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Month: December 2005

why i won’t see the chronicles of narnia

why i won’t see the chronicles of narnia

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I will not be seeing the new movie, The Chronicles of Narnia. I love the books too much …

Film is a wonderfully creative medium, capable of conveying meaning and conjuring beauty in ways unmatched by any other art form. I do love a good movie! But film by its nature limits imagination, while literature by its nature (if it is good writing!) stimulates imagination. The powerful images that have inhabited my mind and soul from childhood, Aslan and Lucy and Caspian and Shasta and Puddleglum and Reepicheep — I will not permit these beloved and edifying images to be reshaped by someone else’s imagination!

I have been told that the movie is faithful to Lewis’ book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. That may well be true. But I am certain that too much will be made of “action scenes,” which play a very small role in the book, and not enough of the subtleties of character, of character being forged in the face of doubt and temptation and fear. It would be difficult indeed for any movie to capture the keen and simple beauty of Narnia, a place that is as much spiritual landscape, as it is an imagined world.

And I know they will not get the lion right. Aslan is not a tame lion. He is terrible and tender, aweful and awesome. He is a lion, but not a lion, something larger, something Other. Only imagination can perceive him as he is, just as only faith can perceive Jesus as he is.

Go see the movie if you will. But do read the book. Read the books! May Narnia be a place where you encounter and learn to love better the One who in our world is called by a different name …

a sick and perverted spectacle

a sick and perverted spectacle

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A sick and perverted spectacle …

Those are the words Stanley Tookie Williams used to characterize his impending execution. Williams was executed early this morning, after appeals for a stay of execution were denied by the California Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court, and after a plea for clemency was rejected by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It was a sick and perverted spectacle …

… not because an innocent man was put to death. It is entirely possible that Williams did not commit the murders for which he was convicted; he always maintained his innocence. Or, as is likely and most believe, he really did do the crimes. Either way, it doesn’t matter.

… not because a changed man, a redeemed man, a man doing society much good was put to death. He may well have become a transformed man, a good man; those nominating him for Nobel Prizes for peace and literature certainly thought so. Or maybe it was all a fraud or a too convenient way to earn pity and support. Either way, it doesn’t matter.

… not because the courts or the governor failed to step in and acknowledge his transformation and show him mercy. They were simply doing their job, interpreting and enforcing the law as it stands. It doesn’t matter.

No, what matters is the law itself, the law of the land that permits this most cruel and unusual punishment. That law is sick and perverted and must be changed. That law accomplishes no useful purpose other than retribution — society exacting its revenge and satisfying its blood lust against those who have done it injury, whether real or perceived. That law diminishes our humanity, devalues human life, and damages the integrity of our advocacy of human rights.

Our need for revenge (a need that can never be satisfied) is a sickness, a sickness that eats away at the soul of our society and only proliferates a culture of violence. Our demand for the forfeiture of a life is a perversion, a perversion of the values and principles for which we claim to stand — justice, mercy, freedom, generosity, the precedence of right over might, and inalienable human dignity.

It was a sick and perverted spectacle …

common ground

common ground

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An article worth sharing …

Looking for an argument (In December 13, 2005 issue of The Christian Century)

Will the debate over homosexuality split the church of Jesus Christ? It already has. But the split itself is a sign of our unfaithfulness and our failure to be the church Jesus calls us to be. Until we do follow Jesus, until we care more about loving each other than about winning the debate, our Christian witness will be severely compromised … because it will be hardly Christian!

What do we have to lose in listening to each other, really listening to each other? What do we have to lose in admitting that sincere folks on both sides of the issue are doing their best to be faithful to the gospel? If we are truly saved by grace, by God’s righteousness and not our own, then we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We might even find some common ground — namely that we are alike loved and healed and made whole by Jesus alone! — and realize we can live with our differences as we seek to follow Jesus together.

We may not agree on which way to go, but if we agree that Jesus is the way, then we are at least on the same path! And that path leads to where we all want to go …

a road in the wilderness

a road in the wilderness

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Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord!
Clear the way in the desert for our God!

The Lord comes from the wilderness. God comes to us out of the desert … not from the midst of our cities and towns. God is not domesticated, but wild! The Lord is not confined to or defined by our religious edifices and symbols.

We would do well to get ourselves into the desert, to follow a road into the wilderness, to meet the Lord there. It is not that God is not present in our cities, in our houses, in our schools, in our offices, in our theaters, in our churches. It is just that surrounded by everything that we have fashioned with our own hands, our imaginations may fail to recognize the God whom we did not make.

It is a good thing to make retreat from familiar and comfortable places, to clarify our vision, to clear our minds, to open our hearts to the God who comes to us!

a shameful milestone

a shameful milestone

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The execution by lethal injection of Kenneth Lee Boyd in North Carolina marked the 1000th execution in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. A report by Amnesty International reveals that in 2004, the United States executed more human beings than any other nation with the exception of China, Iran, and Vietnam. For more on today’s execution and the reaction to it, click on the following link:

World News Article | Reuters.co.uk

redemption

redemption

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Is redemption possible?

Yes.

Should the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams be stayed because his life has been redeemed, because his life now has some redeeming value?

No.

If Mr. Williams should not be executed because he has succeeded in turning his life around, it follows that if he had not done so, he should be executed. But he should not. There is no good reason, no justification, to execute anyone.

It is we who need redemption — redemption from our need for retribution, redemption from our reliance on violence to address our fears (even if it has the blessing of the state), redemption from our care-less treatment of a precious human life, redemption from our lack of faith in God’s power to redeem … anyone.