What We Don't Understand

"'That's just the way it is.' But don't you believe them." - Bruce Hornsby

Last weekend, my wife and I took our daughter to watch the re-release of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" -- skipping the 3D, which seemed quite pointless for a cartoon. We have seen the movie roughly 447 times in the past couple of years, as my daughter keeps it in heavy rotation at our house -- but, of course, seeing movies in the theater is a different experience and merits the trip, especially if you catch the lower-priced matinee.

If you do not have daughters or have otherwise been able to avoid the movie, it's about a prince who was turned into a hideous beast because he had no love in his heart. He must find someone to love, and earn her love in return, before he can become human again. He takes an old man prisoner after the man hides in his castle while seeking shelter, and later falls for the man's daughter, Belle, after she agrees to take her father's place.

I'm not ashamed to tell you that the movie's music -- which includes three Oscar-nominated songs -- is well-written and catchy. I've regularly found myself whistling "Be Our Guest" over the last few days.

And it was a line from a lesser-known song in the film that caught my ear and made me think as I struggled to stay warm in the ice-cold theater.

Late in the movie, Belle's would-be suitor, Gaston, convinces the villagers that the Beast must be hunted down and killed -- ostensibly for safety, but really because Gaston is jealous of Belle's love for the Beast. As the villagers are marching through the forest toward the Beast's castle, they sing "The Mob Song," which includes the lyric, "We don't like what we don't understand; in fact, it scares us." Rather than attempting to find out whether the Beast was dangerous or not, they would rather get rid of him than take the chance.

I couldn't help thinking of how this is an apt description of 21st century Christians. We immediately reject what we don't understand. Mystery can lead to questions, and questions can lead to people reaching different conclusions; and since orthodoxy must be protected at all costs, mystery is a door we'd prefer to keep locked up tightly.

Several years ago, when I was working as the sports editor at a small, daily newspaper, I also wrote a monthly Faith and Culture column. When the film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code" was released in 2006, I wrote a column in which I quoted one of my favorite writers. Paul Prather, a pastor and columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader, had recently written about the platitudes he was receiving from well-meaning people after losing his wife to cancer the year before.

As I reflected on the villagers' line in "Beauty and the Beast," I thought of the Prather quote I included in that column five years ago:

"If what you've believed is the truth, the truth can always stand up to scrutiny. And if what you've believed won't survive examination, why would you want to hold onto it? Who wants to entrust his eternal destiny to a myth?"

It's always amazing to me how God finds ways to emphasize these points to me once I start thinking about something. The day after we watched "Beauty and the Beast," I was listening to a podcast of a sermon from Mars Hill Bible Church. Shane Hipps read the Acts story of Philip and the Ethiopian. As a eunuch, the Ethiopian could not be circumcised (because ... um ... he didn't have anything to circumcise). And according to Jewish law, a man who was not circumcised would not be accepted by God. But Philip ignored this detail and baptized the man anyway.

In fact, by most conventions, the man would be unacceptable today. As Shane pointed out, the hormonal imbalances caused by castration often led to eunuchs taking on very feminine qualities -- in other words, it's very likely that the Ethiopian would be considered transgendered. Yet Philip bucked convention and baptized this uncircumcised, effeminate Ethiopian eunuch. As a result, Ethiopia has one of the largest Christian populations in that part of the world, and the Ethiopian church traces its roots back to a certain eunuch.

Good thing Philip didn't just reject what he didn't understand.

There are some rotten things about the world we live in. Our planet is witnessing an ever-growing gap between the richest and the poorest; and our excesses are beginning to catch up with us. Our nation has a toxic political system that punishes those who are willing to compromise and glorifies those who perpetuate gridlock. Our state, and especially my corner of it, is held hostage by an industry that convinces us it's our only hope for survival, when in reality it's destroying our health and our land.

We can accept the way things are, or we can dare to boldly ask why they should be that way.

Martin Luther King chose the latter, and sparked a movement that changed the face of the nation. Gandhi chose the latter, and won independence for his country.

What could we accomplish?