Bartholomew's Notes

Unexpected news from The Guardian:

The last time they met on screen, Omar Sharif was a small dot riding out of a desert mirage to join Peter O’Toole, the dashing and rebellious British army office TE Lawrence. Now, 42 years after the release of Lawrence of Arabia, widely hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, the two veteran actors have teamed up for a second time to make another historical epic.

One Night with the King tells the story of the Biblical figure Esther, who became the queen of Persia, and, according to myth and movie, saved the Jewish nation from annihilation…One Night with the King features former Bros star Luke Goss as King Xerxes and Tiffany Dupont as Esther. It also features Lord of the Rings stars John Rhys-Davis and Noble, and Indian actor Aditya Bal. The script is based on a novel by Tommy Tenney, and the director is Michael Schaeben [This seems to be a garbled version of “Michael Sajbel”].

I only just about managed to get past 80s British pop-singer “Luke Goss as King Xerxes”. But, of all people, Tommy Tenney? That’s the neo-Pentecostal evangelist, although the Guardian writer doesn’t seem to know it. Bethany House explains further:

Both a palace thriller and a Jewish woman’s memoir, Hadassah brings the age-old story of Esther to life. This historically accurate novel layered with fresh insights provides a fascinating twist on a pivotal time in religious history, and readers will find it bursting with page-turning drama.

During in-depth research on the life of Esther and its setting in ancient Persia–contemporary Iraq and Iran–Tenney discovered a compelling, heart-stopping tale lying at its core. He uses here his skilled storytelling gifts to capture the power and beauty of the peasant girl who became queen.

But the book is co-authored:

Tommy Tenney is a highly acclaimed speaker and a bestselling author with three million books sold…Mark Andrew Olson is a full-time writer and novelist who has written The Assignment, in addition to co-authoring Hadassah. He grew up in France, the son of missionaries, and is a Professional Writing graduate of Baylor University. He and his family make their home in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The Assignment, which came out in July, looks like a Christian version of The Da Vinci Code. So, is this in fact a Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins formula, where an evangelist provides the brand name and someone else does the actual work? One suspects so.

More details on the movie are provided by PRNewswire (which got there a couple of weeks ago):

Adapted for film by screenwriter Stephan Blinn and directed by Michael Sajbel, “One Night With The King” is scheduled for theatrical release on March 25, a date that coincides with the Christian Good Friday and Esther’s Jewish Feast of Purim.

This film is produced in collaboration with TBN Film, 8X Entertainment and Tommy Tenney.

As The Guardian reminds us, 8X Entertainment (alas, website down) also brought us The Omega Code. TBN has brought us a giant wig. Would it be unkind to suggest that an Easter turkey is on the way?

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When I wrote my investigation into Doug Giles’s background a few days ago, his Clash Church website was down. Now it’s back up: a surprisingly grimy and low-key affair. According to its intro:

WHEN THE CHURCH IS FACED WITH A CRUDDY CULTURE, IT CAN EITHER ABSORB IT, SEPARATE FROM IT OR INFILTRATE IT…CLASH CHRISTIAN CHURCH CHOOSES TO INFILTRATE

I’m sure Doug’s fellow pundits at Townhall will be pleased to hear Doug has infiltrated their crap. Or does he mean something else? As part of the church description, we read:

We envisage a worship center filled with hundreds of loving, cool and righteous people of all ages, races and economic strata.

Cool? As in: “Thou shalt be cool?” Eh?

For men, we embrace a masculine spirituality. We believe God created men to be men without apology. We believe that Biblical masculinity is necessary for the church to be the overcoming organism God intends for it to be. Therefore we avoid the feminization of men and the spiritual emasculation of God’s rowdy warriors that usually accompanies most evangelical churches.

You hear that, Christianity Today?

…We don’t mind getting our hands dirty doing God’s work of restoring our neighborhoods, cities and nations. We believe our labours will positively impact our culture for hundreds of years…We have big dreams.

We are Clash Christian Church.

That’s the word from the hood of the Adventura Residence Inn, where the church meets at 10:30 each Sunday (According to Marriot, the hotel is “Nestled in one of the most upscale areas in Miami”). Just to labour the point that he really is not gay, honest, the dear leader’s profile adds:

As far as other obsessions are concerned, Doug is into big game hunting and monster shark fishing, oil painting, mountain biking and a bunch of other things which incorporate running, screaming, yelling, and potentially breaking bones with his family and friends.

Say, just the kind of guy who could serve as an army chaplain in Iraq or Afghanistan, perhaps?

But this is the bit that really interests me:

Doug and his Church are overseen by local, national and international leaders within the greater body of Christ.

Yes, yes, but who? What’s with the anonymity? Does he mean His People and Morning Star International under Rice Broocks, or someone else? Why the secrecy? But here’s an unexpected clue: the statement of faith has been lifted wholesale (unattributed) from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a (rather dull) Missouri-based Reformed denomination that split from the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A in 1981 (the EPC allows women’s ordination and is more tolerant of charismatic practices than most Presbyterian churches. It also actually rejects reconstructionism). However, Giles’s church is not listed on the EPC website [UPDATE July 2005: More information about these leaders is now available. See my entry here, scroll down].

The Thoughts of Chairman Giles are also available for purchase, including a range of multi-CD sermons, some of which are “powerful and funky”. There is also a “Clash 4 kids” “youth mentoring program which pairs Christian adults with at risk kids ages 8-16”. Ahh, faith-based social work…

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