{"id":1657,"date":"2011-11-22T19:37:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T00:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=1657"},"modified":"2011-11-23T09:02:12","modified_gmt":"2011-11-23T14:02:12","slug":"thanksgiving-the-movies-arthur-christmas-opens-nationwide-spielbergs-war-horse-previews-words-of-wisdom-for-taylor-swift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/thanksgiving-the-movies-arthur-christmas-opens-nationwide-spielbergs-war-horse-previews-words-of-wisdom-for-taylor-swift.html","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving @ the movies: &#8220;Arthur Christmas&#8221; opens nationwide, Spielberg&#8217;s &#8220;War Horse&#8221; previews + Words of wisdom from Taylor Swift  + The importance of gratitude"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are today&#8217;s dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p>1. <strong>It&#8217;s Thanksgiving. Let the Christmas movies begin! <\/strong>Among the first arrivals (on Thanksgiving Eve, actually) is <em>Arthur Christmas <\/em>which purports to answer the question of how Santa delivers all those present to kids all over the world in one night. The CGI comedy also, I&#8217;m told, imparts lessons on the importance of standing up for what you believe is right, realizing that everyone is important and being willing to put others needs before one&#8217;s own.\u00a0 I haven&#8217;t actually seen this one but you can check out the trailer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0tIC8I9CuPY\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s this from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/war-horse-steven-spielberg-thanksgiving-265028\">Hollywood Reporter<\/a>: <em>DreamWorks announced on Tuesday it will hold special word-of-mouth screenings of Steven Spielberg&#8217;s War Horse on Sunday, Nov. 27 in 10 cities.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"&#039;War Horse&#039; Trailer HD\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/29bquyI4deI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>2. <strong>Words of wisdom from Taylor Swift<\/strong> (<a href=\"http:\/\/content.usatoday.com\/communities\/entertainment\/post\/2011\/11\/taylor-swift-happy-to-be-raising-the-next-generation\/1\">per USA Today<\/a>): <em>&#8220;The truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation. So make your words count.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>Comment:<\/strong> She may be only 21 but the country star\u00a0 expresses more wisdom than many entertainment executives two or three times our age. <em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>3.\u00a0 <strong>Speaking of words words that count<\/strong>&#8230;I like this quote I heard from cited the pulpit last Sunday:<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><em>&#8220;If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.&#8221; &#8211; <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainyquote.com\/quotes\/authors\/m\/meister_eckhart.html\">Meister Eckhart<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And, sleeping on my original post, let me add: True gratitude is humble.\u00a0 It recognizes our own need for and reception of God&#8217;s mercy and kindness. It also fill us with the desire to live the prayer of thanks by passing those gifts on to others.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H1EOnVSSJYs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to forget to be grateful. That&#8217;s why having a day set aside to remind us is a good thing.\u00a0 Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. See you Monday.<\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are today&#8217;s dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. 1. It&#8217;s Thanksgiving. Let the Christmas movies begin! Among the first arrivals (on Thanksgiving Eve, actually) is Arthur Christmas which purports to answer the question of how Santa delivers all those present to kids all over the world in one night. The CGI&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14,24,25,1],"tags":[35,1981,1979,1982,1978],"class_list":["post-1657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-matters","category-gratitude","category-movies","category-music","category-uncategorized","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-arthur-christmas","tag-meister-eckhart","tag-taylor-swift","tag-usa-today"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thanksgiving @ the movies: &quot;Arthur Christmas&quot; opens nationwide, Spielberg&#039;s &quot;War Horse&quot; previews + Words of wisdom from Taylor Swift + The importance of gratitude<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/thanksgiving-the-movies-arthur-christmas-opens-nationwide-spielbergs-war-horse-previews-words-of-wisdom-for-taylor-swift.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thanksgiving @ the movies: &quot;Arthur Christmas&quot; opens nationwide, Spielberg&#039;s &quot;War Horse&quot; previews + Words of wisdom from Taylor Swift + The importance of gratitude\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here are today&#8217;s dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. 1. It&#8217;s Thanksgiving. Let the Christmas movies begin! Among the first arrivals (on Thanksgiving Eve, actually) is Arthur Christmas which purports to answer the question of how Santa delivers all those present to kids all over the world in one night. The CGI&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/thanksgiving-the-movies-arthur-christmas-opens-nationwide-spielbergs-war-horse-previews-words-of-wisdom-for-taylor-swift.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-23T00:37:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-23T14:02:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1683,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions\/1683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}