HURRICANE PASSION

The first time I heard the name Rubin Carter was in 1999 when the movie The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington, was released. I was riveted learning the story of a falsely imprisoned #1 boxing contender who had arrested the interest and compassion of a young boy being educated in Toronto, Canada.

Movies never do real life any true justice but when the innocent are incarcerated, there is a nausea, a hellish tenor that floods my conscience. I think that’s why I tend to be drawn to biographies and historical accounts of human struggle.

There is a scene in the movie that depicts Rubin Carter, age 30, being processed into prison population. He has just been sentenced to multiple life sentences and at the point of arrival he refuses to wear prison garb nor shave his facial hair. As an innocent man, he is intent on not at all resembling a guilty man. His consequences, according to the movie and several interviews, are 3-4 months in solitary confinement under ground. If the movie has any veracity, Carter nearly lost his mind while “in the hole” but gained an acute awareness of his true character and its multiple facets. He’s enraged while stoic and craven. He is a complete composite of the things that make us…US. He’s scared and yet resolute, fit for war and yet resigned due to extreme subjugation.

Carter’s first 50 years of life were all but destroyed by injustice for the same reason that the historical Jesus was railroaded as a revolutionary to the extent of execution. Evil has it in for good; it’s as simple as that. When the innocent are downtrodden, I always think of Jesus. I think of truth and how offensive it is. I think of the duplicity of our age as people esteem virtue and jettison accountability. And the only real rival to malevolence is unrelenting hurricane passion. The hurricane is honest and won’t be refuted, You can’t stop the hurricane just like you can’t stop the truth. Rubin Carter reminded me of Jesus’ arduous road to the cross. Jesus was and is a hurricane come ashore despite  all futile attempts at resistance and I am glad to reflect on and celebrate Him this week.