A-III (PG-13)
NEW YORK— An overheated tone and characters' questionable tactics in the struggle against abortion undercut the obviously good intentions behind the pro-life drama "Voiceless" (ArtAffects).
While it's clearly meant to serve as a cinematic rallying cry for the protection of the innocent, the film instead runs the risk of reinforcing the stereotype of irate, crusading picketers collaring women in vulnerable situations.
Writer-director Pat Necerato's protagonist is Jesse Dean (Rusty Joiner), a former Special Forces soldier, "self-taught in theology," who runs an inner-city Philadelphia church's outreach center where he teaches boxing. A new arrival in what the movie portrays as a dysfunctional City of Brotherly Love, Jesse is understandably dismayed to find an abortion mill operating across the street.
Previously uninvolved in the political controversy, but with a personal stake in the issue shared by his wife, Julia (Jocelyn Cruz), Jesse works to get his fellow parishioners mobilized to shutter the place.
Pastor Gil (James Russo) is opposed to this type of activism. But Jesse is spurred on by his Scottish-born neighbor, Elsie (Susan Moses). Elsie's husband helped found the church but she has ceased to worship there because of the proximity of evil across the way.
Angry exchanges ensue. After he learns that a woman who had an abortion at the facility has committed suicide, for instance, Jesse rushes into the building, which has unrealistically ineffective security, heatedly confronting the receptionist at the front desk.
Matters escalate with an incident in which an abortion advocate (John G. Pavelec) turns up with a pistol, threatens everyone, and is killed by the police. Despite the heightened stakes, Jesse perseveres in his efforts, assuring Julia, "This is what God would want."
Viewers committed to the sanctity of human life will sympathize with Jesse's frustration and outrage. Yet, just as the movie centering on him seems unlikely to change the minds of the misguided about this sorrowful topic, so too his approach to the moral horror of legal killing, while admirable for its fervor and persistence, lacks reflection and prayerfulness.
The film contains a scene of gun violence with slight gore and mature themes. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
— Kurt Jensen, Catholic News Service
"Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? Questions and Answers About the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus" by Carl E. Olson. Augustine Institute (Greenwood Village, Colorado, 2016). 201 pp., $14.95.
Although Carl E. Olson states that "Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead?" is not an academic book, he delves into and disputes the conclusions and presumptions of numerous academic and popular books which in one way or another seek to question or even deny the historical reality of Jesus' resurrection.
Olson uses a question-and-answer format, with the questioner representing a skeptical view rejecting the Resurrection on various grounds, reflecting views ranging from the 18th-century Enlightenment to humanism and contemporary secularism. He demonstrates the development of modern biblical scholarship from its roots in the Enlightenment to the present. He answers each question he raises and, not surprisingly, concludes that the overall view of modern historical scholarship has to accept the historical reality of the Resurrection, since the subsequent rise and spread of Christianity is inexplicable without it.
Olson establishes the essential historical reliability of the writings of St. Paul and the Gospels, since these relied on eyewitness accounts of the risen Jesus preserved in oral tradition for no more than a generation or two. He emphasizes, rightly, that the Resurrection was bodily, that is physical, and not just spiritual.
Here, he rejects ancient and modern gnostic approaches, which view the physical as "lesser" or indeed as "evil" as opposed to the "superior" goodness of the spiritual. He is correct in emphasizing this point since the doctrine of the Incarnation is, in fact, what makes Christianity a distinct religion. The Incarnation is the dividing line between Judaism and Christianity.
Contrary to some of Olson's overstatements, Judaism did not and does not have a fundamental issue with the idea of the bodily resurrection of Jesus, since Pharisaic and modern rabbinic Judaism believes in an "end time," a messianic age in which the dead will be raised by God and face judgment by God.
The messiah will usher in an age of universal peace, harmony and justice for all humanity, so Jews speak of the coming of the messiah since, as they note, such an age of universal peace has not yet arrived. Christians speak of the return of the Messiah. In the meantime, as various Vatican and joint Catholic-Jewish documents have noted, Jews and Christians are called to work together to prepare the way, by caring for the poor and sick and establishing societies of equal law and justice for all.
Olson debunks contemporary ideas that the Resurrection was a collective hallucination of early Christians or a myth in the negative sense. Catholic readers who have confronted these questions or wish to delve into them will appreciate this book.
They would be well served, however, to be a bit reserved about the author's negative view of the Pharisees, who were the lay reform movement of the time and not really included in the Jewish leadership of Jesus' time. That role was reserved for the chief priests and the Sadducees, who were quislings supporting and supported by the Romans, with the chief priest, Caiaphas, in fact, appointed by his boss, Pontius Pilate.
— Eugene Fisher, Catholic News Service