Film Comment: Sinners (2025)

 

Sinners is a movie which is intended to be about racism, cultural oppression, colonialism, black culture, anti-religion, and anti-Christianity. As usual, I can make Christian observations about the film which are probably unintended by the director.

“Son, you keep dancin’ with the Devil, one day, he’s gonna follow you home,” from a pastor father to Sammie, nicknamed Preacherboy, who is aching to become famous for his outstanding blues guitar and singing talent. Sammie hooks up with two morally fluid brothers who are opening a juke joint. This sets up a conflict when two white men and a woman show up that night wanting to join in the fun. The problem is that they are vampires.

One man about to be killed/turned into a vampire begins to loudly quote the Lord’s Prayer. All the vampires join in and help complete the quotation. This seems to be intended to show that Christianity has no power against evil.

A Christian response: the frightened man’s words were just that, words, and they did have no power. There is a difference between knowing and believing. The power is not in the words. They are not a Magick spell. God is not our genie in a bottle. The words have power only as they are used by the Holy Spirit.

Satan can quote scripture. He quoted Psalms 91:11-12 while tempting Jesus to misuse his authority (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13). Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).

A visit to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute on the weekend of Martin Luther King's birthday

Recently. our son and his family came to visit us. One of the things we did during their visit was to take them to see the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. My preteen grandchildren were horrified and sickened by what they saw. They had learned in school of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King but they had no idea how bad things actually were at that time.

I told my grandchildren that what they saw at the Institute was true. I know because I was a child and young teenager during the early part of the civil rights movement. Later, when I was a young adult, our church was split down the middle when we voted to accept for membership a black woman and her daughter. The sight of several respected church leaders rising to yell “No!” and “Hell, no!” lingers with me still. After about 200 of us stood and walked out, the new racially mixed church we started received weekly bomb threats for several years.

Since I believe that racism is totally incompatible with a declaration of faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:28), I was proud that my grandchildren have been raised without a hint of racism.  We explained to them that things were much better now but that racism still existed. We also explained that as Christians they must never be a part of any racist activity and that they should never be afraid to oppose it when they see it.  (2 Timothy 1:7)

Emphasis on Christian Education

We have allowed the progressives (This is their current self identification. They have also been known as liberals and relativists) to define themselves as "mainstream" or "moderate." They insult historical Christianity by labelling it as backward, racist, reactionary, homophobic, sexist, intolerant,  irrelevant to the modern world, judgmental, imperialistic, sexist, anti-intellectual, etc., etc., etc. Yada, yada, yada. Blah, blah, blah. You get the picture.

Historical Christianity is none of these things. Part of the reason that this insulting situation has arisen is that many churches have not adequately fulfilled their function to hand on the faith to the following generations. A helpful start would be a renewed emphasis on Christian education in history, doctrine, interpretation,  apologetics, and application of the Christian message in day to day life. We need to be equipping modern day Christian warriors. (Ephesians 6:13-18)

(... but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 1 Peter 3:15)

Historical Christianity is the "mainstream." Those who wish to redefine the faith are the ones who are creating another doctrine. Many have already crossed the threshold and have effectively left the mainstream historical faith.

"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

The Confederate Flag

During the memorials for the members of the Bible study class in Charleston, South Carolina who were murdered by a white supremacist, the media's attention suddenly shifted to the flag of the Confederate States of America. The killer was seen in several photos with a Confederate flag and suddenly the national discussion shifted to the removal of that flag from all public places. Why suddenly now? Why not ten years earlier? Why not fifty years earlier? The flag was surely just as offensive then. The effect of the focus on the flag was to shove the Bible study class to the side.

Some say the Confederate flag represents racial hatred. Some say the Confederate flag represents a remembrance of the Southern heritage and history. It probably represents both. The Confederate flag belongs in a museum. We must acknowledge our history, learn from it, and never forget any of it.

Having said that, I believe that the Confederate flag discussion is an intentional distraction from what was and is happening in Charleston. One by one, the family members of the murdered people publicly announced that they forgave the killer. Thousands of Christians gathered daily at the church to pay their respects to the victims and to publicly declare their allegiance to Jesus. The woman who noticed the killer in a town several hundred miles away said that she believed that God placed her there to see the man and to aid in his capture. She publicly praised Jesus and declared her testimony. The public gatherings began to happen in other cities as well.

I believe that this phenomenon made non-believers extremely uncomfortable because they absolutely could not understand it. When someone hurts you, you are supposed to hurt them back! Isn't that what our culture teaches us? How can you forgive someone who has killed one of your family members?
I say, "Good for them! Obey the Lord!" We Christians should make the world uncomfortable.

The Elevator

Below is one of my short stories, in this case a 266 word micro-story entitled The Elevator.


We often fail to recognize opportunities when they are presented to us.  How many times have you said to yourself, "I should have said ..."?  This is frustrating, but when the opportunity missed is one in which the Gospel could have been presented the situation is not only frustrating, but tragic.


                                         THE ELEVATOR

            Hospital elevators are lonely, anonymous places. People don’t really see each other there.

            When I got on the elevator on the eleventh floor, I immediately saw the massively obese white man with a stubbly three-day old beard.  His knit shirt fit very snugly and his vulgarly exposed navel was an enormous gaping cavern in which a small dog could have hidden. He was a nascent heart attack.

            I tried not to stare, but his labored breathing wouldn’t let me ignore him.  He had the pained wheeze that extremely fat people get, as if just standing up was a struggle.  He sounded as if it would kill him on the spot if he ever were forced to run.

            “What floor?”

            I said, “One.”

            The fat man’s stubby finger pressed the button.

            “Six.”

            I turned around; the voice had come from behind me.

            The well-groomed black man was tall and handsome. I hadn’t noticed him as I entered the cabin ... perhaps because of the fat man.

            “Six.”

            The fat man didn’t move.

            “Six.”

            Nothing.

            “Six.”

            I realized what was going on and, in a flash of anger, my hand flitted over to the button panel and pressed number six.  I thought about confronting the fat man, but I hesitated.  I knew he wouldn’t care what I said and I wondered if the black man would be embarrassed.

            When we got off the elevator, the fat man waddled off to work on his heart attack.  The black man never said anything.  He quietly got off the elevator and vanished into anonymity.  I went to my car, unhappy with myself.

Jogging With Michael Jr.

Christian comedian Michael Jr. talks about one day when he went jogging.




For those who don't know, the title "A Brother Jogging," is a pun. Fellow Christians are Brothers and Sisters. In American slang usage, a "brother" is a black man.

At Least Enjoy It

Leo Rosten (b. 1908, Poland - d. 1997, NY) said, "If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it."

Now, Leo's dead, so we can't ask him, but I suspect that he was talking about taking ownership of your actions, ie: personal responsibility. Too many people today want to always blame someone or something else for everything that happens to them. I'm this way because he did or didn't do that. I couldn't do that because of racism. My life is ruined because they wouldn't let me do what I wanted. I had to shoot him because he disrespected me.

There are, sadly, some situations (war, disasters, dysfunctional families where others don't wish to change, etc) which truly are out of our control, but some situations and activities (ie: gambling, smoking, egoism, recreational drug use, pornography, alcohol consumption, excessive flirting, compulsive behaviors, alcohol consumption, overeating, obsessive volunteerism, obsession with a hobby or one's career to the point of neglecting family, etc) must be avoided because of their ability to ensnare us in unexpected ways which can escalate out of our control and from which it is difficult to extricate ourselves.

Film Comment: Watermelon Man

     In Watermelon Man (1970), a comedy directed by controversial director Melvin van Peebles [Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song (1971)], an obnoxious white man (Godfrey Cambridge in white makeup not up to 2009 standards) wakes up black and his entire world collapses around him.  He thinks it's a medical condition but he finds out that he's just black.  Everyone starts to treat him differently, even his progressive liberal wife (Estelle Parsons) who finds out that she's not so open minded after all.  He becomes increasingly alienated and hostile.  

     It amazes me that people, black and white, won't let it go, but, in America, race really is still the 800 pound gorilla that won't leave us alone.  Some people are so conditioned to think race first that they assume that any criticism of a black person by a white person must be because of a racist motive.  Others are convinced that persons descended from slaveholding ancestors ought to walk around in a heavy cloud of guilt.

     I am convinced that the solution does not lie in education, patriotism, nationalism, mind control, forced political correctness, shaming, or emerging from a cocoon as a "pod person."  The solution lies in the like-mindedness which comes from having the same nature, the Mind of Christ.

     Racism and other divisive attitudes are incompatible with a declaration of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  If we are His we should be like him.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" Philippians 2:5

"Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Acts 10: 34-35.

"For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." Romans 10:12

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28.