Just got back from V for Vendetta… What a GREAT MOVIE! The Wachowski brothers are back in a huge way with this film. I really don’t want to get into anything that might spoil this, because unlike most of the obscure movies I’ve posted about so far, you’re actually very likely to go see this film. That being said you probably already know that this is a “political action movie” about a distopian future in England that draws considerably from current events.

Okay, I can’t help it, I need to talk specifics (spoiler alert – do not read further until you’ve seen the film). The scene in the film where the Evey overcomes fear, even the fear of death is the moment at which she truly gains her freedom. Freedom is not something “given” or “protected” by governments, but simply IS. It is in our misunderstanding of freedom as a commodity or as “security” that we enslave ourselves to those who say they can protect us. This shows up several times in the film in the phrase “for your protection” plastered all over government vehicles and buildings. The public in the film, do not see themselves as living in the midst of tyranny. They are a technologically savvy and wealthy people who are living in a dictatorship but are blind to their situation because they are afraid of terrorists, disease, etc. and think the government is doing everything it can to protect them. Sound familiar?

One of the best books I’ve read, Torture and Eucharist (as well as Media Control), deals with the use of torture and kidnapping (in the Case of 1970’s Chile) or fearmongering and propaganda (in the United States as seen in Media Control) as a means of making people submit to the will of a government. These tactics are very effective at splitting up groups of resistance. In Chile any groups that would stand to oppose the dictator, Pinochet, would be the target of kidnappings and torture. These groups of resistance quickly dried up. But as T&E author, Bill Cavanaugh shows, the Church would not simply go away in the face of such atrocities. The Church is comprised of a group of people, who when they really think about it gather together because of one who has defeated death, Jesus Christ. The Church is the body of people attached to Jesus, and who do not fear death. Noam Chomsky observes that, “there are institutions which it has as yet been impossible to destroy. The churches, for example, still exist. A large part of the dissident activity in the United States comes out of the churches. (p. 32)” So why don’t more Christians approach life like the Evey that emerges from the false cell? Why are we just as scared and afraid as the average American? Why do Christians think they need “protection” from terrorism and disease and care deeply about “national security?” I wish we could take some steps towards “letting go” of our fears and indeed our lives. Perhaps the world is still a sick place because we Christians are too afraid to die to get involved in opposing those who oppress.

Thank God for Christian Peacemaker Teams, who show us what this fearless Christian life could really be like.

“People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.”