Daniel & Amy North wrote: > In article <>,

> "Rowland Croucher" <> wrote:

>

> > A friend sent this: anyone have any details?

>

> I have heard of things like this. Last Temptation of Christ was

> earlier. The movie started getting exposure only after the Christians

> spoke out, namely becuase of curiosity. This movie as well will fall by

> the wayside next to such classics as Jesus of Nazareth and other

> productions that are more historically accurate.

>

> The world is full of blasphemers. Never think that it is your battle

> against these of flesh and blood. Our battle is not one of flesh and

> bone as St. Paul reminds us.

Exacly, the Last Tempation of Christ was a horrible movie. Even aside from the blasphemy, the acting was bad, the writing was bad, the plot was insipid. If Christians had not mobilized protests and attempted to get the movie banned, it would have flopped at the box office and next to nobody would have gone to see the movie. As it was, controversy sells, the Christian protests and attempts to get the movie banned resulted in a smash hit at the box office. People wanted to see what all the furor was about.

I am reminded of third century Christian philosopher, Origen of Alexandria. Origen was approached time and time again to write a rebuttal to the pagan philosopher Celsus' critique of Christianity. Origen replied that the world would eventually forget Celsus and his writings should be ignored. Eventually, Origen gave in to the pleas and wrote a rebuttal Contra Celsus. This work by Origen contains the ONLY extant remains of Celsus attack on Christians. If Origen had ignored Celsus as he, himself, had advised, the world would have indeed forgotten about Celsus.

Regards,

Lee Malatesta