Freethought & Rationalism Archive

ecco · 03-12-2013, 01:31 AM

Ya can't please all the people all the time.

PhilosopherJay · 03-12-2013, 10:17 AM

The History Channel's the Bible lost almost 20% of its first week's 8 PM 13.1 million viewers in its second week.
These were the top ten shows on cable television, total viewership and adults 18-49.

Walking Dead AMC 9:00 PM 11.46 5.7
BIBLE, THE HIST 8:00 PM 10.82 2.5
TALKING DEAD AMC 10:01 PM 3.43 1.8
Walking Dead AMC 11:00 PM 2.71 1.4
VIKINGS HIST 10:00 PM 4.62 1.3
REAL HOUSEWIVES ATLANTA BRVO 8:00 PM 2.71 1.3
Family Guy ADSM 11:30 PM 2.31 1.1
Family Guy ADSM 11:00 PM 2.17 1.0
DUCK DYNASTY AEN 10:30 PM 2.31 1.0
DUCK DYNASTY AEN 8:30 PM 2.51 1.0

While among 18-49 year-olds in the U.S., "the Walking Dead" was watched by over twice as many, 5.7 to 2.5, still the Bible did manage to have a higher rating than the combined two rerun episodes of Family Guy, 2.5 to 2.1. However, the first run "Family Guy" episode on Broadcast television had a slightly higher rating of 2.7.

The CBS Show "60 Minutes" had the largest audience of the night with 11.58 million, so "the Bible" finished third in all programs on Sunday, March 10.

Incidentally, "The Talking Dead" is apparently a live talk show about "the Walking Dead."

Warmly,

Jay Raskin

ecco · 03-13-2013, 08:56 PM

IT GETS WORSE

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/enter...s-happened-set

Quote:

Producers Of 'The Bible' Discuss Series Of 'Miracles' That Happened On Set

By Ashley Davis, Mon, March 11, 2013
A miniseries called The Bible has become a favorite for Americans, as it landed more than 13 million viewers in its first episode.

But the success of the show isn’t surprising to its creators, as they claim the production of the movie was influenced by God, which became particularly apparent to them after a series of omens occurred on set.

These “miracles” happened during key scenes in the series, including when Jesus was to be crucified and when he was baptized.

Producer Mark Burnett said the series seemed preordained while they filmed.

“The hand of God was on this,” he said. “The edit came together perfectly, the actors came together perfectly, it just comes to life.”

But it wasn’t just the cast and crew that made him think the film was blessed.

He and his wife Roma Downey explained the “weird things” that happened on set.

In one scene where Jesus tells priest Nicodemus, “the Holy Spirit is like the wind,” a big gust of wind hit the set.

“At that moment, a wind, like as if a 747 was taking off, blew his hair, almost blew the set over and sustained for 20 seconds across the desert. Everyone just looked at everyone like, ‘What just happened?’” Burnett said.

Another time, while filming the crucifixion scene, dozens of venomous snakes were found crawling around.

They had hired a “snake wrangler” to keep the set free of pests, and they usually found one or two snakes a day.

But during the filming of the crucifixion, the wrangler found 48 snakes.

It gets even more mysterious after they filmed the baptism scene and the actor lost his costume in the water. It floated away, but a little boy returned it to the set four days later.

“Four days later, a kid showed up from many, many, many miles away, who had been seeking us through the desert to return this to us,” Burnett said. “He didn’t know what it was why he should seek us, but he felt he had to return it.

Toto · 03-13-2013, 09:20 PM

What the History Channel is getting wrong about the Bible

Quote:

Not quite everything. Just geography, anthropology, archaeology, biblical studies, theology, race and ethnicity. Not all of them all of the time, but most of them, most of the time. The History Channel is engaging in a systematic whitewashing of the Bible, its characters and narratives, with a few telling exceptions. And this matters because of the way that race functions historically in the West, in the United States and in the Church and, how the construction of race in modernity is shaped by, in and, in response to the Scriptures.
...

That dark, rich, fertile soil is the source of a pun in the Genesis account of the creation of humanity: God creates an adam from the adamah, an earthling from the earth, a human from the humus. Mark Burnett and Roma Downey replaced the life-giving red-brown soil of Fertile Crescent with sandy white soil which would not sustain life so they could show God creating a white man in God's image. That man, like the bulk of the cast, is white like them, like their target audience, unlike the Afro-Asiatic Israelites.

Toto · 03-13-2013, 09:25 PM

More that the History Channel is getting wrong

Quote:

The bible is an androcentric and patriarchal text. It is also a text that has many women's narratives, including those of strong women wielding power and authority in spite of their patriarchal and androcentric context. There is no room in the Burnett-Downey recreation of the bible in their own image – right down to their own skin tones – for strong biblical women so they simply exclude them. A partial list of the women who have been cut from the narrative include: Yocheved, Moses' mother and the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah, Zipporah, Moses' wife and her sisters so that Moses is not the product of a strong community of women all of whom save his life in different episodes, but a lone ranger, a man who became a hero on his own. Hoglah, Milcah, Maacah, Noah and Tirtzah, the daughters of Zelophehad who are mentioned in more biblical books than there are Gospels, for whom God changed inheritance laws in the Torah that women might receive an inheritance – not worthy of attention. The great woman-warrior, Prophet and Judge (sharing those titles with Moses and Samuel and no one else, not even Joshua) Deborah, who ruled the nation – excised. Hannah, the theological revolutionary who taught the priesthood how to pray – unnecessary.

There is a final whitewashing, silencing strategy employed by these producers. That is sanitizing genocide, slavery – when the Israelites are the slavers, sexual violence and heterodox theologies. The bible is a wonderfully rich, complicated, challenging, illuminating, revelatory text. It is also horrifically violent and does not say what we want the way we want it to. We must take it in its entirety seriously as a cultural and historical artifact and as scripture – if that is our confession. But this series erases the texts in which Joshua and the Israelites slaughter babies, kill their mothers, fathers and brothers and take their sisters as war-brides as long as they haven't had sex – prepubescent girl-children – on the orders of Moses and God. They ignore the texts in which God calls for the enslavement of non-Israelites and their children in perpetuity – the scriptural and theological basis for the Atlantic slave-trade and American slavocracy. They ignore the texts in which entire ethnic groups are exterminated by divine command. And they even ignore the horrific sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls within Israel: Lot's offer of his daughters to be raped by a mob, Israelite fathers selling their daughters into sexual slavery with the permission of God and Moses, a Judge of Israel sacrificing his daughter like an animal and celebrated as a hero of faith in the New Testament, abduction, rape, forced pregnancy used repeatedly as tools of war. Bathsheba's abduction and rape recast as consensual adultery.

ecco · 03-14-2013, 05:31 AM

Unfortunately, the millions of good Christians who are enthralled by the series probably don't read HuffPost articles or even articles written by the likes of Rev. Wil Gafney, Ph.D. Biblical Scholar, Seminary Professor, Episcopal Priest.

But thanks for the links.

Jimmy Higgins · 03-14-2013, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

More that the History Channel is getting wrong

Quote:

The bible is an androcentric and patriarchal text. It is also a text that has many women's narratives, including those of strong women wielding power and authority in spite of their patriarchal and androcentric context. There is no room in the Burnett-Downey recreation of the bible in their own image – right down to their own skin tones – for strong biblical women so they simply exclude them. A partial list of the women who have been cut from the narrative include: Yocheved, Moses' mother and the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah, Zipporah, Moses' wife and her sisters so that Moses is not the product of a strong community of women all of whom save his life in different episodes, but a lone ranger, a man who became a hero on his own. Hoglah, Milcah, Maacah, Noah and Tirtzah, the daughters of Zelophehad who are mentioned in more biblical books than there are Gospels, for whom God changed inheritance laws in the Torah that women might receive an inheritance – not worthy of attention. The great woman-warrior, Prophet and Judge (sharing those titles with Moses and Samuel and no one else, not even Joshua) Deborah, who ruled the nation – excised. Hannah, the theological revolutionary who taught the priesthood how to pray – unnecessary.

There is a final whitewashing, silencing strategy employed by these producers. That is sanitizing genocide, slavery – when the Israelites are the slavers, sexual violence and heterodox theologies. The bible is a wonderfully rich, complicated, challenging, illuminating, revelatory text. It is also horrifically violent and does not say what we want the way we want it to. We must take it in its entirety seriously as a cultural and historical artifact and as scripture – if that is our confession. But this series erases the texts in which Joshua and the Israelites slaughter babies, kill their mothers, fathers and brothers and take their sisters as war-brides as long as they haven't had sex – prepubescent girl-children – on the orders of Moses and God. They ignore the texts in which God calls for the enslavement of non-Israelites and their children in perpetuity – the scriptural and theological basis for the Atlantic slave-trade and American slavocracy. They ignore the texts in which entire ethnic groups are exterminated by divine command. And they even ignore the horrific sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls within Israel: Lot's offer of his daughters to be raped by a mob, Israelite fathers selling their daughters into sexual slavery with the permission of God and Moses, a Judge of Israel sacrificing his daughter like an animal and celebrated as a hero of faith in the New Testament, abduction, rape, forced pregnancy used repeatedly as tools of war. Bathsheba's abduction and rape recast as consensual adultery.

The whole Lot thing was to protect the Angels of God. It wasn't like he wanted his daughters to be raped, but that he was protecting God himself.

But what does anyone suspect, a truthful retelling of the Bible?

Samhain · 03-14-2013, 08:51 PM

Let me know when they get to Ezekiel 23.

Diogenes the Cynic · 03-15-2013, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimmy Higgins

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

More that the History Channel is getting wrong

The whole Lot thing was to protect the Angels of God. It wasn't like he wanted his daughters to be raped, but that he was protecting God himself.

But what does anyone suspect, a truthful retelling of the Bible?

Why do angels need protecting?

Samhain · 03-15-2013, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diogenes the Cynic

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimmy Higgins

The whole Lot thing was to protect the Angels of God. It wasn't like he wanted his daughters to be raped, but that he was protecting God himself.

But what does anyone suspect, a truthful retelling of the Bible?

Why do angels need protecting?

And what does God need with a starship?

03-12-2013, 10:17 AM	#42
PhilosopherJay Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Orlando Posts: 2,014	the Bible Falls in Television Viewers The History Channel's the Bible lost almost 20% of its first week's 8 PM 13.1 million viewers in its second week. These were the top ten shows on cable television, total viewership and adults 18-49. Walking Dead AMC 9:00 PM 11.46 5.7 BIBLE, THE HIST 8:00 PM 10.82 2.5 TALKING DEAD AMC 10:01 PM 3.43 1.8 Walking Dead AMC 11:00 PM 2.71 1.4 VIKINGS HIST 10:00 PM 4.62 1.3 REAL HOUSEWIVES ATLANTA BRVO 8:00 PM 2.71 1.3 Family Guy ADSM 11:30 PM 2.31 1.1 Family Guy ADSM 11:00 PM 2.17 1.0 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 10:30 PM 2.31 1.0 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 8:30 PM 2.51 1.0 While among 18-49 year-olds in the U.S., "the Walking Dead" was watched by over twice as many, 5.7 to 2.5, still the Bible did manage to have a higher rating than the combined two rerun episodes of Family Guy, 2.5 to 2.1. However, the first run "Family Guy" episode on Broadcast television had a slightly higher rating of 2.7. The CBS Show "60 Minutes" had the largest audience of the night with 11.58 million, so "the Bible" finished third in all programs on Sunday, March 10. Incidentally, "The Talking Dead" is apparently a live talk show about "the Walking Dead." Warmly, Jay Raskin

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03-12-2013, 01:31 AM	#41
ecco Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: SE Posts: 4,845	Ya can't please all the people all the time.

03-14-2013, 05:31 AM	#46
ecco Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: SE Posts: 4,845	Unfortunately, the millions of good Christians who are enthralled by the series probably don't read HuffPost articles or even articles written by the likes of Rev. Wil Gafney, Ph.D. Biblical Scholar, Seminary Professor, Episcopal Priest. But thanks for the links.

03-14-2013, 08:51 PM	#48
Samhain Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 7,735	Let me know when they get to Ezekiel 23.

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