Beyond The Gates

As part of holiday time off, the Chittum family in Georgia -- Michael, Vicki, and Joshua (who is on temporary relocation assignment from Bethel College in Newton, Kansas) -- decided to rent some movies to fill the idle days. This has proven to be an outstanding decision. We rented three -- none of which I had heard of before -- and watched two so far.

The first one was an odd sci fi type of movie, The Fountain, starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. It is set in three different time eras - during the Conquistadors, present day, and in the 26th century, and the action switches from one to another. Jackman's character is on a quest to defeat death. Darren Aronofsky, who did Pi and Requiem for a Dream, was the director. If you have nothing else to do on a Saturday night, it might be worth a watch.

The second movie we watched, Beyond The Gates, however, is worth finding and watching. It is a BBC production based on an incident during the Rwandan massacre in 1994. It stars John Hurt as a Catholic priest who runs a school in Kilgali. His school becomes a refuge for Tutsi who are fleeing the death mobs. The school is a safe place because a contigent of UN peace monitors were stationed there. I do not not want to spoil the dramatic impact of the film, but the squad of Belgian soldiers are given orders to abandon the school and go to the airport. The mob of Hutus waiting beyond the gates of the school move in to "begin the work."

This movie is a must see. It is far better done than Hotel Rwanda and wrestles with the issues of the evil that men do and the choices that men make. The movie opens by quoting a Buddhist proverb, "Each man is given the key to open the gates of heaven. The same key also opens the gates of hell."

"The Evil That Men Do" in the Name of Religion

Most often, these days, people in the West, particularly Christians, identify egregiously bad or offensive behavior motivated by religion as the province of Islam. Over the last several weeks, we have read news stories about the rape victim in Saudi Arabia sentenced to 200 lashes because she was found guilty of being in public with a man who was not her husband or her relative and then dared to appeal her sentence. And, we have read about the British teacher who was condemned for allowing her elementary class to name a Teddy Bear "Muhammad." These stories are in addition to how the phrases "Islamo-terrorist" and "Islamo-fascist" have come to be accepted as part of our national discourse on the impact of religion on politics and proper US foreign policy.

Two stories from this morning's news caught my eye as examples of how human beings do wrong things in the name of religion. One is absurd; the other tragic. Neither concerns Islam.

From the BBC comes the report that the Palestinian Police had to break up a broom fight at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem between Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests. Due to long standing disputes over what branch of the Christian Church ought to have primary responsibility for caring for sacred sites in the Holy Land, the Bethlehem church was sub-divided into three areas: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian Apostolic. Each group is responsible for maintenance and clean-up for its third. After the crush of tourists at Christmas, the groups were sweeping up when the dispute erupted. Accounts of the precise trigger are fuzzy, but one account indicated that one group wanted to put up a ladder that would touch the other group's space. Pushing and shoving broke out, and then the groups started hitting each other with their brooms. Absurd. I can imagine that things could have gotten out of hand if guns had been available and if the Palestinian Police had not been there to quell the riot.

An AP report carried in the Washington Post told of violence in India. Christian churches and houses owned by Christians were ransacked and burned by ardent Hindus who were upset over a Christmas Eve program held in one of the Christian churches. This took place in the State of Orissa. In the violence, at least one person was killed and 25 were wounded. The Hindus object to the evangelization efforts of the Christian churches and, at least in Orissa, have passed a law requiring any person who wants to change religious affiliation to obtain police permission. Tragic. This follows the reports of election victories by the BJP, another strongly nationalistic Hindu based political party in another part of India.

It seems that we humans can use, and mis-use, anything, including religion, to advance our agendas. All religous faiths can be used in this way. When will we ever learn?

The Mythos of Peace

According to the text of Luke’s gospel, when the angels appeared to the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem, that celestial chorus proclaimed, “Peace on earth and good will to men.” Peace on earth … Those words have such a hopeful sound, but, in the face of the reality of how the world is and has always been, it seems that peace on earth is mythic, at best.

Consider the evidence. On this Christmas Day, 2007, as people around the world celebrate the birth of the one Christians call “The Prince of Peace,” there are wars and rumors of war, as there always has. Turkey has sent troops and has bombed numerous sites in northern Iraq in search of Kurdish rebels. Suicide bombers in Iraq have killed scores, including children. The government of Israel has announced that they will add to the settlements in disputed territories despite the impact this decision may have on projected peace talks with the Palestinians. In Gaza, there are reports of Christians, squeezed between the Hamas authority and the Israeli sanctions, are fleeing, with no thought of ever returning to their homes. This litany of conflict does not address those areas of the world where people are being killed and the world does not really notice – like Afghanistan and Darfur.

In The Battle For God: A History of Fundamentalism written by Karen Armstrong, which I am reading, she distinguishes between mythos and logos as two competing ways of thinking, speaking, and acquiring knowledge. We are well familiar with logos, that rational, pragmatic, and scientific thought – centered on facts – that helps people function in the day to day world.

It is mythos, though, that may be more valuable to human kind. Myth focuses on what is timeless, on what provides significance for life, and on what gave meaning to the internal life. Without myth, we are, of all people, without hope. So, the proclamation of peace on earth by the angels in that familiar story was an announcement of the mythos of faith of what could be, if only humanity could appropriate a spark of the transcendent. Would that this would happen.

Finding a Voice

I have often heard it said that prospective writers should "find their own voice." That seems so logical that it ought to be unnecessary advice. It also seems so easy to do -- I mean what other voice do you have but your own -- as to seem triply unnecessary. Some things, though, become oft given advice because of value.

I find that I face this very issue with the blog. It is not so much capturing "my own voice," but deciding what to include. Many blogs focus on the personal. I have never been a diarist. Frankly, I do not like the absolute transparency seen as life intersects with technology. There are some things I do not want to know about people, nor do I want them to know some things about me.

Or, should I do an issues only blog? If this is my choice, I have to decide what issues to address. Ah, well, this will likely be an on-going internal debate.