Sins of Collusion

Pastor Page, February 6, 2008

It’s Lent, and during this time, we’re to consider our past and future, and traditionally, this has meant contemplating our own complicity and guilt in the drama; after all, it is for our sins that he died. And so, many people around the globe spend extra time in prayer, asking forgiveness, seeking penance, and looking back at the things in their lives, and where we could do better. There’s not a thing wrong with this, and I urge you to do it because, as somebody said, a life unexamined is a life not worth living (or something like that). But one thing that’s been lost with our increasing individualism is the sense of corporate guilt that pervades Scripture. The prophets preached against nations, even though they often addressed their tirades to their leaders. Paul wrote his letters to congregations; only rarely did he speak to individuals. And though Jesus’ often spoke of individuals—a rich man and a needle’s eye, a widow giving her last coin—these also work as symbols of class, and the unjust societies that produce them.

So it might be good if we were to think about—if only a little—our corporate sins, our sins as a religious people or even (gasp!) as a nation. And there’s a new film that does this in an interesting way. There Will Be Blood examines the rise of the oil industry and—not coincidentally—the United States, through the life of oilman Daniel Plainview. We watch him rise from his beginnings as a solitary scrabbler-after-gold to a rich and powerful tycoon. Although a violent film, there’s little explicit bloodshed—the violence lies almost entirely in the way Plainview uses or knocks aside everyone in his path.

As he rises in wealth and power, another figure rises as well. Eli Sunday is a charismatic preacher, and though he’s placed in opposition to Plainview—and they certainly hate each other—it’s a bit more subtle than that. Sunday’s rise is aided and abetted by the very fact of Plainview’s association. Without the money brought into the community by the oil rigs, there would be no church, and no consequent rise of Sunday into demagoguery. But at the same time, without the church, the oil operation would not be as successful as it is . . . that’s made very clear in the interactions between the two, especially in the amazing scene of Plainview’s baptism-for-profit.

Thus, the film portrays our peoples’ historical penchant for combining religion and commerce. As our economy expanded, so did our peculiar theology, which posits that wealth is a sign of God’s favor, and therefore that going after it is our God-given right. And if we are the wealthiest of peoples, we must also be the most favored; thus the “doctrine” of manifest destiny and our self-designation as the “New Jerusalem.” Is it any wonder that the most prevalent theology in America today is the so-called “prosperity doctrine” of the television preachers and many evangelicals?

Our progressivism has always been shored up by our version of faith, our sense that we are God’s favorites, and over the years it has contributed to the near-extermination of an entire peoples and the eminent destruction of our environment. So during this Lenten season, I urge us all to meditate upon how we as individuals contribute to all of this, but also how we as a congregation and a Christian faith do as well.

Web Special:

Here's a clip of the baptism scene from There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview and Paul Dano as Eli Sunday. Plainview has just agreed to join the church in return for being allowed to run his pipeline across one of it's member's land. Enjoy!