The Land of Ozz

Chris Sligh and his band Half Past Forever will perform at Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, SC on Friday May 4, 2007. You can purchase tickets by visiting the Seacoast web site and scrolling to the bottom of the page. Look for the Half Past Forever button like the one shown in this post.

Related post: Chris Sligh – Rock On

Our family got to have a little fun while in Atlanta this past weekend. Most of this video is of my son Caden.

I know I will likely catch some flack from the locals for this comment given we have a really great aquarium right here in Charleston, but the GA Aquarium is the best one I have seen yet and I did not even visit all of the exhibits while I was there. You can see a few pictures from our GA Aquarium visit if stop by Caden’s Page before you leave.

For testing purposes I am including the Xianz copy of the same movie. Please let me know which you like better.

UPDATE: Yahoo Sports has photo of of the post game prayer.

I might just have to become a football fan if I keep seeing things like this. This is what happened in the Colts locker room after the Superbowl last night.

Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy called for quiet.
Dungy called his team over in a circle.
“Let’s finish the way we started,” he said.
They gathered around. Dungy prayed. The Colts recited “The Lord’s Prayer.” SOURCE

I did not watch the game, but I did watch the post game show and the highlights. The one GoDaddy commercial that I did see was enough to remind me why I do not watch Super Bowls anymore. The responses to the media from several players and the coach in the post game displayed a strong reliance on their faith in God.

The main reason I really had a bad taste in my mouth about this Superbowl in particular was because of a story that broke a few days ago about the NFL coming down on churches for having Super Bowl parties. Shawn Wood did great job of explaining the details of this story.

“This Christmas Seacoast Church presents Word on the Street, a contemporary Christmas drama. This musical production centers on the relationship between a modern-day Joseph and Mary, and the challenges they encounter when faced with God’s plan for their lives.”

I saw three separate Christmas dramas at three different churches over the weekend. The first two were good, but last night I saw the opening night of Word on the Street and it was a grand slam.  Now I will offer a couple of disclaimers. I am a member of Seacoast Church and I have performed with many of the awesome cast members in two previous Seacoast Easter Productions.  I must say that the pre-service video trailer offered in the weeks building up to the show was not very revealing.  That left much to imagination as the opening approached.

The cast and musicians did a great job of transforming this miraculous story into a modern day musical.  The show is a great choice for anyone looking to expose their family to a Biblical sound representation of what this holiday season is all about.  The first two nights sold out in advance.  The show runs through this Friday night with Wednesday already sold out.   You can still purchase tickets online for Tuesday, Thursday, or the two shows on Friday by visiting the Seacoast Church web site.

Seacoast is also offering twenty-seven (27) Christmas eve services this year at nearly a dozen different locations.  Check out the church web site for locations and times near you in SC, NC, and GA.

The movie industry should take the past two weeks as a wake up call. The call is coming from a solid number of people like myself who would love to see more clean content on the big screen. I am not talking about revved up cartoons chocked full of adult humor either. I am talking about pure entertainment that you can walk out of without feeling violated or wondering if you have just committed a sin by paying for the filth that just filled your eyes and ears for the past 99 minutes.

Let’s take a closer look at this weekend’s wake up call. It was the opening weekend for One Night with the King. I actually got to see this movie and loved it. This movie is a dramatization of a true story. The movie is made after a very popular book titled Esther. A copy of Esther can be found in a very large number of American homes, on the Internet in written and audio form, in most hotel rooms, and in all churches who worship the one and only Almighty God. The book of Esther can be found as a small part of the best selling books in history. The book is titled The Holy Bible, also know as God’s Word. The movie is predictable if you have read the book, but like any good movie this one has been jazzed up a little to make the story more interesting.

The most notable thing that stands out about One Night with the King is that the movie busted into the top ten (9th) this week even though it was shown in only 909 theatres according to Yahoo! Movies. The average exposure for the other nine movies in the top ten this week was 2861 theatres. That means that every other movie in the top ten was viewed in at least three times the number of theatres on average. Not a single one of the other movies in the top ten was shown in less than 2300 theatres as reported by Yahoo!.

Who actually won the Superbowl? Do you want to guess how I voted? Stay tuned for racing.

Update: It looks like Michele Malkin was in the same boat as me when it came to the Superbowl viewing, but she points out to us some folks that did watch and noticed the military being MIA during the big game. I’ll bet you see a military presence at the Daytona 500 on 2/19.

Linked to: Don Surber and Conservative Cat

With the official opening day of this movie underway, I withdraw my recommendation of this movie until further notice. I have been enlightened to some undercurrents of the movie that you won’t find in the advertisements. The lead actor Chad Allen is a gay activist and there is pretty good evidence that the producers of the movie knew that Allen was a gay activist before they hired him. Ingrid Schlueter over at the Slice of Laodicea and Carla Rolfe over at Reflections of the Times have the scoop. I received a private message on my Blogs4God account a few days ago that warned me of this movie. The message did not come with much supporting information and I guess my pride got in the way of receiving the message because I had just went through so much trouble to promote the movie.

I really got my confirmed answer on whether to continue my promoting when reading a quote from an interview that Slice of Laodicea linked to there the lead actor Chad Allen said, “It’s true. Part of what’s happened is the result of vitriolic anger and fear that’s been put forth by believers and by us as well.” That was in response to the Windy City Times’ comment that said, “It’s just that if you mention that the movie is about Christian missionaries, some people’s eyes immediately glaze over.” I read the portion of Allen’s response, “…put forth by believers and by us as well,” as a pretty clear statement of separating himself from believers. A commenter over at Reflections of the Times said, ” It seems that for you to be able to write so boldly about this matter that you must, yourself, be without faults.” The difference between the faults (sin) of Chad Allen and the sin believers commit is that he seems to have no intent at this time to repent and ask forgiveness of his promotion of immoral agendas through his involvement in this movie. He seems quite aware of what he is doing and is laughing it off. Those “believers” who have a personal relationship with Jesus handle faults (sin) in a different way. When believes fall short, daily, we confess our sins and repent. Chad Allen has clearly separated himself from believers and is openly defying God.

There is a ton of information and links over at Sharper Iron Forums. I would also recommend visiting Slice of Laodicea and Reflection of the Times for more information on this topic. Both sites are linked int he first paragraph.

When you are wrong, say you’re wrong. I was wrong about this movie! Previous posts on The Land of Ozz supporting this movie have been edited for your viewing pleasure.

The source for Windy City Times quotes is an article titled Chad Allen: Missionary Man.

Links to other sites in this post do not constitute an endorsement of those sites. The End of the Spear™ is a trademark of Every Tribe Entertainment.

Update:

Danny Kaye asked a great question in a comment that I think deserves an update to this posting. He was unclear on why I am not “supporting” this movie. First let me say that I am not promoting a boycott of the movie. Second, I will probably see the movie at some point, but my original posting was to actually promote the movie. The original purpose of my promotion was to try and encourage people to get out tonight or this weekend to see the movie so that it might get more widely distributed as a result of opening week sales. I am simply withdrawing my promotion of the movie with this post. I am looking at it as any other Hollywood production at this point.

I will explain my thinking in this matter. I have no problems with people, period. That includes Chad Allen. I have problems with ideas and messages that pollute and corrupt the value system that God has set for us to live our lives by. For instance, I have no problem with gay people in my church as long as they are their to search for God’s answers to their lifestyle choices. Yes, I do believe that homosexuality is a choice.

God does not tolerate sin, he forgives it or punishes it. I believe that a person who knowingly defies God will be punished. Those who seek forgiveness from God will be forgiven. Chad Allen is laughing in the faces of believers as he uses his involvement and in this movie to promote his belief that we should all tolerate and accept those who choose a gay lifestyle. That is why I will no longer “promote” this movie. I do not want to be a part of promoting the spreading of a movie that will fund such an agenda, indirectly or not.

Like Steve Saint, I sincerely hope is that Chad Allen will get some sense of the sacrifice that the man made whose character he is playing. Here is a quote that I pulled from the comments section of Greg Wright’s review of the movie.

The text that follows is the filmmakers’ official response to the issue of Chad Allen’s sexual orientation. I don’t think anything additional needs to be said… But I’ll throw in a quote from Steve Saint himself: “I could feel physical pain thinking [that] somebody that lives a lifestyle like that is going to depict my dad… [But] I thought: What happens if I stand before God someday and He says to me, ‘Steve, I went out of my way to orchestrate an opportunity for Chad Allen to see what it would be like to live as your father did.’ And then I could picture Him looking at me and saying, ‘Steve, why did you mess with my plan?’”

On the other hand, I am not a fan of putting non-Christians in a role of dramatizing a Christian message, especially in the lead role. Would you cast a self proclaimed non-believer who openly promotes gay tolerance to play the character of Jesus in your church Easter play? Some might say yes. I would not. I have been in some pretty powerful Easter Productions where upwards of 10,000 people were shown the life and death of Jesus. I saw the care that was taken to select the leading roles. These roles were filled by well grounded Christians. I agree with this philosophy of casting for lead roles in particular in productions that will dramatize a Christian message.

I will leave you with one last quote from the Agape Press article that says, ” Steve Saint acknowledges that some Christians may be disappointed that the movie is not a sermon — that is, that the gospel is not more overtly presented in the film.” This is confirmation that the movie was not necessarily created to be a ministry tool even though it may very well inspire many who see it.

I have withdrawn my support for this movie. Please see End of the Spear Revisited.