{"id":6438,"date":"2012-12-29T14:46:13","date_gmt":"2012-12-29T19:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=6438"},"modified":"2013-01-19T04:18:20","modified_gmt":"2013-01-19T09:18:20","slug":"the-inspector-javert-medley-sequence-index","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/the-inspector-javert-medley-sequence-index.html","title":{"rendered":"The Inspector Javert Medley [Sequence Index]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Isn\u2019t moral conviction dreamy?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I may not have drawn little hearts in my middle school notebooks labelled \u201cLeah + Inspector Javert\u201d but I\u2019ve loved him far too much since the first time I saw\u00a0Les Miserables<\/em>. \u00a0(And, this year, I immediately dibsed his part when organizing a\u00a0Les Mis<\/em> flashmob<\/a>). \u00a0But some of the things I\u2019ve loved most about the adamant Inspector are the things I\u2019ve had to set aside in order to be a Christian. \u00a0So, to mark the occasion of the movie\u2019s release, I wrote three meditations on the\u00a0strengths-that-turn-out-to-be-weaknesses of Inspector Javert and me.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Javert: No Quarter Asked or Given<\/a> \u2013 \u201cValjean and Javert are both offered unexpected grace, and Javert chokes on it\u2026 He refuses to become visibly imperfect in the service of a higher perfection.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Give Me (and Javert) a Firm Place to Stand<\/a> \u2013 \u201c[T]he Javert of the book and the musical isn\u2019t a heathen; he\u2019s a heretic. \u00a0(Probably a\u00a0Pelagian<\/a>).\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Javert and Valjean at Prayer<\/a> \u2013 \u201cJavert is a grotesque echo of something beautiful and truly\u00a0desirable\u00a0 \u00a0He lives in the moral uncanny valley.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Coda<\/strong>: After a\u00a0New Yorker\u00a0<\/em>writer went after Valjean for being so virtuous as to be boring, I came to his defense (\u201cBut Aren\u2019t Saints Dreadfully Dull?\u201d<\/a>) \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s a poor sort of virtue that can triumph only when the temptation feels titanic. \u00a0Valjean\u2019s nobility inspires us because it is ultimately expressed in the quotidian and the domestic.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Final Reprise:\u00a0<\/strong>I ended up writing a piece for\u00a0First Things<\/em> on Javert, Valejean, and our criminal justice system\u2019s contradictory impulses toward justice and mercy<\/a> (the State can\u2019t do either of these very well). \u00a0Also at that link, a vignette about one line in\u00a0Les Mis<\/em> really informing my prayer life.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Also, I must apologize to everyone for leaving Hark a Vagrant\u2019s Javert comics<\/a> out of this whole discussion. \u00a0Allow me to rectify this now; my favorite of the five is below.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I may not have drawn little hearts in my middle school notebooks labelled \u201cLeah + Inspector Javert\u201d but I\u2019ve loved him far too much since the first time I saw\u00a0Les Miserables. \u00a0(And, this year, I immediately dibsed his part when organizing a\u00a0Les Mis flashmob). \u00a0But some of the things I\u2019ve loved most about the adamant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":6444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,27,8,16],"tags":[162,51,201],"class_list":["post-6438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversion-2","category-parsing-catholicism","category-reviewsrecommendations","category-sequence-index","tag-accepting-gifts","tag-at-the-theatre","tag-offering-weakness"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Inspector Javert Medley [Sequence Index]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I 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