Seldom has a movie both moved me emotionally and challenged me intellectually. In fact, I can count the times this has happened with one hand. Recently it happened while reading the book “The Kite Runner” and it happened again while watching the new film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (PG-13), coming out November 7th.
The film is based on the best-selling novel by the Irish writer John Boyne. It tells the story of 8-year-old Bruno, whose father, a Nazi Officer, has just been promoted to commanding a “labour” camp. Once in their new home, Bruno cannot figure out why he can’t visit the strange people living in the “farm” behind the fence. Eventually, he sneaks out and meets and befriends Schmuel, a Jewish boy in the concentration camp. Though the two are separated physically by a barbed wire fence, their lives become inescapably intertwined.
The imagined story of Bruno and Shmuel offers a unique perspective on how prejudice, hatred and violence affect innocent people, particularly children, during wartime, and sheds light on the brutality, senselessness and devastating consequences of war from an unusual point of view. For me it brought to the forefront how those of us who remain silent in the midst of atrocities, can be as much to blame for them and how resourceful we can be when trying to justify our own evil acts. The film is very much a pro-life film.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a powerful story, was wonderfully directed by Mark Herman (Little Voices). The film includes spectacular performances by child actors Asa Butterfield as Bruno and Jack Scanlon as Shmuel. It also has wonderful performances by Vera Farmiga (Joshua, The Departed, Breaking and Entering), David Thewlis (Harry Potter, The Inner Life of Martin Frost) and David Hayman (from the British TV series Trial and Retribution).
This powerful film opens November 7th in Toronto, November 14th in Montreal and Vancouver, and November 21st in Calgary and Edmonton. Salt + Light has 15 passes to give away to see The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – each pass offers admission for two people. The passes are good at anytime for the run of the movie, in any of those cities.
If you’re interested in any of the above cities and interested in seeing the film, send us an email at info@saltandlighttv.org with “Boy in the Stripped Pajamas” as the subject line. Please provide your name, address, and telephone number. And if you’re one of the first 15, we’ll get a pass off to you.
For a preview of the film or for more information, visit HERE.
Mccain and Obama
It’s no doubt that this has been one of the most interesting elections in the United States ever. It is also an important one and this time, more than ever, it seems that the Catholic vote will be crucial.
As we approached our own Canadian election, I became more and more disillusioned by how the abortion issue is not even up for debate. We have a Prime Minister who has not only distanced himself from the abortion question as much as he can, but he has vowed to muzzle his own MPs who bring it up and to squash any bills that seem remotely connected to the abortion question. Thus, the death of Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims act.
In our neighbouring country south of the border, the abortion question is very much an electoral issue. In fact, for many, it is THE electoral issue.
I’ve been down in the U.S. three times in the last two months: Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, and speaking with my friends and acquaintances there, has left me confused as to the predictability of the U.S. election, this coming November 4th.
My friend in Trinidad is concerned about claims that 50% of U.S. Catholics support John McCain: “How can that be?” he asks, “when McCain supports the War in Iraq? How Catholic is that?” I had to explain to him the abortion issue.
In the U.S., since 1973, there have been some 40 million abortions. More than all the casualties of all the American wars ever, combined. That is about 1.4 million abortions every year, about 3000 abortions daily; 3-4 abortions every minute. That is the equivalent of a 9/11 every day. In the U.S. currently, 1 in 5 pregnancies end in abortion. And it is not just people of lower incomes seeking abortion, it is everyone. It is estimated that 4 out of 10 people have been involved in an abortion. The number one reason for having an abortion: “my contraceptive failed”. For many Catholics, these are significant facts. Besides, war can be justified, abortion can never be justified.
In Chicago, I was at a conference looking at the effects of abortion in men. Pretty much everyone who was there was ProLife. Most people I spoke to had it very clear: Obama would be a great Catholic candidate if it weren’t for the abortion question. If abortion is of concern to you, vote McCain.
In Houston, at the University of St. Thomas, I decided to speak to a few political science and philosophy students about their thoughts on the matter. I found that 50/50 split. On one hand, McCain is the only viable choice for Catholics. On the other hand, Obama is the perfect “catholic” candidate, with his socialist views and his stance against war. These people believe that it is more realistic to reduce the number of abortions, than to try to ban them completely. They believe Obama will do that, after all, as he has said many times, “no one is pro-abortion”.
What they don’t know is that Senator Obama has supported every single pro-abortion bill in Senate, including voting against the ban on partial-birth abortion. He supports the Freedom of Choice Act, which will make abortion the rule of the land by codifying Roe v. Wade and guaranteeing the right to “choose” for future generations of women by removing all limitations to abortion.
There is no way that a President Obama will do anything to reduce the number of abortions. In fact, he will make sure that every woman has unrestricted access to abortion, during all 9 months of pregnancy and that tax dollars pay for them. In speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, on July 17, 2007 he said, “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf0XIRZSTt8) He will make sure that in every state minors have access to abortion, not requiring parental consent and that husbands continue to have no reproductive rights. Electing an Obama administration will ensure that the next three or so Judges elected to the Supreme Court will be pro-abortion, sealing another 30 years or so of legal abortions, on demand. That’s another 40 million deaths. I presume that those Catholics who support Obama, are not aware of these facts.
In L.A., we went to Mass at the Cathedral, and included in the Parish bulletin, was the United States Bishops’ Conference document titled, “Faithful Citizenship.” It states: “there are things that we must never do, as individuals, or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. These intrinsically evil acts must always be rejected and never supported. A pre-eminent example is the intentional taking of human life through abortion. It is always morally wrong to destroy innocent human beings. A legal system that allows the right to life to be violated on the grounds of choice is fundamentally flawed.” It continues to mention other direct threats to the dignity of human life, such as euthanasia, human cloning, genocide, torture, acts of terrorism and war, saying they can never be justified.
It continues: “As Catholics, we are not single-issue voters. A candidate’s position on a single issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter’s support. Yet a candidate’s position on a single issue that involves an intrinsic evil, such as support for legal abortion or the promotion of racism, may legitimately lead a voter to disqualify a candidate from receiving support.” (For more on the moral challenge of voting, see “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” nos. 34-39. Visit www.faithfulcitizenship.org)
Making sure that Catholics inform themselves and go out to vote is another group called Catholic Vote. They produced a very compelling video, you can watch on their home page. Abortion is very much one of the top issues.
On the other hand, those opposing U.S. foreign policy are then stuck trying to justify to themselves why the horror of war is worse than the horror of abortion.
It made me think that it’s sad that some may feel trapped into becoming “single-issue” voters. In L.A., many of the Catholics we spoke to could not support another Republican administration, no matter the abortion issue. In fact, we spoke to one gentleman, who is not just Catholic: he works for a Catholic organization with Catholic priests, he knows Church teaching and is what I would call a Church-loving individual, sometimes attending daily Mass. He has an informed conscience. He is ProLife, yet he is an Obama supporter. He left us by saying that “perhaps he was wrong, perhaps we were wrong.” He then said, “no one knows the will of God.” It’s true and that’s what we pray for: the will of God. We may not know what God’s will is when it comes to who the president of the U.S. is, but to pretend to not know the will of God when it comes to abortion, is both foolish and blind.
In the last two months, the topic of abortion has been everywhere: We participated in the Life Chain, the 40 Days of Life Vigil is taking place in 179 cities across the U.S. as well as in Ottawa and Halifax. There is also a UN petition circulating online calling for the Rights and Dignity of the Human Person and the Family. See, abortion is not just an issue in the U.S. It is increasingly becoming more and more of a threat in many countries. Today I received an email alerting me of a proposed new law in Panama that would legalise abortion during the first three months of pregnancy.
In Colorado, ProLifers have managed to include a proposition on their ballot. It is an amendment to the State constitution. It simply reads: “The term ‘Person’ or ‘Persons’ shall include any human from the time of fertilization.” In order to include this amendment on the ballot, they required 76,000 signatures. They gathered 130,000. People in Colorado will be able to vote on this amendment on Nov 4th. Not all hope is lost.
In Houston, we went to the Planned Parenthood site where the 40 Days of Life vigil is taking place. How many are not aware of Planned Parenthood and the business of abortion? In an interview with Fr. Frank Pavone of Priest for Life, former abortion facility owner, Carol Everett said that her goal was to have 4 abortion facilities, in order to provide 40,000 abortions a year because she made $25 an abortion. That way, she would be making a million dollars a year. The truth is that Planned Parenthood “counsellors” are nothing but tele-marketers trained to sell a product. It’s a nasty business. No one knows about this because it is not in the best interest of Planned Parenthood to let people know what they really do (http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/about-us-90.htm). It is the foremost Pro-Abortion organisation and lobby group in the U.S. In many cities if you are wondering where abortions take place, look for the Planned Parenthood offices.
In L.A., we found the Planned Parenthood site by seeing the barbed wire that surrounds the parking lot in the back of the building. On the building there’s a sign that says, “planning families”. On the bus shelter bench in front of the building a poster that read, “abortion kills children”.
It’s amazing that no matter who we spoke to about the election, ultimately brought up the issue of abortion. In Houston I started the conversation asking the students if they thought there was room for faith in politics. Next thing I knew, we were talking about abortion. We had a fascinating discussion on the topic before we started taping the discussion.
Pedro interviewing students at UST
The conversation I had with these two University of St. Thomas students, will be on Catholic Focus Wednesday, October 29th. We didn’t spend the whole time speaking about abortion, but rather, we looked at our responsibilities as Catholic voters and politicians. We talked about the separation of Church and State and what that means. Perhaps listening to our conversation will help you clear the confusion that exists out there about Catholic politicians who claim that they can’t use their own moral beliefs when making political decisions. Be sure to watch Catholic Focus, In God We Trust, tonight, October 29th, at 7 and 11pm ET, with an encore presentation on Saturday, November 1st at the same times.
And send us your comments. We love to hear your thoughts on this matter.
If there is anything everyone we spoke to agreed on was the need to pray. I invite you to join us in praying a novena for the U.S. elections. Pray for God’s will, and pray not just that abortion is not legal and available, but that it is unthinkable.
I don’t know about you, but I am one of those people who believes that, in many cases, it’s best to leave religion out of the ProLife arguments. I’ve been in too many situations with non-believers for whom “life is sacred” means nothing. When they challenge you with “why is life sacred?” you can’t just say that God created us. If they don’t believe in God, how persuasive is that argument?
In other cases, I’ve been with non-believers who believe that life is sacred. But they don’t know why. They don’t accept the God argument, but something in them tells them that life is full of meaning and that each human being has value. Many of these people, don’t believe that the unborn are “persons” (or are confused about it) and therefore their ideas of life having meaning are not extended to the unborn.
And so, while I think it’s incredibly important to witness to Christ and to make it clear that we are ProLife because we are Christian, sometimes that gets in the way of explaining the ProLife message. If they are not listening to you, then you are not really witnessing anyway. Especially when the abortion issue is not a religious issue: it is a social issue. God created everything and since Faith and Reason go hand in hand, we should be able to explain philosophically, logically and scientifically why life is sacred, why every human being is valuable and has meaning and why all human beings are persons from the moment of conception.
Which is what I found with the Life Principles.
Basically, the Life Principles, developed by Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., and based on Aristotles’ four stages of happiness, is a way to philosophically explain the sacredness and dignity of all human life. I am grateful to Natalie Hudson for first introducing me to the Life Principles and for introducing me to Camille De Blasi Pauley.
Beginning tonight, October 16th, at 9:00pm ET, for the following 7 Thursdays, Salt + Light Television is proud to present Finding Peace: A Guide to Happiness, Freedom, and Wholeness, a series based on the Life Principles hosted by Camille De Blasi Pauley.
The series takes viewers on a journey to discover the incredible dignity, meaning, and sacredness of human life. It offers a philosophical exploration that answers basic questions about human happiness, sexuality, love, quality of life, freedom, ethics, rights, and suffering. By encouraging viewers to contemplate on deeper interpretations of human meaning and purpose, the series seeks to move people to embrace the sacredness and dignity of all human life, and to accept social responsibility for those who are unborn, elderly, weak, dying, underprivileged, or otherwise vulnerable to oppression, persecution, and abuse.
Finding Peace comes to us from the Healing the Culture Institute and is hosted by Camille De Blasi Pauley, using the “Life Principles” curriculum of Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D, President of Gonzaga University. The series was taped in front of a live audience of individuals who are young and old, Christian and non-Christian, from various ethnic and ideological backgrounds.
The episodes cover the following topics:
1- Identify four different levels of happiness.
2- Build habits for living on the highest levels – faith and contribution to others.
3- Discover the sacredness of sexuality.
4- Distinguish between worldly success and true success, understand that freedom requires commitment to what is actually good, and make ethical choices based on “Golden Rule – Silver Rule” ethics.
5- Embrace the intrinsic dignity and inalienable rights of every person.
6- Learn why an all-loving God allows suffering in the world, and find opportunities for faith, hope, and love in the midst of suffering.
7- Apply these higher ideals to the life issues.
I loved this series. In many ways it changed my whole approach, not just to life issues, but to life in general. I hope that you enjoy it too. Remember you can watch it streaming live at www.saltandlighttv.org
If you enjoy the series, perhaps you would like to consider attending the 2008 Healing the Culture Conference in Seattle, this coming November 6th, 2008. Join Father Robert Spitzer, Camille De Blasi Pauley, and other nationally acclaimed speakers and guest celebrities for what is considered to be the ProLife Conference of the year.
For more information visit: http://www.healingtheculture.com/conference2008.php
Write to let us know your thoughts on Finding Peace, on the Life Principles or on Life issues in general.
We love to hear from you.
Bill Maher in a scene from Religulous
Or is the word-play, “incredulous religion”?
Some of you may have heard of the new documentary – although it’s not what I would call a documentary; there is no objective presentation of more than one side in it – titled RELIGULOUS. It is produced and hosted by American Comedian (and anti-religionist) Bill Maher.
The film claims to look at the more absurd things people do in the name of religion. Instead, the film proposes the religion of doubt and invites the atheists of the U.S. to unite and fight back against the “religion fanatics” who are taking over their country, because “religion must die for man to live”.
I am serious. That’s the conclusion of the film. Sorry to have spoiled it for you.
Still, the film has its funny moments, I must confess, I laughed out loud a few times. But there is no substance to the claims it makes – just good for a few cheap laughs.
Bill Maher goes to a Holy Land-themed Park in Florida and exchanges some thoughts with a young actor playing the part of Jesus. Jesus-the-actor talks about that “God-hole in our hearts” that only God can fill. He also explains the Trinity as water: sometimes it’s liquid, sometimes is ice, sometimes its vapour. He was not bad. Still Maher didn’t let him get very far.
Maher goes to the Mormon Temple and shows the more hard-to-believe aspects of Mormonism. He questions the opulence of the Vatican and pokes fun at the violent tendencies of Islamists. He wonders about speaking in tongues and rolls his eyes at a preacher who believes to be the second coming of Christ and the anti-Christ, all-in-one. He dismisses creationism and challenges the strict “no-work-on-Sabbath” law that prohibits orthodox Jews from even pressing an elevator button. He even questions a Christian U.S. Senator (who will remane nameless) on his religious beliefs: “I have a problem with people leading my country who believe in talking snakes”. The Senator answers, thanks to the magic of editing: “You don’t need pass an IQ test to enter the Senate”. Oh boy, there must some law-suits coming.
But, Bill Maher never interviews anyone who can stand up to his wit and quick tongue – for that matter, Bill Maher never interviews anyone who knows much about their own Faith. Or if he did, he certainly edited out any good, valid and credible answers anyone gave him. (Maybe that’s why the film was released a whole year after its proposed release date: too much time in post-production.)
Except – Maher interviews the former director of the Vatican Observatory, Fr. George Coyne. He is definitely the best thing in the film. Why? Well, he is the only one who gave Mr. Maher something he wasn’t expecting. Why did it not get edited out? I’m not sure, perhaps to make all the creationists look bad (yes, Catholics believe in the story of creation in Genesis is symbolic).
Creationism is presented as absurd, however the film doesn’t poke fun at the absurdity of the belief that once there was cosmic stuff floating around in nothingness, that somehow, accidentally, by chance became living molecules and those in turn, with time, became single-cell organisms, which in time became either plants or fish, then amphibians, and so on, eventually becoming you. But, that’s what rational Mr. Maher believes. (He also believes that eating meat is comparable to the Holocaust – but that’s another story.)
I am not proposing that anyone go see this film. If you’re curious, wait until it comes out on DVD and then borrow it from the Library. Still, while I don’t think it’s a good film (from a film point of view – even though it has its entertaining moments), it does present some interesting questions – questions that alot of people have – that all of us should know how to answer.
There is a notion out there among all those who believe to know Christianity better than those of us who actually are Christian, that we are all irrational, fundamental, bible-literalists. Mr. Maher can’t figure out how we can believe in the “fairy-tale” of a talking snake in the Garden of Eden or that Jonah could’ve lived inside a fish for 3 days. Could you explain those two bible stories to someone if they asked? Could you explain to someone that the Bible is not a scientific document and that science is mere theories that only take you so far? (This is what Fr. Coyne so brilliantly explained.)
Why don’t the 10 Commandments address real evil things like rape and incest? If someone asked you, could you explain that the 10 Commandments are sort of “umbrella” categories that cover everything you can imagine. “Thou shalt not commit adultery” is not just about cheating on your wife – it covers rape and incest too.
Could you explain to someone if they wanted to know why all-powerful God doesn’t just obliterate evil? That never gets answered in the film. I guess they would’ve had to talk about free will.
You see, Maher is catering to our quick-fix, instant-gratification, one-line-theology culture. Can you explain the mystery of good and evil in one line? Can you explain what the Bible is and its significance in one line? Can you explain why we believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist in one line? The Immaculate Conception in one line? Not very easy to do, which is why the Church has an even bigger challenge in our day than it did a hundred years ago.
RELIGULOUS is not presenting any new ideas. It’s all been said before. It’s all been questioned before. We are not against doubt – you need some doubt in order to have Faith – and questioning is what makes us find the answers. But we don’t propose to have all the answers either, if so, we wouldn’t need Faith. But some answers are available to us. We just need to find them before we give up for not finding an easy and quick answer. That’s just lazy.
On Thursday, October 9th, Catholic Focus takes a look at some of these questions. I sat in the studio with Sr. Marie-Paul Curley, Daughter of St. Paul, and with Christopher Giardino, Producer of the show LISTEN UP, both screenwriters, to talk about some of the questions the film poses. We hope you will tune in and help us begin to learn how to intelligently verbalise our Faith. If we can’t explain our beliefs, that’s not much help to others, right?
In a scene at the beginning of the film, inside a truckers’ Chapel, at a truck stop somewhere in the U.S., one of the truckers says he knows God exists because he used to be a Satanist Priest. He knows evil. He had drugs, women, money. Maher looks at him and says, with the look that says, “are you serious?” that he is so good at, “let me get this straight, you had drugs, women, money… so what was wrong?” I’m sure the trucker responded intelligently, maybe not. Sadly, if he did, that response did not make it into the film.
It’s very simple, Bill Maher: he wasn’t happy and he knew he was dying. God wants nothing more than for you to be happy and to live. Deep down inside we all long for perfect happiness and life. We long for unconditional love, perfect justice, ultimate truth and perfect beauty. That’s what God is: Unconditional Love, Ultimate Truth, Perfect Justice, Perfect Beauty and Life, and because I long for it, I know it exists. Therefore, I know God exists.
Be sure to let me know your thoughts, either on the film if you saw it, or on some of these questions. We love to hear from you – we love that you’re watching Salt+Light TV.
deacon pedro 