MovieChat Forums > Ramona and Beezus (2010) Discussion > Film includes a female minister, so chri...

Film includes a female minister, so christian website dislikes the film.

posted 14 years ago by stubby_gray
21 replies | jump to latest

This is from the website movieguide.org a Christian family-oriented (ie Conservative) site that does weekly reviews and give you the lowdown on the "questionable" content it finds in new films. It's actually a great way to spend a few hours looking at their past reviews and seeing what hilarious things they truly say. Pretty much any movie I liked, they've deemed "abhorrent". But I just wanted everybody to read this and see these awful reviews and how they always bring JC and the Bible into the picture while telling you if you found any part of the movie good you're pretty much a horrible person.

Enjoy!
movieguide.org: The website that believes you're going to hell if you don't agree with them.

Why, Why, Why, Ramona?

August 1st, 2010

By Dr. Ted Baehr

The new family movie RAMONA AND BEEZUS just misses the mark.

In many ways, it's a very captivating, entertaining and important movie, as we pointed out in our review. It even has a positive reference to Jesus Christ when Beezus, whose real name is Beatrice, complains that her baby sister gave her this horrible name when she could not pronounce her real name. She asks Ramona who "could love a girl with a name like Beezus?" and Ramona answers, "Jesus."

With all the good things going on in this movie, someone made the wrong decision to put in a priestess at the aunt's wedding. Now, when I was at seminary in the late 1970s, we could debate all day long about whether there should be priestesses or not. The issue of women serving as pastors/preachers is hotly debated in the church today. And, there are many faithful women serving as pastors and preachers. However, the Bible is the ultimate authority on this issue, and for centuries, 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 have been cited to uphold the practice of excluding women from teaching and pastoring.

Thus, the Catholic Church, which represents more than 73.6 million people in the United States, is firmly against priestesses, as are many traditional Christians, conservative Christians, including the 17 million Southern Baptists. The question is, did the filmmakers want to exclude millions of Christians from the audience?

The adage, "a picture paints a thousand words," comes to mind. Hollywood movies use moving pictures to tell stories; and generally, filmmakers use iconographic symbols to tell their story in the most succinct way because every minute of screen time costs thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars. For instance, in movies, Christian ministers regardless of denomination are largely represented as male priests wearing a collar because in a split second, audiences identify the "collar" with qualified ministers.

Whether or not the filmmakers of RAMONA AND BEEZUS want to make a statement that they are in favor of female ministers, why would you take precious screen time in order to push a hot-button doctrinal issue for many mainline Christians who may potentially want to support such an uplifting and inspiring movie?

Sadly, many of these Christians will not want their children to see the female priestess because they won't want that image in their minds. It is incomprehensible that you would want empty seats in the theater.

If this is an ignorant decision, it is a problem that could have been solved for the filmmakers by contacting the Christian Film & Television Commission® and MOVIEGUIDE®. We have a Board of Reference that consists of major Christian leaders from many denominations and theological viewpoints. And, we've advised Hollywood on many movies.

Some filmmakers may think it's cute to have a female priestess in a movie, but why have empty seats in the theater?

http://www.movieguide.org/articles/1/895/why-why-why-ramona

[–] pnewland-792-608020 14 years ago

Wow. Hide your children!

[–] Coryraisa 14 years ago

Those so-called "Christians" have sexist, outdated views. Remember, the bible was written in a male-dominated era. God, in reality, would never harbor such dated, bigoted sexist views; Jesus certainly never saw or treated women as "second-class" nor did he ever bar them from his ministries or synagogues.

[–] fairyqueen 14 years ago

"However, the Bible is the ultimate authority on this issue, and for centuries, 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 have been cited to uphold the practice of excluding women from teaching and pastoring.``

I`d like to know the context of those passages. Why exactly are women not allowed to be teachers or pastors. Often those things made sense at the time they are written but not anymore.

[–] stubby_gray 14 years ago

Here's a link to those passages.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+2%3A11-15&version=ASV

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+14%3A33-35&version=NASB

Geez it's a wonder why there are not more feminists in this country. Unless that is they are fine with not speaking in church.

[–] ineedahero 14 years ago

That review is an extreme case of Christian Conservatism. As a committed Christian, I just saw the movie, loved it, and had no problem with it, even the female minister (although I thought it might be an unnecessary display of feminism). So please don't let one bad review ruin your whole view of Christianity. :)
For a more grounded (and parent-friendly) Christian review, visit this site: http://www.pluggedin.com/movies/intheaters/ramonaandbeezus.aspx

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Caffeine-Free 14 years ago

They're idiots. I read their reviews to get a laugh as well.

The only like movies that they think have metaphors to Jesus Christ and the redemption of sin. Like Toy Story 3, I'm pretty sure he was indicating that the fact the toys were pulled from the furnace was God grabbing them out of hell.

GAH! I grew up in an Evangelical church and believe that there are a lot of good values taught, but the people associated with it who think they are moral compasses or have some right to dictate the facts of things are awful. So full of self-importance and delusion. Like most Christian movies critics, especially. They need to get over themselves. Do they not know that people just laugh at them?

Maybe even scarier are the people who are not laughing at them, the lemmings.

I could have held you in my arms forever, and it still wouldn't have been long enough.

[–] dougk-8 14 years ago

Wow...talk about lemmings. You seem to follow all the "free thinking" thought police yourself. Your beliefs aren't "original", so get over yourself.

I will say, as far as the OP, it's good to be able to view different sides of something. Just like you don't care for holy rollers views on subjects, I get tired of the reviewers to who'll slam a movie because they didn't get a "real" gay person or an actual parapalegic to play a part. Sheesh.

Seeing that there are people who do view things like the OP gives one a better understanding of the differences in the world.

[–] PopSixSquish 10 years ago

^ That was spot-on.

One has to hope that site is a joke; it's good reading for laughs.
That's no offense to Christians in general...but there are evidently far too many who give the whole thing a terrible name. They pick and choose the most frequently thrown-around lines from their precious, ancient text (written by males, at a time when humans understood a ton less about their world) to apply to everyday life--but only those that would condemn people besides themselves. Basic logic isn't even considered. They'll nitpick films for completely unintended and absent "religious symbolism," and seem to have nothing better to do than create issues where there shouldn't be any by protesting whatever anybody else wants to do as somehow being an offense to their good little God-fearin' lifestyle.
I don't suppose they'd care to explain why God/Jesus would ever have wanted to "exclude women" from anything. "It's his will" doesn't cut it; if that's all the reasoning you need, of course you'd be willing to worship an arbitrary, cruel, unjust, immoral tyrant. And anyone who'd avoid an unusually charming, old-fashioned movie adaptation of a classic children's book because they don't want their kids to behold the image of a priestess is probably not someone I'd care to know. Of course I'd sooner encourage any daughter of mine to pursue the position of a Wiccan High Priestess, anyhow. Love religions without negative, divisive "Those people are wrong and we can't condone/accept them" tenets, and histories of horrific violence and senseless oppression.

"My Little Throny! I used to wonder what bloodshed could be..."

[–] Blairocity 14 years ago

I just want to point out here that most Christians would've thought nothing of either of those things, and Christians aren't that crazy. I'm a Christian and whoever wrote that..is crazy, in my opinion.

[–] allisonarf 14 years ago

The movie reviews at Christianity Today online are usually not too kooky. Certainly not as kooky as Movieguide.

[–] There-Can-Be-Only-One 14 years ago

I think you're overreacting. They didn't say or imply that if you disagree with them, you're a bad person, or are going to hell, or anything of that nature. They didn't even say they had a problem with a woman being a priest. The only point they stressed over and over again was that a lot of people WILL have a problem with it, and will be turned off by it, and unless the movie-maker was specifically trying to make a point regarding women pastors, he's losing a big part of his audience unnecessarily.

It seems to me that you are using the review and this forum simply as a platform to mock those you disagree with. I agree that there are a LOT of hypocritical, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou Christians, but if you really wanted to show an example of that, you've failed; and if you really want to show an example of that, you're deliberately stereotyping all Christians with the actions of a few loud ones.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] krautdoggg 14 years ago

That's surprising. I thought Focus on the Family would be all over this. Is this the first movie to feature a woman minister? In what in obviously supposed to be a Christian chapel of some sort?