Slumdog Millionaire: Best Movie of the Year

The Oscars this year are a bit of a bore. I mean the movies nominated for best picture are so, well Oscary. They are the kinds of movies that always get nominated as if they know when they are making them - Movies like The Reader, Frost/Nixon, Benjamin Button and Revolutionary Road - I am not saying these are not good movies (I have seen Benjamin Button and that was great!) - But still...Oscary.

I would have loved to have seen The Dark Knight nominated for best picture - that would have at least created some interest in the Oscars this year - and it would say that "If you make a good movie, even if it is not a genre that usually gets nominated, it can win Best Picture." Like The Return of the King in 2004 - It would say "We don't only nominate depressing, artsy, Holocaust movies that people like but rarely see more than once." 

Not that I am original in saying this but there really is no debate about the best movie of the year. I have to even say that as much as I loved the Dark Knight, Slumdog is better. I do not here want to really even engage the debate about whether it is "slum-porn", exploitative, etc., I think such arguments are founded on the premise that every movie set in a poor setting must by default be a social commentary on the issues - as if no story can transcend - 

The movie is brilliant in every way: story-telling, acting, writing, music and directing. The movie is original and risky in a sense - as it does expose some of the realities behind the poverty, which I have seen firsthand in my journey through India two years ago. It highlights the massive flattening of the world through globalization and the movement toward India of many tech companies etc., (Read Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" and the story which opens it which takes place in India and has to do with golf and IBM) - anyway it is about love, determinism (hinting that there maybe someone or something writing our stories for us, and obviously its a kind of rags to riches as well)... 

It is the most creative way I have seen to tell a story in a while, reminded me of a Usual Suspects, or a Memento (though not quite as good or original as either of those films) - it was similar in its original way of telling the main protagonists story...I look forward to seeing it a second time with my wife - who didn't see it with me the first time. 

When it comes out on video.

Christian Hedonism: A Concept to Live By

Years ago I read John Piper's book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. It is a great book, the introduction itself is worth reading it. The concept of the book has been often misunderstood by people. Here is a good article by Piper about the book, but more importantly about the concept behind the book: finding our greatest joys in life rooted in Jesus.

What Is Christian Hedonism?

My shortest summary of Christian Hedonism is: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

We all make a god out of what we take the most pleasure in. Christian Hedonists want to make God their God by seeking after the greatest pleasure—pleasure in him.

By Christian Hedonism, we do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. We mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end. We should pursue this happiness, and pursue it with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy you cannot love man or please God.

The Difference Between Worldly and Christian Hedonism

Some people are inclined to believe that Christians are supposed to seek God’s will as opposed to pursuing their own pleasure. But what makes Biblical morality different than worldly hedonism is not that Biblical morality is disinterested and duty-driven, but that it is interested in vastly greater and purer things. Christian Hedonism is Biblical morality because it recognizes that obeying God is the only route to final and lasting happiness. Here are some examples of this from the Bible:

Luke 6:35 says, "Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great." It is clear when Jesus says “expect nothing in return” that we should not be motivated by worldly aggrandizement, but we are given strength to suffer loss by the promise of a future reward.

Again, in Luke 14:12-14: "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor . . . and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." That is, don't do good deeds for worldly advantage; rather, do them for spiritual, heavenly benefits.

Should Duty Be Our Main Motivation?

But some will say, "No, no. These texts only describe what reward will result if you act disinterestedly. They do not teach us to actually seek the reward."

Two answers to this objection:

1) It would be foolish to say, "If you take this pill, I’ll give you a nickel," if you expect the desire for the nickel to ruin the pill. But Jesus was not foolish. He would not offer blessing to those who obey him and then hold it against us if these blessings motivated our obedience.

2) Even more importantly, there are texts that not only commend that we do good in the hope of future blessing, but command it.

Luke 12:33 says, "Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail." The connection here between alms and having eternal treasure in heaven is not a chance result—it is the explicit purpose: "Make it your aim to have treasure in heaven, and the way to do this is to sell your possessions and give alms."

And again, Luke 16:9 says, "Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal habitations." Luke does not say that the result of using possessions properly is to receive eternal habitations. He says, "Make it your aim to secure an eternal habitation by the way you use your possessions."

Therefore, a resounding NO to the belief that morality should be inspired more by duty than delight.

Don’t Be Too Easily Satisfied

Hebrews 11:6 teaches, "Without faith it is impossible to please [God]. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” You cannot please God if you do not come to him looking for reward.Therefore, faith that pleases God is the hedonistic pursuit of God.

As Christian Hedonists we know that everyone longs for happiness. And we will never tell them to deny or repress that desire. It is never a problem to want to be satisfied. The problem is being satisfied too easily. We believe that everyone who longs for satisfaction should no longer seek it from money or power or lust, but should come glut their soul-hunger on the grace of God. We will bend all our effort, by the Holy Spirit, to persuade people

• that they can be happier in giving than receiving (Acts 20:35);

• that they should count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus their Lord (Philippians 3:8);

• that the aim of all of Jesus' commandments is that their joy be full (John 15:11);

• that if they delight themselves in the Lord he will give them the desire of their heart (Psalm 37:4);

• that there is great gain in godliness with contentment (1 Timothy 6:6);

• and that the joy of the Lord is their strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

We will not try to motivate anyone with appeals to mere duty. We will tell them that in God’s presence is full and lasting joy (Psalm 16:11) and our only duty is to come to him, seeking this pleasure.

The Problem of Evil

The chief objection to the Christian belief in a God who is all powerful, all knowing, and benevolent is the presence of evil and suffering in the world. This is not a mere intellectual question. We have felt pain in our own lives. We have watched news reports or read history of atrocities and asked, “Why?.”

Here is a general introduction of Christianity's response to the 'problem' of evil.

Two Affirmations

I will begin by making my own position clear with two affirmations. In order to understand the compatibility of a belief in a good, omnipotent, and omniscient God with the reality of evil and suffering, we need to recognize two key confessional elements:

1) God desires relationship with humanity.

2) Through God’s grace as demonstrated definitively in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, suffering is not the final word and suffering itself may be redemptive on this side of eternity.

Typology of Evil

We need to understand evil in terms of two categories: Moral and Natural. Moral evil is the consequence of the actions of people that go against God’s intentions for Creation. In other words, much of the evil present in the world is the result of human sin. A sub-category of this would be satanic/demonic evil. The Bible clearly indicates the presence of a being who epitomizes evil. Natural evil involves pain and suffering from the result of natural disasters: floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc. Thinkers are divided over whether or not the perfect Creation described in Genesis 1:1-2:25 included such things as floods, tsunamis, earthquakes or whether these are indicative of the Creation in the post-Genesis 3 reality in which we find ourselves.

Toward an Answer

1) God permits the possibility of evil because of his desire for authentic and genuine relationship and fellowship with His Creation.

God created humanity as the pinnacle of his creation to serve in community with God and one another (male and female) as God’s regents and ambassadors to all creation by reflecting and embodying his character. God did not coerce this. God set up generous boundaries in which humanity was free to live. But humanity was not content with this. Genesis 3-11 reports the infestation of Creation by sin in the aftermath of humanity’s breaching of relationship. In the world as it now exists, all humans and all human institutions are infested and permeated with sin. This has resulted in the fracture of creation itself and perhaps Natural Evil can be understood to be the result of humanity’s sin.

From Genesis 3 onwards, God has shifted his mission to redeem this lost humanity as well as move history to the day when Creation as a whole would be redeemed. Paul looks to the day when God will act to redeem not only human suffering but also the fractures of Creation.

Romans 8:18: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Revelation offers a similar portrait in its deployment of the language of New Creation:

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

2) Through God’s grace as demonstrated definitively in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, suffering is not the final word and suffering itself may be redemptive on this side of eternity.

Jesus’ death on the cross proclaims the victory of God over sin and the forces of evil. The life, death, and resurrection offers the hope, healing, and restoration of God’s love in the face of evil.

Jesus’ Life, Death, and Resurrection as a Demonstration of God’s Love

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

A Life in Jesus Subverts Suffering and Transforms It into Soul Development

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

1 Peter 4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. 2 As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

The Way Forward

Christian Community. Followers of Jesus Christ are to be known by love by insiders to the faith and by outsiders to whom they manifest God’s love. In the face of evil, intentional acts of love by Christ followers can make tangible the love of God in Jesus Christ. Many persons have found great comfort in the community of God’s people. The reality of evil amplifies the critical role that community plays in God’s intentions for humanity.

Prayer. Prayer is a gift from God. The book of Psalms models for God’s people a variety of responses to God including praise, lament, and thanksgiving. During times of crisis, the psalmists deploy the lament psalm in which all sorts of emotions are lifted up to God. In the face of evil, followers of Christ are invited to pray fervently to a God who listens.