Amistad

I was watching the movie Amistad recently. (I hated the violence, but sometimes it is a part of life we have to accept.) Anyway, there were two scenes in it that especially struck me.

Early in the movie there are bunch of devout Christians standing around praying and singing hymns and trying to convert these heathen Africans. I thought it amusing that the caged prisoners, who knew no English whatsoever, thought that the Christians looked so sad. Their dress was drab, their faces solemn, and their music offered no hope or comfort. Sometimes the world looks at us the same way today. They see all the “don’ts” in our lives, and because we don’t exude the joy of the Lord, they see some pretty sad people!

Toward the end of the movie there is a scene where one of the Africans has been studying the Bible that had been forced on him earlier in the movie. Despite not being able to read a word, he figured out the story inside. Looking at the renaissance era drawings inside he’d figured out that mankind is wicked, that Jesus came to pay the price for us, and this man wasn’t afraid to die now, because he “got it.” His friend said it was foolish to believe that this man (Jesus) would be put to death for nothing. The guy who “got it” said, here they sat for a crime they never committed. What was so difficult to believe that this other man died unjustly? Despite all the praying and singing and badgering by the “Christians” out there, it was the simple Word of God through the pictures that got the message through to this man.

The last thing I appreciated about the movie was the history of slavery and the strong Christian beliefs that came through in the founding of this country. Set in 1839, we were a relatively new country back then, and though we did a lot of things wrong as a nation and as Christians, the fact that we were formed as a Christian nation came through loud and clear in this movie. John Adams It’s too bad our nation doesn’t hold to those same values today, choosing to be politically correct.