We then talked about the ways we could see echoes of Christianity in the story.
First, we discussed the references to the fall, with Adam and Eve. In the film, as colour spread people first thought it was ruining Pleasantville. But as the film ended almost everyone, including the God-like TV repairman, seemed happy with how things had turned out. Its a difficult thought, but in our world, might God have intended 'the fall' to happen all along? Perhaps he'd prefer us to have free will and choose to turn to him, rather than not having any choice to believe or not like Adam in the Garden of Eden.
We also thought how the new group of coloured people formed something like a church - a tight community, sticking together despite persecution from the authorities.
A third theme was racism - the grey people, when faced with people different from them, tried to segregate the town, putting up signs saying 'no coloureds'. There were even overtones of Nazi Germany, with the book burning scene. But they eventually realised that the coloured people weren't really different from them at all.
Did you enjoy the film? As always, feel free to blog any other thoughts you might have.
On Saturday 17th November, St John's Church (where we have runway) is having its Christmas Fair. It's from 11am till 2pm and there will be all sorts of stalls, a raffle, lunches in the back hall and coffees in our runway room.
Admission is free, so drag the family along - you might pick up a Christmas bargain!
Here is a link to Chris' blog of his year out. It's a great way to keep updated on his adventures and stay in touch too. Why not leave him a message, let him know we've not forgotten him?
Click here for Chris' Year Out blog
Tonight we veered away from the program a bit, as the film we've chosen for half term film night is too long for one sitting.So tonight we watched the first half of Pleasantville starring Reese Witherspoon and Toby Maguire.
A quick plot catch up for those of you who weren't there:
Two normal teenage kids are magically transported back in time into a fifties black and white soap opera called Pleasantville.
Nothing ever goes wrong in Pleasantville; the man's dinner is always on the table when he gets home and the basketball team never lose a match.
Kids on dates don't go further than holding hands and the sun always shines.
The modern day kids start interacting with the characters and things start to change. They introduce spontaneity, sex, knowledge and emotion, and gradually things in Pleasantville start appearing in colour, much to the horror of the men of the town.
We'll be watching part two next week and thinking about how the film might relate to Christianity. Get blogging if you already have ideas...
(Full marks to Tom R by the way, for guessing what was coming next with scary accuracy!)
After watching the film, we played a few rounds of Murder in the Dark (fun but possibly dangerous - ask Jen)
This evening we looked at how other faiths relate to Christianity. We started by looking at some similarities between Muslim beliefs written in the Qur'an and the Bible. Sura (chapter) 3 in the Qu'ran says:
The angels said, "O Mary, GOD gives you good news: a Word from Him whose name is `The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary. He will be prominent in this life and in the Hereafter, and one of those closest to Me.'
We also saw how Buddha said:
"He who sees the Dhamma, he sees me; he who sees me, sees the Dhamma."
which is very close to Jesus' "He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me."
Buddhism was around before Christianity, so maybe Jesus borrowed Buddha's words? Or maybe Jesus inspired Buddha? Many people think there are amazing similarities between the lives of Jesus and Buddha.
We also looked at this quote from John Wesley:
I have no authority from the Word of God "to judge those that are without." Nor do I conceive that any man living has a right to sentence all the heathen and Mahometan world to damnation. It is far better to leave them to him that made them, and who is "the Father of the spirits of all flesh;" who is the God of the Heathens as well as the Christians, and who hateth nothing that he hath made.
Wesley is saying here that he thinks Christians and Muslims follow the same God, and that Christians should leave Muslims to follow him their way.
Finally, we read this passage from C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle:
The Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me.
I personally am not sure what to make of all this. I would certainly like to think that other faiths are different paths to the same God, however. I guess we'll only find out when we die. But I'd like to hear what you all think - do leave a comment.
We had so much fun playing tonight! We did four rounds in the (nearly) pitch black church building with only a little torch to help the finders.
Funniest moment award goes to Georgina, for screaming the place down when Andy grabbed her ankle from his hiding place under the sofa.
Hardest to find awards go to the Toms and James 2 (behind the curtains in the hall) and Kat who managed to stay hidden behind the long curtain after we'd checked there twice.
The award for most innovative (and destructive!) hiding place goes to Tom W for his dismantled kitchen cupboard.
I'll be very surprised if someone from the church doesn't spot something moved/destroyed and ask us what we got up to! Thanks for being so good about not going up on the balcony - we really appreciate being able to trust you guys.
What a good giggle! Sometimes it's good to re-connect with your inner 8 year old, don't you think?
