REEL SALVATION: A HOMILY IN MOVING PICTURES 

Delivered by:

---

EDITORIAL NOTE:
Following recent remarks by Pete Hegseth, in which a quasi-scriptural formulation of the Book of Ezekiel was rendered in a manner some found—cinematic—the Council has invited the Right Reverend James Groady to clarify the matter.

---

Rev. Groady:

Brothers and Sisters—

Before we begin, I want to make something plain.

There was a time—long before the multiplex and the matinee—when men and women entered a darkened space—sat shoulder to shoulder—
and looked up at illuminated scenes telling them who they were, what was good, what was evil, and how the story ends.

They called it the Church.

Painted walls. Colored glass. Saints frozen mid-gesture. A narrative unfolding not by argument—but by image.

Now we have another such place.

The images move. The saints talk faster. The sinners have better lines. But the effect?

Well:

---

Now, I must offer a brief clarification before we proceed.

The words you are about to hear are drawn not from a single book, nor from any one tradition, but from a vast and flickering canon—projected in darkened rooms, repeated until memorized, and carried about in the hearts of the people.

You know these lines. You have heard them before. And, if I may be so bold— you have believed them.

So when a man borrows a verse that isn’t quite a verse, I do not condemn him. I simply ask:

Where did he learn to speak that way?

---

Now, as it is written—

Congregation (prompted, in unison):
And may the Force be with you too.

---

We gather today in a time of confusion. A time when men quote verses that are not verses, and prayers that are not prayers.

But I say unto you—

And yet. . . we must try.

---

For the path of the righteous man— Well, you know the one.

But hear me now:

---

Now some have asked me—Reverend, what is justice?

And I tell them plainly:

That’s Old Testament right there.

But mercy—ah, mercy is a different thing.

---

And what of suffering?

---

Now I hear some of you murmuring—

“Reverend… are these not merely movies?”

To which I respond:

Because the waters we’re in are deeper than we thought.

And to those in high places—those who would mix the reel with the real—I say this, in all charity:

---

[He pauses. Picks up the banjo. Plucks a single, resonant note.]

In closing—

“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

And let us remember:

And if he abides. . . so might we.

---

Congregation (softly, in unison):
So say we all.

(from Battlestar Galactica)

---

Rev. Groady:
 One moment folks. You won’t want to miss the topic for next week’s show—I mean sermon.

Looks like a reckoning.