Culture: October 2019 Archives
Blazing Saddles and Its Horrors - Bethany Hegener - Medium
Prim and proper "woke" millennial reviews irreverent comedy classic. (For pete's sake, don't let her watch The Producers.)
"Blazing Saddles is a classic western comedy that makes fun and jokes about literally almost everyone from members of the KKK, African Americans, Native Americans, Chinese, the Irish, women, the LGBTQ community, the Nazi party, Jews, and government officials. It wasn't okay during 1974 and it definitely still isn't okay now. My main question was 'How can people even like this? How is this funny?' I do not know the answer to those questions still, but I do know that many people do in fact still LOVE the classic western comedy. Many claim, including Mel Brooks, that a movie like this could never be made today.
"Mel Brooks is quoted saying 'But never Blazing Saddles, because we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy. It's okay not to hurt feelings of various tribes and groups. However, it's not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering into the king's ear, always telling the truth about human behavior.' (brb throwing up)...
"Three minutes in the movie and the racist jokes begin. The entire time I was like 'I can't believe he just said that'.
She then proceeds to share "a few out of the many cringy remarks," summing up with, "As you can clearly see through these quotes, this movie was scarring. "
MORE: Bethany reviews The Princess Diaries ("Once again the 'She Cleans Up Nicely' trope swoops in with some rewarding new opportunities for the character."), Grease ("This song occurs right before she sings a horrible virgin shaming song directed at Sandy."), and Friends ("it struck me early on in the series how privileged these characters are. The all white cast indulge in this lifestyle of privilege.").
Is the Church Abandoning Its People in Their Toughest Dilemmas? - Tom Gilson - Thinking Christian
"Three ethical dilemmas, each of them a true story. What do they have in common, other than the obvious?
"An analyst working at a major corporate headquarters says, 'If I eat lunch at Chick-fil-A, I don't dare mention it when I return to work. Chick-fil-A is 'homophobic,' they say, and they'll report me to HR for creating a hostile work environment.'
"All the managers in one corporate department have placed LGBT 'Ally' stickers on their office doors. All but one, that is: the one Christian there, who feels caught. By not putting a sticker on his own door, he's making an unpopular statement -- one that could earn him disciplinary action.
"A manager at another corporation sees his company throwing great public support behind last June's LGBT "Pride" month. He feels an ethical urgency to talk to his boss about the Christian view being overlooked -- if not outright steamrolled -- in the process. His boss is homosexual, by the way.
"I didn't make up these stories. These are friends of mine. At first, when the one friend mentioned the Chick-fil-A issue, I thought he was exaggerating for effect, but he assured me he was deadly serious.
"Obviously all three of these are about dilemmas these friends have faced at work. But they've got one more thing in common: Not one of them has ever heard any clear advice from the pulpit on how to handle tough situations like these."
Found via The Stream
The Gospel Coalition's Drift Toward Identity Politics - Sovereign Nations
"[Colin Hansen] writes, 'If millennials and Gen Y don't learn from [Young, Restless, and Reformed] leaders how the gospel equips them to fight the injustice they see as they scroll through their Twitter timelines, will they choose to look elsewhere for leadership, purpose, and belonging?'
"The big worry is that the older generations will fail to understand our cultural moment and, as a result, fail to address the younger generations' most pressing concerns. Without equipping them with ways to fight injustice, they will look elsewhere. They will leave the Church.
"In the much-discussed Q&A at the 2019 Shepherd's Conference, Ligon Duncan affirms a similar view. He says, 'I don't want to drive our grandchildren into the arms of the LGBT issue....who are already wavering on a whole host of cultural issues.' This abandonment of Christianity would happen, he argues, if the church fails to get serious about what energizes the younger generations, namely, matters of social justice, particularly racial injustice.
"So we have an important council member and the lead editor of The Gospel Coalition affirming that the purpose of the shift to social justice in the last few years is to keep Millennials (Gen Y) and Generation Z in the faith....
"In a recent article in The Gospel Coalition, Rebecca McLaughlin, who seems to be enjoying an ascendancy in TGC circles, calls for Christians to 'go on the offensive.' But the nature of this offence is quite startling. She claims that we must take 'our lead from those with the credibility to speak' and she's clear on what constitutes 'credibility.'...
"Only certain voices are 'credible' and can 'be heard.' Absent from the A-team in the public square is the straight white man--the identity that represents homophobia, racism, and misogyny. McLaughlin is not seeking to elevate marginalized voices so that all can equally speak truth in Christ to the world. Rather she is calling for a sort of reverse marginalization. McLaughlin's strategy involves nothing less than the marginalization of the straight white man. And if this interpretation of her words seems extreme, she confirms it in an interview with Colin Hansen for The Gospel Coalition: "'But in an age where who you are determines what you have the right to say, we also need to stop fielding straight white men.'"
Portugal Mayor Supports Recriminalizing Public Drug Use - Filter
Reality intrudes upon ideological fantasy:
"On September 30, Rui Moreira, the mayor of Porto, contradicted his past pro-harm reduction positions, like the ones made at the 2019 Harm Reduction International conference in his own city, when he endorsed reintroducing criminal penalties for drug use in public spaces during a municipal assembly meeting.
"Drug decriminalization 'is not possible,' he said in the meeting, adding that such policies have "consented" to illegal drug trafficking. The mayor expressed he is 'a little tired of hearing just about the dignity' of people who use drugs, adding that the policy of decriminalization 'simply does not protect the overwhelming majority of the population.' To address this problem that he says is 'everywhere,' Rureira is advocating for the installation of over 100 new video surveillance cameras to monitor public streets in an attempt to clamp down on drug use."
