Friendly Persuasion

So it's a little belated, but here's my thoughts on the movie that I watched this past tuesday in my RST 135 class. We watched a movie called "Friendly Persuasion," which was directed by William Wyler (who also directed Ben Hur.) It is a movie about the Quakers during the Civil War. It is definitely a "family" movie; the characters are all innocent, love is sincere, and the ending is happy. I liked it. The events that transpire are fictional, but according to my professor, the treatment of the Quakers and their beliefs is a fairly honest and accurate one.

I haven't really studied (or heard) very much about Quakers, but one part of their beliefs that I vaguely remembered and that this movie stressed is their emphasis on peace, particularly non-violence. The movie focuses on the Birdwell family and their response to the war as it draws closer and closer to their home and their hearts. The mother, Eliza, is the female minister for the Quaker "meetings," and provides the spiritual leadership for the family. The father, Jess, is the foundation of the family, and often acts as the voice of reason between Eliza's strict guidlines and their son Josh's resistance to authority. Their commitment to non-violence is so total that they are forbidden to ever raise a fist in anger, ever.

This holds true in their family until the choice is either pick up a gun and defend their very own home or stand by and let the Rebel army come through their land and destroy it. In the end, this is too much for Josh, and so he picks up a gun and rides off to protect the peace by making war. One of the things that he said to his mother struck me as very profound: "If you give everything to your enemies, what will you have left to give your friends?" This is an issue in my life that I think about a lot. I want to be a witness for Christ and let his love flow through me, but at the same time I want to be responsible and protect the blessings and people in my life that I care for and love. But where does the desire to be a peaceful, suffering servant end and my responsibility to take care of those I been entrusted to love and protect begin? I would have to say that if a thief broke into my house and threatened the well being of my future family (GOD willing,) I don't think that I would just stand aside. GOD has placed in me a passion for my friends, family, and the body of Christ: love is a many splendored thing, and sometimes it hurts.

Another part of the movie that really echoes with love is a scene in which the father, Jess, is going to check on his son who is out at the battlefront. On the way there, he encounters a family friend who has been ambushed and shot by a criminal. He passes away, and when Jess gets up to leave the criminal comes out of hiding and shoots Jess too, grazing his forehead. Playing dead, Jess springs up and wrestles the rifle from the criminals hand and points it at him. They stand there for a moment, the criminal fully expecting Jess to shoot him, but instead Jess waves the rifle at him and tells him to leave. The criminal walks off in wonderment as the camera pans out and shows Jess standing next to a great gnarled tree, standing on a bed of freshly fallen red leaves: it was a very powerful, rich visual metaphor for grace which we have tasted and seen in the person of our lord, Jesus. In this instance, peace and non-violence heaped "burning coals" on the head of the criminal, and he tasted love that day in Jess' commitment to non-violence.

Peace isn't easy, just like loving people isn't easy. It's easy to love the lovely, but loving the ugly, the confused, and the worn-out is much harder. It's draining. There is no discipleship with suffering, and the hardest part for me is figuring whether my love should be my cheek or my sword. Believing in Christ, I am known for my love for other believers: do I love them by protecting them from harm, or do I love them by letting them suffer? I think that just like there is a time for a peace and a time for war, there is a time for both protection and suffering. Translation: it depends. But it doesn't depend on me; it depends on the Holy Spirit as it guides me in every situation, whispering to me of how to love authentically and draw the Kingdom of GOD near. All of this elaboration stems from this truth: in the end, love wins. (Thanks Trevor.) I trust in the holy, straight, and narrow way that is beneath the feet of those who no longer live, but rather let Christ live through them.

We are called to be in the world, but not of it: do we love it with an open cheek or a clenched fist? It depends: it depends on you, Jesus. Guide your broken children through every season, the time of harvest and the time of reaping, the time of peace and the time of war: Let your love light the way.

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven--
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace."
(Ecclesiastes 3:2-8)

"Let love by without hypocrisy; abhor what is evil, cling to what is good." (Romans 12:9)