From: iikkap@mits.mdata.fi (Iikka Paavolainen)
Subject: Re: The Steve Martin movie "Leap of Faith"
Organization: Microdata Oy, Helsinki, Finland
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 18:32:55 GMT
Keywords: christian con-job

In article <martin.725562276@marsh> martin@cs.curtin.edu.au (Martin Dougiamas) writes:
>Tonight I saw the film "Leap of Faith" with some friends of mine 
>who are pretty religious.  I'm a pretty big fan of Steve Martin,
>especially his earlier films, and I'd sort of expected to have a 
>bit of a laugh at evangelism at my friends' expense.
>
>The plot runs roughly as follows:
>Con-man evangelist and his entourage roll up to a small drought-ridden town.
>Con-man is shown to be very clever fake... with lots of slimy tricks
>up his sleeve to con people out of their money in the name of Jesus.
>He sets up a huge tent and puts on a huge glitzy show every night.
>Then some "real" miracles occur: a crippled boy comes on stage and starts
>to walk.. and the local drought is broken by rain.
>Con-man chucks in his conning job and becomes a true believer, shouting
>"praise Jesus" and laughing and so on and leaves town for an unspecified
>life.
>
>My friends loved it ... they took it as an affirmation of their faith,
>almost as if the film were a documentary.  The music was like heaped
>emotional saccharine at the end, and the whole thing was actually quite
>repulsive to me, as a thinking person trying to remain logical about the
>whole thing, under the onslaught of sound and colour.
>
>What really riled me was that EVEN THOUGH THE ENTIRE TRICKERY AND SHAM
>OF THE REVIVAL MEETINGS WAS REVEALED, and it was shown how all the 
>audience were just suckers to the smooth-talking preacher, they STILL
>got off on the spectacle of the revival meeting... singing along with
>the songs etc and leaving the theatre with the same glassy-eyed 
>assurance that god was in his heaven and all was right with the world,
>JUST LIKE THE AUDIENCE IN THE MOVIE!   The film was simply a bigger
>version of the con they were supposedly exposing!
>
>I wanted to tell them the whole thing was a giant con-job in itself...
>that there isn't a single shred of evidence for any miracle whatsoever,
>but I knew it would be no use... they refuse to respond to rationality.
>
>So I just feel frustrated at the whole thing... especially when I think
>of the thousands of people falling victim every day to this same con job
>disguised as a comedy movie.

That's what religion is all about: faith. They have blind faith in God, and
blind faith in priests, preachers et al. The key word here is blind: God is
all, and knows all and knows what is best. Sometimes I (a strong atheist) have
dipped into blind Christianity to see what it is like, and it actually feels
good, that you have somebody watching over and making sure everything goes
well. Everything works perfectly until you start to think about things
(how can these things be, hell etc.), when all the glamour and comfort dis-
appears. Most people don't want to bother themselves by thinking these things
out because a) there are already so many people who are believers, thus it
must be correct, and b) these priests et al must have thought everything out
thouroughly for them.

This is my point of view, at least.

>
>My recommendation: see the first three quarters of the movie on video
>for some very useful info on how evangelists do their thing, but give
>the last quarter of the movie a miss if you want to avoid puking on
>your carpet.  And if you must watch the whole film, avoid seeing it
>with christians present.
>
>Pet peeve: people who confuse simple love, friendship, being kind to your
>fellow man, good music and happiness with some fictional supernatural
>being.
>
>Comments welcome.
>Martin
>---
>Your eyes are weary from staring at the screen.  Your eyelids feel very heavy.
>You feel sleepy. Notice how restful it is to watch the cursor blink. Close your
>eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt
>otherwise.  When you awake you will follow up this post and enthusiastically
>agree with it.  Then you will send all your money to martin@cs.curtin.edu.au.
>--
>Your eyes are weary from staring at the screen.  Your eyelids feel very heavy.
>You feel sleepy. Notice how restful it is to watch the cursor blink. Close your
>eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt
>otherwise.  When you awake you will follow up this post and enthusiastically
>agree with it.  Then you will send all your money to martin@cs.curtin.edu.au.


--
 __/|_  ,  ,--------------------------------------------------------------,
/o    \/:--| Iikka Paavolainen / iikkap@mits.mdata.fi, in Espoo, Finland  |
\__~__/\:--| "I won't have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent."    |
   `    `  `--------------------------------------------------------------'
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