Posted on 02/21/2004 11:57:27 AM PST by Mel Gibson
A Tale of Two Hollywoods by Bruce Walker
Why did Hollywood come to hate religion?
The elitist snit over The Passion has everything with anti-theism and nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Once Hollywood -- Old Hollywood -- produced films which exalted the gentle role of faith in our lives and that decried the consequence of people rejecting the principles of their faith.
Click on link to Intellectual Conservative for the rest of the article
Fiddler on the Roof is a poignant story of Jewish survival in Tsarist Russia; the villains are Christians who ignore Christian ethics by mistreating Jews for being Jews. Exodus shows how Christians ignored Christ’s injunction to care for others by their indifference to the plight of post-Holocaust Jewry. Gentleman’s Agreement is a commentary on bigoted Christians sneering at people who entered the world, like Jesus, as Jews.
Faithless Christians, not the Christian faith, are the problem in the films. Why did these films not offend Christians? Because recognition of sin and repentance of sin is a central theme of Christianity. Persecution of Jews was never a precept of Christian faith, and America -- the best replication of the diversity of Christian faith -- is the best example of Christian sympathy for Jews. The lyrics to Exodus were written by a devout Christian and a patriotic American, Pat Boone.
Jews also celebrated the goodness of faithful Christians. The studio system of Old Hollywood was dominated by Jews. These men produced films like The Bells of St. Mary, Angels in the Outfield, The Sound of Music, Going My Way and Boy’s Town. Sympathy toward good Christians was reciprocated by these and many other grateful and patriotic Jews. Honest appreciation of goodness of Christians was never considered to be a betrayal of Judaism.
Indeed, when Old Hollywood was flourishing (and when good films were being produced) Reform Judaism was being conformed into a noble attempt to reconcile the manifest goodness of both Judaism and Christianity. The greatest Jewish theologian of the last century considered Christianity to be the Judaism of non-Jews -- the best path to God for those not of the Jewish faith.
American Jews not only appreciated the decency of American Christians, when they acted like Christians, but the Old Hollywood presented Jewishness in film. One of the first talking films, The Jazz Singer, showed the tension between modernity and traditional Judaism, and showed a resolution to those conflicts. Other films, like the Benny Goodman Story, showed Jews could be as bigoted toward Christians as Christians toward Jews. These films treated faith faithfully. People made moral choices, and those choices made with the knowledge of a loving God worked out best.
These moral ideas were perfected in Chariots of Fire, the story of a brave Jew overcoming the prejudices of un-Christian Christians and of a pious Christian overcoming equally daunting obstacles of deep piety for the Glory of God in a world that, after the horror of the Great War, turned away from God. Without pulling punches, Chariots of Fire celebrates the Judeo-Christian heritage.
Why did Hollywood come to hate religion? Marx replaced God. Marxists replaced faithful people. This new and dreadful Hollywood sought to divide us from God and from our common humanity as creatures of God. Because God trumps every petty nastiness of life, He became the principal foe of New Hollywood.
New Hollywood began to produce films like Agnes of God and The Last Temptation of Christ, which mocked Christianity with the venom no different from the treatment Jews received in Nazi propaganda films. No goodness was allowed serious Christians and no accusation was too vile to make against Christianity.
New Hollywood also mocked Judaism. King David showed Richard Gere degenerating into a bitter agonistic by the end of his life, and even nice productions like The Prince of Egypt reduced God to a bit player. Nominal Jews like Woody Allen made films that were sentimental toward Jewishness, but coldly indifferent toward Judaism.
As Michael Medved, film critic and observant Jew, notes in his documentary Hollywood Hates Religion, even remakes of old classics like Cape Fear and We’re No Angels were edited to introduce anti-theistic themes which were absent from the original version or to remove God from the remake.
The Passion does not portray Jews as bad. It portrays some Jews as good and some Jews as bad. Other noble films have portrayed some Christians as good and some Christians as bad. This is consistent with both Christian and Jewish theology. Indeed, it is in many ways the salient characteristic of Judeo-Christian faith.
(Excerpt) Read more at intellectualconservative.com ...
She was even subpoenaed to testify before HUAC in the 50's. Her FBI file and a slew of other celebrities was released a few years ago under the FOIA and are on the FBI's web-site for all to read.
FBI Electronic Reading Room
Famous Persons Listing
Lucille Ball 172 pages
And 'the Cuban' was her husband Ricky Riccardo. He wasn't a commie, but was a real womanizer.
Many of the films of the 1920s were quite racy and there were complaints that they glorified prostitutes, bootleggers and the like. The final straw was the popularity of gangster pictures beginning in the early 1930s. There was legitimate concern that they glamorized gangsters so the Legion of Decency, Council of Churches and local leaders told Hollywood to clean up its act or they would launch boycotts and legal action against it. Hollywood listened.
MM
"Queen" Jadis as in the character from the Narnia Chronicals by C.S.Lewis:)
It's only changed since the mid eighties in as much as it's become more crowded, with more "red lights" and harder to distinguish between male and female prostitutes. My husband and I went into the area for a book signing at 6.00pm "Hollywood Interrupted" (an expose of celebrity insanity chic)...it took 45 minutes to drive 14 miles.
An old truism:
Man: "Father, I don't believe in God any more."
Priest: "Really? What's her name?"
He answers his own question I think, quite correctly, but the answer begs another question; Why did Hollywood embrace Marxism?
Entertainers and atists have been exalted throughout history, regardless of the type of political organization. In short, unlike the rest of us, they instinctively recognize no debt to capitalism. Their success comes not so much from hard work and following a gradual upward carreer path, but sometimes through genetic providence can leap-frog to success.
It's easier to sell crap to folks with no values, no standards. Gotta remove religion, then $$$$ come rolling in. The lowest of creatures out in Hollywood. They give some reason for the rest of the world to disdain us.
Many Hollywood producers and owners are among America's worst enemies.
BTTT
Sodomite Butt-Worship conflicts with the world's religions!
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