Faith Meets Life: The Slumdog connection
The plot of Slumdog Millionaire is not, on the surface, something we would connect with the Christian stories of Good Friday and Easter. But the parallels are there.
A brief caution, a spoiler alert: I may say too much about the plot of Slumdog for anyone who hasn't yet seen it.
If you have any connection with a Christian community or church, you will probably know that the week that includes Passion Sunday, Good Friday and Easter is the most important one for Christians. Chances are not bad that you are reading this during Passion Week. During this particular week, Christians are recalling the courage and suffering of Jesus Christ culminating in his death, a death gruesomely, and probably quite realistically, depicted in the controversial film, The Passion.
The death of Jesus is not the end of his story however. The end of the story is his resurrection from death, a controversial point to be sure, but one without which Christianity would not exist.
The story of Christ is ultimately a story of redemption. Human beings, mired in difficulties of our own making can't seem to find a way out. God, who created people for something much better, is grieved and angry with the wars, abuses, and self-delusions that we foist on each other. These are very much against his intentions. However, determined not to give up, Christ, a member of the godhead, absorbs the grief and anger of the godhead by his death.
This death is then the act that brings about redemption for human beings. Christ has disenfranchised the dark side of our lives.
But wait, there's more. In that he returned from death, Jesus defeated it. This is why wherever Christianity finds a toehold, confidence in life beyond death has abounded and continues to do so. Christ has placed both death and evil on death row.
For some people it seems easy to dismiss all this as religious wishful thinking. However, it is a wishful thinking that keeps resurfacing, seemingly whether we want it to or not.
It clearly resurfaces in Slumdog. Here we meet three children, Jamal, his older brother, Salim, and Latika. They are orphans surviving in the slums of Mumbai. Salim joins the dark side, although his Muslim faith moves him to ask for forgiveness. Latika does not have the strength to escape the clutches of first one gang lord, and then another.
In the end it is Jamal who must try to save, to redeem them. Several times he searches out his lost brother and Latika who he grows to love. He is unwavering. He escapes the slums but returns to look for Latika. He waits at a train station every day for her.
He finally enters a television contest, not for the money, but in the hopeless hope that she will see him and come back. He endures torture, ridicule, the wiles of the show host, and the rejection of his brother. His quest: redemption, the redemption of Latika and Salim.
Perhaps it is just wishful thinking that someone from outside will return for us; will enter the world where we have made our peace with war, environmental degradation, mind-numbing careers and superficiality.
But perhaps it is a wishful thinking we cannot escape because of our own sense of profound homelessness and mutual alienation, a sense that is all the more inescapable because God has created us for something far different.
Passion Week with Good Friday and Easter can be seen as a summons to redemption, one that we can't, but only God can, affect. A redemption from evil and death for which we legitimately long, a redemption that is as real as that longing.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
A brief caution, a spoiler alert: I may say too much about the plot of Slumdog for anyone who hasn't yet seen it.
If you have any connection with a Christian community or church, you will probably know that the week that includes Passion Sunday, Good Friday and Easter is the most important one for Christians. Chances are not bad that you are reading this during Passion Week. During this particular week, Christians are recalling the courage and suffering of Jesus Christ culminating in his death, a death gruesomely, and probably quite realistically, depicted in the controversial film, The Passion.
The death of Jesus is not the end of his story however. The end of the story is his resurrection from death, a controversial point to be sure, but one without which Christianity would not exist.
The story of Christ is ultimately a story of redemption. Human beings, mired in difficulties of our own making can't seem to find a way out. God, who created people for something much better, is grieved and angry with the wars, abuses, and self-delusions that we foist on each other. These are very much against his intentions. However, determined not to give up, Christ, a member of the godhead, absorbs the grief and anger of the godhead by his death.
This death is then the act that brings about redemption for human beings. Christ has disenfranchised the dark side of our lives.
But wait, there's more. In that he returned from death, Jesus defeated it. This is why wherever Christianity finds a toehold, confidence in life beyond death has abounded and continues to do so. Christ has placed both death and evil on death row.
For some people it seems easy to dismiss all this as religious wishful thinking. However, it is a wishful thinking that keeps resurfacing, seemingly whether we want it to or not.
It clearly resurfaces in Slumdog. Here we meet three children, Jamal, his older brother, Salim, and Latika. They are orphans surviving in the slums of Mumbai. Salim joins the dark side, although his Muslim faith moves him to ask for forgiveness. Latika does not have the strength to escape the clutches of first one gang lord, and then another.
In the end it is Jamal who must try to save, to redeem them. Several times he searches out his lost brother and Latika who he grows to love. He is unwavering. He escapes the slums but returns to look for Latika. He waits at a train station every day for her.
He finally enters a television contest, not for the money, but in the hopeless hope that she will see him and come back. He endures torture, ridicule, the wiles of the show host, and the rejection of his brother. His quest: redemption, the redemption of Latika and Salim.
Perhaps it is just wishful thinking that someone from outside will return for us; will enter the world where we have made our peace with war, environmental degradation, mind-numbing careers and superficiality.
But perhaps it is a wishful thinking we cannot escape because of our own sense of profound homelessness and mutual alienation, a sense that is all the more inescapable because God has created us for something far different.
Passion Week with Good Friday and Easter can be seen as a summons to redemption, one that we can't, but only God can, affect. A redemption from evil and death for which we legitimately long, a redemption that is as real as that longing.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
