{"id":2435,"date":"2005-09-13T09:45:03","date_gmt":"2005-09-13T09:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/i-saw-penguins.html"},"modified":"2005-09-13T09:45:03","modified_gmt":"2005-09-13T09:45:03","slug":"i-saw-penguins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/09\/i-saw-penguins.html","title":{"rendered":"I saw Penguins"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw penguins at the zoo the other day. I haven’t however, seen March of the Penguins<\/em>  – I really am not too interested, and what I’ve heard (correct me) indicates that it’s rather anthropomorphized in its presentation. (although that aspect is toned down from the French version)<\/p>\n

Today the NYTimes notes the embrace of the film by cultural conservatives<\/a><\/p>\n

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But conservative groups have turned its stirring depiction of the mating ordeals of emperor penguins into an unexpected battle anthem in the culture wars.<\/p>\n

"March of the Penguins," the conservative film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing." <\/p>\n

Speaking of audiences who feel that movies ignore or belittle such themes, he added: "This is the first movie they’ve enjoyed since ‘The Passion of the Christ.’ This is ‘The ‘Passion of the Penguins.’ "<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For whatever reason, the article fails to note one of the more notable recent conversations on the film, between Maggie Gallagher:<\/a><\/p>\n

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I don’t know Jordan Roberts’ agenda, religious or otherwise, but it is hard not to see the theological overtones in the movie he remade. Beauty, goodness, love and devotion are all part of nature, built into the DNA of the universe. Even in the harshest place on the Earth (like 21st-century America?), love will not only endure, it will triumph.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

and Andrew Sullivan:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Theocon Maggie Gallagher waxes rather eloquently<\/a> about the devotion of penguin mates in caring for their young. I loved the documentary, "March of the Penguins," as well. But nature can sometimes be more complicated than some theologians posit. Here’s a wonderful little children’s book<\/a> about a true story about a pair of penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. They, like other pairs, became inseparable and bonded for life. But they were both males. When other penguins hatched eggs, these two found a pebble and warmed and nursed it. Then a zoo-keeper decided to give them a real egg, which they nursed and brought to birth and childhood like every other heterosexual couple. This alternative penguin family still thrives and you can go see them, if you want. The presence of homosexuality in nature is ubiquitous<\/a> and clearly part of God’s creation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw penguins at the zoo the other day. I haven’t however, seen March of the Penguins  – I really am not too interested, and what I’ve heard (correct me) indicates that it’s rather anthropomorphized in its presentation. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}