I saw Flame in the Wind many, many years go at Bethel Baptist Church during a Watchnight service. (If you're not familiar with the term, "watchnight" is a New Year's Eve religious service.) Pastor Kenneth L Andrus, then pastor of Bethel, prayed into the new year after we'd watched this film and enjoyed our finger sandwiches and punch.
Of course, the temptation was irresistible to know exactly when the new year arrived, so us kids all craned our necks and squinted at the clock at the back of the sanctuary to see exactly when it became 1972.
Flame in the Wind is from Bob Jones University; production values are good and some of the acting deliciously sinister (Bob Jones leadership and students must have had fun playing nasty Catholics).
But there is no Protestant counterpart to Vatican II and the film's theology layers modern sentiments over historical events, so today we see it as Catholics vs. Protestants when in reality it was Christians vs. Christians. As the story goes, the big bad corrupt church is persecuting the noble reformers who want nothing more than to read the bible in Spanish.
(Mr Henry had been none too happy during intermission when he discovered a trail of crumbs leading from the kitchen to the sanctuary, marking the secret refreshment path the kids were using. I think he would have conducted his own inquisition if we hadn't had to settle down for the second reel.)
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Movies in those days were of course large spools of celluloid, an hour apiece. Bob Jones charged venues for each showing, which is standard practice. I think I recall Bethel showing it twice, once on New Year's Eve and later at Bethel Christian School after Christmas break.
I have fond memories of that night. Our best friends, Rich Nickel and his brother Davey Nickel, joined us and enjoyed it a lot. One reason this night was such a treat is we got to see a movie on a big screen, and in church of all places. (Theatrical movies were off-limits to good Baptist, so this incongruity was a welcome exception).
Bethel in fact, as my Grandpa Cairns liked to point out, was built on plans for a movie theater, so in case a church didn't work out, it could be converted. True story. The floor of Bethel "East" was slanted like a movie theater is today.
More information from Bob Jones University on Flame in the Wind is here >
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Lest we grow complacent in our own self-righteousness, don't forget that reformer John Calvin was instrumental in the burning of Michael Servetus for denying the Trinity. Learn more >
When Servetus wrote to Calvin about coming to Geneva, Calvin wrote to another person: "for if he came, as far as my authority goes, I would not let him leave alive."
Want to know what really pissed Calvin off? Servetus had sent him a copy of his own Institutes of the Christian Religion with prolific comments in the margins pointing out where he (Calvin) was wrong.
Nobody likes a critic. But Calvin, bless his heart, asked that Servetus be beheaded instead of burnt. (But alas, he was burnt anyway.)
The Institutes were still taught while I was at Calvin. I didn't take that class; I was able to avoid it by taking REL 301, which was a class on Christ and Culture with Prof Holtrop and noted for being extremely difficult; but I passed with an A and left with great respect for Prof Holtrop. He didn't ask us to agree with him, just demonstrate we learned the material, even if that meant writing something at the end of the bluebook like "I don't agree with what I just wrote," which I did for a few responses.[1]
I won't judge John Calvin any harsher than anyone else from that period, but fair is fair and and if we're gong to judge medieval personalities with modern sensibilities, let's judge them all alike.
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Someone (not me) actually posted the entire movie on Youtube. You can watch it now:
Flame in the Wind (1971) - The Inquisition's Bloody History
[2103-06-11]
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[1]
I took Prof Holtrop's REL 301 the same year M*A*S*H broadcast its series finale, which was a nationwide event. We begged him to cancel class, which was held once a week on Monday nights, but he refused. I went to class instead of the dorm M*A*S*H party. I was one of only a handful that did.
I of course watched the M*A*S*H finale later (many years later) in reruns, but only once. One particular scene was so disturbing, I can't watch it again, and I'm sorry that's among the images the show has left with me, but I suppose that's fitting, as I'm sure it was the intent.
BTW, the main reason I chose REL 301 over The Institutes was because the Institutes text books cost a gabillion dollars and I wanted to save my money. I'm glad now for the choice; instead of a survey in John Calvin I got a personally challenging perspective on Reformed theology from Holtrop that has stuck with me since, in a good way, like oatmeal at breakfast.
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