Mere musings on culture, life, and theology by Samuel James
Samuel James on March 5, 2018 On Friday I stuck up for the movie industry. Last night the Academy Awards made me regret it. I've defended both films and the Oscars from their conservative naysayers in the past (and for the record, I still think the Right tends to be obnoxious about pop culture), but the telecast last night was beyond…
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Samuel James on March 2, 2018 I agree with almost everything Carl Trueman has to say in this piece, which makes me all the more eager to briefly interject and explain why I think he's wrong to make the movie industry his whipping boy. Trueman's contempt for Hollywood celebrity culture is understandable and justifiable. But like many Christian commentators who turn…
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Samuel James on February 12, 2018 https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/962677636723077122 https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/962680161547284482 Here's why people like Harvey Weinstein will continue to burn their way through bodies in Hollywood. Every time someone whispers the mere suggestion that free-flowing sexual nihilism is actually maybe kinda bad, there are a dozen Brian Koppelmans who come out of their seats telling them they just hate women. I'm guessing Salma…
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Samuel James on February 2, 2018 This is a hard read. It's harder not just because of the tragedy of a husband and father's brain disease, but because this story, and many others like it, will be in the back of my mind as I watch the Super Bowl. I love football, and, as my 16 month old son begs to…
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Samuel James on January 11, 2018 Netflix has recently added both The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II to its streaming library. Below is something I wrote in 2014 on what makes Part II so great. “That’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.” Michael Corleone is not lying when he says these words in The Godfather. He means them. He means them so…
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Samuel James on January 2, 2018 When I was in Bible college, few things received scorn as unanimously and frequently as the self-help genre. The corner of your local bookstore dominated by big, bright covers and names like Oprah and Tony Robbins was, almost all of us young, restless, Reformed pre-seminarians agreed, poison. We understood that the self-help genre was a…
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Samuel James on December 11, 2017 Stop me if you've heard this before. A parent records their child doing/saying something moving/saddening/remarkable. The parent then posts the video of their child to social media. Social media reacts strongly to the video, and before you know it, the video—and the child—are "viral" digital sensations. They start trending on Buzzfeed, being re-shared by celebrities…
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Samuel James on September 25, 2017 A quick taxonomy: The patriotism of duty is the patriotism that involves material acts of fidelity to one's country. This is the patriotism of military service and other varieties of selfless sacrifice. This is where patriotism becomes embodied, and its ideals take on specific actions worthy of praise. The patriotism of affection is the patriotism of…
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Samuel James on September 22, 2017 One of my regrets from my college years is that I didn't receive a more literary education. By God's design I attended a Bible college that at the time had only theological or ministerial degrees (now, they offer a Humanities degree, a Philosophy-Politics-Economics honors program, and more options). So I spent the vast majority of…
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Samuel James on September 19, 2017 Stakeholders in the NFL cannot lose—at least not under the league’s current structure. Owners split money from the league’s massive TV deals and other media revenue streams. That stream is so dependable, so huge, and so guaranteed that it’s done what large, intractable pools of cash have done since the invention of markets. It has…
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