Sunday 28 July 2013
A Shock Of The Ordinary
Last night I watched a scene in an episode of the second season of Downton Abbey in which two sympathetic characters visit a church together and pray. That's it --- no plot devices, no subtext, no ulterior motives, no mockery; it was just showing what some ordinary people sometimes do. I was shocked, because I basically never see Christians just being Christians in movies or television. Soon afterward I was flipping through the catalogue of the New Zealand International Film Festival, and there it seems one is more likely to see a serial killer being portrayed sympathetically than a Christian. This is not surprising --- "it's 'the world', stupid", as someone once put it to me --- but it's sad nonetheless. No wonder people have such distorted ideas about us.