I like Star Wars, the movie, as much as the next person—at least the original (while not technically sophisticated, or particularly well-acted, nevertheless it retains its charm). But there’s nothing like being corrected by a 16-year-old Star Wars geek on a quote from a movie I saw during its original release. In a movie theater. Before the uppity kid was even born!*

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My son’s pretty excited about the new Beowulf movie coming out soon. He’s been a fan since reading the myth in high school. You don’t know how good it feels to actually be able to say that my son read something worthwhile by way of literature in high school given some of the other things I’ve seen come home as assigned reading. But, I rant. The movie looks like it will be slick and a feast for the eyes, but I’m hoping that they stick with the story, something Hollywood seems to have difficulty with.

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A student in my current on-line course, Educating in Faith, shared her memories of an evangelistic ”chalk artist.” Reading her comments I too remembered those presentations. I’m not a big fan of the graphic arts as ”performance art.” My early cognitive mapping related to art seems to have created a taxonomy that wants something to be one thing or the other, but not both. It’s either art or it isn’t; it’s ”craft” or high art; it’s a painting or a sculpture; it’s a drawing or a painting. Obviously, I’m not a big fan of ”mixed media,” and photorealistic Photoshop creations launches me into a philosophical aesthetical inner debate about whether what I’m looking at is ”art” or not.

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Don’t miss CNN’s upcoming program “God’s Warriors”

Correspondent Christiane Amanpour presents a three part (Jewish, Muslim, Christian) documentary in the “God’s Warriors” series that will be airing on CNN at 9 pm Tuesday through Thursday evenings (Aug. 21-23) next week.

This can make for a great home Bible study. Invite some friends for viewing and discussion!

The recent movie “Pan’s Labyrinth” takes place after the Spanish Civil War when the government is working hard to rid the country of any resistance. A young girl, Ofelia, finds herself in the middle of this conflict as her new step-father is a captain for the Spanish government. As Ofelia and her mother join her new step-father in another town, strange things begin to happen to Ofelia and, she finds her life intertwining with that of mythical creatures. Throughout the movie, you are left wondering if this other world is real or is it just in her head.

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Despite the serious and lofty education most of us clergy receive in seminary (theology, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, hermeneutics, philosophy, etc.) ministry has, decidedly, a pragmatic skills component to it. As one person put it, you have to “know stuff” (and she wasn’t referring to “book learnin’”). Pity the congregational minister who doesn’t develop skills to grease the rails of ministry in the real world. To quote Napoleon Dynamite, “You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills… Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.”

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I’m a sucker for spelling bees. Our elementary school spelling bee was one of the highlights of the year when I was a school principal. And I always try to catch the Scripps National Spelling Bee—a real nail-biting sporting event!

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“Divan” (2003, 77 minutes) is a nice addition to your list of “systems movies.” The documentary tells the story of Pearl Gluck, a “slipped” daughter of Hassidic parents.

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