Portrayals of God

When looking at the film Dogma as a whole, the cultural and religious implications are obvious. So, perhaps the hardest part about an assignment based around this piece is not describing a certain controversial issue, but picking one particular controversy to write about. Knowing this, thinking about the film as a whole is probably the best choice overall. What then is the main issue of Dogma? In my opinion, I would say that the portrayal of God in the movie is probably the most all encompassing theme of the entire film. Based upon the writers’ interpretations of God, their intent on all of the religious issues developed over the piece can be contained. Thus, to understand Dogma, we must understand how the movie portrays God, and why.

Throughout the film, we find characters continuously portraying God in their own opinion as powerful and all controlling. For example, the angels seem to view God with a dictator-like point of view. They appeared to be very much against God because they felt that the Almighty’s judgment on them was wrongful, and thus they worked throughout the film to try and circumvent his punishment on them. Contrary to this view, we found that Gabriel and the 13^th apostle seemed to view God as not only powerful, but benevolent. No matter how strict the Lord’s judgment appeared to be, these two characters seemed to view God’s decisions as correct. In most circumstances, they even seemed friendly toward God, unlike the angels. From these separate sets of characters, the film portrays views on God which are fairly common in our world. In fact, if you include the view of the main character, Bethany, we find the portrayal of the apathetic God. Though Bethany associated herself with the Catholic Church, she herself admits that she’s not really positive about her faith. Thus, from these three sets of views presented in the movie, we find the three main views of individuals in our world today. There are extremely religious people who not only believe in God’s power, but in God’s mercy. Then there are the individuals who view God as an unruly dictator whose intent is to torture us throughout our lives. And finally, we find those people who are apathetic toward the idea of God. Sometimes these apathetic individuals simply do not believe in God, and some believe in an Almighty, but are very unsure about their faith or of religion in general. In this way, we find that the movie (at least before it actually introduces God’s character) portrays many of the ways that humanity views God.

Knowing that the film very much reflects the views of average day people, the next logical step is to question how the media portrays God. Most commonly, the modern media portrays God as the wise old man that common culture has accepted for the Lord. Instead of portraying God as a new age figure, the media shows God as the bearded old man. In some cases, the media shows the Lord as a very arbitrary figure whose rules are as arbitrary as he is. They do this by constantly showing promiscuity and characters that continuously break the fundamental laws of religion. By this, the media sends a message that humanity really doesn’t have to follow the Lord’s laws, and therefore seems to be stating that God is really irrelevant in the overall scheme of things. In contrast to the movie, I would say that the common media portrayal of God is much more negative.

To bring this full circle, I feel like noting the film’s final portrayal of God is necessary. At the end of the film, God is revealed to be a kind, mysterious woman. As curious as this view on God is, it actually fits along the lines of what the movie seemed to be going for. Throughout, the film seemed to go against the accepted views of God by presenting them, then shooting them down shortly after. In the end, Dogma portrayed the Lord as a being just that, somewhat contrary to the accepted views of God.

To conclude, I must admit that I feel your personal view on God is far more important than how everyone else tries to make you view God. No matter how the media portrays God, no matter how Dogma portrayed God, I believe that your own view on Him is far more accurate. In my mind, this seems accurate because God is supposed to be all-knowing, thus if he truly understands us as well as we are led to believe, then if and when he were to appear to us, He would be exactly how we would need him to be. Thus, to truly understand God and know how exactly he would be portrayed, the best answer, in my opinion, is found within ourselves.