Chocolat

A few days ago I watched the movie Chocolat, one which everyone should see at least once. (For those of you who haven't, you can read a brief synopsis here.) Johnny Depp plays the part of an Irish gypsy in this movie, a surprisingly small role in the entire film, and the treatment of his character and his fellow gypsies aroused a few thoughts of my own related to our religious studies class. Roux (Johnny Depp's character) says that everywhere they go they are treated as if they are less than human because of their lifestyle. He even goes on to say, "I should probably warn ya you make friends with us, you make enemies with everyone else," illustrating the level of rejection they receive by townsfolk.

What does this have to do with religious studies? A large portion of the book of psalms asks God to protect His followers and destroy the enemies who follow Him. If this was what readers of the psalms really wanted and believed would happen, how would they have reacted to seeing the treatment of gypsies in this movie? Initially the answer seems obvious. The townspeople were church-going, Christian people, and the gypsies were anything but that. Given that they believed what is said in the book of psalms it seems that they would believe the treatment of the gypsies was completely fair. The "Christian-ness" of this comes into question in certain situations that the film addresses. For example, Roux takes a gypsy child into a tavern with him to get her something to drink. They refuse to serve her because she is a gypsy, even though she is only a little child. There are other more drastic examples I won't reference so that I won't ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it, but how could something like giving a "heathen" child something to drink be seen as something God would approve of? It seems unthinkable.

So the question is, then, did people reading the book of psalms really believe that they should be protected while others were punished and destroyed, no matter who that person might be? Or is it possible that there is some other context we are overlooking while reading the psalms which might be less drastic? I am certainly not one to say for sure, but I have to believe as a person having some faith in the human race that there is some other aspect (or aspects) involved in the idea of "protect me and harm them."