I recently read a blog post titled something like "The 10 Best Movies Regarding Racism in America"...which I can not for the life of me locate right now. Ugh! Although it left off some movies that I would have chosen, I still had seen five of the ten and had this movie already in my Amazon Prime queue.
I had hesitated to watch The Great Debaters, because there is a lot of violence portrayed in films that I just cannot stomach anymore. Knowing it was set in the Jim Crow South of the 1930s didn't do much to bolster my hope that it wouldn't include violence. I can (without revealing any spoilers) share that although some horrific things in our nation's past are dealt with, graphic violence is not acted on film. (I hope that makes sense!)
The Great Debaters stars Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker who are, as usual, phenomenal in their roles as mentors to the generation that would be in the forefront of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
What I find interesting is that in His always impeccable timing, God intersected my Journey with this movie at the same time I am wading through Martin Luther King Jr's compiled autobiography and a reading list I am excited to delve into that Abbey will be studying during her Mission Year. Most of the books on that list pertain to race, reconciliation and injustice for the poor and marginalized of our society. Is it coincidental that I also had Lee Daniels' The Butler on hand to watch with a friend Friday night?
Racism is not a new concept for God to be drawing out of me. His work in that area began in college, long before I had even experienced the leading of His Holy Spirit within me. I confess, I'm not only excited to see where Abbey's Mission Year takes her...I'm also bubbling over with anticipation at how God will grow me in the areas of race reconciliation and injustice for the poor of our inner cities.
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