CNN's "God's Warriors".....

Though I know I'm a little late in discussing this topic, I have just a few thoughts on the three-night documentary.

GREAT:

1) What was covered on all three fronts was covered very well. I especially was impressed with night one, "Jewish Warriors", for the scope and breadth of the analysis of facets of present-day Judaism, complemented by comments and views from those quite orthodox.

2) Amanpour. No one is perfect or completely unbiased, but she's about as close as they come, and having her do this made perfect sense. No one else in news comes close when it comes to credentials. Not even Anderson Cooper (insert tongue in cheek here).

3) Greg Boyd. God bless Greg Boyd!!! The point of the feature with him I absolutely cannot agree with more! STOP the marriage between evangelical Christianity and conservative American politics! I think I said this in a post a LONG time back, but if we had taken all the money spent on political causes, et al from Christians and spent it instead on feeding the poor, caring for the sick, and loving people no matter Red State or Blue State, we'd see alot more people lovin' Jesus. Let the Holy Spirit change hearts!! We focus on Jesus. Deal? Deal!


GOOD:

1) The first two nights, "Jewish", and "Muslim" Warriors. I learned much and appreciated the opportunity to do so, rather than seeing another night of Larry King bumbling through an interview on the latest with Paris Hilton/Lindsey Lohan/insert name of irrelevant person here.

2) Overall span of interview subjects; wide ranging that I could see, at least on the first two nights.

3) Rehan Seyam. Not deterred by the majority of Americans who would look at her in traditional Muslim wear (with headscarf) thinking she was a homicide bomber, she lives her faith, all the way. Her frank comments about never wanting anyone to see her body in a revealing way other than her husband was, frankly, a welcome breath of fresh air to hear a Muslim woman in America make that statement. Granted, I know, I know, if she were in an Arab nation, her story would not exist, for she wouldn't be able to be outspoken in the first place.


FAIR:

1) Night three: "Christian" Warriors. While doing a good job in discussing present day evangelical Christianity in America, it actually overdid it. How many "Religious Right White Guy" stories did we really need? Other than John Hagee's "Christian Zionist" drive, the others (Falwell, Johnson, et al) were repetitive.

2) Ron Luce and Teen Mania--much, too much emphasis on Luce looking like a Taliban leader raising the next generation of homicidal warriors....and catching them in San Fran was a nice backdrop to it all. One of the few cheap shots in the entire series.


BAD:

Did anyone else notice what few commercials were in the first night's two hours regarding the Jews, and very little additional commercial time on night two? Then, the night of the Christian Warriors...EVERY time you turn around...commercials! But first, five promos on Soledad O'Brien, Spike Lee, and the fourth airing of a Diana retrospective.

Guess which night they thought they'd get the most viewers?


VERY VERY DISAPPOINTING: Instead of talking to multiple white guy leaders of the Religious Right, why not investigating the post-modern church movement beginning a groundswell in Europe, Christian persecution around the world, and what's it like to be a Christian in a country like China? Having the whole two hours on Christianity in America actually distorted the real worldview and current world experience of the Christian Church.

On the whole, 4 out of 5 stars. It was a huge undertaking, and I applaud CNN for that. :)