UPDATE

Please note, I believe that “V for Vendetta” is a film intended to seed certain memes into the anti-globalization/anti-empire crowd.

It is a part of the controlled dialectic (the good pagan revolutionaries versus the evil Christian fascists, in this case).

I cite it without comment, because it is a powerful passage. However, my citation shouldn’t be read as an endorsement of the philosophy behind the piece.

I am a Christian and believe God is transcendent, although his presence can be apprehended through nature (“Behold the liles of the field”) and through our own selves (“the kingdom of God is within you.”)

As for  the panENtheism of Hinduism (and the Kabbalah), that is a more complicated question.

Panentheism is not pantheism. It is not the worship of the forces of nature.

Christians are told to distance themselves from the PRACTICE of things such as divination and astrology, even when it seems to be innocuous.

But understanding the symbolic language behind astrology and divination is not only acceptable, it’s vital.

ORIGINAL POST

This is an excerpt from the anti-fascist film,  “V for Vendetta” (a dystopia based on the comic book series by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, screen-play by the Wachowski brothers):

(‘V’ is a masked revolutionary bent on destroying the totalitarian government of Britain)

Evey In Her Cell:

Interrogator: I am instructed to inform you that you have been convicted by special tribunal and unless you are ready to offer your cooperation you are to be executed.

Do you understand..what I am telling you?

Evey: Yes

Interrogator: Are you ready to cooperate?

Evey: No

Interrogator: Very well then. Escort Ms Hammond to her cell. Arrange a detail of six men and take her out behind the chemical sheds and shoot her.

Guard: It’s time.

Evey: I’m ready.

Guard: Look. All they want is one little piece of information. Just give them something.  Anything

Evey: Thank you. But I’d rather die behind the chemical sheds.

Guard: Then you have no fear any more. You’re completely free.

Evey and ‘V’

V [Entering] Hello, Evey.

Evey:…You…it was you…

V: Yeah.

Evey/: That wasn’t real. Is Gordon….?

V I’m sorry, but Mr. Dietrich’s dead. I thought they’d arrest him but when they found a Koran in his house, they had him executed. Fortunately I got to you before they did.

Evey: You got to me? You did this to me? You cut my hair? You tortured me? You tortured me! Why?

V: You said you wanted to live without fear. I wish there’d been an easier way, but there wasn’t.

Evey: Oh, my God!

V: I know you may never forgive me, but nor will you ever understand how hard it was for me to do what I did. Every day, I saw in myself everything you see in me now. Every day, I wanted to end it. But each time you refused to give in, I knew I couldn’t.

Evey: You’re sick! You’re evil!

V: You could have ended it, Evey. You could have given in, but you didn’t. Why?

Evey: Leave me alone! I hate you!

V: That’s it! See, at first, I thought it was hate too. Hate was all I knew. It built my world, imprisoned me, taught me how to eat, how to drink, how to breathe. I thought I’d die with all the hate in my veins. But then something happened. It happened to me, just as it happened to you.

Evey: Shut up! I don’t want to hear your lies!

V: Your own father said that artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie, but because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.

Evey: No…

V: What was true in that cell is just as true now. What you felt in there has nothing to do with me.

Evey: I CAN’T FEEL ANYTHING ANYMORE!

V: Don’t run from it, Evey. You’ve been running all your life.

Evey: [gasping] I can’t… can’t breathe… Asthma… When I was little… [collapses while V catches her]

V: Listen to me, Evey. This may be the most important moment of your life. Commit to it. They took your parents from you. They took your brother from you. They put you in a cell and took everything they could take except your life. And you believed that was all there was, didn’t you? The only thing you had left was your life, but it wasn’t, was it?

Evey: Oh… please…

V: You found something else. In that cell, you found something that mattered more to you than life. Because when they threatened to kill you unless you gave them what they wanted… you told them you’d rather die. You faced your death, Evey. You were calm. You were still. Try to feel now what you felt then…….

Evey: God. I felt…

V: Yes?

Evey: I felt dizzy. Please. I need air. I need to be outside.

V: There’s a lift that will take us to the roof.

[They go up. Evey goes out. It’s raining].

Evey: God is in the rain….