\u201cMay the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt may come as something of a surprise for Washington Post readers to learn that these are the words I silently invoke every time I sit down to write.<\/p>\n
It would surely shock the gentleman who recently e-mailed to castigate me for the \u201cevil\u201d review I wrote of the film \u201cSon of God,\u201d the screen adaptation of the \u201cBible\u201d TV miniseries. \u201cYou will have much to account for the day you meet God,\u201d the e-mailer wrote. \u201cIt is now evident you cannot write a review without your personal biases surfacing. That is not professional.\u201d<\/p>\n
My correspondent\u2019s words stung \u2014 not only because something I had written had caused such obvious distress. In just a few short sentences, he summed up the tensions, contradictions and fleeting moments of grace I have experienced as a film critic who also happens to be a practicing Christian. . . .<\/p>\n
But my resistance to invoking God, Jesus Christ and matters of the spirit in my writing also has to do with something the \u201cSon of God\u201d e-mailer correctly identified: the journalistic habit of not allowing my personal biases to surface, thereby inappropriately using my work as a religious platform and alienating those readers who don\u2019t share my faith or have no faith at all. Those individuals have every right to read a movie review or essay without feeling sermonized, excluded or disrespected.<\/p>\n
Still, I believe that work \u2014 like every other aspect of daily life \u2014 is both a venue and a crucible for exploring and expressing our deepest values. I take to heart the exhortation of the British mystic and writer Evelyn Underhill \u2014 one of my spiritual heroes \u2014 that work should be \u201cpart of the creative apparatus\u201d of the Holy Spirit. How to live into that reality and still be inclusive, accessible and \u2014 please, God \u2014 free of scolding, self-righteous sanctimony?<\/p>\n
[Keep reading. . . ]
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