Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Lord of War

Last night I watched The Lord of War a second time... this time in preparation for my sermon this morning (I used a clip in the sermon from 1:51:32-1:55:30). It is a profoundly disturbing film on many, many levels and is based on the true story of Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer. The bits that hang with me and make my stomach churn are the statement that our president (whoever he is at the time) is the world's largest arms dealer, selling more in a day that Yuri does in a year, and the liner note that the five largest arms dealers the world are the US, the UK, Russia, France, and China - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. I watch Yuri with loathing and then realize that he is us as we sell arms through our government and spread the same violence that he does only on an even wider level.

The arms trade is immoral on every level. There must be... there must be a movement to stop the international trade of arms on all levels if we are ever to see peace. Shouldn't those of us who claim to follow the Prince of Peace and who preach the gospel of peace be the first to propose this idea and to work for it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed this film when I saw it in the theatre because it had something really important to say. I have been waiting to rent this again on dvd, but have had no time. In a couple of weeks I will be sitting in front of the ol tiki-box taking in all this film has to offer. Thanks for blogging this.