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June 14th, 2013
04:05 PM ET
Superman: Flying to a church near youBy Eric Marrapodi, Co-Editor CNN Belief Blog Baltimore, Maryland (CNN) - As the new Superman movie takes flight this weekend, filmmakers are hoping the Man of Steel lands not only in theaters, but also in pulpits. Warner Bros. Studios is aggressively marketing "Man of Steel" to Christian pastors, inviting them to early screenings, creating Father’s Day discussion guides and producing special film trailers that focus on the faith-friendly angles of the movie. The movie studio even asked a theologian to provide sermon notes for pastors who want to preach about Superman on Sunday. Titled “Jesus: The Original Superhero,” the notes run nine pages. “How might the story of Superman awaken our passion for the greatest hero who ever lived and died and rose again?” the sermon notes ask. (Disclaimer: CNN, like Warner Bros., is owned by Time Warner.) Similar campaigns to corral the country's large number of Christians into the movie theater have been used for "Les Miserables," "Soul Surfer" and "The Blind Side," all of which had at least some faith angle. Baltimore pastor Quentin Scott is among dozens of ministers who received an e-mail invitation from Grace Hill Media, a Hollywood-based Christian marketing firm, to an early screening of “Man of Steel.” “There was an actual push to say `We’re putting out something that speaks to your group,' ” said Scott, one of the pastors of Shiloh Christian Community Church in Baltimore. At first, Scott said, he didn’t buy the religious pitch. Then he decided to attend a free midweek screening in Baltimore. “When I sat and listened to the movie I actually saw it was the story of Christ, and the love of God was weaved into the story," said the pastor. "It was something I was very excited about that with the consultation of our senior pastor, we could use in our congregation.” CNN Entertainment: 'Man of Steel' director Zack Snyder on Superman's Christ-like parallels Grace Hill’s sermon notes are specially designed for churches like Shiloh that integrate multimedia into their services. “Let’s take a look at the trailer for `Man of Steel,’” the notes suggest after briefly introducing the movie’s history and themes. The man behind the notes, Pepperdine University professor Craig Detweiler, has prepared similar material for films like 2009’s "The Blind Side" and "The Book of Eli" from 2010. The spiritual themes in “Man of Steel” are abundant, Detweiler said, and his notes enable Christians to thoughtfully engage with pop culture instead of shunning it. “All too often, religious communities have been defined by what they're against. With a movie like `Man of Steel,’ this is a chance to celebrate a movie that affirms faith, sacrifice and service,” Detweiler said. It will be hard for even casual Christians to miss the messianic metaphors in "Man of Steel.” The movie focuses on the origins of Superman, who was sent from the planet Krypton as an infant to save his species. He is raised by surrogate parents who help him grapple with his special powers, even though they don’t fully understand the source of his extraordinary abilities. When he turns 33, Superman must willingly sacrifice himself to save the human race. Sound familiar? If that’s not enough, as a boy Clark Kent is shown wrestling with his superpowers, and asks his earthly dad, Jonathan Kent, “Did God do this to me?” “Somewhere out there you have another father and he sent you here for a reason,” says Jonathan Kent. Even the visuals hammer home the messianic motifs. During a fight with his archenemy, General Zod, Superman plunges down to Earth, his arms outstretched as if he were being crucified. Of course, he rises again. Detweiler writes in the sermon notes, “What Jesus and Superman both give us, through their `hero’ actions but also their `human’ actions – is hope.” “I think it’s a very good thing that Hollywood is paying attention to the Christian marketplace,” said Ted Baehr, who runs Movieguide, a website that reviews family friendly films from a Christian perspective. “Where it gets sticky is when they try to manipulate the market and when Christians try to manipulate Hollywood. But here I think we have the right balance.” But other Christians are heaving a supersized sigh at the movie marketing. "Any pastor who thinks using `Man of Steel Ministry Resources' is a good Sunday morning strategy must have no concept of how high the stakes are, or very little confidence in the power of God’s word and God’s spirit," writes P.J. Wenzel, a deacon and Sunday School teacher at Dublin Baptist Church in Ohio. "As they entertain their congregants with material pumped out from Hollywood’s sewers, lives are kept in bondage, and people’s souls are neglected," according to Wenzel, who said he was e-mailed information about the movie. Scott, the Baltimore pastor, said he knows that Warner Bros. Studios has a financial incentive in pushing the film to pastors. But he said that’s fine with him. “They’re using us but in fact we’re using them,” he said. His church won't show clips from the movie this weekend because it had already planned out its service. But he plans to use them later, during meetings with the church’s men’s group. “If you give me another opportunity to talk to someone about Jesus Christ, and I can do that because of your movie, that’s a win for me, because it is about spreading the Gospel.” CNN's Erin McPike contributed to this report. soundoff (6,545 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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"God works in mysterious ways."
If your doctor worked in "mysterious ways," would you trust him??
Not if he though he was God
Billy! You old troll, your back! Are you drunk? "not if he though he was?"
My doctor has proven himself to be far more effective than god.
Your doctor may actually believe in God. What about that?
Bill, The question was "If your doctor worked in 'mysterious ways,' would you trust him??" not "If your doctor thought he was god, would you trust him??"
My Doctor play's "Magic the gathering" card game at tournements and I still trust him. Now if he ever pulled a card out and placed it on my forehead during an exam I would have a problem.
If my doctor "worked in mysterious ways" I wouldn't trust him like I trust in God. My doctor is human, like me. Not perfect and very limited in his understanding of how the universe operates.
@so what: it's "plays", not "play's".
For God so loved the world, that he drowned everyone on it...
Ya gotta love my dad! LOL!
Your dad works in mysterious ways. Love=drowning babies: God logic.
All the Esaus whining and complaining as they give away their heritage. You should have respected your parents' wisdom for raising you to know Jesus' truth.
Oh stenchy.... lying again?..... how many time must you be told? truth requires evidence.... you have none... let go of your imaginary jeebus security blanket.
I, Jesus promised the end of all wicked people.
Thor promised the end of all Ice Giants.
....I don't see any Ice Giants around....do you?
I resent that!!!
The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is because vampires are allergic to bull***t!
You know what my favorite thing is?
I'll tell you.
Each week, millions and millions of middle class American citizens put on expensive dress clothes, load themselves into SUV's and drive past homeless shelters...
orphanages, prisons, missions and halfway-houses
to a very expensive, HUGE church building, where someone tells them how to be more like me (Jesus).
That is Feckin' awesome, let me tell you. Awesome....
You educated em.
Sound kinda like that E.T. fellow–a being comes from the heavens, suffers persecution from authorities, hides among his loyal followers, heals, dies, lives again, and ascends to heaven with a promise to return.
Jeebus phone home
The Prophet Elliott told us it was so.
I see no logic in wanting to worship a Deity that demands that you live in a perpetual state of fear....
It would be a blessing if you learned to fear. Then again, obtaining His wisdom means you have to seek Him.
When you christians say, "God makes me a good person," We hear, "I would probably kill someone if God didn't stop me....."
And the corollary, "I will kill someone if he tells me to."
Many would certainly claim that people without God have no limits, and would therefore kill without discretion. So, one assumes that this belief is the only thing keeping them from murdering left and right. That the impulse is there, like some serial killer, restrained only by their piety.
If that's the case, and to save untold millions from murder, shouldn't we be encouraging the faith of these people?
"If that's the case, and to save untold millions from murder, shouldn't we be encouraging the faith of these people?"
Only problem is as Secular points out, they "will kill someone if he tells me to."
Agnostickids, I'm shaking my head knowing you have issues that you deny their existence.
Sadly, we live in a culture where people are more offended by "swear" words and the middle finger than they are by Famine, warfare and the destruction of the environment.
True. We rate our movies and TV based on whether there's even a hint of boob or a curse word; but, you can turn someone completely inside out, then shoot them 20 times, bludgeon them, then maybe eat one of their kidneys, and that's ok.
So quit playin' the video games, kids.
"So I get back to earth and they've put all these crosses everywhere, and I'm like, W*TF! You think that if JFK comes back, he wants to see sniper rifles everywhere????
Christianity:
The belief that a cosmic, Jewish Zombie,
who was his own father,
...can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepatically tell him you accept him as your master,
...so he can remove an evil force from your soul
...that is present in humanity because a woman created from one rib
...was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...
yeah, makes perfect sense.......
The belief you know better than your parents is also delusional.
RELIGION:
It's like history class without the facts!
I wouldn't mind a religion class, I'd get A's on every test. If they ever mark one of my answers wrong I would make them prove i'm wrong.
Hating your parents wisdom is punishable by Jesus. You unbelievers are batting 1000 in the sins department.
Oh stenchy.... lying again?..... how many time must you be told? truth requires evidence.... you have none... let go of your imaginary jeebus security blanket.
The love from God is more than enough for someone's needs to get thru this life and onto the next. For we all are God's containers of built 'within' venues of Godly buildings. Inside our physical beings is where the kingdom domains of the Godly are to be so found. We all are kingdom domains wherein the sons and daughters of God do take up their residencies deeply within the atomic cosmologies of our embodiments physiologies.
Today's sciences seem to refute the ideology of there being micro-cosmologies inside macro-cosmologies. For the atomic cosmologies are the 1st cosmologies to be formulated and the celestial cosmologies are the second line of cosmologic formularies with the third in lineage cosmology as being of the cellular ordainments. Love one's Life within this here and now and do good works in whatever mannerism you find tastefully accrued to stand upon.
What a load of vomit.
LL is a master of the diarrhea word salad. Careful none of it splatters on your feet.
That's what I did and it all became clear to me. I looked up and God's giant penis tip fell into my eye so my first thought was "I was right! He is male!" and my second thought was "But why is it black?" and then I realized it was just blocking the sun so then I thought "whew! for a second there I thought God might be black" and then I realized it wasn't a penis at all but a costumed character from "Yo Gabba Gabba!" named "Muno" who had tripped and landed on me while in line for "Jersey Boys"...
@the lookup impostor
Stealing a blogger handle is a serious crime.
You need help.
If you want to post debate or criticize my post have at it. Don't stoop so low to stealing my handle and post lies.
Play fair or pay the price, web master knows who you are. And Your IP address.
Gotcha. Bud.
"Stealing a blogger handle is a serious crime. "
Care to point to the exact law on this?
You idiot, it's an anonymous blog.
"Play fair or pay the price, web master knows who you are. And Your IP address.
Gotcha. Bud."
No they don't monitor IP address, it's why the trolls hang out here doing their thing day in and day out. Nothing changes on here and the fact that everyone keeps arguing the same things over and over says a lot about the stupidity of humanity especially Christians.
To the true Look Up. Remember, carnal is as carnal does.
'Serious crime'?? Oh Jesus. This is comedy gold.
Well that proves Look Up = faith as thats the only moron on here who thinks they are building a case against all these naughty people stealing their annonymous handles. Boo Hoo. Put my name down for your litigation there numb nuts.
Daniel, there's no need for you to worry about your handle being swiped.
Just curious if there are any Christians out there willing to buy my soul? I'll sell it to you for under $100 if you would like it, just send me a check. Oh, and by the way, I'll send each and every one of you my soul as I will be taking every offer since I have over 40 million souls inside me. If you don't believe me, please prove me wrong. If anyone can prove that I do not have 40 million souls inside me to sell I will pay you the $100 per soul you can prove I don't have.
Something tells me you've already sold it.
I've already told you Bill D, NO REFUNDS! You can do what you wish with it, but if you are going to eat my souls ass, I would reccomend syrup.
Danny
Luke 11: 14 -26
Many demons, no doubt in my mind what you might have.
Matthew 17: 14 – 21
Solution and cure
John 3:16. Believe
Romans 3:11 acknowledge
1 John 1: 8 and 9 acknowledge and confess
Romans 10: 9 confess
Romans 8: entire chapter Freedom and salvation
Welcome child of GOD.
To both of you silly children, I have read the entire bible more than once, I know it for what it is, historical fiction. There has been nothing supernatural ever verified in the whole of human history, and nothing supernatural has been found while investigating the 4.5 billion years of earths history either. There are no souls, there is no heII and there is no heaven. It's that simple. Spend you time caring for real people here and now. If not then you are useless chaff that will be blown away along with all the other supernatural supporters.
Look Up: HAHA...are you capable of thinking for yourself or do you depend on that 2000 year old, outdated book to do it all for you? If you didn't have that book to guide you, could you live a normal life?
That's funny Dan. Do you know what book you referenced in your dismissal of us?
It's Hosea. Maybe you should read it again.
Yes, Bill, I am familiar with Psalms which is why I referenced it. And it's a scripture I happen to believe in, as the wicked will be scattered on the wind, I just happen to believe Christianity misses the entire point and has become the wicked w hore of Babylon that will be destroyed. It's a self fullfilling prophecy of their own destruction. They want so badly to be special that they ignore the basic truths of the bible, be good to others, don't judge, be humble, and they replace it with haughty bigotry , hate of Gods (read "your") enemies and chauvinistic ignorance. It's sad really.
Psalms 1:4 was the scripture I was referring to.
sam and phony heavensent have No imaginations. Maybe that's why they like Lennon's tune instead of Harrison.
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oG7jO0vsBRsH0AQWNXNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGFjdG4DY2xrBGRhdGFTcmMDZ29zc2lwBG91dGNtA3NyY2gEcnNwbnMDbmV3BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdDEDc3JjaEJ4BHQyA3N1Z2dMc3QEdDMDcXJ5BHQzcG9zAzIEdDQDc2xjdA–?p=youtube%20my%20sweet%20lord%20george%20harrison&fr=moz35&fr2=sa-gp
.
Yeah, thanks for failing to post another goddamn video.
Who put the brakes on sam? LOL. Folks can copy the link and put it into their search engine of choice.
You know that song's about Krishna right?
that link sent me to a child pron site you disgusting pervert.
Originally it was about Jesus. Latter, they made Harrison add to the original.
Don, you own not being able to copy and paste correctly. Your computer must have defaulted to your favorite site.
Double checked it HS, and it's still sending me to a site where they glorify r aping little boys while they spend billions of dollars covering it up and trying to keep the damaged fragile children from coming forward.
HeavenStench........ do you hear the laughter??
Luke 19: 41 – 44
Spiritual blindness is a serious disease of the soul, worse than aids or cancer.
Help find a cure. Let's not lose another person to this awful life stealing disease on humans.
John 3:16
wow, a quote....
pretty impressive, look up
If that version of God is real, then this reality officially sucks.
"Made imperfect, yet, expected to correct myself" - What kind of lazy-azz designer.....?
Look Up,
Amen.
"S" is for Savior, Jesus Christ.
S could also be for snivelling or sycophant
Religion is a cancer on society.
or sam
sam, you do seem to have your condition on your mind.
reality 3:16
and men so wanted to control other men, that they created a ridiculous story of god, impregnating a teenage girl, and made this girl give birth to himself, and we will name this rapist god/son of god jesus and we will make the eweak minded sheep worship him, and make them feel bad if they don't. We will then give them a bunch of rules which will make them feel even worse if they try to rebel against us.
and this new religion will be called christianity, and it will cause widspread death and destruction, because these sheep will believe so much that they will force themselves on all other people. And low these sheep will obey these commands we men have created, and there will be much death and destruction. And the sheep will feel superior for it. For they are gullible and will swallow the hook of idocy, because they do not wnat to see reality for themselves.
and the wind cried mary.
Romaine
HS: And you seem like diseased gash troll. Jeebus is waiting. You could be on your knees in no time, taking Jerry Fartwell's place on the end of the savior rod
sam stone, still have your affliction on your mind, I read.
Heavenstench. deluded as usual I see... you have quite the vivid imagination.
THE MEANING OF LIFE
"Try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations."
– Saint Monty of Python
"Wear more hats."
"What was that about hats?"
Doc, he also said "bring out your dead" aka LOST.
"See the violence inherent in the system!"
Just don't say anything bad about spam.
wonderful spam?
It's awful on it's own LOL.
HS
NEE, NEE !!!
Austin
said a mediator. do you know this?
June 18, 2013 at 7:56 am | Report abuse |
lol??
Austin,
"1Ti 2:5 For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"
Perfect solution, Son of man, Son of God.
June 18, 2013 at 8:07 am | Report abuse |
lol??
"Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third [day] I shall be perfected."
10-4......now thats what I am talking about bro.!
Your daddy is
Read John 8: 37 – 47, specifically verse 44
Then, read same John 8: verses 34 and 35
Much more for you when you can handle it.
Could I give you some passages in the Quran to look up?
Proselytizing like this is the best way to make friends. It really is. We don't get enough of that in daily life. Someone should be tossing this stuff all over, all the time.
Christianity has the best advertising. You guys always win the popularity contests.
Luke 19: 41 – 44
Spiritual blindness is a life stealing disease of the soul.
Find the cure.
John 3: 16
The more you post that, over and over, the more refreshing it becomes! What a treat.
Atheists whining at it's finest. No surprise.
Pompous christians bloviating translated, edited iron age hearsay. No surprise
Idiot christards like look up and HeavenSent do a far better job of pointing out how stupid religion is than any atheists ever could.
Thanks!!
Christians spewing mythology.... no surprise
fintastic,spewing mythology is trying to make evolution fly with all it's flaws.
Everyone knows the book of John is a fraud, most scholars will tell you that there were to writers to the book of John and the stories in it don't match the other books.
Heavenstench, do you realize how foolish you sound when you state you don't believe in evolution? your ignorance is astounding!
And she doesn't know the difference between its and it's.
fintastic, if you believe the lies and flaws of evolution, there's a bridge I'd like to sell you.
HeavenSent,
Yep. Don't believe in evolution. Believe instead in unicorns, talking animals, slavery and discrimination against women and handicapped people and gays.
@HS
If you believe that evolution is an evil lie, then I dare you to stop taking any medications more complex than aspirin (known since antiquity), stop going to the doctor, stop using anti-bacterial soap, stop taking your insulin, ....
I contend that you are a hypocrite and DO believe that evolution is true, but you cannot take a stance other than what your pastor tells you – regardless of what your own reasoning brain tells you. There are many christian sects that acknowledge evolution, including the RCC. Realize that you are brainwashed – or stop taking your meds – your choice. Nut up or shut up.
This applies to ALL of you evolution deniers.
BUT PLEASE – TAKE YOUR KIDS TO THE DOCTOR WHEN THEY ARE SICK!
You evolution deniers can put your own lives on the line if you want, but please, please, please leave your kids out of it.
HS, Did you ever post evidence of flaws in evolution?
Evolution deniers are on the same level of crazy as Pentecostal snake handlers, except most deniers are hypocrites for using modern medicine. I don't believe that the snake handlers keep anti-venom on hand, or antidotes on hand when drinking poison. Members of PETA on insulin (and other animal derived drugs) are also in this category – but that is a whole other realm of crazy.
@HeavenStinks.......... " there's a bridge I'd like to sell you."
It's called religion and you already bought it.... hook line and sinker!