Category Archives: Film and TV

Downton Abbey, Christmas Day – What Would Jesus Do?

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by Rach

Highclere Castle, location for Downton Abbey

CC Image from Patrick van IJzendoorn on Flickr

OK, I admit the last series of Downton Abbey wasn’t perfect. There were some awful lines: when Cora looked up from her newspaper and said: ‘Oh my, this Spanish flu news is awful,’ we knew that she, along with half the household, would be on their deathbeds by the next episode.

But who cares? The battle of the bustles was our Sunday night fix and I, for one, can’t wait till Christmas Day. Aside from the drama, suspense and gossip, I think we love Downton because we are all secretly obsessed with how other people live.

Downton represents a world where the toffs had it good. They were waited upon (dear Carson); cleaned up after; (inconvenient dead Turkish men); and lusted after (get down Branson, Sybil is too good for you). The downstairs lot, though, just had to get on with it. The family silver still shone – come war, unwanted pregnancies or murder trials. Servitude was their lot. They got on with because they knew their place.

Far from being an aberration, Edwardian values are pretty common in whatever period of history you choose to look. The New Testament is full of different groups of people who were either revered or loathed by others. The mutual distrust and loathing between Romans and Jews was what made Monty Python’s Life of Brian so funny.

The real story of Zacchaeus, in the gospel of Luke, shows us how utterly despised Jewish tax collectors were. They were seen as traitors working for the Roman Empire and yet Jesus calls this short and unpopular tax-collector down from a tree and tells him he is coming for tea.

Although people are horrified, Jesus couldn’t care less. In his eyes no one is untouchable – and that means lepers, prostitutes and Samaritans.

I suppose if Jesus appeared in the Christmas episode of Downton, he would marry Lady Sybil and Branson; take tea with Daisy; then tell the Dowager Countess that money and status count for nought – then again, I’m not sure even Jesus is that brave!

The Wire? Sounds like the Bible

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The Wire series 1 box set

Picture cc from itspaulkelly on Flickr

From the write-up on the back of The Wire series 1 box set: ‘told from the points of view of both the police and their targets, the series captures a universe where easy distinctions between good and evil, and crime and punishment, are challenged at every turn’.

Now go read some of Jesus’ parables – like the good Samaritan, in Luke 10, or the shrewd manager, in Luke 16 – or things like the pronouncements in Isaiah 44 & 45 about God calling and equipping Cyrus, the king of Persia and not a Jew, and tell me the Bible doesn’t do the same thing of ‘challenging easy distinctions’.

The Apprentice (s7 ep1): ‘hard man’ Lord Sugar’s Biblical rant – “why didn’t you spend all your money?”

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Did you see the first episode of the new series of The Apprentice a week or so back (Series 7, Episode 1)?

I’ll try not to spoil it in case you’re still waiting to watch it on iPlayer – but, in short, the challenge was to make as high a return as possible from an initial investment of £250 in fresh fruit and veg – and one of the teams got in trouble for not using all their available money (they only spent £170).

Photo from ....Tim on Flickr

Lord Sugar was none too impressed with this:

I did say I’ve given you £250 and I want you to go away and spend it and bring me back loads of money. If I’d wanted y0u to go and spend £170, I would have given you £170.

Check out the clip on iPlayer (you only need to watch a couple of minutes): http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b0113fwd/?t=38m16s

What do you think about this feedback from Lord Sugar?  Was he right to get angry with the team for holding back some of the money he’d given them?  Should they have spent it all, as per his instruction, or was it smart to try and hedge their bets a bit?

How about this: did you realise that this scene almost exactly mirrored someone else’s words from hundreds of years earlier?  From the teachings of Jesus, in fact.  According to Matthew 25 (CEV), he told this parable to describe something about what God is like:

The kingdom is also like what happened when a man went away and put his three servants in charge of all he owned. The man knew what each servant could do. So he handed five thousand coins to the first servant, two thousand to the second, and one thousand to the third. Then he left the country.

As soon as the man had gone, the servant with the five thousand coins used them to earn five thousand more. The servant who had two thousand coins did the same with his money and earned two thousand more. But the servant with one thousand coins dug a hole and hid his master’s money in the ground.

Some time later the master of those servants returned. He called them in and asked what they had done with his money. The servant who had been given five thousand coins brought them in with the five thousand that he had earned. He said, “Sir, you gave me five thousand coins, and I have earned five thousand more.”

“Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”

Next, the servant who had been given two thousand coins came in and said, “Sir, you gave me two thousand coins, and I have earned two thousand more.”

“Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”

The servant who had been given one thousand coins then came in and said, “Sir, I know that you are hard to get along with. You harvest what you don’t plant and gather crops where you haven’t scattered seed. I was frightened and went out and hid your money in the ground. Here is every single coin!”

The master of the servant told him, “You are lazy and good-for-nothing! You know that I harvest what I don’t plant and gather crops where I haven’t scattered seed. You could have at least put my money in the bank, so that I could have earned interest on it.”

Then the master said, “Now your money will be taken away and given to the servant with ten thousand coins! Everyone who has something will be given more, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken from those who don’t have anything. You are a worthless servant, and you will be thrown out into the dark where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain.”

Does that surprise you?  What do you think this story/behaviour tells you about the characters of Lord Sugar – and God?

‘May the Fourth be with you’. (Can the Force be with you?)

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Picture from Cayusa on Flickr

Today is Star Wars Day – with this date, May the Fourth, chosen because it echoes one of the films’ most famous catchphrases/mottos (and there are lots to choose from!): ‘may the Force be with you’.

In the Star Wars universe, this phrase is uttered regularly by the ‘goodies’ to one another.  It seems to be kind of half-encouragement (‘you go do that thing you’re about to do, I think it’s great!’), half-prayer (‘I actually hope this thing that exists called ‘the Force’ is actively with you today’) and half-reminder (‘don’t forget about the Force, now’)  – and, yes, I know that’s three halves.

People do this all the time, referring to higher powers or external forces in conversation (whether or not they believe in them as real things): ‘good luck!’, ‘God forbid’, ‘OMG!’, ‘karma will get you back’, ‘swear to God’, ‘I hope the gods are on your side’ etc.  And the Bible is no different: full of people who continually mention higher powers when they talk to each other. Some would say that the Bible is also like Star Wars in that they’re both made-up.  But what if it were true?  What would it mean for people to be saying things like this to each other in the real-world, in our universe?  What would it mean if they meant it – if they were talking about something they believed to be real?

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6.24-26, ESV)

May the God of peace be with you all. (Romans 15.33, ESV)

And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, ”The LORD be with you!” And they answered, “The LORD bless you.” (Ruth 2.4, ESV)

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13.14, ESV)

What would you wish of/say to your friends?  Is there a higher power/Force/LORD to call on?  Are the people in Star Wars nice or naive or stupid or cool or considerate or thoughtless when they say ‘may the Force be with you’?  What about when your friends wish you luck or whatever?  What about the people in the Bible?

Reality TV Shows: Angels or Demons?

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The current debate around the impact of reality television is hotting up. Should Susan Boyle have been cared for better by the producers of Britain’s Got Talent? Should Sir Alan Sugar keep his role on The Apprentice now that he has been co-opted by Gordon Brown to encourage entrepreneurs? Why on earth did Saffia Corden dump her two kids (aged 1 and 7) on her mum so that she could take part in this year’s Big Brother?

How far is too far? That was the question looked at this week by the trainees on the MediaNet Academy, an annual training course I run for budding media types. They were briefed to produce content for an imaginary new reality TV show, Angels and Demons – where viewers vote to make or break someone’s day. The video they produced is above. Here’s the accompanying website and radio report. See what you think.

 

Bible Dude Says: Pick up the Joy Book!

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In terms of innovative formats for the Bible, lycra is possibly the strangest I’ve come across. In this TV satire, the superhero Bible Dude zaps both biblical interpretation and Christian culture. While I thought it was a good laugh, you can tell the scriptwriter isn’t really a fan of the Bible.

Yet, it’s interesting that despite such a negative take, he or she seems quite familiar with many of its characters. For those of you who are wondering, the verse referenced on the superhero’s costume is from Matthew 4.20 (NIV): “At once they left their nets and followed him”. Don’t ask.

Star Trek ‘Vulcan salute’ is Biblical

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Many of the cinema-goers who went to see Star Trek XI this weekend have probably seen Mr Spock’s famous Vulcan salute many times. But few of them are probably aware that the tricky manoeuvre is actually based upon a biblical blessing.

According to the Daily Mail, the original Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy) based the greeting on a gesture of blessing he had seen at a Jewish synagogue. And that gesture is part of the Priestly Blessing, which is described in the Bible at Numbers 6:23-26. Ironically, Nimoy even reads this verse out aloud as a narrator during the popular computer game, Civilization IV.

And as you can see above, the precursor to the Vulcan salute is even featured on a synagogue door in Essen, Germany. Also note that originally, the gesture is done with both hands – making getting it right twice as difficult. Photo: Aaron Olaf

Noah’s Nanny Goat: the Bible in dialect

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Over the weekend, I took part in a discussion on BBC Radio 4 about the appropriacy of translating the Bible into regional dialects. The subject had come up due to the launch of an updated version of the Bible in Cockney. There was the usual hullabaloo about ‘dumbing down’ the Bible, despite the fact that the New Testament was originally written in Koine (i.e. common) rather than literary Greek.

As it stands, the Greek grammar of the book of Revelation is pretty rough and ready. And as I pointed out in the interview, the words of Jesus were themselves accommodated to different cultural audiences.

Matthew, writing for Jews, refers to “the kingdom of heaven” to avoid using the word God (Jews of the time found that offensive). Mark, on the other hand, writing for the non-Jewish audience simply has Jesus refer to ”the kingdom of God” (Compare Matthew 3:2 with Mark 1:15). So why do some people get all worked up about the Bible in dialect?

Usually because they are attached to the King James Version (used by just 8% of churchgoers in the UK) or have an overly-literal understanding of what it means to translate the Bible into other languages. The antidote is to become more familiar with how the Bible quotes itself. Absolute exactness was not always important. Hebrews 2:6, for example, introduces a quote from the Psalms with the somewhat vague “someone has testified somewhere”.

That’s not to say that it’s a free for all when it comes to interpreting or translating the Bible. But for a bit of fun, or to help make an ancient text more accessible, I see nothing wrong with referring to Noah’s Ark as “Noah’s Nanny Goat” (i.e. ‘boat’ in Cockney rhyming slang) or the valley of darkness as “murk of the glen” as in this Scots translation.