WATCHED The Blind Side on the idiot box tonight. A nice enough movie, with Sandra Bullock managing to portray a feisty yet caring mother to perfection. Had my late grandmother been rich, American and from the South rather than relatively poor, Australian and from the Deep North I could see her being pretty similar to Bullock's portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy.
What got me thinking though was a comment on the movie's Wikipedia page. Apparently Bullock wasn't convinced she was right for the role. As she said in this interview, Bullock was intimidated by what the article describes as the Touhy's "evangelical Christian faith". It was only after meeting the Tuohys that Bullock felt she could take on the role:
"One of my biggest concerns stepping into this was how people use their faith and their religion as a banner, and then they don't do the right thing," explains Bullock. "They go, 'I'm a good Christian, and I go to church, and this is the way you should live your life.' And I'm like, do not give me a lecture on how to live my life when you go to church every week, but I know you're still sleeping around on your wife. I told Leigh Anne the banner waving scared me because I've had experiences that haven't been great. I don't buy a lot of people who use that as their shield. But she was so open and honest and forthright. And I thought, wow, I finally met someone who practices but doesn't preach—someone who blazes trails, and they do it as a family."
The Tuohy's religion is respectfully covered in the movie. You know that the family are strong Christians, yet it's not shoved into your face like the ground does when you fall over. You can argue that the Tuohys taking in the homeless Michael Oher is in the truest Christian tradition.
Do you know what? What to me is exactly what religion should be about. Right now religion's copping a hammering left, right and centre. Some of it's entirely self-inflicted, like the Catholic Church's continued paedophile priest problem or the various fanatics from all religions claiming theirs is the only true way and that if you're not doing it their way you're all going to burn in hell. The continued opposition to gay marriage by organisations like the Australian Christian Lobby doesn't help matters either. Some comes from our increasing scientific knowledge, which athiests suggest are proof you'd get just as much spiritual guidance worshipping a bag of Doritos as Divine Deities.
Question has to be asked though whether a evangelical atheist is any different to an evangelical religious types? As much as I hate people trying to convert me, calling someone's beliefs into question doesn't necessarily end with someone walking off in shock like in the movie Dogma. To use a personal example, I have a very religious friend while I consider myself agnostic, yet religion isn't something that comes up between us. She has her views, I have mine, and while they differ we respect that about each other.
And it doesn't matter if you're religious or not; the Ten Commandments are a pretty good way to live your life. Athiests and agnostics will probably ignore 3 (do not take the Lord's name in vain) and 4 (Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy), but the other eight are still pretty much spot-on.
Granted, there will always be people who do stupid and evil in the name of religion: seriously, where in the Bible does it say two people who love each other can't get married because they're the same gender, whereas a man and woman can definitely get married even if it's only because there's a child on the way after a one-night stand?
But while people like the Tuohys can use their faith to change someone else's life for the better then shouldn't we focus on that as being a positive for religion?
Monday, July 23, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)