Category: Popular Media

Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. I’m putting a pause for the time being on the look at the Watchtower pamphlet of “Should You Believe In The Trinity?” due to my wife and I going to see “Green Hornet” last night. Since we got back so late, I decided to forgo the blog and write on it today instead. Be warned of spoilers if you haven’t seen this and plan to.

I’ve been a fan of hero flicks for some time now. Green Hornet is one not as well known to the generation most familiar with Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men. In that light, it’s good to see that they’re bringing back older heroes for a generation that might not know them as well.

Britt Reid is a young boy who in our first view of him is brought to his father’s office for misbehaving at school. Based on Reid’s description, he wasn’t misbehaving. He was trying to rescue someone from some bullies and got seen as the bad guy. His father will not put up with this, seeing as he’s busy running a major newspaper, so he takes Britt’s superhero toy and rips the head off.

Fast forward and Britt is living the life of a playboy going nowhere. He wakes up one day in his house next to a girl whose name he can’t even pronounce right when his father comes in and asks him if that’s what he wants his life to amount to. Britt doesn’t really listen however, but it was refreshing to see a statement like this in light of the hedonism often seen in our culture today.

Britt is driving in a car later and sees on the news that his father has died. While several come and offer their sympathies, Britt has no tears. He didn’t like his Dad at all. The next time we see him getting emotional in fact is when he wakes up to find out his coffee is terrible and goes to complain to the staff who tell him that Kato is the one who makes the coffee and that he had been fired by Britt. Britt demands that Kato return.

When Kato shows up, Britt soon finds out he’s a genius who’s been adding nifty gadgets to the cars in the garage and has built a machine that makes the coffee. Britt and Kato start talking about Britt’s Dad and how it would be nice to see justice since none of them liked Britt’s Dad. Thus, they decide to go take the head off of the statue that has been put up in honor of him.

While that’s being done, a mugging takes place. Britt tries to stop it only to find himself the next target, at which point Kato comes in and using some martial arts wipes the floor with all of the thieves. Britt is quite excited about the whole event and tells Kato that they’re both meant for more, especially Kato. Wouldn’t it be great to be doing this regularly? Britt tells Kato in great line that it’s not dying Kato’s afraid of, but never having lived.

What will set them apart? Britt suggests that they be seen as characters that the police don’t know what to do with? If they’re known to be the good guys, then the bad guys can use that to their advantage. If they’re not however, the bad guys won’t know what to do with them and that will give them leverage. Being the head of a newspaper since his Dad died, Britt brings up a picture of someone running from the statue of his Dad carrying the head and saying he wants that man and the name is given to him of “The Green Hornet.” Thus, the newspaper provides the publicity needed and Britt and Kato start hitting areas of crime making it seem like a gang war is going on. The main villain of the movie is the crime lord of the city in charge of all crime and what will happen in his interactions with the Green Hornet and Kato.

Themes to see? I think about the idea of the noble lie, whereas a community is told a lie that is known to be a lie for their greater good. The Green Hornet seeks to do the same, not wanting to be seen as a hero entirely for the sake of truly being a hero. We see a similar theme when Batman and Spider-Man are seen as villains, but when the real villains know they’re dealing with heroes, then they know there are some boundaries that the heroes can’t cross. What if the villains themselves don’t know however?

Friendship is a major topic in the movie as the Green Hornet and Kato have numerous ups and downs in their relationship and it comes to the question of forgiveness. When all the cards are on the table, where will your loyalties lie? Are you willing to set aside that which angers you about your partner for the greater good? A question the viewer will be asking is how some actions will affect the relationship between the Green Hornet and Kato.

No doubt, both have good intentions in wanting to rid crime, but the intentions are not enough. For instance, Kato is everything in the team. He builds the gadgets, does the driving, and does the fighting. How does that affect things when the Green Hornet is seen as the main character, especially in light of how egotistical the Green Hornet is in the film?

Because of his inability to fight and lack of foresight, the Green Hornet can get in over his head and rely on Kato to save him. Is that the way of the hero? Should the Green Hornet be out there? Or, could it be the Green Hornet gets his wings as it were by being willing to take a risk? Does that mean some who are unskilled in an area should take risks? When? Do you really want to fight evil when evil will not treat it like a game?

Thus, it’s really hard to describe this one. The heroes are not always the heroes we’d think, and that could be a good thing. It could be encouragement for the rest of us who sometimes just want to do a little bit of good and wonder if we can do it. Do we simply want to be like Britt in the beginning and be leading hedonistic lifestyles for only the moment? Is our worst fear dying or never living in the first place?

Parents will want to provide some caution. There are some sexual references throughout the film and there is profanity. However, it is a movie my wife and I both enjoyed and I look forward to a possible sequel in the future.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! Sorry about missing last night. My wife and I went out for dinner and a movie and I just didn’t find the time. Seeing as I saw a movie, I do plan to write on it tonight as you can tell by the title. Be warned. I do have spoilers in here so if you plan on seeing the movie, just wait.

The movie takes place several years after Tron. Kevin Flynn disappeared leaving his son, Sam, behind, who has become somewhat of a renegade. One day however, Kevin’s business partner says he got a page from the arcade where Kevin worked. The arcade had been abandoned for years.

Sam puts a quarter in the Tron machine and finds a hidden passage behind it. (Interestingly, the music played at this point is “Separate Ways” (Worlds Apart) by Journey. Sam goes back to his Dad’s computer and by typing in some codes, finds that he has entered an alternate reality. He has entered the world of Tron.

Early on, after some combat, Sam meets his father who looks exactly the same only to be told that that he is not his father. Sam is then sent to a grid to enter a racing battle. Before the battle ends, he is rescued by a traveler that shows up on the track and brought to a place far away where he meets his real father. The traveler is a female named Quorra.

As it turns out, Kevin had created someone in his image named Clue to help build the perfect world. Recently, creatures had arisen out of the data in the world that were part human and part data and called “Isomorphs.” Kevin was fascinated with these and thought they would unlock secrets for humanity. There is an implication of an evolutionary process, and while Kevin is in many ways “God” in the world, he is not parallel to the God in Scripture as he is banished by his creation. Still there are parallels, with Sam being a Christ-figure and Clue being a devil.

Religious references abound. At one point in a battle with Sam, someone overseeing it tells the soldiers to meet the son of their maker. Clue refers to Kevin as a false deity that has kept them imprisoned. As said, the parallels are not perfect, nor should we expect such, but we should take what we can.

In the movie, Clue gets his hands on Kevin’s disk that contains his information. He plans to use it to open the portal to the real world and take his army there with them to eliminate the imperfections and as Kevin points out to Sam, our world has a number of imperfections.

Such dialogue can get one thinking about the problem of evil. Would it be right to be like Clue and eliminate all imperfections immediately? Kevin could be speaking in good Thomist language when he says that perfection was right before him and he never saw it. All of us have some perfection in us. We are not pure perfection, as God is, but we all have some perfections.

One other scene I must comment on is at the end so here are big spoilers. Quorra and Sam do escape and Quorra has asked what the sun is like in our world. Sam had said he’s never been asked to describe it. Sam, like us, could be taking it for granted. When Quorra rides with Sam on his bike, she looks in wonder at the sun.

I wonder how the director did that scene. Olivia Wilde played Quorra so did he have to say to her “You need to act like you’re amazed. Picture the sun as something amazing.” I thought about that thinking what a shame it would be if we had to be told that. Perhaps some of us need to be reminded how awesome it is.

Overall, this movie gives good food for thought. I do not recall any profanity and parents will be pleased that there is no sex in the movie as well. I think some of the action scenes were hard to follow, but overall, this is a good one you can take the kids to go see.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! Last night, we did a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. As it is, over the Christmas break, my in-laws took my wife and I to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Unfortunately, it’s been awhile since I’ve read the books, but this one made me think “Perhaps I should get those down again soon and go through them once more.” Be warned of spoilers in advance.

I did recall some references, such as Eustace having a name that he almost deserved. In my understanding of the film, Eustace is a reductionist through and through. He doesn’t want to bother reading serious fairy tales. He only wants to read about facts. Of course, it’s questionable how many facts he knows. There is even a work that has made Richard Dawkins out to be Eustace, which I found interesting since I was thinking of a Dawkins type when seeing Eustace.

Whatever Eustace sees for awhile, he is tempted to think there has to be some explanation other than what is most obvious. It cannot be he is really in another world even though he was in a bedroom and then it filled up with water and he came out in open sky. Everyone must be in on a hallucination or conspiracy of some sort.

I believe it is only when Eustace comes face to face with a reality that he cannot deny does he change his tune. That is the reality of when his greed turns him into a dragon. At that point, he cannot deny both his greed, which is the evil inside of him, nor can he deny that he is a dragon. It is then of course that Aslan is able to help Eustace.

Interestingly, seeing the talk of Eustace reading makes me think that Lewis in this work is telling us much about knowledge. Consider the gnomish creatures who kidnap Lucy saying “This one reads!” They want her to go and break an invisibility charm that has been put on them by the one that they call “The Oppressor.” Not remembering this part of the story, I was preparing for Lucy to find a powerful enemy, when in reality, she found an old scholarly man who was not really an oppressor, but was one seeking to help the creatures.

Why? They could not protect themselves and part of the reason was that they could not read. They had no real access to knowledge in society then. Those who are not aware of the great ideas will be at the mercy of those who are. We need to read non-fiction so others will not do our thinking for us. We need to read fiction so that others will not do our imagining for us. Of course, we can benefit from the knowledge and imagination of others, but we should hone these skills that exist in us as well.

The biblical references I find quite strong such as Aslan’s table and I was pleased that the movie put these in. Aslan’s table was a place that could not be approached in violence and so a charm was put on the lords who sought to use it as such. We could also keep in mind that at Aslan’s table, there is truly only one Lord.

We should also appreciate the numerous references to temptation. We can all seek to be someone else, such as Lucy sought to be Susan, but we should all seek to be ourselves. That does not mean we cannot admire others or seek to emulate them in some ways. We should however not seek to be them. It does us no good to be jealous of another, something I still have to learn in many ways.

For Edmund, it was power. He wanted to be free. He didn’t want to be seen as “younger king under Peter.” He wanted to be king in his own right. It is however in realizing who he is in himself that enables him to be able to defeat the serpent. He does not need the power of the White Queen. He does not need to defeat the serpent to prove he is a man. His defeat of the serpent demonstrates that he is a man. He is a man in his own right, though not Peter.

Reepacheep was of course a favorite character again. It was a truly moving scene at the end to see him cross over the water and enter into Aslan’s country, a country which is made for hearts of those like him. Why are we sad at that? It is not for Reepacheep. He didn’t even experience the pain of death. He simply passed over. It is because of our loss. We have an attachment to this character and until we pass over, we will not see him again.

Special thanks to the producers also for including Lucy asking if they’d ever see Aslan in their world. Aslan tells them that in their world, he is known by another name. The purpose of bringing them to the world of Narnia and knowing him there was so that they would know him better in their own world. My wife and in-laws and I were quite pleased to see that.

I also found that the 3-D effects of the movie were just spectacular as it looked like objects were really coming at me. Every now and then, I’d lower the glasses to see if things looked different and indeed they did. The movie was incredible overall and had me spellbound the whole time. I found it to be the best one yet.

I also do think it’s family-friendly. Don’t hesitate to bring the little ones to see this one. It’ll give great openings for more conversation.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! I’m safely back from an enjoyable holiday with my in-laws and I do hope you had a Merry Christmas. I’ll be spending some time I’m sure reading some new books that I got and that’s not yet counting gifts from everyone else. Before we jump back into atheist sound bites, I’d like to do a couple of movie reviews. A week ago Monday, my wife and I went with some friends to see “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.” Be warned of spoilers now.

Now I’ll tell you upfront that I am not one of those who believes that Harry Potter endorses witchcraft as a viable worldview in the real world. I think it’s a tool used in an allegorical way. An excellent look at this can be found in John Granger’s work that can be found at hogwartsprofessor.com and in his book “Looking for God in Harry Potter.” As it turns out, I have read all the books and seen all the movies and immensely enjoy them. I think Rowling is an excellent writer and storyteller.

I will however agree with a caution often given on this by Harry Haters as it were and I agree with them on it. Deathly Hallows is not a children’s movie. The movie has villains committing murder as well as a dark nightmare of Ron’s involving Harry and Hermoine. Parents should use discretion in bringing their children. In fact, while I am a supporter of Harry, I have no problem with parents who say they want to read the books or watch the movies before their children do. I think that’s an excellent idea.

Readers of Deathly Hallows quickly found out that the book would not be easily contained in one movie and I think this one wisely has been cut into two parts. While it has been awhile since I read the last book, the story does follow along with it well, including the departing of Ron from the party and the finding of the sword of Gryffindor. Others are more hinted at that readers should know about like the romance of Harry and Ginny, and that of Ron and Hermoine.

The story does move along at a brisk pace with plenty of action, though limited from the way it was in the books. For instance, the scene of carrying Harry away from where he had been living is played out in a brief form focusing only on Harry and his encounter with Voldemort. Of course, it does sadly have the death of Hedwig in there.

What was of great interest to me especially was the scene of the graveyard in Godric’s Hallow. This is where James and Lily Potter are buried and readers of the book know that the tombstone says “The last that shall be destroyed is death.” The graveyard was right outside a church on Christmas Eve with parishioners gathered together in the building to sing.

This was not a surprise to some of us in the series that an overtly Christian reference came out. The question of if Harry would die or not was lingering over us for the series as Harry I do not believe is meant to be a parallel of Christ, but more an idea of everyman in the battle against death and the good in his life is to remind us of the power of Christ. That will be for part 2 of the movie however.

There are many who are worrying about these movies. I would tell them that while I do view witchcraft and the new age movement as a threat, I do not consider Harry Potter a threat nor do I consider many other things a threat along the same lines. We would be better off fighting ideological opponents such as materialism or hedonistic sexuality than focusing on Harry Potter. It’s a shame more Christians seem to know what they think is wrong with the book than they do with books like “The Shack” or “The Da Vinci Code.” The sad reality also is most Christians have not even read the books but have simply gone by what they have heard.

Of course, if you’re one who does believe that this is something you should not do, by all means do not do so. I am not here to force you. The problem is that many of us usually come up with these rules for ourselves that we automatically make binding rules on everyone else. I am a devout Christian and I have no problem with the series. In fact, I find many lessons in it.

Readers of the book also will not be surprised where part 1 ends. I definitely look forward to part 2 and the Battle of Hogwart’s in it.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. Our study of the doctrine of God in the Summa Theologica will have to be put on hold yet again. This evening, I went to see The Karate Kid with a friend. It is an excellent movie I highly recommend. Thus, as is my custom, I offer a review. If you plan on seeing this soon, wait until after the movie before you come back and read this lest I spoil anything, which is certainly never my intent.

The movie starts out with the main boy, Dre Parker seeing wall markings of himself at his home of how he’s grown. Conspicuous by its absence is one event. “Daddy died.” I found this odd as nothing is ever said about this Dad. The kid never refers to him. His Mom never refers to him. He disappears just as quickly as he’s introduced.

I found this saddening as I have a deep concern about the disappearances of fathers in the culture. Men are disappearing from view. A boy can grow up without a father and no one thinks anything about it. However, this boy is not growing up well as he is twelve years old and he and his Mom are moving to China.

How this Mom gets the money, I have no idea. They live in luxury apartments and the only thing we’re told is her job has something to do with cars. The absence of a man in the boy’s life is apparent and he has is seen early on to be one with no work ethic, no respect, and no discipline. He doesn’t want to learn Chinese and he’s concerned because everything there is old. If only we could get our youth past this to appreciate the rich heritage of the past!

When he gets to China, early on, he starts trying to impress a girl, only to end up being bullied, and this bully is no ordinary bully. He’s a student of kung fu and Dre is outmatched. Later on, Dre gives him and his buddies a rude awakening by throwing a bucket of sludge on all of them.

Why would he do that? Well you have to understand the way a boy is and a man in turn. We have to fight something. We don’t like being beaten down and we will do what we can to fight back. It is often our manhood that is on the line. The bully, Cheng, and his friends chase after Dre and knock him down. One of the students tells Cheng that they’ve done enough, but Cheng reminds him of what was seen in Cheng’s class earlier under Master Li. “No weakness. No pain. No mercy.”

As Cheng comes in to add further injury, a hand stops him. It is Master Han, the maintenance man at the apartment Dre lives in, and singlehandedly, Han ends up defeating all of the bullies for Dre. They then go to Master Li’s studio where Han challenges Master Li on what his students did. Master Li says either Dre or Han must fight him since his studio has been disrespected. Han says Dre will fight at a kung fu tournament.

So begins the long trek of teaching Dre, Kung Fu. What happens? That’s for you to find out as a viewer, but it is a story of wisdom and determination and respect and attitude. Dre matures throughout all of this and watching him learn the art is an enjoyable part.

And yet, I wonder how often we take time to enjoy that part. We live in an instant society and we’re so busy looking on a destination, that we lose sight of the excitement of getting there. I can sadly read books checking to see how long they are and how much time till the end. We enjoy a movie, but we can still look at our watches. We want the gratification without the investment of time. For non-entertainment goals, such as goals of overcoming difficulties in our own life, we can spend so much time looking at how far away we are from our goal that we never spend time enjoying getting there.

Han wants Dre to focus. Maybe we need to do the same? Have we lost focus on what really matters and are so caught up in ourselves that we cannot truly enjoy the world around us?

Maybe we need to return to the past some. Maybe the past as in 2,000 or so years ago in an area called Palestine.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this movie. Enjoy!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God and we’re going to continue that later, but this weekend I did get to see Iron Man 2 and since there were two people who I wanted to see it with and since I couldn’t go with both of them at the same time, I went and saw it twice. Be warned that I will be having some spoilers in here. If you plan to see this one and want to wait, feel free, but do remember to come back.

Now I loved the first Iron Man. I consider it my favorite superhero movie. This one was good, but I don’t think it was as good. I do believe there could have been more done with the villain in this one and the problem was there was no sign of where everything was going until you suddenly realize “Oh wait. This is the final battle.” Even then, the battle was way too short.

There are a number of themes I want to speak on that show up in Iron Man 2 however. First, a line shows up early from Howard Stark, Tony Stark’s Dad, that everything is possible with technology. Now I’m not opposed to technology. Technology is a wonderful thing. However, not everything is possible through technology.

One reality Howard Stark believes can come about through technology is world peace. This could be possible if we lived in a world of machines. Unfortunately, any look at our world around us should show that this is not so. Iron Man may be able to stop a lot of violence with his suit, but even if he could stop every incident, the suit could not remove the evil that is in the heart of man.

Our modern era has an idea that science will solve everything and mankind will progress more. Now I’m not against developing strong weaponry as a nation and I’m not saying we should dissemble our nukes and beat our swords into plowshares. As long as there are other nations out there that want us in America dead, I am for keeping our defenses strong.

However, salvation is not found in science. It’s found in Christ. The further away we move from Christ, the more chaotic our world will become. If we believe that more technology will develop virtue, we will find the opposite happens. Technology is a tool. It will be used for good or for evil depending on who’s wielding it. It is not capable of bringing virtue to people. It can be used to enforce the law and reward the good, but it can’t change the heart.

Another point I wish to comment on is that of people in the movie like Justin Hammer and the Senate who say that what Tony Stark is doing with Iron Man isn’t fair. If he has the technology to make a suit like that, then he is obligated to share it with everyone else.

Well, no.

All people are equal in that they are all equally human, but if you have something, you are not obligated to share it with someone else. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be a good thing for Tony to share the information and help out his country further in doing so. However, I am against the idea that it’s not fair for him to do so.

Years ago, I worked at a job where the store I worked at had a computer on sale and the price was increased. I don’t know who increased it or why but a lady called and said “You had it at X price and then you increased it and that’s not fair.” I was wanting to say “How come? Isn’t it our computer? If we want to sell it at a higher price because we believe people will pay more for it, that’s our right.”

The reality is our parents were right. Life isn’t fair. Someone will be smarter than you. Someone will be more athletic. Someone will be more artistic. Someone will be more beautiful. Someone will have more money. We are not told that we will all be equal beyond our human nature nor should we expect to be. It is better for us to play the cards we are dealt with rather than complain that we didn’t get another person’s cards. It wouldn’t work to do that in a card game and it doesn’t work in real life.

So my conclusion is that the politics and idea behind this Iron Man is hardly the best. Now I did enjoy the movie and if you’re a fan of the series, by all means go and see it. On the way home, if you take kids, have a chance to talk to them about technology and life being fair and see what they think. Make it a teaching moment.

We shall continue discussing the Summa tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are currently diving into the ocean of truth. Now lately, we’ve been going through the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas to understand the doctrine of God. However, tonight I happened to go see Alice in Wonderland in the movie theater. Readers of the blog know that I like to review movies that I go and see. (If you plan on seeing this movie, just in case, I recommend you visit this particular post later due to possible spoilers) Thus, we will continue Aquinas tomorrow. (His works have survived for nearly 800 years. One more night won’t kill them.) Before we get to our review, I offer my prayer requests. First off, my continual Christlikeness which, dear readers, is becoming a reality thankfully. Second, I ask for prayers for my finances. Finally, I ask that you pray for me in a third related area in my life.

Alice in Wonderland was of course, a book first, and that book was written by the Reverend Charles Dodgson who is better known as Lewis Carroll. Reverend? Yes. This author was a Christian and he was a logician as well and part of what he wrote Alice in Wonderland for was to teach logic.

Take for instance, the character Absolem, the blue caterpillar. Alice is brought to Absolem to see if she is the right Alice and he answers “Not hardly.” The fallacy is that everyone takes Absolem to be saying “No.” Absolem did not say that however. The question was asking if she is, and truly at that point, she was not yet the Alice she needed to be. Note also the name Absolem. What he says is absolute. Why? He is the truth teller and truth is absolute and if he says it, it is true.

Words are used regularly throughout the movie to get you to think. These are terms like “ought” and “should” and “is.” Some things ought to be but they are not as they ought to be. Some people should know some things but as it turns out, they do not know the things they should or believe the things they should.

Alice is also told that she must slay the Jabberwocky on Frablous Day. She is entirely against the idea as she does not slay anything. Yet, however, all the decisions Alice makes that even seem to run counter to the goal of getting her the Vorpal Sword to slay the Jabberwocky on Frablous Day end up getting her to that goal. Yet are we to deny that Alice truly had a freewill choice in the matter?

At one point, the Red Queen is spoken to by her main henchman who asks if it is better to be feared than loved. Philosophy students should immediately recognize Machiavelli, as he answered that it was better to be feared than it was to be loved in his work, The Prince. Readers are advised to read this work to understand why Machiavelli’s name became synonymous with evil.

As for those wondering about the acting and entertainment value of the movie, it is definitely there. This is an enjoyable movie and philosophy students should find extra interest in it. Most interesting for our purposes is that this was a book written by a Christian and Lewis Carroll is still a favorite author today.

In our age, what we need are more writers like Carroll who blend truth with wit and can teach us something while entertaining us as well. C.S. Lewis was such a writer as was J.R.R. Tolkien and G.K. Chesterton. May God raise up many more!

Tomorrow, we shall resume with Aquinas.

Welcome back everyone to Deeper Waters. Last night, I put our Trinitarian Commentary on hold because it was New Year’s Eve and I wanted to celebrate the New Year with a blog. Tonight, I’m putting it on hold because last night, I also saw the movie Sherlock Holmes. So I will be giving you readers my take on it. Before that, I do ask again your prayers as I continue on the path of Christlikeness. I also ask your prayers for my financial situation as I do have to make some decisions in that area very soon. Finally, I ask for your prayers regarding another area in my life related to both of these. I pray for the work of the Holy Spirit there. For now, let’s get to the review.

The movie starts with action immediately with Holmes and his assistant Watson. One scene early on has Holmes studying a man he’ll need to get past in combat and he analyzes his condition and how to best attack in a step-by-step procedure. There’s a reason Holmes was an inspiration for the creation of USA network detective, Adrian Monk. (Ironically, I finished reading “Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop”, right before I went to see this movie.

The mystery in the movie involves the case of a criminal who has recently been caught and then lo and behold, a few days later it is claimed that he has come back to life by the powers of black magic. He makes his presence known and tells the people that a new age is coming to England and he is in charge.

Hence, one of my friends wrote to me asking about non-Christian overtones and I would say they are there. Holmes, of course, is quite naturalistic not believing in anything supernatural in the movie apparently. Of course, I have no problem with seeking naturalistic explanations.  I have a problem with ruling out all other explanations a priori.

The mystery itself is quite difficult to figure out and the viewer must pay attention to everything that happens and I do mean everything. It does make great use of flashbacks to go back and show earlier events that happened so the viewer can realize all the connections that he should have made earlier.

For those who want action, there won’t be a lack of it. Sherlock Holmes does have skill in combat, which is something that surprised me in the movie. Granted, I haven’t really read the mysteries of Holmes, but I don’t picture a detective like that being a fighter. However, he does fight more with his mind where he plans how he’ll attack and how his opponent will respond and how he’ll counter-attack, again in a step-by-step procedure.

Overall, my mind was distracted last night, so I’m not sure how much I was able to enjoy, but it was a pretty good film. I really don’t think many people will solve the mystery before the movie is over, but then, I suppose that’s what made Sherlock Holmes such a great detective.

Tomorrow, we continue our commentary.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. This is probably going to be the final blog before Sunday night as I’m going to be extremely busy this weekend and if you’ve been wondering when the blog was going to come in tonight, it’s because I’ve also been extremely busy tonight. Anyway, I did go to see the movie “Couples’ Retreat” tonight. Regular readers know that when I go to the movie theater, I do blog about the movie that I saw afterwards. We’ll continue our Trinitarian Commentary then Sunday.

The movie involves a couple who is thinking about getting a divorce and they want to go on a marriage retreat to an island called Eden in order to see if they can salvage their marriage. Unfortunately, it’s pricey so they get three other couples to go along with them. Note then the first good thing. All of these people see marriage as something good and worth upholding. (Aside from one guy who is there with his girlfriend after recently leaving his wife, but I won’t say anything more about that as that’s for those who go see the movie.)

Noted also is the one couple who has kids and the kids say they want their parents to go on the trip because they don’t want their parents to get a divorce someday. Divorce is a painful reality. I believe there are times where it is the better option, but in our day and age, divorce is all too easy. A prominent Christian apologist recently told me he’s only been embarrassed once in a debate. That was when he was debating a Hindu who told the audience that at least in the country that follows his religion, 98% of the marriages last while in America, only 50% of them do. The church should be embarrassed but frankly, have we made marriage something worthwhile to uphold? Do we know what marriage really is any more?

So on this island, the couples learn to be more open with each other as they share time with a therapist and with a mystical teacher. This is one area of the movie I had trouble with as the teachers were always portrayed as Eastern style teachers speaking of karma and yoga. (Other moral concerns would include some partial nudity and some crude humor.)

Some realities do come out. The idea for instance that every couple has their problems. Each of the couples ends up working out their own difficulties when push comes to shove and they have to go to the other side of the island for another reason which I won’t go into detail over right now.

Let that be the next lesson. Marriage is hard work, which is something we don’t often realize. Of course, I can’t speak as a married yet, but we often think of the stories that end with “And they lived happily ever after.” However, in reality, in the morning Prince Charming has to go to work and Juliet has laundry to do and children to raise. There is no relationship of any kind without any problems, and marriage will fall into that.

Marriage is important, but we must not make it an idol as can be done and expect everything in it to be perfect. It won’t be. Is it because marriage is imperfect? No. The institution is divine in origin. It is because the people who are married in every case are imperfect. When imperfect people come together, there are going to be problems.

Marriage is a commitment. It is based on something deeper than just feelings. Feelings will come and go. Someone was telling me today that there are times you’ll go to bed at night and wonder “Why did I ever marry this person?” and then you’ll wake up the next day and think “Why did I ever think I could marry anyone else?”

In the end, I think there is a valid lesson to be learned and I am pleased that in the world today, there is still seen the truth that marriage does matter. For the Christian, it matters especially since this is to be a union of Christ and the church. Christians should have the best marriages of all and those must be rooted in Christ. Picture it as two people at different ends of a triangle and Christ at the top. The closer they get to Christ, the closer they get to each other.

What our country and our world needs, if the gospel is going to be proclaimed, is for Christians to really love, value, and live marriage.