Really, did they have to show this on Easter?
Sitting in church today for Easter, I was reminded of many things. One in particular was from the early 90s when I was in college in Massachusetts and the student group that showed films on a weekly basis in the student center thought that The Last Temptation of Christ would be the perfect Easter weekend choice. The rationale as I recall was something like making a point about religion. Needless to say the Christian students group protested and handed out copies of the gospels to everyone who went to see the film. I went and fell asleep. Not having any knowledge of Christianity at that time, I really just did not get the point. Nonetheless, even as a liberal on a liberal campus I thought something was wrong about the timing of the film’s showing. The viewing did not seem designed to start an academic debate, just to be a gratuitous political statement.
Ah the culture wars of that era when some members of the English department saw Hamlet as an essential text and other members preferred The CIA Assassination Manual from Nicaragua (both texts were thus taught in introductory English). I know the wars continue today, but they do not seem quite so absurd. Then again I am not in college.
