From: brnt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: The Rapture ** SPOILER ** 
Date: 29 Jul 92 08:15:47 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <MeRLYqC00iUx03H45L@andrew.cmu.edu>, Peter Yung Chang <pc20+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
> Since religion is a big issue with my friends and I, we loved the movie.
>  We are both agnostic/atheistic, and we thought the movie was
> interesting because:
> 
> Depending on your point of view, the movie is either VERY RELIGIOUS, or
> VERY ANTI-RELIGIOUS.  Of course, the religion in question is
> Christianity, with the Judao-Christian "God".
> 
> If you were watching the movie from a religious point of view, then you
> can talk about the grace of "God" and how forgiving he is.  All you have
> to do is to say you believe in "God", then you can enter the kingdom of
> heaven.
> 
> But if you were anti-religious, you can talk about the whole hypocrisy
> of Christianity.  You can be a murderer (eg. killing your own daughter),
> but as long as you say you believe in "God", all your sins will be
> forgiven, and you can enter heaven.  And killing your daughter was
> "justified" in the movie because the daughter would go to heaven.  What
> twisted logic....
> 
> Anyway.  I liked to movie.  I recommend anyone who has an interest in
> religion to go see it.
> 
> 					
> 					peech
> 
> Peter Chang
> Economics/Industrial Management
> Carnegie Mellon University
> <pc20+@andrew.cmu.edu>

	First of all, Peter, let me say a big THANK YOU! for proving my
original point and acting as a much better illustration than I ever could have
made up.
	My point is exactly this: Hollywood, like yourself, seems to inerrantly
portray Protestants in a wholly unrealistic way (Catholics take it on the nose
even more frequently, and often in a much more vicious manner).  You say, as
"The Rapture" also said, that Christian's believe:

	1. You can murder someone and then just "believe" in God and go to
heaven.  This is simply untrue, no conservative Christian group, to my
knowledge, has ever held such a ridiculous belief.  Rather, they believe that a
person must repent, or turn away from a former actions, fully intending never
to do them again, and actually be sorry for them.  A full conversion is
necessary, and it must truly be sincere.  "The Rapture" implied (and I think
even showed) that this must not be any of the above, simply a lip service to
belief.

	2. Killing the daughter was justified because she went to heaven.  
There are serious questions about whether the daughter would have gone to 
heaven at all.  She did not seek to be with God, she sought, instead, to be
with her father.  In fact, she had, in reality, given up on God (not surprising
considering the actions of her neurotic mother).  Besides, she essentially
committed suicide (what many consider as a sin), because not having the nerve
to do something, when you really want to do it hardly makes you innocent.

	My point is not that there aren't religious whackos out there, of
course there are -- I even admit to knowing several of them personally.  My
objection was that this movie, like most other Hollywood movies, portrays them
ALL as whackos.  Notice that every religious person Mimi Rogers comes in
contact with is a member of the "Pearl" group (this in itself is ridiculous,
because it is not a commonly used Christian symbol, or perhaps that is
intentional).  When she acts neurotic after her husband's death, the group
encourages it.  While I know of groups that would do this, most would not.
	In essence, you and the film maker have made the same, unreasonable
deduction: since this is the way I perceive Christianity, that is the way it
is.  You have that right, of course, but it really isn't very convincing.
-- 
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