The other day I listened to a podcast in which one of the participants suggested that some Christians’ idea of God is more akin to the Godfather than God the Father. I thought this was too good an idea to pass up the opportunity for a short blog post.

Before you dismiss the idea of any believer seeing God as a divine mafioso, think about it for a moment.

What does the Godfather do? Well, he promises to bless and protect you, as long as you abide by his code and pay your dues. And he’s true to his word: if anyone picks on you, the Godfather will deploy whatever threat, force and/or violence is necessary to protect you. And once people know that you’re protected by the Godfather, they may even show you grudging respect.

But there’s a flip side to all this blessing and protection. If you step out of line, if you transgress even slightly, if you break one little rule of the mafiosi code, all that power that was previously being brought to bear against your enemies will come raining down on you in an instant. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve faithfully toed the line; it doesn’t matter how loyally you’ve served him and how sincerely you thought you were genuinely part of the family; it doesn’t matter that you previously had a one hundred percent track record and now all you’ve done is make an innocent mistake. Know this: if you cross the Godfather, he’ll shoot you in the back without a moment’s hesitation. (Don’t believe me? Ask Fredo.)

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Yesterday evening, I finally got around to seeing the Oscar-winning film 12 Years A Slave. It’s a great film, well deserving of probably more Oscars than it won. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should.

I was going to write a review of the film, but I figured I’m a little late to the party and would have nothing to add that plenty of others haven’t said already. That said, I can’t go and see a film that powerful and not write anything about it. So I thought I’d take a slightly different tack.

12 Years A Slave is not a “nice” film. It does not make for a pleasant, entertaining evening’s viewing. It is, in many respects, brutal and shattering. But here’s the thing: it’s real. In fact, it’s as real as it gets.

I don’t just mean it’s real in the sense that these events really did happen, that Solomon Northup and many others like him really did get kidnapped and enslaved on southern plantations not two hundred years ago. Nor do I simply mean it’s real in its unflinching portrayal of the brutality meted out by landowners to slaves in the name of God. It’s real in a much more visceral way than that: it’s real because this is what the world is like.

Here are just a few of the themes that are addressed in this film: corruption, betrayal, violence, exploitation, loneliness and despair. Think about it: are these not the very themes you see played out day after day in the world around you? We all know what it is to have been betrayed and taken advantage of; we have all, at one time or another, felt the terrible pangs of loneliness and abandonment; we have all teetered on the edge of despair. This is what makes 12 Years A Slave so powerful: it is, in many ways, describing the human condition.

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