Reality TV philanthropy

Last night, Oprah's The Big Give started, taking reality TV to a new level. Rather than individuals competing to gain cash, the ten (or now nine) participants are competing to give away money. The concept drew me in and it was pretty inspiring to watch. The basic concept is great: Individuals can make a huge difference in other individuals' lives (with the help of corporate sponsors of course, although they are less visible on this show than on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition).

Teams of two raised tens of thousands of dollars for five individuals in last night's episode. While it's great for those five people, I kept wondering, what about all the other people need help? Why were these five people chosen?

Hopefully the show doesn't just serve as entertainment. It would be great if the show inspires other people to help their neighbors. Even better, though, would be if it inspires people to take on the underlying issues: housing, homelessness, the incredible cost of tuition and resulting debts, soldiers transitioning into civil life, and services for people with disabilities.

Did you see the show? What did you think: Is it an inspiration or just another reality show? Will you continue to watch it?

Moral of the story: Find God and all is good

The first film from Sherwood Pictures, the creators of Facing the Giants, (see Jan 30, 2007's post) is being released on DVD by Provident Films and Sony Pictures. Flywheel: Director’s Cut will be released on Nov. 13. Flywheel was previously self-distributed by Sherwood Pictures, which sold 85,000 copies of it.

Like Facing the Giants, Flywheel was made by volunteers from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia and is about a man whose life changes dramatically for the better when he finds God. In this movie, a used car dealer rips off a minister, who, thinking he's gotten a good deal, asks for the Lord's blessings on the car dealer. The event sparks a conversion in the car dealer, who returns all the money he's conned people out of. Thanks to his generosity, his business takes off, with everyone and their uncle showing up to buy a used car. (The trailer reveals the whole story line.)

"Whoever wants the next generation the most will get them. Flannel graphs and chalk talks won't reach a student who has an Xbox in his room," Sherwood Senior Pastor Michael Catt said, according to a press release. "The arts of today can be used for good or evil. We can complain about how movies corrupt our children and culture. Or we can say, 'Let's get in the middle and make a difference.'"

Pray for Colbert 2

Stephen Colbert's day of prayer helped him choose a 3 Musketeers Bar ("All for one and one for all, just like the Holy Trinity," he says) over Combos, he reflected on his show, The Colbert Report last Thursday. (See the "Pray for Colbert" entry on Wednesday, Feb. 21.)

He then proceeded to don his lucky praying hat and giant prayer hands and pray for those who prayed for him. See him declare "Jesus, No. 1!" yourself under his recent highlights.

On the same show, he takes Larry King to task when King says the dead person he would want to interview was Christ. "Larry, you know he's not dead...Rose from the dead on the third day, ascended to Heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, or don't they teach that you in Hebrew school?" (See end of Larry King clip).

Offensive Theater Update

As covered in the March 07 issue of Catholic Tastes (Offensive Theater Part 2), the University of Minnesota theater department currently is performing The Pope and the Witch, despite protests from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

The satire about a pope's nervous breakdown involves a witch, drugs, and crime. Dario Fo, the play's author and the 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is a "well-known Stalinist and anti-Catholic bigot," said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League (see the Catholic League press release for more). Donohue criticized the university for protecting other groups, but not Catholics, from prejudice. He asked university president Robert Bruininks to cancel the performance, but the show will go on. Bruininks said that a university is the place for "the free exchange of ideas."

A review in the Pioneer Press says that the idea that the play is blasphemous is based on the wrong assumption that the play is about religion, when it is actually about politics. Theater critic Dominic P. Papatola says it is "a play less interested in sacrilege and more interested in comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable."

For more information on the controversy, check out this article in The Minnesota Daily. Catholics in Minnesota can decide what they think for themselves by checking out the play in the next week, or the script is also available on Amazon.com.

And the Oscar goes to...

Whenever I watch an awards show like the Academy Awards, I compile a list of all the movies I want to see (as I usually haven't seen many of the films nominated). But there is another source for finding out what were last year's top movies: the USCCB. The bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting releases a list of their top 10 films and top 10 family films. Not all of the top 10 films are appropriate for families, so the bishop's also provide their own rating system. The Oscar's best picture winner, The Departed, doesn't appear on the bishops' list, but the bishops did count best picture nominees Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Little Miss Sunshine in their top 10 and gave The Queen an honorable mention.

Meanwhile, The Nativity Story won the 15th Annual MOVIEGUIDE Awards. MOVIEGUIDE rates films for families from a Christian perpective.

PBS's Religion and Ethics page shares commentary on this year's movies from a religious perspective. Their conclusion: Hollywood seems to be pessimistic, but the moral questions raised by the movies are important.

The 11th Commandment on TV

Tired of lewd late-night comedy acts? A DVD that attempts to prove that "Christian comedian" is not an oxymoran will make its television premiere this weekend on Trinity Broadcasting Network. Thou Shalt Laugh (Warner Home Video) will air on TBN from 9 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, February 24. (See broadcast schedule.)

Thou Shalt Laugh is a comedy concert whose stars, producers, and directors are all Christians. The concert is hosted by actress Patricia Heaton, who is best konwn for her Emmy Award-winning portrayal of Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond. The line-up of seven comedians has achieved success on the traditional comedy circuit, but they are known to provide clean family entertainment as well. The show features Taylor Mason, Thor Ramsey, Michael Jr., Teresa Roberts Logan, Gilbert Equivel, Joby Saad, and Jeff Allen. It has sold more than 100,000 copies since it was release last November. The DVD was featured in Catholic Tastes in October 2006.

Pray for Colbert

While today is an important day of prayer for Catholics, tomorrow also is, according to Mastermedia International, which has declared tomorrow the day to pray for the Catholic comedian Stephen Colbert. Mastermedia, which consults media companies on the Christian market, releases a Media Leader Prayer Calendar, featuring a different media leader and cultural influencer for each day. The organization asks that those who order the prayer list "pray that Christians in media will lead godly, exemplary lives and that they will have loving boldness to express their moral convictions in their marketplace."

Fans of The Colbert Report know that Colbert, who plays the part of a conservative pundit on his fake news show on Comedy Central, is not shy about being a "defender of his faith." In one episode, he recited the Nicene Creed in its entirety on air. You can see him discussing the day of prayer with fellow cultural influencer Candice Bergen on his show's website.

Considering Colbert's influence on Wikipedia (he has convinced fans to change entries), he would also appreciate this unique two-source theory for the Synoptic Gospels from the Locust and Honey blog: The sources for Matthew and Luke are Mark and, of course, Wikipedia.

God censored

"(Bleep) bless you, ma'am," said a character in The Queen after the movie was censored for profanity. Travelers watching The Queen while flying saw an overly sanitized version of the film after an overzealous and inexperienced movie editor took out the word "God" in any and every context, instead of just when it was used as part of a profanity. After some passengers complained, Jaguar Distribution, which distributed the movie to multiple airlines, replaced all edited version with the original version, according to an Associated Press story.

With God all things are possible

Such is the theme of both the plot and real life story of Facing the Giants, a Christian film released on DVD today. In the feel-good story, Grant Taylor coaches football at a small Southern Christian high school and his life seems to be unraveling. Nothing seems to work; his home, his car, his team, and even his body fail him. But not all is lost for those who have God. The film's theology isn't quite as simple as pray for a car and God, like a genie that grants wishes, will give it to you. The moral of the story, though, is definitely that if you believe, in God and yourself, good things will happen.

It's easy to see how the films creators think this way. The David-versus-Goliath film was created by an all-volunteer cast and crew from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia with a $100,000 production budget. After it was picked up by Sony Pictures for national distribution, it earned $10 million in ticket sales at 441 theaters last fall.

Now they hope that Christians around the country will use Super Bowl Sunday to inspire football fans with the Good News by showing the DVD, which is for sale online and in some video stores, Christian book stores, and major chains such as Wal-Mart.

I, for one, will be watching da Bears in da Super Bowl on Sunday. Most of us at Claretian Publications and the St. Jude League here in Chicago feel like our prayers have been answered this football season. Here is the sign above our front door right now:

Go Bears!