have you ever wondered why some people seem to be really offended by, like, everything? why they can't just sit back and enjoy everything that comes there way? me too. but my wondering made me question a lot of things: do i have bad theology? do they have bad theology? am i more clever than those people? are they wiser than me to avoid movies with graphic content? am i the one with the problem?
these are serious questions that, if the answer is not to your liking, mean that you have a wrong idea of God. is He a to-not-do list or is He a b.f.f.? who would you rather go to see the new cohen brothers' film: God or your b.f.f.? i would choose God. maybe this is where we differ. possibly not. i will explain why God should be the one you experience the new (suppositional) cohen brothers' film, and it is as simple as this: He is supposed to be your b.f.f..
now, a lot of people have no problem with this idea, but i don't think they truly know what it means to have God as your b.f.f. if they can't experience life with Him. if they did, i think things would change. if God is your b.f.f. and you don't want to experience life with Him, that means one of two things: God is not actually your b.f.f. and is more of a disciplinarian than a b.f.f. or you have too much more on your mind than to consider God in a movie...or maybe you try to separate your public and private spheres. see, the thing about God is this: He is not our b.f.f. because we tell dirty jokes with Him or get sauced up every weekend with him or share women with Him.
God's our b.f.f. because he is the most faithful person to us: when our biological fathers can't always give us everything we want, God gives us all we need. He may do this by waning the need for knowledge of non-necessity for a little bit, by giving us eternal gifts like faith, hope, joy, love, and peace; or He takes away our agressors. if these things haven't happened for you yet, i'd say that God isn't quite your b.f.f. and is more like a boss. you wouldn't go see a 'reprehensible' movie with your boss...unless you liked your boss...or felt compelled because He wanted to (in which case, you would be uncomfortable laughing at a dirty joke and would not experience the movie quite the way it was intended out of uneasiness of being with your boss who is not your friend)
see, the thing about God is that, once you can come to a point of faith in His existence and accept that He is all He says He is through what the Bible says and how He has changed you, He is actually the person you take with you everywhere. i mean everywhere. because when you recognize His goodness, the ugliness in the world becomes a testament to a loss of good rather than the presence of bad. i can enjoy bright eyes again. i will admit that there was a part of me that really missed them when i gave them up (they are a depresso-indie-western band), and i thought--at the beginning of my journey--that i would never be able to listen to them again, that i was gonna have to give up bright eyes forever. it was a horrible prospect.
but then IT happened: God became all He claimed to be. not over night, mind you...but He did. and when He did, all things good were much more good and all things less-than-savory became a volume on the difference between my God and what other people invested in. the movie Chicago. it's about these fame-hungry chicago-urbanite floozies who want nothing more than to be famous. it's a really good movie. really sad that these two women's lives were consumed by the idea of being someone great, but really stylistically good and had a whole mess of good lines and scores. so the beauty of the scores is a note to self on how even though i no longer identify with what these people are singing about, i enjoy the music because i recognize that humanity wants beauty and we stop at nothing to get it, i enjoy the imagery because it's beautiful and it's just another sign that even when i am not like a single character in this movie i still seek beauty, and i even enjoyed the plot *GASP*...not that it's as reprehensible a plot as, say, 'hot lesbian sex on mutilating ice'...i enjoyed the plot because everything--even our culture's obsessions with fame and dignity and willingness to risk all that we have to get them (including our health and the health of our loved ones)--points to God in some way.
so, if a movie points to God, your b.f.f., i think that's a good thing. i think you should, too, because that would mean you could get up off your couch and be like Jesus. Jesus didn't chill in the church all day, people. it says in Matthew and in Luke that he hung out with extortionists (zacheas), prostitutes (mary magdalene)...and he literally hung out with at least one criminal that we know of for a short time before his death. did they talk about the latests episode of 'the biggest Jew-ser'? likely not, because they were kind of dying, but i guarantee you that Jesus did like to have a good time. with wine, no less. true story. and prostitutes. but in a strictly platonic way. and tax collectors. and everyone. i think Jesus was a lot more like you and me than we give him credit for. i mean, would you have given up all your posessions for a guy who was more like a monotone, creepily-cryptic, crazy eyed weirdo?! i wouldn't have. followings usually start because people are liked rather than coerced. and if they were more coerced than liked, it doesn't end well. look what happened to hitler. and all the other infamous dictators who were murdered. they happened to not have been liked enough that they could get away with what they did.
so anyway, decontextualization is key when hanging out with God. He even tells us to in the Bible: in all that you do, whether you eat or drink, do it for the glory of God' and 'whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, if there is anything praiseworthy virtuous--think about these things.' we can't think about things we don't experience. if there is nothing for there to contain praiseworthiness or virtue that we experience, we aren't really thinking about these things...we are blindly thinking about ideas that have no physical foundation. it would be like me thinking about the texture of african pluff mud when i have never seen it. i cannot sense it's smoothness if i do not experience it. and if it's smooth and fun to play in, i will praise God for having made something on the two continents that i had been on that i go out of my way to enjoy. if it was not smooth, i could use it to remember the pluff mud in charleston that i love and not be able to wait till summer to go sliding around on it again or i could know that it is functional in housing baby octopi between lunar tides.
that's all you need to know.
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