Mat Kearney Gets High at His Own Concert

And so do the other passengers on the Southwest Airlines flight for his in-air gig

by Mark Moring

Singer/songwriter Mat Kearney recently played to a captive audience -- at something like 40,000 feet on a Southwest Airlines flight last week, when fans were treated to an impromptu performance. Kearney said, “I’ve always actually wanted to pick up my guitar in the middle of a flight and just walk down the aisle and play songs, but this is the first time I’ve ever actually gotten the chance to do it.” Check out the video of him performing “Nothing Left to Lose” below:

Frontman for The Killers Promotes Mormons

Brandon Flowers says he "still has a fire burning" for his LDS background and faith

by Mark Moring

With Mitt Romney and discussion of Mormons in the headlines, the LDS church has recruited an interesting choice for an ad campaign to "educate the public" about its beliefs: Brandon Flowers, lead singer of the rock band The Killers.

In a 4-minute video, Flowers discusses his faith and his family; it even includes pictures of the singer playing with his infant son. It's part of a larger publicity campaign to make Mormonism look "hip" to a younger generation. Flowers looks into the camera and says, "I'm a father, I'm a husband, and I'm a Mormon."

Check out the video:

Un-Comfort-able Video Raises Hackles Online

By comparing abortion to the Holocaust, Ray Comfort has rankled thousands of viewers

by Mark Moring

Ray Comfort, a New Zealand-born evangelist and founder of Living Waters, an evangelism training ministry, has never been shy about his faith, even to the point of confrontation. He has publicly debated atheists and doubters, and has even challenged Darwinian biologist (and noted atheist) Richard Dawkins to a debate, offering $20,000 for such an event. (Dawkins has declined, reportedly insisting on $100,000.) Comfort is also co-host (with Kirk Cameron) of The Way of the Master television.

Comfort is accustomed to having his share of critics, but in recent weeks, thousands have opened fire on him after watching his 33-minute film, 180, which compares the tragedy of abortion to the Holocaust -- a comparison that Comfort does not take lightly, as he grew up Jewish. In the video, Comfort does a number of man-on-the-street interviews, asking people about Hitler and the Holocaust before shifting the conversation to abortion, urging his interviewees to see and understand the comparison. Some end up seeing Comfort's point, and even change their views from pro-choice to pro-life during the course of the interview.

The film, embedded below and also available in higher definition here, bills itself as "a shocking, award-winning documentary" that will "rock your world." It even comes with a "Public Advisory: Graphic Content" warning for some of the images included. The video has been viewed more than 1.2 million times on YouTube, prompting an astonishing number of comments -- almost 20,000. Many praise the film for its powerful pro-life message, but many others are livid:

"This is one sided and totally slanted. He's trying to guilt them."

"Nothing but idiotic dribble. Rhetoric made for the purpose of controlling women and their bodies."

"Absolutely ridiculous. The fact that you all have the audacity to compare the murdering of millions of sentient human beings, people who had children, family, and lives to the 'killing' of embryos is just downright insulting to the memories of those who died in the Holocaust. These 'children' can't even function on their own. Get a clue, people."

A recent Huffington Post article quotes Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel as saying that those who compare the Holocaust to abortion "prove that they do not know what the Holocaust was."

Comfort begs to differ: "I'm also Jewish, and I spent months researching for a book I wrote called Hitler, God, and the Bible," he says in a press release. "I wept my way through the Holocaust. It was a horror beyond words. But I have to agree in one respect. Nearly 60 million Americans have been slaughtered by abortion, and that’s ten times the amount of Jews who died under the Nazis. So as far as numbers are concerned, there is no comparison.”

Comfort's powers of persuasion are evident in the documentary, as a number of people patiently field his questions and even end up changing their points of view. It's encouraging to see people changing from pro-choice to pro-life, but I wondered about the smarts of many of Comfort's interviewees. He started his conversations with a simple question: "Who was Adolf Hitler?" But many of his subjects replied, "I dunno," or "Who?" Really? Young adults don't know who Hitler was? And then several other interviewees denied the Holocaust ever occurred.

Comfort interviewed plenty of clearly intelligent, informed people for this film, so why not edit out the clueless ones at the beginning? Unfortunately, that sets up the viewer for an easy criticism: "Well, of course he's changing their minds. They're not very bright and clearly don't have many strongly held beliefs in the first place." So, what's a pretty good documentary could have been even stronger without the fools early on.

But in the end, I think Comfort has a fairly strong argument, and the video's worth watching:

Perhaps We Should Call Them Swift-Foot?

The San Diego band's Jon Foreman rocks out with the country/pop princess . . . and on Conan

by Mark Moring

Switchfoot has had a dose of double-exposure in recent days. Last Friday, frontman Jon Foreman joined Taylor Swift onstage for her show in Glendale, Arizona, where they performed the Switchfoot classic "Meant to Live." Foreman called it "a good rock 'n' roll moment." A few nights later, on Wednesday, the San Diego band hit the stage on Conan, singing "Dark Horses."

Here's a fan video of the "Swift-Foot" gig, and here's a video of their gig with Team Coco:

'They Can Fly!'

A child's awestruck wonder at watching 'E.T.' for the first time

by Mark Moring

It doesn't get much better than this:

Putting 'The Hammer' Down

Inspiring true story of deaf wrestler/fighter hits limited theaters next week

by Mark Moring

I'm not a fan of UFC fighting, so I had never heard of Matt Hamill before I recently watched The Hammer, a drama about his life story that opens in limited theaters on Oct. 27. Turns out you don't have to be a fan of UFC fighting to appreciate Hamill's story and this movie, winner of numerous film festival awards, including a Crystal Heart Award from the Heartland Film Festival.

Hamill, who recently retired from the UFC circuit, was the first deaf person to win a national championship in college wrestling. In fact, he won three NCAA titles while competing for the Rochester Institute of Technology in the late 1990s -- an amazing feat for anyone, much less a deaf man.

The film, starring deaf actor Russell Harvard in the title role, follows Hamill's story from childhood, from his diagnosis as a toddler, through his boyhood -- when his mother wanted to send him to a school for the deaf, but his grandfather, who helped to raise him, insisted on Matt going to a "regular" school -- and then through high school, where he excelled at the sport. He won a full scholarship to Purdue, but flunked out.

After taking some time off, he then enrolled at RIT, which has a large population of deaf students. Hamill initially had trouble adjusting to an environment of almost solely deaf people; having grown up in a hearing world, he preferred to talk and read lips, but at RIT, most of the students preferred to communicate by sign language. For a viewer with hearing, the film doubles as a fascinating look into their world, and director Oren Kaplan uses some nifty editing and audio tricks to help the viewer to better appreciate what it must be like to be deaf.

But what stands out most in the film is Hamill's perseverance and determined focus; he arrived on campus determined to win a national championship, and doggone if he didn't end up winning it not just once, but thrice. If it's coming to your neck of the woods, it's worth checking out -- or at least renting some day on video.

Here's the trailer:

Heartland Film Fest Announces Winners

Australian film 'Red Dog' wins $100,000 top prize as Best Narrative Feature

by Mark Moring

The Heartland Film Festival, held annually in Indianapolis, announced its 2011 award winners recently, with Red Dog, made in Australia, winning the top prize of $100,000 as Best Narrative Feature.

The film's synopsis: "It’s night in the Western Australian outback, a dying dog lies in the backroom of the town's only pub. Slowly, as word spreads, the local community gathers at the pub. Part vigil, part wake, part celebration, they swap stories of Red Dog’s epic life, travels and his rise to fame."

Meanwhile, Crime After Crime won the $25,000 Best Documentary Feature Award, and Thief received the $10,000 Vision Award for Best Short Film.

Here's the trailer for Red Dog:

And the (Disabled) Band Played On

Inspiring doc shows there are no 'handicaps' to making beautiful music together

by Mark Moring

It's hard enough to get 29 people to work together. Harder still when they're of different ages, races, genders, abilities, temperaments, cultures, religions, and more. Harder still to pull such a variety of humankind together and get them working in synch, creating a product -- no, a work of art -- that is nothing short of a masterpiece. Now, add one final challenge: All 29 of those people are disabled.

But that's just what Javier Pena has pulled off with the Spirit of Goodwill Band, a group of disabled adults in South Florida who truly are making beautiful music together. Pena, the director, is clearly a skilled musical leader, but it's his sensitive, patient, almost magical touch with these differently challenged adults that is a wonder to behold. Pena's story, and that of the musicians in his group, is chronicled in For Once in My Life, which aired earlier this year on PBS's Independent Lens and is now available on DVD.

The band -- which includes percussion, brass, keyboards, guitars, and lead and back-up singers -- is made up of folks with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, and blindness. None were skilled musicians when Pena took the part-time, nominally paying position. But he has turned the group into a legitimate performance outfit which has also recorded its first CD, by the same title as the film.

The New York Times hailed the film as "feel-good" and laud its "rare look at a segment of the population, adults with disabilities, that is largely invisible." Veteran Hollywood director Tom Shadyac (Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar)called it "entertaining, inspiring, compelling."

While Pena's leadership is certainly a highlight, filmmakers take us into the lives and homes of several of these disabled adults, where we learn their family histories, some of them quite sad, but always with a note of hope -- especially as they begin to realize their potential with the band. And early on in the film, we learn that they're gearing up for their first major public performance: A stage show in front of thousands at a Miami convention for America's mayors. Will they be up to the task? You can feel the tension as the big day nears, anxiously hoping that they'll come through when the spotlight comes on and the curtain goes up.

The DVD and/or the soundtrack can be ordered here, and here's the trailer:

Downey Jr. Pleads: Forgive Mel Gibson

Downey asks Hollywood to "join me in forgiving my friend his trespasses"

by Mark Moring

In a passionate speech at Sunday night's American Cinematheque Award Ceremony, Robert Downey Jr. pleaded with Hollywood and the world to extend grace and forgiveness to Mel Gibson, just as Gibson had done for him some years ago when Downey was struggling with addictions and a tainted public image.

In the last several years, Gibson's image has taken a beating as he: was convicted of DUI and then making anti-semitic remarks; divorced his longtime wife and chased after a much younger woman; made heinous threats, taped and publicly released, against that same woman.

As Gibson joined him onstage Sunday night, Downey said, "On this special occasion . . . I would ask that you join me, unless you are completely without sin in which case you picked the wrong f---ing industry, in forgiving my friend his trespasses and offering him the same clean slate you have me, allowing him to continue his great and ongoing contribution to our collective art without shame."

When Downey learned that he was going to be given an achievement award at the ceremony, he requested that Gibson be his presenter. In doing so, Gibson called Downey "my friend. When I saw you all those years ago and got all those warnings, I just thought, ‘There’s nothing so much wrong with him.’ You’re a good dude with a good heart.” Gibson had helped Downey make a comeback from his own addictions by paying Downey’s insurance bond so he could star in 2003's The Singing Detective.

Watch Downey's forgiveness speech here:

(image from clip on CBS's Early Show)

'Catholicism' Series Comes to PBS

Chicago priest Father Robert Barron takes viewers on a catholic, and Catholic, journey

by Steven D. Greydanus

Half a century ago, Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s weekly television series Life Is Worth Living (and later The Fulton Sheen Program) was watched by millions of Americans of all stripes. Sheen was “America’s Priest,” and since then there has been no comparable figure in American culture—and there may never be.

That said, Father Robert Barron, a priest of the Chicago archdiocese and the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Mundelein Seminary, is making inroads into mainstream media in a way not seen since Sheen. On Sunday, October 3, Chicago-based superstation WGN America launched a weekly half-hour television series, Word on Fire with Father Robert Barron—the first regular commercial television show hosted by a priest since Sheen. Then there’s Catholicism, an ambitious ten-episode series, episodes of which are now airing on PBS affiliate in over 85 markets across the country..

Inspired by Kenneth Clark’s groundbreaking 1969 BBC series Civilisation, which ushered in a generation of globe-hopping documentaries, Fr. Barron and his crew employ a worldwide backdrop that includes the Holy Land, Europe, Africa, India, the Philippines—at least 50 locations in 15 countries. Unabashedly a work of advocacy, even evangelization, Catholicism offers a confident, upbeat overview of the scope of 2000 years of Catholic history, belief, thought and practice.

Much of this is the common heritage of all Christians, and Fr. Barron’s approach is catholic as well as Catholic, name-checking C. S. Lewis and N. T. Wright alongside Thomas Aquinas and Augustine. Evangelicals will feel very much at home for the first few episodes as Fr. Barron expounds upon the disorienting, challenging uniqueness of Jesus, the revolutionary power of his teachings, and the fathomless mystery of God. Other episodes, particularly those dealing with the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist, will challenge non-Catholic sensibilities, but Fr. Barron’s emphasis on Scripture and reason establishes a broad common ground, and open-minded Evangelicals will appreciate his presentation even when they disagree.

Fr. Barron makes an engaging, appealing spokesman for Christianity and Catholicism, and his method is consistently positive and nonpolemical. He discusses topics like Aquinas’s ways of proving God and Catholic Marian spirituality without going out of his way to oppose challenges like “God is a delusion” or “Catholics worship Mary.” The settings are more than window dressing; Fr. Barron goes to Auschwitz to discuss the problem of evil, and magnificent locations including Hagia Sophia, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the tomb of Mother Teresa help to bring the Faith alive to the senses and the imagination.

Click here and/or check local PBS listings for Catholicism. The series is also available as a five-disc DVD set at catholicismseries.com.

Here is the trailer for Catholicism:

What Happens in Vegas . . . with Christians?

A group of believers "fesses up" to playing the casinos in a fascinating documentary

by Mark Moring

A few years ago, the film 21, based on a true story, featured a small group of M.I.T. students who learned the art of "card counting" and took Vegas casinos for millions of dollars while playing the blackjack tables. It wasn't a great movie, but it was fascinating for its topic and pacing.

Fast forward a few years, and now another group of young people is doing the same thing. But they're not from M.I.T. They're Christians, and they call themselves "The Church Team," and they're also taking Vegas casinos -- and others -- for gobs of money, all because they've learned the science of counting cards.

Their story is told in the awesomely titled Holy Rollers, which claims to feature "the most well-funded blackjack team in America -- made up entirely of churchgoing Christians."

Sound shady? Perhaps unethical? You be the judge. They would argue that casinos are robbing people blind, especially folks who are addicted to gambling and/or can't afford it in the first place. They'd say that they're taking from the rich to put the money to better use -- feeding their families, tithing, and keeping the moolah out of the wrong hands.

"It doesn't seem like one of the most noble things a person can do in the world," one member of the team says in the film. "But at least we can liberate the money from the clutches of those who would use it for ill purposes, you know?"

The team includes not just laypeople, but pastors and worship leaders. The filmmakers were subtle and secretive, managing to get unprecedented footage inside casinos, showing the team at work -- and the casino operators who were always on the lookout for card counters, and then "inviting" them (sometimes politely, sometimes not) to leave.

One of the Church Team members, David Drury, was asked in an interview if he saw their work as a form of "social justice." Here's how he replied:

"The social justice side of things is hard to quantify. The first difficulty in this line of work is simply justifying to yourself how you are serving society by playing a game in a way that is largely frowned upon. We are raised in a society that values easily drawn pictures of 'service' that are easy to nail down but often don’t make no sense once you start asking hard questions. If you are a teacher, you bust your ass doing important work for no money. If you are good at dunking a basketball, you get paid millions to provide “entertainment” through the vehicle of a soul-sucking corporate structure. But at least you can draw those lines.

"For me, I decided I was able to provide for myself and my family, which was of first-level importance. I was in a work structure (players and managers) where I was valued, where my goals were honored and were mine to set (as opposed to goals in a corporate environment), and where I was excited to work towards the success of the whole team. I felt supported like I never had before in a career endeavor. [And] yes, liberation, justice, and a good old fashioned sticking-it-to-the-man. He is big and I often felt infinitesimally small. When you have a big losing night AND get kicked out, what have you achieved? I choose to believe that the road is long, and while I am on it I mostly limp along with dark glasses, banging my cane against the curb."

Holy Rollers is a compelling film that explores a world where the answers don't come easy, where there's lots of gray and little black-and-white. It's won awards at several film festivals, and it a provocative discussion starter. "People can't stop asking questions," Drury told CT. "The central paradox -- Christians taking money from casinos -- starts all sorts of conversations."

DVD pre-orders are being taken at the official site. Watch the trailer here:

Lamb's Messianic Music Goes Digital

The messianic Jewish duo from the 1970s re-releases its 12 albums for download

by Mike Parker

Those who experienced the Jesus Movement of the early 1970s will no doubt remember Lamb, the messianic Jewish music duo of Joel Chernoff and Rick “Levi” Coghill. Messianic worship record label Galilee of the Nations is releasing Lamb’s entire musical catalog of 12 records via digital download from iTunes, Amazon mp3, Napster, Rhapsody, CD Baby and other online digital music stores.

Aronofsky to Bring 'Noah' to the Big Screen

Acclaimed director says he's loved the Bible hero's story since he was a kid

by Mark Moring

What had been rumored for years became official Monday when Paramount Pictures and New Regency Productions announced that Academy Award nominee Darren Aronofsky will direct the feature film Noah.

"Since I was a kid, I have been moved and inspired by the story of Noah and his family's journey," Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler) said in a press release. "The imagination of countless generations have sparked to this epic story of faith. It's my hope that I can present a window into Noah's passion and perseverance for the silver screen."

Christian Bale is rumored to be the frontrunner to play the title character. Academy Award nominee John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator) will re-write the original script penned by Aronofsky and Ari Hanel. Filming will begin in the spring, with the shoot lasting an estimated 40 days and 40 nights (just kidding on that last part).

Noah was last seen on the big screen looking an awful lot like a heavily bearded Steve Carrell in the 2007 comedy Evan Almighty, a box office and critical bust. There have also been a number of animated versions over the years, and a 1999 TV version starring Jon Voight as the title character.

It's not the first time Aronofsky has tackled religion or spiritual matters on the big screen. The Fountain (2006) was, as our reviewer Jeffrey Overstreet put it, a "science fiction mind-bender (in which) we learn that our sufferings are caused by our separation from the Tree of Life mentioned in the book of Genesis." But ultimately, the characters showed little interest in God himself.

Overstreet also wrote in that review, "Spiritual exploration seems to be Aronofsky's forte, after all. His first film, Pi, told a troubling tale about a headache-prone mathematical genius who began to suspect that God was speaking to him through the numbers. The next film, Requiem for a Dream, portrayed people succumbing to addictions of all kinds, looking for satisfaction and solace in all the wrong places. Each project has been risky, experimental, and uniquely philosophical. In The Fountain, it becomes clear that Aronofsky believes our sufferings stem from both spiritual and physical lack. So his characters take dangerous risks in order to find healing for their bodies and their hearts."

In an interview with CT at the time, Aronofsky spoke about dealing with mortality and "the sanctity of life." He said that The Fountain was "in many ways . . . about science versus art, and religion versus spirituality. You have these [scientific and religious] dogmas that are the languages of a certain type of discovery, but beneath that you have a certain type of acceptance and truth."

But it might be a leap to say that the director, who grew up in a Jewish home, holds to an orthodox Christian view of the world. In that same interview, he said, "At the core of so many different religions is the spiritual truth which unites us all. It's just amazing when you look at the Judeo-Christian/Islamic foundation in Genesis about the two trees in the Garden of Eden—the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life—and man and woman ate from the Tree of Knowledge and were basically banned from Eden. They could no longer eat from the Tree of Life. You think about that, and then you go to the Mayan tradition. Think about how separate the Jews were from the Mayans! They were separated by, who knows, thousands of years—and yet, the Mayans tell a story about 'a first father,' an Adam, who had to make a sacrifice for the Tree of Life.

"To me, that's amazing that there's this unity of spiritual sense between many of the faiths. I think that there is something that makes us all human. From all our different faiths and beliefs, there is something that connects us."

(Photo by Niko Tavernise)

'Courageous' No. 1 New Film at Box Office

The latest from Sherwood Baptist beats bigger-name movies . . . on far fewer screens

by Mark Moring

The makers of Facing the Giants and Fireproof have another winner on their hands: Courageous, the latest film from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., earned more than $9 million over the weekend to finish No. 1 among new releases and fourth overall at the box office.

The film, which was made for just $2 million, has no movie stars, but did better than new releases starring Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (50/50), Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz (Dream House), and Anna Faris and Chris Evans (What's Your Number?). The numbers for Courageous are even more impressive considering that it played in less than half of the theaters of those other films -- it opened in only 1,161 theaters, compared to 2,458 for 50/50, 2,661 for Dream House, and 3,002 for What's Your Number? The top three films -- Dolphin Tale, Moneyball, and The Lion King -- all played on 2,300 screens or more. The $7,806 per-screen average for Courageous far exceeded others in the top five; The Lion King earned $4,537 per screen.

The weekend numbers beat Fireproof's opening weekend by $2,2 million, and make Courageous the fifth-best opening of all time for a Christian movie, behind only The Passion of the Christ and the three Narnia movies. Box Office Mojo's Ray Subers writes, "Made outside of Hollywood without any major stars, Courageous managed to fly under most radars (including my own) until very recently. It's unfair to ignore the vast majority of church-going Americans for whom typical Hollywood fare isn't of great interest, though, and Sherwood Pictures has impressively found a way to mobilize this subset of the population. It will be interesting to see if Courageous can hold as well as Fireproof did when it went on to earn $33.46 million, or nearly five times its opening weekend, in 2008."

Mat Kearney Gets High at His Own Concert

Frontman for The Killers Promotes Mormons

Un-Comfort-able Video Raises Hackles Online

Perhaps We Should Call Them Swift-Foot?

'They Can Fly!'

Putting 'The Hammer' Down

Heartland Film Fest Announces Winners

And the (Disabled) Band Played On

Downey Jr. Pleads: Forgive Mel Gibson

'Catholicism' Series Comes to PBS