The Blind Side: an affirmation of faith (and football)

The Blind Side is the shocking portrayal of a contemporary Southern, white, conservative, Republican, Christian, SEC football-lovin', traditional family, the Tuohys, who befriend Michael, a homeless African American high schooler and enable his remarkable journey from poverty to fame.

It is shocking because it portrays this family as wealthy, educated, gracious, compassionate, moral, generous, loyal, sincere, courageous, and kind, instead of in the usual negative stereotypes portrayed by Hollywood and the mainstream media (e.g., their portrayal of Sarah Palin). As movie reviewer for the liberal StarTribune, Colin Covert, remarked, "The Tuohys are the sort of family that would fight a tax hike for idealistic social programs, but see their Christian duty to do right by Michael. Films don't show us compassionate conservatives like this very often, and I was happy to meet them."

The film is all the more powerful because it is based on the true story of Michael Oher, who played for Ole Miss and was recently signed by the NFL Baltimore Ravens. This makes the film a legitimate entrypoint into dinner-table and classroom discussions about race and faith.

While avoiding syrupy sentimentalism, the film is an entertainment, not a documentary. It tells Oher's remarkable story from the point of view of Leigh Ann Touhy, whom Covert calls "a steel magnolia whose conservative certitude and indomitable willpower make Sarah Palin look lily-livered. The highway department has bulldozers that are not as pushy." As such, it's a vehicle for star Sandra Bullock, who is rapidly accumulating rave reviews and award nominations for a career-best (and according to Leigh Ann Touhy's real-life husband and friends, spot-on) performance.

The Blind Side is a wonderful choice for holiday movie-going, and a celebration of real-life conservative values and Christian faith.

Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. present a film by John Lee Hancock, The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, and Quinton Aaron as Michael Tuohy. Rated PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references. Official web site: http://www.theblindsidemovie.com/

Sex and The City: a fairy tale

At one point in the Sex and the City movie, Carrie reads a Cinderella story book to Lily, the young daughter of Harry and Charlotte. At the end, Carrie points out that Cinderella is not real life, it's just a fairy tale.

Likewise, I hope that parents are pointing out to their daughters that Sex and The City is not real life, it's just a fairy tale. The movie, like the rest of our increasingly porno-fied culture, portrays a female fantasy of glamour, beauty, wealth, big city, bright lights, and fabulous, carefree sex without even a hint of birth control or sexually-transmitted consequences.

The reality of free-for-all sex, reported by the Centers for Disease Control in March, is that twenty-six percent of females between the ages of 13 and 19 in the United States has at least one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Some of the more disheartening findings of the study prove that these ain't your mother's STDs:

• The most common STI was cancer- and genital wart-associated HPV (18.3%), followed by chlamydia (3.9%), trichomoniasis (2.5%), and HSV-2 (1.9%). Among the teenage girls who had an STI, 15 percent had more than one.
• By race, African American teenage girls had the highest prevalence, with an overall STI prevalence of 48 percent compared to 20 percent among both whites and Mexican Americans. (Other Hispanics and race/ethnic populations were captured in the survey, but there were insufficient numbers in any one group to permit valid prevalence estimates for any group except Mexican Americans.)
• Overall, approximately half of all the teens in the study reported ever having had sex. Among these girls, the STI prevalence was 40 percent.
• Even among girls reporting only one lifetime partner, one in five (20.4%) had at least one STI. Girls with three or more partners had a prevalence of over 50 percent. The predominant STI was HPV.

This isn't just a "women's health" issue, is a societal emergency. And that's no fairy tale.

Charlton Heston (1924-2008)

Here are my favorite lines of movie dialogue, from classic to camp, delivered by the great actor and patriot Charlton Heston, who died over the weekend:

"Go, proclaim liberty throughout all the land, and to all the inhabitants thereof." —The Ten Commandments (1956), from Leviticus 25:10; also inscribed on the Liberty Bell

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" —Planet of the Apes (1968)

"Soylent Green is people!" —Soylent Green (1973)

Later in life, Heston was known for his advocacy of gun rights and a clear understanding of the Second Amendment:

"I simply cannot stand by and watch a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States come under attack from those who either can't understand it, don't like the sound of it, or find themselves too philosophically squeamish to see why it remains the first among equals: Because it is the right we turn to when all else fails. That's why the Second Amendment is America's first freedom." —speech to the National Press Club, September 14, 1997

"The Founders' intent in framing the Second Amendment is perfectly clear and undeniable. Thomas Jefferson wrote, 'No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.' Some anti-gun elitists declare this notion outdated. However, many constitutional scholars from this country's most prestigious universities agree that the Founders' intent is clear and irreversible: To 'keep and bear arms' is a right for all law-abiding citizens." —Letter to the New York Times, May 12, 1998

"There's no such thing as a good gun. There's no such thing as a bad gun. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a very dangerous thing. A gun in the hands of a good person is no danger to anyone except the bad guys." —Repeated by Heston in several venues on various dates