This weekend I watched “The Crucible”. Its not the first time I’ve seen it, so I wasn’t really paying too much attention to it while it was on. Just going about my usually Saturday chores with the television on for background noise. But then I found myself drawn into the story again and marveled at Abigale’s character in the movie. Not just her, but her uncle the Reverend Parris. Then you add in the judges that show up and I begin to get uncomfortable.
Doug’s answer whenever I become outraged because of a plot line in a movie is “It’s just a movie, its not true.” Well I know its just a movie, but that movie like all movies are based on some kind of truth. It just makes me wonder about the human condition for today.
We live in a society of sheep. A lot of people take what they hear on the radio, see on television, and read in the paper as fundamentally true. They have been spoon fed their religion, their politics, and their views on the world in general. My mother always told my sister and I that when we were told a particular Bible verse meant something, we should go home and read it for ourselves, taking into account the verses before and after it.
I say that just to point out that people don’t fact check. If someone you admire or value their opinion says it, well it must be true. People are people and regardless of who they are they are going to slant whatever the subject is to fit their ideas. Just as the children followed Abigail in the movie and most of the town followed the judges. For the most part people are followers. I’m not suggesting you should step up and be leaders. Although maybe some of us should. I’m just saying why can’t we ask questions? Why can’t we follow up with our own research? In “The Crucible” storyline no one stands up for the accused simply because they risk being accused themselves. Even the Reverend Hale, a famed witch expert, doesn’t believe Abigail’s and the children’s accusations. His remedy is to have John Proctor “confess” even though he knows it would be a lie.
Could “The Crucible” happen today? I say certainly and very easily. I say we are already on the brink. Careful what you say in public. Someone might take it as anti-American or anti-Christian and then the next thing you know your back is up against the wall and no one is coming to your aid. In some circles you shouldn’t show any empathy or compassion for your fellow man if he doesn’t look like you, talk like you, or believe as you do.
I question my faith every day. But its man and how we treat others that has made it confusing for me.