I watched an old movie favorite today while I was doing some packing that is in some ways a parable of what Trinity and I are doing next. Since the first time I watched Pale Rider years ago I have always been fascinated by Clint Eastwood's character in it. Eastwood plays a preacher who comes to the aide of a community of gold miners who are being harassed by an industrial miner trying to run them off their land so he can mine it. But of course he is not your average preacher. Regrettably he does resort to responding to their violence with some violence of his own (which is one of the things that makes this a parable for me), but he does try other methods of sticking up for these underdogs too. I love the main confrontation the Preacher has with the industrial miner named LaHood after he has stood up to the thugs a couple of times and has revived the spirits of the miners.
LaHood: When I heard a Parson had come to town I had an image of a pale, scrawny, Bible-thumping Easterner with a linen handkerchief and bad lungs.
Preacher: That's me.
LaHood: (Chuckles) Hardly... You know, it occurred to me it must be difficult for a man of faith to carry the message on an empty stomach, so to speak. So, I thought why not invite this devout and humble man to preach in town? Why not let the town be his parish? In fact why not build him a brand new church?
Preacher: I can see where a preacher'd be mighty tempted by an offer like that.
LaHood: Oh, indeed.
Preacher: First thing you'd know he'd be thinking about getting himself a batch of new clothes.
LaHood: Why, we'd have them tailor-made.
Preacher: Then he'd start thinking about those Sunday collections.
LaHood: Hell, in a town as rich as LaHood that preacher'd be a wealthy man.
Preacher: That's why it wouldn't work. You can't serve God and Mammon both. Mammon being money.
LaHood: (Pause) I opened this country. I made this town what it is. I brought jobs and industry. I built an empire with my own two hands, and I've never asked help of anyone. Those squatters, Reverend, are standing in the way of progress.
Preacher: Theirs or yours?
The preacher goes on to try to negotiate with LaHood to pay a fair price for their land, but only if the miners agree. They end up not agreeing to this deal anyway because they have already put so much hard work into their land, and so they have to stand up to the industrial miner and his hired hands (which turn out to not only be his usual thugs, but even a Marshall and his deputies).
I do not condone the violence in this parable, but I do believe in the message of the preacher who stands up for those oppressed by the powerful and their illusion of "progress." I also by no means intend to imply that every preacher with a "town parish" and a building has sold his soul to Mammon, but there are certainly many who have.
We are not pale, or scrawny, or Bible-thumping, and we are going to do everything we can to flee from the temptations of Mammon and the illusion of progress, even if it means carrying the message on an empty stomach.
