Soldier

There are some things about people I just don't understand. I don't "get it" on a lot of things. I watched The Apostle a week ago and got a glimpse into a church culture I don't think I'm ever going to understand. The movie starts out showing this man being taken to church as a little boy. There's a call and response going on in the service. The old guy at the pulpit is shouting and basically raising hell. The movie goes on to present day and you see the man who used to be the little kid shout and bounce and scream his way into adulthood (and murdering his wife's lover). Before I saw this movie, I thought some of the things my friends from my church in college did to make fun of their former cohorts were, well, bullshit. I thought they were pulling my chain. I'm watching this movie and I keep hearing Dr. Chapman's voice in my head, "if you don't believe that, then you don't believe this, and if you don't believe this then you don't believe this" as I'm watching this guy preach that way.

I don't think there's a lot substance in that. I can't imagine learning anything from this guy. Watching the story, however, I will give him this: Whatever else the protagonist was, he belonged, heart and soul, to God. Or more specifically, Jesus, because he never mentions God the Father and he tended to abuse the Holy Ghost with lots of random shouting. The man was a womanizing murderer, but you knew who his heart belonged to. After a while, I mean. I still watched the whole thing with my jaw on the floor. During the credits, they show the old guy on a chain gang, and he's got all the jailbirds singing a call and response style hymn.

I hear a lot of criticism from people about what awful hypocrites Christians are. Watching this movie, I saw that Sonny is a sinner, but he's not really a hypocrite. He believes what he's saying, and he believes that he has been called and saved by God. He says he's a sinner. He knows. He tries to make up for it. He goes to jail anyway but he does so in the same way he's always lived---talking to God the whole way. Unafraid and unashamed. In that way, he's my kind of guy. I just don't think I want to visit his church.