So today I watched the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale. I am in complete shock. I can’t believe such skewed version of Christianity is portrayed in TV and people are OK with it. Why Christianity is constantly being portrayed as a mental disorder, as a cultish lifestyle that only represses, condemns and slaves? And most importantly, why are people not saying anything about it, challenging it and presenting a different version that is rooted in the true gospel, rather than a bias agenda?
If we are to follow Jesus, I believe we need to be consequent with the way He challenged the status quo, how he rejected those practices created by men to perpetuate class domination, apartheid and unfair treatment. He came to bring grace, truth, and a path towards salvation that was impossible to achieve by our own human merit. He narrowed the gap, he built the bridge for us to partake in God’s kingdom and be considered heirs of His name. If Christian film and media continue to “preach to the choir” and only cater to their specific audiences, sooner or later they would only represent a minority that gradually would be considered crazy.
What I believe we can do is to go back to Jesus, specifically in the way he approached everyday people, those that really needed him and that felt left out of the traditions of men. He shared with tax collectors, prostitutes, the sick, the lame, those possessed by evil spirits. He took the time to teach and heal many people. But most importantly, he brought hope. Why are these themes not present in Christian media? Why are Christian films always constructed in a way as to fit the mold of a three-act structure, with a clearly-defined conflict that is anything but unpredictable. Put some worship songs in there, a couple of high-profile Christian personalities and bingo, a Christian hit movie that only serves to bust our own little egos. Apart from God, but close to those that continue to feed our own insecurities.
If we are to bring a truly revolutionary gospel to film and media, I believe we need to start by challenging the medium itself. Recently I’ve been reading a lot on revolutionary cinema from Latin America, particularly those rooted in socialist dreams of a decolonized region. Christianity, and religion as a whole, was considered one of those ‘western values’ imposed by colonizers to subdue the lower classes. And in a way it was true. Religion was used as an effective mechanism of dominance in Latin America, and in many, if not all the colonized world. But again, this was not the original intention of Christianity, of Jesus. It was the opposite.
But revolutionary cinema does bring a theoretical framework that can be examined. Most filmmakers during this period took the time to listen to the people, specially those at the margins of society. Instead of imposing a preconceived notion of a script or a story, they merged with the community to know their struggles, their problems, their everyday issues. Soon, they gained the trust of the people and together discussed ways to tackle those issues. They took the time to understand their culture, their value system, their ways as a society. They did not care about what international critics and elites considered “good cinema”, and instead prioritized telling a truthful story, an “imperfect cinema” that did not care much about the technicalities of the medium, but just barely putting a film out. The stakes were so high, and the resources so little, that everything counted.
How can that example be translated to the gospel and film? As with Jesus’s ministry, there are a lot of similarities. But the key issue, apart from rethinking the format, is to be real. There’s something about a ‘defiant vulnerability’ and a ‘servant leadership’ that Jesus brought to the table that shocked the world. What if these two concepts become the central part of Christian representation on the screen? What if instead of constructing idealized characters that are so hard to identify with, we bring real, struggling people that have but one thing in common: the hope of Christ? If anything, this kind of Christianity, true and radical Christianity, needs to become the way the world sees us.
Ok, so now is my turn. What can I do from the comfort of my bed, at 9:44pm in the middle of the summer in Scotland, to put my mind to rest and process this, at least for the rest of the evening? I need to come up with something. Otherwise, I won’t be able to sleep, specially with these long summer days. I was already working on something related to singleness, and the ideas of ‘marriage as a destination’ in Christian circles. In fact, I myself had been struggling with that the last couple of weeks.
I keep thinking about those rom-coms that present flawed protagonist that are barely keeping it together, as to show people are not perfect and make mistakes. But then, reflecting on the ideals of ‘challenging the status quo’, my approach needs to be disruptive. What can be disruptive now? It seems to me that a lot of people are jumping to the internet with hashtags, viral videos and the like, but all of that of course is thought in advance, in a campaign headquarter that probably manages lots of metadata to come up with stuff. What can I do to be disruptive now?
Maybe is about risk. Maybe I’m not putting myself out there enough. Maybe I am the subject?
Follow the conversation here: Back with a bang! (Part II)
