It was this time last year that millions were crowding the theaters to experience The Passion of the Christ. Twelve months later, Mel Gibson's mega-hit has endured what many have considered a snub from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Passion recieved a few nominations for minor awards; it did not recieve a nomination for Best Picture or any of the other major awards. As a result, we've had to listen to advocates who say, "This amounts to an anti-Christian putdown!" while defenders of the Academy answer, "It's a good film, but it's not that good."
I suppose that if the debate were simply about the relative merit of a film as a film, then it might be worth a minute of discussion. But we all know that's not the case. So here I think it's important to recall that Jesus never said, "Go into all the world and promote my movie to all creation." What he said was, "Do not resist an evil academy. If a small group snubs your film, release it on DVD!"
Of course, that should settle it. But I know it won't. One reason it won't is because a part of the tradition in which we stand is a perverted form of Christianity that has grown used to and has come to expect the position of privilege. Had he wanted to, the man of sorrows, the man who had no place to lay his head, would certainly never have had a platform from which to demand fair treatment for his film or anything else.
More than ever, the question that now comes to American Christians is, Will we follow the easy pattern of using and protecting privilege? Or will we, following the pattern of Jesus, disregard and relinquish such weak and temporal forms of power so that we can take hold of a life that is true?
I have to confess that I don't understand much of what that entails. But I want to.
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2 comments:
Boy howdy! This is a hot post, Frank. Great thoughts.
Have you read McLaren's review of "Hotel Rwanda", by the way? He compares and contrasts it to "The Passion". If you haven't read it, you need to. It's linked on about a hundred blogs right now, including mine. Give it a look.
I'm not even a little upset about "Passion" not getting many nominations. I thought it deserved the nominations that it DID receive, but nowhere in my brain do I feel like Caviezel or Gibson -- or God -- got ripped off. Don Cheadle was the best actor I saw in action this year, without a doubt.
Of course that goes hand in hand with faith in God. The oft heard expression "Let go and let God" comes to mind.
Jesus lived like that in going to the cross. A totally bogus trial. Most disciples forsook him. Roman soldier treatment of a "death row" prisoner...
Instead we're all caught up in "human rights", "keeping it together" and "having a life". (All of which us "1st world" educated post-modern-era folk know are bogus.) This is where I realise the conversion of faith in God to trust in God is what lacks in western upbringing. No doubt a personal thing in our relationship with Him that only experience brings on.
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