Worldview Theater: The Shawshank Redemption

January 20, 2007

The following entry is cross-posted from the Truth and Grace Ventures (TGV) Blog.  TGV is a charitable organization aimed at equipping people to live joyfully as faithful stewards and servants.

 

Servants Quarters 2007 is in full swing.  We convened last night for the third time to continue our year-long dialogue exploring the implications of biblical stewardship principles for living in a culture captive to materialistic ideals.  During this latest gathering, we planned to discuss the worldview perspectives reflected in a specific product of American culture:  the critically-acclaimed and highly popular film, The Shawshank Redemption.  God had other plans. 

I hope and trust we were following His lead, as we shelved our Shawshank examination in favor of a spirited discussion concerning the crisis facing The Episcopal Church (TEC).  In particular, we explored what it means for The Falls Church (and other parishes who only recently disaffiliated from TEC) to be wise and faithful stewards of the property with which they have been blessed – as the Diocese of Virginia and TEC press headlong into litigation aimed at reclaiming that property.

Given the dynamic and volatile nature of the situation, I abstain, at this time, from sharing my specific thoughts on the matter.  What I will say is that we are striving to approach the situation with not just a Christian ethic and Christian spirituality (which no doubt are important) but also a Christian mind.  We are striving to help each other “think christianly” – “to accept all things with the mind as related, directly or indirectly, to man’s eternal destiny as the redeemed and chosen child of God” (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind:  How Should a Christian Think? p.44).  We are striving to “set[ ] all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, . . . see[ing] all things here below in terms of God’s supremacy and earth’s transitoriness, in terms of Heaven and Hell” (id. at 4).  In one sense, that’s the primary business of Servants Quarters.

Because of that fruitful detour, we’ve decided to hold our Shawshank discussion here in this forum.  All are welcome to pose questions, share observations or take issue with what I’ve written previously.  (In short, I observed that (1) Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) reflected in important ways the biblical notion of how important it is to maintain an eternal perspective, while living here and now;  and (2) the redemption of Andy’s best friend, Red Redding (Morgan Freeman) was suggestive of a Christian-like process of repentance.) 

If you prefer specific to open-ended questions, let’s begin the discussion with the subject of beauty.  What is attractive in the film?  What people, places, behavior or ideas?  To whom?  How is it made attractive?

 

Amazing Grace: the William Wilberforce Story

November 10, 2006

Do you know who William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was?  If not, don’t worry:  you’re not alone.  Only one in ten Americans has heard of him, according to Walden Media.  Another reason not to worry:  Amazing Grace: the William Wilberforce Story arrives in theaters on February 23, 2007.

For twenty years, from 1787 to 1807, Wilberforce struggled tirelessly for the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire.  Year after year, as a British Member of Parliament (MP), he introduced a bill to end that vile institution.  Edmund Burke described Wilberforce’s first great speech against the slave trade, given on May 12, 1789, as “equal[ing] anything . . . heard in modern times, and was not, perhaps, to be surpassed in the remains of Grecian eloquence.”  Wilberforce and his colleagues painstakingly gathered and presented documentary evidence and testimony of the unfathomably cruel nature of the enterprise and the growing public sentiment against it.  Their efforts ensured that no MP could claim ignorance on Judgment Day.¹

Continue reading "Amazing Grace: the William Wilberforce Story" »

Seeking “Healthy” Children: Nearing Gattaca?

September 14, 2006

You remember the movie Gattaca, starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, right?  In the not-too-distant future, Vincent (Hawke) is born the old-fashioned way, free of genetic engineering.  With his genes left to “chance,” Vincent is now saddled with not just bad eyesight but a serious heart condition that shrinks his life expectancy to 30 years.  In Gattaca, where genetic composition is determinative, a profile like Vincent’s destines a person to permanent membership in the socioeconomic underclass.

 

Determined not to subject their second child to a similar fate, Marie and Antonio, Vincent’s parents, decide to conceive him in what has become the “natural” way – i.e., genetically fine-tuned.

Continue reading "Seeking “Healthy” Children: Nearing Gattaca?" »

Eternal Sunshine

September 07, 2006

My bride and I found time to watch a movie together this past Saturday, something we are infrequently able to do with two little ladies in the house.  Our choice – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – was a bit risky but it paid off.  Eternal Sunshine is a bizarre romantic comedy starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.  Neither of us had ever even heard of this movie, despite the fact that it received an Academy Award in 2004 (Best Original Screenplay).  It is moments like this that remind me how out-of-step I am with popular culture. 

Through the turbulent romance of Joel (Carrey) and Clementine (Winslet), Eternal Sunshine explores a familiar problem:  when it comes to love, some people seem to make the same foolish mistakes again and again.  While the problem isn’t novel, its presentation certainly is.  By portraying the history of Joel and Clementine’s relationship through the lens of a wacky medical procedure, the director is able to intertwine and blur fact and fiction, shift temporal perspectives frequently, and create a wild ride for the viewer.

Continue reading "Eternal Sunshine" »

The Meaning of Life (courtesy Woody Allen)

July 22, 2006

Movie critics tend to agree that Woody Allen’s Match Point is his best film in years.  It is a tale of rotten characters, striving to satisfy their greed and lust, all the while fearing that they may be so unlucky as to lose both.  Their universe is random, ruled by luck.  It is beyond comprehension that there might be a just and moral order guiding human life.  Seems like a box-office winner, right?

Rather than focus on Match Point, I’d like to turn back the clock to 1989, when Allen gave us another great film, Crimes and Misdemeanors.  In it, Allen forthrightly grapples with the question of whether this is a just and moral universe.  He seems to conclude that you can’t have meaning in life without God, but you can’t have God without guilt.  So, which do you choose:  God and meaning, or a universe empty of meaning and guilt?

Read Crimes, Misdemeanors & Injustice

What are they teaching in middle school art class these days?

July 22, 2006

Imagine that your eighth grader comes home from school, excitedly sharing what he learned in art class that day.  Initially, you’d probably be pleased that he was excited about anything to do with school other than girls or sports.  But what if the focus of that art lesson was the intentional exposure of your son to a New Age religion that deifies light and color?  What would you do?

Read Curing What Ails the World: Colors, Computerization and Christ

Shawshank: Repentance and Eternity

February 28, 2006

I must admit that I watched THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION more than once between 1994 and 2004, and not once did I grasp its Christian themes.  It’s shocking, really, considering how the movie unmistakably paints Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) as the Christ-like savior of Shawshank State Prison.

Read full essay

The Evolution of Truth

January 31, 2006

In a leading news item this past Christmas season, a federal district court judge in Pennsylvania held that the Dover Area School Board violated students’ Constitutional and civil rights by requiring teachers to inform their science classes that there are gaps or problems in Charles Darwin’s theory and other theories of evolution.  The 139-page opinion has been hailed as a “strategic defense of Darwinian theory” that “will be extremely useful . . . to science teachers and others who are struggling against . . . tremendous pressure to bring religion into the classroom.”  Darwin’s detractors, it is said, have been left “wounded” and in “dismay.”

Read full essay

The Hours: a Belated Review

January 31, 2006

“I chose life.”

In this critically-acclaimed film filled with darkness and misery, no line disturbed me more.  Decades after abandoning her family, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), sums up her defense:  “I chose life.”  If she had not run away from her husband, her two small children − from her life − Brown reasons, she would have taken her own life.  Equally disturbing is the apparent reaction of Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep), the recipient of Brown’s unsolicited confession.  Vaughn, haunted by the fear that her own life has been meaningless, seems to draw comfort, some sense of peace from Brown’s view of life:  any life lived − no matter how it is lived − is satisfactory, meaningful, and a victory over death.

Read full essay