It’s a Blockbuster Morning: Jesus Goes to the Movies

Sixty-five years ago in the movies, Mae West asked Cary Grant to come up and see her sometime. Come to think of it, wasn’t Jesus the first to make that same offer?

The answer to that and other related questions likely will get straightened out Sunday morning when the Rev. Tari Lennon delivers a sermon she’s titling “Come Up and See Me Sometime,” with the subtitle “Jesus Meets Mae West.”

Later this summer, she’ll preach on “Jesus Meets E.T.,” “Jesus Meets Shane” and “Jesus Meets Auntie Mame.” The sermons are part of a summerlong “Jesus Goes to the Movies” series at Lennon’s Neighborhood Congregational Church in Laguna Beach.

We’ve all heard of Saturday night at the movies, but Sunday morning?

Blasphemy? “There are lots of people who will think that,” Lennon says, talking comfortably in her office while gently disavowing any talk of heresy. “Not so much in this town, but there are lots of people, even in this town, who think I am not a Christian.”

The 62-year-old Lennon, who wanted to be a preacher from the time she was 5 and who was ordained in 1960, came to the Laguna Beach church six years ago. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ denomination, but Lennon acknowledges it operates almost like a nondenominational church with an eclectic congregation with varying degrees of faith.

And while openly conceding the “fun” element in the movie series, she insists it is not a gimmick. There’s a method, she says, to her seeming summer madness.

“Religious truths, spiritual insights, do not always come from the religious arena,” she says. “Sometimes we have these epiphanies, these moments when we are put in touch with the mysteries, put in touch with the sacred, and more often than not, it’s not happening in church. And movies are a key place where that . . . is happening.”

Beyond that, she says, she’s spent her career trying to bridge the gap between a person’s “religious” life and their “real” life.

“I don’t want to make religion secular,” she says. “I want you to see your life as sacred. Historically, that’s been a dilemma. People growing up in catechism or Sunday school and church have a set of beliefs that, when they get into their own lives, find don’t help them in their own life and actually put them at odds with life, in conflict with how they experience life. And what has been happening for two generations, with baby boomers and yuppies, is that they bailed from religious experience and practice, because the gap was too great. . . .”

The movie list used this summer will be based on favorites of the church’s congregation. The idea mushroomed from casual conversations church members had about director Quentin Tarantino’s controversial films. Lennon is a Tarantino fan and says society should pay attention to what he and other popular filmmakers have to say.

But while movies like Tarantino’s are anathema to many in the clergy, Lennon says Jesus would not be put off by them or the different responses they evoke. “I think Jesus is a great affirmer of diversity and of listening,” she says. “I think he listened deeply and saw beyond the surface, saw beyond the immediate, beyond the obvious. That’s what I’m trying to get people to do.”

In her way, Lennon symbolizes the change in contemporary religious thought and practice. As chronicled earlier this week in The Times, the country and Southern California are undergoing seismic changes in how and what people worship. Lennon argues that movies, as much as anything, bring people of different beliefs and theologies into the same theater. At minimum, that gives people of different backgrounds a starting point for discussing shared experiences.

“The world we’re moving toward is not only one of diversity but, dare I invoke the word, pluralism,” she says, “Christians are going to have to work and live alongside Buddhists and Muslims and Jews and atheists and find ways to celebrate each other and make do with each other, even though they are worlds apart in theology.”

You can picture Jesus in the theater, I ask her.

“Absolutely,” she says. “Quicker than church. He’d be there eating popcorn watching the movies before he’d be in most churches.”

West’s career is a metaphor, Lennon says. Despite the absence of compelling talent, West carved her niche and flourished in the 1930s, a tough time in America. “She was herself, a bigger-than-life person. Hollywood turned its back on her at one point. The Scripture that goes along with that is don’t hide your light under a bushel, because you never know how big your light is.”

You’re sure, I ask Lennon, that Jesus would like American movies?

“He’d weep over some, he’d be revolted over some, he’d celebrate some. I just don’t think he’d be put off by any of it. I think we’re the ones who lay that on Jesus. We’re the ones who read back into him that he’d be for this movie or against that one.

“I would argue that if Jesus and Mae West met each other, they’d like each other enormously,” Lennon says. “Jesus would have a very good time. If Jesus was having conversations with Mary Magdalene, Mae West would be at the table.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com