It was a dark and stormy night on January 17th, 1988, but inside Rubens beach-front restaurant in Redondo Beach, California, all was bright and quiet. The waiters were serving up phenomenal food, the patrons were enjoying delicious dinners, and the view of the waves crashing right in front of the restaurant’s windows was unusually good. All seemed idyllic for an enjoyable and entertaining night out.
Unbeknownst to anyone in this establishment, however, was the fact that this particular storm would bring the biggest waves to ever hit the coast of Southern California. As the evening progressed, these powerful forces got closer and closer to the dining room windows, the “show” getting better and better. Finally the time came when a wave lapped up onto the glass. That brought an immediate response from the diners: they clapped and cheered. This continued until people heard a huge explosion and the ocean broke through the glass, knocking people to the ground, and creating mass panic as everyone scrambled to get out of the building.
I don’t know what thoughts went through the minds of those who sat there that historic night. Did they realize what was happening? Did anyone sense the imminent danger? Was there a queasy feeling in the pit of someone’s stomach? Or did everyone just relax as the show went on?
I’ve often wondered what I would have done had I been there. Would I have been more clear-headed? Would common sense have prevailed? I’d like to think that I would have seen what was unfolding, leaned over to my wife and said, “Honey, this is a delicious and expensive dinner, but those are real waves out there and they’re about to break through that glass. LET’S GO!” But maybe not. Maybe I, too, having been brought up in this age of TV and film, would have sat back in my comfortable chair and enjoyed the amazing show. Maybe I, too, would have simply believed that the dangerous reality unfolding before my eyes was nothing more than an image on a screen.
Growing up in the 1960’s, I enjoyed playing with the kids in our neighborhood and seemed to gravitate to the role of entertainer. As I got older, I started doing magic shows for the children’s birthday parties. I mail ordered some clever tricks and started to make money. It worked for a while until some kids started sneaking behind my back to figure out how the deceptions worked. Kind of spoiled the magic. Then I got a Paul Winchell doll and began doing ventriloquism shows. This proved to be a safer trick as I skillfully learned how to “throw” my voice and make Larry come alive.
Finally I got into college and took a film class that required the making of a movie as a final project. Suddenly the potential for doing magic went to another level. Now I could craft illusions that I’d never dreamed of before. Now I could record something on a camera at a certain time and place and join it with something I’d filmed at another time and place and make them seem like the same event. With this new tool, I started to make magic that could fool anyone except those familiar with film making.
The first publicly shown movie premiered in France in 1895. The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, developed their cinématographe motion picture system right after Thomas Edison invented his. Their camera, however, was smaller and lighter and could be taken outside, so their premier showing included a short, unedited clip of employees walking out of the Lumière plant in Paris at the end of a workday. One fixed camera. No cuts. No special effects. Just the capturing of a few moments of daily life for normal folk.
I’m sure that this first screening of a motion picture stunned those who saw it. I’m sure people were awed at how these men had been able to recreate an outdoor scene on the indoor wall of a café in Paris. But the brothers had no hope for the future of this invention. They felt that the technology was doomed because it only recreated what anyone could see in living color, with genuine sound effects, by walking to any factory on any afternoon at quitting time.
Eight years later, however, a Thomas Edison employee made the first plot-based movie utilizing the magic of editing. “The Great Train Robbery” created illusions of events that never actually happened, the most dramatic of which was also the funniest. A robber was seen on top of a moving train, tackling a conductor, knocking him unconscious with a rock, and then throwing him off the train. Due to some primitive editing and camera angles, however, one never actually saw the actor getting hit with a rock, and what was thrown overboard was clearly a stiff dummy. Fast forward 120 years and today, due to amazing editing, lighting, sound, and special effects, filmmaking has NOT failed but has become a powerful force that shapes the lives and alters the perceptions of almost everyone.
Now for the big change. New Siloam Ministries has sought, for over a decade, to be a small voice of truth in a sea of delusions about health and healing. One reason these delusions exist is because the “media” has presented a slanted and edited version of what it wants people to believe about health care versus what is actually true. It is our hope to now complement this thrust of the ministry by offering insights into how to discern fact from fiction when seeking the truth on just about anything. Our desire is not to condemn media’s powerful tools but to shine the light of Christ on their influence and to show how to use them properly. I’ve collected articles and books and done my own field interviews with countless people for over three decades. Stay tuned!
And one final change: for those of you who have received this Plog Post for years in the hard copy version, this will be your last issue unless you choose to “opt in” with an email to our address below asking to keep receiving it by mail. For those who would like to receive our Post digitally now, simply send us your current email address and consider it done. We’ve reached the point where we need to streamline this part of our work.
As always, we so appreciate and need your continued prayers and support. We live in unprecedented times, and the opportunities to share the good news of Christ, Who wants to heal and to save, are unparalleled. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Yours in Christ,
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