Thursday, October 22, 2009


I got the following off my Rebecca’s Facebook postings. As I read it it was screaming at me, “Blog-me, Blog-me!” So here goes:


This past Saturday started out much like any other Saturday I have had while living at home through the school year. Doing chores, singing along to music and running errands. I was desperately looking for something to do that night since, really, what 19- year old sits around on a Saturday night?

I received a text from a girl friend of mine from H.S. who was unexpectedly home from school for fall break asking if I would like to join her at the movies. Naturally I jumped like a fish into water at the chance. She asked to go see the new comedy 'The Invention of Lying' starring Ricky Gervais (of the British Office), Jennifer Gardner and a star-studded cast including Tina Fey, Edward Norton, Jason Bateman, Patrick Stewart and even Oscar winner Philip Seymor-Hoffman. I hadn't heard much about the film and thought it sounded like a laugh out loud grand old affair.

Boy was I wrong!

If I was to ever walk out of a stupid overpriced movie that should have been it.
The whole story was a replica that MOCKED EVERY SINGLE FORM OF CHRISTIANITY!!!!

For those of you who have not seen the film the plot in a nutshell is; Everyone in the world is incapable of telling a lie. People are extremely honest and even sometimes brutally about how normal their lives are or someone else's looks. Until one day, the lead character Mark is sitting next to his mother while she is dying. His mother is laying in her hospital bed saying how scared she was to enter into an afterlife of nothingness and darkness. Mark cannot bare to see the most important woman in his life suffer, so he 'lies' to her. "You will be surrounded by people you love when you get there mum. You will see dad again and everyone has their own mansion. You will be young again, and you will dance. You always loved to dance."
The mother is comforted by this, since everyone only can tell the truth and dies at peace with a smile on her face. The Doctor and nurses in the room were also hanging on to every word that Mark had said, believing that it is all the truth. This causes an uproar. Masses of people flock outside of Mark's house begging for answers. Mark then sits down and writes ten rules about how people should live their lives. He claims that a 'man up in the sky' speaks to him. This ‘man’ told him all of these things and that he uses Mark as his messenger. The plot pretty much just goes from there proving that society is gullible enough to believe this man and everything he says.

I was appalled on so many levels at the arrogance of Hollywood filmmakers who think they have the right to blatantly tell those in society that do have faith in a greater power they are being lied to. Why? Why are we forced to be accepting of whacked out religions like Scientology and other controversial issues when they cannot tolerate our beliefs? When did Christians become the bad guys? I silently sat in the dark movie theater while people laughed and apologized to our Lord and Maker in my mind. He loves us so much that he was willing to SACRIFICE HIS ONLY CHILD so that we can share in His everlasting Light. He has giving us the gifts of wit, and humor, of writing and telling stories (if you know me at all you know how powerful I believe stories can be) and how have we repaid Him? By making a film that mocks His very existence?

I do not mean to give the impression that I am an overly zealous Catholic, when honestly I am a very mediocre Catholic. I have gone through my own phases of doubt and questioning what it all is worth. At the same time, I love my faith. There have been moments in my life where my relationship with God was the only thing that helped me to stay standing. I hate myself for spending money on a film that basically slapped me in the face for that relationship.

I guess what I am trying to say here is that I am ashamed that we as a society have reached this all time low. - Rebecca Ann Delp

Thanks Rebecca and Amen! - Dan

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