Celluloid Spirituality: Journey to Faith Via the Movies
by Eric David
I grew up in the Northeast, attending a Congregational Church. My involvement with Christ and thoughts of God were perfunctory, but not a real part of my day-to-day existence. I was more interested in the fictional worlds of Tolkien and Lewis as well as Lucas and Spielberg. I spent much of my time dreaming of seeing a UFO. In retrospect, I see that I have, from the first, been yearning for those numinous, out-of-this-world moments.
One day, a man came striding confidently into our drab Sunday School room. He told us a story. He had been a typewriter salesman for 20 years. He carried the typewriter on the same side of his body, which shortened one of his legs by an inch. He thought he was stuck with a limp for the rest of his life …until he met Jesus. He went to a faith healer and he watched his leg grow back right there in front of his eyes. Wow, I thought. The Force just like in Star Wars. I bought it hook, line and sinker.
He took us to a Pentecostal worship service. At first it was kind of like a rock concert. People jumped and shouted, waving their arms around as we Congregationalists stood near the back, gaping. Then, something very strange happened, something that I will not forget. The entire community, as if by some silent signal, all started to speak in tongues. Wow, I thought. A Universal Translator just like in Star Trek. I was flabbergasted.
I became a believer, prayed the Sinner's Prayer and started to read the Bible. Still, the pull of movies was strong. My friends and I started our own science fiction newsletter. The very first article I wrote was an exploration of whether Ezekiel's chariots of fire were really ships from another planet. I dutifully copied the King James text word-for-word in our first and only publication, and then explained how each pericope was really a part of a spaceship. It was my first exegesis.
My family moved to Dallas as I started High School. I attended Highland Park Presbyterian Church, an evangelical church rooted firmly in Calvin's disciplined approach to God. It was an excellent place for a new Christian to learn doctrine and explore living out the faith in the world. I am still in contact with my high school youth leader to this day.
Yet as strong as I thought my faith was, it was no match for the temptations of college. I attended Vanderbilt University but felt lost and alone. Majoring in philosophy, professors deconstructed the Western worldviews and the Christian faith it was built on. In addition, all my fellow students seemed interested in only one thing (no, not sex): the almighty dollar. Greed was good and God was bad. I stuffed my faith and sought consolation in fraternity life, to the detriment of my studies.
I traveled to Europe and a whole new vista opened before me. Riding the trains from one nation to another, I got an earful about Amerika, with a k. I saw my classmates, my country, my self in a new perspective, one that many Americans only shared after 9/11. When the opportunity to redeem myself at Samford University arose, I took it and never looked back. To this day, I have a daily relationship with God, always thanking him my second chance.
Majoring in journalism gave me a place to work on my gifts and talents both for writing and for filmmaking (all of my senior projects were to make films instead of write papers). Samford is also where I met my wife.
After graduating, I was accepted into Boston Seminary as well as USC. But films have always captured my heart and, as much as my youth leader meant to me, I think the movies have influenced me more than the pastors in my life. I chose to pursue a career in film; it was my calling.
As it so happened, there were four Christians in my entering class of 40 at USC, Craig Detweiler being one of them. He and I have remained in contact through the years (we even both worshipped at Barry Taylor's Sanctuary), and have been on virtually the same page as regards our endeavors in film and faith. I am currently running film series at my church and writing a book on faith and film.
Published here by permission of Eric David
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