As a resident of the American South for 27 out of the 28 years
of my life and a childhood "�Dukes of Hazzard"� fan, let me start
this by saying the following: I"m really sick of us Southerners
making ourselves look like ass-clowns. Get it together people.
For every episode of "�Boston Legal"� that portrays us all as
gun-toting, mustache twirling, murdering dim-wits, there"s a
real life story like this one that makes us every bit as stupid
as James Spader portrays us. Maybe it"s time I moved up north.

Here"s the long and short of it: IMAX theaters in several
southern cities (Texas is listed specifically, so no doubt this
includes my IMAX theater here in Dallas.) have opted not to show
a film on volcanoes on the grounds that it references the theory
of evolution. Cited are concerns that movie-goers might be
offended, or worse still actually learn something. The South"s
education reputation didn"t occur by accident after all.

Now granted, I don"t spend a lot of time watching The Discovery
Channel, but when was the last time you saw a nature program
that didn"t reference evolution? They"re absolutely RIFE with
it, perhaps because they"re put together by smart people known
as "�scientists"� instead of evangelical, money-hungry preachers.
Scientists you see are this weird cult of folks who worship this
guy named Einstein and believe in crazy things like scientific
method as a way for unraveling the mysteries of the Earth. They
also feel pretty confident that we all got here by a process
known as evolution. Fun fact"� the Pope agrees.

To be honest, I"m not sure what I believe on the subject, but
that"s irrelevant to the discussion. Whether evolution is the
real deal or not, this is a move that"s completely out of wack.
I support the rights of these individual theater owners to run
whichever movies they want. I believe in that, it"s a private
business and they"re in it to make money. Fine. But has the
Bible belt really become so desperately oppressive that
legitimate science no longer has a place in movie theaters?
That"s a frightening thought. It stinks of knee-jerk reaction.
Are people actually out there protesting this? I know a lot of
fundamentalist creationists (I do after all live in Texas) and
they spend more time watching the Discovery Channel than anyone
I know (Animals screwing is less morally offensive than people).
They"re used to wading through evolution references"� why would
it suddenly bother them? It"s as if electing a president on
moral grounds has suddenly empowered an entire small subset of
psychotically religious people to go out and start forcing their
beliefs on the rest of the populace"� or has it? At least that
seems like what these theater owners are afraid of. To me, the
fear seems unfounded.

The worst thing about this is the message it sends to the folks
making these sorts of movies. If you want your movie shown,
leave out anything that isn"t in the Bible. Maybe work in some
references to God. Throw in A few shots of a bearded guy
shooting stars out of his ass. Better make that beard thicker,
wouldn"t want him to be confused as female. Alanis Morrisette is
right out. Maybe the Lucas-like fellow could even ask to borrow
a starship. God does that sort of thing you know.

This mess reflects poorly on normal, mainstream Christians, and
as usual reflects poorly on the justifiably maligned Deep South.
We deserve the stereotypes. Might as well kick back in your
rocking chair and suck on a corn-cob pipe brothers. Religion is
well and good but please, keep it to yourself. You"re making the
whole region look like bullshit. God bless Texas?

About the author:
Joshua Tyler is the Owner and Creator of CinemaBlend.com, a
movie news and review resource updated daily and available for
paid syndication.

Author : Joshua Tyler
Site : www.goarticles.com

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