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25 FEB 04: PASSION FRUITS
Premiering at the movies today: "The Passion of the Christ." For young soldiers reading this at Fort Benning -- no, it has nothing to do with some dancer on Victory Drive.
"The Passion of the Christ," of course, is Mel Gibson's new movie about the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life. If you haven't heard at all about this film - well wait, you can't be in a monastery somewhere, because Gibson's Roman Catholic....
Mel Gibson was interviewed about his movie Monday on the Focus On the Family radio program - but believe it or not, a Columbus religious station which normally carries the broadcast refused to air it! The station kept playing Christian music, so atheists and Jews couldn't have taken over.
WYFK-FM 89.5 is part of the Bible Broadcasting Network, based in Charlotte. The network's President spoke out twice last week against "The Passion of the Christ," suggesting Christians shouldn't "sell out" to Hollywood to preach to people. I wonder if he's also against selling Bibles at Barnes and Noble.
BBN President Lowell Davey quoted a Bible verse last Friday, as he explained his opposition to the Mel Gibson movie. "'Faith comes by hearing -- '" then adding, "not by seeing, by hearing...." This apparently explains why he only has a radio network, and not a television one.
Then there's my own Pastor, who told the congregation where I attend last weekend "The Passion of the Christ" is a Catholic movie. This raises an interesting question - is this movie being shown in Northern Ireland? And do the Protestants
there dare admit they support it?
My Pastor calls "The Passion of the Christ" Catholic partly because Mel Gibson and several cast members had mass before every day of filming. I would imagine this had some advantages, though -- such as saving on catering expenses.
My Pastor suggested we pray about whether or not to go to Mel Gibson's new movie, and not get "sucked in by the masses." The strange thing is, he never suggested doing this when Mel Gibson came out with "We Were Soldiers."
Albany's Sherwood Baptist and several other churches held "sneak previews" of "The Passion of the Christ" Tuesday, and rented entire theatres to do it. I'm not sure why they did this. Perhaps they didn't want members corrupted by worldly
viewers who really need to see the movie.
(Is it really a good idea for churches to hold preview screenings, before the movie officially premieres? After all, Christians are supposed to set examples of patience.)
As of Tuesday afternoon, two showings of "The Passion of the Christ" at the Carmike 15 already were sold out for today. Interestingly, they were the 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. screenings - so how many worshippers will be skipping Wednesday night Bible study?
We heard some churches in the area actually plan to hold Sunday church services at theatres this weekend. I only hope they don't do what a "hip" assistant pastor did for my group of teenagers at the county lake years ago -- and try to pass off popcorn and grape soda as Communion.
BLOG UPDATE: The attorney for Kenneth Walker's family announced a $100 million lawsuit Tuesday. Let's assume for a moment the family wins every penny of that. Once legal fees are figured in, it could wind up with about $10,000.
The lawsuit by Kenneth Walker's family names as defendants the Muscogee County Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Ralph Johnson and fired Deputy David Glisson. With $100 million on the line, Sheriff Johnson needs to call President Bush for help building a defense fund.
Florida attorney Willie Gary announced the lawsuit at a Government Center news conference, saying: "In a very real sense, it's judgment day." The fact that no settlement was announced by the 6:00 p.m. news shows we shouldn't believe everything this man says....
Willie Gary offered a big surprise with the lawsuit announcement. He released the autopsy and toxicology report on Kenneth Walker - and it concludes traces of cocaine were in Walker's system when he died! You'd think Gary would know better than to drop a bombshell on his own case.
The toxicology report shows Kenneth Walker had 0.12 milligrams per liter of cocaine in his system. But Walker's family contends he never did drugs, and no drugs were found in the vehicle on the night he was shot. So was there some hanky-panky by sheriff's officers - or have some other drivers been scattering "happy dust" along Interstate 185?
Muscogee County's Coroner took issue with one of Willie Gary's claims at the news conference. James Dunnivant says he WAS able to examine Kenneth Walker's body at the Medical Center last December 10th without any delay. OK, but that still puts him well ahead of Walker's family....
Willie Gary says he'd be willing to settle the $100 million lawsuit out-of-court, if justice is the result. But he warned if the case goes to trial, there will be "blood in the courtroom." In the courtroom?! We haven't even seen any yet from the sheriff's videotape.
Willie Gary seems unconcerned about the size of the $100 million lawsuit, saying at the news conference: "I don't care where they get the money." On behalf of tens of thousands of taxpayers, I think I can safely say - we do.
(Do the math on this. That $100 million lawsuit comes to more than $500 for every Columbus resident. If this case was in Clay County, Willie Gary would be on the verge of owning every square inch of it.)
WRBL recalled an interview Willie Gary once gave "60 Minutes." The attorney claimed he designed his office so "I want you to know, you're going to have to pay...." Those other lawyers who offer free consultations in the Yellow Pages look
better all the time.
Did you see former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell with the Walker family at the news conference? He's now part of the defense team - and we can't help remembering the song supporters on the night he was first elected Mayor: "Don't Mess with Bill." [True!]
The Columbus Council knew the news conference announcing a lawsuit was coming, because it huddled in an executive session Tuesday morning. Mayor Bob Poydasheff came out saying $100 million was "out of the question." Maybe if someone in the Government Center had won that big Mega Millions jackpot....
Mayor Poydasheff suggested the filing of a lawsuit by Kenneth Walker's family was premature. He told WRBL, "We don't have all of the facts...." Then how did Sheriff Johnson have enough to fire David Glisson last week?
Meanwhile, the attorney for David Glisson announced Tuesday friends have set up a fund to help his family at CB&T branches. This could mark the first time that people walk in wearing masks to DEPOSIT money in a bank.
SPAM-A-RAMA: Usually when I receive a "Use this patch immediately!" e-mail that's supposedly from Microsoft, I delete it. But Tuesday I dared to open one such message, and here's what I found:
Dear friend , use this Internet Explorer patch now!
There are dangerous virus in the Internet now!
More than 500.000 already infected!
Oh no! There ARE a virus?! What's the name of it - "MyFailedGrammar?"
(Rest assured I did NOT open the "patch.exe" attachment. Those letters can stand for "execute" - as in killing my hard drive.)
Other things happened on Tuesday as well:
+ The Columbus South Revitalization Task Force presented its improvement plan. The plan didn't need a cover, of course -- you could identify it by the black soot on the top page.
(Pastor Joseph Roberson of South Columbus United Methodist Church claims the Southside "has no entertainment" to offer residents. Huh?!?! Isn't the Civic Center located in SOUTH Commons?)
+ Smiths Station resident Curtis Williams admitted to WRBL he was conned out of more than $4,000. A work crew offered to repave his driveway last weekend, but instead scattered some sort of black liquid over it. I think this crew also stopped at Cross-Country Plaza - because the grass there looks spray-paint lime green right now.
+ Bobby Lowder's foundation donated $4.2 million to Auburn University's athletic department, to build a new "student-athlete development center." Lowder is an Auburn trustee - so the message here apparently is if micro-managing gets you put on probation, switch to mega-managing instead.
(A "student-athlete development center?" Some of us can remember when this referred to the entire college campus.)
+ The Columbus Riverdragons played a home game at 11:00 a.m., before a crowd mostly of children who met a book-reading goal. What does it say about local sports when they take youngsters out of school for a matinee, instead of holding a "businessman's special?"
+ Instant Message to the Columbus Civic Center: What a wonderful sign of spring you're displaying! The trees with purple buds outside the front door look great. How did you arrange the purple-shirted downtown business "ambassadors" to plant those things?
COMING SOON: Preparations for Riverfest, starting quite early....
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