A Choice of Freedom

For anyone that does not know me all that well, I enjoy watching movies, and because of the way my mind works, I cannot just look at movies simply for the joy of the movie itself. When I watch a movie I see parts that talk about Karl Marx's Conflict Theory, or Emile Durkheim's Functionalist Theory. I see how theology can be applied in a real world application, I know, I am a nerd!

Anyway, on to what I wanted to write about before I delved into my weird movie watching habits. A few days ago I watched The Matrix, which for anyone who has not seen it I would recommend watching. There is some sweet action and even if you are not into the action, there is a deep theological sub plot that the directors may or may not have intended to have in their film. It is that sub plot that I wish to discuss today, however, as usual, I am sure that there will be some people who will disagree with me, and that is fine! I must first begin with saying that this is my interpritation, and as such I am not trying to force others to believe what I believe, I am simply trying, in the words of The Matrix, to "free minds" but the choice is there's to believe and discover for themselves or to reject it and be pissed that I should even say such a terrible thing and then go on to believe that I need prayer for being "misguided". To be honest if I cared what people thought of my writings I would not write the way I do, but because I do not, lets get this wagon train moving!

Anyone who has seen The Matrix can see that the entire movie is based on choices and our ability to choose which path to take. I believe that each of us has a desire to be more knowlegable about different aspects of life, wheather or not we think that we do. For some people that desire is obvious, pastors, teachers, business professionals, etc. are all reading new books to learn more about a specific topic of interest. However for some people, that desire is less obvious, but it is still there. Everywhere people go they are looking for ways to learn more information, they may not believe that they are, but in reality they are like a sponge, soaking up information left and right. We hear people talking and we "tune in" or we see a bilboard that gives a web address and when we get home we check it out.

At the begining of the movie Neo (Keano Reeves) is searching for an answer to the question "What is the Matrix?" and he as been searching for that answer for a long time. He knows that there is more to what he knows to be true, yet he does not know how extensive the rabbit hole actually goes. Through his quest, he contacted by others who are "free" and can help him find the answers to his question. He eventually comes to one of my favorite sceenes, in which Neo finds himself sitting infront of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) with a choice to make: either he can take the blue pill and go back to life as normal, or he can take to red pill and discover that what he has come to know as real is much different than he thinks that it would be.

I believe that this is great example of what seeking truth is like. For those of us who are willing to search for what Truth is, and not be afraid of what we might find, will turn out to be like Neo, I know because I was once as Neo was when he first discovered the Truth. It made me throw up, just as Neo, and caused me to have more questions than I began with. Why could I not see? Why was I not able to move? Why did life look so much more different than I thought it would? It is hard to grasp that what I had come to know about the Bible and Christianity was a different concept that was not easy to swallow at first. I had decided to take the red pill and free my mind.

The Matix, not the movie but what is in the movie, a sense of reality, was a comfort, a framing story to keep people happy, all the while unsuspecting that the mechines where harvesting us for energy. That idea is a type of framing story, which is a term used in Sociology to describe how the world that we know is shaped by past decisions, ideologies, and usually described to us by elitist people who do not want us to be freed and question what they have told us, because then they lose their hold on us. (Conflict Theory at its best!)

Once people have their minds freed, it is initially shocking, and those people might wish that they had taken the blue pill and gone back to the way life used to be. This is not easy to do, and for the majority of people, once they have seen what the Truth is, it is hard to go back to complacency. However, when people begin to discover for themselves and not be spoon feed answers, the desire to go back is no longer as strong as it was originally.

The problem is that the majority of people who are in the Matrix are fine with being where they are and many of them are not ready to be freed because they would reject that freedom. The same is true of people who "search" for truth, they are happy where they are, they are not being challenged, and so it is easier to follow instead of lead. There is nothing explicitly wrong with that except that they are not thinking for themselves, so in a sense they are not themselves or who they were created to be, because if they were created to be robots then they are going a good job, however we were not, and so we should not be afraid to go against the grain and think about things afresh. The great thing is that we can choose to take either the red or blue pill, to free our mind or not, and to see how far the rabbit hole goes or fill it in with dirt, but whether or not you choose to do that does not mean that the Truth is not out there! Personally I am glad that I took the red pill!