In the waning weeks of this past school year at Harvest Christian Academy, an academic conversation emerged in the classroom of Roy McCaulley, a long-standing and beloved Bible teacher and the husband of Lower School Principle Amy McCaulley.  In the course of this discussion with the students, a question rose to the surface: can church camp environments produce emotional experiences that are not authentic signs of spiritual transformation?  To be clear, there is a dispute over whether or not McCaulley specifically mentioned the High Five summer day camp that Harvest runs each July.  But what is not in dispute is McCaulley’s efforts in the classroom to affirm the fact that he was not trying to be critical of church camp ministry as a whole or of Harvest’s camp in particular.  Nevertheless, the next day, at the beginning of class, McCaulley received an electronic message from church leadership[1] that instructed him to leave the classroom immediately.  For the remainder of the school year, McCaulley was not permitted to teach his students, but was instead interviewed by numerous church and school leaders.  These interviews were focused on issues of loyalty and commitment to Harvest, two subjects that are not uncommon to those that are employed by HBC.  Once the students had left for summer break, this popular teacher was informed that he would not be returning to teach at the school in the coming year.

Now stop and think about it for a moment.  In theory, Christian education exists to provide an environment in which students can thoughtfully engage and probe issues pertaining to the faith, while being carefully guided by trusted teachers who are trained to handle these sorts of questions.  But in this case, when the discussion touched on a subject a bit too close to home, the students were sent a firm and ummistakable message that this discussion was out of bounds and profoundly unsafe.  Ironically, the purpose of the Elephant Room conference – a conference that ignited many of the current controversies -  was to provide a model for how Christian brothers and sisters could lovingly disagree on issues of Christian methodology and practice.  But apparently, based upon the treatment that Mr. McCaulley has received, James MacDonald and the leadership of Harvest must believe that this model is only fit for high profile pastors, and not for Christian educators who are trying to teach their students to think critically.

Interestingly enough, when some of the students caught wind of what had happened, they took to social media to express their love for McCualley and their disgust with the way he had been treated by the church.  So as some students began to post their thoughts on Facebook, another student fired up a new twitter account called “We Love Mr. McCaulley” (alternately known as @WeLoveRoyMcC).  On the feed, this student is citing numerous biblical texts pertaining to justice and love, while those that follow her, including Mary Martin (former Upper School Principle and current Middle School English Teacher), have taken to sharing their personal affection for McCaulley, by sharing stories and retweeting “We Love Mr. McCaulley.”

Given the public promise that MacDonald made earlier this year – a promise to be more forthcoming with the congregation regarding the details of staff releases – it will be interesting to see if the congregation has the opportunity to hear more about Mr. McCaulley’s predicament.  Will Roy McCaulley simply become the latest member of a distinguished group of Harvest alumni who were released in silence amidst all the hustle and bustle of the church’s feverish activity.  Or will James MacDonald stay true to his words and talk about this issue with the church at large?  And what about Amy McCaulley and Mary Martin?  Are their jobs and loyalties now in question because of their association with Roy McCaulley?  Only time will tell.

But this much seems clear.  In the wake of this incident (and numerous other previous incidents like it), if you are a staff member with a vested interest in keeping your job, do not ask questions, no matter how innocuous they may seem.  Just keep your head down, smile and nod at James, and try not to think about the fact that no one will be left when they finally come for you.

Schleiermacher’s famous tome Christian Faith, written in the middle of the 19th century, was his attempt to answer the problem created for the Church by Immanuel Kant. In 1781 Kant published Critique of Pure Reason, and with this publication Kant established the terms for how human beings could know or legitimately claim to have knowledge in the Modern period. His project, overly simplified, was to understand and set out the limits of human capacities to know and reason. He suggested that we all had pre-wired categories in our minds, like time and space, and these mental categories, a priori knowledge, shaped our experiential data (what we see, smell, touch, taste and hear). Thus, the individual’s mind shapes the sensory data from reality in order to derive certainty about our knowing. You don’t have to travel terribly far down the path Kant blazed to realize metaphysical claims to a god(s), while having their place in the subjective world of the individual, they could not be derived from human reasoning that takes place in the public square. As a result, metaphysical claims were pushed out of the public square and into the sphere of private experience in the Modern period.

Into this Kantian worldview and framework Schleiermacher stepped, but he had another ingredient that flavored his particular brand of theology. He was deeply influenced by pietism which is a movement that placed particular emphasis on the individual’s experience of faith, the inner moral progress of the individual and the need for fervent emotions as marks of authentic Christianity. Given this background, it is no surprise that Schleiermacher viewed the individual’s experience as the primary ground and concern for the Christian faith.

Christian Faith was Schleiermacher’s defining contribution to systematic theology. In it he accepted Kant’s terms for knowing, and reasoning from sensory data (scientific reasoning) was no ground for matters of faith. For Schleiermacher God was known through the individual’s experience. True faith was the individual’s experience of the transcendent, the infinite and the divine. This “feeling” was what he described as the “God consciousness.” When we experience this transcendence or feeling, that becomes the heart of faith. By framing Christianity in these terms he appeared to save the historic faith from the blazing glare of Kant’s skepticism. If true faith is grounded in my experience of transcendent it is rightly beyond the reach of scientific inquiry and questioning. This was the beginning of the privatization of Christian faith for the Modern world.

So how does all this relate to evangelicalism? Evangelicalism was born out of the overreaction of the Fundamentalists to Modern Liberal theological claims. The Fundamentalists responded to Modern acceptance of Kantian epistemology and skepticism by putting on headphones and blasting hymns so loud no objections to their faith claims could be heard. Evangelicals came to see the futility of such isolation for the gospel mission, but evangelicals made an opening move that was probably as large of an error as that of the Fundamentalists. Evangelicals accepted the ground of Kant and Schleiermacher and became Modernists, giving Christianity a new and unique shape. This move meant that the Christian faith, the Church, the gospel and our corporate worship would all function around personal, individual and privatized experience. Many of the accepted forms of evangelical faith would please Schleiermacher to no end.

Schleiermacher would be pleased to hear candidates for baptism in evangelical churches proclaim that the reason they want to be baptized is so they can personally and individually become obedient to a command from scripture. He would also enjoy the evangelical, liturgical confession of baptismal candidates, “I just want the whole world to know that I am in a personal relationship with Jesus.”  While this liturgical confession does not fail in what it affirms, but it fails in what it does not confess.  It is too reductionistic, but that is what happens to liturgy when it is formed for individual consumption.  Love feast for one, anyone?

Schleiermacher would be pleased to see church camps springing into action every winter and summer break wherein experts plan each sugar and caffeine induced moment of hysteria to bring about a moment of existential, personal, individual “feeling of absolute dependence of being in relation to God.” This evangelical camp experience would not be complete without a soundtrack replete with personal individual pronouns, exalting the individual’s experience of God.  And these worship experiences are designed with the templates pulled from the cultural liturgies of the concert wherein the individual connects with the sublime, making the crowd relevant only to the extent that it enhances the individual’s experience.  Again, this is not to condemn church camps, but it is a call to rethink how and to what end church camps function.

In fairness, there is plenty about evangelicalism that Schleiermacher would despise, but evangelicalism’s fundamental orientation toward the personal, individual and existential would please him much. I suspect evangelical acceptance of these terms from the culture has much to do with their sincere and admirable attempt to make the gospel relevant and acceptable to the Modern mind. But such adaptations have tremendous risks. Evangelicals adapted the gospel to the form of Modern culture, and as generations have passed, the awareness that this expression of the Church was merely an adaptation also was lost. Evangelicals failed to distinguish between their adaptation of the gospel and the gospel itself.

Moreover, complicity with Modernity is no quite passé. Whether one prefers a Modern to a Postmodern outlook, the world we live in is Postmodern. The evangelical (60 year old) translation of the gospel for the Modern world seems deeply out of tune to Postmodern ears. This is particularly problematic since evangelicals have lost the self-awareness that their practices are cultural adaptations and not simply “biblical,” leaving them unable to author a new translation.

In reality, there is structural problem within evangelicalism that lies deeper that Schleiermacher’s existentialism. Evangelicals intuitively accept the notion that the world sets the terms by which the Christian faith must operate, or in other words we think mission is inherently tied up in the business of making the gospel relevant to the Modern world. But I think Stanley Hauerwas was right when he wrote, “The challenge of the gospel is not the intellectual dilemma of how to make an archaic system of belief compatible with Modern belief systems. The challenge of Jesus is the political dilemma of how to be faithful to a strange community, which is shaped by a story of how God is with us.”

- Stanley Hauerwaus, Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir, p. 181

“‘If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible.”

Consequently, as she was preparing to leave Harvest this week, she copied numerous files onto a jump drive for the purpose of passing them along to BSI for publication.  Today, we bring you the first of these files, which is the original rough draft of MacDonald’s infamous “resignation” post from 30 April 2013.

I wanted to wait until we returned from the Holy Land to make my decision public. By the way, thank you for your generous tithes and offerings over this past year that allowed a number of staff members and their families to travel for free.  We are truly grateful.  I am officially announcing my resignation today from a job I have long held, and frequently done very poorly. I am not sure how I got into this profession, but I suspect it had something to do with needing truckloads of money.  I know I wasn’t invited, and I have often been deeply unappreciated. Why spend your life doing something neither required by the Lord, nor welcomed by others? Frankly, I gave up the job a while back, but felt constrained to make my decision known to all who read this blog. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t see me at my post, I am really done this time. Yes, for me it’s over. No more fixing people—I resign.

No more setting people straight, helping others see the light. No more putting people on a program or convincing them to look in the mirror and see what they refuse to believe, such as  my arguments that Texas Hold ‘Em is a game of skill and not gambling. Helping? Yes. Praying? For sure! Preaching? Always and with increased power, I pray. (Can you imagine how awesome I’m going to be in 15 years?!)   But fixing people individually? I’m done, even though the elders have mandated that I must spend time with my congregation following each service.  No more stepping up or stepping in or stepping on toes to ring a broken bell that clangs discordantly with the facts about friend or foe. If you, like Dave Corning, Ron Alchin, Joe Stowell Jr, Joe Stowell Sr, Matt Stowell, Rod Vansolkema, Daryl Rice, Sam Jinodyan, Gordan Zwirkoski, Bing Hunger, David Jones, Daryl Rice (Rice twice cause that one was really rough!), Leo Klus, Jim Jodrey (not sure about these last two as we gave them both a nice going away party with cake),  Rob Green, Ty Gouch, Mike Mahoney, that little ingrate Mike Bryant, Stuart Little, Luke Trifilo, or even my “second daughter, Lindsay McCaul, were wounded in a bad fix or a fast fix or a bad response to a fast fix, please accept my apologies —I truly hope you are doing better, I know that I am. Unless requested, unless an obvious critical – path, life or death – emergency, ‘the fix’ is off!

Was it the temptation to push the pulpit application too far that caused fixing people to spill over into personal interaction or was it my narcissitic attempt to make every biblical passage about every trial, battle or life consternation I was having that week with elders, staff members, or congregants the real problem?  Did knowledge puff me up? Heck no. How could it?  My research assistant does all my learning for me.  Besides, I don’t remember thinking I was better, but I do recall needing people to be more or better or different or just more like me. For my sake or for theirs? For God’s kingdom, certainly not no doubt, but also as an increased efficiency in the crossing of paths and the sharing of responsibility. “I’m not sure if anyone has ever pointed this out to you, but do you realize…” “It’s not easy to say this to you, but from a heart of love I feel I must…” “This is not going to end well…” Like the understated, dentist who offers, “This is gonna pinch,” the fixer has a variety of ‘opens’ that don’t really prepare the hearer adequately for what is to follow.

Fixes should end well, we should be ready at all times to receive the “reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction” (especially when it comes from a Celebrity Pastor, like myself or my good friend Mark Driscoll) (2 Timothy 4:2), but many are not. Yes, “reprove a wise man, and he will love you for it” (Proverbs 9:8), but apparently there are “not many wise” (even among my elders and family members.  [Note to self: explain more on this later]) (1 Corinthians 1:26), and many blows, whippings, verbal beat-downs, catapults, and castrations are too often needed (Proverbs 17:10). Where the fixer is uninvited and the receiving heart is unreceptive, it’s far better to pull up and kneel down—interceding for a better reception, a more timely time, or a more worthy messenger.

Let’s start with some easy ones first:

• I’m not going to fix the oblivious pedestrian wandering aimlessly through the busy airport terminal, dragging their carry-on across the feet of determined passengers seeking an open road to a late flight.  Instead, I’m going to spend my congregants’ well intended tithes and make my way to a private airstrip where I can fly in real style, far away from these annoying commoners. 
• I’m not going to fix the store clerk who promises three different times by phone, that my friend can pick up my new golf clubs as long as he brings the receipt…then refuses to do so without reason, each time my ‘friend’ drives over while I was out of the country.  Instead, I’m going to leave my Inverness mansion (again, thank you for your tithes and offerings), hop into my jag (again, thank you), drive over to the general manager of my Inverness country club (do I need to say it again?), and I’m going to use my finely honed rhetorical skills to make sure that these employees know exactly who it is that pays their salaries.
• I am not fixing drivers or drive-through window guys or my own personal drivers or anyone else driving me, or those I love, nuts. I’m not fixing flight attendants that have air marshals throw me off the plane when I refuse to hang up my phone in compliance with those ridiculous FAA regulations, or church attenders or church members or members of the human race. If it’s your problem, then guess what? It’s not mine. I will pray, I will quietly attend to those I love when invited. I will always be willing to lend a hand or help the hurting or even instruct the weak by invitation or direct responsibility (1 Thessalonians 5:14), but by God’s grace I will be patient with all, especially producers who oversee volunteers that can’t get a freakin’ power point slide up on time. The fix is off.
• I’m not going to fix staff members who want to complain instead of work, or sleep instead of work, or do whatever they do instead of work. If you want to gamble in the office with me, Fred, Dallas and the other guys, or even fly to Vegas to roll the dice, that’s fine.  But if you won’t work, you can’t eat—at least not on our dime—but we aren’t going to try to fix you. You’ll have all the time in the world when you don’t work here anymore.
• I’m not going to fix elders who complain instead of lead.  I didn’t hand select most of you for this board to hear your belly achin’.  Most of you were chosen for your ability to write a check and for your willingness to say “yes.”  You need to realize that brighter and more gifted men with real gravitas have already tried and failed.  So sit down,  nod your head, and let me do my job before this ship goes down.  What?  You think you’re gonna kick me out of this office?  Good luck paying off $60 million in debt without my show. 
• I’m not going to fix family members who think love is a one-way street, [Note to administrative assistant: is it inappropriate to mention family members by name or is it better if I just leave it as “family members?”] or friends who don’t understand that I have new and more important, wealthier friends now think that doing life together means everything always the same, forever. I’m not going to help you be more grateful or sow more seeds be more generous or more anything individually. I am here to help when asked, and “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). But “each must bear his own load” (Galatians 6:5), and from now on the ‘fix’ falls under your job description. No more allowing the bleating sheep single digits to block my ability to market to the masses and avoid my responsibilities as a shepherd view the many who are the vast majority that make serving God pure joy.
• I’m not going to fix preachers in error or erroneous ministry methods or methodical madness of any kind because people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.  Besides, there’s too much I can learn from these folks.  Just gonna preach the Word in season and out of season (except for: summertime, playoffs, opportunities that allow me to collect a phat honorarium, and any conferences in California, Florida, Arizona, Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji and maybe Haiti if there’s cameras around and my good friend Mark Driscoll wants to go.), and seek to fulfill my ministry (2 Timothy 4:1-5). I don’t wish you were more loving or more truthful or, truthfully, more anything. I wish I was more of what Jesus calls me to be for my family and church family. You answer for your congregation.  After all, if your ship goes down in flames, I can simply absorb your old buildings as campuses and leverage them to further expand my empire—that should be enough responsibility. I know that answering for mine keeps me on my knees long enough, without reflecting on what you should be doing more or better or less.

I suppose I assumed when I began that everyone wanted what I wanted… to be filthy, stinkin’ rich to be better. I have accepted, even solicited, and been blessed by the critical feedback of friends, and picked diligently through the rubbish of those cheeto-eating, basement dwellin’ blog monkeys who sought my ruin to great advantage. But I have erred in thinking those who dish it out can take it, and had to learn that when you want it for people more than they want it for themselves, it won’t end well. Sadly, when you overestimate your ability to manipulate others through the abuse of Scripture to change the behavior of others, and rush in where fools fear to tread, you heap scorn for yourself and have little to show for it, aside from the faithful wounds of a well-intentioned friend (Proverbs 27:6).

Available, as always (except for those occasions when my family is vacationing at our second home up at Camp Harvest, or vacationing in Italy on the church’s dime), for the humble and teachable and lowly of heart—but no more fixing people. It doesn’t work, it’s not fun, and it often hurts mostly because it doesn’t pay well. Maybe you learned this a long time ago and took a pass on fixing me. Thanks for your patience. I have it now, the fix is in place for no more fixing. Take this job and . . . shove it up your … I quit!

One last thing.  I am done trying to fix people who don’t understand that satire is often the last and only appropriate tool left for pointing out the fact that the emperor has no clothes.

May the words of these saints unlock the imagination of your soul, opening up new ways of talking to the One Who Emptied Himself for the sake of us all.

On Theodicy

(on reading Psalm 145:15-16)

We gladly confess:

“The eyes of all look to you,

and you give them their food

in due season.

You open your hand

satisfying the desire of

every living thing.”

That we gladly and confidently confess -

And yet we notice your creatures

not well fed

but mired in hunger, poverty and despair.

And yet we notice the power of evil

that stalks the best of us

the power of cancer,

the dread of war,

sadness of death -

“good death”

or cruel death.

And so we pray confidently toward you,

but with footnotes that qualify.

We pray confidently, but we will not deny in your

presence the negatives that

make us wonder.

We pray amid our honest reservations,

give us patience to wait,

impatience to care,

sadness held honestly,

surrounded by joy over your

coming kingdom -

and peace while we wait -

and peace at the last,

that we may be peacemakers

and so your children.

We pray in the name of your firstborn Son, our peacemaker.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Walter Bruggemann, “On Theodicy” in Prayers for a Privileged People (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 2008), 69-70.

• Apocalyptic Films as a Window into our Collective Soul
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#50-41)
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#40-31)
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#30-21)
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#20-11)

And now, for the top-10…

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10.  Sleeper  (1973) – Without a doubt, this is the hardest film for me to see on a top-10 list of apocalyptic and/or dystopian films.  While I fully recognize the fact that it fits the “criteria,” this film is over-hyped, much in the way that Woody Allen’s entire career has been over-hyped.  A poor start to an otherwise excellent top-10.

Average Rating: 7.65      IMDB: 7.2      RT: 8.1

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9.  Minority Report  (2002) – What’s not to like about a Steven Spielberg film based upon an original story by Philip K. Dick?  Not much.  But still, to me, this ranking seems a bit high.  Looking back upon the list, I can easily come up with a dozen films that are superior to this otherwise thoroughly entertaining film.

Average Rating: 7.85      IMDB: 7.7      RT: 8.0

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8.  The Matrix  (1999) – Based upon the ancient philosophical premise of Plato’s cave, The Matrix asks one simple question: will you take the red pill or the blue pill?  Will you accept reality as you see it, or dare to believe that the shadows dancing on the wall are indicative of a much larger world.

Average Rating: 8.0      IMDB: 8.6      RT: 7.4

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7.  Fight Club  (1999) – Admittedly, many may disagree with my decision to include this film on the list.  After all, Fight Club doesn’t take place in the future; it doesn’t give us an apocalyptic vision, and it doesn’t necessarily envision a government with authoritarian control.  Nevertheless, I believe this film belongs on the list as it explores the inner psychology of a man who believes he is living in dystopia.

Average Rating: 8.1      IMDB: 8.9      RT: 7.3

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6.  Children of Men  (2006) – In the year 2027, human beings have grown infertile and our species is slowly dying out.  But when an activist agrees to help a “miraculously” pregnant woman make her way to a safe haven at sea, he comes to believe that there may be one last hope for humanity.  As visually haunting as it is thematically engaging.

Average Rating: 8.1      IMDB: 8.2      RT: 8.0

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5.  Blade Runner  (1982) – In what may just be the gold-standard of modern day cyberpunk visions, Sir Ridley Scott offers us a future where humanity is cloning itself to create an artificial slave force with limited lifespans and little hope.  Noteable as much for its style as for its themes, Blade Runner is a must see.

Average Rating: 8.25      IMDB: 8.3      RT: 8.2

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4.  Brazil  (1985) – The second Terry Gilliam film to make the list, Brazil is a prophetic look into 21st century America, where a dehumanizing bureaucracy can pin anything on a man, even as it makes him yearn for a freedom that he fears is long lost.  If I had to pick one film that captured the theme we are exploring better than any other, this is that film, even if it is not my personal favorite.

Average Rating: 8.25      IMDB: 8.0      RT: 8.5

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3.  Terminator  (1984) – In a future where mankind is at open war with the machines it has created, a “terminator unit” is sent back to 1984 to assassinate the future leader of the human resistance.  With a sequel that scores even higher than the original (AR: 8.5), the Terminator films are that rare breed of movie where heady ideas are seamlessly married to flawless execution.

Average Rating: 8.35      IMDB: 8.1      RT: 8.6

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2.  A Clockwork Orange  (1971) – Often hailed as the pinnacle of Stanley Kubrick’s career, A Clockwork Orange is the “story of the dubious redemption of a teenage delinquent by condition-reflex therapy. It is, at the same time, a running lecture on free-will.”  Fair warning: upon its initial release, A Clockwork Orange was rated X and was often accused of glorifying the ultra-violence it portrayed.

Average Rating: 8.4      IMDB: 8.5      RT: 8.3

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1.  Metropolis  (1927) – Set in an indefinite future, Metropolis is the prophetic tale of a utopian society built upon the backs on an unseen working class that makes the luxury of the elite possible.  Having the benefit of being the first horse out of the gate, it is unlikely that Metropolis will ever be unseated from its throne.

Average Rating: 8.6      IMDB: 8.4      RT: 8.8

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• Apocalyptic Films as a Window into our Collective Soul
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#50-41)
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#40-31)
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#30-21)

And now, we return to the countdown as we enter the top-20.  Interestingly enough, there are four  films in this section that I have never seen…

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20.  Planet of the Apes  (1968) – When an astronaut and his crew crash land on a planet in the distant future, they discover a world in which pre-literate humanity has been enslaved by apes.  Somewhat corny and at times visually trying, the ending is nevertheless well worth the payoff if you’re interested in these sorts of films.

Average Rating: 7.5      IMDB: 7.9      RT: 7.1

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19.  The City of Lost Children  (1995) – If originality is indeed a virtue, than this film deserves to make this list, if for no other reason than the unique nature of its plot.  In short, a scientist in a deranged society kidnaps children and attempts to steal their dreams all to prevent his own aging.  This is the first of the four films I have not seen in this section of the countdown.

Average Rating: 7.5      IMDB: 7.8      RT: 7.2

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18.  Akira  (1988) – The first of two anime films to make this list, Akira is by far the better known and more influential. When a psychically inclined biker goes on a rampage in Neo-Tokyo, two kids with similar abilities are called into action to track him down.  I suspect that this film rates as high as it does only because of its medium, not because of its message.

Average Rating: 7.5      IMDB: 7.8      RT: 7.2

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17.  Robocop  (1987) – The third, and highest rated, entry by director Paul Verhoeven, Robocop tells the ultra-violent tale of a police officer viciously gunned down and reborn as a cybernetic law enforcement office in a future Detroit that bears far too many resemblances to the Detroit of today.

Average Rating: 7.5      IMDB: 7.4      RT: 7.6

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16.  Battle Royale  (2000) – This is the film that The Hunger Games could have been if the studio elected not to pull its punches for the sake of a PG-13 rating that ensured a larger audience.  Based on almost identical premises, Battle Royale is the hard-R sibling of The Hunger Games, and whether that is either “good” or “bad” I leave for you to decide.

Average Rating: 7.55     IMDB: 8.0     RT: 7.1

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15.  Ghost in the Shell  (1995) – The second of two anime films to make the countdown, Ghost in the Shell explores themes related to computer hacking and the growing need for a police force dedicated to cyber-defense.  This is the third of the four aforementioned films that I have not seen.

Average Rating: 7.55      IMDB: 7.8      RT: 7.3

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14.  Serenity  (2005) – By every fair definition, Serenity has earned its place on this list.  What’s more, I am a huge fan of director Joss Whedon’s Firefly, the televised fore-runner to this film.  So why I do I find myself staring in wonder at the ranking of this film?  I don’t know.  But in my personal opinion, Serenity has no business being this close to the top-10.

Average Rating: 7.6      IMDB: 8      RT: 7.2

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13.  Twelve Monkeys  (1995) – The first of two films by Terry Gilliam (one-time member of the British sketch comedy team known as Monty Python) to make the countdown, Twelve Monkeys explores a future world in which 99% of the Earth’s population has been eradicated by a virus that was spread by a mysterious “Army of Twelve Monkeys.”

Average Rating: 7.6      IMDB: 7.8      RT: 7.2

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12.  Alphaville  (1965) – One of the older films on this list, Alphaville is widely considered to be a classic within the dystopian genre.  Unfortunately, on both occasions where I sat down to watch the film, I fell asleep within the first half an hour.  Clearly, critics and audiences alike saw something I did not see.

Average Rating: 7.6      IMDB: 7.2      RT: 8.0

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11.  The Trial  (1962) – Written by Franz Kafka and adapted and directed by Orson Wells, The Trial is a classic look at a judicial system lacking anything that remotely resembles accountability.  When Josef (Anthony Perkins) awakens in the morning, he is greeted by officers who arrest him without any formal presentation of charges.  What comes next is even worse.

Average Rating: 7.65      IMDB: 7.9      RT: 7.4

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Today, at Blood Stained Ink, we continue our exploration on the nature of humanity, particularly as we see ourselves through the unique lens of films that look into the future.  To date, the series includes the following posts:

• Apocalyptic Films as a Window into our Collective Soul
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#50-41)
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#40-31)

And now, back to the list …

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30.  War of the Worlds  (1953) – Based upon the famous novel by H.G. Wells and the even-more-famous depression-era radio broadcast, War of the Worlds was a timely piece of science-fiction that many understood as a metaphor for the looming Soviet threat.  As for Spielberg’s 2005 remake, the effects are better, but it comes at the expense of the subtext.

Average Rating: 7.15      IMDB: 7.2      RT: 7.1

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29.  Dark City  (1998) – When John Murdoch awakens in a strange hotel, he discovers that has no memories and is wanted for a series of brutal murders.  As he struggles to make his way through a city with no sun, he is besieged by people with telekinetic powers and a thirst for his very soul.

Average Rating: 7.2      IMDB: 7.7      RT: 6.7

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28.  The Hunger Games  (2012) – For the third time, I strongly disagree with where both the popular and the critical consensus has placed this film in relation to others.  While I am on record as having very much enjoyed the original novels, I found the film to be a wooden, overly-faithful adaptation that was lacking in both spirit and directorial vision.

Average Rating: 7.2      IMDB: 7.2      RT: 7.2

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27.  Mad Max  (1979) – From the mind of writer/director George Miller comes this hyper-violent tale of an avenging Australian police officer (Mel Gibson) who is out for justice in the post-apocalyptic, nightmarish world of the Outback.  As for The Road Warrior, it is generally considered to be a rare case where the sequel has exceeded the vision of the original work.

Average Rating: 7.2      IMDB: 6.8      RT: 7.6

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26.  On the Beach  (1959) – After nuclear war destroys almost all of civilization, the residents of Australia must slowly come to terms that they too will perish in a matter of months.  The only question that remains is whether community can overpower the depths of impending despair.  This is one of the few films on the list that I have not personally seen.

Average Rating: 7.3      IMDB: 7.5      RT: 7.1

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25.  Fahrenheit 451  (1966) – Based upon the 1951 Ray Bradbury novel, the film captures the story of a firefighter charged with the unenviable task of burning books that have been banned by a government that fears independent thought.  A classic both for its prophetic look into the future and for its insight into the power of literature.

Average Rating: 7.3      IMDB: 7.1      RT: 7.5

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24.  Gattaca  (1997) – In the not-too-distant future, a “less than perfect” genetic specimen decides to steal the identity of a “perfect” man in order to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut.  Sixteen years after its initial release, Gattaca still feels as current and as relevant as it did on the day I first saw it in a theater.

Average Rating: 7.3      IMDB: 7.7      RT: 6.9

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23.  Total Recall  (1990) – Working from source material provided by acclaimed author, Philip K. Dick, director Paul Verhoever makes his second appearance on this list with a story about a man implanted with false memories that may or may not have triggered a psychotic break with reality.  As for the 2012 remake, it is completely unnecessary and far inferior to the original.

Average Rating: 7.4      IMDB: 7.5      RT: 7.3

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22.  Twenty-eight Days Later  (2002) – When animal activists release infected chimpanzees into the wild, they unwittingly unleash a horror that decimates the country of England.  Often dismissed as a zombie film, Twenty-eight Days Later is actually a horrifying look into a future that is poised on the razor’s edge of a medical apocalypse.

Average Rating: 7.45      IMDB: 7.6      RT: 7.3

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21.  V for Vendetta  (2005) – Based upon the acclaimed graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta is a brilliant film that has never received its true due from the movie-going public.  How this tale of a political terrorist, who intellectually seduces a young women in a dystopian future England, didn’t crack the top-10 on this list completely baffles me.

Average Rating: 7.5      IMDB: 8.2      RT: 6.8

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May the words of these fellow sojourners give voice to the cries of your heart, opening up new ways of talking to the One Who was Entitled to Everything, but Surrendered it All.

“Our Charter of Entitlement”

by Walter Bruggemann

We are mostly the kind of people who do well and

who mean well.

We know how to do what must be done and

we get up and do it.

We have a sense of our own worth and our capacity to perform.

We care for our children and our futures

and our good schools.

And after good schools come college

and learning and degree and profession

and security.

We sit in and enjoy our responsible entitlement that we have

surely earned.

But along with success and well-being,

we wish our children happy,

so we protect and extend adolescence;

we build barriers against ugliness and failure,

and struggle with too much work and stress.

We have and we treasure all the signs of entitlement,

all the props of affluence,

all the symbols of well-being.

How peculiar that we have it all and worry about

immigrants who might acquire some small part of our legacy.

In this moment of candor before you,

we step into that gap in our life,

between assured entitlement and the threat of immigrants

between our indulgence of our children and

the violence that mostly lacks shame.

Move us by your hovering that we may come to ourselves,

that we may notice the ways in which we are

far from home,

that we may reckon how we have betrayed

ourselves for quick fixes.

Give us the capacity to return to you,

to be welcomed home,

to be forgiven,

to be invited to dance,

and then to a fatted calf,

to receive it all as a gift from you.

As people of entitlement and violence, we converge with

immigrants,

we learn together how deeply in need we are;

receive us and move us that we may accept

your welcome to newness.

Return us to innocence,

even as we are frightened.

Exhibit to us your great simplicity among

our complex habits.

Call us at last by our right names

because we are yours.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Walter Bruggemann, “Our Charter of Entitlement” in Prayers for a Privileged People (Nashville, Tennessee: Abington Press, 2008), 17-18.

• Apocalyptic Films as a Window into our Collective Soul
• The 50 “Greatest” Apocalyptic and Dystopian Films of All Time (#50-41)

And now, back to the countdown.

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40.  A Boy and His Dog  (1975) -  World War IV lasted only five days; and in the aftermath of the nuclear winter, what remains of society has retreated underground.  When Vic (Don Johnson) and his telepathic dog discover this underground community, he is quickly put to use in a desperate bid to repopulate the world.

Average Rating: 6.55      IMDB: 6.5      RT: 6.6

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39.  Oblivion  (2013) – As one of the few remaining drone repairman assigned to Earth following a devastating encounter with an alien species known as Scavs, Jack (Tom Cruise) discovers a wreckage that causes him to question everything he once believed to be true.  While visually stunning, you will recognize a host of other, better ilms in the DNA of this movie.

Average Rating: 6.6      IMDB: 6.5      RT: 6.6

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38.  Nineteen Eighty-Four  (1984) – Based upon George Orwell’s influential novel of the same name, 1984 takes us into a totalitarian future where one man (John Hurt) is tasked with re-writing history under the watchful, unblinking eyes of “Big Brother.”

Average Rating: 6.7      IMDB: 7.1      RT: 6.3

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37.  Silent Running  (1972) -  As one of the earlier films to adopt environmental themes as part of its dystopic vision, Silent Running tells the story of an Earth that has been stripped of all flora and fauna save for that which has been preserved aboard a spacecraft.  When orders come down to destroy the interstellar nursery, the astronauts respond in unexpected ways.

Average Rating: 6.7      IMDB: 6.7      RT: 6.7

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36.  I am Legend (2007) – Will Smith plays a scientist who was unable to find a cure for a terrible man-made virus that has decimated the globe. Immune, he is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and perhaps the world.   Oddly enough, this film has proven to be far more forgettable than others that didn’t place nearly as high on this list.

Average Rating: 6.75      IMDB: 7.1      RT: 6.4

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35.  Artificial Intelligence: AI  (2001) – In the not-so-distant future, humanity has created a breed of robots that possess genuine emotional states of being.  When one such robot is casually and cruelly set aside by his “mother,” he embarks on a quest to become “real” so that he might be accepted.

Average Rating: 6.8      IMDB: 7.0     RT: 6.6

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34.  A Scanner Darkly  (2006) – Working in a genre he normally eschews, Richard Linklater gives us a brilliant adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel bearing the same name.  What’s more, Linklater employs a visual technique so unique that I have yet to see it appear in another film.  For me, this is top-10 film in the genre, as much for what it says as for how it is filmed.

Average Rating: 6.85     IMDB: 7.2     RT: 6.5

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33.  Escape from New York  (1981) – A cult-classic if ever there was such a thing, Escape from New York gives us a vision of crime run so rampant that the entire city of New York has been converted into a maximum security prison.  When the President’s plane goes down inside Manhattan, all bets are off.

Average Rating: 6.85      IMDB: 6.9      RT: 6.8

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32.  THX 1138  (1971) – This is the second film that I really struggle with in terms of its placement on this list.  While I recognize its significance in film history as being the first movie ever written and directed by George Lucas of Star Wars fame, I don’t fully understand what both critics and audiences saw in it.

Average Rating: 6.85      IMDB: 6.7      RT: 7.0

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31.  The Road  (2009) – Based upon Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name, The Road has the distinction of being the only film on this list that I have yet to see because I lack the courage.  Having read the novel, I don’t know if I honestly want to revisit the emotions that are brought to the surface as a father fights to save his son from the madness.

Average Rating: 7.15     IMDB: 7.3      RT: 7.0

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