Seven Years in Tibet...movie review

Seven Years in Tibet.
Blurbat recommends this PG-13 movie. I watched this with my 16 year old daughter and wife. They both enjoyed it. I doubt my daughter would have if she were any younger.

What was striking to me were the following...

1) This line from the movie...In Tibet, "...people believe if they walk long distances to holy places...if purifies the bad deeds they've comitted. They believe the more difficult the journey, the greater the depth of purification." How different this is from Christianity where we would consider this a works-based understanding of our relationship to Deity. It reminds me how clear and nicely written is "How Good is Good Enough" by Andy Stanley. The Buddhist conception of atonement is the standard understanding that humanity has presumed....that we can earn forgiveness. Chistianity is different in this regard in particular and anyone in the evangelism game really should have a firm concept of the difference. Christianity is not intuitive because it turns this 'normal' understanding of earning forgiveness in another direction. You can't earn it. It is a gift. And it was given so that the chasm that separates of from God can be spanned.

2) The take over of Tibet by the Communist Chinese. One million Tibetans were killed in the Chinese takeover of this small country. America has been a force for good in so many ways in the last 100 years: She was instrumental in defeating Nazi Germany. She was intrumental in defeating Soviet Communism. Were it not for America untold more deaths would likely be added to the 60 million that are already etched in the 'Black Book of Communism."

3) The conception of stewardship represented in the movie has some appeal for its care and concern for nature. The workers were not allowed to harm worms because they might be reincarnation of someones mother. This could be extended to logical absurdity. Stepping on a bug could do the same thing. In fact scratching your arm likely kills some of those wee beasties that inhabit the human surface ecosystem. These tiny bugs are just as likely someone's mother as the worm is.