MovieChat Forums > Sweet Land (2008) Discussion > Pastor's actions are unbiblical

Pastor's actions are unbiblical

posted 16 years ago by gata86
16 replies | jump to latest

When the pastor spoke out against Inge and Olaf in church, he was not acting in accordance with the Christian Bible.

Proverbs 6 says that God HATES "a man who stirs up dissension among brothers."

Also, every instruction that when a Christian sees another Christian sinning they should talk about it in PRIVATE. If the other Christian is acting wrongly (and the pastor had no real evidence that Inge and Olaf had done anything that Christians consider wrong--he was only acting on his suspicions)and refuses to change, THEN and only then is he/they supposed to be expelled from church, with the understanding that they can come back as soon as they repent.

The purpose is not to tear another person down, but to lovingly show them that they are acting in a way that is harmful to them and others. If you see someone doing something that you are sure will hurt them, you warn them about it; you do not tear them down. (This is what parents do all the time.:))

The Bible NEVER advocates embarrassing people by condemning them in public the way this pastor did.

Sadly, this pastor's actions are typical of the way many Christians act, but for the record, it is not Biblical.

[–] JossIsham 16 years ago

I would never say that depictions of anything in this film were accurate. Yet in
your treatise, you make NO mention of the way a bible would've been interpreted
nearly 90 years ago. Don't try to apply modern life onto the past. That's what
Hollywood does. And THEY often do it quite shabbily, without your help. It's
never as black & white as 'Simon Says...'. Merely quoting passages from a book
(authority) cannot erase time.

Made in America...
by illegal aliens.

[–] gata86 16 years ago

Oh, I'm not trying to "erase" time. I'm just talking about what the Bible actually sayss.

Reading a book and applying what it SAYS is not a modern idea. That is how Christians are supposed to use the Bible. If you read the Bible you will find that what I say about it is true. It does not endorse publically humiliating church members.

Many Christians have failed, nd still fail today, at the simply task of reading the actual words in the Bible, but that doesn't mean the words in the bible change over time.

[–] SailingSwanee 13 years ago

I have to go along with you 'gate86'. I entirely agree, and you are also right that the Bible is essentially important in this argument as they have represented a Christian Pastor in the film. People are so quick to use the Bible to to try and ridicule Christians, and to claim that we all read a different interpretation and see it for our own agenda's, but most of them have never read the Bible, so how would they know. But in saying that, and having read the Bible often, I dont know it all, no one does. We (as Christians) all try our best, and also fail miserably from time to time. But we dont need non-Christians to tell us that, we know it ourselves.

Thanks for your opinion.

[–] gaarmo 16 years ago

Why on earth are you even taking the bible serious? It's a book written by a handful of men throughout history and ultimately composed by the most vicious upper-classmen during the middle ages.

How on earth can you say that any single word of that book is the truth? It's as far away from truth as you can get.

[–] Chenanceou 16 years ago

I'm not alone. Thank you gaarmo.

[–] torential 16 years ago

In the case of this movie, gaarmo, I'm taking the bible seriously because the characters in the movie take it seriously. This perspective is important when discussing Sweet Land.

[–] kaufmeisterin 15 years ago

Thanks from me too!

[–] Alex_Askew 16 years ago

People consistently interpret The Bible for their own purposes, and they are constantly misinterpreting it as well. The main theme of the Bible is love, and how many Christians out there ignore that part? How many focus on intolerance and punishment? The pastor's behavior was very realistic, in my opinion. He wasn't a bad man, he did some things out of love (reading Keats, bringing the money, etc.), but he interpreted the Bible through his own lens, which everyone does.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] hg_b1 15 years ago

I'm about to watch this movie so I'll just say this. I know the sweetest gentleman that would bend over backwards for you. He is a hard working christian that goes to church many evenings and Sundays.
He also keeps calling Obama a devil and snake that he is going ruin our country and I thought that such a church going christian person would show some sympathy towards all. He is a stout Republican and a poor one to boot. One can not reason with him about anything in that department. I too am a Republican but I'm moderate and will always listen to another perspective
He seldom watches TV and just listen to the car radio.
I firmly believe he gets his political education from his cronies in the church and that is so wrong. Why do bring this up, because just like in this movie the good christian is a hypocrite.

[–] hg_b1 15 years ago

Okay my wife and I were really eager to see this film because we are both Americans that were born in Germany and anything like this story, we really looked forward to. Unfortunately after the photo episode, the young Inge spoke some weird language as if she was possessed. Yes, we were warned of some sort of gibberish used by actors... but this was too much to handle.
After spending all the money and effort these people fell flat on their face with this nonsense. How many actresses took German in school or perhaps they could used a real German actress...I don't know? Yet it didn't work for us.
Alan Cummings in the short time that we saw him, was phenomenal as the adhesive that brought things together between the woman and the others. Shame on the people responsible for casting choice.

[–] kaufmeisterin 15 years ago

Hallo, ich bin auch Deutsche.

I watched this movie several times during the last 2 days, and that scene I also found a major flaw.

The film is really beautiful, the colours, the scenery, wonderful! And especially the topic is interesting for us immigrants, because we are like her: immigrants. And that that. Neither her German nor Norwegian is real.

Somewhere else on this forum they say she was a second choice cast and had not mucht time to learn. Also, it was a low budget film and they ran out of time. They needed to film a real harvest and were therefore forced to stick within their time window. I get that, ok. But why not then later synchronize the talking with a real german speaker. Would that character not have been speaking BAD NORWEGIAN with a thick german accent? That would have made sense in my opinion. But instead she spoke neither german nor norwegian.

I remember seeing Heino Ferch in an icelandish movie some month ago. Yes right, Island. Can he speak that old language? Of course not, he is German like you and me. But that character spoke the language. So that film put the language over his speach, and it worked just fine. They could have done this also for Inge, and the story would have been so much more stable and believable.

[–] jejozi 13 years ago

And if they would have had an actress who could speak with the proper pronunciation all these people carping about her gibberish would be carping about her accent. You weren't supposed to be able to understand her, that was part of the plot; the difficulties they overcame to find each other.

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.

[–] npimdb 13 years ago

Thank you. Read the headlines everyday you will see so-called "christians" promoting hate and violence and mistrust and ignorance "in the name of God."

Very few public statement by "Christians" actually promote the work of Jesus.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] quinnum 11 years ago

I would like to thank Captain Obvious for the post, specifically, the thread title. I would also like to thank the esteemed Captain O for letting us all know what is "typical" of "many" Christians.

Captain, do you know how many Christians there are worldwide? How many have you met or witnessed that you can scientifically how one acts is "typical" of "many" Christians? Just askin'...