On Mormonism

The Independent (UK): The darker side of Mormonism.

Jesus as Harry Potter

Dom comments on an upcoming movie production based on Anne Rice’s novel, Christ the Lord. The producer, Good News Holdings (“a Spiritainment Company,” the CEO and co-founder of which is pollster George Barna) says of the story: “At seven years old, Jesus is a curious child, wise beyond his years, yet troubled by the secret of his own identity, which has been kept from him all his life.”

A Long Time Ago …

Today is the 30th anniversary of the opening of “Star Wars,” and the US postal service is commemorating it with some new stamps.

May 25, 1977, was the end of my sophomore year in high school, I was 15, and I didn’t go see the movie. I had other plans that summer, including a trip to Connecticut. When I got back, my four little brothers could talk about nothing else but “Star Wars.” That fall I went to Broadview Academy, and I read the novelization of “Star Wars” on breaks at Harris Pine Mills. I didn’t see the movie until it came out on video–same for “Empire Strikes Back.” “Return of the Jedi” (which opened May 25, 1983) was the only one of trilogy I saw in the theater; by that time I had been married a year and was looking forward to being a senior in college. My youngest brother was only 8, Jim was 13, and they and my other siblings were still primarily interested in “Star Wars” toys.

Religious and Civil Rights …?

It seems to me that the most important “religious and civil rights” include both freedom of religion and freedom of speech. This includes the right to disagree with someone else’s religion, and to say so. Bill Donohue, of the “Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights,” seems to disagree. Currently he is going after Bill Maher and Barbara Walters for disagreeing with and mocking things important to him (he intends to launch a “campaign” against the latter).

Now, I believe respect and tolerance are important values in a civil society. But those virtues are inculcated by patient teaching and example, not by trying to shut people up who disagree. Because tolerance isn’t something that can be taught by, well, intolerance.