Cider House Christianity

I am a bad Christian. I don’t like reading my Bible. Honest, I really try to avoid it at times. Let me describe the scenario: I get my Bible out, flip to the chapter and remember that either a) I am hungry, b) I still have a dozen pages of homework to finish, c) my girlfriend is calling, d) there’s an amazing indie film that I need to check out. So I end up reading only a little bit, just enough to make me feel guilty but not enough to learn very much from. So then God (who is a sneaky fellow) drops me a line where ever I happen to be: in the kitchen, at school, through my girlfriend or in an indie movie. That’s sort of what happened today.

I was watching the movie Cider House Rules. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It is one of those beautiful movies, beautiful script, acting, cinematography—the whole package, really. It’s about kindness, and not judging, about abortion and responsibility. And then there is this one part that knocked me down for the count. Homer is reading a list of typewritten rules posted in the bunkhouse for the migrant workers when the leader of the workers, Mr. Rose, interrupts him by saying “The people who wrote those rules never even lived in this house. Why should we follow them?” That pretty much crushed me.

My life is a connect-the-dots between judgments: judgment against my family, friends, the church, the government, random people who yell at their kids in Wal-Mart, random kids who yell in Wal-Mart and people who cut me off in traffic. People can be so annoying. Then again, I have never lived in their houses, I have never lived their lives, felt their pain, been faced with their decisions so I can’t judge that. But I try. The fact of the matter is, Christianity is more ambiguous than we would like to think. It is not an easy thing to say ‘this is right’ or ‘this is wrong.’ Christ left it obtuse, perhaps even intentionally just so we would be forced to come to the painful realization that we really can’t use our super-powered holy vision to sight-read sins.

So here is my latest epiphany all written down in black and white: we really don’t know what is right or wrong. People are so complex and each situation presents with far too many layers for us to be able to pass judgment. I think we would be better served if we took all the time we typically spend on judging others and spent that time just loving others without prejudice. Maybe then, after we have lived in their houses, we can see their souls with clearer sight. Our lives might even look a little like Christ’s.