On The Baby War: Defenders and Defectors Post Production

So, the goal all along had been to finish TBW:D&D by October 15th in order to submit the film to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. We had finished everything and were just attempting to transcode and burn DVD's the week before the deadline, but the it took Adobe Encore around 36 hours to transcode. This is on a very high end production machine. We made a few tweaks after the first transcoding, and then the second 36 hour round finished on Saturday morning the 13th. 

Knowing that we would not have enough time to transcode it again, I watched the DVD with great despair because the quality of the DVD was so poor. The images were blurry and the many images of text were so fuzzy that some of them were practically unreadable. 

But, I knew that we didn't have time to do it again, so I gathered up my pathetic DVD's, went to the Post Office on Monday the 15th to get the film submitted by the 15th postmark deadline. 

Jenette and I went to Springfield and came home later that day, where I found  an email from the Film Festival that said that the deadline had been extended to October 31st. 

So, I just knew there had to be a way to get better quality. Through a very late night of internet research I learned that Adobe Encore was known for producing poor DVD quality because of it's encoder. This is really frustrating, because you would think that such a quality package of software as Adobe Production CS5.5 would be able to produce quality DVD's.

There is a possibility that some of my video card settings are not playing nice with the Adobe Media Encoder, so maybe it's not all Adobe's fault, but still, I would like to blame someone. 

One of the great wonders and benefits of the internet is that if you are having any kind of technical problem, someone else has experienced that same problem and has complained about it on the internet, and usually someone else has helped find a solution. 

Well, that's exactly what happened. Through some very helpful technical tutorial videos and other articles, I was able to download and run free open source software that transcoded the film video file to AVI and then encoded it to MPEG2-DVD in a fraction of the time it took Encore, and at a stunning quality difference, with a lower file size. Did I say stunning? What I meant was a stupendously crazy wonderful quality difference. 

So, bottom line is, don't ever give up on making things better quality. I seriously thought about not trying to distribute DVD's of this film because our initial attempts were so horrible. Now, I am pleased to be able to put this on DVD. 

If you are using Adobe Encore to make DVD's, I highly suggest going through this challenging, multi-step process to make your quality better. 

I will do another blog where I will describe the process in detail, not because I think anyone would be interested, but because I want to document the process well so I can know how to do it again. 

So, Jonathan did more post work to redo the chapter headings and burn the new DVD's and I am going to be very glad to send the revised DVD submissions to the film festival this week. 

Furthermore, I had some more thoughts about the content of this film. I am nervous making this public because I know that many people we know and love will think this film is too "out there." This film doesn't just challenge the mainstream ideas of the world, this film challenges the mainstream ideas of Godly, conservative people. 

We were very careful in this film to present everything in an historical light, and show the results of that history. Most of the clips in this film show facts: facts of history, facts of current events, and facts of Christian culture. We removed nearly all of the "snarkiness" from the script. We have attempted to leave a lot of room for viewers to come to their own conclusions. 

There is a section in the film where we highlight three different clips of sermons regarding sex and marriage from American pastors whose sermons are available publicly on the internet. When we first wrote the script, we called these sermons, "the good, the bad, and the ugly." But as our family sat and poured over every word of the script, we felt that we weren't leaving the viewers enough room to determine for themselves whether what these pastors was saying was "good, bad, or ugly," so that part of the script was chopped. 

Inevitably, someone is going to say that this film is too "judgmental." Here's my response to that:

1. Being "judgmental" implies self-righteousness. You will find no self-righteousness in this film. 
2. The film judges no person, but judges ideas. 
3. Ideas are to be brought kicking and screaming to the judgment seat of Christ through his written word. 
4. The evangelical church (as a whole) has, through it's silence on the priority of procreation in marriage, has not been judgmental enough of these ideas.  

This film is controversial because, apart from a few writers, no one is talking about this matter in the church, at least until this year. It's interesting that the HHS contraceptive mandate has put the issue in the forefront, and church leaders of many flavors are talking about contraceptives for the first time in half a century. 

Someone will also say, "So what are you saying, that we should stop using birth control? - Uh, that means that we would have more kids, and that's pretty freaky and would change my life dramatically!" The film never says this. What we hope each person will take away from this documentary is this: 

1. The Christian defense of procreative marriage is a fact of history
2. The defection from that belief has led to all kinds of horrible consequences.
3. It is time for Christians to once again defend the basic Biblical definition of marriage.  

If watching this film causes some Christian married couple to re-evaluate their personal use of birth control in the light of Biblical interpretive history, that is a good thing, but it is not the primary goal of the film.

The film is about the historical Christian definition of marriage and that certainly involves having children. Each couple should consider God's Word first about their decisions in this matter; not what some family expert or what Dr. So & So says.  Our family struggled though this "Baby War" - our ideas vs. God's ideas about babies, and we ended up with nine children. However, other couples have trusted God for the number and spacing of children and only had one or two children. Either we believe God's promise that children are an unqualified blessing (Psalm 127 & 128) or we don't.

One of the real problems with this film is that it is only part of what needs to be said. The Baby War:Defenders & Defectors looks at the issue from an historical lens. The follow up film that we want to make called The Baby War:A Conflict of Fears will look at the issue through a Biblical lens. 

The opening lines of the film say it well: "Proceed with caution. This film might challenge you to think different thoughts and to lead different lives." 

The Remember Movie

http://www.theremembermovie.com/Remember/Home.html

Remember is a movie that may go down as one of the best sci fi stories ever made. Some reviewers will say stuff about it's low budget. I don't really care about that. This is just a really good story. The acting and  the visual effects are very good, but the story itself is outstanding. 

Having said that, this is an ambitious project with a small budget that has resulted in a powerful movie. I won't give a synopsis of the story, as that can be found on the movie website. I encourage every family to buy this movie and support these independent Christian filmmakers. I especially like the scene where Carl and Wendy are talking to each other and they both hesitantly figure out that they have both stopped taking the memory block meds. The music is powerful and majestic. 

How amazing it is that independent Christian filmmakers can make a film of this qualtity that is sci-fi? I don't remember anything quite like this before, and I hope it will encourage other filmmakers to take on projects like this.

Thank you Moviemakers for a job well done. 

Time to start the can opener.

The Baby War:Defenders and Defectors Trailer from Jim Clay on Vimeo.

Ok, it is with great fear and trepidation that we being the public exposure of The Baby War: Defenders and Defectors. From the very beginning, we have intended to open "a can of worms" with this film. I guess now is as good a time as any! 

We will be releasing this film free for internet viewing on November 1. After that, we will be producing DVD's that will be available in late November. 

Originally this project was intended to be made for submission to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, (and we are submitting it), but we have learned that this message is far too important to just submit it to the Film Festival. We hope many more people will see it.  The website for the film is http://thebabywarfilm.com/index.html. We will be posting more information on facebook as we approach the release.

Here's the trailer for the documentary film we have been working on. Be warned! This film is as controversial as it gets. It is not politically correct! As I know that most people will probably get very nervous at the content of this film. That's ok, because I am nervous putting it out there. 

Although I have produced, directed, and written this film, my production team has been Joel Clay - original music. Jason Clay - visual effects and animations. Jonathan Clay - sound design and post production. Jenette Clay and Jordan Clay have also been key parts of this production, working on the script and many other things. Although many others have helped with this, this has been a family project. I am very pleased with how it has turned out. 

And, by the way, the music in the trailer is also completely original by Joel Clay.

So, why a film about this topic? Well, in my opinion, it simply is ignored by the church because it is too politically incorrect to talk about procreation in marriage. Because of that, most of us have just gone along with everything that everyone in the world thinks and believes about this. I want to challenge Christian married couples and young Christian people considering marriage to think about the issue of using birth control in a Biblical and historical framework, instead of just going along with what everyone says about it. 

This film is called The Baby War:Defenders and Defectors because it is about the war of ideas: our ideas vs. God's ideas about babies. 

But at it's heart and core, this film is about the definition of marriage. And as Christians, we believe that God has the authority to define it. The real question of this film is this: why have modern Christians quietly removed procreation out of the Biblical definition of marriage, standing against 19 centuries of Biblical interpretive history? And the conclusion of the film demonstrates the results. 

More blogs will follow as I begin to share my research into this issue. 

Good, Evil, or Goevilod?

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:12-14

The most basic of Biblical truths should be understood by nearly every person who calls themselves a follower of Christ. However, many who follow Christ have not been seeking maturity in their relationship with Christ. Nor have the majority been seeking a sanctified life, that is, a life that is becoming more like Christ and less like the world. This has come to light for me recently as I have stated reasons why I think that The Hunger Games movie is very problematic for the Christian family.

It doesn't really matter what my opinion is, or what someone else's opinion is, or what Doctor So & So says - there is only one objective standard in life, and that is God's Standard - nothing else stands completely outside of human experience. Only God's standard is the yardstick against all other thoughts, beliefs, and practices, and only the Bible will endure the test of time as an eternal rock of unchangeable truth. Of course worldly people will mock it, scorn it, or whatever, but those words will all be judged eventually, and God will win the argument.

The problem is that Christians are the ones who are confused, and perhaps that is for two reasons:

1. Many (most?) Christians have not trained themselves by the constant use (study) of the Scriptures to be able to distinguish good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14).
   
2. We have been so amalgamated into worldly ways of thinking that we simply don't know anymore what is good and what is evil, and even deeper, why something is good or evil.

For example, three Bible principles dominate my thinking about not supporting financially The Hunger Games movie in any way:

1. The Sixth Commandment - Don't murder - Exodus 20:13
   
2. The non-partnership with sin principle :

   Proverbs 1:10-19 my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; ¹⁶ for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood.

   Ephesians 5:5-7 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷ Therefore do not be partners with them.

3. The set your minds on right things principle:

   Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

So, applying these three commands or principles, it seems to me that obeying God's Word in every aspect of life would mean that I should limit myself in movie watching to movies that would honor God's principles. I have to first remove the log from my own eye and admit that I have not always done this. I have watched movies and television that were most ungodly and unwise.

However, as a father & husband, I have the hearts and minds of my wife and children to protect, so I am projecting my limitations on them, using the authority that God's Word gives me as a father. Someone might challenge me about The Hunger Games movie, "you haven't even see it, so how can you be so against it?"

First of all, the internet provides unending resources to discover what the content of a movie is, including the Internet Movie Database, which contains a parents guide for most movies that simply presents the uninterpreted facts of the content. Through that source and other research I have done, I have learned that the visual elements of the movie contain kids killing kids. Kids killing kids is not a visual element I want stuck in the heart and mind of my children, (or even myself) because of the Biblical principles described above.

I am against the movie (not necessarily the book, because a story can be handled much differently in a book) because demonstrating in a movie kids killing kids is something that, in my opinion, just simply should not be seen on film.

Look, I understand the plot of the movie. I know that it does not specifically condone or celebrate the killings. I get it. I have heard the point, "but that (the killing) is not the message of the film." Granted.

But here's the point - we have confused good and evil. Aren't we, by paying to see the movie, doing what the movie says is so wrong? Aren't we the Capitol? One of the characters in the book states that that the hunger games would not exist if people stopped watching. Why do we need a movie to show visually that kids killing kids is wrong? We have God's Word to tell us what is evil. Even if this movie has a great story and some heroics, it is a fact that one of the visual elements throughout the film is that kids are killing kids. Even if it is not the only visual element, even if it is on the sideline - to me, that is simply unacceptable.

There are lots of movies I shouldn't see and no one else should either. I certainly am not going to let my kids see them. Some movies are just plainly a waste of time, but others have definite, unredeemable content.

Let's look at the extremes. I have not seen any pornographic movies, but I certainly don't need to see them to know that I don't want my children or anyone else to see them. I don't need to see them to say that they are horrible and ungodly. Unfortunately, I know enough of their content to make a wise decision. Pornography is unredeemable. Horror movies are unredeemable. Sexual comedies are unredeemable. A follower of Christ should never see them. The Bible gives us commands and principles that we should use to judge every question of life, including which movies we see or don't see.

In my humble opinion, The Hunger Games movie is unredeemable because it contains kids killing kids. I am basing that opinion on the above mentioned Biblical principles. In essence, by saying this a "good" movie, we are calling what is evil "good."

It seems to me that we should look at God's Word to tell us what is good and what is evil. That is the only standard that matters. We can start with the Ten Commandments - a partial list of what God would call evil. There are other "lists" in the Bible, such as Proverbs 6:16-19

¹⁶There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Ok, I would imagine that everyone knows that. But the Bible also contains principles about the nature of good and evil, how it is to be defined, the results of both, and what we are supposed to do with both good and evil. Let's go beyond these "lists" and get into the heart of good and evil.

Evil is to be called evil and not good, according to God's standard:

Isaiah 5:20-21 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. ²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

Malachi 2:17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

Doing Good according to God's standard brings blessings, doing evil according to God's standard brings curses and judgment:

John 5:28-29 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

Even God's "own people" who do evil are fools who don't know how to do good:

Jeremiah 4:22 “My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good.”

God lovers are to hate evil and love what is good:

Amos 5:14-15 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. ¹⁵ Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Good and evil come from the heart, not just actions or words on the surface:

Matthew 12:34-36 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵ The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. ³⁶ But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

Humans are utterly evil - slaves to sin, and can only be made "good" by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross:

Romans 7:21-25 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

The follower of Christ is commanded to be wise about what is good, and innocent of evil:

Romans 16:19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

The follower of Christ is commanded to turn from evil and do good:

1 Peter 3:10-11 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. ¹¹ He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.

Here's the bottom line: confusing good and evil has grave consequences.

God, would you blow away our confusion and help your people to stand on your Word alone?

Sola Scriptura

jc

Why You Should Never Support the Hunger Games Movie

"24 young men and young women (ranging from ages 12-18) stand on pedestals at the beginning of a competition and await a countdown, when the counter reaches 0 the young people run for a large collection of supplies and attack each other and 12 of them are killed: we see blades slashing and covered with blood, we see bodies lying motionless with blood stains and smears on their clothing and flesh, a young woman falls and a young man stands over her with a blade until another young woman throws a blade into his back, and a young boy is hacked with a large blade and we see blood spurt onto nearby objects (we do not see the boy)." (IMDB.com)

Kids killing kids.

Ok, in case that isn't enough of a reason, let me give an even more pressing reason.

The production company spent $100,000,000 (yes, that is correct, one hundred million dollars) to make a movie showing kids killing kids.

Have we gone so far away from Christian discernment that we are glad to pay money to see this? By paying to see the movie, we become the evil "Capitol" that the movie makes out to be the bad guy, celebrating the deaths of children because their deaths make our hero more victorious.

Why are we shocked when real kids kill other kids?

I am grieved that I know Christian parents who are taking their children to see this. No, I am more than grieved, I am frustrated and angry beyond belief.

The culture of death has taken on new life with this movie. In stark contrast, the movie October Baby is opening in theaters this weekend. Following the story of a girl who discovers that she was the survivor of an abortion attempt, the tagline for the movie is "Every life is beautiful."

One of the taglines for the Hunger Games is "May the odds be ever in your favor."

It is the tale of two tales. Theism vs. humanism. Life vs. death. Hope vs. despair. Victory vs. defeat. True heroism vs. false heroism. Wisdom vs. foolishness. The goodness of God vs the evil of humans.

May God come to judge us, and cleanse us of our unrighteousness.

jc

http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

Courageous was number 4 for the weekend in total money, but smashed the competition in average $$ per theater. At just 1161 theaters, that was a third less than the top money making movie. Courageous was in half the theaters than Lion King 3D, yet made just .7 million less. This movie is truly a commercial success!

Why You Must See Courageous

1. It really is a great movie.
2. We need to financially support the Christian Independent filmmaking movement. The world needs to see that Fireproof was not just a "one hit wonder." Movies are arguably perhaps the most active culture drivers in the U.S. Let's make sure that these movies are successful financially. Don't wait for the DVD on this one!
   
3. The message is powerful and needed - Fathers need to take the responsibility to lead their families, to be spiritual leaders, and to bring up the next generation to maturity.
4. The scene where the main character and the guy he hires are confused about who each other is and why they are together is worth the price of admission alone. I also loved the "I love you" lines on the phone - priceless!

Be advised - it is a tear-jerker. You will literally laugh and cry. Dads - don't do anything else this weekend - take your kids to see Courageous. Be prepared to spend more money afterwards, though, because the movie convicted me that I needed to take my boys to Chick-Fil-A afterward. (Or maybe it was that I was hungry, and subtlety motivated by the movie - the other "bust-up" laughing scene was where the guy orders a CFA meal in spanish in the police car. What a funny scene! Would that be "product placement?")

My thoughts on the Movie "Divided"

At the risk of offending many dear friends involved in ministry, I would like to encourage anyone involved with Church ministry at all to watch this film. It is online free for a limited time, so please go ahead and watch it. I would love to hear what others think about this.

The premise of the movie is that traditional youth ministry has the potential danger of dividing families away from each other. The solution, according to the film, is to have families together in worship and in Bible teaching instead of segregated by age or life stage.

While I think that solution by itself is limited, the larger goal is to have the church take up the responsibility to challenge parents to be the spiritual leaders and disciplers of their children.

We keep asking ourselves why kids are leaving Christ and the Church, but we haven't gained any ground against the world.

I think the Church needs to ask and address this question: are we truly holding onto the next generation by what we are doing, or do we need to do something different? While I would not agree with the movie that the Bible states definitively and undeniably that age segregation in the Church is wrong, (book, chapter, verse?) I do see that in many churches, the family is just as fragmented as in the world.

I don't know any Church or any youth minister that would say that the Bible is unclear about who is supposed to be the spiritual leader in a child's life. However, by our practices, maybe we communicate things that we don't mean to.

For example, most churches have a "youth group" time, and an adult Sunday School or small group time, but how often do churches have a dedicated "family" teaching time when youth and adults are experiencing the same thing at the same time in the same place? Unfortunately for many churches, that never happens. What does that teach the family? The kids? Is the family really gaining spiritual ground against worldliness? If not, why?

Is it possible that the media (or methodology) actually becomes the message?

Maybe if youth ministries spent more effort training parents to spiritually mentor their children, they would be more effective. I don't agree with the movie that we should do away with traditional youth ministry, but I do think that we should make it so much more family centered.

Please watch this and encourage Church leaders to watch this. We need to stop fooling around and start winning back the Church's youth for Christ.

Unless you change and become like little children...

What does Jesus mean when he says in Matthew 18:2,

Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven...

I think that kids don't have all the hang ups that adults have. They aren't busy looking around at what others are doing and what others might think of them. They naturally trust those who take care of them. They won't trust perfectly, but they really don't have any choice. Kids are always being toted around wherever their parents go, so they are always willing just to go. Little Josie wants to go with me every time. She doesn't know or care where I am going or what I am doing, she just wants to go. Because children don't have a big picture of how bad and awful the world really is, they innocently thing that everyone is "nice."

So the complete trust in God is what we really need that is like a child, but the context of those verses in Matt 18 is really important. The disciples ask a question - who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven - I think they are really asking, "which of us is the greatest?" In Jesus' classic style he doesn't answer their question but gives them a better thing to think about. A small child is never in her wildest dreams going to think she is the greatest at anything. She may fuss and scream for her way, but she does that because she knows she small and insignificant next to the "big people" around her. I think the heart of Jesus' response is that we are never, ever, going to be great in God's kingdom by thinking we are big and bad.

The economy of God is that in Him and through childlike faith and trust in Him alone, the weak and powerless can do anything that God wants to do. We have to change from the big, bad, proud men & women that we are and become weak and helpless, fulling falling on his strong arms to hold us up.

It's been said that Christians are weak because they use their faith as a crutch to lean on in hard times. (like Everitt McGill in the O Brother Where Art Thou movie said, mocking his friends being baptized, "Hard times flush the chumps." He also said, "Baptism - you two are dummer than a bag o' hammers.")

The truth is that faith is not just a crutch. It is a stretcher, and only when we fall completely on it face down helpless before God can we really be a worshiper.

Fireproof Movie

What a great movie. I have not been too excited about movies recently, because there is so much garbage in them, but this was a real winner. Made by the same guys as Facing the Giants, this one was so much better. I liked that this movie demonstrated the sin of selfishness in all it's ugliness. Our culture is just so full of people like the couple they portray in this movie. I think the writers and directors did a great job of creating characters that people could identify with.
If you haven't seen it yet, you need to.

Fear Not the Compass | Christianity Today Movies

Fear Not the Compass | Christianity Today Movies

I like this article a lot. Click on the link above or on the title. The main thing that troubled me about the Golden Compass movie was how many emails that I received that sounded like the Antichrist had arisen and was jumping out of movie screens everywhere.

I love the first line of this article: "Should Christians be afraid of The Golden Compass? Mercy, no. Let's not be afraid. Discerning, yes. But not afraid."

For all those who think that the movie should be boycotted, that is fine, but please don't tell anyone. Have Christians not learned anything in the past 25 years of media "badness?" When was the last time that a Christian "boycott" ever resulted in anything but more hype and interest in the thing being boycotted? Let's not be afraid. Discerning, yes. But not afraid.

Of course Christians should not be a part of worldly things - that is the command of Scripture. You can't be a friend of the world and a friend of God, according to the book of James. So that means that you will have to "boycott" certain things or movies or music or places or words or thoughts or actions. But the minute 3 million emails go out advertising the "boycott," or the minute that the Facebook friends list gets 30 invites to the "boycott The Golden Compass Group," it changes from the personal choice (Maybe shared by friends and family) to advertising.

I have to admit, I was out of the loop on this one, and I hadn't heard about it before. As soon as I heard about it, I wanted to find out more. I would like to think that I have some wisdom and Christian discernment, but I know that many people who received those messages don't have much discernment. They may want to go see the movie even more because of the negative publicity about it.

Besides all that - it sounds like The Golden Compass has been a dud at the box office. They are talking about not making the sequels, which is a good thing. They are now talking about making The Hobbit, which is also a good thing. Check out this link about The Hobbit Movie.

Now don't get me wrong - from what I know about the Golden Compass, I won't go see it, and I wouldn't let my kids see it, nor would I let them see 98% if the movies that are available to see.

So rest easy, The Golden Compass is yet another minor pathetic hiccup in the constant attempts to erode the Christian message and the Word of God. It has already failed, just like all the others. So, smile, praise God for His almighty power, and go forth, sharing boldly the Word of life. Some will listen, some will scoff, some may want to kill you, but hey, with God on your side, it's all good.

My prayer for anyone who reads this, my friends, family, and Christian brothers and sisters all over the world is this...

"...I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil" Romans 16:19

I am now getting off the soapbox.

jc