doubt

There are no simple truths.

At Cinegogue on Saturday, we sat together in the VineArts studio like a very large family, and watched Doubt.


Wow.

Our family watched it last year sometime. Rented it along with Faith Like Potatoes and watched them the same Saturday afternoon (the titles felt like a nice complementing fit!). I remembered being stirred by it the first time, with some discussion amongst ourselves following.

This time I was deeply impressed that every believer, every church needs to watch this film.

What an amazing film for a day like 9/11.

What a needed film for every church and family and believer – for our entire culture.

“I don’t have any facts, but I have my certainty. I know about people,” says Sister Aloysius.

As our poignant discussion following the film explored, how easy it is for us to render our snap judgments about one another. How sly, how subtle, how nearly undetectable our lenses are through which we see each other, friend and foe. How easy to be so sure, so very sure that that’s what he is about. It was interesting to hear the perspective of those who saw Sister Aloysius truly in black, and Father Flynn in white, only then to see it totally flipped through the eyes of others – which is the point and brilliance of the play and movie.

The fact is there wasn’t anyone with a white hat or a black one (in fact, everyone pretty much wore black!). And through our discussion, I realized how much both characters, each antagonist, saw only the mask they perceived on each other’s face. Sister Aloysius saw a dangerous and liberal priest, a predator borne on harmful winds of change, and that tilted everything for her. Father Flynn saw a tight-bonneted, stick-in-the-mud sister whose only purpose in life was to halt the progress of the helpful winds of change in the church and in society – and that tilted everything for him. No trust, no communication. But ultimately plenty of confrontation. The scene with Sister Aloysius clutching the crucifix like a knife – wow! How easily we go there, all of us! Politically, socially, religiously, relationally. How readily we will declare holy war, or, more likely, carry on silent vendettas. Submarine warfare seems more to our liking than the direct assault on the gates, as in dealing with wrongdoing “we take a step away from God.”

And so, who is right? Who is wrong?

The film leaves it in our lap with Sister Aloysius’ final confession becoming our own.

I was left with Paul’s words ringing in my ears:

With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you – or by any man’s judgment. In fact, I don’t even judge myself! For I know nothing against myself, yet that’s not what makes me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.


Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes – who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsel of men’s hearts. And then each one will have his praise from God.

No doubt.