Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > All Things Brokeback: Books, Interviews and More
Op/Ed: The Good Shepherd of Brokeback Mountain
Lynne:
--- Quote from: TJ on May 03, 2006, 10:05:36 am ---Every person claiming to be a Christian and has attended church regularly literally believes in the Pentecost, even if the church which they attend is not Pentecostal or a Charismatic one. The Methodist Church like all Protestant chuches (the non-Baptists and non-Pentecostals) has the observance of Pentecost Sunday 7 weeks after Easter Sunday. In Pentcostal churches, denominational or independent, Pentecost is celebrated at every church service, not once a year as in Mainline (i.e. Protestant) denominations.
--- End quote ---
TJ, I've been meaning to pop in and tell you thank you for posting here. I truly appreciate your opinions and considered responses. I think you can be our 'official' Biblical scholar b/c I am certainly not up to that task. ;)
I'm probably repeating myself, but I wanted to reiterate why I loved the 'Water-Walking Jesus' scene so much. I thought that both Jack's and Ennis's relative innocence and inexperience were crystal clear in this exchange. Jack's connfusion of the Pentecost with the Rapture, for instance, made me think that he had certainly been taught these ideas by his mother but that perhaps the finer points escaped him. :) Similarly Ennis's assertion that 'his folks were Methodist' made me laugh because obviously the Pentecost is part of the body of Christian knowledge, but somehow Ennis missed this concept too. I love these boys.
And just so you don't think I'm being naive, I will mention that beneath the humor here is that ever-present tragic theme; you cannot see this scene (at least a second time) and not remember that both boys will live to be judged by themselves and by the world for being nothing more or less than they were created to be.
-Lynne
TJ:
--- Quote from: Lynne on May 04, 2006, 08:33:59 pm ---TJ, I've been meaning to pop in and tell you thank you for posting here. I truly appreciate your opinions and considered responses. I think you can be our 'official' Biblical scholar b/c I am certainly not up to that task. ;)
I'm probably repeating myself, but I wanted to reiterate why I loved the 'Water-Walking Jesus' scene so much. I thought that both Jack's and Ennis's relative innocence and inexperience were crystal clear in this exchange. Jack's connfusion of the Pentecost with the Rapture, for instance, made me think that he had certainly been taught these ideas by his mother but that perhaps the finer points escaped him. :) Similarly Ennis's assertion that 'his folks were Methodist' made me laugh because obviously the Pentecost is part of the body of Christian knowledge, but somehow Ennis missed this concept too. I love these boys.
And just so you don't think I'm being naive, I will mention that beneath the humor here is that ever-present tragic theme; you cannot see this scene (at least a second time) and not remember that both boys will live to be judged by themselves and by the world for being nothing more or less than they were created to be.
-Lynne
--- End quote ---
Lynne, thanks for your support. I am not exactly an expert theologian; but, real students of the Bible, no matter how well formally educated, are willing to continually learn. I don't always agree with the gay theologians in their interpretation of the Bible either. I seem to get dogmatic at times; but, I am sort of inclusive when it comes to spirituality. I am gonna ramble a little here.
Oh, I like the way that the movie Ennis let Jack know that he actually enjoyed Jack's rendition of Water-Walking Jesus." They didn't make fun of each other in a negative way. The spirit behind Jack's singing was more important than singing on key. I can remember hearing a rather large muscular man sing in an independent Pentecostal church in a small community when I was 16 years old. The song was "When They Ring Them Golden Bells." While he did not sing exactly on key as the music for it was written, when I heard him sing it with his very masculine voice, I heard bells ringing in my spirit. The man had been a state Golden Gloves boxing champ in California. It does say in the Bible to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.
I could make some comments here in how I could see the guys getting into a humorus discussion on the "Rapture Theology" which the majority of conservative Pentecostal churches and even the Southern Baptist Church accepts at gospel truth, although it was a doctrine thought up in the 19th Century. My late older brother, who was an ordained minister of a small denomination, did have minor contention with me in regard to the Rapture because I didn't interpret it the way that he did. IMO, he got "raptured" first because he went to Heaven in September 1988 at the age of 48.
In the movie situation when Jack asked Ennis if he saw something up in heave and Ennis said he was sending up a prayer of thanks . . . that Jack did not bring his harmonica with him, I think the part about the harmonica would have been implied, "Oh, I am a believer; but, Jack, I don't want to be thought of as religious." I have heard guys talk like Ennis did in that situation. I have known Methodists who could only pray silently which Pentecostals prefer to pray aloud. And their prayers still got answered.
I am on a tangent here about the language they used. At the reunion in Riverton in 1967, both of them said "son of a bitch" several times. They were calling each other that, they were just at a loss for words because they were so excitedly happy to see each other. I have known guys who could "cuss a blue streak;" but, they would not eat a meal without saying grace first (and hearing them say it was equal to being in church because of the spiritual uplift I got from it).
I do see the guys' times together as spiritual experiences. Because their inexperience and lack of maturity, I do see them as innocents when they are alone up on the mountain in 1963. There's really only one sin that will keep a person from a heavenly eternity and that is the sin of rejecting the Creator's salvation.
Toast:
oops
I had to go back to the top of the page to remember what the thread was about
I usually like to go down through a page before i follow the liinks. but this time I forgot what the link was.
So while I was up there I followed the link
and it is a beautiful analysis of the movie.
nothing carved in stone, but another opinion.
Thanks Lynne
" Like the Good Shepherd of our Easter celebration, it is Jack’s blood-stained garments which, as relics, come to embody and memorialize the love of these shepherds."
cool !!
Lynne:
Thank you very much for posting here, Toast. I'm glad you enjoyed the article.
I heartily agree with your 'nothing carved in stone, but another opinion' note. To me, the single quality that moves Brokeback Mountain from merely good into the realm of truly great is that it inspires thought and introspection, raising more questions than it answers. It gives us permission - even demands - that we bring our own interpretation to it...view it through the lens of our own experience...and we are left forever transformed by that gift.
I've been thinking more about the Lover Jack vs Shepherd Jack but haven't really had any great insight. Very little Biblilcal Old Testament theology feels relevant in my world. Aussie Chris mentioned that he loved the poem, which seemed to depict Lover Jack in a true sense:
"A lonely young shepherd toiled, unaware of pleasure and contentment,
His thoughts fixed on another shepherd… his heart wounded by love.
He is in tears, not from the pain of love…
but more from knowing he’s been distanced.
One thought— that he is kept at a distance by his beautiful shepherd—
is of such great pain that he travels to another country to be misused,
his heart wounded with love.
Says the young shepherd: “It’s agonizing that you draw back from my love
and do not seek my company….”
and his heart was wounded with love.
Finally, after many years, he climbed… spread his arms open —
He had remained persevering— and he died,
His heart wounded by the love.
(Juan de la Cruz, “Otras canciones a lo divino de Cristo y el alma”)"
The evocation here of isolation, pain, and loss breaks my heart...it's beautiful.
-Lynne
Lynne:
This article was archived - here's the new link:
http://www.gayalliance.org/index.php?option=com_alphacontent§ion=4&cat=21&task=view&id=360&Itemid=69
The latest sonnet for Jack that Kerry posted by Marlowe reminded me of this article. Kerry's post is here:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=6834.msg130927#msg130927
And here's another excerpt from this article:
"Surprisingly, even the austere St. John of the Cross unites the images of shepherd and lover. His poem is worth quoting here in its entirety for its parallels to Brokeback’s story of shepherds in love:
A lonely young shepherd toiled, unaware of pleasure and contentment,
his thoughts fixed on another shepherd… his heart wounded by love.
He is in tears, not from the pain of love…
but more from knowing he’s been distanced.
One thought— that he is kept at a distance by his beautiful shepherd—
is of such great pain that he travels to another country to be misused,
his heart wounded with love.
Says the young shepherd: “It’s agonizing that you draw back from my love
and do not seek my company….”
and his heart was wounded with love.
Finally, after many years, he climbed… spread his arms open —
He had remained persevering— and he died,
His heart wounded by the love.
(Juan de la Cruz, “Otras canciones a lo divino de Cristo y el alma”)"
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