7 minute read
REDEEMING LOVE
At First Sight?
Redeeming Love novel and movie adaptation paint an unhealthy picture.
by Laura Van Schaick
With more than three million copies sold worldwide, in more than 30 languages, Francine Rivers’ 1991 novel Redeeming Love debuted on the big screen last month.
Set during the California Gold Rush of 1850 and loosely based on the biblical story of Hosea, we meet Sarah, who is sold into prostitution at the tender age of eight and is given the working name Angel. After a decade of living as a sex slave, she catches the eye of farmer Michael Hosea. God tells Michael, who is described as “a man who seeks God’s heart in everything,” to marry Angel.
That command is not so easy to carry out, and Michael struggles against Angel’s resistance until “her frozen heart begins to thaw,” as the novel’s dust cover triumphantly describes.
On the surface, this would appear to be a truly beautiful story of unconditional love: Michael “looked at a harlot and saw someone worthy of love.” But is it really that simple?
Troubling Behaviour Despite its overwhelming popularity, there are elements of this romance that paint an unhealthy picture of love.
Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures
power.” LAURA VAN SCHAICK
Throughout the narrative, Michael demonstrates some disturbing characteristics of abuse: • When Michael first meets
Angel, he renames her Mara.
Despite repeated requests that he call her Angel, Michael continues to bestow different names upon her. Abusers will seek to erase their victims’ innate sense of personhood, and renaming them is an often-used tactic. • Michael then announces his intentions to Angel. There’s no request made, only a command—you are going to marry me. Despite repeated refusals to his proposal, when Michael returns to Angel’s brothel one night and finds her badly beaten and nearly unconscious, he pays a hefty sum to the madam and promptly marries her without her full consent. • Angel tries to flee, finding work at a general store, then as a cook and finally opening a halfway house to offer hope to women wanting to leave a life of prostitution. Despite her attempts to hide her tracks, Michael repeatedly seeks Angel out and brings her back to his remote farmhouse.
This is not a romantic love. This is not a holy love. It is a harmful abuse of power. And it does not model the type of love God offers to us.
Power and Consent In light of the #MeToo movement and allegations of abuse in the church, the importance of consent and respect cannot be over emphasized, not only in sexual relationships but also emotional and spiritual ones.
Michael rarely gives Angel agency, the privilege to choose and act for oneself. While he doesn’t rape her, Michael violates Angel’s agency in many other physical, emotional and social ways.
Where unequal power exists, consent does not.
The Freedom to Choose Marriage is often used as a metaphor for Jesus’ love for us. But the marriage depicted in Redeeming Love is in opposition to the love God offers to us. In fact, agency is essential in God’s plan of salvation. While Jesus’ sacrificial love, demonstrated in his death and Resurrection, is for all people everywhere, God-given free will acknowledges that we can accept or reject this love offered freely to us.
Jesus demonstrated this in practical ways during His ministry on earth. On one occasion, Jesus asked a paralyzed man, “Do you want to get well?” But it was not until the man consented that Jesus healed him (see John 5:1-6).
Redeeming Love’s tag line touts, “Choose the life you want.” While there is a chance the movie will redeem the unpleasant truths displayed in the book, ultimately, it is for us to choose how to respond to Jesus’ love, generously and unconditionally offered to all. Reading Hosea
Whenever we read a biblical text such as the Book of Hosea, we need to ground it in the time and place it was written. The culture in which the prophet Hosea lived and preached is vastly different from our current reality. In Israel in the 700s BC, arranged marriage was commonplace, as was servitude and the buying and selling of women. The words and actions of Hosea reflect what would have been considered acceptable behaviour by a husband toward an unfaithful wife in those times—but it is not at all acceptable in our own time.
Redeeming Love, though based on a biblical story, simply doesn’t translate well to a modern context. But while the metaphoric marriage between Hosea and Gomer in the Bible, or Michael and Angel in the book and movie, may not sit well with today’s readers, the underlying message of both Rivers’ book and the Book of Hosea still resonates: There is nothing we can say or do that will separate us from the love of God. His unconditional and unfailing love remains steadfast for all throughout time and history.
(left) Captain Laura Van Schaick is the divisional secretary for women’s ministries for The Salvation Army’s Ontario Division.
The Price of You
by Phil Callaway
If it’s true that money can’t buy happiness and it can’t buy what it used to, it can buy you the most expensive car in the world. And what is it? A vintage Ferrari 250 GTO built back in 1963. It’s one of only 39 ever made. For a mere $52 million, it could be yours.
Or maybe you’d prefer some shoes. I know my wife would. How about some ruby slippers designed by Harry Winston? They’re a replica of Dorothy’s slippers from The Wizard of Oz, and they’re encrusted in diamonds. The cost of the most expensive shoe in the world? $1.5 million for the left one, and the same for the right. Or you could buy 120,000 pairs of running shoes with
that money. It’s really up to you. The most expensive hot dog in the world can be purchased at Capital Dawg in Sacramento, California, for a mere $150. I sure hope that comes with curly fries. As for the most expensive soup on the planet? It is available at Kai Mayfair in London, England, for $190 a bowl. I sure hope it’s hot. The value of the soup and hot dog have to do with their ingrediPhoto: Feng Yu/stock.Adobe.com ents, which include shark fins and a Swedish cheese valued at $200 a pound.
Without Price So what is a human life worth? Well, it depends on who does the evaluation.
PHIL CALLAWAY
Stanford economist Stefanos Zenios and some of his colleagues calculated the average value of a year of quality human life to be $129,000. But reduced to just the basic chemical components that comprise the human body, we’re worth a paltry $160.
Maybe a better question is, what value does God place on a human life?
I went to jail recently. To speak, not to stay. Afterward a Christian who is serving a 20-year sentence said to me, “The thing I struggle most with is … well … I have no value.”
I smiled and reminded him that our worth is not measured in terms of monetary value but by what our heavenly Father has done for us. Tears came to his eyes because down deep he knew what I was talking about. Through the death of God’s only Son on the cross, the Father paid the price to rescue him from his crimes. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed … but with the precious blood of Christ.”
If the value of an object is determined by the amount paid for it, our value is out of this world. Psalm 139 says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And woven throughout the entire story of redemption is this awesome truth: God loved us to death. Today, may our lives reflect our joy and gratitude to the God who paid the ultimate price on the cross for our forgiveness.
We are valued and loved far beyond any Ferrari, any ruby slippers, any shark fin soup. Or Swedish cheese.
(left) Phil Callaway’s Laugh Again radio program airs 700 times a week in Canada. Visit him at laughagain.org.
