Sunday, my wife and I saw Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The 2 ½ hours of the movie featured action and special effects galore, and I left the theater glad that I chose to watch it on the big screen – there was just so much to see!
Yet as I left the theater, I also reflected on the violence of the movie. More than either previous Transformers movie, this one featured graphic violence – just not toward people. The biggest fights were between machines, and these knock-down, drag-out bouts saw severed mechanical limbs, smashed photo receptors (eyes), and cold-blooded (or would that be cold-lubricated?) executions by both the bad guys and the good. The bodies might have been metal, but the violence was intense and prolonged.
This movie reflects a common theme of action movies – violence is entertaining. It dazzles the senses. Yet violence at the level show – remorseless, cold, and visceral – is dehumanizing. In fact, I think if Transformers were about human beings rather than advanced alien robots, it would have earned a much stricter rating than PG-13.
Does this make Transformers a bad movie? Not at all! I thought it was a very good movie. Yet I see the level of violence in it – violence that is still nowhere near as graphic as many movies, TV shows, and video games – and I wonder if we as a culture have accepted violence as a way of life. This is especially troubling when we consider violence that is not on the silver screen, but rather is in our world, on our streets, and in our homes. Child and spousal abuse. Gang violence. Robbery and violent crime. Schoolyard fights over respect. Multiple and prolonged wars. Genocide. Our world is increasingly violent, and it no longer shocks us. It has become a way of life.
My only question is: where is the church? Why is the church – proclaimers of the Gospel of peace and worshipers of the Prince of peace – sitting on the sidelines all too often? Why are we not speaking out against abuse? Why are we not working to end violence in our cities? Why are we not trying to reach out to gang members, many of whom are just yearning for a place to belong? Why are we silent in the face of multiple wars?
God has not called the church to sit on the sidelines. Instead, God has commissioned his church to bear his name and do his work, bringing the kingdom into being in the here and now. It is a kingdom of peace in a world of violence – and it is a kingdom that is needed now more than ever. Will we do our part to bring it about? Or will we silently condone the violence of our world? Like the Transformers, the church is more than meets the eye – more than a collection of people singing songs and thinking about God. It is a group of people who, at their best, are united behind a common cause – the kingdom of God. Will we bring that kingdom about?
In Christ,
Adam
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