I was struck as I read the Denver Post’s article, “A Jewish case for Mel Gibson,” by the power of media – in this case film – to impact our moral center. We can read the Bible. We can read religiously-oriented books or other materials. We can study theology. But often, when we see what we have read portrayed on screen by skilled actors, we truly experience the power of the story. We feel history. We are there. We are one with the actors. We step out of our own skin and into the experiences of those on the screen.
And if we experience such traditions in multiple parts of our lives, they gain even more power. And that power affects our hearts, the ways we think about things, the choices we will then make, the ways in which we interact with other people. Should we be careful, as a result, about what we view or experience, or what we allow our children to view or experience, as many conservatives might advocate? Or should we (and our children) view a wide variety of things and have a wide variety of experiences so as to trigger our emotions and trigger our motivation to fully engage in deeper thought, deeper conversations, more serious consideration of how we live in this world.
As you think about the answers to these questions, consider my daughter’s experience. The Old Testament came alive for her as she read Exodus because she remembered the intensity of the exodus story in the Disney movie, Prince of Egypt. The “story” gained even more power when she was studying world cultures in her social studies class, and heard about the exodus again, and created maps about it because of its role in world history. I am sure we can all think of similar experiences we have had in which sometimes dry traditions or historical stories come to life when actors portray them in film or on stage. In fact, the need for information to touch all of our senses in order for us to really learn is the foundation of modern day education – just step into an elementary school classroom and watch the children study a culture. They read about it, draw pictures about it, create dramas about it, and develop and present projects on it. Research tell us that we all need more than words on a page to be truly impacted, to truly learn, to truly be motivated to change our lives.
And it seems that it is the power of media to affect us that brings up Jewish questions and comments about Mel Gibson producing a movie about the Jewish icon Judas Maccabaeus. “If this man has engaged in Jew bashing, can he really be trusted to produce such a movie,” ask Jewish people? “Will he tell the truth? Will he be biased?” “Will his movie touch movie goers in the ways we want them to be touched?” “Or will Jews once again be portrayed badly, in ways that have hurt them historically?”
Similarly, many of us questioned Mel’s portrayal of Christ in The Passion of Christ – not, perhaps, so much for dramatic reasons, but because of the misplaced ego of it all. “After all,” some asked, “Where does he get off playing our Savior?” But whether we are believers or not, whether we agreed with everything the movie portrayed or not, producing and acting in it took a great deal of chutzpah. And think about the discussions it triggered! The dialogue about faith and Christianity and truth! Think about the changes in the faith experiences of people who watched the movie because of the power of images on the screen! We might not consider just any “experience” justifiable. But isn’t this what art is about – the power to impact us? The power to get us to think? The power to get us up off our behinds and fully engaged in life and the types of discussions that make the world a better place?
So, in response to Jewish questions about whether Mel can be trusted with this project, I ask, what is it that you most care about? Do you want people to take Judaism seriously? Do you want them to know about it and ask questions about it and let it into their experience? I mean there are not that many Jewish people in the world compared with other religious groups. How will their voices be heard and respected? Whatever Mel’s faults, it is unlikely that he will produce a film that isn’t powerful and that doesn’t at least try to portray truth. Sometimes truth doesn’t feel good. Sometimes truths can’t fully be known – they have to be guessed or hypothesized. Sometimes our perspectives on truth change with the times and with different experiences we have.
But without our religious or spiritual or moral truths taking a more central place in our vision and conversations and passions, it is unlikely that we will listen, talk about them, and allow them to affect our world in positive ways. It is unlikely that we will become proactive in standing against what we all agree are evils. And we need a lot more energy in that direction, from my perspective!
No comments:
Post a Comment