{"id":192,"date":"2011-03-15T17:43:55","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T17:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/03\/tom-hanks-to-star-in.html"},"modified":"2011-03-15T17:43:55","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T17:43:55","slug":"tom-hanks-to-star-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/03\/tom-hanks-to-star-in.html","title":{"rendered":"Hot debate over existence of hell; Glenn Beck leaving Fox?; Plus headlines starring Big Bird, the Aflac duck and Tom Hanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debate over hell heats up on MSNBC.<\/a> <\/b>Host Martin Bashir gave controversial pastor Rob Bell a little hell on Earth when he interviewed him about his book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived<\/i>. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos was quite a bit friendlier during an earlier interview on Good Morning America<\/a>.
\nIMHO:<\/b> I’m certainly no theologian and have only read an excerpt from his book<\/a> but I know enough to know that it’s not for me to judge<\/a>
\nRob Bell. It’s also not for me to judge the eternal fate non-Christians or
\nanyone else. As for me and what I believe, I believe in a God whose capacity to
\nlove and heal is beyond human comprehension. I believe in a God of
\nultimate mercy.
\nIt’s been my personal experience that a faith that focuses on concepts
\nof hellfire, punishment and damnation does not bring out the best in me
\n— or, I think, other people. On the other hand, really believing in
\nGod’s love and forgiveness unlocks human potential to do great things
\nfor His glory. Is Rob Bell a heretic?<\/a>
\nConsidering that Jesus was considered a dangerous one by the religiously
\nrighteous of His time (using their own narrow views of religious correctness to fan public anger against Him), I’d be cautious about throwing that word around
\ntoo loosely. In the end, it’s God’s view, not mine, that counts.  

Are Glenn Beck and Fox News splitting up?<\/a><\/b>
\nRumor has it that a ratings slide, advertiser boycotts, relatively
\nstrong ratings for fill-in host Judge Anthony Napolitano and general
\nunease at the network about the show’s increasingly conspiratorial tone
\ncould add up to the TV end for the Beckster when his contract expires in
\nDecember. On the other hand, he’s still number one (by far) in his time slot.
\nIMHO:<\/b> I don’t catch Beck very often (though I check his Blaze website<\/a> frequently). His connect-the-dots
\ntheories are a bit much and he sometimes takes himself way too seriously. But I don’t think he’s a “hater” (as he’s
\nroutinely accused of being) and he does sometimes raise questions that
\nmerit answers. The extent to which some powerful forces on the left have
\ngone to demonize him and push him off the air does make me wonder if
\nhe’s, at least occasionally, onto something.

Unrest on Sesame Street.<\/a> <\/b>
\nThe cast rallied against defunding Public Broadcasting. Sorry, Big
\nBird. The government’s broke and it’s about time you fly on your own.<\/p>\n

Gilbert Gottfried apologizes for Japan tsunami tweets.<\/b><\/a>
\nThe comedian, who just lost his gig as the voice of the Aflac duck, says
\nhe didn’t mean to offend anyone by making tasteless jokes about the
\ntragedy. Hopefully, he’s learned that part of having a good sense of humor is knowing when something ISN’T FUNNY.  <\/p>\n

Tom Hanks to star in pirate drama.<\/b><\/a> He’ll play real-life hero Richard Phillips, the sea captain who in 2009 surrendered himself to Somali pirates to save the life of his crew. Like Apollo 13<\/a>, in which Hanks played astronaut Jim Lovell, this true tale of heroism virtually writes itself.<\/p>\n

CMT to make movies.<\/b><\/a> Could Country Music Television<\/a> be a new venue for traditional-values movies?<\/p>\n

No blog tomorrow or Friday. See you Monday.  
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debate over hell heats up on MSNBC. Host Martin Bashir gave controversial pastor Rob Bell a little hell on Earth when he interviewed him about his book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. 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Host Martin Bashir gave controversial pastor Rob Bell a little hell on Earth when he interviewed him about his book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos was quite a bit friendlier during an earlier interview…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/03\/tom-hanks-to-star-in.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-15T17:43:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}