Thursday Odds and Ends

Shabir Ally Debate mp3’s Available! Click here to order. No, we don’t have the DVD’s yet, for two reasons: 1) we don’t have the tapes from Biola, and 2) these mp3’s were taken from a tape in one of our two cameras that had an audio feed. Believe me, we want the DVD’s as badly as anyone else, and will get to them as soon as we can.
Well, it definitely looks like The Da Vinci Code is taking it on the chin from the critics. That may well mean nothing, but then again, I had wondered how such a dialogue-driven plot with lots of esoteric explanations of signs and symbols and the like was going to translate onto the screen. In any case, yes, I plan on seeing a matinee of the movie in the morning. Don’t really have any choice, do I?
Speaking of the most over-blown movie story of the past decade, I hope no one was overly shocked to hear Sir Ian McKellan say that the Bible should have a disclaimer at the front identifying it as fiction. We all know that is Hollywood speaking—gay Hollywood, in this particular situation. Of course, I could not help but chuckle because as you listen to the audio (story here, audio linked in the story) you catch two things: first, I don’t think Matt Lauer has even read the silly book, since his set-up had nothing to do with the actual plotline (even Tom Hanks knew that); but moreso, when McKellan says the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front you can hear someone, not in the frame, give a nervous little, almost surprised, laugh. Hanks? Howard? I don’t know, but it sounded like someone was really thinking, “Oh, great, the reviews stink and now you have to go and add this?” In any case, I was hardly surprised at McKellan’s comments. He’s an obviously brilliant actor who must know quite well what God’s Word says about his lifestyle. It takes a lot of energy to suppress that truth, so you can hardly be surprised when someone in his position tries to identify as “fiction” the very Scripture that speaks so clearly to his own sin. UPDATE: Dan Phillips sent me this link where McKellen, on his own website, confirms that he tears Leviticus 18:22 out of Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms.
And finally, this just in. Randall Terry has moved from Roman Catholic Lite to the fully leaded version. Here’s the story. I’m sorry, but moving from Charismatic Episcopalian to Roman Catholic isn’t exactly the most surprising Tiber crossing. But the story is interesting for what it does, and doesn’t say.