Tim Abbott

The influence of TV

The all pervasive influence of TV has claimed another victim.

My 19 year old beer connoisseur son has been watching back to back episodes of Frasier and has thus been inspired to start drinking sherry. As a responsible father I have felt it necessary to help him in his research.

Mr T rides again

Just for a bit of light relief... we're loving the current Snickers TV advert featuring Mr.T, a tank and a wimpy footballer here on YouTube

"Quit your jibber jabber. You ain't hurt. You're pathetic. Urrghh!!"

Mr T, you're still awesome.

The Lost Tomb of Jesus

If you haven't already heard, James Cameron today held a press launch for his new documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, to be aired on the Discovery Channel. The film is based on the discovery, in a suburb of Jerusalem, of a tomb containing the graves of Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua. He's apparently confirmed from DNA evidence that Jesus and Mary were married and the some of those buried were their children.
If you're interested, the film web site is at jesusfamilytomb.com [I'm denying it the benefit of a hyperlink] There's quite a lot of purportedly historical, cultural and theological detail and it's got an interesting page called 'provisos' which notes that Jesus might still be resurrected, but from this tomb, not the one in Jerusalem.
There's a BBC item on it here which very humbly fails to mention that the BBC produced a programme about this grave in 1996.

As usual with these sorts of things, the 'experts' who worked with Cameron turn out to be, how shall we say, less than renowned for their world-wide reputation in such matters. "Archeologist" Simcha Jacobovici turns out to be a film maker and writer with an interest in religious history and Charles Pelligrino has a Ph.D. in paleobiology but is best known for being a writer for Star Trek: Next Generation, author of several science fiction novels and has produced a number of books about the lost city of Atlantis. To make comparisons with Dan Brown's 'The DaVinci Code' is too easy, people!
Among the various responses, is this from the London Evening Standard and there's a good write up here with helpful cross-referencing.

Expect much interviewing of raving atheist pseudo-historians and raving fundamentalist Christians. Also a certain amount of anxiety and confusion by some Christians and a mild case of bemused disinterest by most of the general public.
After an initial flurry of interest I suspect everyone will be bored of this by about a month after broadcast.

UPDATES:
Tuesday 27th Feb
There's an excellent analysis by Ben Witherington here, particularly from the perspective of Biblical and Church history.

Thursday 1st Mar
Reaction from the Washington Post. Top quote is surely this:

"I'm not a Christian. I'm not a believer. I don't have a dog in this fight," said William G. Dever, who has been excavating ancient sites in Israel for 50 years and is widely considered the dean of biblical archaeology among U.S. scholars. "I just think it's a shame the way this story is being hyped and manipulated."

God is green

I was glad to watch another piece of well written, well researched and sypathetically presented programming on a religious subject on Monday night as Mark Dowd examined the record of various faiths in their approach to the environment.
Through the wonders of Sky+ Amy has the programme saved so if you missed it get in touch with us at CYO and we'll see what we can do. This obviously only applies to readers in some kind of direct contact with CYO!

There is a good write up, with further links, on the Channel 4 web site here.

Marc Alton-Cooper, at creation-blogs, has an interview with Mark Dowd here.

If making green choices is proving difficult, an article in The Times on Saturday examined the respective environmental costs of flying roses in from Kenya against growing them in greenhouses in Holland. Guess which is greener... or click here for the article.

And finally, in a world of consumer and ethical choices that can leave us with option paralysis (do I drive further to buy more ethical or environmental products) Kester writes in this post,

I think there is a way out. A third way between blind belief in the goodness of our actions, and the tangled web of hopelessness. It is what I would call 'the symbolic life'.

What he describes embraces both gift and grace and suggests a way of making a difference whilst living at peace with our decisons. Very helpful.

[Pic: Channel 4]

Putting the drama back into believing

I posted here about the sequence of revival followed by social engagement leading to numerical growth in the church.
One of the fruits of effective engagement with society is that Christianity becomes aspirational; people look to the Christian faith lived out and communicated and are drawn to find out more - they 'want it'. I believe there is some evidence that this may be happening in society and particularly in the media in that Christian themes and stories are being much more favourably presented than previously.
An article in Saturday's The Times titled Putting the drama back into believing looks at a resurgence of interest at the BBC in programme making that addresses religious themes.

Adam Kemp, is responsible for commissioning programmes across BBC One, Two, Three and Four. Religion, he says, is now a subject that broadcasters cannot ignore.

“Religion and faith are right at the forefront of our agenda. And not just for people involved in religious programmes, but also those involved in current affairs. Religion was once seen as a little bit of a backwater in television, not one of the hottest genres, like science and history. But not any more.”

BBC's The Monastery (2005) and The Manchester Passion (2006) both made a huge impact and got people talking about Christianity in public. Now the Beeb is working on a £4 million mini-series about the Passion of Christ, due to be screened in 2008.
Programme makers are not daft - they know that these programmes are touching on the aspirations of many people;

It’s not about being a believer or even being sympathetic to religion, it’s about cutting through lazy prejudice about the subject, opening your eyes and seeing that, quite simply, it makes good TV that people want to watch.

To have the story of Christianity told compellingly and creatively in the public space in this way is an absolute gift. The encouraging thing about this approach is that the story of Christ and his people is being told for it's own sake, rather than being a constant object of deconstruction by those who believe in the demise of religious faith.

I sense a turning of the tide.

[pics: BBC]