show emotion, never look weak, always be a tough guy, always be in control. Sort of the survival of the fittest with the weak being preyed upon.

Georgene: How can a mom help her son see who he really is and talk about your chapter “father hunger and guy time”?

Pentagon officer credits God help during shooting spree

Two Pentagon police officers were shot when Jon Patrick Bedell went on a  shooting spree.  Both officers shot back and killed Bedell.   Officer Jefferey Amos who took a bullet in the sholder told the Associated Press, “I just thank the Lord that He shielded me when all of this took place.”.  The assailant was believed to be mentally insane.  More here.

Luis Palau leader on Chile earthquake experience

Palau Team Members Survive Chile Earthquake
From Luis Palau Ministries, Beaverton

Ruben Proietti is a 32-year member of the Palau team and one of the most respected Christian leaders in Latin America. He was in Santiago working on the upcoming Chile Festival when the February 27 earthquake hit. This is a condensed account of his report to Luis as he finally made his way out of the country:

March 3, 2010: On the evening of Friday, February 26, we returned to our apartment on the sixth floor in Santiago, Chile. At 3:30 in the morning we were thrown from our bed. The floor was heaving. We didn’t know what was happening. It was accompanied by a deafening noise. My wife says it is impossible to describe what we went through. You had to experience it. And we can tell about it because the powerful hand of the Lord protected us.  The noise was like ten locomotives racing down the rails at full speed, said one survivor. It was horrific. The movement in the apartment was not just of things, but a total displacement of the building. Earthquakes usually last about 30 seconds. This one went on for more than two minutes. It seemed to be endless!

Prom war over same-sex dates in Mississippi

Faith News Note;

A senior at Mississippi Itawamba Agriculture High School has been told that she cannot bring her girlfriend to the upcoming High School prom. The ACLU has sent a letter in protest and threatening a lawsuit.   Supporters of the policy say that schools have a right to make their own rules.  A final or change of decision has yet to be announced for the April 4th dance.

From WXVT News, “ACLU Legal Director Kristy Bennett says school officials told McMillen she couldn’t arrive with her date and might be asked to leave if others complain about their presence. The ACLU says the school also wouldn’t let McMillen wear a tuxedo. District Superintendent Teresa McNeece didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. In its letter, the ACLU says the school’s decisions violates the student’s constitutional rights.”

Family-Faith Film Review: Alice in Wonderland

Family-Faith Film Review: Alice in Wonderland
By Catholic Office of Film and Broadcasting

Alice in Wonderland—Very loosely inspired by, but not recklessly departing from, Lewis Carroll’s famous books, this 3-D fantasy-adventure mixes animation and live action as it follows its plucky Victorian heroine (Mia Wasikowska) — here a 19-year-old — down the rabbit hole into a strange, nonsensical realm where she conspires with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and various frazzled fauna to end the despotic rule of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). Although younger viewers will be frightened by certain sequences, director Tim Burton refrains from indulging in the more macabre or avant-garde aspects of the tale; and yet, while it conveys a salubrious message with vaguely Christian echoes, the film’s aesthetic impact is lessened by the lack of a coherent visual style. Sequences of fantasy action and violence, including a skewered animal eyeball, human characters striking one another; images of mild animal cruelty, some discussion of beheadings, a character smoking a water pipe and one instance of light profanity.  A-II — adults and adolescents. (PG) 2010. Full Film Review of Alice in Wonderland here.

Family-Faith Film Review: Cop Out

Family-Faith Film Review: Cop Out
By Catholic Office of Film and Broadcasting

Cop Out—This vulgar buddy comedy follows two unconventional New York police detectives (Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan) as they try to recover the valuable baseball card Willis’ character was planning to sell to finance his daughter’s wedding but which was stolen by a petty thief (Seann William Scott), and passed on to a memorabilia-obsessed drug lord (Guillermo Diaz). As penned by Robb and Mark Cullen and directed by Kevin Smith, foul-mouthed dialogue and bullet-riddled action sequences drown out the mostly smile-free script’s faint messages about marital trust and self-sacrificing parental love. Considerable, sometimes gory, action violence; a scene of torture; pervasive rough and crude language; about a dozen uses of profanity; and much sexual and scatological humor.  O — morally offensive. (R) 2010.  For Full Review of the movie Cop-Out click here.

Oscars serve up bad religion, bad sex

By Beaver Believer,
Portland writer

The Academy Awards are just hours away and it is too bad that many of the movies up for Best Picture provide such poor role models in the view of both religion and sexuality.

On religion, the film “A Serious Man” delves into Jewish philosophy by offering up diatribes of painful nothingness and then decides to make the climax of the movie about a teen who tries to get through his bar mitzvah while stoned.  Avatar jumps into the environmental spirituality arena. It approaches the historic debate over the balance between man and nature by overloading the scales.   Man (as represented by business, the military and America) is portrayed as recklessly and pervasively evil while nature is seen as a holy shrine where even the smallest of animals and plants are sacred.   Avatar seemed way too preachy and unbalanced for my taste.

Film and Culture Ramblings

By Braxton Alsop
New Wine-Skins Blog
Oregon

This entry is a sort of preface to a series I’ll be beginning next week:  My Unabashedly Biased Top Ten Spiritually Significant Films of the Past Two Decades.  While I was writing about the first film on the list, the video (at the bottom of the post) of Mark Driscoll’s comments on “Avatar” during a sermon came to my attention.  Instead of spending much time criticizing it, I’ll just present it below and add that, based on Driscoll’s criteria for accusing “Avatar” of being demonic, “The Lord of the Rings” series should be seen as an equally pagan, modernist-industry bashing movie that hooked audiences through special effects.  Hopefully the absurdity here is evident.

Medical Teams: NW volunteer dies in Haiti

Dedicated Volunteer Dies in Haiti
Medical Teams International:

To our great sorrow, we have learned that Matthew Bouthillier, a Medical Teams International volunteer, died March 1 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

“We are shocked and saddened beyond words at this enormous loss,” said Bas Vanderzalm, president of Medical Teams International, who recently returned from Haiti. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Matt’s wife, Melissa, and his family, as well as our team in Haiti.” Matt, 36, served as an emergency-room nurse at Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah, Wash. He had been treating earthquake survivors on a Medical Teams International mission in Haiti since February 20. Matt was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest at the University of Miami field hospital in Port-au-Prince.

Jimmy Carter’s church still attracts crowds

Carter’s church, former president still a draw
By Kay Campbell
Religion news Service,

PLAINS, Ga. (RNS) With its aging storefronts and small train depot, its graceful pecan trees and clipped fields of peanuts, cottons and hay, peace still seems possible in this tiny town.  And nowhere is that peace protected more fiercely than at Maranatha Baptist Church, where former President Jimmy Carter teaches adult Sunday school class two or three Sundays of every month.  Jan Williams, who taught Amy Carter when she was in fourth grade, is the head peacekeeper at the simple country church set in a grove of pecan trees. At 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, Williams—known universally as “Miss Jan”—steps out the church’s front doors and encounters a line of visitors already forming.  “Are you a member of the Secret Service?” a woman in the line asked, noting the men wearing earpieces who stepped out behind her.

Holocaust survivor speaks at George Fox tonight

Ursula Bacon will share of her experiences in Germany, China during WWII
From George Fox University,

NEWBERG, Ore. – Holocaust survivor Ursula Bacon will visit George Fox University on Wednesday, March 3, to tell of her experiences of fleeing Nazi Germany. Bacon will speak at 7 p.m. in Room 103 of the university’s Hoover Academic Building. The public is invited to attend at no charge.

Bacon fled Nazi Germany with her parents in 1939 and landed in Shanghai, China, along with more than 18,000 other Middle European Jews. The family spent most of the war years in a Japanese-controlled “designated area,” often referred to as the “Shanghai Ghetto.” She came to the United States in 1947.

She has written a book about her experiences, Shanghai Diary, A Young Girl’s Journey from Hitler’s Hate to War-torn China.

Archeologist discovers Solomon’s wall, helps confirm Jewish history.

A 3,000 year-old fortification in Jerusalem has been excavated and shows proof of Jewisha nd Biblical king Solomon.  National Public Radio reports,

An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era. If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication that Jerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C. That’s a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible’s account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

Karma film targets Tiger apology, Michael Jackson

“Karma: the New Revolution” Film to Address Tiger Woods’ Apology

An international epic will explain the Buddhist concepts behind Tiger Woods’ apology. It will also view recent headlines by Michael Jackson, Roman Polanksi and our soldiers through the laws of Karma.

Beverly Hills, California—February 26, 2010—As the world analyzes Tiger Woods’ apology, the international epic “Karma: The New Revolution” will explain the Buddhist approach to Atonement and Redemption that will play an important role in his comeback. Filmed in over a dozen countries—from the Louvre Museum in Paris to the Sal forests where the Buddha taught in India—the film will combine the teachings of the Buddha, Bhagavad-Gita, Upanishads, Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda as well as some of the greatest Western philosophers including Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Bertrand Russell, Mark Twain, Carl Sagan, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Voltaire and the like.