A visceral ‘Odyssey’

       So much has already been written about Christopher Nolan’s movie “The Odyssey” that I hesitate to add to the conversation. Nevertheless…

       I found it to be a very visceral experience. That’s partly because I saw it in IMAX, which tends to be overwhelming visually, and partly because of its powerful – and often quite disturbing – visuals. I haven’t slept well since seeing it, and when I’m lying awake wondering why I’m awake, I keep seeing certain images again and again.

       Before I continue, let me repeat the gist of a recent Facebook post.

       It is sadly amusing to read so many reviews of the movie that criticize Nolan for presenting Homer's epic in terms of 2026 sensibilities.

       What do these self-appointed cultural “purists” expect -- that he would try to interpret Homer in terms an Elizabethan might appreciate, or perhaps try the phony Mel Gibson ploy of presenting it in ersatz ancient languages (a la “The Passion of the Christ”)?

       As to the racists who complain about the casting of non-white actresses as Helen of Troy and the goddess Athena: Racists will be racists. Who do you expect them to be?

       Two of the upsetting scenes involve the giant cyclops trapping Odysseus and his men in a cave, and the sorceress Circe turning hungry sailors into pigs. The first is terrifying, the second almost sickening. Also memorable is the scene where Odysseus watches helplessly while giant armored warriors overturn one of his ships and massacre its crew.

       Though his reunion with wife Penelope is rewarding, far more moving for me is the brief sequence where he touches his old dog, Argos, who has been waiting faithfully 20 years for his master to return, and we see a tail briefly wagging before the dog dies.

       Why does Odysseus encounter such frightening obstacles to his return? It is explained that he violated xenia, the ancient law of hospitality, which is once or twice confusingly (and I think erroneously) called “Zeus’s law.”

       This law is that you should always offer hospitality to anyone who shows up at your door because he might be one of the gods in disguise. This principle was widely known in the ancient world and was given exalted status in early Christianity. (Note Hebrews 13:2 and Acts 14:11-12.) But it’s a slippery concept.

       The abduction of Helen was a violation of xenia. So was the deception of the Trojan Horse, an idea of Odysseus’ that led to the defeat and sacking of Troy. But the mayhem of Troy’s sacking was simply how ancient wars were fought and was not, apparently, a violation of xenia. The violation was in the deception that led to the sacking. Or so I understand.

       Odysseus is haunted throughout the movie by thoughts that he violated xenia. So at the end, through reunited with Penelope, he goes into voluntary exile, leaving his son Telemachus to rule Ithaca.

       A couple more quick thoughts:

·       The movie probably will win an Oscar for its editing (especially brilliantly shown in the Circe sequence.)

·       I thought the Hades sequence was muddled, at best.

·       Yes, Nolan likes his movies loud, but AMC theaters are always too loud, if you ask me. I guess the volume is for the benefit of those who like to sit in the back row, while I prefer sitting much closer to the screen – even a giant IMAX screen.

       Now I’ve got to make Linda suffer through (or hide to avoid) two previous screen versions of the tale: “Ulysses,” starring Kirk Douglas (1954); and “The Odyssey,” starring Armand Asante (1997) – but wait, featuring Vanessa Williams as the nymph Calypso. What must our noisy racists make of that!

Where true bias lies

       I recently sent this letter to Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission. It is especially timely because of the CBS firing of Scott Pelley for insubordination – otherwise known as standing up for truth, justice, and the American way.

       Mr. Carr,

       It seems that you think it is your proper role as chair of the FCC to force broadcasters to march lock-step to the Trump regime’s political and cultural agenda. I tell you, it is not.

       You recently wrote: “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up.”

        “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

       No, the law is clear: You cannot force broadcasters to do your will, or Trump’s will either. It is not in the public interest, convenience or necessity for broadcasters to report only what and how you and Trump want it reported.

       What you and Trump define as “fake news” is, as everyone else knows, real news. What is fake are Trump’s attempts to distort what is happening to his own personal interest. What also is fake are your attempts to bully broadcasters into compliance.

       If it were your proper role to determine what is “fake” and what is real, you would have jumped all over Fox “News” and Newsmax and other outlets long ago. But you haven’t, have you? No, because they know who and what they really serve, and it certainly isn’t the American public.

       Your threats are so obviously biased that any case you might bring against any broadcaster would soon be ruled invalid in the courts on First Amendment grounds, if not the longstanding rules governing the FCC.

       You and your buddies have stolen funding from NPR, neutralized the Washington Post, neutered CBS News and are now looking to destroy the credibility of any unit connected to Paramount. You are well on your way to creating a propaganda empire. But you will not prevail in the end because might does not make right; it only creates more victims

       I do not expect this letter to sway your thinking in the slightest. But you must know that millions of Americans do not share your fascination with fascism, and your efforts to force your opinions on us will be vigorously opposed and ultimately defeated.

       Your latest efforts to silence all critics by threatening the licenses of ABC stations if Jimmy Kimmel is not fired are both ridiculous and unconstitutional. But that appears to be par for the course for the dangerous game you are playing to please your boss. You ought to be serving the American people instead.

(signed)

James A. Hopwood

Some summer reading

Here’s a quick roundup of some of my fiction reading so far in 2026:

Louise Penny, The Black Wolf

Got this one for Christmas (from my wish list), and it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. Somehow, though, it seems that if you read one Louise Penny murder mystery, you’ve read them all. They’re all fine reading (though some of them are excessively grim), but after while it’s hard to tell one Inspector Gamache mystery from another. They all kind of blend together. (Didn’t he solve this case in the last book?)

Thomas Pynchon, Shadow Ticket

This was another Christmas book. I’d never read any Pynchon before, but I heard good things about this one, so I asked for it. Be careful what you ask for. This is my first and last Pynchon book. I won’t waste my time and yours describing it.

Bernard Cornwell, Stonehenge

Yes, another Christmas gift. I thought I might like Circle of Daysby Ken Follett, so I got it from the library but couldn’t make it past page 50. My first and last Ken Follett, I guess. But I wanted to read a Stonehenge novel, so I figured Bernard Cornwell would do better. Wrong. Bloody, grim, awful book. Had to skim it, it was so bad. Cornwell has always been good at creating bad guys, but in this story it’s hard to tell the bad guys from the worse guys.

James Patterson & Mike Lupica, 12 Months to Live, Hard to Kill, The Hamptons Lawyer

These are the first three in the Jane Smith thriller series, and the third ends with a setup for a fourth. All are very readable (and fast reads, two days per book). After three books, they are starting to sound the same. (Louise Penny syndrome?) But even “the same” is much better than most other books, so I’ll be on the lookout for that fourth one, probably next year.

Penelope Cress & Steve Higgs, Rev Jessamy Ward Investigates: The Isle of Wesberry Mysteries

OK, these are a guilty pleasure: a box set in Kindle format featuring a young female Anglican priest who can’t seem to turn around without discovering a murder. Light cozy mysteries, emphasis on the light, sometimes with solutions that don’t make much sense, with a dash of new age mumbo jumbo to make it sound dangerous, though not very.

Summarizing the nonfiction will take longer, and may not actually happen. Just one mention here.

Peter K. Stevenson and Stephen Wright, Preaching the Atonement

I have maybe half a shelf of books on atonement theology, and I’ve been working my way through them. Most will be moving on, but a few are keepers. The best so far, by far, is this one. It includes 10 sample sermons, and they’re mostly OK, but the introductions to them are outstanding. I learned more from this book than from several others that should have been half this good.

Time to choose sides

If you’re Methodist, especially United Methodist, you have probably seen this photo several times in recent days, on Facebook and other venues.

It shows the Methodist Church’s 1956 General Conference, meeting in Minneapolis. On May 4, delegates voted to make women eligible for full clergy rights.

Remember this photo, and the great advancement for human rights and Christian identity that it represents, because those rights are under attack by an evil movement known as Christian nationalism.

It may be nationalistic, but it is not genuinely patriotic, and it is certainly not Christian. It is far, far from Christian, though it cloaks its agenda in Christian language and tries to work its way into churches to solidify its political standing.

And its adherents have made it crystal clear in recent days that one of its agendas is turning back the clock on women’s rights by 100 years or so.

Repealing women’s right to vote.

Right to hold property in their own name.

Right to serve as judges in our court system.

Right to have any voice but an echo of a man’s – specifically their husbands, to whom they are bound until death do they part, or until the husband decides that she is no longer a useful appendage.

There are other ways that this movement is profoundly evil, but this one is enough to mention for now.

Remember that it was only 70 years ago that women became eligible for full clergy rights in the Methodist church, and there are still denominations that deny women these rights, allegedly on biblical grounds but really on the same grounds on which this evil movement has always been based, whatever it calls itself: the notion that certain men are endowed with more rights than others and they can do whatever they want to whomever they want whenever they want, just because.

Those are the stakes in our current political and religious “debate.” Whose side are you on?

Blasphemy & insanity

       These are dark days in Washington, D.C.

       If blasphemy is in the air, insanity rules on the ground.

       I’ve been deliberately silent recently, hoping that the current occupant of the White House might miraculously turn into a functioning humane being and the toadies he’s surrounded himself with might summon the courage to push him away from disaster.

       Neither prospect appears likely.

       The White House clown and his VP sidekick now see fit to lecture Pope Leo on Christian theology, while right-wing extremists devise new smears to revive long buried but never quite dead fears of Roman Catholicism.

       Slipping away from his bogus Board of Peace to pursue war with Iran, our fearless “leader” devotes an Easter message to condemning Leo for pursuing peace. He even accuses Leo of being “WEAK on crime.”

       This tirade, of course, comes after he threatens to bomb Iran back to the stone age for daring to stand up to him and posts another ridiculous picture of himself in the guise of Jesus.

       When even some of his staunchest supporters appear shocked by this image, he claims he thought it portrayed him as a healer.

       (Does he really believe anyone will believe that? Well, Franklin Graham apparently does, and Paula White, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who usually jumps up and down waving his “born again” credentials but now appears to have been born again in a different way.)

       An Atlantic staff writer says these episodes reveal that to our “leader,” religion is about power, not morality.

       No surprise there. Only a few months ago, he declared that the only thing constraining him was his “own morality.” As if there were such a thing. His “morality” is solely what serves his personal interests.

       He even views Leo’s election as pope as due to him. He says Leo “was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with” an American leader.

       It’s hard to deal with that kind of fantasy. Some attribute it to dementia, but it’s a more fundamental disorder than that, and the signs of it have been there for years. To paraphrase one commentator, what kind of man says and does these things?

  —————

       It gets worse.

       Many of his functionaries wallow in a deeper fantasy that could get us all killed.

       The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says it has gotten hundreds of complaints from U.S. military personnel in the Middle East about officers who proclaim that this war is “all part of God’s divine plan” as outlined in the book of Revelation.

      One officer allegedly said that our “leader” has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

       This is not a casual misinterpretation of scripture. This is monstrously bad. This is satanic.

        On September 9, 2001, my Sunday sermon concerned caring for our children, globally as well as locally. I remember one line especially well: “If Palestinians have a form of country music, a popular song right now might be, ‘Mamas, don't let your sons grow up to be suicide bombers.’ ”

          Two days later, suicide bombers carried out terror attacks against targets in New York and Washington, and thousands of Americans died.

          My remarks were not prescient, though any observer of the international scene might have foreseen some awful thing developing. (My remarks also were not “prophetic,” in the standard “evangelical” Christian sense, meaning predictive. Prophecy is not about predicting the future. Prophecy is evaluating the present in light of God’s will for the future.)

       Here’s the thing: When the minds of Christian fundamentalists and Muslim fundamentalists are both warped by similar satanic impulses, awful things are going to happen. Again, this is not prescient or prophetic. It’s just common sense.

       Don’t look for much of that in certain seats of power these days.   

       Or in many of our churches.

       We are now in the midst of "America Reads the Bible," continuing to April 25. Hundreds of celebrities are reading portions of the Bible in a continuous livestream. It’s billed as “a sacred opportunity to call our nation back to its spiritual foundations.”

       Among the readers are Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth, who has never encountered a Bible verse he couldn’t misquote (or even repeat a misquote from a movie), plus our so-called “leader,” who is scheduled to read 2 Chronicles 7:11–22.

       Read that one for yourself. The ironies pile up from start to finish!

       Let me conclude today with this Bible reading, Matthew 5:11, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Think of Pope Leo when you hear, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” On his account, not your own.