Shinning a Light in the Darkness

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." — Edmund Burke

"Spotlight," a new film based on the story of a group of reporters at the Boston Globe that broke the story about the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, is consistently on the lists of the Best films of the year. And it should be. It is the best film I've seen so far in 2015, and probably the most thought provoking. It caused me to think deeply about two different ideas the film brings forward.

First, we need good journalism:
One of my favorite films growing up was "The Paper," a Ron Howard film about a day in the life of a Metro Editor for a paper in New York. It starred Michael Keaton, and it was a movie that made me want to be a journalist. It was about the commitment to the truth — even difficult truths — and the role of the media in our society.

It's hardly the first or only movie or TV show to touch on this topic. "Homeland," in it's typically ham-fisted style, is trying to push the same idea this season. Of course the best show in the history of TV, "The Wire," devoted its fifth and final season to the role of the media in the crumbling of society. And they aren't alone. Many former respected newspaper columnists are talking heads on TV, and all opine the death of traditional journalism.

"Spotlight" shows us why that matters. It was the kind of investigative, in-depth reporting that we don't get on Social Media or TV. It's the kind of things newspapers were built to accomplish, and it's the kind of reporting we don't get anymore as newspapers morph themselves to compete with bloggers.

There is still some good journalism and investigative reporting happening — just look at the Serial podcast — but it's not the same, and that's a problem. The job the Spotlight team did for the Boston Globe is the kind of reporting we need to hold our government and our institutions accountable. Watching that movie, I couldn't help but wonder if, in 15 years, we'll be able to make a movie like this. If this kind of reporting will still exist.

If not, we'll be poorer for it.

Second, every Christian needs to see this film:
The Catholic Church is an institution. It isn't Christianity, it's an institution that's meant to represent Christ to the people. But I think we're fooling ourselves if we think that the Catholic Church is the only institution that fails to live up to its mandate as a representative body of Christ.

When watching the movie, I couldn't help but think about one of my favorite lines from the movie "Angels & Demons." In it, a Catholic Priest (Ewan McGregor) asks Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) if he believes in God. Langdon begins to respond by sharing his problems with the church. But the Priest cuts him off and replies, "I didn't ask if you believe what man says about God, I asked if you believe in God."

It might seem like a simple, throw away line, but it's a profound statement about how we interfere with the Gospel. By we, I mean all believers and all churches. And when we interfere, we can become a stumbling block to someone coming to faith. Sadly, it doesn't help that Christians often place their faith in institutions as well as in God. And when those institutions — a church, a pastor, or a Christian organization — fall short, people's faith in God falls short, too.

I attended a Christian university — Biola. I loved my time there and don't regret having attended. But I think going in, I had this idea that Biola was a perfect, safe space, full of pious and holy people. There were some incredible people of faith at Biola, but they are still people. And Biola is still just an institution.

Working on the school paper, we uncovered a few minor "scandals" that showed the university wasn't as perfect as it sometimes liked to project. For some of my classmates, that dampened their faith and belief. And that's a shame. But I realized they are people and we are part of a fallen world.

That's true of the story in "Spotlight," too. Most institutions don't fail in the way the Catholic Church did, but institutions are flawed. I liked what one of the priests said in the movie — he didn't believe in the Catholic Church, but he still believed in God and the truth of the Gospel. He put his faith in the right place.

But there is a flip side to that. As Christians, we have a duty to honor God by shining a light on areas of brokenness — particularly when they occur inside our institutions. The greatest failure of Catholic leadership was in trying to cover up and hide what happened, further damaging the victims.

I was moved to tears by the story, and by the idea that so many around the world were harmed — and worse yet had their faith shaken — because of an institution that stepped away from the mandate of the Gospel to protect its reputation. It's a story that should be a cautionary tale for all Christians and all churches. We are to let our light shine, no matter the cost to our personal reputation. Because it's not our light to begin with, it's the light of the Gospel, the light of Christ shinning through us. And light cannot shine in the shadows.