I’m not going to watch “The Passion”
14 Feb 2004
I have seen the trailers, even used them at our gatherings during communion, and been very moved by them. But I won’t be going to watch the film. Why?
I will want to sob, cry, weep, howl, lay on the floor and offer myself in worship to my King. I don’t think that will go down well in my local multiplex.
So I will support the film buy a ticket and give it away, then watch it on DVD, and maybe watch it near the end of it’s run on my own.
Once it’s out on DVD maybe at our church centre with some church family where we can all, worship.
9 comments
Trackback
Comment by Geoff Holsclaw
12.57 pm on 14 Feb 2004
I feel much the same way. we had some friends over last night and that’s all we talked about. do i want to see an extended meditation through the stations of the cross with a bunch of strangers…and we shouldn’t force this work of art into service as an evangelism tool either.
Comment by jonny
2.12 pm on 14 Feb 2004
interesting, so you think that worship should be private and that christians shouldn’t express emotion in public?
… sorry, just being provocative.
I do like DVD’s but there’s something special about going to the cinema, and that isn’t just the big screena and the fantastic sound. It’s the way the film becomes an event and an experience you share with a random selection of people – there’s not many things like that left in society – only nightclubs/theaters/concerts. I think that cinema is possibly one of the few ‘third spaces’ left in western culture.
That quiet dark room, surronded by one hundred other people, all wanting to be told a story and for those couple of hours get caught up in that story.
I heard that there’s an email going around saying go see the Passion twice – once by yourself so you can cry and then take a friend for evangelistic purposes. That really grates with me. I want my friends to see how much this affects me, not just how i act, but how it deeply affects me emotionally.
Comment by Geoff Holsclaw
4.02 pm on 14 Feb 2004
jonny said, “that dark room, surrounded by one hundred other people. all wanting ot be told a story and for those couple of hours get caught up in that story”
(first off that sounds like many churches already-even the strangers part)
but should christian worship in public? maybe, but what is public? the public space of the cinema, that more anonymous. The public square, if that even exists? I think the church is its own space, its own “out in public.” So i quess I would say no, individual Christians shouldn’t worship in public, but the Church (community of believing acting/living according to their story) should worship in public. I think their is a difference. from a different perspective, why doesn’t it take a film to reveal the cross of Christ, shouldn’t the Church’s way of life already made that manifest to the world. This is a major differnece b/w the Western Christianity and the non-wester; they carry the story of the cross on their bodies through actual suffering. We just watch it in comfortable chairs…
sorry about going on, i just wrote about all this on my blog and now its spilling over here…
Comment by Jason Clark
4.20 pm on 14 Feb 2004
I think many christians could go and let friends see their reactions, but mine will be so deep, and too distressing for mine to cope with. Films affect me deeply and I know I lose the plot, and wouldn’t want to do that in the cinema. I could grit my teeth and then miss out on my own experience. This is one of those times I want to experience the film privately. We have a church center with 70inch widescreen and digital sound loung room, so I’ll still get the effects :-)
Comment by jonny
5.57 pm on 14 Feb 2004
thanks geoff and jason. good replies.
now i understand where you’re coming from more
Comment by Jimmy
6.34 pm on 14 Feb 2004
Thanks for this post, Jason. It touches on one of my concerns about all this. Namely, that some not-yet-believing inquirers may come to see a “movie” and feel like they landed in the middle of a full-on frontal-exposure worship assembly. Is it possible the reactions of some christians (esp. what an unbeliever might see as “over the top” reactions) will actually be off-putting and potientially distract from the message and even the Lord, himself? I dunno. Just a thought I’ve been having.
Comment by Chad Farrand
1.09 am on 15 Feb 2004
I guess I just sense this project has the smell of the Christian ghetto on it. To me, this seems like a “relevant” way to retell the story, but it just seems to be another gimmick from the Christian retail machine…have you seen some of the propoganda already out in evangelical bookstores?
I honestly believe that this is part of the narritive that is worth re-telling, of course, but perhaps it is worth more than 7.50..
I also fear that this will reinforce an already reduced “gospel” – jesus came to die…rather than examining his life as well and how it interweaves into the whole narrative of God.
Comment by Sivin
6.34 am on 15 Feb 2004
I saw an earlier trailer when I first heard about the movie and was stunned and deeply moved. I’m not sure how I would react for the whole movie. I’m not too sure whether it would be allowed here in Malaysia. Even the animated movie “Prince of Egypt” banned in Malaysia the last time (something to do with it’s not appropriate to physically display a prophet’s image.) I’ll probably have to settle for a DVD watching as well … read the Newsweek write up on the movie, found it interesting how it has stirred such a mixture of reaction in the west. I saw an article today in our local papers can’t wait to read what’s a reaction here from Malaysia.
Comment by Dan
6.03 pm on 29 Feb 2004
Jason,
I’m going to see the film today, but I have the fear that I will react just as you described.
Comments are now closed.