Rod Dreher is enthusiastic about the new movie Of Gods and Men :
In 1996, Islamic terrorists waging civil war in Algeria kidnapped seven Trappist monks from the Tibhirine monastery, held them hostage for weeks, then murdered them. If you see this event, as I did at the time, as another sad chapter in a long, cruel history of Islamic persecution of Christian minorities, you haven’t really seen it at all.This is why you have to see the French film “Of Gods & Men,” a fictional version of the Tibhirine monks’ martyrdom. It is also one of the greatest works of Christian art ever made. Such is its power to astonish, to unsettle, and to convict, that, as the critic Steven Greydanus wrote, this is a film “that you do not judge — it judges you.”
The movie shows us the monks’ Gethsemane. These Trappists have lived among the rural Muslim villagers for decades, sharing their friendship, their poverty, their joys, and their suffering. Friar Luc, who is also a physician, provides rudimentary medical care to the poor, who would otherwise have nothing. They are monastic brothers, of course, but as one of them says, “brothers to all.”
While I have you, can I ask you something? I’ll be quick.
Twenty-five thousand people subscribe to First Things. Why can’t that be fifty thousand? Three million people read First Things online like you are right now. Why can’t that be four million?
Let’s stop saying “can’t.” Because it can. And your year-end gift of just $50, $100, or even $250 or more will make it possible.
How much would you give to introduce just one new person to First Things? What about ten people, or even a hundred? That’s the power of your charitable support.
Make your year-end gift now using this secure link or the button below.
