Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Heaven is for Real 2014: A Review

By Gene Ogorodov

When I watched the movie Heaven is for Real my expectations were low. The overtly predatory nature of American religion, especially Evangelical Protestantism, suggested that this film existed for the sole purpose of manipulation and extortion. Yet, even with already jaded perspective Heaven is for Real stooped below my lowest expectations.

Silly, sappy, and dishonest are adjectives which come far to readily to mind when describing this film. The genre of Evangelical testimonial which forms the basic structure of the plot discredits the validity of the story out of hand. Cherry picking past events to construct a plausible support for supernatural intervention is the complete opposite of an unbiased and objective history. Also, using the biased overly spiritualized formulations of the average Testimony a less than creative writer could make Joseph Stalin appear to be one of the most pious Evangelicals of the Twentieth Century. What could possibly be a more radial spiritual transformation than going from a gangster to founding a State Church?

Saturday, April 26, 2014

In Defense of RT

By Gene Ogorodov

Several days ago Secretary of State John Kerry lashed out against the quality reporting found at RT.  I do not work for RT. (The turkeys wouldn't give me a job; I'm too much of Marxist-Leninist for their tastes.) However, let me set the record strait. 

In researching current events one cannot depend solely upon one news outlet. One needs to read reports from the area in interest. For example, if one wants to know what the people of Crimea think you need read Crimean news. If there is a clear impetus for partisan bias it is necessary to read both sides and try to piece together an objective opinion. I'm a news junkie, and I have done due diligence on the Crisis in the Ukraine, and RT is the only major news source that I have found to represent the opinions of the Ukrainian and Crimean people and accurately represent the facts on the ground.