How 'Bout Them Mavs!

It feels like the Mavericks just won the entire championship with the way this series went. Go Mavs!

Dr. Gene Scott: Pastor, Scholar, Cigar Aficionado

(I am posting this mostly for the benefit of my wife who has never had the pleasure of viewing a Gene Scott television show.) Just thought I would post a little something on one of the true televangelists ever to grace a T.V. screen: Gene Scott. He's was a "pastoral teacher," scholar (with a Ph.D. in education), philanthropist, vineyard owner and lover of fine wines...well, you can read the rest here.

I'm not selling forty-pound Bibles, or water from Jordan, or 4,000 plastic crosses made by the Japanese and sold to Arabs. I don't send out 'healing cloths' or tear up my shirt. I say: what's what I've done worth? Whatever the meal I've fed you is worth, pay up. I'm not trying to save anybody. I think if you reject Christianity, you should do it intelligently.

-- Gene Scott (1929-2005)

Saddam Hussein: The Next Salman Rushdie?

Apparently Saddam has always had a penchant for writing novels. Seriously. This latest installment of his was supposedly written just before the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. It has just been published in Japan. Those crazy Japanese. You can read about it here.

The Da Vinci Code secret is out: critics hate it

I haven't been a very vocal critic about The Da Vinci Code: not because I am a latent fan of Dan Brown's fiction but because I have not had time to read any of it. Nevertheless, I find this article from Reuters interesting. Da Vinci has apparently gone over like a lead balloon with some critics at Cannes. Here's an excerpt:

At a screening late on Tuesday in Cannes, members of the audience laughed at the thriller's pivotal moment, and the end of the $125 million picture was greeted with stony silence.

Here's another article with these comments:

Other critics said the two and a half hour film was confusing to those who hadn't read the book.
"People were confused, there was no applause, just silence," said Margherita Ferrandino from the Italian television Rai 3.
"I have only read half the book, and then I got bored. It's terrible," she added.
"It was really disappointing. The dialogue was cheesy. The acting wasn't too bad, but the film is not as good as the book," added Lina Hamchaoui, from British radio IRN.

Muslims and Catholics Together

Catholic Christians in India have threatened to stage a large protest at the premiere of The Da Vinci Code and consequently have forced a temporary halt on the opening of the film. Muslims have even joined in.

In India, complaints against the film forced the government on Tuesday to put a temporary hold on the release of “The Da Vinci Code,” in order to address concerns before the film is opened to the public. Prior to the decision, several Catholic groups threatened to stage street demonstrations and even to shut down cinema halls screening the film. Joining in the call on Monday was the All-India Sunni Jamiyat-ul-Ulema, a powerful organization of Indian Islamic clerics, which promised to help Christian groups launch protests if the authorities did not ban the screening of the film. The clerics said "The Da Vinci Code" is blasphemous as it spreads lies about Jesus, who the Koran recognizes as a prophet.

You can read the rest here.

Bible literalism 'pagan superstition'?

Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno says believing God created the universe in six days is a form of "pagan superstition."

Consolmagno told the Scotsman the idea that religion and science are competing principles is a "destructive myth."

Read the rest here.

Love and Marriage

I found this great quotation that Anthony Esolen posted at the Mere Comments blog on April 29. It's from Sir Philip Sydney: I know him for a work called A Defense of Poetry. I also know of him because C.S. Lewis was well acquainted with his work. The quotation is below, and you can read Esolen's musings on it here.

"A happy couple: he joying in her, she joying in herself, but in herself, because she enjoyed him: both increasing their riches by giving to each other; each making one life double, because they made a double life one; where desire never wanted satisfaction, nor satisfaction ever bred satiety: he ruling, because she would obey, or rather because she would obey, she therein ruling." From Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia (1593).