Thursday Theology - Doubt
My friend Michael instituted Theological Thoughts for Thursday over on Barneyisfat a while back and I read it every week. Thought that would be a good second regular feature for this blog (sorry, Aaron - I can only steal one idea from any one person - otherwise I become a stalker - plus just about every post I post is random, so Random Thursdays is kind of redunant...)
So...
Last night Lori and I finally got to watch the movie Doubt. I admit that I really wasn't in the mood to watch it last night - but it was due back tonight and our evening is full tonight... Oh, also, might be some minor spoilers below if you're really chomping at the bit to see the movie, well, you might want to skip this until you've seen it.
Okay, warning out of the way. The movie was okay - the acting was excellent, Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis - Amy Adams was okay and the rest of the cast did a fine job for their parts - but the pacing and the story itself was just meh for me.
And when we got to the end of the movie, both Lori and I said, "That's it?"
A day later, I can at least reflect on the major themes of the movie (even if I'm still kind of hating the abrupt "revelation" with no real substance and the lack of any significant denoument). Don't get me wrong, we liked the movie - it's a "good" movie - but not a great movie (oh, and the directing was fine - but some of the filler choices were...questionable - well timed lightning, the wind at just the right moment - and what's with the whole window thing and the bird thing?)
So...
Last night Lori and I finally got to watch the movie Doubt. I admit that I really wasn't in the mood to watch it last night - but it was due back tonight and our evening is full tonight... Oh, also, might be some minor spoilers below if you're really chomping at the bit to see the movie, well, you might want to skip this until you've seen it.
Okay, warning out of the way. The movie was okay - the acting was excellent, Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis - Amy Adams was okay and the rest of the cast did a fine job for their parts - but the pacing and the story itself was just meh for me.
And when we got to the end of the movie, both Lori and I said, "That's it?"
A day later, I can at least reflect on the major themes of the movie (even if I'm still kind of hating the abrupt "revelation" with no real substance and the lack of any significant denoument). Don't get me wrong, we liked the movie - it's a "good" movie - but not a great movie (oh, and the directing was fine - but some of the filler choices were...questionable - well timed lightning, the wind at just the right moment - and what's with the whole window thing and the bird thing?)
So, sorry, themes (well, theme - this got too long so I'll just deal with one):
First is, of course, doubt.
Father Flynn: Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone.
and
Father Brendan Flynn: You haven't the slightest proof of anything!
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: But I have my certainty! And armed with that, I will go...
How do we deal with our doubt. Most every Christian I know has doubted at least something about this whole faith thing at one time or another. Wondering if there really IS a God out there somewhere. Wondering why it has to be blood. Why a cross? What if the resurrection really was a hoax? And on and on the questions come. We stumble and almost fall and...
How do we deal with it?
Thomas gets a really bad rap for not believing that the others had seen Jesus resurrected. But...think about it. What if I said that I just talked to my dad (who died in 1989)? What would YOU think I really meant? The show Grey's Anatomy (not my favorite, but Lori likes to watch it sometimes) has dealt with that - one character was seeing and experiencing her dead husband. Her current boyfriend took that in stride... But that's fiction.
Doubt. It's a funny thing. It's really not the opposite of faith. Doubt can even lead to faith. We stuggle and wonder and then we come to some place - maybe through our own experience, someone else's experience, or maybe just the powerful presence of God in worship or in a quiet moment or...something. Doubts don't necessarily vanish, but faith can blossom - flourish and grow as doubt feeds faith, uncertainty feeds dependence on God, questions feed understanding (but, like the movie, not necessarily answers).
Doubt is a funny thing. I trust my daughters. I know they are honest. But every once in a while they'll make a statement that I doubt. Yeah, yeah, kids are masters of spin (who am I kidding, kids are aprentices of spin, we adults are the masters - where the heck do you think the kids learn it, anyway?) but when my doubts in something the girls say turns out to be unfounded, I have more faith in what they say the next time...
"You haven't the slightest proof of anything!"
"I have my certainty!"
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see or another translation says faith is substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (KJV) which I like better, but the NIV uses the word "certain" so...anyway.
The question raised by the movie is what if we are certain about the wrong thing (that is by no means a question answered - the certainty may or may not be founded) - I can be absolutely certain that the NASA faked the moon landing for example, but that doesn't make it true.
So I guess I struggle with the whole thing, too. I find it comforting that Mother Teresa had her moments (and I'm no Mother Teresa, lemme tell you) and even John Wesley was up and down in his faith. I bet Billy Graham had his moments (dangit, I read Just As I Am a while back, but I just don't remember any details). But in the end, I keep coming back to what God has done in my life - I keep coming back to the reality of the power of grace in my life - I keep coming back to what I have experienced of God's presence and God's love in my life. What else can I do?
First is, of course, doubt.
Father Flynn: Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone.
and
Father Brendan Flynn: You haven't the slightest proof of anything!
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: But I have my certainty! And armed with that, I will go...
How do we deal with our doubt. Most every Christian I know has doubted at least something about this whole faith thing at one time or another. Wondering if there really IS a God out there somewhere. Wondering why it has to be blood. Why a cross? What if the resurrection really was a hoax? And on and on the questions come. We stumble and almost fall and...
How do we deal with it?
Thomas gets a really bad rap for not believing that the others had seen Jesus resurrected. But...think about it. What if I said that I just talked to my dad (who died in 1989)? What would YOU think I really meant? The show Grey's Anatomy (not my favorite, but Lori likes to watch it sometimes) has dealt with that - one character was seeing and experiencing her dead husband. Her current boyfriend took that in stride... But that's fiction.
Doubt. It's a funny thing. It's really not the opposite of faith. Doubt can even lead to faith. We stuggle and wonder and then we come to some place - maybe through our own experience, someone else's experience, or maybe just the powerful presence of God in worship or in a quiet moment or...something. Doubts don't necessarily vanish, but faith can blossom - flourish and grow as doubt feeds faith, uncertainty feeds dependence on God, questions feed understanding (but, like the movie, not necessarily answers).
Doubt is a funny thing. I trust my daughters. I know they are honest. But every once in a while they'll make a statement that I doubt. Yeah, yeah, kids are masters of spin (who am I kidding, kids are aprentices of spin, we adults are the masters - where the heck do you think the kids learn it, anyway?) but when my doubts in something the girls say turns out to be unfounded, I have more faith in what they say the next time...
"You haven't the slightest proof of anything!"
"I have my certainty!"
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see or another translation says faith is substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (KJV) which I like better, but the NIV uses the word "certain" so...anyway.
The question raised by the movie is what if we are certain about the wrong thing (that is by no means a question answered - the certainty may or may not be founded) - I can be absolutely certain that the NASA faked the moon landing for example, but that doesn't make it true.
So I guess I struggle with the whole thing, too. I find it comforting that Mother Teresa had her moments (and I'm no Mother Teresa, lemme tell you) and even John Wesley was up and down in his faith. I bet Billy Graham had his moments (dangit, I read Just As I Am a while back, but I just don't remember any details). But in the end, I keep coming back to what God has done in my life - I keep coming back to the reality of the power of grace in my life - I keep coming back to what I have experienced of God's presence and God's love in my life. What else can I do?
I have doubts. I have such doubts. Yet I have faith
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