Every now and then, Molly and I do some binge movie watching. It usually happens right after the Oscars when we try to catch some of the movies we missed during the year. We’ve seen several movies in the last few weeks, and I noticed that there was a common thread ran through most of the movies that we saw: the main character’s integrity.
“Roman J. Israel,” is a movie about an upstanding lawyer, (there is such a thing!), passionate about revamping the plea bargaining system to protect indigent criminal defendants. Unfortunately for him, his own integrity failed him. The irony of the movie is that this ethical attorney used attorney-client privileged information about the whereabouts of a suspected killer to collect a $100,000 reward. When the suspected killer learned that Israel had turned him in and collected the reward, he had Israel killed from jail. Israel’s failure of integrity cost him his life.
“I, Tonya”, is a movie about the life of figure skater Tonya Harding. Harding came from humble roots to put it politely, and became the best figure skater in America at one point, winning the 1991 US Championships. She did not medal in the 1992 Olympics, but was set to compete again in the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer. Harding’s husband Jeff Gillooly, and his friend Shawn Eckhardt conspired to send death threats to Harding’s rival Nancy Kerrigan, hoping by psychological warfare to intimidate Kerrigan into skating poorly. Unfortunately, Eckhardt took the scheme a step further. He hired men to break Kerrigan’s knee so that she wouldn’t be able to skate at all. Of course the FBI quickly uncovered the plot. This failure of integrity resulted in criminal convictions for all, and Tonya Harding’s lifetime ban from skating.
“Chappaquiddick” is the story of Ted Kennedy’s car accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne. The movie portrays Kennedy vacillating between wanting to do the right thing by reporting the accident truthfully, and covering it up to protect his political career. Ultimately, his integrity failed him. His own ambitions, combined with his desire to please his domineering father, prevailed over his conscience. Kennedy went on to serve for over 40 years as a US Senator from Massachusetts. Most likely, the Chappaquiddick incident put a ceiling on his political career. Though beloved in Massachusetts, he was never able to win the Democratic nomination for President. I wonder if Kennedy was haunted by his failure of integrity for rest of his life.
In contrast to these tragic stories of failure of integrity is the movie “Paul, the Apostle.” This movie portrays Paul, Luke, Priscilla and Aquila as models of Christian integrity. Christians were being fed to the lions in the Colosseum, and being made into human torches to light the Roman streets. They could have recanted their faith to save their lives, but they would rather be martyred than dishonor Jesus. Paul of course was beheaded for his faith.
As I thought of the common theme of integrity in these movies, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Paul’s own writings. Paul wrote, “Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity” (2 Cor. 1:12). Paul instructed Titus, “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned” (Titus 2:7). In a famous passage closely related to integrity, Paul wrote about temptation, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
Our integrity is important to God. The Bible says “Walk in a manner worthy of your calling.” Our integrity is also important to the watching world. Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” How can we live lives of integrity that will be pleasing to God? Integrity is consistently, 1000 times a day, making decisions to be honest, truthful, moral, just and fair-minded to others. If our integrity fails us even once, our reputation is lost. Sadly, it seems that integrity is no longer found in politics, business and even church. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been part of the sexual abuse scandal. Enron, Wells Fargo and Bernie Madoff among many others have killed hope for integrity in business. Even in church, scandal runs rampant, with Willow Creek as the most recent high profile example.
As humans, we will face challenges to our integrity every day. As Christians, we are God’s representatives on earth. Let us be sure that we represent Him well. We’ve all blown it at one time or another, but you can start fresh today. Let’s let people see that there is something different about us. Let’s let God use our integrity to draw them to Jesus.
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