So Ricky Gervais did a photo shoot and asked a bunch of questions over at HuffPo.  Here’s my take on one particular image and then, since he asks a few questions that are somewhat provocative, I’ll take a stab at answering them.

The photo of him posing as a Christ-figure is worth addressing because it is most likely to generate controversy for obvious reasons.  My first reaction was, frankly, disappointment.  That’s the best he can do?  I happen to think Mr. Gervais is hilarious, and his funniest material is usually the most provocative, but this one just fell flat.

After all, how many times are we going to be subjected to some knock-off of the Christ pose, which is obviously intended to inflame Christians?  In short, it’s been done to death.  Christians are an easy target and it doesn’t take much imagination, or cajones, to take pot shots at them.  In America, it’s perfectly fine to hate on the Christians.

If Mr. Gervais had real cajones, he would have created an image that is offensive to Jews.  Even though anti-Semitism runs deep and wide in this country, and often goes unrecognized and unreported, it’s still not so easy to openly hate on the Jews.   There are enough organizations and individuals that will defend us against anything remotely offensive, but the social price is high enough that Mr. Gervais is too smart to risk his career.

Nor is he likely to provide an image offensive to militant Muslims.  As John Nolte pointed out, they will literally take your head off if they don’t get the joke.  Not only is Mr. Gervais likely fond of his head, Muslims are presently in the company of the P.C. Police.  He’d likely to go P.C. jail for taking a swipe in that territory.

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“This is a loving, caring Jesus,” is how the director of a play involving abortion described a leading man to the New York Times.

The play, written by a Notre Dame grad, recently took to stage at the University of Delaware. The dialogue includes a gal asking Christ: “Did you ever say, ‘I’m Jesus, and I say that stupid girls who let guys talk them into going to the back seat of their cars have to have babies?’ Did you say that ever?”

“No,” Jesus replies.

“All you talk about is, be nice to each other!” the teenager continues. “You never said nobody’s allowed to have an abortion.”

The fictional Jesus confirms her assertion.

“So can I? Can I? Can I?” she asks.

“Honestly, I — I don’t really have an issue with it,” Jesus tells her.

Honestly?

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If there is a line to get into hell the man standing at the front is author and habitual literary-prevaricator James Frey. Frey, one of those writers who in their misguided youth got hooked on drugs, stole things, got in fights, went to jail and then wrote an autobiography about it.  His was titled, “A Million Little Pieces.” Problem is, most of his story was made up and Oprah’s book club busted him for it.

Meet James Frey

What’s a shameless author to do to get back into the good graces of the New York literary world while hoping to conjure up a Hollywood movie deal? Offer a sacrifice to their godless imagination in the form of a new novel entitled, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, staring Jesus, an alcoholic bachelor who sleeps with prostitutes and marries gay couples. The other gimmick placed atop Mr. Frey’s inane offering is a limited U.S. print run of 10,000 slip-cased leatherette copies, as well as 1,000 collector’s editions signed and numbered by the author.

Mr. Frey said in a 2008 interview the book is his “idea of what the Messiah would be like if he were walking the streets of New York today.” His Jesus — or Ben Jones – is apparently a drunk who impregnates a prostitute, smokes pot and fools around with men. “It doesn’t matter how or who you love. I don’t believe the messiah would condemn gay men and women,” Frey said. Judas, meanwhile, would be the “same as he was two thousand years ago”, a “selfish man who thinks of himself before the good of humanity, who values money more than love.”

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If you’re wondering why during the Golden Age of Hollywood, in the era of the studio system, actors were, in a word, “managed,” look no further than the below. Actors certainly didn’t like being controlled — who does? —  but part of the reason the Cary Grants, Katherine Hepburns, Barbara Stanwycks and John Waynes now live forever in the stratosphere of legend (and there was a Golden Age to begin with) is due to the fact that this kind of stupidity – the kind of stupidity that shatters images and deflates box office right along with audience anticipation — was simply not allowed:

Today’s Daily Mail:

Ahead of the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader next Thursday, Neeson said: ‘Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.

‘That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.’

Neeson, 58, who grew up in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, is a practising Roman Catholic and was named after his parish priest. His actress wife Natasha Richardson died in a skiing accident in March last year.

Two years ago, he teamed up with an order of American Catholic priests to bring out a CD of spiritual meditations for Lent.

Walter Hooper, Lewis’s former secretary and a trustee of his estate, said the author would have been outraged.

‘It is nothing whatever to do with Islam,’ he said.

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Not quite sure how you can be a follower of Christ and not be a Christian, but novelist Anne Rice is giving it a shot. Wednesday, the “Interview With a Vampire” author posted this on her Facebook account:

I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

Hours later she posted this:

My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.

Obviously, she’s trying make a point and get a little attention for doing so. Here are some snips from an interview she did yesterday: (more…)

Our friends at Comedy Central have found their cojones again. Although if you’re mining for brass there, move along. This same network that so quickly retreated in the face of threats of bodily harm from a militant Islamic website regarding their South Park episode which depicted the prophet Muhammed in a bear suit, has somehow mustered the intestinal fortitude to go after that most fresh and elusive of targets. You guessed it, (*yawn*) Jesus Christ…again. The haute irreverent network is set to announce “JC,” a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a regular life in, where else, New York City.

Apparently the free speech warriors discovered that their beloved First Amendment has an “on/off” switch. It reserves them the right to offend with obvious intent only those religions that profess such core tenets as “turn the other cheek” and “do unto others” when slighted. Of course, when the target of their rapier wit responds not with quiet resignation but rather the banshee wails of “Allahu Akbahr!” followed by exploding IEDs in their fruit of the looms—well the art warriors tune changes to free speech, schmee speech just don’t slit my throat bro! Wow, if only those God-fearing wimps at Normandy and Iwo could have mustered such courage of conviction!

Oh my…there are just so many places I can go with this story but to rehash the topic would demonstrate a lack of originality that only another trite lampooning of such a docile target as Jesus in the name of “art” could top. I suppose I could berate the absolute hypocrisy of those on the left who rail with such self-righteous piety against the imagined intolerance of others while demonstrating their very real, almost bizarrely manic, hostility towards Christianity. (Except of course when they are on one of their ”Jesus was a liberal” or “what would Jesus do” soap boxes to justify this or that expansion of the entitlement state on my dime. Then suddenly “JC” as the self-proclaimed hipsters call him is a handy God to have on their side, but that is another story.) (more…)

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Director Paul Verhoeven doesn’t like all the violence in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” because Jesus Christ’s suffering freeing us from our sins is ”not true,” is not all that different from the painful way in which a lot of people die (so why make such a big deal out of it?), and is not what Christ is “about.”

Here’s what Christ is “about,” according to Verhoeven’s book, “Jesus of Nazareth”:

Verhoeven constructs a new vision of Jesus as a child born from the rape of Mary by a Roman soldier, as a spiritualist who performed exorcisms by screaming and spitting in the mouths of the possessed to drive out demons, and as a militant revolutionary who urged his followers to arm themselves.

The good news is that Verhoeven would like to bring his interpretation of the life of Christ to the screen. You know, because he’s money-driven, not agenda-driven… Just another greedy Hollywood capitalist. (more…)

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a respectful, big-budget biopic of the prophet Muhammad – that’s not the point – but it’s well worth remembering that while he was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Oscar-winning director Mel Gibson had his ”Passion of the Christ” turned down by every studio in town. You know, even though 70% of Americans identify themselves as Christians.

Now, if Gibson had produced “The Pissing on the Christ…”

Producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad.

Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad’s life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it as “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam“.

The article then goes on to inform us that out of respect for Islamic law Muhammad will not be shown on the screen. If only such respect was extended to every major religion. Which isn’t to say religion, including Christianity, is above satire, but what we have here is another example of the mindset of those who control the most powerful propaganda machine ever created. Think about it: “The Passion” remains one of the most profitable films ever and yet an industry frequently ridiculed for reproducing ad nauseum anything resembling a hit will have none of it.   (more…)

“Larry David would never do this to Muslims. He doesn’t have the guts.”

That’s missing the point.

Hypocrisy or a fear of how some wacko extremist might react has nothing to do with this. Hollywood constantly singles out Christians for cruel ridicule and the worst kind of stereotyping for one simple reason…

They hate us.

They hate our guts.

There’s nothing more complicated to this question than that.

I promise you that if every Muslim on the planet was as gentle as a kitten, it would still be Christians singled out by the entertainment industry at every opportunity. (more…)