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Thursday May 4, 2006
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Lord of the Rings Star Using Fame from Film to Promote Homosexual "Marriage"
By John-Henry Westen
DUBLIN, May 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - British Actor Ian McKellen who was launched into mega-stardom playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film in 2001, has used the recognition generated by the film to forward his crusade to promote homosexuality. Ironically, the genius behind the story which gave McKellen his current pedestal - J.R. Tolkien - held that homosexuality was a disorder and was a staunch defender of traditional Catholic teaching on sexual morality, according to experts on the famed writer.
McKellen's latest endeavour is to campaign for homosexual 'marriage' in Britain. This week McKellen complained that a new UK law allowing homosexual civil unions did not go far enough. "I really can't see why the government couldn't just say gay people can get married - that would have been true equality and so much simpler. But that hasn't been done because they couldn't face the furore," he said.
Canadian Catholic novelist Michael D. O'Brien, who has written extensively on Tolkien told LifeSiteNews.com that Tolkein "was a traditional orthodox Catholic, a daily Mass goer," and thus held to the Church's teachings on homosexuality. O'Brien added that even in his most famous writings Tolkein included the Judeo-Christian moral order. "Although the Lord of the Rings is an imaginative portrayal of the cosmos," said O'Brien, "it is completely faithful to the moral order of the universe in which we live." (see the Catholic World Report interview with O'Brien on Tolkien: http://studiobrien.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&...)
Tolkien's thoughts on human sexuality are most clearly represented in his personal writings. In Tolkein's letter to his then-21 year old son Michael, he warned that illicit sexuality is one of the prime dangers for souls. "The devil is endlessly ingenious, and sex is his favorite subject," he wrote.
Tolkien was very aware of the hardships of remaining faithful in marriage, but recognized that in only in God's plan for marriage can happiness be found. He wrote, "No man, however truly he loved his betrothed and bride as a young man, has lived faithful to her as a wife in mind and body without deliberate conscious exercise of the will, without self-denial." And in another place he said, "Christian marriage is not a prohibition of sexual intercourse, but the correct way of sexual temperance--in fact probably the best way of getting the most satisfying sexual pleasure." (see more on Tolkien's letter here: http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2005-0...)
Since his Lord of the Rings fame McKellen has called on other actors to "come out of the closet", has criticized actor Will Smith for his reticence to perform a gay kiss, and insisted that Hollywood is 'homophobic'.
McKellen admits that Lord of the Rings was the cause of his stardom. "I'm a big star now. I've been acting for 40 years and suddenly I'm in the biggest grossing movie all over the world. I can't believe it," he said as Lord of the Rings first opened. And he has even suggested that his open homosexuality was the reason he was given his major roles. "I've had enough of being a gay icon," he said jokingly in an interview with WENN, "I've had enough of all this hard work, because, since I came out, I keep getting all these parts, and my career's taken off."
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