Faith
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Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
Thinking, praying, and living the faith is at the core of ministry in the Office of Theology and Worship. In the following videos, learn more about what thinking, praying, and living the faith means to the leadership of the Office of Theology and Worship. Discover why it matters and what difference it makes in our lives, work, and worship.
Charles Wiley
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Biutiful
Human Trafficking Awareness week reminds me of an interview with Javier Barden that I heard Terry Gross do on Fresh Air. Barden talked about his role in Biutiful (a childish misspelling of beautiful) and thought it sounded like an interesting film because of the ambiguity of Barden’ s character. Primarily because Barden is such a fine actor, I went to see it.
Warning! This film is not appropriate for those who are not well into adulthood because of explicit sexuality, language, violence, and drug use (the usual suspects), none of which is gratuitous. This film is also not for those seeking mindless entertainment, as the basic plot summary indicates. Barden plays Uxbal, a single father who can speak with the dead as a ministry for the living. We see him doing just this in various capacities throughout the film. As he is diagnosed with cancer, Uxbal begins speaking with all the death in his life and does what he can to minister life. He deals with his bi-polar wife, from whom he is separated, in order to tend to the life of his two children. He tries to attend to the life of those who are entrusted to him in the death-dealing world of human trafficking. What we see in the end, though, is the Exodus story without God hearing the cries of the people, of oppression without a Moses, of sin without a Savior. It is a bleak film.
So why would I recommend this? Because the film also causes us to see that with just a little care and compassion, we could have had a different story. It is a lament of the life sin causes. Besides, this is what life is for so many in the world, and if we are to preach the gospel faithfully, we need to know how to minister the good news of its life in the midst of such death-dealing worlds. Moreover, it clearly depicts the human situation: we find ourselves caught in webs of destruction just trying to make life beautiful for our children or care for mentally ill family members. We fail to see the larger problem of human trafficking that lies hidden in the dark basements of our societies, upon which all our attempts to secure the good life for ourselves and our children are predicated. This film, though, shows the web of connections and helps us see that with compassion and care for one another there could be another way. And we know that Way.
- Posted at 2:34 p.m.
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