Safe Haven

 This 1961 blockbuster film--it made more than 5 times what it cost to make--with an amazing all-star cast is a recreation of the so-called "Judges' Trial," part of the wider war crimes trials at Nuremberg after World War II. It's another one of my obsessions of late. I think a guy who has a chance to teach social studies in high school had better be decently well-versed in the details of that war and its aftermath. I do find that pop culture still has a role in humanizing certain things from long ago, especially since we will soon lose everyone who fought or experienced that war. (And it's a great film! And naturally, most teachers are huge nerds, and those of us in the liberal arts rarely stop thinking of our subjects.) Maximilian Schell won the Academy Award for Best Actor in his role as Hans Rolfe, defense counsel for the four Nazi judges on trial. Despite engaging in some contemptible tactics during the trial, Schell manages to make Rolfe almost likable. [Sch...

 If you recall, The Winds of War was published in 1971, and Herman Wouk wrote the follow-up, War And Remembrance, in 1978. The books became celebrated miniseries in 1983 and 1988, respectively. I saw The Winds Of War by pure luck, when Netflix allowed us here in the US to stream it. It could have been 2013 or 2014; Donald Trump was a weird cameo actor, not a politician. Anyway, it's one of my obsessions now. It worms its way into your mind and heart before you realize it. One thing you notice is how the shadow of the Nazi evil just hangs over the story. We get to see how low-level distaste for Jews--like Clara Young in the German railway station--will be used by the Nazis for their own purposes. If we do not affirmatively love those in danger--risk ourselves for them--evil will find them. The professor Aaron Jastrow doesn't perceive the danger in his immigration status until far too late. The diplomat August van Winnaker has a low-level disdain for Jews that he masks in concern...

 I have ignored the latest events in Minneapolis, because it does not serve to make bold pronouncements and attach the name of Jesus to them. To leave no room for a variance of interpretation is its own form of blasphemy. I will say that I'm praying for the soul of Alex Pretti, and everyone affected by his death. I can also say that the general restrictionism of the administration and its deportation quotas increases the chances that innocents get caught up in the web of immigration enforcement. I once heard that faithfulness was a long obedience in the same direction. I think evangelicals find that boring. That's why "Red" evangelicals like to pretend they are being persecuted by a desperately wicked left-wing secular government--even if this narrative isn't wholly meritless--and "Blue" evangelicals like to pretend that this administration is the reincarnation of the Third Reich, even attaching the name "Gestapo" to ICE, and all of its actions...