Saints on the Loose! Tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".

        On this blog, Saints on the Loose!, there are two useful tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".

        The "Search This Blog" drop-down tool provides the reader with access to over 1700 subject listings from Christian doctrinal issues, social and cultural issues, sports, health, movies, food, books, television programs, history, Christian heresies, apologetics, and many other subjects.

        The "Translate This Blog" drop-down tool allows the the reader to select a language other than English in which they may read the blog post. This tool uses the Google Translate function and, as of January 2025, can translate 249 languages. A detailed but not excessively technical discussion about Google Translate can be found on Wikipedia.

        Use of these two tools in tandem can greatly increase the usefulness of this blog to you.

        The Google Translate tool provides what is probably a very literal, but readable translation.  Idiomatic meaning and some subtleties unique to particular languages may be lost. The following two example translations are of a portion of this post, in Traditional Chinese and in Spanish..

在這個部落格 Saints Loose! 中，有兩個有用的工具：「搜尋此部落格」和「翻譯此部落格」。

        「搜尋此部落格」下拉工具為讀者提供了數千個主題列表，包括基督教教義問題、社會和文化問題、體育、健康、電影、食品、書籍、電視節目、歷史、基督教異端、護教學，以及許多其他主題。

        La herramienta desplegable "Buscar en este blog" proporciona al lector acceso a miles de listas de temas, desde cuestiones doctrinales cristianas, cuestiones sociales y culturales, deportes, salud, películas, comida, libros, programas de televisión, historia, herejías cristianas, apologética, y muchos otros temas.

The Bible is a Weapon

 

The idea of the Bible as a weapon is played out in the science fiction film, The Book of Eli (2010).  The villain of the film is willing to resort to violence and murder to possess the book. He believes that, if he owns the book, he can have its power by using its words however he wishes. . Denzel Washington, the star of the film, says it is "a story about faith." Eli's mission is to protect the book and deliver it to a site out west. The film is seen by many as a caricature of real Christianity  I will let you watch the film and decide for yourself.

Some people call the Bible the Word of God, but John tells us that Jesus is the Word. The biblical understanding of the Bible as a weapon is more subtle. It is a sword, but it is not meant to kill. 

The Bible sometimes describes itself in military terms but it should never be weaponized against other people, backing them into corners, deriding them, manipulating them, forcing them to make decisions, abusing them, or attempting to silence them. We should never use it to "win." That spirit in a Christian is abusive and unhealthy, it is the sin of self.

See how Jesus reacted to the Rich Young Ruler.  He loved him and spoke the truth that the man needed to hear, even though that truth caused pain.

Mark 10:21; Ephesians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 6:7; Hebrews 4:12; James 4:11.

UN4GIVN

A post from this blog's past: https://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2015/06/car-tags.html  was about licensed "vanity"car tags with unusual readings which the driver may use for an extra fee above the required standard registration fee.

In the parking deck where I work, I recently saw a new tag which intrigued me: UN4GIVN. Using the English language letters and numbers this would transliterate as "unforgiven." What in the world could this mean?

After considering multiple possibilities, including a reference to a movie title or that the driver was a defiantly unrepentant philanderer, I decided that the most likely meaning was as a sarcastic insult to Christians, who often describe themselves as forgiven sinners.

Christian Films

Though not really in any way modern films, Magic Lantern presentations occurred in Europe as early as 1680, when slide projector shows were produced to enthusiastic audience reception. Athanasius Kircher, a Roman Catholic priest, in 680 published Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae about the technique.

The slide shows were adopted by many missionaries, evangelists, and temperance groups who began to switch to short films around the close of the Nineteenth Century. Between 1897-1898 there are at least four Passion Plays known to have been filmed. Some of the earliest Christian films were The Passion Play of Oberammergau (1897 or 1989), Passion Play: Baptism of Jesus (1903), La passion du Christ (1897), La vie et la passion du Jesus-Christ (1897), La vie du Christ (1899), and La vie et la passion du Christ (1906).

The first American feature film was a Christian film, From the Manger to the Cross (1912), a silent film directed by Sidney Olcott. Though you've never heard of him he directed 135 films. Jesus was portrayed by Robert Henderson-Bland and the young Jesus by Percy Dyer.

Bollywood, Nollywood, Hollywood

     Hollywood is the movie capital of the world but it is not the movie production capital of the world.  It's actually third.  Number one is Bollywood, the Indian film industry which produces multiple thousands of films annually.  The name "Bollywood" is Hollywood with a "B" because the actual name of India is Bharat.

     Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, produces thirty to fifty low-budget films a week.  Since the industry was virtually non-existent before the 1992 release of Living in Bondage by Kenneth Nnebue, this explosive growth is extraordinary.

     Most of the films are produced for about $15,000 and filmed in three to five days.  The DVD's sell for $2.00 and earn their producers huge returns.  The reason they are being discussed here is that a great many them are based on Pentecostal Christianity, even, or especially, the ones we in America would recognize as gore and violence filled horror films.  These films are on the level of the Christian Hell House phenomena.  

     The 1992 Igbo language film, Living in Bondage, started it all.  The plot goes like this: a group of men sacrifice their wives and drink their blood in a pagan ceremony which causes them to become rich.  The trouble is that their wives won't leave and continue to torment them as ghosts.  The men are saved when they beg forgiveness and accept Jesus Christ into their hearts.  The film almost immediately sold over seven hundred fifty thousand copies.

     The larger Christian ministries in Nigeria have their own production facilities and their films feature gore, witchcraft, cannibalism, violence, exorcisms, and Pentecostalism. 

"About Nollywood," http://nollywood.com/

"Cinema of Nigeria," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nollywood

Lapeyre, Jason, "Nollywood Nightmares. Inside Nigeria's Homegrown Horror Industry," Rue Morgue, Toronto, #92, 2009.