In an expected move, Parmalat‘s dairy subsidiaries in the United States filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday in New York City. Included in the filing yesterday were the Parmalat USA Corporation and its Farmland Dairies and Milk Products of Alabama units. The move was expected after Parmalat, the food and beverage giant, sought bankruptcy protection in Italy in December amid an accounting scandal.
Following on yesterday’s post about Mel Gibson‘s new movie, “The Passion,” neither the Chronicle nor the NY Times reviewers were particularly impressed from a filmmaking standpoint. From the Chronicle review:
It’s a stylish and visually polished re-creation of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus — unrelieved suffering and martyrdom, in other words. Controversy over whether it will inflame anti-Semitism guarantees huge audiences, and many people may be profoundly moved. But as a film it is quite bad.
It isn’t awful merely because of Gibson’s obsessive need to zoom in and linger on bloodletting, although this makes it difficult to watch. It’s awful because everything he knows about storytelling has been swept aside by proselytizing zeal. Without doubt, this is a heartfelt expression of religious faith, but it is so naked an expression — untempered by detached, mediating intelligence — that it speaks solely to the converted.
And the NY Times review adds:
“The Passion of the Christ” is so relentlessly focused on the savagery of Jesus’ final hours that this film seems to arise less from love than from wrath, and to succeed more in assaulting the spirit than in uplifting it. Mr. Gibson has constructed an unnerving and painful spectacle that is also, in the end, a depressing one. It is disheartening to see a film made with evident and abundant religious conviction that is at the same time so utterly lacking in grace.
But Kenneth L. Woodward observes in this NY Times op-ed that the public’s interest in the movie is due largely to the sanitized versions of Christianity that are so prevalant in America today:
Mr. Gibson’s raw images invade our religious comfort zone, which has long since been cleansed of the Gospels’ harsher edges. Most Americans worship in churches where the bloodied body of Jesus is absent from sanctuary crosses or else styled in ways so abstract that there is no hint of suffering. In sermons, too, the emphasis all too often is on the smoothly therapeutic: what Jesus can do for me.
More than 60 years ago, H. Richard Neibuhr summarized the creed of an easygoing American Christianity that has in our time triumphantly come to pass: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment though the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” Despite its muscular excess, Mr. Gibson’s symbol-laden film is a welcome repudiation of all that.
Indeed, Mr. Gibson’s film leaves out most of the elements of the Jesus story that contemporary Christianity now emphasizes. His Jesus does not demand a “born again” experience, as most evangelists do, in order to gain salvation. He does not heal the sick or exorcise demons, as Pentecostals emphasize. He doesn’t promote social causes, as liberal denominations do. He certainly doesn’t crusade against gender discrimination, as some feminists believe he did, nor does he teach that we all possess an inner divinity, as today’s nouveau Gnostics believe. One cannot imagine this Jesus joining a New Age sunrise Easter service overlooking the Pacific.
Like Jeremiah, Jesus is a Jewish prophet rejected by the leaders of his own people, and abandoned by his handpicked disciples. Besides taking an awful beating, he is cruelly tempted to despair by a Satan whom millions of church-going Christians no longer believe in, and dies in obedience to a heavenly Father who, by today’s standards, would stand convicted of child abuse. In short, this Jesus carries a cross that not many Christians are ready to share.
The religious website beliefnet has been sponsoring an online debate over The Passion and the theological issues it raises. The participants are two scholars representing diverse theological and academic perspectives. John Dominic Crossan is a well-known liberal New Testament scholar whose approach to Jesus is creative, but rather bizarre and skeptical. Ben Witherington III is an outstanding academic from Asbury Theological Seminary who advocates orthodox Christian theology. These two scholars are publishing a measured dialogue that is must reading for people who want to wrestle with the serious issues raised by The Passion of the Christ.
That is the only explanation for this normally risky move in a white collar criminal case.
Moe Freedman, an Orthodox Jew who hosts the insightful Occam’s Toothbrush blog, has the following interesting perspective on Mel Gibson’s new movie, “The Passion“:
The Bleeding of the Christ
I went to see “The Passion” tonight, and I would like point out a few things to those of you considering seeing it.
First, on an entertainment level, it isn’t much of a movie in the traditional sense, so if you’re looking for entertainment skip it, this movie is downright painful for anyone not looking for an affirmation of their faith.
Second, on all the Anti-Semitism charges, the really shouldn’t be that much controversy – the movie is anti-Semitic only inasmuch as the gospels are. Don’t get me wrong, Jews come off quite badly, and are the primary causes of Jesus’ death in the film, but that’s pretty much the way the gospels went the last time I read them, so you can’t exactly blame Gibson for that. I do think the Movie will cause some Anti-Semitism (especially in parts of the world prone to it) but again, you can’t blame Gibson for that either.
When it comes to depicting the Jews, the movie mixes up the Sanhedrin, the Kohanim, and the Pharisees in general, into an all purpose villainous group. but it wasn’t all that horrible on that front.
Cinematically it was quite good, and the actors were terrific, though some of them seemed to have problems with the cadence of their Aramaic and Hebrew (I’m nitpicking here). James Caviezel was great as the suffering Jesus, but I thought he was a little stiff during the flashback scenes.
The problem for me though, is that I’m not a Christian (I’m an Orthodox Jew BTW), and so I didn’t really have any emotional involvement other than simple curiosity, and that makes the film just about worthless. The violence didn’t “move” me, it just seemed like a ridiculous amount of overkill. They should have called this “The Bleeding of the Christ,” most of the movie is just that, Jesus bleeding. Charge me with deicide if you will, but after about 2/3’s of the movie I was begging for the guy to die already so we could all go home.
To sum up, if you’re a Christian and want your faith bolstered, tweaked or whatever this is supposed to do, go see it. It certainly seems to work (the two girls sitting next to me were sobbing), But if you aren’t, stay home and I’ll sum it up for you?Bleeding, lots of it.
Although I am a Christian, I share the concerns of many Jewish leaders regarding the potential anti-Semitic impact of the film. James Carroll‘s book “Constantine’s Sword” is flawed in several respects, but its thorough analysis of the troubling history of Christian persecution of the Jews is daunting and thought provoking. Viewed in that broad context, Jewish concerns regarding potential anti-Semitic reaction to Mr. Gibson’s movie are entirely reasonable. Christians accept that all of mankind is responsible for Christ’s death, and Jews certainly should bear no greater responsibility for his death than anyone else. What is more important to me is God’s forgiveness of my complicity in that sin, for which I am eternally grateful.
My law practice mostly involves lawsuits over business transactions, and I am constantly reminded in my practice that most non-business people dramatically underestimate the difficulty involved in running a business successfully. This NY Times article reports that 34 percent of businesses with 500 or fewer employees close within two years of opening, and 50 percent fold after four years. These business difficulties highlight the importance of sound business reorganization and bankruptcy law, and the United States is blessed to have the best business reorganization and bankruptcy system in the world. More on this point later, but it is not a feather in the hats of either the Bush Administration or the Republican Party that they are currently urging Congress to amend the United States Bankruptcy Code.
As noted earlier in this post, the street rebuilding project that has been going on in downtown Houston during almost the entire administration of former Mayor Lee Brown has been one of the mostly poorly managed public works projects in recent Houston history. This Chronicle article gives a good example of the legacy of this mess that new Mayor Bill White has inherited.
Brian Coyne, 58, a Houston defense lawyer who caused a downtown car wreck in January, 2003 that killed Michael Bruns, a Chase Bank officer from The Woodlands, was sentenced Monday to five days in jail, eight years’ probation, fined $10,000, and ordered to perform 350 hours of community service after pleading guilty to criminally negligent homicide in December. Mr. Coyne could have faced up to 10 years in prison.
This marks the end of legal proceedings over this incident, which is one of those unspeakable trajedies that reminds us of the shortness of life and the unforseen irreversible consequences that sometimes result from serious errors in judgment. Mr. Bruns was a pillar in The Woodlands community, and his death left a loving wife without a husband and three young children without a father. I do not know Mr. Coyne, but it my understanding from those who do is that he is a caring man and good attorney, and his statement to the court during his sentencing reflects the pain that he will experience for the rest of his life. May the Lord be with the Bruns Family and Mr. Coyne as they piece their lives back together after his tragic incident.
Houston has grown into a remarkably diverse city, but its heritage as a quintessential Texas city is reflected best by the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Unless you are a Houstonian, it’s a bit difficult to explain “the Rodeo,” as Houstonians call it. But it’s an event that lasts almost three weeks each March, involves volunteer efforts of thousands of Houstonians, brings hundreds of thousands of people into Houston, raises millions of dollars for academic scholarships, and provides some of the most interesting and unique entertainment that one could ever imagine.
Started in the early 1930’s in downtown Houston, the Rodeo has grown into a huge event that literally envelopes the entire Reliant Park complex, including Reliant Stadium and the adjacent convention facility. The Rodeo kicks off with 5,000 trailriders descending on Houston’s Memorial Park this Friday, which is “Go Texan Day” in Houston in which most folks go to work in some type of cowboy attire. After a wild night of campfire parties at Memorial Park, the Trailriders ride the five miles down Memorial Drive to downtown Houston early Saturday morning for the annual Rodeo Parade, which is great fun. Then, it’s off to the Rodeo at Reliant Park.
The Rodeo always has a first rate lineup of entertainers who perform after each night of the rodeo event, and this year is no exception. However, this year is particularly special for me in that rising country music star Dierks Bentley is one of the headline performers. Dierks is the younger brother of an old friend of mine, Houston real estate attorney Bart Bentley, who happens to be a pretty fair guitarist himself in the popular Houston rock band, Mid-Life Crisis and the Hot Flashes.
Although my teenage daughters undoubtedly will want to see Dierks’ show at the Rodeo, I most enjoy the Livestock Show in the Reliant Convention facility while visiting the Rodeo. Over the years, I have seen more incredible animals in the Livestock Show than in any zoo that I have ever visited.
Accordingly, if you are visiting Houston during March, do not miss the opportunity to visit the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Not only will you be highly entertained, but you will learn more about Texas in general and Houston in particular than you could anywhere else.
This Washington Times article describes a movement among certain National Football League owners to revise the NFL’s Trust, the master business agreement that maintains that shared national revenue structure that has propelled the NFL into a multi-billion dollar industry and makes the NFL the envy of virtually every other professional sports league.
In this post from last week, it was noted the plaintiff in the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case had sought Fifth Circuit review of a District Court order denying her Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) motion that attempted to reopen that controversial case. Today, the Fifth Circuit cancelled oral argument, which is not surprising because the Court often does not grant oral argument on appeals that are subject to summary disposition. Inasmuch as the appellant’s appeal in this case is a long shot, my sense is that the Fifth Circuit is preparing to affirm the District Court’s denial of the appellant’s motion and dismiss the appeal. Thanks to Howard Bashman for the tip on this development.