Lars & The Real Girl vs. Community in Christianity

Lars & The Real Girl vs. Community in Christianity


Lars and the Real Girl: Conceptions of Christian Community
Community in the church is an oft discussed topic in America today. First I believe it is important to discuss exactly what we mean when we say the word “community”. In Community, Society, and the Individual, Yi-Fu Tuan states that originally community was “open-ended and extended far beyond parents and offspring to include all sorts of blood relatives and even neighbors, unrelated by blood but deemed familial…” (Tuan) He goes on to say that it was important that community was more than just your family because a family was too “small and vulnerable to fend for itself.” If a family separated itself from the overarching community then it was essentially signing its own death; depending on other families was pertinent to survival. This is exactly what the author of Ecclesiastes is trying to explain when he says “woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) Churches across the nation struggle with the issue of community. In this individualized world we live in we put a focus on the uniqueness of each other. Our differences and quirks are easier to spot, and they often times become divisive. We have a tendency to isolate ourselves. It has become more difficult to reach out and commune with one another. However the Christian church is actively seeking to combat that. We even put aside time at the beginning of service to say “hello” to our neighbor and welcome them to church that morning. We put an emphasis on accepting one another as the original communities in the church did. It is this scenario that the movie Lars and the Real Girl aims at unearthing for the audience.
Few places in America encapsulate the Christian love that we see in our churches. In Lars and the Real Girl, director Craig Gillespie is making a direct statement about the state of community in America today. It is a touching and insightful look into the soul of Lars Lindstrom, a...

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