--Lesley Hazelton, journalist and author of "Mary: A Flesh and Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother":

"There's no doubt in my mind that she [Mary]--because she knew the ins and outs and all the side roads of the hills, where the caves were, where you could hide, where you could safely go and nobody could track you, even at night without a moon, especially on moonless nights--she would have been used to, and she would have wanted to, guide rebels who were fleeing from the military to safety. Rather like a kind of underground railroad."

--Sigourney Weaver, narrator: "The Virgin Mary as the Princess Leia of her day, defending the rebels against the evil empire?

"Perhaps. Until the 13-year-old Mary, who was not yet married to Joseph, got some news from an angel that she was pregnant. And the father was God."

("The Two Marys," CNN, originally aired 25 December 2010, rebroadcast 24 December 2011; see original, "rushed" transcript [subject to updating and editing], at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1012/25/cp.01.html)
_____


So, since we're talking fantastical fiction here, brought to you by Heavenly Christian Productions (with technical assistance from its Light Saber Savior god), what are your Star War parallels to Marvelous Mary, Wonder Woman of the Universe?

:)



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I enjoy listening to the female professors and researchers giving their educated insights into the topics within their areas of expertise. They are stressing how Mary "disappeared" from the forefront but then made a comeback as she began to be more emphasized again, especially with the increase in female ministers in Protestantism, with their different take on the subject. One of them postulates that Mary could become the common ground between Protestants and Catholics.

From my Protestant experience, that may be a long time coming. The Mary focus exhibited by many Catholics is not favoured by even mainstream Protestants of my acquaintance and the more fundamentalist groups frankly spurn it as not being "biblical". It does smack to many Protestants as "Mary worship" which of course is not the right way to go.

I'm not a fan of the Fatima visions, as I've mentioned here before. That is pretty much my entire experience of Mary and it leaves me cold. I think her messages to the young girls are scary, puzzling, irrelevant even and are not what I'd call inspiring. I also don't care for the iconography around the VM. I readily acknowledge that I am biased in that "Maryan worship" is not held in high esteem in the "fundy" type groups of my experience within Plymouth Brethren, Mennonite Brethren, and of course JW (where they don't even venerate Jesus - it's all Jehovah - so Mary doesn't even get a look in).

I find the history and interpretation of scripture and religious history fascinating though.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see the Mass celebrated at the Church of the Nativity tonight. I'm wondering how they really really know that "this is the place". :)

The location of where Jesus was allegedly brought into the world is so festooned with hanging decorations and other garish ornmentation (plus covered with stone flooring) that it's impossible to get a feel for the real.

I found it cloistered, cluttered and uninspriring--and that was before I left Mormonism and religion altogether.



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She sees various alien peoples. She proclaims that her son is the Son of God and the crowd tells her to lay off the grape juice.

Oh, not the kind of parallel you meant?

How about:

"Jedi mind tricks"

"Related to the above concern is the use in the film of "Jedi mind tricks" — instances where the (good) Jedi knights of the film give certain characters a mental push that leads them to believe or act in a desired manner. Sometimes mind tricks are used to accomplish a deception (e.g., "These aren’t the droids you’re looking for" — when in fact they are) or to get a character to do something he is otherwise disinclined to do (e.g., "Take me to your master, now")."

That quote was ripped off from a hilarious site called Decent Films warning Christians, "Because of the problematic moral and spiritual elements in the Star Wars films, some Christian parents may not wish to let their children view them."

Yeah, we wouldn't want tender Christian minds seeing anything that might make them notice their religion is, well, like Star Wars.


http://www.decentfilms.com/articles/starwarsissues.html

Indeed, the film review website noted above cites comments made by Abe Foxman, national head of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, who says that Gibson's film is not anti-Semtic.

http://www.decentfilms.com/search?title=passion+of+the+christ&search=Quick+Search


Abe is a good friend of mine. (I just saw him recently in Phoenix and we traveled through Israel together some years ago on an ADL-sponsored tour).

That said, I know local Jewish leaders in the Phoenix area who consider Gibson's film to, in fact, be disturbingly anti-Semitic. I agree with that assessment, having seenn the film in the company of both Jewish and non-Jewish clergy.

Gibson, as a matter of record, has compared himself to Hitler in how he runs his own household. He was raised by a father who was a Holocaust denier. Gibson himself let loose with a stream of anti-Jewish invective when arrested for drunken driving by a California police officer whom Gibson deemed to be a Jew.

Funny how the same website deplores the Jedi mind-tricking violence of "Star Wars," yet countenances the grotesquely bloody and brutal nature of "The Passion of the Christ," which has been critially deplored as a "Christian snuff film."



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