Is Religion Just a Joke?
Driving with my friend to the movies one evening last winter we discovered a group of people bundled up and picketing by The Safari movie theatre in Moorhead.Ý My friend and I didn’t know what movie we wanted to watch, but these protesters made up our mind.Ý We decided to see the movie “Dogma” because that was the very movie these outraged people were boycotting.Ý Sometimes people carry their religion to the point where it has an adverse effect on people.Ý This was the case that evening.
As we watched “Dogma,” my friend and I laughed hysterically.Ý It wasn’t nearly as bad as the protestors suggested.Ý The view the “outraged Christians” and I seemed to disagree on was they took the movie literally, whereas I personally took it as mere fiction.Ý In my opinion, it was just another religious comedy to bring the sometimes-scary topic of “religion” down to a point that seems more human in the eyes of the average American today.
By making the topic of religion humorous, we as a society can take a look at the different aspects of this complicated and controversial issue.Ý What is ethically right or wrong has been seen in many issues such as cloning, euthanasia, and abortion.Ý Religion, along with these other issues, is often hard to confront.Ý With the aid of movies, such as “Dogma” and “Keeping the Faith,” we are able to delve into the issue of religion more easily.Ý Let us now take a look at these two movies.Ý
“Keeping the Faith” starts with a priest, Brian Finn, played by Edward Norton, telling his complicated story to the local bartender in New York who thinks he’s heard it all already.Ý Brian tells of a childhood friendship between himself, Jake Schram, and a girl named Anna Reilly.Ý The three...
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...ck Jesus, a thirteenth apostle played by Chris Rock who was written out of the bible because he was black (having a black savior is okay, but not a black apostle), Mary not being a virgin, after all, “Do you think Joseph would stay around if he wasn’t getting any?,” and God being a woman.Ý Anyone who would take these humorous and outrageous suggestions literally is more of a joke than this movie.Ý
In my opinion, a movie is just a movie and nothing more, other than to bring into focus a difficult subject matter.Ý Therefore, funny movies about religion actually help viewers think critically about religion.Ý The protestors seemed to want to make the religious comedy genre be blasphemy on God, where that is not what the movie was trying to do.Ý Which brings out the question: Who is making religion a joke?Ý -The movies? -Or the people carrying their religion too far?
achieving his goal of placing doubt into the minds of the religious. Making this a poorly-argued film due
Moore does not devote much of his attention to religious ideas. Instead, he examines several different instances of the blending of the sacred and the profane in popular American culture. Moore narrates the direct and indirect effects of the public display of religion for both sacreds and seculars. History, lifestyle, work, education, government, music, sporting events, marketplace, literature, and womanhood influence people. He also brings up how religion can influence racial militancy and terrorism that threaten equality, domestic security, and national identity.
The director succeeded in giving us enough information to gain an accurate depiction of Christianity during this period of time and to provide a literary aspect that could be analyzed. Direct Christian references are present as well as some less obvious undertones. There is two times where we are presented with people reading from the bible. When Ford read to his slaves it was with good intentions. When Epps read to his slaves he distorted the messages in order to subjugate his slaves. Through this we can see negative consequences of people being illiterate and how people can be exploited through religion. There was also the depiction of Patsey as a Christ like figure. One final religious aspect that I would like to touch on is that no other religion was present in the movie. It’s common knowledge that Christianity was pushed on slaves to replace their pagan beliefs. The absence of their old religion speaks loudly to the subjugation that was imposed on
In conclusion, I found a quote from Michael Medved that I thoroughly agreed with, he says, “This same habitual blindness to spiritual, substantive dimensions of every significant challenge continues to handicap Hollywood”. I believe what he wants to get across here is that the Hollywood industry always misses the mark when it comes to spirituality and this is his whole meaning throughout the book. Whether I agree with his wording or not, I am a Christian, and I should be concerned with the way the media is influencing the mind of the world around me. I am called to be the light in this world, and I do believe that is the one area Medved and I agree; in some way, we both believe that the world is under attack and it is our job to show the light to this darkened world.
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