Blue Like Jazz.....

Controversy… Too often we lose the truth, miss the nugget, in light of the messiness of Controversy.

Tonight I watched “Blue Like Jazz”.  The book by Donald Miller was a controversial book at times, chronicling his journey from a good southern Baptist boy to choosing a very liberal college due to his hurts from the church. 

Many of you know, If you have followed my posts, I work for a Christian retail organization.   That particular organization decided that we would not promote or sell this movie… it was controversial.  A irreligious pope overseeing a mass party with drugs, alcohol and even a suggested Orgy.  And that is just a few of the items (Youth pastor who is racist, uses Communion like Candy for children…).

Donald meets many things he has never seen before like Co-ed dorms, sex parties, and many other items.  In the journey he meets the ‘pope’ of the college and becomes his friend.  This runs him through the gambit of experience from being a clean Baptist boy to a agnostic/Atheistic student who is continually drunk.

In the process he meets Penny who while being a visionary and standing for injustice, is also a clean girl in a sea of unclean. 

Here is how one person summed the film up:

Disenchanted by the church and his devout Christian mother, 19 year-old Donald escapes Texas for the liberal Northwest and attends Reed College at the urging of his secular father. At Reed College, Don finds that his classmates, from all walks of life, are more anti-religious and anti-everything than he was prepared for. In an attempt to fit in, and more importantly, in an attempt to find himself, Don joins an activist group which forces him to question what he really believes in.

Towards the middle of the film we find Donald searching, and his questions begin to turn from the “If there is a Loving God why would he allow….” To more practical questions of “If there isn’t a God then where do I find meaning?”… 

While you may not see this film on your local retailers shelf, it is well worth the thought process and time to watch it.    AS you watch you must do the following “REMEMBER WHO THE FILM WAS MADE FOR!!!”  If you are a believer who has never questioned your faith, it was not written for you.  If you spend your time feeling sorry for those around you because they are not saved but doing nothing about it… well it might be for you.  If you are someone who wants to ask questions, then this is most definitely for you.

In the end we find Donald sitting as the new ‘pope’ and instead of taking confession he gives it to his friend the prior pope.  He goes on to tell how he is sorry for being ashamed of Jesus.  Not because of all those hypocrites he hated but because he realized he too was one of them.  Donald had read where it said that you needed to Feed the Poor or to LOVE people; yet he knew he hated people who he felt made him as a ‘christian’ look like a fool.  He tells his friend, who had been victimized as a child by a priest that he had spent the school year trying to ditch God but “I can’t.  It’s like He is following me around.”

Do you think sometimes we react to good CHRISTIAN’S who are in the world trying to make a difference in their group of influence?  When an actor plays in a questionable film (Even though they do not say or do anything) we question their belief’s.  When a musician or musical group tours with a ‘secular’ band or (heaven forbid) try’s to reach an audience that is different then what we find as comfortable….. 

Yet they are out there and are doing something.  I remember reading once about a man who was preaching out against the church.  He stood in major crowds and denounced those who were his ‘priests’.  He didn’t mince words.  He called them out.  The religious crowd of the day were told he was a heretic and a fool.  I could go on and tell you his name…. or names… John the Baptist, Martin Luther, John Knox… (Shall I go on…)…   I think sometimes we need to ask ourselves like Jesus asked the disciples when they came tattling that there were people casting out demons in Jesus name that they didn’t know.  Jesus told them that if they used HIS name they had to be okay! (New Cecil Translation)… 

So next time you see that slicked haired preacher on TV, or hear about an artist using a swear word in a song, etc… think about this: Are they still following scripture, teaching the gospel and not doing anything that would break a commandment?  IF not then allow God to work with them…

I will leave you with the final lines of the film that really grasped me…

“I am confessing to you that I am tired of being a hypocrite and a coward…”

“You really believe in all this stuff…”

I DO!

Not your (MY) mothers Christian Film...

So tonight I watched a film that I had been really wanting to watch, but yet at the same time I was putting off seeing.

Now I know that is an oxymoron but it is truth.  And it is a great depiction of this film as well.

The movie was “Machine Gun Preacher” the story of Sam Childres.

You can read multiple different reviews on this film.  It was very controversial since it was a story of FAITH but rated R and filled with violence.

In the first 10 min’s the film would turn any Christian watching it for Christian Values (Or at least make them blush).  From the on screen, yet not visible, sex in a car to extreme profanity, violence and alcohol and Drug abuse scenes… yet all these items are in context and are used to build the Character of the man.

This man who was a biker gang member who upon getting out of jail finds his wife had gone ‘religious’.  Yet in a turn of events he realizes there has to be something more and in a non-dramatic scene we find him believing and being baptized.  There weren’t angels, there weren’t shouts from him but a sort of groggy sense of awe.

We again see that same feeling when he arrives back from a trip to Northern Uganda to help with construction of a mission.  He, unlike the other members, wanted to see the truth of the war.  And did he ever…  His soon to be friend Deng took him to a village where the children would come each night in order to not be abducted. 

Finally he senses God’s call to build an orphanage and a Church.  One in American and one in Sudan.  This is the story of the trials and floods that he goes against.  You will be pulled into the reality of this war that has been waged for 30+ years and that has taken the lives of over 400,000 people.  You will feel his anguish, his hurt, and his anger.

There were two parts of this movie that moved me the most outside of the general message of Orphan care that you all know is my passion. 

First: When he is arriving back in the states after his monumental first trip.  You see on his face the unspoken emotion of one whose world has just been changed.  I have been there.  From my first visit to a squatters village in Mexico, or a small tribal village in Guatemala; but most vividly in the post earthquake Haiti where orphans begged for water on every street corner; where bodies are still being found among the ruble…  I understood this vague look of heartache.

Second: we watch as Sam’s story progress’ and eventually we see what happens to most of us who become passionate about something.  We come up against opposition and we want to quit.  Sam didn’t; but once he kept going he began to see others who didn’t understand his passion, or share his passion as unworthy of being called Christians.  His passion became the only true passion of Christ instead of one means of showing God’s passion. 

I would HIGHLY recommend this film to all of you who wish to learn more about what one man is doing in Sudan/Uganda.  I do not recommend it for those who are easily offended.  This Machine Gun Preacher lives up to his name not only with his gun but with his mouth.

There is a quick note from the Real Sam at the end of the film in the credits that says in essence that I know that I may not have gone about this the best or right way at times… but  "If a madmen abducted your child or a family member and I said I could bring them home, does it matter how I bring them home?"

So to sum it all up: Don't watch it with the kids.  But don't watch it if you don't want your heart pulled out, trampled on cause you will finish asking yourself (I Hope) What on earth am I doing!!

This movie is not about Sam Childers. It’s about you. What are you going to do?