UNITED STATES
RevEverett
Spotlight is a film about the two institutions I hold most dear: newspapers and the Church, set in Boston, the city I have claimed as home.
I left the film full of rage, despondent, and convicted- if you serve any religious institution, you need to see this film.
Spotlight is the cautionary tale of an institution that is more invested in self-protection than the protection of the vulnerable.
This is non-neogotiable: If you plan to attend to the tender spiritual lives of people, you need to know and see what damage any of us or our institutions can do. Ministry is an awesome responsibility, which is part of what makes it such meaningful work. The flip-side of this power and intimacy in people’s lives and souls is the potential for enormous damage. I wish our ordination vows included the promise to “do no harm.”
There are plenty of strong reviews of the film: Vulture, Wall Street Journal, NPR, New York Times, The New Yorker, Variety, the Roman Catholic magazine America, and the definitive review by Ty Burr from the Boston Globe. Here, I’m less interested in whether this is a good film ( near unanimous reviews think it is, and I do too), and more interested in what we who lead religious institutions might learn and do.
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