What It's About: Electrician by day, rodeo cowboy by night and Texas-sized
jerk most of the time, Ron Woodroof (Oscar-nominated Matthew McConaughey) discovers
he's contracted AIDS—back in 1985, when the disease was a swift death sentence
and to be thought of as gay was almost as bad. Ron's nearly as horrified to be
stigmatized as queer as he is of the disease itself. He's ostracized by his
drinking buddies and, at a time when he could most use some moral support, he's
left almost alone. In his desperation to conquer AIDS and prolong his life, Ron
goes outside the medical establishment to find drugs that actually work. He
forms an unlikely business partnership with transgendered Rayon (Oscar-nominated
Jared Leto) and begins selling his drugs and vitamins to Dallas' needy AIDS
cases—most of whom are the gay men Ron would've shunned before.
Some Thoughts: In addition to AIDS, Dallas Buyers Club gives us two sweeping villains—the medical
establishment and homophobia—and many Christians will be deeply discomforted by
this film for obvious reasons. For those who believe that homosexuality is a
sin, Dallas' activist stance will be deeply problematic. And that’s beside the
film's profanity (which is pervasive) and sex (which can be graphic). Plugged In gave the film just one-half
“plug,” which isn’t good.
But if we set aside the
content and look at the movie's form—particularly
the character arc of its prime protagonist—and we see a movie that looks,
believe it or not, surprisingly evangelical, even though God’s not mentioned
once.
For anyone who's been in
the sometimes-strange evangelical subculture for any length of time, they'll
recognize Ron's story for what it is: A testimony. We're familiar with the
pattern: "I was lost," someone might say while standing on the church
stage. "I gambled, drank, and cheated. I cavorted with women of
ill-repute. I stole money from my own grandmother. I didn't care for anyone but
me." The more horrific the sins, the better. (My own paltry
"testimony" stories are so lame that I dread anyone asking me about
them. When you get baptized at 7, unfortunately, you find your biggest sins lie
ahead.)
Ron did most of that: The
smoking, the cheating, the sneaking around—he was a textbook sinner. And while
he might not have taken money from his grandmother, he was unquestionably lost.
But then, something
happened that changed his life.
In the testimonies I've
heard, they only change their ways when they've hit rock-bottom—often a brush
with death. And it makes for a better story if that brush is directly
connected, somehow, to their sinning. They're painfully confronted with their
squandered lives and bankrupt worldview. "I knew right then," they'll
say, "I needed to change. I needed to turn my life around. Give it to something
better."
Ron's own crisis is
contracted directly through his debauched, dead-end lifestyle. He gets AIDS
through sex with (as might've been said in a 1920s Methodist pamphlet)
"loose women" and, when doctors say he has just a month to live, he
knows he has to do something drastic.
"Let me give y'all a
little news flash," he says. "There ain't nothin' out there that can
kill f---in' Ron Woodroof in 30 days."
That's bravado and he
knows it. For a while, he takes stolen drugs without changing his
lifestyle—chasing the meds with beer and liquor. When that supply is cut off,
he's forced to drive to Mexico—ominously taking a gun for company. And he
breaks down in the car, sobbing and screaming.
But shortly thereafter
with a kindly doctor in Mexico, he finds new answers. He discovers new solace.
He's given, in a way, new life. And he turns the car—and his ways—around and
heads toward home.
Like a missionary or
inner-city pastor, he begins his work, turning his attention to the shunned and
sick—helping them find the life that he found. He cares for society's
then-untouchables, giving hope to the hopeless and grace to those who need it
most. He serves as an angry prophet, too—cursing (quite literally) the powers
that be and imploring one and all that there's a better way.
It's here where the
comparisons break down a bit. Woodroof's no saint, and he often charges heavily
for his help, the sort of aid that Christian pastors and workers often give for
free. This is not, we must re-emphasize, not a Christian mirror any more than
it's a Christian movie. Indeed, religion, I don't think, is mentioned at all.
And that itself makes me wonder …
where was the Church in those days, in the late 1980s when gays and lesbians
had little clout and when a mysterious disease was killing so many? How many people of faith were
helping those in such great need? How many stood on the sidelines, afraid? How many called AIDS a moral judgment?
And I wonder … if more
Christians had shown more of God's grace and love in that time to people sorely
in need of both, would today's conversations over gay rights sound different
today? Even in the midst of the strong and real disagreements between these two
communities, could we have found a little more space to discuss these
disagreements more rationally, more gently? As friends? As God's holy
creations?
What the Bible Says:
"‘For I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you
welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I
was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will
answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these
my brothers, you did it to me.’"
Matthew 25:35-40
"For there will never
cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide
your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’"
Deuteronomy 15:11
"Give, and it will be
given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will
be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to
you."
Luke 6:38
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