So I watched Constantine...

A bit of an oldie I know, but I never got round to watching it. On the whole, I'll say it's a pretty bad movie - crappy plot, and filled with horrible theological concepts (kind of like those movies that potray Chinese as yellow skinned slanty eye people with pig tails?).

Anyway, there were actually 2 bits in the movie that I liked (spoilers ahead):

1. When Gabriel pins Constantine to the ground, he/she/it (angels are neuter) comments on how humans just need to repent to enter into the bosom of God, and how privileged and loved we are above all of God's other creations. It then caps it off by saying "It's not fair".

At this point I was groaning from the badness of the movie, but this little bit perked me up a little, simply because it reflected the awesome theological truth - that the Son of God should give His life for fallen humanity, that He should take on the form of the human and no other creature. Yes God loves His creation, but there is little doubt that humanity has a treasured place in that. And furthermore, at the end of the day, the Gospel of Jesus Christ ISN'T fair - in no way is there any "fairness" in us being reconciled to God by the suffering of God Himself!

2. As Lucifer tries to drag Constantine to hell as punishment for his sin, God stops him in his tracks and lifts Constantine to heaven, much to Lucifer's chagrin. At this point, Constantine gives Lucifer the birdie, and was really a LOL moment for me.

You see, I couldn't help but reminded of how we often get caught up into appearance and etiquette, thinking that God is looking out for the well mannered nice person, but has no interest in the ruffian who swears and is ill mannered. But at the end of the day, we come back to the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the evil, uncouth Samaritan is praised as living closer to God's command to "love thy neighbor", than any of the Jews coming before him.

It's so tempting to measure holiness (particularly in our conservative Chinese church) by, in a sense, "niceness". Yet, perhaps God is sometimes less concerned about whether you are nice and polite, than whether you are living out His command to love God with all you've got, and love your neighbor like yourself.

Oh please

Some are familiar with the fact that I'm becoming a bit uneasy with movies like SlumDog Millionaire - as to whether they are exploiting the extreme poverty of people for our first world entertainment. I was watching another of these movies last night (Blood Diamond) and the reporter in it sums up my thoughts exactly: We write and take all these pictures of suffering people, we draw a tear or two, maybe even get a cheque written. But in the end - no one really cares. No ones really going to stand up and do something about it.

As a disclaimer, I believe movies like slumdog millionnaire and blood diamond can be useful if they are used in the context of a holistic education on events or realities in the world, reminding watchers that for 99.999% of the people involved, there isn't a happy ending. Together with these movies, audiences need to be made aware of the need to do something about these issues - be it through pressuring the government, to raising awareness, to actually getting out there and doing something. Unfortunately, the "unhappy" message doesn't get transmitted to most of the people watching these movies (after all, people are going to the movies to be entertained, not challenged).

So what we end up with is the "pornography of poverty", where the events of another world are turned into our entertainment. Where what is a serious matter is turned into an object to be devoured by audiences for their pleasure.

The title of this age article couldn't have said it better..."Do the SlumDog!" So now the concept of slum dwellers living and dying poverty is a colloqual term for a hip and fashionable dance. Please.

(PS i have written to the Age about it)