A thought-provoking movie about conviction.

Rating: 10/10 (8 December 2016)

This is a great movie, both for its cinematography and its thought- provoking message. It portrays the true story of Private Desmond Doss, a medic in the Pacific Theater of World War Two. Doss, played by Andrew Garfield, is a determined young man, afraid of nothing, eager to do his part in fighting the war for a free world.
There is just one problem. Desmond Doss is a conscientious objector.
That means he will not take a man's life. In fact, he will not even touch a firearm. This is where the thought-provocation comes in. Desmond Doss portrays a man of conviction. He will not be swayed to do what he believes is wrong, even under incredible physical and psychological pressure to give up his convictions or get out of the military.
Desmond Doss challenges us to think about what we hold as conviction. What would we die for? What would we be willing to be beat and abused for? What truths do we hold as so essential that we refuse to negotiate them at all?
The question that naturally arises from Doss's story is the question of where he got his conviction. The movie portrays him as having a traumatic childhood experience as well as quoting the Bible, "Thou shalt not kill." This is an important question for Christians and non-Christians alike. Can the Bible be trusted to build convictions on? If not the Bible, what authority do we appeal to as the source of our convictions? It would serve us well to think through this question at length.
For Christians and non-Christians alike, consistency is held up as a virtuous trait. If Doss was appealing to the Bible for his conviction to not take up a gun and kill a fellow human, would he also follow the Bible's guidelines on other ethical issues, like sexuality? Apparently Mel Gibson knew this question would arise, so he made sure to catch Doss's wedding band when he is in the bedroom with Dorothy, indicating they become married before sleeping together. If we want to test the strength of an authority, consistency in following that authority is something to take into account.
Desmond Doss was a person of conviction. Are we?