Also in RE we watched another episode of the Heaven and Earth show, which featured Benjamin Zephaniah talking about his life and why he could not accept the OBE. Poet, novelist, and playwright Benjamin Zephaniah was born on 15 April 1958. He grew up in Jamaica and the Hands worth district of Birmingham, England, leaving school at 14. He moved to London in 1979 and published his first poetry collection, Pen Rhythm, in 1980. Due to all this and his fantastic features of his life, he was presented with an OBE but he did not take it. Benjamin Zephaniah talked about why he could not accept the OBE. There are many reasons why, like the war in Iraq and personal reasons as well. Due to him not accepting, the OBE he had 6000 people write to him to say ‘well done, you done the right thing.’
In conclusion, chat shows about religion and different issues there are not many on the television and I think that there should be more. Although the Heaven and Earth Show is not on now, it should be on again soon. The Heaven and Earth show is a very good show due to the fact of that it shows all different opinions about all different religions and lets members of the public join in with emails, texts and telephone calls.
In RE we also watched an episode of Songs of Praise. In this episode, it was about celebrating the L’Arche community. It celebrating 40 years of caring for mentally handicapped people in the community. It was a Dominican priest called Pre Thomas Philippe who helped Jean Vanier 'begin something' with people with learning disabilities, about 40 years ago in France. L'Arche first arrived in the UK in 1974. With help from Jean's sister, (a doctor in London and our first community leader), the Archbishop of Canterbury, Ann and Geoffrey Morgan and others, the first community opened in Kent. Churches of different denominations, local families, groups and other supporters have helped L'Arche begin in eight UK locations:
Kent (1974)
Inverness (1975)
Liverpool (1976)
Lambeth (1977)
Bognor Regis (1978)
Brecon (1989)
Edinburgh (1991)
Preston (1998)
There are now 130 L'Arche communities in the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, and Zimbabwe.
These certain Songs of Praise were celebrating the work of Jean Vanier who as you can see has set up small homes for handicapped people. After this, they started singing Hymns, which talk about gods love for everyone.
Overall Songs of Praise is a very popular programme and shows lots of different issues and communities. It also has many people expressing their opinions towards life issues.
A ii)
Examine, explain, and analyze the way in which a religious moral issue of the concern of Christians was dealt with in a soap opera
The issue that we looked at was Easter and how the matter came up in Eastenders and they have explained it in the terms of Christian’s beliefs. This issue is of concern to Christians because they are worried that many people are not Christians, read, and learn about the death of Jesus. In soap operas, a religious matter or in fact any matter really would not be explained in detail but due to it being Easter and Good Friday it was dealt with at some depth the half an hour programme and lots of people would have seen it.
In the episode of Eastenders on Good Friday 2006, there was an example of symbolism and information that was to do with Easter. In this episode of Eastenders Ben, Phil Mitchell’s son had gone missing due to arguing in his family. Dot and Jim discuss the fact of forgiveness, but Jim misunderstood the story of doubting Thomas. Dot tells Jim that he was not to bet on the horses or go into the pub and have a drink because it was against her religion. Normally every year Dot goes to the church to listen to the Easter service but this year Dot decides to listen to the Easter church service on the radio. Later on in the story Phil Mitchell tells every one that there are free drinks in the pub but Dot tells him he should not be serving drinks today because it is disrespectful. She tells him he should believe in the resurrection of Jesus and think about that time. They all should be contemplating the offers of Jesus. Dot also reminds everybody that on Good Friday no one should be eating fish.
During a discussion in the Queen Vic pub, they all well the men discuss what Good Friday is all about and why there are many different versions of the story. Eastenders also say that it is disrespectful to gamble on Good Friday.
I think Eastenders dealt with telling their audience about Easter in a good way because they linked it up with the story of Ben being missing and they used the man in the pub to explain about Easter in a quite detailed way but also in a respectful way.
‘Television always presents religious people as out of touch with the modern world’
Some people say that ‘Television always presents religious people as out of touch with the modern world’. But does it?
Ashley the vicar from Emmerdale is one of the few characters who are in touch with the modern world. He is normal, kind, sensitive and too nice. He leads a very normal life, goes out with friends, and has fun. So religious people who are in touch with the modern world have normal lives, they go out have fun and don't always think god is the answer to everything, but they do believe in god. These characters show that religious people can be normal people, and not a fake image of a religious person.
Some people would agree with the statement “television always presents religious people out of touch with the modern world" because this statement does apply to some characters in programmes like The Vicar of Dibley and Eastenders because the vicar seems very silly and Dot old fashioned and old. Some people would also agree with this statement because some religious programmes seem old fashion and a bit out of touch.
Some people could disagree with this statement because programmes like the ‘Heaven and Earth show’ shows what good Christians do and what young Christians do to what normal people would do with a moral issue. Other people would disagree with the statement as well because not all the programmes present religious people to be out of touch with the modern world, Vicar Geraldine from The Vicar of Dibley and Vicar Ashley from Emmerdale are very normal people and they don't always turn to god.
I agree and disagree with this statement because in certain programmes, for instance ‘Eastenders’ the only old and religious character is ‘Dot’ because she quotes the bible, to me she seems very dull, old, boring and out of touch. I disagree because programmes like ‘Songs of Praise’ and ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ make Christian’s life seem real. They make Christians like normal people and they are made a part of the society. I also believe that the statement does apply to some programmes but not all programmes present religious people to be out of touch with the modern world. I think television affects the way we view religious people. It all depends on the programmes we watch. For example if you watch Neighbours or Emmerdale you will probably have an open minded view on how religious people are viewed, and how they behave because these programmes show a biased image of religious people. If you watch The Vicar of Dibley and Eastenders, you will probably think all religious people are, stupid, old, childish, and old fashioned. These programmes do give you the impression that religious people are out touch with the modern world. I think most people view, religious people to be normal, but there are a few people are out of touch with the modern world likefather ted.
In conclusion, to this matter ‘Television always presents religious people as out of touch with the modern world’ is not always true because of Emmerdale and vicar of Dibley are not out of touch but programmes like Eastenders do make some of their character look out of touch. It would seem to be more of a balance between non-fiction and fiction programmes both shows some religious people as out of touch like documentaries about monasteries and the Pope but in some dramas Vicars and people with faith are seem as modern caring members of society.
Analyze and explain the way in which a religious theme of concern to Christians has been dealt with in a film or television drama.
The film we watched in RE was ‘Four weddings and a Funeral’. In this film, there were many religious and moral issues including marriage, sex before marriage and homosexuality. The issue I am going to look at is marriage. This is of concern to Christians because less people treat marriage seriously and many people get divorced because it is easier and cheaper..
The first wedding was of ‘Laura and Angus’. It was a traditional wedding because the bride was in white. The legal bonding of ‘Laura and Angus’ were in the Church of England. The best man was late and he forgets the rings. Laura is pregnant so they have had sex before marriage which in the terms of Christians is wrong because they believe sex should be kept within marriage. A lot a jokes and bad language that were said in the film may have offended some Christians. The service was also treated un-respectfully because there was fun about the significance of the rings and the service itself, especially the readings did not treat marriage issues fairly.
The second wedding was of Bernard and Lydia. This wedding was a Roman Catholic wedding. In this wedding, the marriage idea is treated very poorly because the Priest messes up the words and the bridesmaid was late. They are only getting married because they want to have sex. In the eyes of Christians, this is very bad. Charles has slept with all the women on his table and he is still not married. This shows he does not care about sex before marriage attitude from a Christian’s point of view. Some Christians would not like the sex scenes because it may be offence to them.
In the third wedding, Carrie talks about divorce in her speech, which is clearly going against the real purpose of a Christian marriage. She refers to the next time she will get married. Carrie sends out a bad message about sex. Carrie is also marrying Hamish for the wrong reasons. Carrie and Hamish are duly married in the Scottish highlands. Gareth, who is especially enjoying the lively dancing, along with too much food and drink, turns out to be the recipient of death. Gareth keels over and dies.
In the fourth wedding, Charles and Fiona (duck face) do not get married. At the wedding, Charles is starting to have doubts. Carrie also tells Charles that she has left Hamish. Charles is devastated and says wedding are only good “If you love them with all your heart”. David says to everyone that the groom is having doubts. Duck face then hits Charles and runs away. This is not a Christian thing to do.
In all of the weddings, it did not really treat marriage or the religion side of marriage very sensibly, and although they all took place in a church, the proper reasons for marriage were not explored and for some Christians they may have found that rather offensive and quite foolish. The church seemed to be more for decorating than to suggesting god might play a part in a marriage service.
At the funeral of Gareth, Matthew makes a speech about Gareth. The speech is a very warm-hearted speech, which touches everybody who is watching this film. Matthew reads a famous poem by W.H. Auden. This is a little extract from the poem ‘stop all the clocks’:
He was my North, my South, my East, and my West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song,
I thought that love last forever: I was wrong.
This part of the poem that Matthew read touched everybody. This funeral was a typical Christian one, which showed all the emotions that any person would go through.
In conclusion to ‘four weddings and a funeral’ in some ways Christians could get offended but on the other hand they might not. It sometimes gives false information about Christian beliefs. Overall, I think that you should not completely trust this film if you want to learn about marriage.
