Virtually every adult American knows that Mahalia Jackson sang at the 1963 March on Washington and that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech there on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Virtually every adult American knows that Mahalia Jackson sang at the 1963 March on Washington and that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech there on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
But who can name the genius of organizing the massive event, without whom there would not have been a march? A man who had worked with union leader A. Philip Randolph back in 1941 to organize a similar march of 100,000 to go to Washington and demand that African Americans be employed in the defense industries — and who called it off when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order commanding that “Negroes” be hired in defense plants. That man was Bayard Rustin, often called “the forgotten hero” of the civil rights movement.
Just as Christians divide history according to the birth of Christ, so we might divide modern history by another birth, July 16, 1945 —BAB and AAB, Before the Atom Bomb and After the Atom Bomb. The test, named “Trinity” by Robert Oppenheimer because he loved the poetry of John Donne, produced a new world, one in which humanity could possibly destroy itself. A dangerous era was born, one that could not be revoked. Christopher Nolan’s massive film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, shows how the scientist that presided over Trinity clearly understood this. His obsession with how the A-bomb would be used after the war even led to his professional undoing. In some ways, this scientific thriller can be viewed as a cautionary film.
Most Presbyterians know that Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the influential “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” But few know of her time spent in Cincinnati, where she was awakened to the horrors of slavery as a young woman.
The Rev. Dr. Edward McNulty, a Presbyterian pastor and film critic, has selected 10 films dating back to the early 1990s that expose and explore the effects of structural racism.
With news this week that Warner Brothers is providing its 2019 film “Just Mercy” free for viewing on platforms including YouTube, the Rev. Dr. Edward McNulty, a Presbyterian pastor and film critic, has developed discussion questions and provided a review of the film.
The nominations for the 2019 Oscar Awards have been out for some time now, and once more I invite you to explore some of the ethical and spiritual values in the major nominated films. This can add to your enjoyment if you plan to watch ABC’s broadcast of the Oscars, set for 8 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday. If some fashionistas can get excited over what stars wear on the red carpet, why not show equal interest in what values are embedded in the nominated movies themselves?
Visual Parables’ Top Ten Film list is usually different from most lists because ethical and spiritual values in the films carry more weight than aesthetics. That the latter is important, however, is shown each year by the fact that faith-based films seldom show up on the list, most of these being dramatized sermons rather than open-ended works of art.
