Gee, You Think?

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first
instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life."
-- Theodore Roosevelt

A Dark Batman for 'The Dark Knight'

This one isn't for kids. Let's just get that out up front. Every review I've read so far has pegged this Batman as wickedly dark.

"Even darker and more relentlessly serious than "Batman Begins," writes David Ansen of Newsweek.

"...do not, despite the PG-13 rating, bring the children" warns David Denby of The New Yorker.

Richard Corliss of Time writes "it's a wonder, and a puzzle, why The Dark Knight snagged a PG-13 rating. (Don't take your 9-year-old son unless you think he'd enjoy seeing a kid just like him tremble in fear while a gun is held to his head by a previously sympathetic character.)"

Corliss also shares that "With little humor to break the tension, The Dark Knight is beyond dark. It's as black — and teeming and toxic — as the mind of the Joker."

Apparently, its the performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker (who died after filming the movie at the young age of 28 from a prescription drug overdose), that pushes this film to the edge.

Pete Travers of Rolling Stone writes:

"Miles from Jack Nicholson's broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what's comic is hardly a relief. No plastic mask for Ledger; his face is caked with moldy makeup that highlights the red scar of a grin, the grungy hair and the yellowing teeth of a hound fresh out of hell."

MSNBC's Alonso Duralde makes the point that "Ledger’s Joker is so intense...that very young children may find it too disturbing."

Reviews have so far been stellar for this latest Batman outing. Adults may get a kick out of this overly serious comic book adventure.

But just because its based on an American superhero icon, doesn't mean it's safe for the kids.

Thoughts on Consumerism #1

Best Buy is Toys 'R' Us on steroids.

Sin and the Good News of Jesus Christ

Without sin, there is no need for a saviour.
Human nature is sinful. We desperately need the finished work of the cross of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Keep praying, keep repenting from selfishness, strife and rebellion.

Christians who ignore their sin nature end up sugar coating their shortcomings and fall into self-righteous religiosity. They end up straining at the gnats of carnality in the lives of others while swallowing and making excuses for the camels of carnality in their own.

No one is exempt from the fallen nature of the human heart. No preacher, no Christian... Yet some live in the lala land of assumed victory while they leave a trail of immature garbage behind them for other people to clean up.

Only Jesus Christ can clean the mess of the human heart. Only he was sinless. Only he could take away the penalty of our sins so that we could boldly go to the throne of grace without fear of being condemned by a holy and righteous God.
The penalty of our sins (death) was taken upon him. He paid the ultimate price. And because he died (and rose again), I live eternally.

Let us not be deceived in this day and age of 'sinless' Christianity.

Just because we don't get drunk or engage in works of the flesh that are without a doubt sinful, does not mean there is not a monster within each of us, beating just below the surface, ready to break out and fullfill its every selfish ambition no matter the cost.

We need help. We need Christ.

Everyday.


1Jn 1:8-10

If we say, "We aren't sinful" we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we've done wrong.
If we say, "We have never sinned," we turn God into a liar and his Word is not in us.