As usual, Nerd.

Hello Jack The Sailor. I'm always glad to get a laugh, but I'm afraid I was in earnest. I'll take it, though, I'm not too proud. I have a Jewish friend in Alabama who believes in the Shroud of Turin--perhaps I'm disposed to expect the unexpected?

Not that I take the media and banking comments seriously, but the interesting thing it does point up is the failure of American Christians to make or accept good movies which embody instead of merely illustrate their values, in relation to a recognizable vision of contemporary life. Before Mel Gibson's current thing, there was some talk about a growing Christian movie industry, which was trying to move beyond the apocalypse sort of thing. The stories tend to come from revelations, or else it's robes and sandals and all that. They don't seem to know what else to do. There are plenty of exceptions, but the people I would think of as really great Christian storytellers (Scorcese, that guy who did The Mission and Black Robe, lots of stuff, many serious people) are not much embraced by any semblance of a Christian community. There's always this Sunday-School illustration mentality that proscribes against the work of grown-up artists. Christians don't seem to recognize themselves, or seem to know what their values are supposed to be, beyond not liking naughty words and boobies. I think if the Christian community could embrace their own voices, quit twisting in the wind, and um, well, quit posing as "Christians" for everyone to notice them, they'd soon see they've only been conspiring against themselves.