In Acts 17 of the Christian New Testament, St. Paul finds an altar in Athens dedicated to the “Unknown God”. It was one of those little stone thingies Tertullian mentions which the Greeks would erect just to make sure they were covering all their bases godwise. You never know when some wandering Bulgarian Samodivi might wander into town and want a little sacrafice. Never one to pass up an opportunity, Paul uses the altar as a springboard for conversation with the locals about his new religion and its "Unknown God", Jesus. Kind of a pop culture approach to things, I suppose. It’s in that spirit that I present the B-Movie Catechism.
You see, I like bad movies. No, that's not quite true. I LOVE bad movies. I’m not proud of it; I’m just being honest. And, I’ve watched a lot of them. No, that's not quite true, either. I've watched an (ahem) ungodly amount of them. Hell, I've BOUGHT an ungodly amount of them!
So instead of just tossing out the hours of my life I've spent watching these things, I thought I could use them to spark a little bit of religious discussion, even though it’s a sure bet the people who made these movies never had such a thing in mind. And just to be clear at the start of this, I'm in no way officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church either. Really, when you stop to think about it, this is probably doomed from the offset. I readily admit the seeming incompatibility of the teachings of a 2000 year old religion with movies whose subject matter is most often confined to what Joe Bob Briggs called the three Bs: Blood, Breasts, & Beasts.
But, I'm stupid enough to try anyway.
Besides, even The Catechism of The Catholic Church states in Section 24 that we should suit our words to the understanding of our hearers. Father Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., S.T.D put it this way, "Catholics believe that being human is a good thing. Our bodies are good. Creation is good. Growth and change are good. That's why it's great to belong to a human Church—a Church that is forever growing, developing and maturing—a Church that is always discovering new ways to proclaim the gospel until that day when the fullness of God's plan will be revealed in us." Well, for better or worse, this is my new way.
Hopefully, the few people who stumble across this thing will find something useful or thought-provoking in it, whether it be religious in nature or just an old movie they hadn't considered renting before. That’s the idea, anyway, behind The B-Movie Catechism. We'll see if anything comes of it.
You see, I like bad movies. No, that's not quite true. I LOVE bad movies. I’m not proud of it; I’m just being honest. And, I’ve watched a lot of them. No, that's not quite true, either. I've watched an (ahem) ungodly amount of them. Hell, I've BOUGHT an ungodly amount of them!
So instead of just tossing out the hours of my life I've spent watching these things, I thought I could use them to spark a little bit of religious discussion, even though it’s a sure bet the people who made these movies never had such a thing in mind. And just to be clear at the start of this, I'm in no way officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church either. Really, when you stop to think about it, this is probably doomed from the offset. I readily admit the seeming incompatibility of the teachings of a 2000 year old religion with movies whose subject matter is most often confined to what Joe Bob Briggs called the three Bs: Blood, Breasts, & Beasts.
But, I'm stupid enough to try anyway.
Besides, even The Catechism of The Catholic Church states in Section 24 that we should suit our words to the understanding of our hearers. Father Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., S.T.D put it this way, "Catholics believe that being human is a good thing. Our bodies are good. Creation is good. Growth and change are good. That's why it's great to belong to a human Church—a Church that is forever growing, developing and maturing—a Church that is always discovering new ways to proclaim the gospel until that day when the fullness of God's plan will be revealed in us." Well, for better or worse, this is my new way.
Hopefully, the few people who stumble across this thing will find something useful or thought-provoking in it, whether it be religious in nature or just an old movie they hadn't considered renting before. That’s the idea, anyway, behind The B-Movie Catechism. We'll see if anything comes of it.
1 comment:
Hi,
It Peter here from "The Flicks That Church Forgot". nice to see someone else with similar thoughts on the world of B-Movies and the Christian Faith! I liked your Acts 15 link. Nice.
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