#17. Christian? Are you sure?: An analysis of La Visa Loca

Watch the trailer here

Sorry for those who doesn’t speak Filipino. You can read about the film here if you want to.

Analysis

To an average person looking at the life of Jess Huson, one would say that he is a Christian. I would claim otherwise, he is a Roman Catholic.

One of the elements used to drive the story of La Visa Loca is Christianity—at least as the film assumes it to be. Of the entire population of the Philippines more or less 81% is said to be Roman Catholic, a reason why most of us see Christianity in the eyes of this religion. I would take the film as a critic of how the Filipino masses look at Christianity and how greatly they misunderstand it.

Patrick Morley, a Christian, an author and the founder of Man in the Mirror testified in his book,

At the end of two and a half years of self-examination, I realized that I had been living the life of a Cultural Christian, not a Biblical Christian. What I mean is that even though I believed in Jesus, there was nothing exceptional about my lifestyle that would recommend Him to others. I was Jekyll on Sunday, but come Monday morning, I was Hyde. My life was shaped more by the forces of commerce than by Christ. I was reading my Bible for comfort but Forbes for direction. (Morley 1997, 35)

Two key phrases in the above quotation are Cultural Christian and Biblical Christian. The Cultural Christian believes in the God (or gods) he or she wants while the Biblical Christian believes on who He really is (Ibid., 35). Morley exemplifies Cultural Christianity as he mixes ideologies of  his faith (the Bible) and the world (Forbes).

The story of Jess Huson in the film moves with Christianity. It’s about him doing all he could to get a visa so he could go Florida and get a job. In the end he got a visa but he did not go for it seems that he wouldn’t be happy there. Our concern is how did he responded with his supposed Christianity.

Prayer

As we all know prayer is basically talking to God. The details of this action vary with our individual reasons to why pray. But, the question is when to we normally pray? What was explicitly shown in the film was it was a tool or a medium by which we come to God and ask Him to provide for our wants or needs. On the first parts of the film, Jess was in a line in the U.S. embassy, and he was praying that he would get a visa and promising that if he would, he will always attend the mass and will never look lustfully at women. Then, while on the phone with her girlfriend in the U.S. Jess said, “Hayaan mo magdadasal tayo para makakuha na’ko ng visa.” (“Don’t worry. We’ll pray so that I can get a visa.”) So they went to this mass of a congregation to whom Bro. Jake was speaking to. Unfortunately, Jess’s father had a bad stomach and they needed to go to the bathroom which was far from the religious service. Jess tried to his father to stay by naively saying that they should just pray it over and his father’s stomach problem will be gone. This could be easily dismissed as a joke but also can also be a symbol of a surface-level or even twisted understanding of what prayer is. Aside from this instances which ask for immediate needs there are no other prayer spoken by any character in the film, even a prayer of gratitude for their answered requests.

Practices

As observed one of the practice that supposed to be Christians as act of their devotion is letting themselves be crucified. Is there any part of the Bible that says, “To atone for your sins and for me to answer your prayers you must be crucified.”? The whole point of Christianity is being a follower of Christ but it doesn’t say that we need to bear a cross and be nailed to it. And in addition, to be mobbed by curious spectators who either marvel or be shaken by the act. In John 14:15(NIV) Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” That’s what he said and not to make our own commandments and obey them.

But going deeper to the analysis of the ritual of crucifixion or as one of the term in the movie calls it, Via Crusis, let’s look at the reasons why the devotees do these. One said that it is because God healed his sons leukemia. While another one states that it is his covenant with God. Again, I ask, “Is that in the Bible?” Among devotees of the penitence is a drunkard. It’s sheer mockery in the part of the film and hypocrisy for the part of the devotee. 1John 1:9 (NIV) states that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” How we are cleansed from our sins is confession and not crucifixion.

Also while doing this supposed to be “sacred ritual” of penitence the film, the people who were assisting in the crucifixion were smoking in the background. After the crucifixion they gather ‘round and took pictures as if they were tourist that were full of excitement and marvel of a great sight, but actually was just Jess crucified for to bargain for his visa.

As we have seen the view of Christianity is twisted. Another question that needs to be addressed by looking at what was not presented in the film, “Was there any Bible in the film?” I think there was none. If I’m and there is, it wasn’t that important to given focus by the director. This tells us that though an integral part of the film was Christianity, Christianity was missing its own most significant part—the Bible.

The Philippine’s face Christianity is Roman Catholic. A faith-turned-religion. A “paganised” version of something that is supposed to be an opposing ideology. Christianity is supposed to be based on the Bible for it is His revelation to us. What we have seen in the film was our own twist of how to be a Christian. Because of lack of questioning and by media spreading this image of Christianity the Filipino masses are blinded and in turn becomes this what we call Cultural Christians.

References:

Links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4243727.stm

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%201:9&version=NIV1984

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2014:15&version=NIV1984

Books:

Morley, Patrick.1997. Seven seasons of the man in the mirror. Michigan: Zondervan.

Strobel, Kyle.2007. Metamorpha: Jesus as a way of life. United States of America: Baker Books.

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