The only Heath Ledger film that I can remember seeing was 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), a light-hearted romantic comedy with only a few funny parts. So I was certainly no ardent fan of the award-winning actor. Nevertheless, I was still bothered when I heard about the 28-year-old Australian’s untimely death due to an overdose from sleeping pills. Clearly, Augustine’s dictum rang true on that fateful day: “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”
My temporary melancholy, though, quickly turned to outrage when I read reports of the religious protestors who gathered outside of a Los Angeles chapel where Ledger's friends and family mourned, holding signs that read, “Heath’s in Hell”.
What possesses a person to display such hate and vitriol? Certainly not the grace of Jesus Christ. Nor the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, I would presume.
After all, wasn’t it Jesus who was called a “friend of sinners”, because of the heartfelt conversations he regularly enjoyed with the most despised people of his day? And wasn’t it this same Jesus who was moved with compassion when he looked out on the crowd of stiff-necked people who would ultimately reject him in favor of their own perverse desires and passions. To a hurting Jesus they were like sheep without a shepherd.
I never met Heath Ledger. And I have no reason to believe he was a follower of Christ. (His willingness to play a gay cowboy in the critically acclaimed Brokeback Mountain belied his image as morally courageous.)
Even so, shouldn’t our compassion for his surviving family compel us to model the humility and love of the Savior to whom we want them to turn?
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2 comments:
John, thanks for speaking out on this outrageous display of Christian stupidity. As we have learned from your treatment of the text on the issue of Divine passability, God grieves over the death of people. While “God is not willing that any should perish,” it seems that some are quite glad when they do! I like what Brian McLaren says about the subject of hell (occasionally he says something I agree with): “Anyone who is not a universalist” (and I’m not – for the record) “should be at the very least a universalist sympathizer.” LY
John, i wish your entry had made it into the Times. It's a pity that the "Christian voices" being heard in society these days are those idoits who show no love for others...
we should be moved by this story--all the more--to share the love of Christ through our actions and behavior as Christians, especially following tragedy.
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