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January 13, 2007
Grandfather Q&A: Part Two
LYT asks: "In light of the frequent critiques on these shores by Christians of popular culture, do you think a movie is inherently improved if the "good guys" in it display traditional Christian values?"
Your own question is, I think, ambiguous. It hinges on the question:"What are these traditional Christian values?" It is also a matter of debate as to what makes a "good" movie and hence what is meant by improving it. In my own book those Christian values which I think of as traditional are very largely the same as those of any rational humanist culture. I think a movie can be very enjoyable and yet show little concern for moral values. I also think it's boring if the good guys always win There are of course issues such as those concerned with our expression of our sexuality, where the views of Christians (and humanists) have changed/matured over the centuries. The shocking notion that "if it's in the Bible it must be right" is rejected by nearly every theologian I've read but is accepted by a fairly large, frightened and vocal collection of literalists.
The one sort of movie I heartily dislike on moral grounds is that which is slanted so as to glorify violence and/or physical strength divorced from morality. Contrary to much Christian opinion, I have no wish to see Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, which seems to me from the bits I've seen, to be sado-masochistic.
Les asks: "I would be interested in hearing if his thinking about who or what God is has changed over the years."
Les. The answer is a definite affirmative. When I was a small boy, praying at my bedside, as my mother taught me, I would identify God with a particular pattern in the wall paper opposite me. I also identified my own priest - father with Jesus Christ when he was wearing his Eucharistic vestments in church. Still at quite an early age - about six years old - I had my first truly mystical experience when the world around me changed in an instant for me from seeming to be like a black and white movie to glorious technicolour, coupled with a sense of delicious warmth and the certainty that I was deeply loved by what I felt I must call "God". I ceased forthwith to have any pictorial concept of God. Later I learned to see Jesus as a man transparent to God, so that in a sense I could once more have a sort of picture, which was as close to the truth as I thought possible. This exact definition of Jesus I owed to Robert Runcie, then Bishop of St Albans and subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury. Additionally I remember that I had periods during my early teen-age years when I thought of God as my stern judge but for most of my life ever since I've remained firmly convinced of the all-encompassing love, compassion, forgiveness and understanding which were hallmarks in the earthly life of Jesus and therefore of God, who wants everyone to be "saved" that is to be brought to perfection and to live eternally with him.
David N. Scott asks: "What prompted you to become a reverend? Is it something you still feel?"
David N Scott. The short answer is "God". Until I was in my mid-twenties I would swear black and blue that whatever I did in life I would never be a bloody parson/priest/vicar/minister/clergyman. I'd seen far too much of them in my childhood home. Although some of them were lovely men a lot were boring, pompous and very unlike Jesus. In spite of that I had two super examples, my father and a man who became my mentor and later godfather to my oldest son. (And that was long before I gave in to my vocation from God.) Lots of people told me that I ought to pack in school teaching and "go into the Church". I always resisted this stuff partly because I was already in the Church, an active lay member, who was quite capable of doing what God wanted me to do without turning my collar round; but then in the end without hearing a voice from heaven or anything so dramatic I began to feel that yes, I was being called to the ordained ministry and I must go to my bishop and talk about it. After that there was really no turning back.
As for how I still feel: I am absolutely certain the decision was made in heaven - absolutely and undoubtedly right. I've enjoyed a wonderfully fulfilling life and have made hundreds if not thousands of friends through my ministry. The tough bit has always been the tension between my Church calling and my family. I know I have often got my priorities wrong, particularly as I remember that I was married and a parent of two children before I heard the call to ministry. Fortunately I have a wonderful wife who has always supported and helped me in my work and has forgiven me again and again for my various acts of neglect of her and our four children.
-Peter Graham
Posted by LYT at January 13, 2007 2:58 PM [Message Board]
Comments
Well, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I like that answer a lot.
Posted by: David N. Scott at January 13, 2007 3:24 PM
(meant more in an identifying sense than a theological correctness sense)
Posted by: David Scott at January 13, 2007 3:25 PM