Boston Legal vs Freedom of Religion

When the TV show "Boston Legal" came on the air in 2004, I was not impressed by the premise of the show nor by its leading actor, William Shatner. But every now and then, even the most loathsome TV show can make you turn your head and give applause.

Episode Synopsis: James Spader's character Alan Shore is defending the owner of a law firm who fired one of its attorney's for being a out-spoken Scientology fanatic.

Watch this snippet from the 2006 episode "Whose God Is It Anyway?"











After watching the video, there were a couple of observations that I made. While the lady attorney does make some valid points about freedom of religion, one statement that she makes regarding Muslims is not the whole truth. She lists several religions that do "wacky things" such as Christian Scientists don't go to the doctor; Jehovah's Witnesses won't buy Girl Scout cookies; and that "radical Muslims blow themselves up to meet virgins in heaven." This last statement is added so nonchalantly, but she's leaving out one vital part. Muslims do suicide bombings with the intent of killing infidels (i.e. non-Islamic people). If Muslims just had to commit suicide to get to heaven, I doubt there would be a single Muslim left on the planet. I was rather shocked to hear her include that with the implication that we should be tolerant and accepting of people who believe and do that sort of thing. So, in essence, she is saying the the tragedy of 9-11 shouldn't be condemned because the radical Muslims were just doing what their religion told them was ok.
Not only that, but her comment about Christian Scientists not going to doctors has resulted in countless deaths of children and adults who have died needlessly from illnesses that could have been easily treated with a simple antibiotic or saved by a blood-transfusion.

I don't know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching James Spader's character explain Scientology! Even though his presentation was dripping with sarcasm, it didn't need much. The truth about Scientology is so ridiculous; any rational person can clearly see that it was created by a science-fiction-writer-turned-cult-guru with a very overact imagination and big dollar signs in his eyes. I also think that the character's closing remarks are brilliantly penned:

"How about we scale back on the Freedom of Religion dogma exalting it as all get-out?.... Now [your client] is trying to cloak himself in an amendment that is as overplayed as it is misapplied.... The founding fathers of this country set out to prevent persecution, not to license it."

I have to applaud the writers for making that statement!
Hopefully, more people will become aware of what Scientology teaches; so we as believers can be better equipped to help show them the truth and encourage them to leave the science fiction on the shelf.

To find out more about Scientology and receive a FREE Watchman Fellowship profile on this religion, click here.

The Gospel According to Lucas

As I was surfing through the Watchman Fellowship website, I came across this article about Star Wars called The Gospel According to Lucas, Part II. First of all, I'm a huge movie fan, and I've always loved Star Wars (the original trilogy especially)! It was (and still is) one of my favorite movies to watch when I was a kid (and now as an adult). The article I read had some really interesting insights into the religious themes in the movie.

I once saw a Star Wars behind-the-scenes documentary, and I remember that George Lucas had mentioned that he got the idea of "the Force" from elements of Buddhism, especially Taoism (pronounced DOW-ism). The Watchman article included a chart that laid out a bunch of the similarities between Star Wars and Taoism. Very interesting!

The only part of the article that I didn't agree with was the statement:
"When the Millennium Falcon hides from the Empire in what its crew thinks is a cave inside an asteroid, only to discover they are inside the belly of a huge space slug (in Empire), it’s a clear allusion to the book of Jonah."
I'm not sure why the author would say that the space slug incident was an allusion to Jonah. I think he was a little off. The only similarity between the two is that there was a large animal with a person inside of them. I don't think it's an allusion to Jonah at all.

Star Wars is not a Christian movie, and neither does it contain "the essential beliefs of the New Age movement [which] include pantheism, reincarnation, and moral relativism." It does however have some hints of Christian themes in it, and I liked how the article gives several key areas in the movie that can be used as discussion starters regarding Christianity, especially showing the differences between "the Force" and God.

If you would like to read Part I of The Gospel According to Lucas or any other article on the Watchman Fellowship website, click here.