I love epic movies. The kind of movies that are about times now long past that suck you in and take you on an emotional ride that makes you lose all sense of time and space. (Okay, now I’m sounding like the sappy movie critics that are just trying to get their quotation on a movie ad). But seriously, movies like Braveheart and Gladiator really do suck me in and they’re over in what seems like half the time they really take to play. So I had seen the previews for the movie Kingdom of Heaven a long time ago and it finally came out on video. I was pumped because it looked like another in the line of epic cinematic experiences. I went to McDonald’s and spent my $1.09 on the redbox to get it and went home with great expectations (not the book although in retrospect that would have been much better use of my time). Over the course of the movie my anticipation slowly dwindled into boredom. The storyline wasn’t that good and I found myself looking at my watch to see how much time it had left.
The one interesting thing I got out of it amidst my disappointment was seeing the Crusaders portrayed in film. At one point the Crusaders are riding into a makeshift camp and there is a monk or priest standing beside the road saying, “It is not a sin to kill an infidel.” Everyone had crosses on their shields and incessantly repeated the mantra, “It is God’s will,” before they went to try and butcher Islamic armies (and the Islamic armies tried to butcher them to be fair). It was amazing to think how intertwined these people’s religion became with their violence. I know that “Christians” were not the only ones at fault in the wars called the Crusades, but I really don’t think you can make a case from the life and teachings of Jesus that he would have wanted the symbol of his loving sacrifice on instruments of war or his name being used to justify war.
So then last week I was driving on I-25 (which resembles a parking lot most of the day) and I saw something that made me literally physically ill. On the car in front of me there was a yellow-ribbon sticker (the ones that are used to display support for American troops) and in the middle of it was a cross. A little further into the traffic jam I saw another one. And we wonder why the Islamic world sees American military action as a war between Christianity and Islam. We tell them that it’s true. Just like the Crusaders of old we attach the symbols of the Christian faith to military action and make Jesus an endorser of our violence. My point here is not whether specific military actions the US has initiated are right or wrong, just that I am amazed that nearly 1000 years after the crusades we are putting the symbols of Christ on our military objects as the Crusaders did before.
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2 comments:
Yeah, the Crusaders had the cross because they took the passage about taking up your cross and following Jesus literally. And actually, there were a lot of signs during the first years of Crusading that without much stretching, would lead one to believe that they were following God's will. Their leaders kept telling them that God's land needed to be in God's hands. That makes sense if you don't read the Bible, which many of them couldn't because it was in Latin, which they didn't speak. Plus, whenever they lost, they were told it was because they and their homeland weren't following God enough. My recent studies on the Crusades have brought a lot of enlightenment and understanding to the Crusaders and their mistakes.
I SO agree with you! I too did the MickyD's route this week and watched it. I was prepared to see evil Christians and "saintly" muslims. I too have seen the ribbons with crosses on them and want to rip them OFF the car. I see it as worse than a car with a fish on it trying to run people off the road. The fish on the car is aiming at everyone, where the cross is making everyone know that they are "inferior" just because they are not Christian. God does not look at us that way.
It makes it difficult to show the world the difference betoween Chirst's love and religious Christians. Oh, Lord forgieve your people!
Hollywood is expected to be slanted and jadded, but we are not to be!
Great blog! Maybe I will put all of my thoughts about it on my blog!
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