I saw new independent film End Of The Spear last night – the true story of a missionary’s journey into the dense Amazon basin of Ecuador in hopes of making contact with a violent tribe of pagan warriors.  The images of vast rain forest and stone age tribal living are beautiful and worth seeing on the big screen.  The soundtrack is the only glaring weakness of the film for me, the formulaic orchestrations and CCM sounding closing credits song were distractions for me as a musician – actually causing me not to feel as much as I would have watching with no soundtrack at all.  But if you see the film strain to listen beyond the Back To School Special music bed and you’ll hear, even see in action, a powerful argument for Christian non-violence against pagan enemies. (Pacifism, some might call it).

As the missionary at the center of the story prepares to embark on a trip into the savage jungles of Ecuador his son hugs him goodbye and asks if his father will shoot the notoriously brutal natives if they attack him.  His dad quickly answers in profound simplicity, “We can’t shoot them.  They’re not ready for Heaven yet…and we are.”

Amazing how this film spoke to me more potently the core principles and priorities of Christianity than sermons, theology books and hours of debate often do.