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Ephesians

‘Mully’ Trailer Highlights Humanitarian

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Mully is a docudrama based on the life of Dr. Charles M. Mully. Mully will be shown in select theaters nationwide for three consecutive nights, October 3, 4, and 5, via Fathom Events.

Dr. Mully is often referred to as “the father of the world’s largest family.” Having been abandoned at the age of 6 himself, Mully has dedicated the past twenty-seven years, along with his wealth and resources to rescuing abandoned children in the slums of Kenya. His own story of surviving insurmountable odds and becoming one of the most respected humanitarians, is an inspiration to the young children he rescues.

Dr. Mully and his wife Esther formed Mully Children’s Family (MCF) – the world’s largest family – in 1989 to provide for the children whom they rescued.

Here is the trailer:

As the trailer begins, there is darkness. We can assume it is Mully rescuing a child, but it could also easily be a 6-year-old Mully being rescued. The darkness continues, until the trailer introduces the Mully Children’s Family, and the screen becomes much lighter.

The filmmakers are using the tension between dark and light to communicate the difference Mully makes in the lives of over 2,700 children ranging from newborns to 23-year-olds. He who was once fatherless, has become a father to thousands.

Dr. Mully is a light of hope in the darkest of night for so many. “We are one family,” he says in the film. The theme of oneness plays out in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. For Paul, the coming together of Jews and Gentiles in community symbolizes the power of the gospel. There is unity in the Body of Christ. Dr. Mully’s life has focused on rebuilding lives of thousands of vulnerable children at risk, teenage mothers, victims of gender based violence, and marginalized communities. In this space, we are one, he communicates. In this place, there is unity.

Visit the Mully movie website to learn more.

TV Screened: The Muppets (1:1)- It’s Not Easy Being ‘Human’

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ABC’s new comedy, The Muppets, premiered this week. The show is a mix of nostalgia, bringing to mind The Muppet Show (1976-1981), and a modern day drama. Using a page out of the writer’s room of Modern Family or Parks and Recreation, The Muppets follows the crew of a late night television show, Up Late with Miss Piggy, in a mockumentary.

Just as in all the other Muppet related television shows and films, the Muppet characters are treated just as human as the humans. In the first episode, Fozzie goes to dinner to meet his human girlfriend’s human family. The Muppets come complete with their own set of human emotions and human drama.

Perhaps too human for some viewers. According to the family values group, One Million Moms, and other evangelical leaders, The Muppets “will cover a range of topics from sex to drugs.” You read between the lines correctly. The group, who is advocating that viewers boycott the show, was doing so without actually watching the show. The predictions about what the show would be like were all based on the marketing they have seen, saying on their website, “It appears that no subject is off limits.”

The group goes so far to suggest that the 8PM half-hour family comedy will cover the issue of abortion: they provide no evidence to this claim.

Executive producer Bob Kushell told TVLine.com, “Jokes can work on two levels.” That’s true in the first episode so there’s no denying that. When presented with a drug reference regarding the band, Kushell says, “That’s a joke where the adults in the audience get to put two and two together,” while the kids watching have “no idea” what Kermit is suggesting.

TV producers and writers are tasked with portraying human realities to a human audience. And as the Muppets have done for decades, they help us see who we are in a clearer sense.

The truth is, it’s not easy being human.

In this realm of the Muppets universe, Kermit and Miss Piggy have broken up. Kermit is the Executive Producer of Miss Piggy’s show. And there is tension between the two on a personal level, only made more complicated by a disagreement over Elizabeth Banks being a guest on the show.

The focus of this first episode is on Kermit as he strives to overcome the breakup with Miss Piggy. He realizes, perhaps forgetting that the mockumentary cameras are following him, “If you take dating out of the equation, she’s a lunatic.”

And we realize that if Kermit wasn’t Kermit, we might conclude that he’s a jerk (read, “human”). But because he is the “it’s-not-easy-being-green” frog we have all learned to love, we know that Kermit is the Muppet most equipped for atonement.

THE MUPPETS - "Pilot" (ABC/Michael Desmond) MISS PIGGY, KERMIT THE FROG

It turns out that Kermit has forgotten the real reason for Miss Piggy’s uncomfortableness with Elizabeth Banks. It has to do with the day they broke up. When Kermit remembers, he cannot believe that he forgot such an important moment in both their lives.

Upon recognizing that he messed up, Kermit apologizes for his part. And the work of reconciliation can be done between the two. It is hard work, to say the least, for Muppet and human alike. But it is work that has been laid out before us by the One who took up his cross for the sake of humanity.

The writer of Ephesians says, “The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance . . . . .Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14, 16, the Message).

In other words, through the Cross, Christ reconciled us to one another and to God. Through the Cross, there is no need for us to be separate, to have centuries of animosity between us. The hard work has been done for us, we simply need to remember what we have done, and seek to make it right.

Just another lesson from a frog named Kermit.

Foxcatcher: Wrestling with God

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Foxcatcher is as difficult to write about as it was to watch. I have seen it three or four times now, and it does not lessen the difficulty of watching such a tense and dramatic film. Despite that, it is a great film, deserving every nomination for every film award it got! There is no other film like it. Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo all gave outstanding performances.

The difficulty of watching this film is that it is true.

Foxcatcher is the story of John du Pont (Steve Carell) whose desire to achieve something on his own draws him to sponsoring the US Olympic wrestling team in the 1980s. Du Pont knows nothing about wrestling, but it does not stop him. From the moment we meet du Pont, though we barely recognize Carell, we know that there is something not right.

The same could be said about Channing Tatum’s Mark Schultz. The trophies and metals in his apartment seem to stand as a memorial to what was in Mark’s life. Mark goes from making a speech to elementary school students about the Olympics to making a speech (prepared by du Pont’s people) about the father-figure that John du Pont has become in his life. These speeches stand in contrast to where Mark’s life has taken him.

John du Pont seeks out Mark to achieve his vision of being a part of a winning team. There are hints that he goes to Mark to get to his brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo), an experienced coach. In this attempt, John befriends Mark, making promises and sharing intimate stories. John sets himself up to be the father-figure that is missing in Mark’s life. Mark does not seek him out as a mentor; John positions himself to be such. On the way to the event where Mark is give a speech that John’s staffers wrote, John shares cocaine with Mark and teaches him how to use it. From there we see a decline in Mark.

There is something not right here.

Between the two of them, John and Mark fill the screen with emotional damage. This damage is so settled within their very core, that is difficult to see, yet it explains everything. After participating in drug use with John, Mark begins to change, which is depicted by his appearance. He dyes his hair and he dresses differently. He spirals into self-destruction.

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After he loses a match that he should have won, Mark returns to his hotel room to grieve. What follows is one of the most intense scenes in the whole film. Without any words, the real wrestling in Mark’s soul is revealed.

Filled with anguish, Mark sends his head into a mirror, glass breaking. He orders carts full of food and stuffs his face. His nameless internal wrestling bursts forth. The fighting ends with Mark collapsing to the floor. This is how David finds him. Bloodied. Defeated. Full of carbs. The wounds can be bandaged. The carbs can be handled. David puts his attention on Mark’s battered soul.

In the shadows of the hotel room, Mark is curled up on the bed, with David bent over him. As they do when they wrestle, they become one lump. David says to his younger brother, “You’re not in this alone.”

When you are in your darkest moment, dwelling in the shadows of life, there is nothing more meaningful than someone whispering, “You’re not in this alone.”

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In the Hebrew Bible, Jacob wrestled with an angel (Genesis 32) all through the night. Some have suggested that the angel represented God and the wrestling was over whom God was calling Jacob to be: Israel – the father of a nation. In Romans 7, Paul describes a fight with himself – “I do the things I know I shouldn’t do and I don’t do the things I know I should do.” In Ephesians 6, Paul says that the struggle we go through is not one of flesh and blood, but one with the spiritual forces of wickedness.

We wrestle with God, with ourselves, and with forces of injustice. 

The beauty of the film is that it does not state the obvious. We do not know for certain why Mark is emotionally damaged. Nor do we know why John is, though the film leaves clues as to why they may be. So often that is the case. We see others wrestling with their inner selves, not knowing why. We can, however, say to them, “You’re not in this alone.”