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Hindu

Writing with Fire – Voice for the Voiceless

November 25, 2021 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

Journalism has the power to give voice to those who are unseen in society. In Writing with Fire, from directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, we see how a group of women in India have found their own voice through their journalistic work. The film won an Audience Award and a Special Jury Award at Sundance.

In 2007 a group of women from the Dalit (“untouchable”) caste in Uttar Pradesh started Khabar Lahaiya (KL), an all women newspaper. Writing with Fire shows us their work as they transition from print to digital. Many of these women are uneducated and the idea of using a smart phone for reporting is a challenge. But they understand their work is important. Often their reporting is the only way stories of abuse of Dalit women may come to light.

The women themselves face prejudice and sexism, even in their own families. This is a society that has many constraints on the roles women can fill. Most of the press in India is made up of upper caste men. Their very presence at press events is a statement of the power they seek to tap into.

Much of the film shows us the stories they cover, whether a rape case that the police don’t care about investigating because the victim is a Dalit woman (and thus, for the police, below caring about), the dangers of cave-ins in illegally operating mines (and the child labor used in them), or covering a state election.

From my perspective, one of the interesting side issues is that a key political power in Uttar Pradesh is the BJP, a fundamentalist Hindu political party. As the KL covers the election, what I noticed is the way religious fundamentalism has worked its way into that political system, and the way it seems to normalize violence in the name of religion. When I look at our own political system, we often see such views becoming more involved here. Religious fundamentalism, whether Hindu or Christian, often leaves no room for people of different beliefs. The dangers of such understandings are evident as we watch it from afar. It is important that we also be wary of its growth around us.

Writing with Fire is available in select theaters

Photos courtesy of Music Box Films.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: documentary, Hindu, India, journalism, religious fundamentalism, Sundance Film Festival, women empowerment

Being Chosen: The Story of God With Morgan Freeman S2E1

January 16, 2017 by J. Alan Sharrer Leave a Comment

(Photo Credit: National Geographic/David Kraemer)

The success or failure of a television or cable program can be largely attributed to many different factors.  Having a good story is important, as is good videography and relatable characters. A topic that’s intriguing also helps considerably.  But in the end, it all comes down to the number of eyeballs looking at the show each week. In the case of National Geographic Channel’s The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, there were a lot of eyeballs looking at Freeman’s foray into faith-based questions we’ve probably asked at one time or another.  In fact, the show was National Geographic’s most watched of all time. Thankfully, a second season of episodes are one the way—the first airing this evening (9 PM/8 CT).  In it, Freeman (and a few new characters) take a look at the concept of the Chosen One and what that means across faiths.

If you’re not familiar with the show, Freeman takes a topic relating to faith and looks for commonalities within various religions around the world. Christianity is given significant attention, but so are Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu perspectives. It can be quite fascinating, and the first episode of the second season is no exception.

What does it mean to be chosen? Is it exclusive to a specific faith?  Freeman takes a look at a number of different variants of this concept, beginning with a nine year-old named Jalue Dorjee.  He plays soccer like many kids his age, but at age two, his parents were given a paper from the Dalai Lama signifying he’s a reincarnation of an individual who has inhabited folks for five centuries.  In another instance, Freeman travels to London to celebrate the martyrdom of a grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Native Americans are also represented in the form of Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the chosen one of the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota tribes (see top picture).

(Photo Credit: National Geographic/Seth Nejame)

Even though chosen ones “help the faithful get back on track,” they’re not always living.  In the case of the Sikh culture, their chosen one is a book (see photo above). Some show their devotion in Thailand by piercing themselves with various objects such as metal spears (!) to gain superhuman powers. And sometimes the chosen are more along the lines of missionaries, such as Christian Kenneth Bae, who endured two years of hard labor in North Korea for simply organizing prayer groups.  His journey has brought him to the realization that “Jesus is [his] hope—[he] wants to be a blessing.”

There are a few changes to the program this season.  Gone is the blast of the shofar to start the program; instead, a graphic montage replaces it.  I thought the horn was a great part of the first season and am sad to see it go.  In addition, Freeman is not in every section of the show—at least in the first episode.  Two people—a man and a woman—take his role as they explore aspects of the episode’s theme (I think they’re one-time examples, however).  It adds a different perspective, but I think the focus of the show has been Freeman’s personality shining through the exploration of certain faiths and customs.  In the two sections of note, that seems to have been somewhat lost, although the two individuals do a good job with their questioning.

For me, the biggest takeaway from the episode was along the lines of what it means to be chosen.  In essence, it’s another way to say an individual is called out by God for some special purpose.  Sometimes it happens in a dramatic way, such as Paul’s encounter with God on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9:1-18) or Moses finding a burning bush (see Exodus 3:1-10).  But for many people, it’s not that way.  There’s an inward nudging that God has plans beyond anything a person could ask or even imagine.  To respond in any way other than acceptance is to be in a state of rebellion akin to Jonah (with or without the whale).  From there, it’s a process to become so in tune with God’s plans that one’s plans simply become his. In fact, Jesus made it clear that all that follow after him are to be his ambassadors to the world in their words, thoughts, and actions, seeking to make disciples of all nations (see Matthew 28:18-20).  It’s not easy, but being chosen is a responsibility that must be taken seriously.  The end results can be incredible—if we’re just willing to listen and respond in faith.

Filed Under: Current Events, Reviews Tagged With: Buddhism, Called Out, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Chosen One, Dakota, Dalai Lama, Hindu, Jesus, Jolue Dorjee, Jonah, Kenneth Bae, Lakota, Moses, Muhammad, Muslim, Nakota, National Geographic Channel, Native American, Paul, Shofar, Sikh, Thailand, The Story of God

The Evil Within (and Without): The Story of God (Ep. 5)

May 1, 2016 by J. Alan Sharrer Leave a Comment

Past Articles in This Series: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4
Shrieking Shack
Evil is one of those things that we, as humans, have to deal with on a daily basis.  If you’re not sure about this, all it takes is a few minutes of watching television or browsing the news headlines on a phone. Although our overall desire is to be and do good in all situations (including our thoughts), we aren’t able to do it with 100% effectiveness our entire lives. The Apostle Paul shared this struggle as follows: “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:18-19 NIV) So where does all of this come from?  Morgan Freeman, in the penultimate episode of The Story of God (National Geographic, 9 PM/8 Central tonight), tackles this subject and reveals some enlightening things about humanity and their propensity for evil.

This episode starts off with a visit to a maximum security prison and a challenging conversation with a person convicted of some pretty heinous crimes (I’ll let you discover what they are for yourself). When Freeman asks the prisoner why they happened, he says, “I had a desire, an impulse, and I wasn’t able to stop myself from acting on the impulse.” He’s also not convinced that if released, he could avoid doing the crimes again.

This brings up the question, “Where does evil come from?”

To attempt an answer, Freeman looks at how a number of faiths deal with the issue. The early Egyptians believed that when a person was filled with evil or sin, their heart became heavy. Their heart would be weighed on a scale upon death against truth; the result would determine their eternal destiny. Hindus think evil may have to do with the spirits of dead ancestors who weren’t happy; they offer sacrifices upon realizing this is the case. Zoroastrians believe evil is a battle within to be fought with good thoughts, words, and deeds (in that specific order). Buddhists try to counter the evil within using meditation and ritual. And Christians believe that Adam and Eve’s sin started a chain reaction of events that transfers evil to each person upon birth. This is why Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection allows believers to combat—and eventually conquer—Satan and his minions.

Morgan Freeman
(Photo credit: National Geographic Channels/Matthew Paul Turner)

Freeman has a fascinating talk with Brian Widener, a former Neo-Nazi, during the episode. Widener was tattooed beyond recognition during this time, but after getting married and having a child, he realized the error of his ways and had them removed from his face over a period of 2½ years. He states he found God in the middle of the process, although he admits he’s not sure what that looks like.  Can evil be contained and washed away? Freeman asks before ending with a baptism ceremony in a river—the Christian symbol of a regenerated life through belief in Jesus.

For me, one interesting point of the episode involved a scientist in New Zealand who showcased an experiment involving kids and the need for a higher being to keep order and control using a game (again, I’ll let you see what that looks like). To me, it reveals the propensity of evil in an individual’s heart when they think they can get away with something.  As the prophet Jeremiah notes, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?” Science can attempt to decode the reasoning for why we do things and discover patterns of behavior, but the heart is fatally diseased, prone to evil from the outset. In this way, we are all wretched (there’s the Apostle Paul again), which is the exact reason why we live in a world full of sin. How we deal with the evil within (and without) says a lot about our beliefs and, in many ways, our outlook on the world we inhabit.

Filed Under: Reviews, Television Tagged With: Adam, Brian Widener, Buddhists, Christians, Egypt, Eve, evil, Heart, Hindu, Jeremiah, Jesus, Morgan Freeman, Neo-Nazi, New Zealand, Osiris, Paul, Prison, Satan, The Story of God, Zoroastrians

How It All Began: The Story of God (Ep. 4)

April 24, 2016 by J. Alan Sharrer 1 Comment

Past Articles in This Series: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3

The Creation of AdamIn the beginning . . . how did the heavens and the earth come to be?  It’s a question we’ve all invariably considered at some point in our lives. Morgan Freeman has been puzzled by creation since he was a kid attending church in his hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi.  What else is out there? If God was the architect of everything, who (or what) created him? Or was chance a major aspect of the whole thing?

The fourth episode of The Story of God with Morgan Freeman (National Geographic, Sunday at 9P/8C) brings the subject of creation to the forefront of discussion. And just like the preceding episodes, Freeman’s curiosity leads him to a worldwide search to find an answer (if one exists). He learns some interesting things along the way that are worth tuning in for.

For most people in the Western Hemisphere, creation is synonymous with Adam, Eve, and a garden in Eden. The two lived there peacefully, enjoying the place—all until the day they chose to disobey the one rule God gave them—eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (see Genesis 2:15-17).  Then they were thrown out by God and forced to work the land in order to survive. Freeman adds, “It’s hard to believe we all come from one man and one woman . . .  but we do.” Freeman has an intriguing discussion with researcher Jodi Magnuss where she mentions a legend about Adam and his dead bones. Supposedly, he was buried right above where Jesus was crucified.  When his blood seeped into the ground, it met the bones and Adam was resurrected. She then has a quick Hebrew lesson with Freeman involving the words adam (man), dam (blood), and adamah (land).

The episode continues with Freeman visiting Gobleki Tepe, an ancient city in Turkey, Egypt, Australia, India, and Guatemala to learn stories of how other faiths describe creation as occurring. Some involve twins and corn (Mayans). Some involve star babies and dreaming (Aborigines). Some are close to the Christian view (Islam), And others just focus on cycles of creation without getting into any details (Hindu).

The Story of God with Morgan Freeman filming in Italy.

(Photo credit: National Geographic Channels)
The Story of God with Morgan Freeman filming in Italy.

(Photo credit: National Geographic Channels)

There is a scientific look at the creation story as well—but the question of the Big Bang is proposed to some high ranking individuals in the Vatican. Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo (seen in the picture above) tells Freeman the Big Bang is not creation because “we don’t know what was before” it happened. But the story is compatible with the normal biblical account of creation because, according to Georges Lemaître, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Science, God is outside of space and time.  Creation is an everlasting act, according to Lemaître, one of the first to propose the Big Bang Theory.  I was surprised there wasn’t a quick discussion about whether the account in Genesis 1 took six literal days or simply six equal measures of time, as I’m sure there’s a scholar out there who could provide some perspective on the subject.

It was made abundantly clear throughout the episode that, regardless of belief, there is a standard that someone bigger than us had a hand in the creation of the planet we live on and the universe we look at on a clear evening. Something had to happen – and we’re a direct result of it. It provides us with a sense of encouragement and perhaps purpose. As Gandalf wisely noted in the Lord of the Rings, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

May we make the most of it.

Filed Under: Reviews, Television Tagged With: Aborigines, Adam, Big Bang, Creation, Eden, Egypt, Eve, Gandalf, Genesis 1, Georges Lemaître, Gobleki Tepe, Hindu, India, Jesus, Jodi Magnuss, Lord of the Rings, Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Mayas, Morgan Freeman, Muslim, National Geographic Channel, The Story of God

Describing the Divine: The Story of God (Ep. 3)

April 17, 2016 by J. Alan Sharrer Leave a Comment

Past Articles in This Series: Episode 1| Episode 2
Sunlight through the cloudsDiscussions of spiritual topics, in some way or another, invariably revolve around one single question: Who is God? What are the qualities of the divine?  Why in the world do people choose to live in wonder and adoration of one they cannot see and talk to physically? It’s a question that has challenged people for centuries—and one Morgan Freeman takes up in the third episode of National Geographic Channel’s The Story of God with Morgan Freeman (Sunday, 9 PM/8 Central). In the final analysis it turns out that, despite different belief systems, there are some common elements that people experience as they live their lives on earth. I just wish the episode had gone a bit further in the discussion.

Freeman begins the episode in a blues bar and notes that people’s reactions to music (such as blues) is similar to how people experience God. What are the universal concepts of God? he asks.  From there, he goes on a whirlwind tour around the world to get some answers.  Some of the places he visits are the same as in previous episodes (India; Egypt, Jerusalem), but new wrinkles appear as he takes trips to Stonehenge in England, a Navajo family in New Mexico, and a medical facility in Philadelphia—the latter to discover what happens in the brain when a person has religious experiences (note: the answers, provided by Dr. Andy Newberg, are pretty interesting).

Since the show seeks to compare different belief styles, Freeman hears some very different things about the religions of the world. Hindus have millions of gods with thousands of names for those individual gods. He moves from the polytheistic to monotheistic as he looks at the sun’s role in Stonehenge, King Tut’s father, and Abram (Abraham’s) role in Jewish belief.  It turns out that however well we think we can imagine God, he is always beyond what we can consider (see Ephesians 3:20).

The Navajo section was interesting, as the cinematographers chronicled (with one exception) a young girl’s transformation to a young adult—a time, in their belief system, where God and human become one (a very large corn cake is involved—you’ll just have to see the episode to understand).

Morgan Freeman at Lakewood Church, Houston TX
Morgan Freeman at Lakewood Church, Houston TX (Photo credit: National Geographic Channels/Matthew Paul Turner)

In the end, Freeman seems to realize that the commonalities in faiths are that a) God surrounds us and b) God has the power to move inside people and change them. This takes him to his final destination of the episode—Houston TX and Lakewood Church, a Christian megachurch pastored by Joel Osteen and his wife Victoria. He talks with the two just before their service, which he attends, stating he felt a real sense of joy in the auditorium. Freeman asks Osteen point-blank after the service, “Who is God?”  Osteen responded, “I believe God is our Father, the Creator, Somebody that gives us purpose and destiny . . . Sometimes it’s hard for people to say, How can I believe in something I can’t see? But it’s what you choose to believe, through faith.” Osteen added his goal as pastor was to make God approachable, useful, and helpful to people.

There’s plenty to consider in this episode, but my mind goes back to a passage in Acts 17 where Paul addressed a group of people in Athens and brought up a similar question.  “For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you,” he said (Acts 17:23). He then shares that God doesn’t live in human-made temples, gives life and breath to all humanity, is not far from people, and wants them to seek him and repent of their evil ways. He’s all about justice and will judge in the end through one he brought back to life from the dead (in this case, Jesus).

I wish there had been time in the episode to discuss the justice aspect, as it would’ve provided some levity to what is perceived as a God who could be perceived as touchy-feely and happy all the time.  As it is, the third episode of The Story of God with Morgan Freeman provides some pieces to consider but could’ve gone farther with the discussion.  But at least it’s a start.

Filed Under: Reviews, Television Tagged With: Acts, Andy Newberg, Athens, Christian, Egypt, Hindu, Houston, India, Jerusalem, Jesus, Joel Osteen, King Tut, Lakewood Church, Monotheism, Morgan Freeman, Navajo, New Mexico, Paul, Philadelphia, Polytheism, Science, Stonehenge, The Story of God, Victoria Osteen

Sanjay’s Super Team: Pixar gets religion

November 25, 2015 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

I love a good short, and Sanjay’s Super Team (which plays before The Good Dinosaur) is excellent. With no dialogue and only a few minutes long, Sanjay’s Super Team teaches us lessons of faith and passing on traditions to new generations.

As young Sanjay plays with his action figures and watches a superhero cartoon on TV, his father comes to the family altar to meditate. Inside the altar are three Hindu deities: a male, a female, and a monkey. A brief battle over TV volume leads to Sanjay being brought over to share in the meditation time. But soon he becomes bored with meditation and his imagination takes over. What if the lamp in the altar went out and a demon appeared? What if the deities came to life and battled with the demon? What if Sanjay had to take part in the battle as well? Soon, Sanjay begins to understand these gods as a new kind of superhero. In the end, Sanjay and his father have new things they can talk about.

Sanjay 2

While gods and superheroes may have a great deal in common (especially in childlike faith), what makes this short film work is that Sanjay finds a new way to understand very ancient traditions. It is easy to think of gods (and this is true of Christian understandings as well) as distant and irrelevant. Often children are dragged to religion when they would much rather be watching superheroes on TV. Yet if God or gods become something they learn to relate to, it opens up the possibility of deeper faith and deeper relationships with the people around them.

At the end of the film there are a couple of photographs, one with director Sanjay Patel and his father when Sanjay was a child, the second with the two of them now that Sanjay is an adult. I take this film as a kind of thanks to a father who offered his son a chance to find his own way into faith.

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: animated, Hindu, Pixar, short, superheroes

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