Is Hollywood Controlled by Non-Secular Christians?

Tim Cavanaugh | December 23, 2004

Is that Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen or Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar? Over at Soundbitten, G. Beato slides down the chimney with glad tidings for the holiday (the Christmas Holiday that is!). It turns out those all-anal Grinches down in Tinseltown are as full of Christmas cheer as Lawrence Welk with a sleighful of schnapps:

William Donohue may not know it, but in the blue states, this is the time of year when The Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Network sandblast their viewers with stinging torrents of faith-based pixie dust. There's One Magic Christmas. (A seedy-looking angel, aka Harry Dean Stanton, teaches a pleasant-looking family the true meaning of Christmas.) There's A Season for Miracles. (A pleasant-looking angel, aka Patty Duke, teaches a seedy-looking homeless family the true meaning of Christmas.) There's Eve's Christmas, Christmas Child, Mr. St. Nick, A Very Cool Christmas and dozens of other feel-good Xmas flicks, maybe hundreds.

In theaters, these movies rarely do big box office. On TV, they get dismal ratings. Critics hate them too, so there's no good reason to make them, and yet Hollywood keep churning them out, year after year after year, simply for the love of Christmas. Indeed, long after fiery yule logs like Bill O'Reilly fade into ashes, Hollywood will still be hand-knitting Christmas schmaltz like 2003's A Carol Christmas, which stars Tori Spelling (Jewish) as a Scrooge-like talk-show host, William Shatner (Jewish) as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Gary Coleman (probably not Jewish, but maybe into Kabballah) as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

So why does William Donohue rail against his greatest allies?

Whole article right here. Ho ho ho!

Comments

|12.23.04 @ 4:40PM|#

Awfully enough, I was subjected to half an hour of the "Duttons Holiday" special -- straight out of Branson -- on PBS last night. It was so awful, I can only figure that the G-dless pinkos running public broadcasting are trying to sabotage Christmas.

|12.23.04 @ 4:59PM|#

Most Christmas movies Hollywood puts out are just bad movies that's why no one watches them. Classics like It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th street always get a big audience.

But Hollywood is run by Jews. Ben Stein makes no bones about it

And Hollywood insider, Burt Prelutsky says it is Jews that have declared war on Christmas in this very brave piece The Jewish grinch who stole Christmas.

Nadine Strossen and her Merry Band of bolsheviks at the ACLU have been waging war on small town America for daring to put Christmas decorations on public property. It's heartwarming to see Nadine following in the footsteps of Emma Goldman

Merry Christmas to all

Ps, Glad I dropped my subscription to the mag and picked up "The Freeman Ideas on Liberty" the best libertarian mag going today.

Jeff|12.23.04 @ 5:11PM|#

I think the hubbub about "Christmas in Danger" comes from the fact that so many Christmas specials revolve around the threat of Christmas not happening. The Right wants to portray itself as the child/reindeer/elf/hero who manages to rescue Santa.
I expect a "The Republicans Mouthpieces who Saved Christmas" claymation skit on Mad TV.

|12.23.04 @ 6:14PM|#

"Is that Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen or Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar?"

And here I thought Michael Powell was in control of Hollywood!

|12.23.04 @ 8:48PM|#

Did everyone catch the "Dinette Set" cartoon today where the punch line was at the usual expense of the very hairy dude who wears the obvious toupee?
It was suggested that the front of his xmurs skivvies--the back had "ho ho ho"--should have the declaration: "Asleep in the hay."

While I'm on the topic, did everyone see the recent Zips strip where Pierce put a condom on a pencil?

I'm so glad my cherished daughter has already made it safe and sound and wholesome to adulthood, and is living in the San Francisco area which is pure as the driven snow, perversion-wise, thank goddess.

Paging gaius marius. Stat!

|12.23.04 @ 9:01PM|#

Who the fuck is Burt Prelutsky, and why is he so stupid? That WND link may have been the dumbest thing I've ever read, and I've read John Grisham books. It practically fisks itself, it's so dumb. This was the highlight, though:

But the dirty little secret in America is that anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in society � it's been replaced by a rampant anti-Christianity.

When Christians are refused jobs, housing, hotel rooms, restaurant service, medical care, loans, civic group memberships, or anything, collectively, on the basis of their religion, get back to me. Otherwise, grow the hell up.

Fer crissakes, Christianity is The. Only. Religion. In. The. World. which has a religious observance that has been made a Federal holiday on which the government, the schools, and the stock markets are all closed. The only one.

That stupid fuck even manages to repeat, in the second paragraph even, the dumb lie about Macy's forbidding the word "Christmas," despite the fact that it's right on their home page. Moron.

|12.24.04 @ 1:25AM|#

Who the fuck is Burt Prelutsky, and why is he so stupid? That WND link may have been the dumbest thing I've ever read, and I've read John Grisham

Talk about stupid, Phil. A simple google search would have turned up that Burt Prelutsky was a writer for some of the best sitcoms in the history of TV. Mary Tyler Moore Show, Newhart, Family Ties, Mash, and Rhoda just to name a few.

The truth hurts.

|12.24.04 @ 1:56AM|#

Yeah, it sure does. Now that we know who Burt is, JimBob, do you mind actually reading what Phil wrote about how inefficient the Hollywood Jews have been at persecuting Xians ?

Merry Xmas, JimBob, and not in a "you will submit" way either. Honest.

|12.24.04 @ 2:19AM|#

Prelutsky may not be "dumb," but if he actually thinks that there is "rampant anti-Christianity" in America, he's definitely out of touch with reality.

|12.24.04 @ 2:35AM|#

Yeah JimBob, thanks for that link from the always reliable WorldNetDaily. My favorite line: "This is a Christian nation, my friends." Yes, that must be why Muslims and Buddhists and Jews and Hindus from all over the world flock here - because Christianity is the defining feature of America! And yet the blurb at the top says, "Burt Prelutsky is America's favorite humorist", so... is it satire? It sure made me laugh. "Anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in society � it's been replaced by a rampant anti-Christianity" - ha ha ha ha!

|12.24.04 @ 11:52AM|#

So, this is what Joe Farah calls humor. Figures...

|12.24.04 @ 12:00PM|#

Rhywun writes: "This is a Christian nation, my friends."

Well yes, it is. 90 percent of the people look at themselves as some sort of Christian. That's a higher percentage of the populace in Israel that is Jewish and no one doubts Israel to be a Jewish country.

We are a Christian country with a secular government. What's the problem?

|12.24.04 @ 12:26PM|#

So where, in this county which is 90% Christian, is the "rampant anti-Christianity?"

|12.24.04 @ 12:38PM|#

Les writes:"So where, in this county which is 90% Christian, is the "rampant anti-Christianity?"

Well for starters take New York City. The mayor declares that he's not lighting a Christmas tree, but a Holiday tree. Now what Holiday does that tree represent? It's all over everywhere. The Bolsheviks over at the ACLU have been waging war against Christmas and Christians for decades. I noticed a few posters didn't like what Burt Prelutsky had to say. Well they'll really love what Irving Kristol has to say on this.

|12.24.04 @ 12:54PM|#

Happy Sparkle Season to all

|12.24.04 @ 1:45PM|#

JimBob,

How is calling a Christmas tree a Holiday tree "anti-Christian?" Certainly it takes more than a clumsy attempt at multi-culturalism to qualify as "anti-Christian." Has he said anything negative about Christianity?

How has the ACLU been waging a "war" against Christians? "Rampant" implies widespread and pervasive. Are Christians being denied their civil liberties? Are they being discriminated against in the workforce or in housing? Have any government representives (95% or more of whom are Christians) suggested legislation limiting the rights or activities of Christians?

|12.24.04 @ 1:51PM|#

"waging war against Christmas and Christians for decades"

Wow, you really hate diversity, don't you? OK. Let's apply the same logic consistently. Around 60% of America is Caucasian. Therefore we are a White nation, I guess. About 51% of voters voted for Bush this year. I suppose that means we are a Republican nation. And guess what? I already know what Irving Kristol will say and I don't give a shit. He's as partisan as you are.

The White Anglo Saxon Protesta|12.24.04 @ 3:25PM|#

JimBob - "We are a Christian country with a secular government. What's the problem?"

No problem, unless of course that bit of demographic tinsel forces the rest of us to shut up and submit to the ridiculous contradictions of "original sin," "virgin birth," and a "pro-life" ethic which would happily sacrifice the rights of adult females in favor of the "rights" of 100-cell blastocysts.

My stepdaughter came home with a Virgin Mary action figure the other day from WalMart, complete with KungFu grip and miraculously intact hymen. I guess we are a Christian nation after all.

|12.24.04 @ 3:55PM|#

Before I begin celebrating, let me, as a devoted secularist, sincerely wish everyone here (even you, JimBob, you nervous Christian, you ;)) a very Merry Christmas.

|12.24.04 @ 6:23PM|#

It's snowing in Houston! It's snowing in Houston!

I just had to tell people.

Tim Cavanaugh|12.24.04 @ 11:18PM|#

From that Ben Stein column:

It took a Jew--Leslie Howard--to play Ashley Wilkes, the bedrock image of what a perfect American gentleman is supposed to be.

Leslie Fucking Howard was the image of a perfect American gentleman? Did I miss some crucial bit of cultural history when every respectable American man had a hankering to be a toffish, cadaverous, neuresthenic, slave-owning English pantywaist?

Larry A|12.25.04 @ 12:20AM|#

From the aforementioned WND link: "How is it, one well might ask, that in a Christian nation this is happening?"

Here's the meat of the complaint. In a "Christian nation" Christmas would be celebrated with a manger on every corner and all those Hollywood movies would feature Christ instead of Santa. Therefore Christianity is being discriminated against.

Of course, even as a lifelong card-carrying Methodist, I don't want the US to be "Christian." I can read history. There have been Christian nations, and they haven't been very nice places to live. Google "inquisition," "crusade," "heretic," "blasphemy," "burned at the stake," etc.

Again from Mr. Prelutsky: "But when the overwhelming majority of a country's population is of one religion, and roughly 90 percent of Americans happen to be one sort of Christian or another, only a damn fool would deny the obvious."

Anyone who has been to the annual meeting of almost any mainstream church (Baptists being a good example) should immediately recognize that there is no such thing as "the one Christian religion." That's what makes living in Christian countries so interesting.

|12.25.04 @ 3:58AM|#

JimBob,

The mayor declares that he's not lighting a Christmas tree, but a Holiday tree.

Sorry, that's not "persecution" or anti-Christian bias, unless of course by "persecution" you mean that Christianity is being denied its "rightful hegemony," which of course doesn't exist. Christians are having to actually compete with a more secular world and they are having a hissy fit over it.

Next year I am making some signs that promote atheism and putting them on the green.

|12.26.04 @ 12:36PM|#

Here's something to make your heads `splode. Even if one calls it a "holiday" instead of Christmas, one is still making reference to a Holy Day. I'm as thoroughgoing a secularist as anybody, but it is folly to try to expunge every remnant of religion from common parlance. Shall I give up saying "Goodbye" because I don't mean "God Be With Ye?" I suppose I could always say Adios, no, wait...

Still, I would prefer if everyone so exercised over the need for a community expression of support for Christmas or any other religious feasts do so in prominent private spaces. In your town, are the Knights of Columbus, Kiwanis, Elks, Lions, Optimists, Rotary, etc. not possessed of sufficient resources to put up a big honking Xmas tree on their own property, or on a space they can rent? Do the churches not have similar resources? Is the Chamber of Commerce moribund? Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? Oops! Sorry, wrong script. :)

In Washington, the city of government, the most famous Christmas display is the White House's Xmas trees. In New York, our commercial capital, who cares about the tree at Gracie Mansion? Does the mayor even put one up? Rockefeller Center is the focus of attention, and last I checked that was a private operation. Tourists flock to Manhattan just to see the tree lighting, admire the other decorations and, incidentally, eat, drink, shop, and attend the pageant at Radio City Music Hall. No amount of ACLU Scroogery can or will stop these famous venues from giving the public as much Christmas as it can handle, complete with Santa, Baby Jesus, Wise Men, and live camels.

So, Christmas fans, find a suitable piece of land in your town, make arrangements to deck it out next year in high style, perhaps as a symbol of the charity drive of your choice, and tell the judges and bureaucrats to take a long leap off a short chimney.

A good St. Stevens Day to you all.

Kevin
(Penny to bury the wren, sir?)

|12.26.04 @ 12:46PM|#

God Bless you Gary Gunnels

"Next year I am making some signs that promote atheism and putting them on the green."

That would be cool. I have already told you that I am not an atheist, but sometimes I play one with some of the more militant christians that I work with, just to play devils advocate.

I did sort of the same thing to some moslem doctors in the middle east. I asked them what the function of the soul was.

|12.26.04 @ 2:21PM|#

I found this quote that might help to put all this Christian hysteria into perspective.

"Last Christmas most people had a hard time finding Christmas cards that indicated in any way that Christmas commemorated Someone's Birth. Easter they will have the same difficulty in finding Easter cards that contain any suggestion that Easter commemorates a certain event. There will be rabbits and eggs and spring flowers, but a hint of the Resurrection will be hard to find. Now, all this begins with the designers of the cards."

Henry Ford
The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem
1921

Wow. Christianity has been under attack in America for over eighty years now!

|12.26.04 @ 2:44PM|#

Burt Pretlusky says:

" I'm only surprised that they haven't begun a campaign to do away with Sunday as a day of rest."

Well, I for one would like to start that campaign. I don't see why everyone has to have sunday off. I would like the banks to be open every day, and I would like the post office to deliver mail every day. These are some of the institutions that we all depend on. I think that they could stagger their employees's days off so that my transactions can continue on those days.

|12.26.04 @ 4:49PM|#

kwais, your suggestion is impractical. Our society needs at least one day, if not two, when the organs of the state are temporarily dormant. Nothing other than market considerations keep banks closed where I live, and at least one chain, with a heavy presence in shopping malls and supermarkets, is open 7 days a week. Can you imagine what the public employees' unions will demand as extra compensation for working on weekends?

Most of the retail and service industry works on a 7-day schedule. I haven't had a "weekends off" gig in years. A M-F, 9-5 rut would be a welcome change of pace. Ah, to never have to miss an important NFL double-header again....

Kevin

|12.27.04 @ 4:49AM|#

Kevin,
I see why individuals need a day off, but I don't see why a society needs a day off. I think that if a person needs a day off, they negociate with their company what would be their holy day of the week. If you are a strong christian, it would be sunday, if you are a strong moslem it would be friday, if you are a strong jew it would be saturday.

For the rest of us who don't care any day would work. The NFL will adjust their schedule accordingly, their goal it to be watched.

Why do we need a day when the organs of state are dormant? If it meant not paying taxes on that day, or not getting speeding tickets on that day I would be cool with it. But it just means that I can't get done something I need done.

|12.27.04 @ 6:18AM|#

I wouldn't want the state to either mandate a Sabbath or weekend, as it has done in the past. There are still remnants of "blue laws" in several states. In some, liquor licenses come with the provision that you can't sell beer on Sunday morning. Here in Wisconsin, car dealers can't close sales on Sunday. They can still keep the dealership or used car lot open, but people can only look. No titles can change hands. Before most of these laws fell to either court challenges or ordinary repeal, shopping on the weekend was much less convenient. I remember Main Street merchants in the late `60's howling for blood, demanding that competitors in the new shoppng malls be cited for defying the bans on Sunday sales. Retailers would often open, but rope off certain aisles, so that only items approved for Sunday sale would be officially on offer. Pharmacies would be closed, except that each store in town would take their turn opening on Sunday, so prescriptions would not be denied anyone in an emergency. No, I don't want to return to that regime.

There are advantages to having a common weekend. If students have two days off in a row, most parents will want that same pair of days free. Family events are hard to arrange when everyone is on a different schedule. Some businesses work better when all relevant staff are at hand, and staying open an extra day or two will just drive up costs, without increasing revenue much. Other industries have to run on a 24/7 basis, or can be expanded to that when demand is high.

A good argument could be made that some government offices should be open for some hours to provide service to those who don't work a 9-5 M-F job. I know that some DMV offices in my town stay open late one night a week, and all have some Saturday hours. The Post Awful has Saturday hours, and you can get Special Delivery on Sunday, though you pay a premium.

Having staff solicit time off from their managers to match their religious observance is a minefield. First, we atheists will get all the lousy shifts. :) Second, if the mgr. lets Jane have off every Sunday so she can sing in her church choir, but doesn't give Ali an equal number of Fridays off, there will be trouble. Don't forget that the Jewish and Muslim Sabbaths are sundown-to-sundown, while most Christians stick with the midnight-to-midnight convention. That means that if Sid wants off for the Hebrew Sabbath, you lose him on Friday night and most of Saturday, and in some lines of work you might as well not hire someone at all if he can't work at least one of those shifts. True, the strict Sabbath-keepers are a minority among us, but either their heathen colleagues will invent religious obligations to put them on a level playing field, or they will become the victims of discrimination by intolerant employers.

Culture and custom may evolve away from the weekend as it is now constituted, and I won't argue against that. If we can't assume that most people are "off" from Friday night to dawn on Monday, certain customs must be altered. Have you any experience trying to date someone when your boss schedules you for evening shifts on Fridays and Saturdays frequently? I was once put on a rotation so socially annoying that long-time friends were convinced I had moved out of town without telling anybody. It didn't help that the fellow responsible for the schedule rarely posted it more than a week in advance, preferring to keep all in suspense, and preserving the option to trim hours with short notice. The operation I was with was open a minimum of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, with shorter hours on a few national holidays. No, boring 9-5 looks good right about now. But each to his taste. I was glad of screwy schedules when I was in college, else I couldn't have afforded it.

Kevin
(scarred by years and years of retailing)

|12.27.04 @ 8:55AM|#

A lot of people who aren't actively religious get lumped in with Christians. It's the default religion of America. If you're not definitely Jewish or Muslim or what have you, you're more or less assumed to be Christian.

|12.27.04 @ 12:01PM|#

kevrob,
I would be cool with no blue state laws at all. If someone wants sunday off, they have to find a job that allows sunday off. Let the market decide, if a company wants its workers to work crazy hours, or to work on their special day they are going to have to pay accordingly.

This is specially beneficial to me, because I have no days that are particularly holy to me. So if they are paying more to work on a sunday, God bless.

|12.27.04 @ 7:26PM|#

The Ben Stein interview referenced by JimBob is actually well worth a read. Read the whole thing. Stein makes the point that, yes, many Jews work in Hollywood and their influence has been pervasive. The next point he makes is: so what? If one is bothered by the fact that so many Jews work in Hollywood, it is generally because Jews are perceived as sinister and alien. And he points out the double standard: when Detroit makes trucks that catch fire, no one complains of the "gentile auto industry."

Tim Cavanaugh|12.27.04 @ 7:44PM|#

The Ben Stein interview says Leslie Howard was once a model American gentleman and thus is so obviously disconnected from reality as to make it useless.

|12.28.04 @ 9:53AM|#

"The mayor declares that he's not lighting a Christmas tree, but a Holiday tree."

THIS is your great evidence of Christian persecution? That the Mayor of New York didn't make it clear to Jewish people that the tree isn't for them?