On the afternoon of March 29, 2002 the world was shaken when an 18 year-old Palestinian girl and suicide bomber, entered a market where she detonated a bomb, killing herself, injuring 30 and killing a 17 year-old Israeli girl. No one was shaken more than the mothers of the two dead teenage girls, who shared so much in common and yet whose differences brought them to their untimely deaths. In her thought-provoking documentary, To Die In Jerusalem, Director & Producer Hilla Medalia puts a human face on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through two mothers, who struggle to cope with the event that put them in the center of an intractable geopolitical conflict. After conversation with Hilla, we are joined by John and Ed Priddy, producers of the film. We then turn to audience questions.

We rarely remind you that this site (and all our work) is donor supported, so if you have just started reading this blog—please forgive us. If you are a long-time reader–send lost of cash right now!!! You can make a tax-deductible donation via PayPal (click The PayPal button to the right) or to the address listed below.

In 2007 The not-for-profit Center for Faith and Culture (CFC) has continued our mission to rekindle the spiritual, intellectual and creative legacy of next-generation Christians in culture. We do this in three ways:

1) Communicating: “The Kindlings Muse (TKM) is our live show taped for podcast (Listen today!) & distributed online and through iTunes. It originates as four shows–TKM @ Hales Ales Brewery and Pub, TKM @ The CS Lewis Centre, TKM @ The Movies and TKM @ Sundance Film Festival (with Windrider)

2) Building a Community of today’s Kindlings: by hosting by-invitation retreats for ” devout, thoughtful Christian creatives (drawn from the arts, academy and church) already making a significant contribution in culture. Alumni include Lou Carlozo, Craig Detweiler, James Elaine, Mako Fujimora, Grant Goodeve, Nigel Goodwin, Bruce Hermann, Paul Ingram, Rand Miller, Scott Nolte, Rebecca VerStraten-McSparren, Marty O’Donnell, Marcie O’Donnell, Ted Prescott, David Raven, Joe Rehfeld, Jennie Spohr, Gregory Wolfe and others.

3) Cultivation of next generation “Kindlings: through a variety of means: writing, speaking and partnering with other organizations like IMAGE JOURNAL, The International Arts Movement and The Windrider Forum. Books like my newly released The Culturally Savvy Christian are another way of cultivating a next generation of kindlings. In 2008 we plan to launch a new Artists & Lecture Series. We would also like to produce our first ever Faith, Art & Ideas Conferences on Orcas Island.

You play a vital role in our work because none of what we do is possible without your prayers and financial support.““Year-end contributions are especially essential to finishing this year strong and laying the groundwork for next year’s ventures. CFC needs ($) 40,000 by December 31, 2007 and as of December 19 we have received ($) 10,000.

If you believe in our work of rekindling the spiritual, intellectual and creative legacy of next-generation Christians in culture, please do what you can today! (In the past, readers of this blog have contributed amounts large and small from ($) 5 to ($) 5,000.)

If you’d like to support this work, please mail your year-end tax-deductible contribution now (to: The Center for Faith and Culture, PO Box 77385, Seattle, Washington 98177) or simply click the contribute button below and make your donation via paypal. Any envelopes postmarked December 31, 2007 or earlier with checks dated December 2007 will be credited in 2007!

Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.

PS. And remember, these are the best of times and the worst of times, but they are the only times we have. (For Now).

Except that I’m no “Sopranos” fan. Instead, I’ll celebrate the overdue death of a show that perpetuated the ugliest and least accurate of stereotypes: the Italian American as mobster.

I understand the arguments supporting this series. Tony Soprano is a different kind of criminal, they say. He’s conflicted and sees a shrink: how post-modern! The show’s extraordinary writing garnered a 2006 Emmy award. And the program has critics tripping over their Olive Garden mostaccioli to praise it.

But just as Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 Nazi propaganda film “Triumph of the Will” could be called a cinematic masterpiece, the excellent craft behind “The Sopranos” serves only to make the offensive and repugnant look attractive. As someone who takes pride in Italian American contributions to art, culture, science and cuisine, I find the show’s popularity maddening. “The Sopranos” represents a huge billboard that makes a horrid, media-perpetuated cliche look hip and cool.

I’ve raised this point with “Sopranos” fans in the newsroom, and many of them look at me as if I lack sophistication. I’ve actually heard words to the effect of: “Come on Lou, it’s a great show. You’re being too P.C. Can’t you just get over it?”

Though I’ve never actually tried this”and if you offend easily, please skip this paragraph”I wonder what those co-workers might think if I suggested competing shows targeted to the sorest spots of their race, religion or ethnicity, with titles and themes such as “Sambo the Shiftless Negro,” “Survivor: Illegal Wetback Mexicano Border Run” or “Those Money-Grubbing Jewish Slumlords.”

They’d be outraged, and very rightfully so. When it comes to false images that hurt, the final word should come from people who belong to the targeted group. That’s why I sympathize so much with the Native Americans who sought to banish Chief Illiniwek from the University of Illinois. While oblivious (and non-Native American) U of I alumni blathered about Indians and school tradition, the Native Americans gave the chief a new name: degrading.

I can only imagine what the fight might’ve been like if the chief had a lot of Native American fans.

And therein lies the rub with “The Sopranos:” An overwhelming majority of its cast members can claim Italian roots. The very people who should rise up against a show like this instead help bring it to your living room every week.

“Italian Americans in Hollywood today are the modern-day Stepin Fetchit,” says Paul Basile, editor of the Italian-American newspaper Fra Noi. “They can make a living off of it, but they don’t have enough social conscience to rise up and change it.”

The facts speak: 1999 F.B.I. statistics show that the total number of Italian criminals in the United States numbered 1,150”less that eight one-thousandths of the entire Italian- American population of about 15 to 16 million. Compare that to statistics of how Italian Americans get portrayed by Hollywood: roughly 300 Mob-related movies made since the release of “The Godfather” in 1972. No wonder a 2003 Zogby poll found that 78 percent of American teens ages 13-18 associate Italian Americans with either crime or blue-collar work.

And a survey by the Response Analysis Corp. reports that 74 percent of adult Americans believe most Italian Americans have “some connection” to organized crime.

Do shows such as “The Sopranos” help with the gross, inaccurate depictions? Of course not. But do Italian Americans aid a corrective cause by creating such entertainments? Whether it is Robert De Niro lending his Oscar-winning talents to “Shark Tale” or “Analyze This,” or James Gandolfini taking on the role of tough guy Tony, viewers get the message: If actors and artists with a vowel at the end of their names have no problem with Mafia stereotypes, they must be OK.

“It’s easy money,” Basile says. “These are the parts where you make a lot of fast money in Hollywood. And Italian Americans haven’t developed the backbone to say no.”

The negative effects are so pervasive that they seep right down to our local classrooms. The unthinkable happened in November when Rotolo Middle School in Batavia fought”that’s right, fought”to defend its right to stage an original play called “Fuggedaboutit: A Little Mobster Comedy,” performed by the “Bada Bing Players.”

The Bada Bing, in case you didn’t know, is the topless strip club featured in “The Sopranos.” The author of the play was Matthew Myers, a teacher at the school (where apparently lessons in the First Amendment trump values of ethnic sensitivity).

Well if Myers can write a script, I can too: I indulge in my own Hollywood daydreams from time to time. And while the word “meta” has likely never been uttered in a “Sopranos” episode (doesn’t rhyme with bada bing, ya know), here’s my meta fantasy finale: Led by undercover cops Joe Pistone (a.k.a. Donnie Brasco) and Frank Serpico, federal authorities catch up to Tony Soprano and his posse. His linguini-loving butt is hauled into court, where Rudolph Giuliani is prosecutor and Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito preside as judges. Soprano faces the bench and as Giuliani rattles off the charges, he turns to the jury and says:

“But of the most offensive hits delivered by this thug Mr. Soprano, here’s the worst: He systematically slaughtered the cultural pride of so many decent, law-abiding Italian Americans: all 99.992 percent of them.”

There’s just one problem. Giuliani loves “The Sopranos.”

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