expelled

I saw the film Expelled last night. I thought it was well done. Some cheesy music (some good music too), a few cheesy throw-backs, but all in all, quite good. During the middle I started to space, but it quickly regained my attention when matters of humanitarianism and social justice were brought in through Ben Stein's look into the Holocaust. Those topics are always sure to win my attention.

What I liked most about it actually had nothing to do with the Evolution vs. Intelligent Design theme of the film, but the parallel with the church that Steve mentioned he noticed after viewing it....

So often the church does the same thing to people that the scientific community seems to be doing to those who are willing to explore the notion of intelligent design. During the film all I could think about were my many friends who have been "expelled" from the church for questioning tradition and ideas...questioning the rhetoric. Of course, there have been various forms of being expelled...from actually being asked to leave, to being painfully judged, abandoned, rejected, ignored, or never accepted in the first place. I've found myself in that boat especially recently, but not nearly to the degree that some of my friends have had to endure.

What really gets me is Expelled probably appeals most to those of us who are considered to be "the church"...and probably disgruntles "the church" crowd the most when they hear that intelligent design has been written off in so many powerful scientific circles...but if we only take a step outside ourselves, look in the mirror...and recognize....we are writing people off every day for questioning our ideas about God...faith...religion...marriage...violence...politics...sexuality...

We're screwing up.

Somehow it always comes full circle...we are all the same.

I want to learn to love.