End of The Spear

Saw End of The Spear last week. Thought it was just an OK film, but for anything Christian based that makes it in Hollywood, you have to accept anything that is at least half way decent. It tells the story of 5 missionaries out of Wheaton College (one of our rivals at Carthage College where I attended) who were killed in the jungles of Ecuador while sharing the gospel with a group of indigenous people, the Waodani. The film tells the story of what happened as many of the Waodani came to Christ after establishing a relationship with the families of the men who were killed.

The film really didn’t get into the whole missionary/ Bible translator culture (would have loved to hear a ton more about the why? of their journey) that still is at work today. The Waodani culture was so violent and revenge focused that it was apparent from the film that they were on the brink of wiping themselves out. My brief research on this gave a figure of 60% fatality by the time the film took place 1956.

The film made clear the anti-violence, anti-war message that is part of Jesus’ model and biblical teaching that many Christians follow. These men were extreme pacifists, even refusing to fight in self-defense. I am not going into the nuances on biblical teaching on this yet, I will blog on it at a later date, but suffice it to say, this is about as pro-peace as you could possibly get for a movie. Anti-war groups should be raving about this film or at least its message.

Probably not though. The five men and their families were Anglo, and the Waodani are indigenous people of color. There is no way this is not going to be panned by critics, even though it happened this way. I am going to pick 3 film weblinks from imdb.com to read a review and I will let you know if anyone caught the pacifist influence. Be back in 5 minutes.

Back. Variety, reel.com, and Entertainment Weekly. One review caught the anti-violent message, and two were sarcastic about the white man/ native stereotype. Problem is, it happened just that way. Go see the film.