Back in February we told you about the Lost Weekend Instant Film contest our friends at SoCal Film Group in Los Angeles were sponsoring. The concept: Show up with your cameras and crew and reach into a bowl and find out what kind of movie you must make within 48 hours. The movie must feature a candle, and you must use a headline from the current Los Angeles Weekly as your inspiration.

The winner has been named. Directors Jason Schnell and Eric Pumphrey were given the assignment of making a MUSICAL. Less than two days later, they presented to the judges one heck of a crowd pleaser: Worse than Vietnam. One of the stars in this short film is Lynsey Bartilson [pictured here], who had a starring role on the sit-com Grounded for Life from 2001-2005. The film also stars Rachel Miner, Kelly Meyersfield, Mike Malota, Eric Pumphrey, and Adrian Ursu.

See the movie. If you are offended by references to masturbation and sex, don't go there.

Worse than Vietnam: The Musical | Musical Films | Video | Lynsey Bartilson | Masturbation | Contests | Film

"Forget The Da Vinci Code! This is the real deal," says arts and antiquities dealer Michel Van Rijn of the revelation two weeks from now that he believes will alter the world's thinking and undermine 2,000 years of Christian teaching.

Found in the 1970s in a tomb in Egypt, and later acquired by a Swiss foundation, The Gospel of Judas is set to be published in the April issue of National Geographic magazine, reports the Guardian Unlimited.

History tells us that a Gospel of Judas was denounced by a bishop in the second century. Presumably, this is the same text.

The text, reports say, presents Judas not as the vilest of traitors, but rather as a hero, doing what he did at Jesus's request. Indeed, it is supposed, that without the "betrayal," there would have been no martyrdom; Christ's destiny could not have been fulfilled.

Not everyone, of course, is as excited or worried about this bit of historical revisionism as is Van Rijn. The world will keep on turning, the Pope will still do what the Pope does, the Baptists will still do Baptists do, and this blog will publish yet another article. The masses won't even notice.

But slowly, surely, another brick in the wall of modern Christianity will be eroded, another "eternal verity" will be dispensed with. I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing.

Christianity | Jesus Christ
Judas Iscariot | Gospel of Judas
Heresy | National Geographic | Egypt | Antiquities

PRESS RELEASE

DEDICATION HONORS NUDE BRITNEY SPEARS GIVING BIRTH

Pop-Star’s Pregnancy Idealized In Brooklyn "Monument to Pro-Life"

BROOKLYN (March 22, 2006) — A nude Britney Spears on a bearskin rug while giving birth to her firstborn marks a "first" for Pro-Life. Pop-star Britney Spears is the "ideal" model for Pro-Life and the subject of a dedication at Capla Kesting Fine Art in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg gallery district, in what is proclaimed the first Pro-Life monument to birth, in April.

Dedication of the life-sized statue celebrates the recent birth of Spears’ baby boy, Sean, and applauds her decision of placing family before career. “A superstar at Britney’s young age having a child is rare in today’s celebrity culture. This dedication honors Britney for the rarity of her choice and bravery of her decision,” said gallery co-director, Lincoln Capla. The dedication includes materials provided by Manhattan Right To Life Committee.

"Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston," believed Pro-Life's first monument to the "act of giving birth," is purportedly an idealized depiction of Britney in delivery. Natural aspects of Spears’ pregnancy, like lactiferous breasts and protruding naval, compliment a posterior view that depicts widened hips for birthing and reveals the crowning of baby Sean’s head.

The monument also acknowledges the pop-diva’s pin-up past by showing Spears seductively posed on all fours atop a bearskin rug with back arched, pelvis thrust upward, as she clutches the bear’s ears with "water-retentive" hands.

"Britney provides inspiration for those struggling with the 'right choice,'" said artist Daniel Edwards, recipient of a 2005 Bartlebooth award from London’s The Art Newspaper. "She was number one with Google last year, with good reason — people are inspired by the beauty of a pregnant woman,” said Edwards.

Capla Kesting denies the statue was developed from a rumored bootleg Britney Spears birth video. The artist admits to using references that include the wax figure of a pole-dancing Britney at Las Vegas’ Madame Tussauds and "Britney wigs" characterizing various hairstyles of the pop-princess from a Los Angeles hairstylist. And according to gallery co-director, David Kesting, the artist studied a bearskin rug from Canada "to convey the commemoration of the traditional bearskin rug baby picture."

An appropriate location for permanent installation of "Monument to Pro-Life" by Mother’s Day is being sought by the gallery.

"Monument to Pro-Life" is on view April 7th thru 23rd with a reception for the dedication April 7th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Capla Kesting Fine Art, 121 Roebling St., Brooklyn, NY. Gallery hours are 1:00 – 6:00 pm Thursday thru Sunday, or by appointment. The gallery can be reached at www.caplakesting.com or by phone at 646-932-5687.

See more photos of the statue.

Britney Spears | Pregnancy | Birth | Pro-Life | Artwork | Statues | New York City | Capla Kesting Fine Art | Manhattan Right to Life Committee | Sean Preston | Nude Britney Spears

Don't they realize every time they say anything at all about The Da Vinci Code, they're just promoting it more?

The Catholic Church, under the pen of William Donahue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has written an open letter to director Ron Howard, whose film The Da Vinci Code opens in May, demanding a disclaimer saying "This movie is fictional" be placed at the beginning of the film.

He writes:

OPEN LETTER TO RON HOWARD: LABEL "THE DA VINCI CODE" FICTION

When "The Da Vinci Code" opens on May 19, most of the controversy will end provided the audience learns the truth: the movie, like the book, is a fable. As the director, you have a moral obligation not to mislead the public the way the book’s author, Dan 19, has. Putting a disclaimer at the beginning of the film noting that this is a fictional account would resolve the issue.

Brown has been trying to have it both ways for years: at times he says his book "is a work of fiction," and at other times he says it is based on "historical fact." Indeed, his novel opens with three "facts," all of which are demonstrably false.

• He says that an age-old secret society, the Priory of Sion, kept alive the untold story about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, when the fact is this tale has been exposed as a hoax concocted in the 1950s by an anti-Semitic Frenchman who was sent to prison for fraud.
• He calls Opus Dei a "religious sect," and portrays it as an evil force, when the truth is it is a Catholic organization founded to help lay people (not monks) seek holiness in their daily lives.
• Most disturbing of all, he says his book is based on documents that are factual. Really? The truth is there is not a scintilla of historical evidence to support his malicious claim that the divinity of Jesus was made up in the 4th century.

You are in a position to correct the record. If, as one survey discloses, a third of Canadians think the book is authentic, then more than mischief has been done. When credence is given to hoaxes, whether it be the notoriously anti-Semitic “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” or the invidiously anti-Catholic "Da Vinci Code," the consequences are real.

It is too late, Mr. Howard, to say that the movie is not anti-Catholic: John Calley, the film’s co-producer, has been quoted in the newspaper admitting that it is "conservatively anti-Catholic." But it is not too late for you to make it unmistakably clear that the movie is a fable. After all, if the film is remembered for the vicious lies it tells about Catholicism, it will not be John Calley’s reputation that will be sullied.

William A. Donohue, President
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

The Catholics have been putting spin on their message for nearly 2,000 years; they're good at it. Note how Donahue uses the same tactic as hater-of-everything Cathlolic priest John Trigilio, whom we wrote about in February, by attempting to tie together known "Bad Thing," in this case the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion with a subject he's trying to demonize, in this case, The Da Vinci Code. These guys have studied their psychology, but then, they had 1,700 years of the Inquisition to hone their skills.

Hey! I did it too... tied the known Bad Thing, the Inquisition, with panicky modern-day Catholics who are demanding something obviously fictional — a movie made from a novel — be labeled as such.

The photo of Opie and Miss Crump appears on the Catholic website with the caption: "If you'll sleep with me now, I promise to destroy the Catholic church when I grow up."

Dan Brown | Da Vinci Code | Movies | Tom Hanks | Jesus | Ron Howard | Mary Magdalene | Catholic Church | Protocols of the Elders of Zion | Holy Grail | William Donahue | Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Here's a list of some upcoming esoteric, science fiction, psychological and historical films that Sacred Fems may find of interest:

(QuickTime 7 may be required to view some trailers.)

March 31 — The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Daniel Johnston is a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love. The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a stunning portrait of a musical and artistic genius who nearly slipped away. Watch the trailer.

April 28 — Flight 93. A real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot. Watch the trailer.

May 19 — The Da Vinci Code. The murder of a curator at the Louvre reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected since the days of Christ. Only the victim's granddaughter and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle the clues he left behind. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only the murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Watch the trailer.

June 6 (6.6.06) — The Omen. A remake of the 1976 horror classic The Omen (1976), an American official realizes that his young son may literally be the devil incarnate.Watch the trailer.

June 30 — Superman Returns. Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in the epic Superman Returns. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman's bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space. Watch the trailer.

July 7 — A Scanner Darkly. From the book by Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly is set in suburban Orange County, California in a future where America has lost the war on drugs. When one reluctant undercover cop is ordered to start spying on his friends, he is launched on a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode.Watch the trailer.

August 4 — Apocalypto. A heart stopping mythic action-adventure set against the turbulent end times of the once great Mayan civilization. When his idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, a man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Watch the trailer.

Fall 2006 — Marie-Antoinette. Based on Antonia Fraser's book about the ill-fated Archduchess of Austria and later Queen of France, Marie-Antoinette tells the story of the most misunderstood and abused woman in history, from her birth in Imperial Austria to her later life in France. Watch the trailer.

Still in production — The Number 23. A man becomes obsessed with a book that appears to be based on his life but ends with a murder that has yet to happen in real life.


Descriptions are from Internet Movie Data Base or the film's official website. Image is from A Scanner Darkly.

A Scanner Darkly | Da Vinci Code | Devil and Daniel Johnston
Flight 93 | The Omen | Superman Returns
Apocalypto | Marie-Antoinette | Films | Trailers | Movies

Coming soon to the big screen: The Da Vinci Code open May 19! The murder of a curator at the Louvre reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected since the days of Christ. Only the victim's granddaughter and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle the clues he left behind. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only the murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect.

Was Dan Brown right when he wrote that the Holy Grail does not appear in Da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper? No, says GrouchoGandhi. And he aims to prove it. Read more about the Ggreat Ggrail Hunt sponsored by GrouchoGandhi.com.

Watch Tom Hanks in the exclusive trailer for The Da Vinci Code, based on the best-selling novel by Dan Brown.

Dan Brown | Da Vinci Code | Movies | Tom Hanks | Jesus | Ron Howard | Mary Magdalene | Films | Trailers | Holy Grail | GrouchoGandhi

Even though Father Alan Rees had been depressed for at least 12 years, and had attempted suicide by suffocation in 2004, the buzz around Belmont Abbey in Herefordshire, Wales, is that the monk killed himself by jumping off a second-floor balcony while reading The Da Vinci Code because the book had made him question his religious beliefs.

The highly respected Father Alan, 64, was the composer of music written especially for Pope John Paul II's only visit to Wales, in 1982.

Dr. Ken Godbert, the physician who had prescribed anti-depressant drugs for Father Alan, told the coroner: "There were difficulties because of his state of isolation and loneliness and he questioned his beliefs."

The Abbot of the Belmont monastery, Paul Stonham, said of Father Alan: "He went through hell, convinced God had abandoned him, that his life was worth nothing, that he no longer deserved to live. Nothing could convince him otherwise. Ultimately, he took the only way out a troubled mind could think of, and nothing or no one could stop him."

Source: icWales.co.uk

Alan Rees | Paul Stonham | Ken Godbert | Pope John Paul II
Belmont Abbey | Herefordshire, Wales | Catholic | Dan Brown | Da Vinci Code

Happy Vernal Equinox! Today in the Northern Hemisphere, it's the first day of Spring, when the sun crosses the Celestial Equator and enters the sign of Aries.

It's a day for mourning the Goddess's consort, the Dying God, who has co-ruled with the Goddess during the autumn and winter months.

It is the first day of the year in the Zoroastrian calendar. It is the feast day of the Anglo-Saxon Goddess Easter, known to the Mesopatamians as Ishtar.

The Dying God is celebrated by an inscription in the Vatican, which says, "He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood, so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved." No, that's not Jesus talking, but the God-Man Mithras, upon whose Temple ruins the Vatican was built. Mithras was a solar deity known as The Redeemer. His worship was before and concurrent with that of Jesus, but eventually faded away.

Mithras was Known as the "Good Shepherd" and the "Light of the World," just as was Jesus. Mithras's followers shared ritual communion meals of bread and wine. Mithras was born in a cave, of a virgin, on December 25th. Shepherds attended at his birth.

As the Burning Taper discussed some time ago, many God-Men were born on the Winter Solstice, and many died on the Vernal Solstice. Attis's mother was Cybele, a virgin, known as Queen of Heaven. Further back, we find the Babylonian Goddess Ishtar and her dying/resurrected son/lover Tammuz, born/resurrected at the Winter Solstice, dying at the Spring Equinox.

Even the name Easter comes from the word Ishtar.

The cross is an ancient symbol, pre-dating Christianity, often used to represent a solar deity. Inside a circle, the cross represents the Earth and her four seasons.

From "The Temple of Love: The History of the Temple of Ishtar":

In Her Temples in many lands from Egypt to Assyria to Babylon to Crete to India, in Rome and Greece and many Celtic lands, Her Temples had Sacred Priestesses who were also called Prostitutes by those of body denial religions. Her worship was in the arms of the Priestess who embodied and represented The Goddess(s). These worshipers are sometimes known as pagans.

A fundamental difference in the concept of worship is important to note: In the Temples of the old ways people would go to the temple TO BE WORSHIPPED not to worship. Women would go to the temple to serve the Goddess to embody Her, to represent Her, to be worshipped as Her. Women would spend a day, or a week, or a year serving at the Temple as a priestess, as a sacred Prostitute, as a whore in service to the Goddess. There they would be worshipped as the incarnation of the Goddess, as The Goddess Herself.

Men would come to Her Temple TO BE WORSHIPPED. Men would be welcomed and served by the Priestesses and men would represent the divine male principal, the Horned One, the Sacred Bull, The God. Men would come to the temple to give their love and passion to The Goddess, and would receive the passion, love, and affection of The Goddess.

But some three millennia ago there came monotheists who refused Her Worship preferring instead to be diminished in body and spirit. They called Her, "The Whore of Babylon, who leads men into fornication." They called our sacred sexuality "sin," and cast shame on Her sacred Priestesses. They held up a "virgin" as the ideal that women should imitate instead of the sacred Goddess that they had always held as the most sacred image of Woman. This is essentially the state of things in the modern world.

The two principal deities of ancient Babylon were Baal and Ishtar. Baal was the god of war and the elements and Ishtar the goddess of fertility - both human and agricultural. These two deities have roots going back before Babylon to Nimrod at Babel and to Assyria. Through the ages they were imported into other nations and under different names but always retaining the same basic characteristics. Baal was also called Bel, Baalat, Molech, Merodach, Mars and Jupiter, and was frequently represented as a bull. Ishtar was also called Aphrodite, Astarte, Ashtoreth, Cybele or Sybil, Diana, Europa, Isis, Semiramis and Venus. The two main elements in the worship of Baal were fire and human sacrifice, usually children.

Happy Spring!

Sources:
Altreligion.About.Com
The Temple of Love: The History of the Temple of Ishtar
The Burning Taper: Let There Be Light
Born Jesus: Mother, behold thy Son! Son, behold thy Mother!

This article is cross-posted on The Burning Taper.

Astrotheology | Ishtar | Baal | Cybele
Attis | Tammuz | Jesus | Virgin Mary

Pointing out that he had credited the work of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh in his novel The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown said on Monday he was "astounded" at allegations he had copied their work.

"I would like to restate that I remain astounded by the claimants' choice to file this plagiarism suit," he wrote in a statement released after he appeared on the stand in court, said Reuters.

"For them to suggest, as I understand they do, that I have hijacked and exploited their work is simply untrue."

Baigent and Lee wrote the 1982 nonfiction book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which supposes that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, and that Mary and their children fled to France after Jesus's crucifixion.

Brown said in his statement: "Messieurs Baigent and Leigh are only two of a number of authors who have written about the bloodline story and yet I went out of my way to mention them for being the ones who brought the theory to mainstream attention."

In the novel, one of Brown's main characters is named Leigh Teabing — an anagram of "Baigent." Brown refers directly to Holy Blood, Holy Grail in the storyline of The Da Vinci Code.

An important legal precedent may be set by this case, which is expected to end next week. The judge could take weeks before delivering his judgement.

Dan Brown | Da Vinci Code
Holy Blood, Holy Grail | Richard Leigh | Michael Baigent

Just days after announcing that Princess Diana's driver the day she died was a French spy, and after news that a laptop computer containing key evidence had been stolen, Lord Stevens, the chief police investigator in Diana's death is poised to announce the results of his two-year investigation: "It was an accident."

Many conspiracy theorists say otherwise, but who listens to conspiracy theories?

A source close to the case said: "Lord Stevens and his team have carried out a painstaking inquiry into Diana and Dodi's deaths. They will soon be in a position to destroy the conspiracy theories.

"The plain truth is they died in a tragic road accident."

Amazing! Right there alongside Highway 23 at the old First Baptist Church, a sign from Goddess!

Strange things have been built in Florida swamps, like Disney World and that weird upside down house near the Convention Center in Orlando...

But Domino Pizza's founder Thomas S. Monaghan's plan to build a "Catholic city" dedicated to the Virgin Mary called "Ave Maria" in south Florida may be the strangest idea yet. The Pizza magnate envisions a college and a town surrounding it built upon Catholic principles... nowhere to get an abortion, nowhere to buy or watch porn, and nowhere to get birth control, not even condoms.

He calls it "God's will." Civil libertarians call it unconstitutional. Others just call it crazy.

According to CNN, "...the town of Ave Maria is being constructed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in about 40 years. Both are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida."

It's amusing to think that Monaghan's Domino's empire was built upon the dollars of horny porn-and-condom-buying college kids.

Set on 5,000 acres, he envisions a European-style town, a cathedral, a college, and the world's tallest crucifix, towering 65 feet into the heavens. At least 11,000 homes are planned.

While homes will be owned outright by residents, all commercial real estate will remain the property of Monaghan, who can thus control by leases what items a business may offer for sale.

"I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don't want to be on the sidelines," Monaghan told a Newsweek interviewer.

CNN reports:

Gov. Jeb Bush, at the site's groundbreaking earlier this month, lauded the development as a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens. Bush, a convert to Catholicism, did not speak specifically to the proposed restrictions.

"While the governor does not personally believe in abortion or pornography, the town, and any restrictions they may place on businesses choosing to locate there, must comply with the laws and constitution of the state and federal governments," Russell Schweiss, a spokesman for the governor, said Tuesday.

Frances Kissling, president of the liberal Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice, likened Monaghan's concept to Islamic fundamentalism.

"This is un-American," Kissling said. "I don't think in a democratic society you can have a legally organized township that will seek to have any kind of public service whatsoever and try to restrict the constitutional rights of citizens."

I'm guessing there won't be any Masonic lodges allowed either, since Pope Benedict has said that Catholic Masons are in a state of "grave sin."

Thomas Monaghan | Domino's Pizza | Catholic City | Ave Maria | Freemasonry | South Florida