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The Last Temptation of
Christ as an example of how our own assumptions about
religion must be set aside to properly understand the Bible:
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According to the article,
what attitude has Hollywood taken towards religion?
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Hollywood seems to be
going out of its way to offend the religious sensibilities
of potential patrons
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while at the same time
being particularly sensitive to other special interest
groups.
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This seems to betray an
anti-religious bias.
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When Christians turned out
to protest the release of "The Last Temptation of
Christ" they were chastised by the media as being
"ignoramuses" and "self-righteous."
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They were likened to Joe
McCarthy (anti-communist), book burners (censors) and
racists opposed to the civil rights movement.
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Consider: What would other
leaders in history who have justified their actions on the
basis of religious belief have thought of the whole
encounter?
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Media leaders in Hollywood
likened their intent on releasing the movie, even though
it might offend tens of millions of potential viewers, to
"standing up for freedom of conscience." What
does this mean?
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Medved argues that this
position is self-contradictory, since Hollywood turned
down the opportunity to make a film version of The
Satanic Verses- for fear of offending the Islamic
faithful.
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Ultimately, it is an issue
of the film industry's choices, not its rights. Why does
the industry choose to portray religion in only a negative
light, rarely if ever counterbalancing this with positive
portrayals?
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Movies that support or
oppose his argument:
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Support: "The
Rapture," " Leap of Faith," "The
Handmaid's Tail," "Escape from L.A.,"
"Stigmata," "Contact,"
"Dogma," "The Priest"
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Oppose: "The
Apostle," "Schindler's List," "The
Prince of Egypt"
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What are some problems that
Medved claimed that Christians had with "The Last
Temptation of Christ"?
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Portrayal of Jesus as
tempted by sexuality.
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Graphic portrayal of Mary
Magdalene.
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Portrayal of Paul as
claiming he "created truth" about Christ.
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Medved mentions that
Christian leaders found "over twenty"
faults/inaccuracies with the film.
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Does Medved think that
Hollywood addressed these problems fairly?
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No. To begin with, the
producers kept the contents of the film secret from
religious leaders and did not consult them about the
potentially offensive content-
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which would not be a
problem except that Hollywood has shown exactly the
opposite tendency with regard to other material that
might offend,
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including material
dealing with
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The film's producers even
made public claims to have exhaustively researched the
historical and cultural setting of Jesus' own time,
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a claim which was made
blatantly false by the many tattooed women who
appeared in the film, despite biblical bans on body
markings.
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Stigmata used
the same tactic.
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The producers and
sympathetic media portrayed the protesting Christians as
fundamentalists and extremists, focusing on controversial
"fringe" people among the demonstrators, rather
than major religious leaders.
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How is organized religion
portrayed on television shows and in films that you have seen?
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On most shows, religion
simply isn't portrayed at all (with the exception of
"Touched By an Angel").
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On others, religious
characters are often portrayed as extremists, etc.
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In the national media,
religious coverage is almost always negative,
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focusing on
narrow-minded fundamentalism,
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abortion clinic
bombers,
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sexual behavior of
priests, televangelists, etc.
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Here are the problems with
Hollywood's attitude towards religion:
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It is biased. Hollywood is
willing to criticize religion in ways that it does not
criticize other ideologies, and less willing to offer
alternative perspectives or positive portrayals (esp. of
Christians).
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Viewers, even though they
may think they are being "just entertained," are
seeing an unrealistic portrayal of the world,
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where religion plays
virtually no role in the everyday lives of people just
like them,
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In fact, our
assumption that TV is just entertainment leads us to
watch it uncritically.
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and this is bound to
influence our view of the real world.
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(Advertising as an example of
how television influences behavior)
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Consider the way the media
portrays teenagers: Is it fair?
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Do film portrayals of
teens influence your own behavior?
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Do news stories involving
teens focus fairly on both the good and bad aspects of
being a teenager?
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Do these portrayals
influence the way parents and other adults treat you, or
what they expect of you?
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For people who are
religious, or those learning about religion, the media
works to create skepticism about the nature of organized
religion,
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so that those who are
not religious become biased against it,
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and those who are
religious "internalize" their belief- for
fear that outwardly expressing it will get them
labeled as extremist, etc.
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Religious faith is
portrayed as "irrational."
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If we want to learn about
the New Testament, we must set aside our pre-conceived
notions of religion (esp. Christianity) and approach the
subject with an open mind, letting the text speak for
itself rather than letting the media, etc. speak for it.
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We have to reject the idea
of the media as an accurate reflection of reality and see
it as someone else's opinion of reality- how they might
like the world to look.
part two:
their
assumptions
- The Parable of the Yeast
as an example of how we must try, to the best of our ability,
to replace our own assumptions with those of the ancient world
(particularly, those of Jesus and his contemporaries) in order
to properly understand the Bible:
- Why do we need to understand
the historical, cultural, and political setting of the New
Testament to understand the books themselves?
- The Parable of the Yeast:
- He spoke to them another
parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a
woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened. (Mt 13:33)
- How might we interpret this
parable?
- "The Kingdom of
heaven..."
- To Jews living in
Palestine in the 1st century, The Roman
Empire was the only "kingdom" they knew-
- it was an oppressive
power,
- its emperor demanded
tribute and expected to be worshipped as a god.
- Failure to do either
was seen as treasonous.
- Any statement Jesus
made in favor of a kingdom other than Caesar's would
have been seen as treason.
- "...is like
yeast..."
- For Jews, leaven was
impure, unclean. To add leaven to bread was to corrupt
or pollute it, and leaven often symbolized moral
corruption in ancient literature.
- Today, leaven has been
"domesticated." We know how to make it and
how it works.
- In the ancient world,
the only way it could be made was by taking a loaf of
bread and leaving it in a damp, dark place until it
started to rot and mold.
- This is where the
notion of leaven "corrupting" came from.
- During the Feast of
Unleavened Bread (assoc. with Passover) The Jews were
to not only not eat leavened bread, but to remove any
leavened bread from their household. Leavened bread
symbolized a corrupt Israel, unleavened bread
symbolized a "pure Israel."
- This idea persists in
the New Testament:
- See Paul in Gal
5:7-12, "A little yeast leavens the whole
batch of dough."
- Also 1 Cor 5:6-8,
"Clear out the old yeast, so that you may
become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are
unleavened."
- Also Luke 12:1-
"Beware the leaven-that is, hypocrisy- of the
Pharisees."
- This claim, that the
kingdom is like leaven, would have shocked the
intended reader.
- "...that a woman
took and mixed..."
- Again, for Jews, women
symbolized the impure and unclean, and potentially
evil (i.e. Eve).
- The Greek word krypto
actually means "to hide or conceal" rather
than to mix.
- "...in three
measures of flour..."
- Three measures (one
ephah) is about fifty pounds- enough to feed over one
hundred people.
- Abraham instructs Sara
to make cakes from three measures of flour when the
Lord appears to them (Gen 18:6).
- Gideon prepares an
ephah of flour when the Lord appears to him (Judges
6:19).
- When Hannah dedicates
Samuel to the temple, she offers an ephah of flour to
Yahweh.
- In the OT, and ephah
of flour represents an epiphany, or revelation of God.
- "...until the
whole batch was leavened..."
- This suggests that
eventually, the entire kingdom will become defined by
that which is "corrupt."- or at least that
which the hearer thinks is corrupt.
- Jesus' parable may more
properly be stated as follows:
- God's kingdom is
unlike Caesar's...there, you will find the very people
that you have been lead to believe are
"unclean" and "impure" or
shameful. In fact, these are the very people that make
up the kingdom, and the very people that make it grow-
because these are the people most like God himself. Do
you want to be part of God's kingdom? Can you, and
still be subject to Caesar?
- This parable seems to
suggest that preconceived ideas about the kingdom of
heaven, and who should be there and who should not, should
be overturned-
- it is the outcasts and
the impure who are included, not the self-righteous
and judgmental.
- This is consistent
with Jesus' overall message, to the sinners and
outcasts, tax collectors and prostitutes, the
"sick" in need of a physician.
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