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On the surface, the Lifetime channel’s special Women of the Bible tells a very different story than The Red Tent. The two-hour program which aired just prior to the miniseries premiere claims to read with the Bible rather than against it, suggesting that the text itself depicts strong and faithful women—no retelling necessary. Moreover, while the miniseries adaptation of Anita Diamont’s novel valorizes goddess worship and condemns the patriarchal bias of the Bible, Women of the Bible recounts the story of selected biblical women from a decidedly conservative Christian perspective.

This perspective is clearly evident in the choice of the “experts” chosen to comment on the biblical narratives. Victoria Osteen, wife of evangelist Joel Osteen, and Joyce Meier, described on her website as a “charismatic Christian author,” appear alongside a woman designated as “Bible Teacher” and several female leaders of Christian ministries. Those outside this circle include a female rabbi and a female professor at Notre Dame, though their comments are integrated with rather than contrasted with the majority of conservative Christian voices.

Conservative Christian theology is also reflected in the choice of biblical women and the aspects of their stories eliciting commentary.

• Eve. The program spends little time on Eve as a character. Instead, commentators use her story to discuss “the Fall,” a distinctively Christian understanding that Genesis 3 depicts a universal human fall from grace to which Jesus later provides a remedy.
• Sarah. The two episodes selected from Sarah’s story are (1) her motherhood late in life and (2) her response to Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac on Mt. Moriah (Genesis 22). Although the Bible does not include Sarah in this latter story, commentators speculate on how she must have felt, and the visual reenactment depicts her running to find her son. This passage is far less relevant to understanding the Bible’s characterization of Sarah than it is to certain strands of Christianity theology. In Christianity, Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son has traditionally been invoked as prefiguring God’s willingness to sacrifice his son Jesus on the cross. This linkage is clearly implied in the video footage. Although Genesis 22 indicates that God provided a ram as a substitute sacrifice, the program shows a lamb instead (in the gospels and later Christian tradition, Jesus is called the “lamb of God”).
• Rahab. This brothel owner who saved the Israelite spies is praised for her willingness to protect her family. Commentators also expound upon the significance of the red cord she uses to mark her house for deliverance. Following traditional Christian interpretation, they connect Rahab’s red cord with Jesus’ blood shed on the cross to save humanity. They also explicitly trace Rahab’s genealogy to Jesus, following the gospel of Matthew.
• Samson’s mother and his mistress Delilah. In the program, these two women are not explicitly linked with the Christian message. The commentators instead use their stories to advance important morals and teachings. Samson’s mother is explained as providing hope to “mothers who try to be good parents but the children stray,” and Delilah becomes a cautionary tale of being “tempted like Eve.”
• The Marys. The majority of the program (close to one half) is devoted to Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene is depicted as playing an important role in early Christianity, and yet most of the scenes depicting both women recounted the life and death of Jesus. Their stories offer windows into his story. In keeping with a particular understanding of the importance of Jesus shedding blood at his crucifixion, scenes graphically depict Jesus’ flogging and crucifixion (“he came to die”). The imagined feelings of the Marys become a means to reflect on the painfulness of Jesus’ sacrifice: “I would imagine they felt this way,” “They must have felt this way.” Although the program insists that the Magdalene was instrumental in the growth of Christianity, it provides no support for this claim.

As a biblical scholar devoted to gender critical work, I was amazed and disturbed that this program demonstrated no awareness of the important discussions conducted by feminist interpreters of the Bible over the past 40 years. Reassessments of Eve, Sarah, Mary Magdalene, and our traditions of reading are now old news, as is the recognition that standard ways of depicting Jesus as female-friendly have anti-Jewish dimensions. At least since the 1990s, Jewish feminists have insisted upon the inaccuracy and the danger of statements like those made in the program: “a Jewish rabbi wouldn’t talk to a woman,” “women were devalued in that culture.” The program leaves these statements to stand unchallenged and actually reinforce them in the costuming of the reenactments of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion: Jewish leaders wear the pointed hats used to designate Jews in Medieval anti-Jewish iconography.

I also was appalled that in the apparent attempt to include actors of color insufficient attention was paid to the ways in which casting might perpetuate racial stereotypes. Samson was depicted as a huge, violent man of African descent who could not control his passions. When his deadlocks were cut, he was bound in chains to a column. In the US context, this image too closely mirrors that of the slave on the auction block to pass for an attempt at “diversity.”

Neither the commentators nor the marketers of this program named the monolithic perspective that informed the presentation. Although the rhetoric of the program suggests that the commentators are simply reading the Bible, in reality the program recounted a particular Christian narrative about sin and Jesus’s role of overcoming it. Women were lauded as important to the degree that they were instrumental in advancing that narrative.

In turn, biblical texts that stray from this perspective are overlooked, such as:

• Abraham’s willingness to give Sarah to another man—twice—to save himself.
• The abuse suffered by Hagar.
• The likelihood that the Israelite spies were visiting Rahab’s brothel rather than simply hiding.
• Jesus’ statements that challenge the priority of family (Mark 10; Luke 14; Matthew 22). In this program, the distance between Jesus and his mother was described as a normal mother-son dynamic rather than part of Jesus’ message (Mark 3). The commentators stressed the ways in which Jesus provided for his mother from the cross, since “a son ought to love his mother and make sure she is looked after.”

Even though this program reflected a far more conservative religiosity than The Red Tent, similar ideologies of gender run through both productions. Women are valued primarily for being mothers, wives, and protectors of their families. Biblical women who do not fill these roles are passed in silence: Deborah, Huldah, Athalia, Miriam, and the women involved in ministry with Paul. (See an Index of Women in the Bible with relevant biblical passages.)

Responsible interpretation of the Bible requires a deep understanding of the ancient world reflected in its pages. Engagement with on-going biblical scholarship is crucial, since our knowledge of the past continues to grow through archaeological investigation, the discovery of new texts, and the development of research methodology. Responsible interpretation also requires a self-awareness of the lenses through which we read and the commitments that guide our choice of texts and our determination of their meaning.

Women of the Bible, sadly, reflects neither solid scholarship nor attentiveness to perspective. Based on the speculation of interpreters whose interests remain unnamed rather than on current research on gender in the ancient world, the Lifetime program perpetuates particular tropes for women rather than offering viewers fresh insight.

Featured image: Old Testament women. CC0 via Pixabay.

The post Lifetime’s Women of the Bible and conservative Christian theology appeared first on OUPblog.

        

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So, remember how I said that there was going to be a really fun reading/signing for THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON at the Borders in Christiana (DE) on Saturday, August 8, at 2 p.m.? And remember how I said there were going to be cupcakes? Well, not only are there going to be cupcakes at the celebration, there are going to be the BEST CUPCAKES IN DELAWARE.

That's right - Concord Pike's own Cupcake Heaven is providing 120 of their delectable goodies in an assortment of flavors. Have you DE locals visited Cupcake Heaven yet? If not, you need to get your butt over there STAT. When I say they have the best cupcakes in Delaware, I mean they have the BEST cupcakes in Delaware. You may have heard me rant about icing in posts past; I tend to be super picky about it because most buttercreams taste like Crisco to me. But their icing - oh my WORD. Not too sweet, not too fatty, just the right amount of deliciousness.

The perfect way to celebrate a book with the word SWEET in the title, yes?

Speaking of "sweet" - don't forget that about the 50 BOOK GIVEAWAY I'm running through midnight, August 8th!

In other, more random news: I've been getting a lot of fan e-mail from readers abroad. Seems the Dutch translation of TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET - or, DESIGNERJURKJE VS SPIJKERBROEK as it's known in the Netherlands (Babelfish seemed to think this mean "Designerjurke the US Nail Trousers," but a loyal Dutch reader informed me that it really means "Designer Dress vs. Jeans") - anyway, apparently the Dutch LOVE Morgan Carter, which I find both fascinating and really, really cool. A French translation of STARLET is due out soon - I'm going to be posting the covers of all of the foreign translations on my site at some point in the near future, because they're adorable and I still think it's hysterical that teens can read my words in other languages.

Another fun STARLET factoid: earlier this summer, when I was working on content for the new web site, I came across a Wikipedia entry for the Lifetime adaptation of STARLET that claimed mysterious "sources" had "confirmed" that a sequel to the movie was in production, and that JoJo was set to star. I e-mailed the Jody, the film agent for the project, and he directed me to Barbara Lieberman, the original movie's producer. She confirmed that there wasn't a sequel in the works (though she said she wished there was, which was nice of her to say). So, I made my first-ever edit to a Wikipedia page, under the section titled "Sequel," which you can read here. (The plot synopsis is NOT my handiwork, and I'm embarassed to say it's riddled with spelling errors and just plain bad writing. Of course, this is coming from a girl who barely remembers to spell-check her own blog, so ... take my criticism with a grain of salt.)

ANYWAY, I must return my full attention to STELLA. And here's where I pose a question: for those of you who have already read the book, do you have any thoughts on which scenes I should do at the reading? I'm thinking part of the first chapter, part of the party scene, and definitely the gnocchi scene (because seriously? I know I shouldn't say this about my own book but I think the gnocchi scene is HOTT).

Up tomorrow: a very special episode of RECIPE OF THE WEEK! (Hint: it may have something to do with gnocchi ...)

Just popping in quickly to say that Lifetime's adaptation of TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET is now available on DVD! It's still so completely surreal to me. I mean, it was just under two years ago that I got a call from my agent telling me that it was likely that Lifetime was going to move on the option. Then, six months after that, we were in Toronto to watch the filming. Nine months later, a Lifetime Original Movie was born.

I get a lot of e-mail from readers asking me if/when there will be a third installment to the STARLET series, and the truth is, I don't know the answer to that question. I've had a sketch of the story in my head for years, back when my STARLET editor, Kristen Pettit, still worked for Razorbill. But there's this other Lola Douglas project in the works, and there are some unrelated issues that need to be worked out, so ... yeah. "I don't know" is the best I can offer right now. Sorry!

Back to Lifetime Original Movies: in case you missed it (and I did, until I was scanning a recent issue of EW), a Lifetime adaptation of E.R. Frank's AMERICA recently debuted. Rosie O'Donnell produced and starred; an encore airs tonight at 9 p.m. on Lifetime. Set your DVRs - I know I did!

So I haven't posted since Lola Week ended, and I'm pretty much all Lifetime-movied out but I will say this:

Having one of my books adapted into a TV movie was one of the coolest things that ever happened to me. And while yes, some of the novel's characters were cut, and some of the plot was chopped out, and while JoJo looks way more like LiLo's distant cousin than how I pictured Morgan Carter, I honestly enjoyed the hell out of the movie. I thought JoJo did a really good job as Morgan, and I loved Valerie Bertinelli's take on Trudy. Even more than that, I loved their dynamic together. So while the actors may not have been obvious choices to me, in the end, I think the casting was brilliant and helped bring even more viewers to the film. And of course, as an author it's really encouraging to see the spike in fan e-mails, especially by people who ran out and bought the books AFTER watching the movie.

Pleased? Why, yes, yes I am.

Now, the reason behind the non-posting: I've been sick. It's a weird kind of sick that started in the beginning of last week but manifested itself not as sickness so much as extreme tiredness. There were a couple of days where I slept 12-14 hours, which I never do - normally, if I get six or seven, I'm good to go. And then I started to get the heavy headed feeling and the post-nasal drip and then WHAM! Full-on grossness. By Saturday, my illness had struck Joe down, too, which meant our weekend was spent not working on projects and cleaning up around the house but camped out in the living room having a major movie marathon.

This is the upside to being sick the same time as your honey. You get to have guilt-free chill time where you can catch up on all sorts of DVR'd flicks, take as many naps as you want, and fight over who gets to cuddle with the dog next. As for the movies themselves, I should mention that I'm one of the only people I know who no longer have a Netflix account. I canceled it a year and a half ago because I was too busy to get through two to three movies a week, plus I have a pretty hefty cable package. So, now I wait for stuff to come on cable. Which means that I only just got to see ZODIAC, which was two and a half hours long but didn't feel it, not for a second. It totally made me want to watch SEVEN again, but more than that, it reminded me why I adore Robert Downey Jr., who was fabulous as the increasingly erratic Paul Avery. Yeah, I know everyone went nuts for him in IRON MAN; I personally wasn't as impressed.

After ZODIAC we queued up GONE BABY GONE, which is one of those movies that is so harrowing to watch you almost wish you'd avoided it. I started crying early on, when the mother of the missing girl starts talking about how hard it is to raise a child on her own (not because I sympathized with her, but because I was so disgusted by her self-righteousness). I felt sick to my stomach through most of it, and kept turning to Joe and saying things like, "This is a hard movie to watch." After it was over, the two of us were so depressed that we vowed we'd make up for it by watching a feel-good comedy the next day.

Unfortunately for us, we were under the misperception that NO RESERVATIONS, that Catherine Zeta-Jones/Aaron Eckhart rom com about two chefs and an orphaned Abigail Breslin, would fit that bill. Well, I should say unfortunately for me, because Joe actually LIKED IT. (I teased him mercilessly the rest of the day.) Breslin was cute in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, but she now suffers from that Dakota Fanning fate of getting by on cliched preciousness. People, it's not cute, and those of you who encourage this kind of cloying behavior should be shot. I normally adore Catherine Zeta-Jones, if for no other reason than she's gorgeous to look at, but here I found her annoying and unbelievable. Plus, every moment of this film was totally predictable. Here's me: "If she's in there watching home movies, I'm going to scream" (she was). "If feathers fly out of those pillows I'm going to scream" (they did).

After that train wreck, Joe napped and I watched Sofia Coppola's MARIE ANTOINETTE, which was very pretty in a sugar-spun candy confection kind of way, and an amusing look at the dysfunctional sex life of two royal teenagers who married before they knew what to do with a boner (or maybe even what a boner is). But after a while it devolved into a series of slo-mo shots of Kirsten Dunst twirling in a field of daisies and the footage looked like it could've been outtakes from THE VIRGIN SUICIDES. Plus, it ends before the beheading, so it feels anti-climactic in a sense.

Finally, we watched NOTES ON A SCANDAL, which was brilliantly acted and so full of pathos that I wanted to squee the entire time I watched it. No, it wasn't a gut-busting comedy, but hey - when you're sick the last thing you want to do is venture out into the real world to watch PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. Besides, good British drama feeds the soul in a super-nourishing way and can remind you what good filmmaking is all about.

It would've been a lovely end to an otherwise uneven day of movie viewing, if my cold hadn't suddenly veered into stomach flu territory. So I ended the evening clutching a trash can and bemoaning the fact that my dinner ended up on loan and not for keepers.

I have a long, long week of work ahead of me, but I'm still so completely drained and not up to any of it. Hence the subject line calling for a caffeine jolt. To brew or not to brew; that is the question.

NEXT UP: Two GCC tours.

In typical Lara fashion, nothing amazing can happen in my life without something not-so-amazing to keep me humble. Yesterday morning, I was walking out of a doctor's office, missed a curb, and landed my full weight on my left ankle. It promptly swelled to twice its size and hurts something fierce. I can barely walk; today I managed to get around the house in my office chair, propelling myself forward with my good foot.

Now I'm at my Mom's, eagerly awaiting our viewing partners. Veggies have been cut, eggs have been deviled, and my ankle's been wrapped with a nice Ace bandage. As soon as Amy gets here with her hot dog casserole, I can take some yummy Naprosen and let the de-swelling begin.

Only 36 minutes until the movie!

T-minus ONE DAY until the premiere of the Lifetime Original Movie, TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET! (Saturday, August 9th @ 9PM, with encores on Sunday at 7 PM and Monday at 9 PM, in case you don't have a DVR and won't be home on Saturday.)

MORE PRESS:

The Hollywood Reporter calls TRUE CONFESSIONS "a little gem of a movie," and advises viewers to pay attention to "the funny dialogue." Those of you who've read the book will recognize that a nice chunk of that dialogue came DIRECTLY FROM THE NOVEL ITSELF. This is not to discredit the screenplay's awesome writer, Elisa Bell, who came up with some seriously funny bits that I never would have thought of in a million years.

Another profile - this time from the New York Daily News - about how JoJo would never end up like Morgan Carter.

MORE GCC STOPS:

The inimitable E. Lockhart asks me about my prankster past.

And today's birthday girl Shanna Swendson asks me about the process of seeing my book turned into a movie.

THE LOLA STORY

So, the story of how I became Lola isn't as sexy as you might think. In fact, it's a little embarrassing. See, I never set out to be Lola. What happened was this:

When I moved back to Delaware in Dec. 2001, I couldn't find a full-time job. But I was offered a part-time teaching gig at UD. That first semester I had exactly one class and was doing a lot of freelance work for Allyn & Bacon, the company I'd worked for in Boston before I moved home. Then I sold a couple more books (under my name) and got a few more teaching gigs, and suddenly going back to work full time didn't seem like the best idea. After all, I teaching left me with summers off and a few days each week free to do school visits and stuff.

But as any author knows, contract advances can only be stretched so far. And adjunct teaching gigs are unpredictable; some semesters I'd have three classes, and others I'd only have one again. I remembered reading this article about how Rob Thomas, he of VERONICA MARS fame, used to support himself by ghostwriting crappy series fiction. You bust out a novel that's already been meticulously outlined in a handful of weeks, and voila! Five grand easy. So I talked to my agent and asked him if it was possible for me to do this, so that I'd have more money in the bank and less fiscal worry.

Long story short: he introduced me to the editor at a book packaging company, who pitched me one idea that I had absolutely no idea how to write. (It was a very New York City kind of book, and I'm allergic to NYC and wouldn't know how to write about it like an insider even if I spent a year reading up on it.) So then she asked me what kind of book I wanted to write, and I told her that I was dying to do a diary format novel. She asked me whose diary I'd like to read, and I didn't know what hadn't been done already. She told me to think about it and get back to her.

On the ride home from New Jersey (I'd taken the train in from Princeton), I was trying to answer that very question. Drew Barrymore came to mind. Very quickly, I had this idea of a Drew Barrymore-esque young actress getting out of rehab and being sent to Fort Wayne, Indiana to continue her recovery incognito. Then I said, "God, that's such a far-fetched, movie-of-the-week plot." Then I thought, "Well, what if I acknowledge that the plot sounds like it comes from a bad movie-of-the-week? Could I make it work well enough for readers to suspend disbelief?" (Nowadays we call this the "Hannah Montana Effect.") At home, I titled the proposal "Diary of a Teenaged Has-Been" and sent it off to my agent soon after. Two editors were interested in the project; we went with the one whose vision more closely matched my own.

So why didn't I write this under my own name? Well, I already owed my primary publisher, Random House, another book. Contractually I wasn't allowed to write YA for any other publisher except for them. So when we accepted the offer on the proposal, one of the stipulations was that the book would have to be published under a pseudonym. As for the name itself: Lola was a nickname a friend of mine had given me in college. When it came to her last name, I told my new editor I just wanted to move up in the alphabet. I gave her an A name, a B name, a C name, and a D name. She chose the D name, which also happens to be the first name of Douglas Coupland, whose early fiction made me want to be a writer to begin with.

As much fun as I have being Lola, I am still very much me. As in, Lara-me. And I'm so super-psyched about my next project for Random House, which used to be called WHAT'S COOKING WITH STELLA MADISON? and was recently renamed THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON. Here's the jacket copy for it:

It’s not easy being the daughter of a famous chef and a restaurant owner when your idea of a great meal is the kind served via a drive-through window. Harder still when your food-loving parents, who have been separated for years, are still as sweet to each other as can be. When their connections help seventeen year old Stella Madison land a summer job at the local newspaper, the salary is hard to resist. There’s only one catch: she’s expected to write about food.

Now Stella needs all the advice she can get to complete her assignments. Luckily she has Jeremy, the hot new intern at her mom’s restaurant, who’s more than happy to help. Soon Stella can’t stop thinking about Jeremy--but where does that leave Stella’s boyfriend, Max, who recently dropped the L-word? If that’s not confusing enough, her dad’s interest in the pretentious programming director for the Food Network seems to go beyond the culinary, and now it looks like her mother might be cooking up a romance of her own …

The Sweet Life of Stella Madison is a warmhearted, delectable novel about what it means to love and be loved, especially when there are a few too many cooks in the kitchen.

It's got an absolutely adorable cover, too - but that's for another post entirely.

Thanks for tuning in during Lola Week! Hope you guys watch (and enjoy) the movie ... and don't forget to check my blog during the Saturday premiere to find out all sorts of juicy tidbits!

It's "Fallen Angels Week" on Lifetime, which I'm assuming is a tie-in to the Saturday night premiere of Lifetime's film adaptation of TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET (August 9th at 9 p.m.). Well, here on "Girl Uninterrupted," it's "Lola Week" - all Lola, all the time. Be prepared to learn more than you ever wanted to know about the movie, how and why I became Lola Douglas to begin with, and what's next for my alter ego.

But first, something really freaking cool:

You know how ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY has its weekly "What to Watch" column, now penned by the lovely and talented Jessica Shaw? Well, this week's ONLY pick for Saturday is TRUE CONFESSIONS! EW's Leah Greenblatt, who is also very lovely and talented, writes, "Despite some yawning plot holes (superfamous blond actress + brunet dye job = total undercover stranger! who knew?), it's surprisingly self-aware fun."

In my defense, Morgan's transformation into Claudia Miller involves more than a dye job. Book Morgan gets a nose job and a breast reduction, puts on a significant amount of weight, and wears glasses in addition to turning her golden locks mousy brown. AND people notice that Claudia resembles Morgan, though the lack of boobs and excess booty, in addition to the Everygirl Target wardrobe, makes them all think, "nah." Yes, it's still far-fetched, but not QUITE as far-fetched as it is in the TV movie.

Anyway, Leah G gives the movie a B overall, so I ain't complaining.

MORE MOVIE GOODIES:

Win a copy of Valerie Bertinelli's juicy autobiography, LOSING IT!

Check out a newly blond JoJo discussing "Hollywood's Temptations."

ReadSlate's take on "The Lifetime Original Movie 2.0" - great article but contains two factual errors (1. Morgan DOES complete a successful stint in rehab and 2. Even though Valerie Bertinelli's TV movies may have appeared on Lifetime previously, this is actually her very first ORIGINAL Lifetime TV movie.)

In fact, Valerie discusses this very thing here. One more correction: sorry, Jacqueline Cutler, but despite your assertation that "Morgan [is] a thinly veiled Lindsay Lohan," she's totally not. I BASED MORGAN ON A YOUNG DREW BARRYMORE YEARS BEFORE LINDSAY STARTED TRAIPSING IN AND OUT OF REHAB. However, Jacqueline, your assessment that JoJo is "terrific" as Morgan is 100% correct.

Something I knew: JoJo turned down the role of Hannah Montanna. Something I didn't: she almost turned down the role of Morgan Carter.

BACK TO THE BOOK:

TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET is a Readergrlz recommended read for August! This month's theme is body image. And, because this also happens to be the month the movie premieres on Lifetime (this Saturday! August 9th! At 9 p.m.!), we're giving away autographed copies of the book! Just check out the Readergirlz forum on MySpace on August 9th and leave a comment under the thread "True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet Giveaway"!

Next Up: links to my recent GCC tour stops!