The Passion of the Christ
by David Dent
About a week before RR died, I saw The Passion with my wife. It was very difficult to watch. I physically had to restrain myself from getting up during the march along the Emmaus road. That was the first movie in a long time, perhaps ever, that invoked such a strong response from me. I wanted to leap onto the screen and carry the Cross for Him. I was crying a lot.
This is the second post in a row that I mentioned myself crying. Maybe I'm turning into a softie, but how can you watch that film without tears?
I can't figure out the antisemitism complaint. The complaint would have been made no matter what the movie's content was. The media is so anti-religion and especially anti-Christian, it makes me sick.
Back to the film.
Reading the Gospels, you understand that there were things done to Him that were painful, but the descriptions of the events are short and matter-of-fact. This movie is what the gospels may have looked like if a modern writer would have written it. A lot more detail.
Is it real? Do the gospels actually discuss this torture? I believe Mel Gibson borrowed from Isaiah and other Prophets to create the script. Lines mentioning that he was unreckognizable and such.
Anyway, a deeply moving film.
Ronald Reagan
by David
Ronald Reagan defined my generation. Like it or not, agree with him or disagree with him, he defined the decade and changed the political landscape of America and the world forever...and for the good. I found myself crying and rejoicing during the memorials for the greatest icon of my political conscience.
A few places of note for me:
1. I got choked up seeing the boots backwards in the stirrups on that beautiful horse.
2. When Nancy went up to the coffin last evening at sunset to give her final goodbye, she leaned down to kiss the coffin...and she lost it. She partially collapsed. It didn't last long, and her kids ran up to hug and hold on to her, but if you were watching, your heart was ripped out of your chest at that moment. My eyes started leaking and I wanted the cameras to turn off to give the woman some time to herself.
3. Margaret Thatcher's eulogy was awesome and touching. Her quote of Bunyan was excellent "...all the trumpets sounded on the other side."
Tarzana Joe read a larger piece aloud on Hugh Hewitt's radio program on Friday. Here it is:
"After this it was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant-for-truth was taken with a
Summons by the same Post as the other, and had this for a Token that the Summons
was true, That his pitcher was broken at the Fountain. When he understood it, he
called for his Friends, and told them of it. Then said he, I am going to my
Fathers, and tho’ with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent
me of all the Trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My Sword I give to
him that shall succeed me in my Pilgrimage, and my Courage and my Skill to him
that can get it. My Marks and Scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that
I have fought his Battles who now will be my Rewarder. When the day that he must
go hence was come, many accompanied him to the River-side, into which as he went
he said, Death, where is thy Sting? And as he went down deeper he said, Grave,
where is thy Victory? So he passed over, and all the Trumpets sounded for him on
the other side."
— John Bunyan, Pilgrims Progress
4. The Battle Hymn of the Republic was always lost in the ether of familiarity in my mind. I had never listened to the words before the haunting and magical rendition during the services. Here are the words below:
"Battle Hymn of the Republic
by Julia Ward Howe
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps
l can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel,
"As ye deal with my contemners, So with you my grace shall deal;"
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
5. I think GWB will get reelected by a sizable margin. This isn't kids stuff anymore. The juvenile notions of the spoiled children left have been so thoroughly discredited in such a public manner since RR took office in 1981, that even the jaundiced view and wholesale watercarrying for the left that is the mass media markets can't hide the truth. GWB is following in RR footsteps in the GWOT and most of the country gets it.
Enough for now.
