The Motorcycle Diaries
Over at www.gideonstrauss.com Dr. Strauss has posted his thoughts on the film The Motorcycle Diaries; this got me thinking about my reaction to the film when I saw it last fall. The film is essentially a conversion story. In it young Che Guevra turns his back on his priviliged upbringing to add the oppressed people of the world. The most beautiful moment in the film is when Che swims across the Amazon River leaving the party on the doctors side of the river and joining the leapors. He does this because he realizes that the wretched of the earth are the people we wants to be with. He breaks the accepted boundaries in order to play and laugh with the leapors. He touchs them when he isn't supposed to, in short he treats them as people. I considered this a bautiful image that was easily analagous to the demand the gospel puts upon of those born into privilige.

Watching the film I could not help but feel a great sadness when I thought of Che's future. he is of course known as the guerilla who along with Fidel and Raul Castro lead the Marxist revolution that overthrew Batista in 1959 in Cuba (I think that's the right date). The revolution was extremely violent. In my opinion Che turned his back on the radical power of love and the recognition of the imago dei in all people. Instead he bought into the old canard that revolutionary ends justified violent means. As if there is anything revolutionary about using a gun to get one's point across. Che turned his back on what was truly radical--uninhibted self sacrificial love--and istead continued the same human patterns that were dividing and oppressing the people he met on his trip in the first place.