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.

Review: Iron Man 2 @ Parma MotorVu (did I just make a rhyme?)

Tonight was the first time back at a drive-in theater for me in about 35 years (at least).

Growing up, I remember going to drive-ins fairly frequently.
I remember us making an evening of it, going down early, playing in an onsite playground until dusk, waiting for the first image to be shot up on the screen. I remember large metal speakers hooked onto our car window and watching from inside the car.

Which was one of the pointed differences between tonight’s experience and what I remember. Tonight was like one big tailgate party. Hatches open, lawn chairs set out, boom boxes for sound systems, kids spread out on the roof of their family cars. There wasn’t even any need to silence your cell phone. And then there’s the huge screen with the backdrop of a starlit sky. Half the time I found myself gazing at the stars, at the deep, darkening blue/black of the night sky with that fading tinge of reddish orange on the horizon.

Iron Man 2 is a throwaway film that reveals the kingdom of God by contrast (humility versus narcissim and braggadocio, organic simplicity versus high-tech gadgetry, one-another community versus the one man show – with a timely assist), but the show God put on behind the show filled me. What a way to watch a movie!

Add in the community aspect of the tailgate party happening down the row, and there was much more of the kingdom in evidence behind the screen and before it than on it.

Not a bad way to spend an evening…makes me think of one creative use for that big athletic field behind the church. Can you imagine it – the Vineyard Motor Vu right in our own backyard…

Dreaming, dreaming…

Four Types of Films

In Faith and Film, Edward McNulty urges film viewers not to judge a film by its rating, any more than we should judge a book by its cover. He then proceeds to list four types of films to help us to sort out “the wheat from the chaff” when dealing with films. I think these may come in handy as we think about and watch movies. I’m going to resist giving examples of each of the four types. See what films come to your mind as you consider each. Here you go:


Harmless Throwaway Films
“About as valuable as the throwaway popcorn boxes and candy wrappers that we discard at the theater, these films make up the bulk of the more than four hundred and fifty films that Hollywood releases each year,” says McNulty. We would probably characterize these films as harmless fun, nice diversions. The plots are formulaic, characters predictable, and you see everything coming the proverbial mile away. But if it’s done well, who cares? Whether you're laughing or crying or cheering, it’s a nice distraction from whatever life pressures you may be facing.

Toxic Junk
“These films are dangerous, even in small doses.” Actually, I think the Message rendering of Paul’s classic “works of the flesh” text in Galatians 5 sums this category up pretty well:

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. Galatians 5:19-21

Now, I wouldn’t say that a film that has any or all of these elements is necessarily toxic – it’s the wallowing in it, smuggly parading it, I would say. The fact is this is all the stuff of real life, so if we are moving beyond throwaway diversions to something connecting more with life, we will be encountering this. I suppose the question is how it’s handled. Toxic junk is serving it up as a main course and it tends to leave you feeling slimed to no end. It’s not a diversion, it’s a waste (and you know it when you see it).

Gritty Reality Films
“These take us to places, usually to the darker corners of our world, which we could never experience in reality.” These films are usually not pleasant to watch. Some might consider them toxic, but they are simply exploring the darker places of life where niceties are removed, the gloves are off, the fluff is gone. We see a vision of the way the world is, and it’s communicated in such a way that we are moved to think, to read, to act. They are life-impacting rather than merely nerve-numbing (the domain of the toxic junk film). These can be hard movies to watch, and when it’s done well, you’re often sorry you went to see it (especially if you were expecting something from the first category).

Visual Parables
“A small percentage of the 450 films released each year illuminate the great themes of life and faith. Like the parables of Jesus they point beyond themselves to a moral or spiritual truth.” These are the great stories that stick with you, haunt you, shadow you, or bring you wide-eyed into wonder. They don’t rely on shtick or formulas, and they end up probing the deeper places of life. They honesty visit the despair and darkness of life, prod us to ponder and probe it, often lead us to a place of hope and light in the midst of it.

So there you go. I didn’t think I could go through those without launching into this or that film, but I made it. At least for now. The films we’ll be watching together in Cinegogue will be drawn from the first, third and fourth categories (probably a disproportionate number from the fourth category), at least in my view – and such classification is in the eye of the viewer, isn’t it? What I consider gritty or parabolic, you might view as toxic waste or just a waste of time. Regardless, hopefully these categories will be helpful in your own personal film viewing – and in the movies we watch together in Cinegogue. And if you love the movies, check out McNulty’s book.

See you at the movies.