Movie Review: Saint of 9/11

I am interested in having documentaries around, in case I have no energy and want something to watch. So I picked up this randomly. I had heard about Mychal Judge, a Fransiscan priest who was the chaplain of the NY Fire Department on 9/11. He rushed to the World Trade Center, as it was his custom to join the men at large catastrophes. He was believed to have been killed by debris when the first tower fell. He was 68 when he died.


Judge had a real heart for the poor. A friend interviewed related that he gave Mychal a jacket, and gave him a call later and asked how he liked the jacket, and it turned out that Mychal saw a homeless man on his way home, and just had to put the coat over him. He was always there to minister to others in tragic times, and took seriously his position as the NYFD chaplain.

The documentary pointed out that he had formerly been an alcoholic and was a huge fan of AA. He also had a homosexual orientation. He was not completely open about it because he did not want to damage his relationship with the firefighters. The DVD implies that his homosexual orientation had him more able to minister to AIDS victims - in the 80s this was known as "gay-related immune deficiency" or something like that. There was a lot of paranoia about this at the time, and people with AIDS had no dignity in the hospitals. Mychal Judge went in and encountered resistance to a religious figure. He prayed to find a way to reach them. And from that point, first when he walked in, he rubbed their feet, and then they were open to talk to him.



I found out at the end via a rainbow-colored logo that this movie was produced by a homosexual awareness group. This I realized is why they spent so much time talking about his sexuality, and why over half the people interviewed were obviously gay men. I'm not sure this is a bad thing, but I have two complaints. One, the back cover said nothing about sexuality. I feel like there was a hidden agenda. (Now I know how people feel about materials with hidden Christian agenda! ) Second, I don't know if Mychal Judge wanted to be a hero of the gay community - and is it all taken out of context of his life?

This documentary raised obvious questions for me. My strong feeling and conclusion from studying Scripture is that homosexuality is contrary to God's will.

-A man obviously moved by Christ and listening to him - was his ability to minister to others hampered by his sexuality? Was his relationship with Christ hampered by his sexuality? Since priests are required to be celibate, his sexuality was a feeling and tendency, not an action.
-Are homosexuals saved? (My conclusion is yes.... Are racists saved? What about liars? At what point can we decide that God's grace is not strong enough? I conclude that having a relationship with Christ through his sacrifice is the only criterion, and I assume this man had it. )
-What should be the role of the church with homosexuals. The spirit of condemnation doesn't work, I don't think. It just pushes people away from Christ. On the other hand, I couldn't bring myself to ignore someone's homosexuality when teaching them to obey Christ. But overall, the church needs to minister to these people better. Mychal Judge opened up his church to them, so that they could have a gay worship service. Deep question, huh?