If There’s No Hell, What Are Christians Supposed to Do?

I recently went to see Joker.

It’s a bit of a controversial film at the moment. Some are calling it “entertaining” others are calling it “violent.” I found it neither entertaining nor a celebration of violence. I found it to be an Art House film that made me think deeply about lost members of society.

An early scene struck me especially. Happy (the Joker) is told by his social worker that funding has been cut. He will no longer have a therapist, and he no longer has a direct way to get his meds.

(Things spiral from there.)

In my current neighborhood, there’s a “madman” on every corner. Someone babbles at you from a toothless mouth any time you walk to the grocery store. Within a certain radius, you can be sure of running into someone so unloved and forgotten they mumble their feelings to an empty street, then turn to you and ask for change. The reason they’re all there? A mental health facility was shut down in the 80s due to lack of funding. Almost forty years later, these people are still wandering the same blocks.

If you hadn’t seen the title of the article — if you’d merely read that opening — you’d be expecting a piece on social justice. But I’m not here to discuss Christianity and Social Justice. Not this time. The Joker, and our homeless…