So much for the incarnation
Feb. 27, 2007
Hollywood is an inverted religion.
Like most, I watched bits and pieces of that great orgy of idolatry and self-worship, the Academy Awards.
What we call superstars are the gods and goddesses of our decadent time. Their church, fame, luxury, and immense, obscene wealth.
Al Gore was called in as the pastor of a more austere calling, environmentalism. "An Inconvenient Truth" was given an Oscar to show that Hollywood can take a spell from narcissism and ally itself with something a little more substantial than surgically crafted cleavage and insane self-obsession.
Al Gore is Hollywood's carbon pope.
We may not need popes much longer. The awards were barely over when one of the titans of big film, no less than James Cameron, he of the bloated budgets and blockbusters "Terminator" and "Titanic," two milestones in the history of Western Art, announces that he's about to release a documentary that will expose the last 2,000 years of Christianity as a feeble sham, explode the central mystery of the Christian faith, the resurrection, and while he's at it, prove even beyond the diligence of Dan Brown — book sales be upon him — that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, died a natural death, and was buried with Mary to boot.
So much for the incarnation.
James, you see, has gone to an oldish story.
There's this tomb, see. Cue Angelina Jolie. And having watched enough "CSI" to bring himself up to speed, has gone all David Caruso on the bones, done the DNA, and, hey, presto, the central faith of the Western World, 2,000 years of belief and scholarship beyond even the reach of Céline Dion has, may I say it, hit an iceberg.
The world is wrong. Hollywood producer, archaeologist, Academy Award winner, king of the world James Cameron has unlocked the greatest mystery in the history of the world. Better than Geraldo at Al Capone's vault.
I expect the Vatican to apologize and close its doors within a week.
Haul down Notre Dame, board up Westminster, give over all the cathedrals and churches to Starbucks.
It was all a scam. If what Jim has on film is true — and he's a formidable ecclesiologist — Christianity is for dupes.
I have one or two minor questions... Do you think we'll see any documentaries of like attempt and equal impertinence from James Cameron on Muhammad or Islam?
To ask the question is to answer it. Hollywood is only daring with Christianity, and why does Hollywood, which worships only itself and money, feel so blithely free to mock, degrade, toy with, and abuse the sacred story of billions of people and offer to Gospels no more respect than they would the script for "Showgirls?"
Probably the answer to that question is that the minds which produced "Showgirls" are so radically vulgar and stimulated at core only by greed and the lust for cheap fame. That frame of mind will prostitute anything... the life of Christ, other people's religion for a stale press conference and a fresh buck.
It's that simple. It also explains Al Gore's Oscar. Having toppled one messiah, Hollywood wanted a more pliable one in the wings. For "The National," I'm Rex Murphy.
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