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Archive for ‘Faith & Culture’

The Hunger Games: Peeta and the Bread of Life

by Stacey Tuttle

Peeta Mellark’s family had enough to eat.  They were bakers and always had fresh bread to eat.  They were the lucky ones though.  People around them were starving to death.  Times were tough in District 12 where they lived.  So tough that Katniss Everdeen had been looking in trashcans, desperate to find anything to eat—with no luck.

Katniss had no hope left.  She collapsed, resigned to give up.  Her mother and little sister were at home, starving to death as well, waiting on Katniss to come home with something to eat, something to keep them alive.  But Katniss had nothing—she had nothing to trade and no money to buy, and even the trash cans were empty…offering her nothing.  She was so poor and dirty she wasn’t even able to walk into the bakery for a look.

Peeta saw her and had compassion on her.  His mother had just scolded her for looking in the trashcans, so he knew how she would feel about giving Katniss something from the bakery.  She wouldn’t even let Katniss look for something in the trash, she surely wouldn’t let her have …

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Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close: Movie Review

Review by Stacey Tuttle

I guess I should confess.  I sat there in judgment, watching this movie about a young boy who is searching alone all over New York City for a lock which will fit a key that his dead father left behind.  It’s brilliantly symbolic, really; he is looking for something which will help him unlock the mystery of “Why?”  It was creative and unusual and beautifully acted.  I loved the story of this boy and his search, but I was,  throughout the movie, judging his absent mother (Sandra Bullock).  What kind of mother lets her pre-teen child search alone all over the five boroughs of New York, alone?  I was judging, right until the end, when I
realized how wrong I had been.  And then it hit me.  I am guilty of judging God for the same neglect, and equally wrong.

Young Oskar (Thomas Horn) gets let out of school early on 9-11.  He heads home, not fully aware of what has happened.  He gets home to discover that not only has the World Trade Center been attacked, but his father (Tom Hanks) is in the World …

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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – Movie Quotes

Quotes Compiled by Stacey Tuttle

Click here to read the Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Movie Review.

 

Oskar Schell: “There are more people alive now than all the dead people in all of history.  But the number of people dying is growing.”

 

Oskar: “If you don’t tell me what I’m looking for then how will I ever be right?”
Dad, Thomas Schell: “Well, another way of looking at it is how will you ever be wrong?”

 

Thomas Schell: “As with anything, if you want to believe, you can find evidence.”

 

Thomas Schell:  “You never know what a key is going to fit.”

 

Oskar Schell:  “People aren’t like numbers. Their more like letters and those letters want to be stories.”

 

The Renter / Grandfather:  “Sometimes we have to face our fears.”

 

The Renter:  “Think about nothing.”
Oskar: “That’s an oxymoron.  Like now then.”

 

Oskar:  “Even though he never said a word, for the first time since Dad died, I felt like I had someone to talk to.”

 

William Black: “I’m sorry.  I know you’ve been looking for something and this isn’t it.”

 

Oskar – regarding his Dad’s calls home on 9-11:  “He needed me and I couldn’t …

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Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus – A Review & Response

by Craig A. Smith (Ph.D.)

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should probably watch Jeff Bethke’s video Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus. As I write this, his video has been watched more than 19 million times on YouTube. It’s also inspired a whole host of response videos, some of which are worth watching.

In short, Bethke’s premise is simple: the Christian “religion” obscures the truth about Jesus. He identifies religion as something that has started many wars and something that has built huge churches while failing to feed the poor. I think most people can agree that wars and self-serving hypocrisy are terrible legacies. But is religion the true culprit here? I’m not at all sure that it is, yet Bethke has re-defined religion in such a way that, if you accept his definition, it almost has to be. He also seems to subtly imply that “religion” is synonymous with the organized church, leaving one to wonder if the only way to follow Jesus authentically is to do so apart from the church.

Let me be clear: there is much in …

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Man on a Ledge: Movie Review

By Stacey Tuttle

Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) was convicted of a crime that he said he didn’t commit.  Now he’s going to extremes to defend his innocence.  He’s on a ledge, threatening to jump to his death, and he asks for a particular police psychologist to handle his case, Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks). 

Lydia didn’t seem like the logical choice.  In fact, she was famous for just having lost a jumper.  In other words, she was recently assigned to talk a suicide jumper down from his jump, but she failed…and he died.  It was particularly painful because she thought she had it.  Why on earth would Nick want to request Lydia to talk to, when she was known as a failure?

Nick chose her for two reasons.  First off, Lydia could identify with him.  She had been in his shoes.  He tells her, “You know what it’s like to have everyone turn their backs on you, even those closest to you.”  The other reason Nick wanted her is that she never gave up on the last jumper.  In fact, her shift was up and she was expected to pass the …

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