Faith in Film Article in the McGill Daily

Hey all,

Here is an article I wrote for the McGill Daily which I believe discusses some of the important reasons to participate in a competition like this:

Last winter, I was broke and needed a job. After many fruitless emails and submitted writing samples, I found myself at the McGill Chaplaincy, which I’d never heard of. According to its website, Chaplaincy Services is “an interfaith organization dedicated to spiritual and religious care in the McGill community”. All I knew at the time, however, was that I was in desperate need of some cash. So I applied for a job, and soon I was hired on as an intern.

In retrospect, it strikes me as utterly strange that I had never heard of the Chaplaincy before. It’s located on the fourth floor of the Brown Building which was an old haunt of mine. I’d spent a fair amount of time on the third floor prostrating myself before financial aid advisors. Why had I never seen the Chaplaincy before? What makes my lack of awareness even stranger is the fact that I am a deeply religious person. I was raised by a Bahá’í mother and a Roman Catholic father. Alongside my own investigations, this influence has made me a dedicated Bahá’í with a deep love for Jesus Christ.

As I typed that last sentence, I felt in myself a familiar sense of confession. Not to any divine power, but rather to you, the reader. Since the time I was in public school, there has always been a mild sense of shame associated with my religious affiliations. The title of “the religious kid” has never been tantamount to cool, and throughout all of my education I have always been hesitant to reveal my faith. In my experience, it has often led to dismissal, ridicule, and sometimes cruelty. I never had to ask why, because the people always told me: “Religion is responsible for all the wars in the world!” “How can you believe in a God who allows people to suffer?” “If God exists, then show Him to me!” As I grew older, these arguments became more elegant and sophisticated, but their essence remained the same.

This is not to say that the arguments are crazy or totally false; they aren’t. I found in them, however, a curious irony; one that will perhaps explain my initial ignorance of the Chaplaincy. That is, my faith in God was oppressed by those who claimed that God was a supremely oppressive idea. Let it be known: I do not deny that God (or, perhaps, the idea of God) has been an extremely oppressive force in human history. Let it also be known that I hesitate to use the word “oppression”, as there are causes that are far more worthy of the term than mine.

The irony, nevertheless, still stands. What it demonstrates, at least to me, is that oppression is completely contextual: religion may well be oppressive on a global scale, but in my life it has been the victim. This context can perhaps be extended as well, as I see particularly potent examples here on campus. The continued lack of an adequate prayer space for Muslims immediately comes to mind. More generally, however, I think of the general sneer worn by the face of academia with respect to religious belief, and the pervasive fear of students and professors alike to discuss their faith commitments. Is this all in the name of some long-gone notion of academic objectivity? Are we so blind as to believe that our biases will simply go away if we ignore them?

What is called for here, as has been repeated time and time again by far better men and women, is dialogue and openness. It is no longer acceptable to engage neutrally (and ultimately, superficially) with our peers. Rather, it is my firm belief that in order to avoid misunderstanding and further oppression from religious or secular sources, we need to look each other in the eyes and ask, “What do you actually believe?” As the late David Foster Wallace once said, “In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship”. To modify this statement for my current purposes I would say that we also get another choice, one that is almost equal in importance. That is, what do we do when we encounter someone who worships something different than us? Because guess what: the question is no longer “why can’t we all just get along?” In the wake of globalization, the development of weapons technology and an unmitigated tension of innumerable ideologies, we should now say; “how can we get along before we all die?”

This statement sounds melodramatic delivered in a campus newspaper, but, as with oppression, the matter is contextual. On a global scale, the idea is not melodramatic at all, but of incalculable importance. As such, McGill’s students and faculty need to step up and facilitate this fundamental dialogue. I applaud such efforts as the recently-instigated class “Religion and Globalization”. I would also like to call your attention to another, which is where the Chaplaincy comes in.

In the early Winter Semester, the Chaplaincy will be holding their inaugural “Faith in Film” competition. Students will be asked to submit short films between 10 and 30 minutes in length that deal creatively with their spirituality (or lack thereof). There will be a screening event on March 4th, during which the submissions will be judged by a panel comprised of students, professors, and a representative from the National Film Board of Canada. The winner will receive a $500 certificate to the McGill Bookstore or Futureshop. The real allure here though, should be the opportunity to participate in an important and underrepresented conversation. Be you Christian, Jewish, atheist, agnostic, Hindu, deist, or anarcho-feminist---we want to hear from you.

What makes a dialogue instructive and important is that there are at least two voices sharing their thoughts. You have heard mine. The invitation is open and I anxiously await your response. james.farr@mail.mcgill.ca