"The End of the Spear" is a movie of the true story of a fierce and suspicious tribe who martyr the first missionaries who come to them, only to be won over to Christ in the end. The heart of the evangelical struggle is convincing the tribe that God does not want them to live by the code of vengeance that is destroying them.
The famous story behind this film is of Nate Saint and four other missionary men making contact with a band of Waodani in the jungle of Ecuador in 1956. The men were speared to death. The rest of the missionaries, including the widows and children of the martyrs, continued to try to reach the Waodani. Eventually they broke through and won them over with Christ's love. Steve Saint, son of Nate, came back as an adult to establish a friendship with his father's killers. Eventually Steve and his family moved back from the United States to live with the Waodani as family. The "end of the spear" is not only how the martyrs died, but ending the way of spearing and vengeance.
The best part of the film for me, though, was not the dramatic reconciliation of the killer and the son who would not avenge his father's death. Rather, it was the moment when the gospel was first conveyed to a member of the tribe, who saw the possibility of a better way of life. A woman, who had fled to the Christians as a child after her family had been slaughtered in intratribal warfare, later became the crucial interpreter between the two groups. One of the men of the tribe, spear in hand, asked her why they should trust the Christians not to kill them in revenge. She said that the creator God of the Waodani had a son who was speared, but he did not spear back, so that the people who speared him could have a better life. As a result, his life is changed, and he helps change the rest of the Waodani to a new way. This, I think, is the main point.
The movie has been panned by most critics for wooden acting, and attacked by some anti-missionaries for obscuring the "real" motive of the missionaries as tools of the rapacious oil company. Audiences, though, have liked it better, and the film has been among the most successful of Christian movies. All of which is beside the point to me.
"The End of the Spear" gets the moment of evangelical contact right, when the gospel changes a life.
This post originally appeared in The Gruntled Center.
Bible study should be timely. It should stimulate our thoughts about Christian values and how they relate to today's world. The Thoughtful Christian is a Web-based resource center designed to attract and keep participants' attention. Perfect for Sunday school classes, Bible study groups, or individual reflection, the studies encourage class members to share their thoughts and beliefs while wrestling with questions that inform the way we live out our faith in everyday life. For more information please visit http://www.thethoughtfulchristian.com.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
End of the Spear
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Vilifying Ten Thousand Villages
A non-Mennonite friend recently e-mailed me her concern about an article in the Jewish paper based in her region of New Jersey that vilified a recently-opened Ten Thousand Villages store, and by extension, Mennonite Central Committee.
The news did not upset me as much as it would have twelve years ago. In 1995, when I began working in the West Bank with Christian Peacemaker Teams, and speaking about what I witnessed there, one American Jew told me dismissively, "Quakers and Mennonites have always been anti-Semitic."
This remark pierced my heart. Herald Press had recently published my book, We Are the Pharisees
Today, I have many more Jewish friends and family members than I had in 1995 - largely because of my work in the West Bank - and thus feel less upset when attacks on Mennonites for supporting the human rights of both Palestinians and Israelis fly from partisans of Israel.
(I use the term "partisan" rather than "pro-Israel," because many Israelis believe that being pro-Israel means the supporting human rights of Palestinians.)
Nevertheless, I looked at the article in question, which claimed,
"Ten Thousand Villages is owned by a large Mennonite organization that accuses Israel of apartheid, advocates a one-state solution, and supports organizations that accuse the Israeli government of metaphorically crucifying Jesus, blame Israel for suicide bombings, and refer to the existence of "Israeli concentration camps.' "
The criticisms of MCC in the article really relate to the fact that it regards the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as illegal, according to international law, acknowledges that the 1947-48 Israeli war for Independence drove thousands of Palestinians from their homes, and maintains that violent oppression results in violent resistance.
Since most of the rest of the world, including many Jews, agree with these positions, the article resorts to smear tactics, such as guilt by association.
These include an attack on Sabeel, a Palestinian Christian organization, whose director, Naim Ateek, recently came under fire for comments he made at a conference in which he "figuratively" said that Jews were "Christ-killers."
I know Naim, and know that he cares about the well-being of both Israelis and Palestinians. Thus, when I looked up sources for what he actually said, I was not surprised to find that he applied crucifixion imagery to both peoples: "As we approach Holy Week and Easter, the suffering of Jesus Christ at the hands of evil political and religious powers two thousand years ago is lived out again in Palestine. The number of innocent Palestinians and Israelis that have fallen victim to Israeli state policy is increasing."
I could rebut the other charges against MCC in the article, but it would take many more words than I am allotted for this column. I hope the Ten Thousand Villages Store in New Jersey does not close because of a Jewish boycott; I hope Jewish customers who care about supporting artisans in developing nations will continue to shop there. And I hope my Jewish mother-in-law likes the Ten Thousand Villages soaps in the brocade bag I bought her for Chanukah.
To read the Jewish State article in question, see http://thejewishstate.net/nov910kv.html.
For a progressive Jewish debunking of the scurrilous attacks on Sabeel and Naim Ateek, see http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/10/27/dexter-van-ziles-fraudulent-campaign-against-sabeel/
Reprinted with permission from Mennonite Weekly Review. More of Kern's
"World Neighbor" columns are available at http://www.mennoweekly.org/STANDARD/kern-index.html
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