Linda Stirling Unmasked: The Black Whip




Fireproof:: Reader Comments, And Comments On The Comments

The religious right has been quiet too long. We need to find our voice, write to our opponents, let our voice join with the voice of God and spread the message that Jesus brought into the minds and hearts of million, billions, soon to be trillions of humans

We need to come out and let his voice bring us freedom, the freedom to live in harmony, the freedom to oppose the murder of the unborn and the murder of those born but not yet converted into the ways of those who really "know".

The need for religion to become part of politics is long overdue. We need to join forces with Political powers without fearing the loss of our revenue from the not soon enough taxed income of our ever growing land and land holdings.

We need to teach our young to care more about God and the here after than what goes on on earth and we need to do this before the store(our accumulated wealth) is given over to a government, or to immoral, unmarried and childless adults. We need to examine the American budget, with the largest military spending to help the government bolster the murder of those not blessed by the Lord or those who dared to disagree with us in terms of their thoughts, their appearance, their place of origin.

We need to unite in tangible action. This moment of urgency has never been more pressing than Now, while fear of almost everything is in the air and people feel the helplessness from living without God or Jesus by our sides. This film, P. Miller's review and the subsequent comments help to focus our needs, our strengths and our inability to think for ourselves particularly in the here and now, on this blog site where peace and love and tolerance for divergence in opinion seem to be lacking.

Today we speak out against the likes of Prairie Miller and her brazen review. Tomorrow we will glory in the voice of Sara Palin as she speaks loud and clear for us, for motherhood and the religious right.

I can't wait. Can you?

Linda Z


  1. When are people going to understand that Christians, especially evangelicals, do NOT say they are NOT sinners???? I read your review of Fireproof, and again someone is under the misconception that we don't think we sin.

    The Bible says "For ALL have sinned all fall short of the glory of God."

    I don't go to church becuse I'm NOT a sinner. I go to church because I AM a sinner.

    Beth G

  2. Hi Beth:
    Thank you for your thoughts about the movie. But did you see the movie? Because it seemed to imply to me, that the characters who had personal problems were the nonbelievers, and once they found faith they straightened out their lives like the believer characters. And that's why I surmised the movie was most intended for nonbelievers.


  3. Hello Prairie, while the basis of this movie is of a religious nature lets try to review the movie as a whole. I thought it was excellent. I do agree that the preaching was perhaps a little to up front and in the face for most people, especially those with a secular humanism standpoint, but it is a nice breath of fresh air as a positive message for love and marriage and appreciation for one another in a world filled with adultery, foul language, and just plain common decency. Perhap it is old fashioned, but I'm not old and I've tried to live it. I also wasn't a Christian until a few years ago. The movies deals with real world struggles in a real world setting. I'm sorry they don't have megamillion dollar budgets to hire overpaid actors with very little moral value, but it works because ofit allows us to relate with more genuine individuals. Cheesy or not it has great humor, deep drama, and forces you to think. That is a good story. Did the latest Batman do that for you? OVerall it was a good movie, religious connotations or otherwise. a little foundatio in life has never hurt anybody.

    R Kane

  4. Thank you for your thoughtful reply. My concern, as you seem to concur, is that secular folks out there would not tend to be a receptive audience for this movie. And that a more subtle message, for them at least, might have been more effective. It also concerned me, that the many horrendous social problems in the world were not part of the mix, just personal conflicts. Isn't healing all the horrendous ills on the planet something that believers should be at least equally concerned with?


  5. Any marriage can be saved by Jesus. You can be, too.

    God bless

    E. Hernandez

  6. Tell that to the injured and permanently disfigured women hiding out in the battered shelters, or the scarred children victims of incest or other physical and emotional harm.


  7. Read (yahoo.com) what real people who have actually seen this film say about this.. Those without a bias towards Christianity. One and one half stars. Get real!!!

    Yes, there is better acting... but the story is moving beyond any I seen in years.

    J. Eastin

  8. If you want to reject God that is up to you, but if you don't like a movie that glorifies him then just let it go. You don't have to nit pick the little things. And yes, unfortunatly, some firefighters do let themselve go after being hired, more so in small towns where it is kinda the norm. In the firehouse we often play pranks on each other and unless you did something harmful or offensive, we don't apologize after each one. Your opinion has value and tells me how you view certain parts of life.


  9. Thank you for your thoughtful reply about faith, and overweight firemen. My concern was not so much faith, but the implication that there is only one way to salvation, Christianity. As you take offense to rejection of Christianity, what about those of other faiths or no faith at all who may take offense to this exclusionary point of view? And my concern about overweight firemen, is their ability to do their job saving lives if they're not physically in top shape.


  10. What a great film - and Kirk is a great lead. With all of life's problems and complexity, it's a relief to see a lead character who takes on those challenges and show's us all how to work through them with a few solid, time-tested principles.
    It's like administering a computer network - no matter what problems come up, if you apply best practices, you always get things back under control.

    See ya!

  11. I'm sorry to say that your review is pathetic. I was in the theater last night…a packed house to say the least. Oh, did I mention that the theater had only been open for 2 days because a hurricane hit our area 2 weeks ago? The theater was full of laughter and tears. After the movie was over, when people usually scramble out the door, people just sat there…it was like they were soaking in what they'd just seen. The movie captivated the audience as it did me, my husband and the couple that we invited. Yes, the middle-aged couple that we invited are struggling in their marriage and during the middle of the movie, the husband grabbed the wife's hand and held it the rest of the movie. We went to eat after and the two were inseparable. So, while your review seems sarcastic and ridiculous, my review is quite the opposite. Thanks anyway.


  12. Hi JD:
    Thank you for your thoughts about the movie. But let's bear in mind that movie criticism is not a science, it's just opinions. What a bland world this would be, if we all thought the same way about things.

  13. Pouring contempt on the values of ordinary people is a really brave choice. Well done.

    Lisa E.

  14. Hi Lisa:
    Thank you for your thoughts. I was merely reacting to the tone of the movie, which seemed to have contempt for those not sharing its religious values.


  15. You just don't get it!!

    G Castro

  16. That is the dumbest review ever! You make no comment about the quality of the movie or anything about it. You just tried to put together two long, overly sentences.

    You shouldn't be able to give any movie a rotten rating if you can't make an intelligent comment about it.

    rabid stitch

  17. This seems like a ridiculously ignorant comment, as it sounds like you're condemning the writer for the whole 2 sentences that appear here, and not the actual article. You see, they include a link to the full review. How about reading the whole thing first? To sort of go back to what YOU say, rabid_stitch, someone shouldn't be able to say that someone else isn't making an intelligent comment when they themselves are obviously not making an intelligent comment.


  18. Don't be such a religious prude, get out of your intolerant mode of thinking, the Gospel isn't suppose to be contained in the four walls of the Church! The Good news is to be taken out in the streets and yes the theaters! A good movie will minister to your spirit, set your mind free and make you feel alive! I say more power to them, we need more positive movies!


  19. I was disappointed after reading Prairie Miller's review of the the film Fireproof which debuted this weekend. My wife and I attended the movie in our local theater today - with a full house mind you. I thought Prairie's comments were tainted with heavy amounts of sarcasm.

    Here's the deal - this movie was inspiring, thought provoking, and had light hearted moments of good old fashioned fun, but most importantly was about the fact that marriage in today's society is something worth protecting and fighting for. Not only did this movie at it's core make this point, along with the importance of a relationship with God, but it had no bad language, no crude jokes, no gratuitous violence and no raunchy sex scenes. Movies like that are hard to come by these days, and I truly believe that the majority of us are tired of the same old same old from Hollywood.

    So go ahead Prairie and share your cynicism, but I think you'll find that she really missed the point of what this movie is about - values that we all (If we're honest) wish we saw more of in America today, the values of marriage and commitment. Values most of us hold dear that were reflected realistically in this movie. I think these values are worth admiring, not being cynical or sarcastic about.


  20. While the movie does show values worth admiring, as you point out, I don't think religion- any religion - should be presented in culturally diverse theaters as the singular road to attaining those values. There are many people who aren't religious at all and hold to high moral standards - and the opposite as well, you only have to look at the various church scandals.
    Wouldn't you feel a bit uncomfortable, for instance, if you went to a movie to discover that the theme of salvation on earth was only through embracing the Muslim religion?
    Hope we can agree to respectfully disagree.

  21. What a refreshing movie!!! finally something clean with a good message addressing one of the most critical problems in our society and presenting a good alternative solution. Please go and do not listen to Hollywood critics, after all their messy lives tell all, what do they know?


  22. From where I sit, there are plenty of messy lives behind pulpits, in the way of disintegrating marriages and sex scandals galore. The point is, what does religion have to do with any of it? Many folks lead morally admirable lives without religion.
    Not to mention that if the lives of believers are rendered so wholesome by religion, why are movies like this being made for them?

  23. Every other religion is shown in theaters on the big screen while patrons are sitting there eating popcorn and enjoy the cheap entertainment. When Christianity is placed in a film or it is is main basis then people say things alone the lines: "religion shouldn't be in a theater setting." What I don't get is if this movie was the exactly same movie but based on the Muslim faith, or Hindu faith, Taoist faith, or any other faith out there it would have been better received. The last thing that I don't understand about religious based movies is why atheists get more offended/angry over Christian movies than any other religion based movie. It seem that these people are pseudo-atheists, only bashing Christian movies but if they were true atheists they would bash all religious based movies.


  24. A positive view of Jesus has no place in the theater. Instead, Hollywood should just keep doing what they always do, and have people curse God's name in movies, while the religious (on sunday) watch (on Friday evening).


  25. Uuuuugh... OK, apart from maybe Bill Maher's movie, there aren't any movies out there "Cursing God's name," or whatever the Hell it is you people think they're doing. If Muslim's are over-reactionary because they got mad because people drew comics of Muhammad, there are Christians out there who get mad everytime everything doesn't praise Jesus' name.
    Don't worry Christians, we all get the message. It's still not OK to think any other way than you do.
    As for whether or not a film should be allowed to discuss religious ideas? Of freakin' course they should, but people should REALLY make it a point to see something that doesn't conform to their own viewpoint. I think everyone who ever saw Passion of the Christ should see Maher's new movie when it comes out.


  26. Your review was terrible. You really need to find another occupation. If you couldn't see the good in this film, then you don't need to be writing.

    The acting wasn't the best I've seen but the acting isn't what makes the moral of the story.

    The place sure was packed out to not be a good movie so I'd say your opinion is a wrong one.

    Felicia A

  27. G.D. this, G.D. that, skank this, skank that, movies on the whole are extremely anti-GodOfTheBible. I don't think that's controversial. I just think there's no such thing as not allowed in movies.

    Not praising Jesus' name and actively stomping on it are two different things. Allow me to illustrate with an example:

    Wow! This movie is about going to the center of the earth. What excitement! (no actively praising Jesus' name anywhere? Oh no!)

    Wow! This movie is about sawing people and rape and murder and taking God's name in vain, and etc... What excitement! (actively cursing God by your lifestyle)


  28. I have to comment on Prairie Miller's review of "Fireproof." I saw the movie last night with my wife, and while I'll be the first to admit that the film has many flaws (mostly caused by a relatively low budget and all of the low production values and casting choices that implies), Miller's review is anything but insightful. Completely ignoring the core concepts of the film, she goes for only the most superficial, sarcastic review possible. I seriously wonder if she stopped to ponder anything presented within the film between her trips to the concession stand. The "cold fish" of a wife is an accurate portrayal of a woman too caught-up in the frustrations of her aging parent's demands and the stresses of a typical 9-5 job to notice that her own marriage is disintegrating. Ms. Miller, I'm sorry that the typical Hollywood "let's head to a bar and find the first guy I can hop in the sack with after work" response isn't, believe it or not, a realistic or likely scenario for the average middle-class American woman. And the incredibly superficial analysis of Caleb's character (implying the wheel chair is the cause rather than a symbol of the character's life transformation which results in the films foregone conclusion....and while I'm at it, the computer is never blamed for Caleb's addiction, any more than a bar can be blamed for alcoholism or a needle for drug addiction, but is rather a SYMBOL as well as an enabler. Wow. Symbolism. Must have missed that) is an insult to the surprisingly intelligent script. For a surprisingly well-thought out (and fair) review of this film without the obvious reviewer's smirk at "Christian" doctrine, check-out the film review at the NYTimes.

    Minnesota State University

  29. Thank you for your reply, and I hope we can respectfully disagree. While you say that the wheelchair is only a symbol rather than a cause, why was his wife not at all receptive to any other of his many gracious gestures, and only finally receptive to the materialistic purchase of a consumer product, however useful? This to me did not speak well of her character. As for sympathy, I felt a lot more sympathy for the stresses faced by this fireman risking his life every day. How sympathetic was the way she cruelly turned her back on him when he was injured and waiting for care in the emergency room?
    I'm also not getting why all marriages must be saved. Is the concept of incompatibility a fantasy? Should women and children stay with men who emotionally, physically or sexually abuse them? Ask women and children hiding out right now in battered shelters if they should feel compelled to mend their marriages.
    As for religion being the cure-all morally speaking, church pulpits are filled these days with clergy accused of all sorts of heinous extra-marital and sexual transgressions. And there are many, many folks who are not religious, and uphold the highest moral standards simply out of a sense of decency.