While summer should be winding down, a few things are still cranking up.   The track and field events are about to start at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.   Rick Warren of Saddleback Church is about to host a forum for presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.  And the Democratic Party will be staging their made for TV convention in Denver.   Where will I be?  In Europe, fighting cancer at the first Reel Lives Film Festival in Geneva.

A few years ago, as John Marks and I finished filming the first part of a Purple State of Mind, my precious wife was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma.   It was quite a blow.   Cancer snuck up on our family and delivered a sucker punch when we least expected it.   Unfortunately, cancer never takes a summer break.

Amidst all the eye-popping grandeur in the Olympic opening ceremonies, one quiet moment stood out.   The adorable Lin Miaoke sang a stirring “Hymn to the Motherland.”   Of course, we could tell she was lipsynching.  Pavarotti did the same thing.   But it turns out she was swapped in for the seven-year-old whose voice echoed through the stadium, Yang Peiyi.  Evidently Yang’s rounder face and buckteeth got her swept aside at the dress rehearsal.  Imagine the heartbreak that accompanied the most famous musical fakery since Milli Vanilli.   As a seasoned pro from television commercials, 9 year-old Lin Miaoke put her charming pigtails to work.  The musical director for the opening ceremonies, Chen Qigang told Beijing Radio, “The audience will understand that it’s in the national interest.”

If you want to know why we initiated the Purple State project, look no further than the murders committed Sunday morning at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.   While 25 children sang songs from “Annie,” the gunman fired three blasts from a shotgun.    The seven people shot and two people murdered are the latest victims of the culture war.  

Sadly, this wasn’t the first shooting to occur at a house of worship in America and not likely to be the last.   Do we remember the four teenagers and three adults who were murdered at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas in 1999?   Two more died at New Life Church in Colorado Springs last December.   (And as a nation we continue to support the right to shoot others over sane gun control policies).  

With The Dark Knight’s claims to box-office pre-eminence secured, the spin cycle begins.   What does this hugely popular, amazingly resonate movie mean?   What is the message amidst all the madness cruising through Gotham’s streets?     At HollywoodJesus.com, The Joker is associated with postmodernism and all things relative, making Batman the force for moral absolutes.   At Dirty Harry’s Place, Batman emerges as a surrogate George W. Bush, willing to be hated for the sake of a larger mission.  Yet, at Beliefnet.com, The Dark Knight is traced back to St. John of the Cross and his dark nights of the soul.   Is this the sign of a great movie or merely a conflicted audience?  How many readings are possible?  How many readings are helpful?  What might be the filmmakers’ intent?

The Dark Knight is the most ambitious and satisfying comic book movie ever, an instant classic.   It thrills and chills, combining massive spectacle with timeless questions regarding our humanity.  In exploring our disturbing depths, director Christopher Nolan attains unparalleled cinematic heights.   It is a feast for the eyes and a challenge to the brain.   While Batman battles the Joker for the soul of Gotham City, Nolan pulls audiences into the rarest of responses to a Hollywood blockbuster:  genuine introspection.  It is a soulful adventure.   The Dark Knight explores the cost of combating evil.   How many rules are we willing to break to maintain order?   How many freedoms will we sacrifice to reign in chaos?   The Dark Knight calls us to give an account.

From the backdrop of Eugene Delacroix’s famous painting of Lady Liberty leading the people to their Les Miserables-style, “Storm the Bastille” clothes, Coldplay’s tour shouts “Vive le Revolucion!”  But on the opening night of their tour at the Forum in Inglewood, it was not clear what freedom was being celebrated beyond the sheer joy of musical release.   Occasionally, the songs approximated a European soccer match—boisterous sing alongs where all were temporarily united as one.    It was nice in an era of concert calculation to feel the arrangements being tested in front of us.  

Earnestness remains key to the Coldplay oeuvre.   They are a post-ironic band (which naturally begets a critical backlash).   Singer Chris Martin expressed genuine appreciation throughout the concert, concluding, “This is gonna be a good one” after thefirst song.   It is easy to imagine these four lads sipping coffee, reading the newspaper and playing withtheir kids.   No drug overdoses for such studied musical pros.

A major event in my life came full circle last month. I had coffee with Jay Floyd, director of Forgiving the Franklins. This bawdy, subversive satire premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. The premise of this homemade, low-budget film intrigued me. This religious sex comedy has just been released on DVD (rated R for “strong sexual content including a scene of abherrant intimacy, graphic nudity, frank dialogue, and some language”–you’ve been forewarned!)

A devout Christian family has a car accident enroute to a church potluck. They are whisked away to a heavenly place where Jesus is chopping down a cross. He has grown tired of seeing the worst moment of his life paraded around people’s necks. Jesus greets the Franklin family and reaches into the back of their heads. He removes a bloody apple and sends them back to earth to continue their lives. The Franklins have been given a new lease on life, free of guilt and shame. Jesus removed their original sin.

It is rare to get a book published. So it is an exceptionally rare privilege to have two books published on the same day. But on ‘new release Tuesday,’ I have two new volumes hitting the marketplace. They are not twins, but their definitely related: more fraternal than identical in their concerns.  

A Purple State of Mind is a companion piece to the comedic documentary, Purple State of Mind. It begins with the questions prompted by my onscreen conversation with John Marks. For those who wanted to see a more aggressive Christianity, it explains why my responses were often open-ended. Each chapter contains snippets of dialogue from the film as a starting point. It allows me to expand on my answers to John’s queries, putting things into a historical context. For example, how do we move past the political rut we’ve been in, caught between those who thought the prosperous 1950s were America’s greatest moment and those who relish the creativity unleashed during the 1960s? Many have grown tired of the rhetoric rooted in old grudges and earlier battle. This election may be the first to be decided by generations born after the advent of the culture wars. A new wave of voters have their feet firmly rooted in the 21st century rather than the past.

What kinds of skeletons may be lurking in your family’s closet? As a descendent of a distinguished founding family in Rhode Island, Katrina Browne decided to investigate her roots. The De Wolf family tree includes senators, architects, writers and ministers. As faithful Episcopalians, the De Wolfs donated most of the stained glass windows in Katrina’s home church in Bristol, Rhode Island. So how did they get so rich and powerful? When Katrina would talk to her relatives, she got vague responses about an “import/export business.” What were the De Wolf’s buying and selling? Katrina discovered she is a descendent of the largest slave trading family in New England.

Traces of the Trade follows Katrina’s efforts to respond to her lamentable roots. What do we do with family secrets? How do we process shame, guilt and responsibility? Nine De Wolf descendents accepted Katrina’s invitation to retrace the De Wolf’s family business, from Rhode Island to Ghana to plantations in Cuba. Traces of the Trade kicks off PBS’s essential documentary series, P.O.V. on Tuesday night at 10 pm. It demonstrates that slavery was not just a southern problem, but an ongoing shame even in “the Deep North.” You can see the trailer here.