All these wonderful things

Tammy Faye Bakker Messner Signs Off

News just coming in that Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, the disgraced televangelist turned pop culture icon, has lost her battle with lung cancer.  Just this week, she had the chance to sign off via an interview with CNN's Larry King that shocked many when they saw how cancer had left her weighing just 65 lbs.

When I think of Tammy Faye, it will always be through the lens of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's The Eyes of Tammy Faye, the documentary that did much to rehabilitate her image.  Below is the revelatory clip from that film that revealed how Jerry Falwell first befriended and then betrayed the Bakkers.

Falwell Blames Own Death on Homosexuals, Abortionists

Just moments after his own passing, the Rev. Jerry Falwell announced that his death was caused by a vengeful Almighty God, who was passing judgment on a society that was losing the war in the fight against abortions and gay rights.  In particular, Falwell blamed morning show host Rosie O'Donnell, saying that the out lesbian had so angered the Lord, that He had no choice but to strike Falwell dead. Funeral arrangements are pending.

BREAKING: Ted Haggard, Evangelical Leader Who Opposed Jesus Camp, Allegedly Involved in Gay Hooker Scandal

The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that a gay male escort is claiming to have been involved in a three-year relationship with leading Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard:

A Denver resident identifying himself as Mike Jones said he had a sexual relationship with Ted Haggard, founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church and president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

During an appearance today on the Peter Boyles show on KHOW 630 AM radio, Jones said "After sitting back and contemplating this issue, the biggest reason (for exposing it) is being a gay man all my life, I have experience with my friends, some great sadness of people that were in a relationship through the years" and were not able to enjoy the same rights and privileges as a married man and woman.

"I felt it was my responsibility to my fellow brothers and sisters, that I had to take a stand, and I cannot sit back anymore and hear (what) to me is an anti-gay message."

KUSA Channel 9 spoke to Haggard yesterday outside his Colorado Springs home, and he told a reporter Jones was lying.

"I’ve never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I’m steady with my wife. I’m faithful to my wife," said Haggard.

Jones on Thursday said that the denial is a lie.

"Yes he is (lying)," said Jones. "He had a relationship with me. We had gay sex."

Jones also said during his appearance with Boyles that he was paid money by Haggard, who made frequent trips to Denver for sexual liaisons, that he has recorded voicemails and a letter from Haggard, and that he had also witnessed Haggard use methamphetamine.

Jones offered to take a polygraph examination concerning his claim, and Boyles said that will occur Friday during his morning radio show.

Haggard, you may remember, was the Evangelical pastor who warned his parishoners not to see Jesus Camp, a move that Magnolia Pictures feared had damaged the film's chances of reaching evangelical Christian audiences.  I wrote about Magnolia strategy to reach Christian audiences before opening in urban centers here.  Ironically, while Jesus Camp opened poorly in these smaller markets, it has been a consistent force at the box office since it opened in the cities.  Seven weeks in, the film has grossed a healthy $655,000.

As the Denver Post reported at the time, Haggard saw an advance copy of the film, in which he had made a cameo appearance:

Haggard was upset with his cameo, in which he jokingly says "repent" to the camera and declares that evangelicals determine elections when they vote.

In an e-mail, he called the film yellow journalism, with "a strong agenda like any Michael Moore film with the cinematography of 'The Blair Witch Project."'

"Jesus Camp" shows children in camouflage and prayers about spiritual warfare, militarist imagery that Haggard said most Christian groups stopped using after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"It does represent a small portion of the charismatic movement, but I think it demonizes it," said Haggard, a charismatic Christian who does not usually speak in tongues from the pulpit. "Secularists are hoping that evangelical Christians and radicalized Muslims are essentially the same, which is why they will love this film."

Jesus Camp directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady posted a response to Haggard on the Jesus Camp website:

As for accusing us of portraying our protagonists (people whom we’ve grown close to over the past year) “sinister,” this is a disturbing charge. Perhaps Pastor Haggard is projecting his own point of view on the film’s characters, as we absolutely do not see them as such, and went out of our way too make sure that they were shown in a human, three-dimensional light. The children come across as kind, passionate and intelligent. Pastor Becky Fischer is a very likeable and real person, both on and off the screen.

Pastor Haggard is the only person in Jesus Camp who has a problem with how he was portrayed, and with the film as a whole. All the others in the movie feel it is accurate and fair and are excited about people seeing it. The subjects in the film very much identify themselves as part of the Evangelical family and are hurt and stung by Pastor Haggard's wholesale and somewhat venomous rejection of them and the film. While they do identify themselves as Charismatics and Pentecostals, they feel (and we agree) that they have much more in common with the greater Evangelical movement—their morals, values, and political beliefs—than they have differences. For Pastor Haggard to marginalize and dismiss them by labeling them a “sub-group” seems unfair, mean spirited and unproductive.

The liberal website Americablog is all over the Haggard story, including a statement from Focus on the Family chairman Dr. James Dobson.

It will be curious to see if Magnolia, not known for being shy about taking advantage of controversy where Jesus Camp is concerned, issue a statement of their own.

Is the MPAA Protecting the Catholic Church From 'Deliver Us From Evil'?

In This Film is Not Yet Rated, his MPAA investigative broadside, filmmaker Kirby Dick revealed that a Catholic priest sits on the organization's appeals board.  This nugget of information became relevant again this week when the trailer for Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil, which won the Best Doc prize at this year's LA Film Festival, was redbanded by the ratings board - basically giving the trailer a scarlet letter - because of frequent discussions of molestation.

As noted by the Hollywood Reporter/Reuters:

In a letter sent to Lionsgate, the organization said "the content is adult in nature, with overt comments about child molestation throughout." The MPAA declined to elaborate on the specifics of the decision.

Under MPAA policy, redband trailers are allowed to be screened only before movies rated R or NC-17, but most national exhibitors enforce much stronger policies in their theaters, refusing to screen redband trailers at all. One fear exhibitors have is that a redband trailer might accidentally screen before a less restricted movie, alienating some patrons.

Perhaps fearing that the film itself would garner the MPAA's most restrictive NC-17 rating, Lionsgate has decided to release both the film and the trailer without a rating.

"We strongly disagree with the MPAA's decision to redband the trailer, but we respect their right to do so," Lionsgate president Tom Ortenberg said. "We're not looking to pick a fight with anybody. We're looking for the most cost-effective way to market a movie that needs to be seen. We owe it to our filmmaker, Amy Berg, and to the film to do whatever we can to get this movie seen."

I've been advocating to friends and colleagues for some time that the rating system as far as documentaries are concerned should be ignored.  My own film would likely get an "R" rating - primarily because Kurt Cobain said "fuck" a lot.  Gigantic, also may have been rated "R" because we had 2 "motherfuckers" and a single "cocksucker" - referencing the infamous Rolling Stones documentary.  But so what?

However, in this case, having seen and praised Amy's film, I can't remember anything that exists in Deliver Us From Evil that couldn't or shouldn't air on television.  Perhaps there's are curse words that I am forgetting, but that doesn't seem to be the issue.  What the MPAA seems to be arguing here is that the very facts of an important issue like molestation are, somehow, forbidden, that we should fear the accidental screening of this information about molestation to a wide public.  Considering the recent Dateline NBC stings of naked men who think they're meeting underage boys and girls from the internet, this seems fishy at best.

So, one must ultimately wonder if the MPAA, which seems to pride itself on having religious members, including a Catholic priest, is trying to protect the LA Archdiocese, which comes in for important scrutiny and criticism in Berg's film.  There's certainly nothing in this trailer that would be deemed vulgar or offensive, unless you consider that certain members of the Catholic Church look really, really, well, evil.

And even if they are not in bed with the Archdiocese and Cardinal Roger Mahony, this scandal, and I mean that literally - it's as important as anything in Kirby Dick's film - continues to provide evidence that the MPAA has a different set of guidelines for sex and for violence.  And here, they'd rather protect the Catholic Church, they'd rather your kids be in the dark about predators, than open themselves for political criticism.

As It Finally Comes to the Cities (and the Liberals), IndieWIRE Looks at the Controversial Jesus Camp Strategy

Earlier this week, we mentioned the disappointing first weekend for Jesus Camp, the acclaimed new film from Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady.  Subsequent to that, IndieWIRE's Steven Rosen took a closer look at Magnolia's controversial strategy for the film, which started with an attempt to pull the film from Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival, citing the fear that conservatives and evangelicals would shun the film if it was associated with the famous liberal firebrand.

Rosen notes that Magnolia's decision to open first in the "Bible belt" and save the second weekend for urban centers like New York has, at least initially, backfired:

(Magnolia's Eamonn Bowles) said he believes Christians could relate to (Jesus Camp) if they were not first forced onto the defensive by big-city reviewers who, whether or not they like the film, see the activities it portrays as tantamount to political and religious indoctrination of children. In one scene, for instance, children lay hands on a cardboard cut-out of President Bush.

So he tried to bring it to them before opening in major-media markets. "We wanted to bring the film out in the heartland without it being seen as having the agenda of a liberal film coming out with New York reviews," Bowles said. "A lot of people in the heartland would say, 'I went to a children's camp or a church like that.' To a lot of people in the Northeast, it's behavior they haven't seen before."

Fortunately or unfortunately for the film, ABC News ran a piece last weekend that showed the very scene mentioned above - the cardboard cutout of George Bush.  This ABC piece was linked by blogs all over the web, mostly liberal blogs but also on the hugely-read Drudge Report.  Comments on a Huffington Post entry included, " Sending kids to a "JESUS CAMP" is a form of CHILD ABUSE/BRAIN WASHING!"  In addition, the film has been advertising on numerous liberal political sites, including the influential Daily Kos.

But, as Rosen notes, Magnolia wasn't prepared for one of the film's interviewees to come out publicly against the film:

But several weeks ago (Bowles) learned that a powerful religious leader - Colorado Springs-based Rev. Ted Haggard of the National Association of Evangelicals - had seen a tape of the film and disliked it. He is featured briefly in it, looking directly into the camera and making a comment during a church service.

Haggard put the word out to avoid the film, Bowles said. "He thinks maybe he doesn't come off so well. He looks a little flip and maybe that's some of that." Bowles said that when the manager of a Colorado Springs theater showing the film called Haggard's organization for a recommendation, he received five separate return calls to avoid it.

Last week, Denver Post reporter Eric Gorski wrote about a special screening of the film in Colorado Springs, which the in-attendance filmmakers hoped would prompt a discussion. But it lured just 40 people.  In that story, quoted below, Haggard explained his opposition:

In an e-mail, he called the film yellow journalism with "a strong agenda like any Michael Moore film with the cinematography of 'The Blair Witch Project.' It does represent a small portion of the charismatic movement, but I think it demonizes it," said Haggard, a charismatic Christian who does not usually speak in tongues from the pulpit. "Secularists are hoping that evangelical Christians and radicalized Muslims are essentially the same, which is why they will love this film.'"

Jesus Camp, which has been well-reviewed by most of the "big-city reviewers", finally hits the Big Apple today, opening at the Empire 25 and the Angelika.  Next weekend, it expands to LA, SF, DC and Chicago.

Update: Fulton HS Drama Teacher Resigns Over "Grease" Controversy

Last month, we wrote about the asinine controversy in small Fulton, Missouri where three, count 'em three, people from the same church (one of whom hadn't seen the play) complained about the lewd nature of the high school drama club's recent production of the musical Grease. Lily-livered administrators (are there another kind?) bowed to the immense pressure of THREE PEOPLE and canceled the club's upcoming production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Reason? Too controversial.

Now the teacher, Wendy Devore, has resigned rather than be terminated, which seems to have been in the offing. Another outraged teacher at the school laments that publicity over the school's decision has made the town seem, well, like idiots.

     "We have become a laughingstock," teacher Paula
     Fessler told The Fulton Sun.

That quote came from a board meeting three days ago in which angered teachers took on the school board over the decision to cancel The Crucible.

Just down the road in Columbia, MO (yes, the home of True/False and blogger Pete Bland, the local paper editorialized on the irony of the situation:

     (Superintendent of Public Schools Mark)Enderle
     says in a written statement - he’s no longer talking
     to reporters - that the decision to switch plays was
     made to avoid "additional scrutiny." Instead, the
     decision invited attention, the kind of attention
     places like Fulton try to avoid.

     Bowing to hysterical pressure often leads to worse
     consequences than dealing with such issues head on.

     Ironically, a performance of "The Crucible" would
     have carried the same theme.

The 10 Most Wonderful Things of 2005

And now for some completely personal, completely random, completely belated takes on some things in 2005 that made me smile. It might be a stretch to call these things the 10 most wonderful things, but what the hell, we're already 9 days into 2006. So here goes:

10. Mary Lynn Rajskub on 24

One of the great things about Fox's paranoid, real-time actioner 24 is that it manages to bring in an unusual coalition of truly wonderful actors (and usually kills them off or roughs them up). Roseanne's Sara Gilbert? Killed in a bomb attack. Lukas Haas? Beaten and left for dead near a highway underpass. Larry Sander's old secretary Penny Johnson Jerald? Shot to death after three glorious seasons of treachery.

Then there's Mary Lynn Rajskub, formerly of Mr. Show, Larry Sanders and Punch-Drunk Love, who showed up in season 3 as the nervous, weird, nit-picking, jerkish computer analyst Chloe O'Brian. No request was made of her that wasn't received with a pout or a put-down. Then, midway through last year's fourth season, she picked up a machine gun and took out a terrorist in a charging SUV. Somewhere in between she became the very best thing about a show that is by turns the most exciting and ridiculous television on the air.

Hard For Me to Say I'm Sorry

After the previous longer post, I had to make a short comment about today's news regarding Terri Schiavo's autopsy and the reaction of the White House.

I understand that no one likes to admit a mistake, but to state that you would do the same thing all over again (fly back to Washington, sign a likely unconstitutional bill in the middle of the night, step into a family's private decision, interfere in a state court case) AND that you would do the same thing in any other similar case despite today's evidence that the woman's brain had atrophied to half its size strikes me as nothing less than egomaniacal and insane.

I realize that it's Bush's policy not to admit mistakes and to reject introspection. But first with Iraq and again with Schiavo, he's made it clear that he has no desire to learn from mistakes or missteps. In both cases, he'd do the same thing again despite whatever evidence to the contrary. Doesn't anyone on the Republican side have a qualm with this? Shouldn't they?