[OC Register]

A new book recounts how Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ made O.C. a hotbed of protests in 1988. The handmade signs they carried made clear the reasons why hundreds of protestors descended on the MainPlace mall in Santa Ana on a Friday afternoon 20 years ago.

“Don’t Be Led Into Temptation.”

“Jesus is Not a Wimp.”

“The Bible, Not the Movie!”

On Aug. 19, 1988, “The Last Temptation Of Christ,” opened in Orange County one week after premiering in Los Angeles, New York and a few other cities. Director Martin Scorsese’s film project had become over the course of the ’80s one of the most controversial movies ever developed.

At the big Universal rally that summer, one of the speakers who drew the most attention was a 23-year-old from Santa Ana who had recently signed a recording contract with MCA, the parent company of Universal. Steve Gooden, now of Newport Beach, tore that contract up, saying he did so to take a stand for what he believed.

“I never made my million because I got blackballed,” Gooden says, laughing, of how his life changed that day. “Oh, gosh, I’ll never forget standing in front of those 30,000 people with all those major Christian broadcasters who said they’d stand with me.

“None of them did, not Jan and Paul (Crouch of Costa Mesa-based Trinity Broadcasting Network), none of them,” Gooden says. (The Crouches declined a request for an interview for this story.)

“I almost regret doing what I did,” says Gooden, who works in real estate now. “I wonder if I could have done more good if I’d stayed with (MCA) and worked from the inside.”

Read more here.

[From me]

Has it really been 20 years?  I remember this hub bub like it was yesterday.  To be fair, I never saw the movie.  But I heard it was just a bad movie- not evil-just bad with a weak story line.  

But the singer above got me to thinking.  I’ve been guilty even recently of saying I wouldn’t buy (Heinz) products because of their social stands.  Many of you corrected me and rightly so for my misguided thinking.  What if Mr. Gooden had not torn up his contract and had made a CD that sold millions?  What if God could have used him within the music industry to promote Jesus and Christian values?  Instead he was blackballed and had no voice.

I wonder if we tune people out with our whining and complaining?  (me included)  Didn’t Paul say:

Philippians 2:14 

Do everything without complaining or arguing

I wonder what would happen if we did work from within to change?

What do you think?

[USA Today]

What happened to responsible movies and TV shows when it comes to sex?  What about abstinence?  What message does this send to our youth?  Yes, I don’t get it.

What do you think?

[World Net Daily]

A controversial new documentary, following in the footsteps of the popular, if heretical, “The Da Vinci Code,” asks the brazen question: “What if the greatest story ever told was a lie?” Coming to theaters later this month, “Bloodline” seeks to prove the conspiracy tale that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child whose bloodline continues today. Ben Hammott, an English adventurer, claims to have discovered in southwest France a remote tomb and relics from Jerusalem, dated back to the first century. The discovery provides the subject matter for this new film about what producers say is “the Church’s best kept secret.”

The findings include a pottery cup and an ointment vase that were reportedly used at the alleged marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.The British Museum and Gabriel Barkay of Bar Ilan University in Jerusalem have analyzed the items.

“It is possible that artifacts excavated by the Templars on Temple Mount would find a way to Europe,” said Barkay. “The finds in this chest are really intriguing and it is really something that inflames the imagination.”

The tomb contained a mummified corpse lying beneath a shroud with a red cross, the symbol of the Knights Templar, a medieval Christian military order. The documentary shows that a DNA test revealed that the corpse is of Middle Eastern origin.

According to the documentary, the tomb was discovered because of information found in a bundle of papers, hidden by a French priest at the end of the 19th century. The papers explained that he discovered the tomb and it led to him to break from his Catholic faith.

“The resurrection of Jesus was a trick, it was Mary Magdalene who took his body from his tomb,” the priest said. “Later, the body of Jesus was discovered by the Templars and then hidden three times. Not in Jerusalem. The Tomb is here. Parts of the body are safe.”

Read more here.

[From me]

Knights Templar?  This sounds more like a Disney movie with Nicolas Cage.  Where do they get this stuff?  

[Christian Post]

Actress Kate Walsh, who plays a doctor on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” television series, is receiving criticism from pro-life advocates for faulting abstinence education for the rising pregnancy and STD rates among teen girls.

Walsh, a member of the board of advisors of Planned Parenthood, attended a congressional briefing on sex education on Capitol Hill on Thursday, during which she advocated cutting out all government funding for abstinence education, according to the D.C.-based Family Research Council.

Walsh also took her sex education campaign to airwaves on Friday’s CBS The Early Show, where she told co-anchor Julie Chen, “Abstinence-only is not working. It’s a $1.5 billion program over the last ten years that has, quite frankly, failed.  She attempted to link abstinence-only education to the rising STD rates among teens by citing the recent Center for Disease Control statistics which showed that at least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease.

The actress called for more government spending on sex-ed, noting that private foundations and parents should not be trusted sources.

Walsh, whose “Grey’s Anatomy” character engages in activity like sexual romps in the hospital closet on the show, also revealed her take on abstinence, saying that to expect

“everybody to remain abstinent is just – it’s like asking them not to grow.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

Kate, you play a doctor on TV but you have no idea what you are talking about.  There is only one way to prevent STD’s!  Abstinence for singles and monogamy for married couples.  There is no other full proof way!  People like her just want to justify their behavior by making God’s plan to sound old fashion or outdated.

What do you think?

[KTVB]

A surprise birthday party for Dawn Wells, the actress who played Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island,” ended with a nearly three-hour tour of the Teton County Sheriff’s Office and jail when the 69-year-old was caught with marijuana in her vehicle while driving home.

The case began the night of Oct. 18, when Teton County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Gutierrez arrested Wells as she was driving home from a surprise birthday party. She posted $4,000 bond and was arraigned on the charges the following day, pleading not guilty. A trial on the matter was scheduled for March 13, but was canceled because of the plea agreement. According to the sheriff’s office report, Gutierrez pulled Wells over after noticing her swerve across the fog lines and center lines of State Highway 33 and repeatedly speed up and slow down.

“I exited my patrol vehicle and immediately was able to smell a strong odor of burning marijuana,” Gutierrez wrote in his report. “As I approached the vehicle I noticed all four window (sic) of the vehicle were lowered and the female driver was not wearing a jacket.”

When Gutierrez asked why he could smell marijuana, Wells reportedly told him that she’d just given a ride to three hitchhikers and had dropped them off when they began smoking something. When Gutierrez searched the car, he found three half-smoked joints in the ashtray and console, according to the report. A second search after Wells’ arrest netted a fourth half-smoked joint and two small cases used to store marijuana, Gutierrez said.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Now I know what the professor was cooking up.