The Abortion Debate and Cameron's Titanic
By Chad A. B. Wilson
Published February 28, 2007, 2:50 pm in Rhetoric.
I finished reading the Time magazine article I referenced in my last column here, and I have decided that using that article as a prompt was way off. I stand by my claims that an anti-Christian bias exists in the media, although there is still a strong conservative element, as well. But this Time magazine expose wasn't the right prompt for that. I apologize to anyone who may have reacted to my unfair categorization of the Time article, which you can find online in its entirety.
Not that the Time article wasn't biased because it was. All I had read at the time were the tag-lines, which said this: "The Grassroots Abortion War. Crisis pregnancy centers are fielding an anti-abortion guerrilla army to win over one woman at a time. Are they playing fair?"
Now that's biased, especially considering how the main thrust of the article was meant to suggest that crisis pregnancy centers and abortion advocates need to work together on common goals, or, as they say: "it took a year to come up with a common-ground statement of goals: to decrease abortions, relieve the social and economic conditions that lead women to consider abortion, make adoption easier, condemn violence and keep talking." I like the conclusions here, even if the overall sentiment is biased against the crisis pregnancy centers. I think this common ground statement of goals is a good starting point for people of different ideologies to work together. It's a huge step forward, that's for sure.
What I don't like is that the article condemns crisis pregnancy centers for giving out the wrong information, while never only suggesting that Planned Parenthood may have an agenda, as well. Give me a break. They both have agendas, and they both have "facts" to back up their point of view. This article certainly didn't change my mind about crisis pregnancy centers, especially not after suggesting that it's wrong to show a pregnant woman an ultrasound picture of their child. Yep, they suggest it's an emotional tactic because the woman may not want to choose an abortion after that. Oh well. Talk about wanting to ignore the facts. The woman needs to know what is going on inside her body, after all, and that affects her decision, then so be it.
Cameron's Titanic Jesus
Now for a different yet related topic.
If you have watched any news or listened to any form of media whatsoever, you have undoubtedly heard about James Cameron's new project, to be aired this Sunday on the Discovery Channel. He has produced a documentary, directed by some other documentarian, basically dismissing all of Christianity. That's the purpose of it, it seems like. That's the assumption these filmmakers seem to be working under, at least.
You can find accounts of this story everywhere, but here is a good place to start. I will recount the facts for you. A tomb was found 27 years ago outside Jerusalem that contained several bone boxes, some with inscriptions: Jesus, son of Joseph; Maria; Mariamene e Mara; Matthew; Judas, son of Jesus; and Jose. That's certainly interesting and compelling, and it seems like a rational assumption to connect the dots: this is Jesus' tomb, the Jesus that started the whole hubbub about Christianity. But then the resurrection is suspect because the bones were still buried here. Therefore, all of the New Testament is a lie. Oh yeah, and there is one more thing: this Jesus guy and the Mariamene girl don't share any DNA, so they were most likely married, and Judas is their son.
Didn't Umberto Eco already write about this stuff? Didn't Dan Brown make a gazillion bucks off this? But no, this is supposed to be real, which means that it goes on the Discovery Channel. I don't want to write about the particulars of debunking this story, although there are tons of holes in it. That's really not what I'm interested in here. Instead, I'm interested in what James Cameron is doing.
We last saw Cameron exactly 10 years ago, when he made a tiny little film called Titanic. Wait, no, that's a huge film that was heralded (or panned, depending on your point of view) as one of the most expensive movies ever made. It cost over $200 million, and that's still considered tremendous. Even when the average cost to make a film keeps jumping, it still only cost $300 million to make all of The Lord of the Rings pictures.
So he won a bunch of Academy Awards (do you see a thread running through this week?), and he hasn't done anything since. Sure, he produced and directed a couple documentaries about the ocean, and he created a couple TV shows. But he hasn't risked anything as a director, and this new Jesus project's no different. He's only the producer here, after all.
But what's he doing producing this kind of documentary in the first place? What is it about a project like this that makes a famous guy like Cameron jump aboard?
It's about bringing down Christianity, that's what. For two thousand years, Christianity has held tremendous power, and anything to tear it down is a good thing, or so say those who want to destroy it. That's why Cameron has jumped aboard. He wants to make this a tremendous documentary and to put his name and face behind it. That's why it's getting so much press, too.
We didn't hear about this story in 1996 when the BBC did a documentary on the same exact thing...because Cameron wasn't the one promoting it.
But now it's one of the biggest stories of the day, the talk of the town, at least on the conservative talk show circuit. It's crazy how it has exploded as a story, all because of Cameron's name. I bet it becomes one of the Discovery Channel's most watched shows ever. I know I want to watch it! Now if I only had cable television...
Anyway, I applaud Cameron for doing this, but to make so clearly about debunking Christianity seems a bit ridiculous. In fact, it takes it out of the realm of documentary and makes it more like polemic. Like Michael Moore's stuff. I always hate to call his films documentaries because he takes so many liberties with the truth. But they're interesting to watch, and I bet this Cameron one will be no different. I just hope someone puts it up on Youtube...
Don't worry, though. I will eventually get around to the politics of the Academy Awards. It's just too much fun to discuss this other stuff!
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