Saturday, May 25, 2013

Interesting choice of  Turner Classic for Memorial Day weekend: Friendly Persuasion, William Wyler's warm tale of Christian pacifism facing violence during the Civil War. The pacifism doesn't fair all that well, but Wiki is inaccurate in stating "The father of the family is gradually converted to supporting the war." He wavers in his commitment to nonviolence when he believes his son has been injured or killed &  searches for him.  His wife loses her temper when Confederate raiders, to whom she has offered all her food & even fed at her table, attempt to take the family's pet goose. Because it is set in southern Indiana, the family doesn't face the same  harsh conditions  as similar families in the Shenandoah Valley,  There is not in this film any of the right wing Christian nationalism that so poisons religious & political discourse in America today.

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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson

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