Inheriting The Wind

I am taking RST 135 this quarter, which is "Bible and Film." Tonight was our first "movie night," which was cool because I feel like I'm getting units to just show up once a week and watch movies. The movie we watched was called "Inherit The Wind," and this was a film that held a lot of truth for me only many different levels. A lot of movies today rely on cool cinematography and special effects, but old movies like this one really are built on powerful, engaging dialogue and an engrossing plot. I think the phrase "they don't make 'em like they used to" is applicable here.

The title of the movie is based on Proverbs 11:29, which says:

He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart. (NKJV)

The story, based on a real court case, is set in an ultra-conservative town in the Bible Belt called Hillsboro. The movie follows the trial of a high school science teacher accused of breaking the law by teaching evolution in his classroom. The movie focuses largely on the two lawyers assigned to the case, the "atheistic heathen" defending the high school teacher, and the prosecutor, who is a fundamentalist christian who is practically revered as a prophet by the people of Hillsboro. The sad irony is that this community of "strong christians" is so blinded by their perception of truth and what is right that they hurt those that they're called to love most: fellow Christians. There are several main characters in the movie, but the interesting thing is that there is not really a clear-cut, well-defined bad guy. I identified with all of them in some ways: the well-meaning, stout-hearted legalist, the misunderstood, passionate agnostic, and the zealous priest. All had frailties and very real shortcomings. At the end of the movie, no real decision is made as to whether or not it is legal to teach evolution in schools (a debate which is still very much alive today, 80 years after the historic trial on which the movie is based occured.)

One of the scenes that really struck me was a scene in which the town priest had organized a "prayer gathering" in the park. It is nighttime, and the scene shows the priest, bathed in sweat, zealously rebuking all who believe in evolution, passionately speaking to the point of calling down the wrath of God to strike down all those who believe anything other than the "truth of the bible" that says the world was created in 6 24-hour days. Seeing her father's misguided and hurtful intent, his daughter, Rachel, attempts to intervene, and her father turns on her and prays for God's wrath to strike her down as well, the blood of his blood, and flesh of his own flesh. She collapses in tears, aghast at the hateful words from the man who is supposed to love her the most.

In this way, I hurt inside thinking about all the times that I have passed judgement on others in my heart; non-christians, but more so on other christians. People who have confessed their faith in Christ. Fellow believers. Friends. Brothers. This world is a lonely, lonely place without a family: why is it so easy for me speak the truth in hate instead of love? Why is it so easy for a passion for the Lord to turn to a passion for empty rules and hurtful legalism? I think the absolute acceptance the we have in Christ is so amazing and beautiful that we can't understand it, so we place a vengeful, bookkeeping God in the place of the God of Grace. I spend so much time dwelling on places in the lives of fellow christians which are still "under construction," while ignoring the gospel of grace and the eternal promise of Christ which makes us one body, one church, one spirit. I claim to know and understand the faults of others, while I barely understand myself. Many terrible things have been carried out in the name of Christ, in history and in my own life - what I think we need is to stop relying on our zealous passion for what we understand, but instead walk by the wisdom and righteousness of Christ, for he is the ultimate absolute truth, and he is all we have.

If I continue to bring strife on the family of God by condemning others and speaking the truth in hate, I will gain nothing but the wind. Can't hold on to that, can I? See you soon.

"Therefore, you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgement, for in that which you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge do the same things." (Romans 2:1, NIV)