Why is it that non believers so often hold tightly to the notion that to be a believer, one must never have doubts? I think maybe it’s a way of letting themselves off the hook, it allows them to say ‘well, I couldn’t possibly be a believer… because there are things I don’t understand and I’m sure I’d have doubts’.
So let me say this gently: most Christians do. Have doubts that is. At the moment I don’t happen to be struggling with any major ones but I have in the past and I probably will in the future… I’ll keep you posted
But anyway, I didn’t actually mean to write you an article on doubt. This is is film review for the film ‘Doubt’
starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The doubt in the title is not about faith, it’s a doubt whether something bad has happened or not. It’s not a film about believing in God or not, that only comes into it a little bit. Streep plays the Nun who is Principal of a Catholic school in New York in the 1950’s. Hoffman plays the priest. The Principle suspects the priest of an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with one of the altar boys. It’s a story of character versus conviction, but whose character is the more generous and whose convictions are correct?
Given all that has been revealed about the scandalous behaviour of many catholic priests – this is a sizzling hot potato of a subject. The film is absolutely brilliant but I can’t tell you much more about it without spoiling the plot. So I shall just say watch out for the wind, it’s very metaphorical and look out for the moment the Principal’s whole world tilts. Much stuff for discussion in this film, it’s even quite funny. (You’ll never think of Frosty the Snowman in quite the same light). Fantastic performances by the two leads and by Amy Adams who plays the young naive sister caught in the middle. Plus the feathers story is just brilliant, one day I might just use that in a sermon
