Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Lessons through a lens
Church groups use films to explore religious themes in everyday life
Summertime and movies seem like a natural pairing, offering respite from the heat and a couple of hours of entertainment. At some churches, movies offer more than laughter and tears. They can be a source of theological lessons.
Members of First United Methodist Church explore the more spiritual side of movies — including Hollywood blockbusters — during a monthly film night. The Faith and Film group — a mix of all ages — gets together for popcorn and a movie in the children’s ministry theater room and then settles in for a discussion of spiritual or religious themes or lessons prompted by the film.
The Rev. Mary Jane Cole leads the group. She said it’s possible to see the divine in everyday life — and that includes in movies, even those that aren’t so-called “Christian” or faith-based films.
“It’s the whole idea that spirituality is seeing the sacred connections all around us and noticing the holy in all things, and developing an awareness that the line between sacred and secular is much wider than we imagine,” Cole said. “Movies point to our human condition — our deepest longings and struggles — and invite us to reflect upon them, to see ourselves in them.”
Cole said a good story or a good movie “takes us places.”
“It also invites us to escape,” she said. “But if we really think about it, it invites us to a connection. Tending to one’s soul is about paying attention. It’s about noticing things around us. When we do, we notice something larger than ourselves. Films and movies allow us to do that. They not only entertain us, but reflect our culture and invite us to respond to life’s questions.”
So far, the group has watched Signs — starring Mel Gibson as a father and preacher grieving the loss of his wife and grappling with unexplained crop circles appearing at the family farm — and the 2000 film Chocolat — starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. Binoche’s character opens a chocolate shop in a small French town with Sunday hours, which scandalizes its residents.
Other films they’ve watched are The Mission — about Spanish Jesuits — and O Brother, Where Art Thou? — which focuses on the redemptive tale of George Clooney’s character Ulysses Everett T. McGill. Up next is Crash, the Oscar-winner by Paul Haggis.
Cole said she uses a book, Faith and Film, to find movies for the group. She also seeks suggestions from fellow clergy and even screens films that have had special significance in her life.
On movie night, the group watches the entire film and then talks about scenes they found significant. They pay attention to lighting, sound and dialogue. They ask questions about how the film relates to the current culture, how it might speak to the soul — or if there is a hero or Christ-like character.
“In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the heroes are those who are outsiders and outcasts, and that really speaks to us in a spiritual way,” Cole said. “The struggles of the characters — and the joys — point to our own real-life struggles and invite us to think about how that plays a part in our spiritual lives.”
The pastoral staff at Second Presbyterian Church kicked off the summer with a Sunday school series on theological themes drawn from the movies Juno, Gran Torino, The Visitor and Field of Dreams. They are also finishing up a Sunday documentary film festival this weekend.
The Rev. Steve Hancock, senior pastor, said movies are a primary form of storytelling in today’s culture.
“They engage our reason and imagination and can be an occasion of encounter with the divine,” he said.
Hancock led the discussion of the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner as a farmer (Ray Kinsella). Kinsella hears a mysterious voice saying, “If you build it, he will come,” leading the farmer to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his Iowa cornfield.
“Like Abram of old, Ray struggles and then obeys the voice,” Hancock said. “The mysterious voice is never identified, the filmmakers leaving it up to viewers to provide their own interpretation.”
Hancock said he chose the film, one, because he’s a baseball guy, and two, because “it may be the best Christian parable in movie history.”
“Although there is little or no religious language and, thus, no mention of God or Christ, this film is a visual parable of Easter faith proclaimed by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians,” he said.
Hancock said the movie is spiritual tale of grace and second chances.
“I think the movie was so successful because it taps a deep desire in all of us who wish for a second chance in life — a second chance to put right a relationship with a dead parent, as in Ray’s case; or to follow an untrod path — as in the doctor’s case; or to recapture the courage and joy of past commitments — as in the cases of the writer and the disgraced baseball team,” he said. “Field of Dreams assures us in its secular-spiritual way that the basic message of Easter is true. Death in all its forms — alienation from loved ones, disgrace and failure —
— has been overcome.”
The women’s group at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church has also dabbled with “popcorn theology.” The group has watched Chocolat and Dragonfly, which stars Costner as a husband who thinks he is being contacted by his dead wife. The film prompted a discussion of what happens after death.
“Kevin Costner is a doctor, and his wife is killed in an accident. He was not religious, but kept feeling like (his wife) was trying to communicate with him,” said Leah Dalton. “We talked about, when someone passes away, what does our faith say. Is that person truly gone, or is something of them still there?”
Dalton — who leads various groups at the church — said movies can be a form of theological reflection.
“It’s training yourself to see something in your faith background in everyday objects and culture,” she said. “If we’re looking through a layperson’s theological lens, you can see something spiritual or religious in just about everything — like books, movies and TV shows.”