Far into the future Charlton Heston will be memorialized as Moses. Yet no matter how much acclaim he receives for throwing off the yoke of Egyptian bondage on the silver screen, the truly remarkable attribute of Charlton Heston was his penchant for breaking the bonds of stereotype in his real life.
Heston was the Army-Air-Corps-veteran gun lover who was, quite frequently, anti-war (depending upon the nature of the conflict). He presided over both the Screen Actors Guild and the National Rifle Association. He was the white conservative Republican Civil Rights activist who dubbed Martin Luther King, Jr., the Moses of the twentieth century yet opposed affirmative action. He was the child of a broken home who stayed married sixty-four years—in Hollywood, no less! He is, perhaps, the only person both to have hosted Saturday Night Live and to have offered an A&E series in which he simply read the King James Version of the Bible on international television. He forcefully campaigned both for John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
Charlton Heston believed that America was allowing liberalism to erode truth. In a world where radical feminism, the radical gay agenda, the pro-death agenda, and ever-encroaching socialism continues its ongoing efforts to oppose God in the world (and too many times, in the church), Heston reminded us that "political correctness is tyranny with manners." Heston said, "Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. "
In return, people like George Clooney and Michael Moore tried to make Heston into a caricature, but they failed utterly and miserably. Heston was nobody's caricature. He thought for himself. And that's what the liberals despised about him.
I do not know anything about Charlton Heston's personal relationship with Jesus Christ (or lack thereof). But as one who grew up watching The Ten Commandments on television, I can only hope that, at this very moment, Moses is telling Heston what REALLY happened.
6 comments:
Bart,
I agree with everything you said about Charlton Heston. He was one of the Greatest Americans, in my time.
thanks for sharing this Post.
In His Name
Wayne
Bart,
Ben Hur was a film that incorporated the death and resurrection of Christ. Hopefully, Mr. Heston knew our Lord.
Les
The POTA film was the finest
Bart
You did it again. How were you able to read my mind and produce this post? But I will say that your internal editor did a much better job of producing a memorial on Charlton Heston than I ever could.
Good Job!
My dad tells a great story about Heston. In college, my dad traveled with a musical group called The Sound Generation. They represented John Brown University playing state fairs and various other venues.
On a California trip (c. 1972), my dad was with a group of Sound Generation members who met Charlton Heston. One member of the group, who to this day is a solid representative of the typical blond stereotype, was obviously awed to be in the presence of such an amazing talent who had such an impressive body of work to his credit.
She blurted out, "I loved you in Planet of the Apes!"
Wes, did you also go to JBU? That is where my son went to school.
The quote by Heston that I thought was inspired was that he would have to "reconcile courage and surrender equally" when asked about his recent discovery of alhzheimers.
I thought that it described what a Christian must have - courage and surrender. Beautiful.
Liz
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