Space For God

Scared Sacred- please share responses

Posted: 06/05/2007

We just watched "Scared Sacred" ,a  Canadian film by Velcrow Ripper.

 

John and I watched in our living room in Belfast, whilst many of you saw it at Chester St. If you missed it and you want to buy it, it is available on Amazon or you might be able to watch the church's copy sometime, I don't know.

 

 

 

All I know is that we spent much of the movie in tears. It is the story of hope in the darkest places.I had expected something different, perhaps an description of churches operating in war zones or something, but it was much more important.It seemed to me to be saying something much more difficult, that connecting with people is harder then hating them.

 

 

How could you forgive someone shooting your child? How do you cope with being forced to forget how to cry, to hurt so much and not be able to cry? It seems these people did it by connecting with other people, by trying to see how it could happen, by reaching out for the people who did it and the people on the other side who had the same thing happen, by refusing to give up, by having a school for girl children hidden inside a wall.

 

 

So many moments, Bhopal women making a hospital inside the factory that killed their children and mixing ancient and modern medicine to find out cutting edge treatment, A Cambodian boy my age poking the ground with e stick to find a landmine, Angkar Wat in the jungle, an ancient face with a crack and moss.

 

 

 

The story I remember:A thief breaks into a poor mans house but he is so poor there is nothing to steal. The poor man says "you have travelled such a  long way, it is a pity  to go without anything, take my clothes "The thief takes the clothes bemused and the poor man sits naked under the moon. "Poor man, he thinks compassionately, "I wish I could give him this moon"

 

What did you all remember most?

Got you thinking? Share your thoughts with the rest of us:

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• Finding the sacred in the scared by going to the dark places, embracing fear, breathing in suffering, breathing out compassion, moving from prayer to action, digging up our buried lutes…

  I really enjoyed the film and was surprised that i didn’t cry, at first i thought i may have squashed any emotional response so that I could facilitate the gathering but I don’t think that’s it… I felt moved, but cheerful, hopeful and excited by all the people in the church who had seen what i’d seen and might also feel called to prayer and action and reflection, so exciting! Maybe we’re even called to that together- as one body!?

  I loved the version of Amazing Grace that became the soundtrack at the end of the film and the image of the children holding up old pieces of film in a deserted cinema (was that in Bosnia or Afghanistan?)

  I got confused at some points as to where we were… there were moments of overload, but it was magnificent to connect such beautiful images and faces to places and situations I’ve heard about.

  
      — Steph · May 7, 10:23 pm

• What complex creatures we humans are. We are capable of so much love, yet we are capable of such hatred. It scares me to think of the darker side of my nature – yet at the same time it humbles me and helps me to realise how dependent I am upon grace.

  Perhaps the saddest part of the film was to see what happened in Cambodia under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime. To think that he could have inflicted such suffering on his very own people is truly unthinkable. It was not merely that countless Cambodians were killed or maimed – it was also the systematic campaign to dehumanise the subjects of the regime that I found chilling. Expressing emotion is one of those ways in which we express our humanity, but even this avenue was deprived from the Cambodian people.

  I found the juxtaposition of the Dalai Lama’s speech against the dehumanisation by the Khmer Rouge most interesting. How true it is that when we deprive others of their humanity that we deprive ourselves of our own humanity. While this is obvious when we look at the alienation caused by war and genocide, we need to remember that the same principle holds true in our interactions with people every day. We need to realise the importance of our daily interactions and the power that we have. Either we can choose to perpetuate the cycle of death and destruction that the world knows only too well, or by affirming the humanity in others we can choose to be part of the reconstruction and redemption of the world.

  
      — Dave · May 8, 12:43 am

• That was very wise Dave, both your insights on daily interactions and the point about us all capable of darkness. Steph, I agree there was so so much hope and I too felt connected to things that were just numbers and news stories before, which I guess is one of the important bits!It was amazing that for all of us, the Cambodian story struck us very hard, we are all so free to express our pain and our fear and our love.

  
      — Bek · May 8, 05:25 am

• Sunday night was the third time I’ve seen ScaredSacred and it has not lost any of its deep, deep impression. I find it awe inspiring the spirit, the love, the compassion that flow so powerfully in such dark and distressing situations. Hope is alive in each place, just one example being the Revolutionary Afghan Women’s Association (RAWA) running a network of underground schools, orphanages and mobile health clinics for women in Afghanistan and refugee camps in Pakistan, putting their lives on the line by marching in the streets demanding respect, dignity and freedom for themselves and others.
  The wisdom, the life-giving action so visible is a challenge to live with and for others. It speaks so much of us being connected to each other, not separated, of looking at our own fears and vulnerability. As Roshi Enkyo O’Hara in New York City said in September 2001 “If ordinary human beings in the world can see their own suffering and vulnerability, then perhaps they can become aware of the vulnerability and suffering of others. that’s what going to a sacred place, goint to a place where great suffering has taken place, is about. That’s the transformative moment, when you begin to see that you’re not separate from any of the people involved, perpetrators and victims. And then change can happen. That’s why people need to go to Hiroshima dn Nagasaki, they need to go to Cambodia. And now, here even”
  And Rami Elhanan said after his 10 year old daughter was killed “Will causing pain to someone else ease my pain in any way? Of course not. It takes time, a long time to choose the other way —the way of understanding. And the most important question: how can I stop this from happening to anyone else?”

  
      — Carol · May 8, 02:25 pm

• The last thing he said which is we all have a CHOICE as to how to respond. As I said in my response to the movie forgiveness is the key. That’s part of the reason I’m a christian afterall. All that we as christians have to do in the aftermath (aside from help victims) is to teach the importance of forgiveness from Christ’s perspective.

  
      — Julie · May 13, 10:52 pm