Exciting! The BBC has now made its video content "embed-able" on other sites. Therefore, here is the Pope's final message on his Middle Eastern tour, which was accompanied by this story.
Our Only Hope?: Angels, Demons, and Marketing "Christian Entertainment"
If you're not catching Star Trek at the multiplex this weekend, then there's another, more ecclesiastical option available: Angels and Demons features Tom Hanks taking a second turn as Harvard "symbologist" Robert Langdon. (Note: if there really were a Harvard department of religious symbology, it would probably be falling under the axe of budget cuts right about now).
To quote the New York Times in their review, it is a tale of "mayhem in the Vatican." While this has stirred some controversy among Catholic America, the film is less inflammatory than The Da Vinci Code (and its release also coincides with the Pope's visit to the Holy Land, which is stirring its own controversies).
The Times review, in a not-so-gently condescending manner, dismisses the film as innocuous if not intellectual entertainment. A much more interesting angle is pursued in this week's print edition of Entertainment Weekly, which focuses on the difficulty of marketing "Christian entertainment" as a separate category. Any attempt by mainstream Hollywood to brand and package films to Christian audiences, and harness the church as a marketing tool, has so far been largely unsuccessful.
The article cites the successes of smaller films made by Christian companies - such as Fireproof (2008), which grossed 33 times its cost - but also discusses the varying successes of films like The Nativity Story and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
If you're interested in marketing or the film industry, and their intersection with religion, definitely check the article out.
Without a doubt, this week's biggest religion-related news story (in terms of coverage, at least) has been the Pope's visit to the Middle East. If you're keeping track of the visit and its political/spiritual implications, then be sure to check this editorial in the Boston Globe, on the subject of healing, as well as the BBC's coverage (linked story has both text and video) featuring the Pope's statements on Holocaust denial and his wreath-laying at the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
Additionally, here is a video from today's portion of the visit. While I found it on youtube, the source of the content is ITN (Independent Television News), a British news provider and a partner with MSN in the United States:
...including a dramatization of this week's reading from Acts, featuring the conversion of a certain eunuch from Ethiopia (which led to the foundation of the 2,000-year-old Ethiopian church!)
The reading:
"
Acts 8:26-40
An angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
"Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth."
The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea."
The video:
This has really convinced me that everything is on Youtube.
Pope Benedict XVI is on the second day of his tour of the Holy Land, and the BBC reports that in a speech in Jordan, he "warned against the misuse of religion for political ends." They also have a photo slideshow here.
The Vatican now appears to allow embedding of the videos on their channel... Here is the pope's statement before embarking on his tour:
Meanwhile, Newsweek has an article that attempts to put the Pope's visit in the context of his larger beliefs on Scripture.
Today the BBC reports on the scheduled playing of John Lennon's "iconic" song "Imagine" by the bell ringers at the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool.
Due to what could certainly be interpreted as the "anti-religious" nature of the song ("Imagine there's no heaven / It's easy if you try / No hell below us / Above us only sky ... no religion too"), the choice of the song is controversial. However, the organizers of the event note: "It is an iconic song which will be performed in a thought-provoking and surprising setting."
The performance will be next week on 16 May, and will progress from hand bells to the church's famous larger bells.
..to the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Harvard! We hold services of Holy Eucharist (Sundays at 5PM, Christ Church, 0 Garden Street, Cambridge) followed by dinner throughout the academic year, along with other events and activities.
Upcoming Events
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Christ Church Episcopal
First Church in Cambridge (Congregational)
