Short Stop: The 21 is a handsome bit of Christian propaganda

Tod Polson's The 21, which is shortlisted for the Oscars, tells the story of 21 Coptic Christians who were captured, tortured, and murdered by ISIS in 2015. Among brief snippets of actual footage, taken from a video ISIS released following the murder, the story is rendered in animation based on Coptic iconography: lots of strong lines, beautiful colors, bold figures. It's a thoughtful approach to telling this story, and a fitting once since the men have been deemed martyrs by both their church and the Catholic Church.

The telling of the story is straightforward enough, going step by step in what happened. First, seven men were stopped and captured as they traveled home. Then, the home where they were living was raided, and the thirteen other men living there joined the ranks of the prisoners. Finally, a man from Ghana who had been captured separately and was set for release, instead said that he deserves to be locked up with the others, since his God and their God was one and the same.

We're told that the prisoners were treated relatively kindly at first, given food and water while being asked to denounce their beliefs. But as they repeatedly refused, the torture began: hauling heavy bags along the sand, being beaten and stabbed, being locked up in small cells. We're told that the men's faith never wavered, that they continually prayed, that ISIS seemingly sensed the power of the Christian God and sometimes quaked in fear.

It's hard for me to come at this short from any sort of objective place. And honestly, none of us ever watch anything objectively. We're always informed by who we are, our experiences, our beliefs, and a thousand other bits of context that inform our viewing. So watching this, and coming from a Christian background that caused me a lot of pain, some of which still lingers and haunts me, I found this short frustrating. And sad for reasons beyond the tragedy of people being murdered for their beliefs.

Ultimately, this is a bit of Christian propaganda. It's telling a true story and mourning those lives, yes, but more than that, it wants to lift these men up as heroes because they refused to denounce their faith. And that sits strangely with me. It makes me think of missionaries who set out to far-off corners of the world trying to spread their beliefs, encroaching on native customs and cultures, trying to mold everyone else into a cookie-cutter of their religion. It's damaging, and evil. Of course, that's not what was happening here. These men weren't captured for proselytizing, but merely for being members of a religion. That's a different thing. 

But the obsession with martyrdom, with being willing to die for your religious beliefs, has always been a strange thing to me, even when I was fully within the throes of Christianity. I always thought, "Why not just deny it to them, go free, and then get on with your life and your beliefs?" Why is it so noble to die? What good does that do?

Here, we have our answer: someone dying for their faith galvanizes others to participate, to be more zealous, to give more money. It ties tighter the ties that bind. It gives the Church power, which is the ultimate goal of everything that happens within the walls of a religious institution, or at the hands of those who seek to spread their beliefs further.

So this short is fine for what it is, but it's not one I would recommend, or ever watch again.