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[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
Renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese has had a lifelong fascination with Christianity. Early on, he was even drawn to the priesthood and attended a Catholic seminary before finding his calling in film. But he returned to his spiritual fascination in such films as The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) with Willem Dafoe as a Jesus struggling with his humanity, and Silence (2016) starring Liam Neeson in a tale of Jesuit missionaries struggling against persecution in 17th century Japan.
Scorsese pursued other projects in the same vein that never made it to the finish line. Over twenty years ago I was working with a film producer who told me Scorsese was contemplating a project about Jesus’ apostles, so he asked me to prepare for the director a breakdown of the biographical highlights of the apostles’ lives, which I did. The project never materialized, however.
Scorsese reportedly had also completed a screenplay for a film about Jesus, based on a book by Shusaku Endo, the author of the novel on which Silence was based, but filming was postponed.
He also considered, as far back as the 1980s, shooting a series of television documentaries on the lives of different saints, but that project too never materialized – until last year, when the Fox Nation streaming service premiered Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints, a series of docudramas profiling Christian holy men and women. The first season featured the 15th century warrior maiden Joan of Arc, early Christian martyr Saint Sebastian, John the Baptist, Holocaust victim Maximilian Kolbe, Mary Magdalene, 4th century Egyptian monk Moses the Black, and Francis of Assisi.
“I’ve lived with the stories of the saints for most of my life,” the 81-year-old filmmaker has said,
thinking about their words and actions, imagining the worlds they inhabited, the choices they faced, the examples they set. These are stories of… very different men and women, each of them living through vastly different periods of history and struggling to follow the way of love revealed to them and to us by Jesus’ words in the Gospels.
These stories “gradually became legend – that is, the realm where historical truth gives way to a spiritual truth,” Scorsese narrated.
Now Fox Nation has renewed the series for a second season of eight episodes which will run through spring of 2026, encompassing both the Christmas and Easter holidays. Season one reportedly broke Fox Nation viewership and engagement records. The Saints was the most-watched series on Fox Nation for each month in which a new episode was released.
“It was evident our subscribers wanted more, and we delivered,” Fox News Media chief digital officer Jason Klarman said in a statement. “The Saints celebrates the very best of humanity — courage, sacrifice, and above all, faith.”
“For many years, I dreamed of telling stories of the lives of the saints. It’s been an obsession of mine for as long as I can remember,” Scorsese stated. “So the chance to do this series meant the world to me, and it’s heartening to know that people have responded to it.”
As with season one, the show features one saint per episode. Season two began with Ireland’s Saint Patrick (episode one) and Saint Peter (episode two); the remaining episodes will feature the Virgin Mary, Saint Carlo Acutis (the Italian teen known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his use of digital media to promote Catholic devotion), Saint Paul, Saint Longinus (the Roman centurion who pierced the side of Jesus during the Crucifixion and later converted to Christianity), Saint Lucia (4th-century patron saint of the blind, martyred during the persecution under Emperor Diocletian), and Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket (murdered at the altar by followers of Henry II, with whom Becket clashed over the rights and privileges of the Church). The docudrama “explores the lives of these extraordinary figures and their extreme acts of kindness, selflessness and sacrifice,” according to Fox Nation.
Each episode consists of 30-40 minutes of dramatization that is a serious cut above the usual kinds of History Channel-quality re-creations you get with most docudramas. (It’s Martin Scorsese, after all, so you would expect him to raise the bar a good bit). Then each episode wraps up with a studio conversation among Scorsese and a few “experts” who include: prominent Jesuit Fr. James Martin; Mary Karr, “Professor, Poet, Memoirist”; and Paul Elie, author and Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. All lean Left, especially Martin, who is a controversial LGBT activist, and Karr, a self-described “cafeteria Catholic,” is an abortion-supporting feminist. But so far in their discussions, their political worldview has not overtly reared its ugly head.
I found these conversational segments unfortunately disappointing – less than stimulating intellectually. I don’t recall any real insights or comments that added significantly to the dramatizations. The series and the saints themselves might have been better served by expanding upon the dramatizations and dropping the post-game analysis – or perhaps by swapping out Scorsese’s experts with more scholarly thinkers (in all fairness, the lives of the saints and the history of Christianity are all familiar territory for me; perhaps these conversations might be a good starting point for the more casual, less critical viewer).
That having been said, Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints is definitely worth viewing, and kudos to Hollywood icon Scorsese for being willing to buck his secular industry to bring these stories of Christian heroes to the screen (even if they have been relegated to a conservative outlet, Fox Nation, rather than a broader audience). As Scorsese himself noted, “You mention Christianity to many people today and they’re shocked. They look at me and they say, ‘You believe in that stuff?’”
He does. “I believe in the tenets of Catholicism,” Scorsese has said:
I’m not a doctor of the church. I’m not a theologian who could argue the Trinity. I’m certainly not interested in the politics of the institution. But the idea of the Resurrection, the idea of the Incarnation, the powerful message of compassion and love — that’s the key. The sacraments, if you are allowed to take them, to experience them, help you stay close to God.
Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints, season two, can be seen here with a free trial of Fox Nation.
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior
“It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not [Saint Francis of Assisi]. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not [Mother Teresa]. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not [Jesus Christ]. Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing ‘compassion’ for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.” – Thomas Sowell
“If everyone were Mother Teresa, we’d all inhabit a material and spiritual wasteland far worse than anything she faced while walking the streets of Calcutta all those years. And while she may have alleviated the suffering of a few, for a time, remember that she did nothing to lift that civilization out of poverty in any permanent, meaningful way. Only self-interested, profit-seeking, materialistic economic progress – the capitalism Pope Francis hates so much – can ever do that.
Mother Teresa didn’t produce much of anything. She just allows some of us to feel better about ourselves for applauding her. If we’re honest about it, her works spread guilt, not inspiration. Life is about more than the reduction of suffering and pain. It’s about growth, achievement and soaring to ever-new heights. That’s not Mother Teresa’s world. Yet it’s the world she and others like her count on to do what they do.
My idea of a saint? Someone who produces. Producers don’t do what they do for our sake; they do it for themselves, for their own profit, and out of their own desire to be productive. And that’s just fine with me.
The world desperately needs more producers. Charity is perfectly fine. But don’t kid yourself that charity lifts millions out of poverty and disease. Only economic progress does that. And progress arises not from a Mother Teresa-like compulsion to sacrifice. It arises from the best within us: Our desire to live for our own sakes, most of all.” – Michael J. Hurd, “Thank God We’re Not All Mother Teresa”
Copying and pasting the collected works of Lenny Peek-a-bo0 Peikoff along with the rest of Objectivist wastrels on to a webpage is not exactly being a producer.
Find something else to do, like helping a down and outer attend your thanksgiving dinner. Oh I forgot, Thanksgiving is actually based on Christian altruism. So sorry. No turkey for you.
Bad time of the year for you, huh.
“Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. In spite of its religious form (giving thanks to God for a good harvest), its essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers’ holiday. The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production. Abundance is (or was and ought to be) America’s pride—just as it is the pride of American parents that their children need never know starvation.” – Ayn Rand
“An Objectivist Prayer For Thanksgiving” by Jennifer A. Grossman
I give thanks for the First Amendment to the Constitution — which protects my right to practice religion, or practice no religion.
I give thanks to live in a country where Freedom of Speech is protected — where I can advance controversial ideas, like those promoted by Ayn Rand, relatively free from government interference.
I give thanks to live in a market economy, hampered though it be with government controls, where people are relatively free to produce and trade freely.
I give thanks for the fact that I bought all the food I have prepared at a local grocery store. I am so thankful that I have so many grocery stores to choose from — stocked with a dazzling array of products sourced from around the world at competitive prices all created with an aim of making money.
I’m extremely grateful for large scale, industrial farming — with produce and meat farmed and sourced globally.
I give thanks for the invention of pesticides, preservatives, and plastic — all of which have saved the lives of millions who would otherwise have died of food poisoning or starvation.
I’m grateful for the people who took such risks to drill, dig and engineer to discover and refine energy sources that are keeping me warm, and fueling the massive transport system of trucks, ships, planes and cars that brought this food to the table.
Of course, I could go on and on…but I am hungry, and so are you. So without further ado, I save and give my last and deepest thanks to Ayn Rand, whose books were in their own way, a form of prayer — populated by men and women worthy of worship, gratitude, and emulation.
Amen.
Only you could post that tripe, especially the point of Rand’s books being a form of prayer. Objectivism actually is a religion for you.
But hey, you and little Jennie Grossman keep trying to kill Christianity and Judaism, a 3000 year old religion and a 2000 year old religion. After all Objectivism is only 60 some years old with a following of perhaps 300o or so bitter people world wide.
Don’t choke on all that bitterness tomorrow. Try a football game to take your mind off of the fact that almost nobody thinks like you.
I see you’re back to harassing commentators again… hardly do you ever present anything of value to any articles… just always a loud mouth…
Wow! You really need to get a life…
Oh gee scumsrent
Talk about getting a life. Why don’t you tell us about God. You seem to focus Yahweh a lot. That and your latent ever present homosexuality. If only you were aware of your surroundings. As if what you write adds any value to anything.
Do you know why you “don’t need to add anything new and why you always repeat yourself?” A small mind is too stupid to add anything new. That is why you have to repeat yourself
Small minds….small insults. Always the same result
But many of those producers are also Christians, of course, as were most of the great scientists who made the discoveries that made modern mass production possible. That includes, Newton, Maxwell, Pascal, Pasteur, Kelvin, and Faraday, to name just a few. And the most affluent nations in history have been predominantly Christian. Does that count for anything in your worldview?
Not at all. Correlation is not causation.
“What — or who — ended the Middle Ages? My answer is: Thomas Aquinas, who introduced Aristotle, and thereby reason, into medieval culture. In the thirteenth century, for the first time in a millennium, Aquinas reasserted in the West the basic pagan approach. Reason, he said in opposition to Augustine, does not rest on faith; it is a self-contained, natural faculty, which works on sense experience. Its essential task is not to clarify revelation, but rather, as Aristotle had said, to gain knowledge of this world. Men, Aquinas declared forthrightly, must use and obey reason; whatever one can prove by reason and logic, he said, is true. Aquinas himself thought he could prove the existence of God, and he thought that faith is valuable as a supplement to reason. But this did not alter the nature of his revolution. His was the charter of liberty, the moral and philosophical sanction, which the West had desperately needed. His message to mankind, after the long ordeal of faith, was in effect: “It’s all right. You don’t have to stifle your mind anymore. You can think.”
The result, in historical short order, was the revolt against the authority of the Church, the feudal breakup, the Renaissance. Renaissance means “rebirth,” rebirth of reason and man’s concern with this world. Once again, as in the pagan era, we see secular philosophy, natural science, man-glorifying art, and the pursuit of earthly happiness. It was a gradual, tortuous change, with each century becoming more worldly than the preceding, from Aquinas to the Renaissance to the Age of Reason to the climax and end of this development: the eighteenth century, the Age of Enlightenment. This was the age in which America’s founding fathers were educated and in which they created the United States.” – Leonard Peikoff, Religion versus America”
I agree Scorsese made some good movies over the years…
However; obviously and yet sadly… these series are based on the satanic catholic fake church’s beliefs…
So often… Christian movies are tainted with satanic stuff… wrong ideas and/or beliefs…
Even the Left Behind series is satanic… it’s based upon the false Pre-Trib Rapture beliefs…
Wow, it’s holiday buzz-kill central. How lucky we are to have the second of the two most miserable people on the same story back to back.
Satan is everywhere in your silly little world. If only it actually was. Gotta watch out for those Pre-Trib Rapture beliefs
Is the Thanksgiving turkey and/or ham satanic? How about the Christmas turkey or ham. Is that satanic? How about that decorated tree? Gift giving? Santa? A Charlie Brown Christmas? Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Handel’s Messiah? The Nutcracker?
You and THX should hook up in late December for a joint orgy of good old fashioned Christmas hate. He is especially good at bashing Jesus, the Virgin Birth and the holiday in general. What a pair you two would make.
Bad time of the year for you too?
darn… I was hoping you left this website…
…
You say “satan is everywhere” <<< Wrong!
Google Ai Reports:
"No, the Bible does not teach that Satan is omnipresent, or present everywhere at once
; that attribute belongs only to God. Instead of being in every place at the same time, Satan works through a network of demons to carry out his will and influence people, which gives the appearance of being everywhere."
…
Then you say… "If only it actually was."
I say… it is in your homosexual, satanic ELCA Lutheran fake church which teaches you worship the fake god allah of satanic islam…
The fact stands… you don't possess the ability to discern the Truth… your satanic fake church doesn't teach anything past 'Feel Good'… <<< It's a dead fake church… a party house…
Sorry to disappoint you. If you actually had a brain and were a sentient being you would have seen that I’ve been commenting all week. Your comments are boring, mostly repetitive, and downright idiotic.
This last comment of yours kinda proves my point. You said all of this romper room crap last week and the week before. And the week before. I can almost recite it by heart. You are so desperate to prove something you will never be able to prove because you made it up and there it will forever fester in that pile of jello that functions as your brain. Or do you keep that nonsensical blather on an index card so you don’t forget.
Hey scumsface, can I hear the story again about the mid west diner that serves Halal food and how you really showed them by walking out. Basically you ran away.
I’ll keep an eye out for those Pre-Trib Rapture beliefs in your turkey. Because when I want accurate sourcing Google AI is my go to stop for all of the confirmation I will ever need that you are an absolute living breathing petty angry freak show.
Yes Intrepid… you are a disappointment… sadly… a major disappointment.
Also… Yes Intrepid… I repeat the same things over and over with you.
Why? Because you ain’t worth the time. No need to add anything more. You can’t handle anything more beyond that. You have a puny, secular and worldly mind. Which you can’t see… because you also have been given over to a narcissist, reprobate mind.
In other words… you love yourself and the crazy world you live in.
I love it when you misquote me. I didn’t say Satan is everywhere. I said “Satan is everywhere in your silly little world.”
Normals don’t go looking for satan in every TV show and film. But you do. You are satan obsessed.
Google Ai Reports:
“No, the Bible does not teach that Satan is omnipresent, or present everywhere at once
; that attribute belongs only to God. Instead of being in every place at the same time, Satan works through a network of demons to carry out his will and influence people, which gives the appearance of being everywhere.”
I did a search on your quote from Google AI. Guess what it doesn’t exist. It does show up on a bunch of other sites. But you sourced from Google AI. So you stole it from other sites. So this is your lame attempt to pretend to do actual research.
Google AI is a program that claims it helps you build apps. No wonder you use it all the time replete with your own quotes.
So that makes you a liar to use your fav accusation. In short you are an amateur.
“Normal”??? <<< What???
Your idea of normal is… following along with the majority of the world in evil.
Remember… wide is the pathway to destruction. <<< Meaning… most are headed down the wrong pathway.
Norman Vincent Peale was once asked… what did he attribute to his success…
His answer… "I observed the masses and did the opposite!"
Such wise words… aye?
So yes… I don't desire to be what you believe is normal… I prefer to be one of the Elect. <<< Which will go over your secular, narcissistic head
The elect? Joe biden was one of the elect. If you were one of the elect This country would have never succeeded
If you think you are one of the elect because you blabber on endlessly about Satan you simply want people you converse with God. Which also makes you nuts because that is the most unhumble things you ever said.
I don’t worry about what your definition of normal is. Normal is definitely not you. You are a faux religious crackpot who is terrified of talking about your church and your fu*ked version Christianity. I can only imagine what kind of abuse you would encounter if you ever owned up to what you truly are. What a hoot that would be
You think Google AI is actually a source? Yet you never prove anything behind your stupid non sourcing. Did you even graduate from middle school? You are a joke.
Yes Intrepid… I knew using the word “elect” would go over your secular, worldly, self loving, narcissistic head…
But please… allow me to deep dive a bit here…
I desire to be one of the “Very Elect”… which I believe I am one…
How so?
I won’t be deceived by the Antichrist during the Tribulation…
…
Additionally; as I’ve stated in the past… We are called, as Christians to share the Gospel of Salvation and Rebuke evil when we see it…
And… as I’ve stated… you are of the world and of a Reprobate Mind… unable to discern the Truth…
How so?
Because you attend a satanic fake church which is in the making to become a mosque…
Toodles… have a good Thanksgiving. Which a know you need to hear, since you are quite a lonely person. Hope you have loved ones to share it with…
Oh so you are one of the “very elect”. In that imaginary church .
Are you self anointed or did you hold an election. Actually I knew what you were talking about and I said so in my last comment. But for the benefit of your l0w rent intelligence I’ll repeat it:
“If you think you are one of the “elect” because you blabber on endlessly about Satan you simply want people to think you converse with God. Which also makes you nuts because that is the most unhumble of things you ever said.”
“I desire to be one of the “Very Elect”… which I believe I am one…
How so? I won’t be deceived by the Antichrist during the Tribulation…”
Have you ever seen the anti Christ? You actually are that insane.
If you actually ran into Satan you would sh*t your pants. That is how much of a coward you are. Satan would chew you up and spit your sorry ass out.
And here’s another thing. If you are so smart where are all of the books with your name as the author. You ain’t Norman Vincent Peale, and you never will be. Just cheap little insults from the cheap little man. And of course there are your endless latency issues,.
At least I have an actual church with friends and actual pastors. And this Sunday I will be there along with the congregation saying the Nicene Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, the vocal quartet will perform my arrangement of Climbing Jacob’s Ladder. And 400 people will hear it.
Sucks to be you.
No… I won’t believe you knew what I was talking about… not by mentioning Biden… <<< hahaha
And… do you know why the Very Elect could be deceived? Look it up and get better informed.
Besides… I've already told you Intrepid… What you attend is not a church… it's a mosque in the making…
You might have a building… you have the fake god allah to worship… and…
All you need now is a prayer rug… and a minaret with a horn to blast the Adhan…
…
Also… Get this… the Antichrist has NOT been revealed yet… and we aren't living in the Tribulation yet.
Additionally; Greater is he that is in me, than he that is in the world… the beginning of wisdom is to fear God.
I did look it up. And unlike you I can actually do a search, not some BS Google AI search
And… do you know why the “Very Elect” could be deceived? Because you are a fatuously stupid gullible fool. What a great ‘out’ for you, very convenient. No Trib no anti-Christ. also very convenient.
“The Antichrist has NOT been revealed yet… and we aren’t living in the Tribulation yet.” You have an excuse for everything, don’t you. What if there is no TribblyWibbly, SumsyWumsy? That is how arrogant you are.
Yes we have a building…it’s called a church. Attendance is 300 to 400 every week. And they don’t know or care about you. Not my problem you don’t have a church…. just your living room no doubt. Who would attend an s-hole fake church like yours anyway.
“Greater is he that is in me, than he that is in the world…the beginning of wisdom is to fear God.” Maybe you should fear God with all of that very unchristian lying you do. And don’t ignore your latency issues
Trying to scare folks with scripture simply means you live in the 13th C. I live in the 21st C. and I have an actual life to live, unlike you. No wonder you are dumb enough to think God would elect you to anything. You are delusional. You are nothing special. You are an amateur. God elected you to nothing
Well jerk face……gotta go. Have to prepare the turkey and the sides. Got football to watch with guests. and unlike you, I will not wish you a disingenuous Happy Thanksgiving. That is the type lying filth you have always been. I sincerely wish you a burnt overcooked bird, and you have to order from Denny’s.
No Intrepid… I don’t have excuses… I’m able to rebuke your Biblical ignorance…
The best you can do is make fun of and mock the Holy Word of God… <<< so shameful…
But… you being of a Reprobate Mind is understandable…
No sense in trying to fully explaining anything to you… it all goes over your head…
For instance… no Christian is a "coward"… Greater is he that is in [them] than he that is in the world.
No doubt your satanic fake church has never taught that.
I am not mocking God. I am mocking you. I have always felt that you think you are God. After all how else could you come up with that egotistical claim that God selected you to be one of the ‘very elect’. Of course he did. What a joke. How much more F.O.S. could you possibly be, being obsessed with homosexuality but getting to accuse everyone else of it.
Of course you are filled with excuses. You last comment to me is filled with excuses, especially about the tribulation and your inability to see the anti-Christ. As I said very convenient for you.
“No sense in trying to fully explaining anything to you… it all goes over your head…” You couldn’t fully explain anything to anyone. And nothing you say goes over my head. You simply aren’t that smart.
For instance… no Christian is a “coward”… Greater is he that is in [them] than he that is in the world.”
Go ahead, hide behind your 3rd grade scare tactics. Not impressed, Bible babble boy. You are the biggest coward there is. You cant even put a name to the actual sect of your whack version of your faith.
“No doubt your satanic fake church has never taught that.”
Why would it tell lies for children. That’s your bailiwick. Actually it doesn’t do elementary school lies. You sound like you are always talking down to adults Get over yourself and try scripture that is less condescending.
But hey, guess what. The church just gave five of us the green light to bring firearms into the church in light of what happened in D.C. over the Thanksgiving holiday. My suggestion is don’t come to my church. Since you are an out of control loon, you may just get a rude surprise. And we are all trained marksmen. I guess you won’t have to worry being a trained coward and not having a real church, except for your whacked friends.
I’ve been torn between belief and non-belief all my life, however the older and wiser I think I become, the more I believe.
There were no black Saints.
Some people just wash up at the bottom.