Crash

Paul Haggis, the screen writer of this controversial film, is renowned for his Academy-Award winning film "Million Dollar Baby." He turn the tables as he creates this true, very real, hurtful, frightening and touching movie. Paul Haggis did not cease to use very vivid imagery as he portrayed almost every stereo-type at its worst. This movie sets the up by first letting the viewer know that every character in this film is in some shape or form a bigot, either extreme or not so much. Each racial group has its rivalry, its own identity, its own history, and its own culture, so to speak.
The main message that should come across immediately, if not at the end of the film, is that the world we live in today is just as prejudice and racist as it was in the time of Martin Luther King Jr; just in a more quiet "acceptable" way. This film contains a variety of close-minded characters, who represent a numerous amount of people in society. Why is it and why has it been so difficult to accept one another? There is such a barrier between certain types of people, groups and or ethnicities. The United States of America is one of the most diverse countries in the world, yet, we have the same issues of the world that are not as diverse.
To correlate this film to the Bible; Jesus was in a position almost everyday of His ministry life where He encountered bigots and many close-minded people. His actions of reaching out to the "unclean," the poor, the sinful, the Syropheonicans, the Samaritans, and etc. just implicates how difficult he must had had it and how much ridicule He went through. He identified Himself with every different cultural group.
In the movie, now in days, the separation amongst each other has not changed from back in the Bible times and sadly it is something that will stay with this sinful world and its inhabitants till Jesus comes again, I believe. There are points in the movie where the characters morality shines through. There is a particular scene of great trust where the character, Christine, is in a car accident and needs to be pulled out from underneath the crushed car. The same police officer, who had sexually harassed her in the beginning of the movie, was the one at the site of the accident. He tells her that he needs to get her out and just as soon as she finds out it's him she refuses with all her mite and strength, though battered and bruised, to not be rescued by him. She refused to be touched by him again in any way. The police officer ends up carrying her out the car to save her life. She had put her life and her trust into the hands of someone she hated, which led the softening of hearts.
There is another heart-wrenching scene of the little girl with the "invisible blanket" and her father. I need not say much more, but that scene is so powerful. i think Paul Haggins did an excellent job of pointing at those who are racist or prejudice and saying: this is the pain you are causing the innocent.
What is the good news, the gospel, of "Crash," this collision of different beliefs, customs and cultures? I believe that the gospel is that even in a world of turmoil, destruction, hate, anger and pain, the Holy Spirit is still working hard on each and every one of our hearts. Jesus accepted all different types of people and ideas and we need to do the same.