What I'm Learning: People

I know, it's about time for me to post something. Well, I don't want you all to feel ignored, so here you go. Perhaps a new regular segment here at PBB, or maybe something I do once and then forget. But here it is.

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I'm learning about the worth of human life, even the lives of those who believe differently than I do.

I watched "Rent" recently. I'd heard the original Broadway soundtrack before, but had never seen the live show. Even though many Christian reviewers had "warned" against the film when it was released, I decided to watch it anyway.

If you don't know the story, it's easily told. It's the story of a year in the life of 8 or so "bohemians" in New York, circa 1989, chronicling their success and defeats, their loves and losses. They are artists and musicians and filmmakers and other "outsiders" who struggle to survive and find community on the fringes of society. Most of them have HIV/AIDS. About half of the characters are gay/lesbian. Some are recovering or struggling drug addicts.

I think most Christians would stop right there and lose interest. I understand that. But I wanted to press forward and see what it's about. Well, as far as the traditional "morality" aspect is concerned, it's what one would expect. Alternative sexualities and lifestyles are celebrated. "The Man" is damned. Anyone with traditional values or expectations is shown in a poor light. But to simply write the film off as "trash" is to miss the real value buried underneath the sexual innuendos (or plain lewd comments) and objectionable ideas.

There's a moment in the film when some of the characters visit an AIDS support group. During this scene, there's a song sung over and over that really struck me to the heart: "Will I Lose My Dignity/Will Someone Care/Will I Wake Tomorrow/From This Nightmare?" Encapsulated in this moment is the plight of those suffering from disease. More than that, it's the cry of the leper, the adulterous woman, the poor, the abused, and the helpless.

It hit me that Christianity was nowhere to be found in this film, in any substantial form. Yet it is at these support groups, at the dinners, at the funerals, at the celebrations, where followers of Christ needed most to be. How often have we absented ourselves from interacting with people who have radically different value systems than we do, in the name of "morality" and "being in but not of." Yet somehow we're surprised or disappointed when the people whom we refuse to engage don't turn to Christ on their own accord. Why should they? Thanks to us, the only "Jesus" they see is the one who turns His back on them.

The characters in this story find meaning in living life to the full, living each day fearlessly. They find meaning in loving each other, in creating art to express their passion, in raucous dinners and parties and dancing and laughter. On the brink of death, they live fully. While they may not find wholeness in their lives, they find something, which is better than the nothing that they are offered otherwise. And this is not to say that this is okay. I'm not arguing, "At least it's something." But if you don't offer someone an alternative to what they have, then they just try to make the best of it, don't they?

Here's the indictment that faced me: I have an alternative. I have a tip on the source of meaning, and hope, and life, and joy. The key to finding purpose and perspective. The thing I know that non-believers need, whether they realize they need it or not. And I don't share that. Heck, I don't even live that out in my own life all the time.

What the crap is my problem?

Why can't I live fearlessly, not because I have embraced the temporary joy of today, but because I have been given hope and peace and assurance that I can walk in the spirit of my Savior tomorrow? That I don't have to combat against tradition or society that want to shame me, because in Christ there is no condemnation, and no need for shame for things past? Instead of fearing the void that comes at death, and the idea of losing those I love, I can rejoice that to live is Christ and to die is great gain, and that my loved ones who die in the Lord will share a table with me at that beautiful future wedding feast of the Lamb?

Why am I so afraid of sharing such beautiful words to people whose hopelessness is disguised in smiles? Everyone needs to hear this message. Because the same grace that saved me from my own wickedness is offered just as freely to them.

Jesus made it a point to reach out to people who were shunned by society because of their circumstances and behaviors. People who lived promiscuous lifestyles, people who suffered from deadly, incurable disease, people who were considered low-class and no-account. These were the people He loved. These were the people He went to and told that God was offering the kingdom to them.

They all mattered to Him. The blind beggars, the adulterers, the lepers, the demon-possessed, the sick, the shamed, the scorned, and the scared. He loved each of them fully and freely, accepting all of them to his table just as they were, and sharing with them the news of God's mad love for them.

It is the pinnacle of arrogance to ever refuse, explicitly or implicitly, to share this same Good News with people that we consider "undesirable" or "unworthy." It is a blasphemy to ever consider ourselves the judge of who is or isn't "acceptable."

So as I watched this flawed but beautiful film, I had to stop looking at the characters as what they did, and instead tried to see them as God would see them: people who love, who live, who hurt, who suffer, and who each need the work of Christ in their hearts in order to find true and lasting peace.

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So there you go. Lesson #1: People need God. All people. And it's not my job to stand at the end of the velvet rope and judge this person as worth God's time, and this other person as not.

As you would expect, this lesson is starting to wreak a little havoc in other areas of my thinking. If every life is valuable and every person has dignity and should be shown the love of Christ, how does this mesh with my less-than-charitable view on terrorists? War? Civil defense?

The answer is, I don't know. I'm still working on this. I'll post more on this, and my related reactions to the film "United 93", a little later on, maybe.