DATE: March 08, 2011

FROM: James C. Stephens

RE: Proposed Disney’s New Series Title~Good Christian Bitches

TO: DAVID

I’m a bit perplexed about the title of your series. Is it a PR scheme? Are we as Christians really that predictable? So predictable that you’d play off our boycott tendency to market your product? I sometimes wonder what goes on in production and marketing meetings at Disney.

I’m sorry that you’ve found so little material to work with. Is creativity that limited a commodity?

I’m not really that angry. I’m more saddened. Seriously.  I wonder what Walt would think? WWWD?

In reality, the book sounds like an interesting and convicting documentary, remedial indictment and corrective of cultural Christianity in the South. It is sad that women would use prayer as a social means to dig up more gossip. It’s a scenario that plays itself out on many religious, atheistic, agnostic, and secular playing fields across America.  I remember as a Christian openly sitting in on a Buddhist meeting in West Hollywood and hearing them self criticize their system and  teacher Osel Tendzin who had given AIDS to a number of women followers before his death and the tragedies that befell their community. It’s a problem for all of humanity regardless of one’s religious or secular background. The awful decisions we humans make that inevitably affect entire communities.

I don’t envy your position as an entertainment executive as you make decisions as to which program to launch hoping as a business to make a profit. As a teacher we do carry a moral responsibility on our shoulders as we influence those who are in our class, or in your case with those who will watch your program. I loved the fact that Johnny Depp made Pirates because he wanted to make a film that his kids could watch. Novel idea that family entertainment.

So what to do with this hot potato? Does it have a redemptive purpose? I recall talking with a professor at USC sometime ago about a personal trial that my family had faced and the Christian stance we’d taken not to sue the other party who had wrongfully taken advantage of us. Her response was, “That’s why some people sue Christians because they know they’ve been taught to love their enemies, turn the other cheek, and rarely ( at least in the past) do they sue. So, how would a Muslim react to your series? A Buddhist? A Jewish neighborhood? I guess that’s why I don’t understand the title of your series. I suppose if it addressed them all in a kind of equal opportunity fashion that would be more like the Simpsons. But from the lead PR for your show it seems that the knee jerk reaction coming from  the Christian community might be “Why is everybody always picking on me?”  Easy target?

It just makes it harder and harder for me to talk to my conservative Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, Hispanic Christian friends who dismiss the media as immoral. It’s difficult to defend Hollywood as an industry which has seemingly become more like the self indulgent French Court of old. The people don’t have bread? Let them eat cake!’ type attitude.  For my family who are and have been engaged in media, it hurts. For a fan whose grandfather James Montrose worked on Warner Brother’s Sound Team for the first talkie the Jazz Singer, or as Tony’s cousin, Wally on Leave it to Beaver, I feel  the remaining balance of human decency in Hollywood is running low. In times like these, we need not kick one another, but to remember we are all part of the same race. The human race.

I thought the lesson our nation learned from the recent events in Arizona to be quite clear. Tone down our rhetoric. Think about how our words and actions affect others that are not so inclined to be civil.  What is the lesson for Hollywood? Even wise men make mistakes. After John MacArthur, Jr., the Executive Pastor of Grace Community Church spoke out frankly and sincerely about Islam on Larry King live, his life and his family’s lives were threatened and he had to hire special security to protect his family. I’m not saying that we should not be able to engage in free speech or to seriously discuss religious differences. That is the beauty of a free society. It also carries with it a great deal of responsibiility.

Sincerely,

James Stephens

Looking for credible investigative insight on the Dalai Lama, my eye caught sight of a line in a book summary of award winning journalist Tim Johnson’s Tragedy in Crimson-How China is using its economic power around the globe to assail the Free Tibet Movement which read, “He also takes a sympathetic but unsentimental look at the Dalai Llama (spinc), a trendy figure in the West who is regarded as a failure to his own people.”  Unfortunately, the talk was pretty much in sinque with the XIV Dalai Lama’s seemingly impervious and teflon reputation.

Upon my arrival at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute talk, I spent a few minutes ransacking his book. To be fair,  I wasn’t able to give it a thorough read.  I did however want to get an idea of where he was coming from prior to his talk.    For the last twenty-two years I’ve read more than my fair share of articles on the XIV Dalai Lama and have seen that far too many “journalists”  simply rely on standardized boilerplate to meet their deadlines, with notable exceptions like  Pico Iyer http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/the-doctor-is-within/ and Orville Schell http://asiasociety.org/policy-politics/center-us-china-relations/china-planning-necessary’.

When I read that Tim Johnson had trekked to nomadic settlements seeking their perspective on a changing Tibet and that he’d accompanied the XIV Dalai Lama on his tour of the United States, I expected less travelogue and a bit more exotic dish.

He started with the simple rendition of pop cultural mentions of the Dalai Lama in the Sunday LA Times crossword puzzle, or on the new film “Social Network” recently nominated for an Academy Award, or when his face appeared on the larger than life Apple billboards alongside LA Freeways, or in the classic comedy  “Caddyshack.”  Johnson mentioned in his credentials that he was not a Buddhist, nor was he a follower of the Dalai Lama. I gleaned from Tragedy in Crimson that he served as McClutchy’s Beijing Bureau Chief and that his grandfather had been a missionary in China.

One of the things that struck him during his sit down interview with the Dalai Lama was the Dalai Lama’s statement, “I sort of assume that as the XIV Dalai Lama that I’m going to live longer than the Totalitarian system maybe by 5-10 years. The one party totalitarian system has an expiration date.”

Johnson believes that “the Dalai Lama’s opinion matters. He is a universal moral figure like Martin Luther King or Gandhi in India.”

“Why is he important to us,” he mused.  “The way Tibet as an issue is addressed by China is very telling. China’s “give no inch style” with the Tibetans today, maybe Vietnam or Japan tommorrow.  In twenty years it could even be you or I in the US.”

He sketched out Tibet’s importance to China in terms of its size, including areas influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, such as Inner Mongolia to encompass upwards of 42 per cent of China’s landmass and valuable repository of copper, zinc and iron ore, not to speak of the fact that as the world’s “third pole” her glaciers and peaks serve  as the headwaters of seven great rivers.

He mentioned that in China’s hot-cold relationship with India, Tibet serves as a buffer zone between the two nations. In many ways, Tibet as manifest in the Dalai Lama, finds itself in a sense in the position of a historical linchpin between the two great emerging nation’s.  But, Tibet has adeptly played this role for hundreds of years.

Tim Johnson momentarily lapsed into a travelogue mode with one major distinction, rarely seen footage of the three hundred fires in the Lhasa riots.  Obviously, he’s seen much in his time in China. He seemed awestruck by the pace of change he witnessed in China from the window of his office in Beijing where he said, within three blocks of his office, thirteen hi-rises were constructed nonstop, by three shifts of workers numbering over 50,000 working around the clock, displacing more than nine villages and 9,000 residents in less than two years.

One of the audience asked about the destruction in Tibet resulting from the Cultural Revolution. His take on it was that it was no worse than in any other part of China.  Others asked about the contemporary situation based upon his field observations. He said that as Tibetan nomads have been forced to resettle in small villages, they are obviously no longer are able to function as their economy has historically been based upon their utilization of yak’s for everything from fuel,  milk, meat to their valuable hides for yurts,  their ancient mobile home. (to be continued)…

Q: What makes the Dalai Lama so popular with the America public?

A: Good natured Americans have been raised on “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” always fighting for the underdog, the oppressed.

I recall talking with a Tibetan Buddhist initiate we’ll call Robert from Arkansas who was attending an event led by the Dalai Lama in California.

He said, “I believe in the goodness of man and trust everybody implicitly. I find peace in Tibetan Buddhism that I didn’t find in the Assemblies of God.”

When asked, “Do you believe in God?”

He said, “Yes. I pray to God everyday.”

When asked if he believed in what Jesus taught he said, “I believe He was the Son of God and also everything he taught. Except I don’t believe a good God would send people to hell.”

When asked, “Don’t you as a Buddhist believe in hell?”

“No.”

“Then aren’t you practicing your own private brand of Buddhism?” we asked.

“Maybe I am.”

Was Robert a bad guy? No. He has been looking for peace in his heart, a practice to get there. He hadn’t rejected Christ totally, just Christianity.

He didn’t run away from us, he wanted to talk. He confessed he wasn’t a good debater. My heart broke. He has embraced what I call an “illusionary projection” of what he thinks Tibetan Buddhism is.

However, as in the justice system, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” When we stand before the judgment seat of God, we are tried alone, unless we have embraced Jesus Christ as our redemption, our sure defense.

We told Robert as a spiritual pilgrim, there is just too much at stake not to seriously probe what he professes to put his hope in.

Paul, a Jewish brother who professes belief in Jesus Christ asked Robert,  “Can I pray and ask God if He has a word for you?”

Robert consented.

Paul gently and compassionately relayed the message,

“God is saying, ‘Robert, come home. Robert, come home.’”

It becomes more apparent that the Western embrace of Buddhism is postmodern in essence. One of the most famous lines of cinema hero Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones” was delivered when he was facing a crisis and was asked what he proposed the best course of action would be. He said, “I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go.”

It’s obvious Robert is a nice trusting American guy. Like so many, he has followed the path of the crowd of pop-religious seekers who have made willful, but ill informed choices.

This New Year’s Shabbat, I picked up John Bunyan’s Prayer. As you may know, he was the author of Pilgrim’s Progress which he wrote in prison.   I think the 12 point list on prayer is worth sharing.

“1. Believe that as sure as you are in the way of God, you must meet with temptations.

2. The first day therefore that you enter into Christ’s congregation, look for them.

3. When they do come, beg of God to carry you through them.

4. Be jealous of your own heart, that it deceive you not in your evidences for heaven, nor in your walking with God in this world.

5. Take heed of the flatteries of false brethren.

6. Keep in the life and power of truth.

7. Look most at the things which are not seen.

8. Take heed of little sins.

9. Keep the promise warm upon your heart.

10.Renew your acts of faith in the blood of Christ.

11. Consider the work of your generation.

12. Count to run with the foremost therein.

Grace be with thee.”