A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A Review

Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers

The release of A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD couldn't have been more timely.

In it, Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers. The film is based on a real-life relationship between Rogers and journalist Tom Junod (called Lloyd Vogel in the film).

It's not a beautiful day for Vogel. He's a hard-hitting journalist assigned to write a fluff piece on Mr. Rogers. And Vogel isn't especially thrilled at the assignment.

For one thing, Vogel is smack in the middle of dealing with his own father issues. For another, Vogel is about to become a father himself, which complicates the whole concept of being a dad. 

So life for him is anything but sweet.

However, if there ever was a fortuitous writing assignment for Vogel, this one was it.

The film skillfully portrays the intersection of  Vogel's (AKA Junod's) life with that of Fred Rogers. It gives us a very personal glimpse of how wonderfully Rogers' gentle wisdom, patience and honesty impact the struggling journalist.

What makes the film work is Tom Hanks, who brings an almost preternatural ability to his performance. At several points in A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD we're left wondering how much of himself did Hanks transfer into his work.

And then there's Matthew Ryhs. He is intense but nuanced in what could have easily been turned into an over-the-top portrayal.

The real Fred Rogers

Ditto Susan Kelechi Watson as Vogel's wife, Chris Cooper as Vogel's father, and most especially Wenda Makkea as Fred's wife Dorothy. 

Although Makkena isn't in many scenes, in every one of them it's apparent that her relationship with Rogers was important and impactful.

Mariella Hellner's deft director's touch is reflected in all of the performances mentioned above.

It is worth noting that A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD happened to premiere the weekend following a very intense week of impeachment proceedings in Washington. It would be safe to say that after hours of political bickering, a film that gives us a front-row seat to the importance of human kindness was like a breath of fresh air.

As a bonus: One of the most profound scenes in the film captures what happens when a group of New York City-seasoned children spots Mr. Rogers riding with them on the subway.

It's absolutely precious. As is A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

A Beautiful Disaster by Marlena Graves: A Review

Marlena Graves

Marlena Graves' A BEAUTIFUL DISASTER: Finding Hope in the Midst of Brokenness is a contemplative masterpiece.

As Graves describes, her childhood, for the most part, seemed like one long walk across the desert. But it was in the desert that Graves encountered God.

She tells us: "There are different forms of silence, such as the silence of pain. There are caverns of pain and ends of worlds where what is too horrible to mention leaves us speechless. In these moments, we must allow the silent stillness to do its work. We cannot force speech just to fill the empty void. We must allow God to do his work within this solitary work in his time.

"These are Job times - times when we are too numb for company. Speaking and listening wear us out. Words, even from the well-meaning, inflict wounds. And so we are forced to embrace the silence with all its healing and restorative qualities. We can't rush silence. It's a holy place. It's a place where God appears and where he works to purify and fortify our souls."

Rather than retreating from the wilderness, Graves encourages us to embrace it.

"An anchoring assurance and underlying joy are ours when we know that we remain in our Father's embrace wherever we are, particularly in the wilderness... If we reflect on our lives, we'll see that over and over again he has proven that his nature is to love and provide for us."

Being in the desert, says Graves, brings us to the point that "we know we are maturing when we become more and more content with God alone." The same maturity enables us to appreciate God's son.

And she finds comfort in knowing God is there, no matter the circumstances. "I am struck by how Jesus inhabited the presence of others. He noticed them. No one got past him. His visual acuity and attentiveness to those who crossed his path were unmatched."

Graves takes disconcerting experiences from her own life, and weaves them into a beautiful tapestry.
"All I can conclude," notes Graves, "is that these experiences are often the ways and means by which God infuses us with wisdom and power. When we surrender our suffering and brokenness to God, we are on the path to wisdom and might."

She warns about trying to pigeonhole God into our own template. "How could first-century, biblically astute memorizers of the law and the prophets miss Jesus? With all their studying and theorizing, they should have been better prepared for Jesus. But when he came, most rejected him. The religious leaders who rejected him considered the cross a curse (and they had good biblical reasons for doing so) and regarded Jesus as a public nuisance and an assault on their religious sensibilities. Not being able to fit God into our own sensibilities or understanding can induce fear in us, just as it did in the biblically literate of the first century."

In her own life, Graves endured and prospered greatly from her desert experiences, especially those as a child. And so, as an adult, she is able to experience great joy. "Not only do we leave the wilderness with a greater ability to rest like a sleeping baby who is cradled in the arms of God, but we also become more playful. I am growing younger because the fear and anxieties that were weighing me down, those elements that were wrinkling and withering my soul, are dissipating."

In the final chapters of A BEAUTIFUL DISASTER, Graves' writing becomes powerfully prophetic as she lists the value of the wilderness experience. "You and I can also have joy because the wilderness teaches us that suffering doesn't have the last word in our lives."

She declares: "Wilderness reprioritizes our values so that we prize what's most important. In our wilderness experiences, the knowledge that we all carry in us, vestiges of glory, is deeply ingrained. The holiness of God is in us insofar as his image remains in us"

Graves finishes up by mentioning an important but forgotten piece of church history and theology. She tells us the story of Macrina the Younger - the older sister of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa two giants among church fathers. They were influential in developing the doctrine of the Trinity and, as such, helped form the Nicene Creed.

Graves cites Laura Swan (author and Benedictine) who states that Macrina's brothers "acknowledged her as the primary influence in their theological education." It was a woman who directly contributed to the formation of two of the central pillars of Christianity.

Graves uses this example to encourage us. "We need to consider our prejudices. If we will not receive God's life because we don't prefer the vessel in which it comes, we may live an anemic Christian life or miss out on life altogether... People missed out on God's life in Jesus because of their preconceived notions of what the Messiah should be. We miss out on life because of our preconceived notions of where life should turn up. Our desert experiences help us to let go of some of those preconceived notions."

Marlena Graves' writing is profound in the way she extracts deep wisdom from hurtful experiences. She shows us, by her example, of how God is the business of transforming the desert into a spiritual oasis.

Jemar Tisby's THE COLOR OF COMPROMISE: A Review

Jemar Tisby

Jemar Tisby's THE COLOR OF COMPROMISE: The Truth About theAmerican Church's Complicity in Racism is not an easy read. But it's a necessary step in gaining an understanding of the complicated relationship between the (Christian) church, social justice and politics in the US.

Tisby doesn't hold back, presenting a clear analysis, backed up with twenty-four pages of notes and citations.

And the evidence that Tisby offers is indeed incriminating.

Tisby writes: "Christians of the North have often been characterized as abolitionists, integrationists, and open-minded citizens who want all people to have a chance at equality. Christians of the South, on the other hand, have been portrayed as uniformly racist, segregationist, and anti-democratic. The truth is far more complicated."

"In reality, most of the black people who left the South encountered similar patterns of race-based discrimination wherever they went. Although they may not have faced the same closed system of white supremacy that permeated the South, they still contended with segregation and put up with daily assaults on their dignity, and the church contributed to this. Compromised Christianity transcends regions. Bigotry obeys no boundaries. This is why Christians in every part of America have a moral and spiritual obligation to fight against the church's complicity with racism."

But what about the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s?

Tisby offers this perspective: "While the civil rights movement has a well-earned reputation as a faith-based movement led by Christian pastors and laypeople, our collective memory of the proportion of Christians involved may be somewhat skewed. In reality, precious few Christians publicly aligned themselves with the struggle for black freedom in the 1950s and 1960s."

As for the reason behind this organizational lack of involvement within the church, Tisby writes: "Many Christian moderates failed to incorporate the larger context of the years of systemic racism into their understanding of the civil rights movement."

To those who would make the point that racism in the US today isn't as problematic as in previous centuries, Tisby makes the point that "An honest assessment of racism should acknowledge that racism never fully goes away; it just adapts to changing times and contexts... Though it was necessary to enact civil rights legislation, you cannot erase four hundred years of race-based oppression by passing a few laws. From the earliest years of slavery in the 1600s, through the legal end of Jim Crow in 1954, and in the numerous and varied ways in which racism is still enacted in law and culture today, the United States has had more than 300 years of race-based discrimination. A few short decades of legal freedom have not corrected the damage done by centuries of racism."

The final portions of Tisby's book offer practical wisdom on how the church in the US can

address racism. "There is no single answer that will fit every person's situation. There should be efforts to critically engage rather than reflexively dismiss, and Christians should consider that the best way to start is to start local... Ultimately, the organizations with which one chooses to affiliate in the cause of antiracism is a matter of conscience. The only wrong action is inaction."

I love what Tisby says about what we can learn from the black Christian church. "Black theology can teach the American church... Those who have suffered much find much joy in God's salvation. After laboring all week under the dehumanizing conditions of slavery, black Christians celebrated on Sunday. They thanked God for giving them life and breath and the full functioning of their faculties. They worshipped God as an outlet for the creativity and vitality that had been suppressed all week... Generations of black Christians have inherited a tradition of unashamed praise for God. The rest of American churches may well discover a new sense of God's goodness when they engage their full selves in worship."

Tisby suggests that conservative seminaries should be more sensitive to training students to be more effective in a pluralistic and diverse society. Education is also an important piece of the solution. Actively participating in the present-day civil rights movement is also encouraged. Notes Tisby, "Perhaps the American church should be the object of a mass movement for justice... Christians could conduct pray-ins in the administrative offices of Christian organizations and institutions that refuse to take meaningful action to eliminate racism..."

All-in-all Tisby gives us a straight-forward history of the American church's lack of involvement in combatting racism, but, at the same time, offers hope. A hope that is sorely needed.