Pious Forwards: January 2007 Archives

You may have heard about the movie Facing the Giants, the inspirational independent film about a high school football team that was seen by 1.5 million moviegoers last year. Not bad for a $100,000 budget. The DVD is now available everywhere you buy DVDs, including your favorite Christian stores (like Family, LifeWay, and Parable, though probably not all Catholic stores), along with the Targets and Best Buys of the world. If you get a chance, check out www.FacingTheGiants.com and watch the trailer. Show this film to your youth groups, get together and view it with your friends, or watch it as a family.

Here is a description of the movie:

From the award-winning producers of FLYWHEEL comes a new, action-packed, family-friendly drama about a high school football coach who draws up a new game plan for his team … and himself.

In his six years of coaching, Grant Taylor has never had a winning season. Even the hope of a new season is squelched when the best player on his Shiloh Eagles decides to transfer schools. After losing their first three games of the season, the coach discovers a group of fathers are plotting to have him fired. Combined with pressures at home, Coach Taylor has lost hope in his battle against fear and failure.

However, an unexpected challenge helps him find a purpose bigger than just victories. Daring to trust God to do the impossible, Coach Taylor and the Eagles discover how faith plays out on the field … and off.

With God, all things are possible …

Here is a sad story I got from the Family Research Council about the pro-life march versus an anti-war march:

What a difference an ideology makes. Last Monday, 200,000 pro-lifers descended on the nation's capital to peacefully protest 34 years of abortion-on-demand. Despite record crowds and a line-up of speakers that included President Bush by phone, the March for Life earned little more than a footnote in the nation's news. Days later, radical anti-war protestors staged a march in Washington that mustered only 10,000, and the event made the front page of nearly every newspaper in America. Yet for all the media the small demonstration received, few news outlets reported the true headline of the day. According to reports, hundreds of demonstrators were allowed to take the steps of the U.S. Capitol during the march and desecrate the property with "anarchist symbols." When police formed a security line to stop them, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Phillip Morse ordered his men to fall back and allow the protestors to "exercise their First Amendment rights" by spray-painting the Capitol grounds with graffiti. One source at the scene said that Morse issued an order that no one was to be arrested for desecrating America's and arguably the world's greatest symbol of democracy. In an e-mail on his actions, Morse writes, "The graffiti was easily removed by the [Architect of the Capitol] staff... It is [our] duty and responsibility to protect the Capitol complex, while allowing the public to exercise their [freedom of speech]." Imagine the response had Christians "trespassed" onto this public property and prayed for our leaders! I dare say the outcome would have been quite different. Unlike last Monday's peaceful pro-life protest, this mob of liberals was given access and leniency to commit criminal acts on government property. This special treatment is unacceptable. The Capitol Chief of Police reports directly to the Speaker of the House, a title which now belongs to one of the demonstrators' most outspoken allies, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Surely, the tens of millions of dollars the American people have invested in the security of their Capitol means there is videotape that will assist in the identification and arrest of the perpetrators. Speaker Pelosi should direct that investigation and prosecution go forward.

Dinesh D'Souza argues in this article that the Muslim extremist hate us not because we are Christian, but because we are secular. Many people cast the conflict in terms of "Christian fundamentalism" versus "Islamic fundamentalism", but he says it is because we are imposing our secular values around the world and supporting secular Muslim dictators. In fact, in his May 2006 letter to President Bush, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faulted America not for being Christian, but for not being Christian enough. It's an interesting thesis. I'm not convinced yet though it is not a case of trying to fit the facts to the agenda, but it's certainly plausible. D'Souza, whom I respect a lot, certainly has an unconventional view about relations with the Muslims. He is, by the way, a rare example of a prominent Catholic of Indian descent (Roman Rite, note his Portugese name).