Post by Bozur on Jan 12, 2006 2:33:31 GMT -5
Television Review | 'Heaven — Where Is It? How Do We Get There?'
What to Expect When Expecting Heaven
Rob Wallace/ABCBarbara Walters talks to the Dalai Lama about the meaning of heaven.
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
Published: December 20, 2005
There's no contest. Of all the major religions, the Muslims have the most graphic view of heaven. It's refreshing, in fact. They don't mess around invoking vague spaces of peace and light; they come through with Relais et Châteaux specifics. One imam tells Barbara Walters on her ABC special tonight: "We will be in comfortable homes, reclining on silk couches. We will have people coming - servants, lovely servants, young youths to regale you, Barbara. Residing in gardens beyond which rivers flow."
Donna Svennevik/ABC
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with Barbara Walters.
Yes - to cut to the chase - there will be virgins, too. Even for women. (Barbara's "youths.") And why not? So says Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, who quarrels only with the widespread misconception that Islamic martyrs get 72 virgins. Seventy-two, he says, is just an Arabic expression for "countless."
"Heaven - Where Is It? How Do We Get There?" is a semi-serious survey of eschatological beliefs in various religions. The hardest news here comes in Ms. Walters's visit to a maximum-security Israeli prison, where she meets a convicted murderer from Islamic Jihad; he says he joined the group not for its promises of heaven but because "I wanted to kill Jews."
Ms. Walters does not shy away from the most sensitive question about the afterlife (and the one not posed in the program's title): who's going to hell? Along with the sumptuous accounts of the Muslim heaven, the squirmy and disingenuous answers to that question are the best part of the documentary.
The problem, however, is that the people who appear have very little need of posthumous paradise. They are celebrities (Richard Gere, Mitch Albom, Maria Shriver) and celebrity holy men (the Rev. Calvin Butts; the Dalai Lama; Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals); they typically think life before death is pretty great. "There's nothing really more that I want," says Jackie Mason, the comedian and rabbi. Mr. Gere, the movie star, says that heaven is "right now."
Similarly, in an old interview, Elizabeth Taylor says she has no fear of death, since she has already had a pleasurable near-death experience in which she was reunited with her third husband, Mike Todd.
Of those who have less status here on earth - regular people - the ones who appear with Ms. Walters have seen the Other Side or the Light on operating tables or deathbeds and have lived to tell about it. One woman says that while briefly flat-lining after complications from childbirth, she found herself mounting a staircase toward an azure sky. Around her were happy cats and dogs; for some reason she yanked a cat's tail, which only made it happier.
With interstitial shots of clouds and sunsets that look like an old Braniff airways ad, "Heaven" is a corny show. But heaven itself is corny, and none of the commentators seem to be at the height of their theological powers when discussing it. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, admits to hoping he'll get his hair back in heaven. Mr. Mason says that in the hereafter he expects to eat pastrami without gaining weight.
After Mr. Haggard tells of his religious rebirth at 16 (he developed an aversion to alcohol and told his girlfriend he no longer wanted to be "sexually active" with her), he faces the music with Ms. Walters.
"If a person does not accept Jesus Christ as his savior, does he go to hell?" Ms. Walters asks.
"Yes," Mr. Haggard says.
Ms. Walters, who is Jewish, pursues the point: "What if the God is not Jesus Christ? What if it's a different God? Do they go to hell?"
"I think so," says Mr. Haggard, who seems like a nice guy. "Unfortunately."
Unfortunately, indeed. The program says nearly 90 percent of Americans believe heaven exists; most of them, presumably, think they have a shot at it. It's a nice idea. As Mr. Albom, the best-selling author of "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," says, the idea alone can make life on earth better, sprinkling a little stardust on the drudgery and meaninglessness of daily life.
Mr. Albom goes on to describe the dysphoria of being ordinary: "If you're not a celebrity, you can start to feel like you don't matter."
So that's it. The implication is clear. In the American creed - the one articulated on network news programs like this one - heaven is a place where we all get to be celebrities. At last.
Heaven - Where Is It?
How Do We Get There?
ABC News Presents
A Barbara Walters Special
ABC, tonight at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Produced by Rob Wallace.
What to Expect When Expecting Heaven
Rob Wallace/ABCBarbara Walters talks to the Dalai Lama about the meaning of heaven.
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
Published: December 20, 2005
There's no contest. Of all the major religions, the Muslims have the most graphic view of heaven. It's refreshing, in fact. They don't mess around invoking vague spaces of peace and light; they come through with Relais et Châteaux specifics. One imam tells Barbara Walters on her ABC special tonight: "We will be in comfortable homes, reclining on silk couches. We will have people coming - servants, lovely servants, young youths to regale you, Barbara. Residing in gardens beyond which rivers flow."
Donna Svennevik/ABC
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with Barbara Walters.
Yes - to cut to the chase - there will be virgins, too. Even for women. (Barbara's "youths.") And why not? So says Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, who quarrels only with the widespread misconception that Islamic martyrs get 72 virgins. Seventy-two, he says, is just an Arabic expression for "countless."
"Heaven - Where Is It? How Do We Get There?" is a semi-serious survey of eschatological beliefs in various religions. The hardest news here comes in Ms. Walters's visit to a maximum-security Israeli prison, where she meets a convicted murderer from Islamic Jihad; he says he joined the group not for its promises of heaven but because "I wanted to kill Jews."
Ms. Walters does not shy away from the most sensitive question about the afterlife (and the one not posed in the program's title): who's going to hell? Along with the sumptuous accounts of the Muslim heaven, the squirmy and disingenuous answers to that question are the best part of the documentary.
The problem, however, is that the people who appear have very little need of posthumous paradise. They are celebrities (Richard Gere, Mitch Albom, Maria Shriver) and celebrity holy men (the Rev. Calvin Butts; the Dalai Lama; Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals); they typically think life before death is pretty great. "There's nothing really more that I want," says Jackie Mason, the comedian and rabbi. Mr. Gere, the movie star, says that heaven is "right now."
Similarly, in an old interview, Elizabeth Taylor says she has no fear of death, since she has already had a pleasurable near-death experience in which she was reunited with her third husband, Mike Todd.
Of those who have less status here on earth - regular people - the ones who appear with Ms. Walters have seen the Other Side or the Light on operating tables or deathbeds and have lived to tell about it. One woman says that while briefly flat-lining after complications from childbirth, she found herself mounting a staircase toward an azure sky. Around her were happy cats and dogs; for some reason she yanked a cat's tail, which only made it happier.
With interstitial shots of clouds and sunsets that look like an old Braniff airways ad, "Heaven" is a corny show. But heaven itself is corny, and none of the commentators seem to be at the height of their theological powers when discussing it. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, admits to hoping he'll get his hair back in heaven. Mr. Mason says that in the hereafter he expects to eat pastrami without gaining weight.
After Mr. Haggard tells of his religious rebirth at 16 (he developed an aversion to alcohol and told his girlfriend he no longer wanted to be "sexually active" with her), he faces the music with Ms. Walters.
"If a person does not accept Jesus Christ as his savior, does he go to hell?" Ms. Walters asks.
"Yes," Mr. Haggard says.
Ms. Walters, who is Jewish, pursues the point: "What if the God is not Jesus Christ? What if it's a different God? Do they go to hell?"
"I think so," says Mr. Haggard, who seems like a nice guy. "Unfortunately."
Unfortunately, indeed. The program says nearly 90 percent of Americans believe heaven exists; most of them, presumably, think they have a shot at it. It's a nice idea. As Mr. Albom, the best-selling author of "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," says, the idea alone can make life on earth better, sprinkling a little stardust on the drudgery and meaninglessness of daily life.
Mr. Albom goes on to describe the dysphoria of being ordinary: "If you're not a celebrity, you can start to feel like you don't matter."
So that's it. The implication is clear. In the American creed - the one articulated on network news programs like this one - heaven is a place where we all get to be celebrities. At last.
Heaven - Where Is It?
How Do We Get There?
ABC News Presents
A Barbara Walters Special
ABC, tonight at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Produced by Rob Wallace.