The Darkest Timeline

chanting "there's no place like home" isn't working

It’s an iconic moment in cinematic history. Directed by the late Rob Reiner from a script by Aaron Sorkin, it has added a phrase to our common pop lexicon, “You can’t handle the truth!”

The scene is set in a military courtroom and in a tense moment, the story’s main villain is on the stand. Lieutenant Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise, is questioning Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson. The back and forth buildups to this tense exchange:

Kaffee: Colonel Jessup, did you order the Code Red?

Judge Randolph: You don’t have to answer that question!

Col. Jessup: I’ll answer the question!

Col. Jessup: [to Kaffee] You want answers?

Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to.

Col. Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I WANT THE TRUTH!

Col. Jessup: YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

[pauses]

Col. Jessup: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know; that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, *saves lives*. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said “thank you” and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a *damn* what you think you are entitled to!

Kaffee: Did you order the code red?

Col. Jessup: I did the job I…

Kaffee: [interrupts him, raising his voice] *Did you order the Code Red?*

Col. Jessup: [yelling] *You’re Goddamn right I did!*

The courtroom scene pivots on this moment.

The gathered are aghast at the admission that Jessup has just made. Far from the person his rank and authority would make us think he is, everyone present – including us – recognize that Jessup has done harm – on multiple levels – but his own confidence is unwavering. He is certain of his own rightness – or righteousness. But he is guilty of malpractice. He has done evil and justified it based on his own worldview.

One of the two soldiers that Kaffee is defending, Dawson, sums it all up for us as he explains to his co-defendant why the two of them were still found guilty despite Jessup’s admission.

Downey: [after the verdict was read] I don’t understand... Colonel Jessup said he ordered the Code Red.

Galloway: I know but...

Downey: [nervously] Colonel Jessup said he ordered the Code Red! What did we do wrong?

Galloway: It’s not that simple...

Downey: [anxiously] What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong!

Dawson: Yeah we did. We were supposed to fight for people who couldn’t fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willy.

I’ve been thinking about this moment a lot as I have listened to the current political administration of the United States address the irreparable harm done by their actions and policies, both foreign and domestic. I’ve thought about the role of Jessup and their own responses to the senseless murders of American citizens, the deportation of people legally in this country and even detention and rendition of those with U.S. citizenship and even their destruction of and graffiti on National sites like the White House and the Kennedy Center, that convince me they would be as confused at Jessup is by his arrest at the end of A Few Good Men.

We’re in the timeline now where Jessup is the hero of that movie and Galloway, Downey and even Kaffee were the losers for not getting it.

And I don’t know how to navigate a world that admires Jessup and vilifies Kaffee for searching for truth and bringing Jessup down.

It’s the same world that reads the Lord of the Rings and can’t understand why Boromir isn’t simply given the One Ring so he or his father Denethor, as the Steward of Gondor, could go toe to toe with Sauron to liberate Middle-Earth. His aggression towards Frodo and attempt to take the One Ring at the end of the Fellowship, to this group of people, is justifiable, reasonable and in the interest of National defense.

Supporting Frodo and the Hobbits is as woke as an agenda could possibly get and it puts the lives of everyone in the weakest hands in Middle-Earth.

Boromir’s sudden change of heart would make no sense to them. They would see him as another victim of the woke-mind virus.

When Frodo offers the One Ring to Galadriel there in Lorien, Tolkien writes the scene of Galadriel’s temptation this way…

“And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!”

She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

“I pass the test”, she said. “I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.”

And I’ve come to realize that we’re living in the timeline where the people in the Trump administration and those who support him would read this passage and call it “woke nonsense!” Of course she should take the Ring. Of course she should use this power for “good.” She too has chosen the path of weakness thanks to the “woke mind virus” everyone keeps getting infected with in Middle-Earth. We can all agree the Hobbits must be the carriers and perhaps Saruman was right to oppress and exploit them in the end. He was making a profit after all.

This morning I watched video of Attorney General Pam Bondi tell a hearing before the Legislative branch of our government that they shouldn’t be asking questions about the Epstein files when the Dow has reached such a high level. I watched her sit in front of survivors of Epstein’s cadre of powerful, abusive and exploitative man-childs, and insist – while ignoring the survivors behind her – that we should be celebrating how enriched our 401ks are getting, not bemoaning the exposure of these victims in the released Epstein files and the protection of the powerful men in them.

That she still has a job in the administration of our federal government at this moment is a sure sign that we are in the timeline that – and let me really simplify this – roots for the Big, Bad Wolf over and against Red Riding Hood. What was she doing out in the forest alone anyway? Dressed in red? She was asking for it.

We are in the story in which the Daleks are the heroes fighting against the creepy, irresponsible Doctor. Robin Hood was a thief and the Sherriff of Nottingham was the hero. Captain Hook was the reliable, law and order character of the story and Peter Pan was just a leader of a rebellious gang of youths. And Rabbit should feel very justified in deporting Pooh for his honey addiction and low testosterone and clear cut the 100 acre woods for the potential real estate value.

I’m most confused in this timeline by my fellow Christians who insist that our highest priority is standing behind the government, at least Trump’s part of it, and not disobeying or opposing the Law and the Powers.

The tradition of the Church is born out of the prophetic tradition of Judaism. It comes from prophets who stood up and protested the exercise of the powers of the kings of Israel over and against the exploitation of the people of Israel. Jesus appears and gathers and travels to and with the marginalized. From the perspective of the Powers in his day, he broke Roman law and Jewish law. Jesus was not an ideal citizen of the State and we can verify this by the central moment of our Gospel story – he was crucified by the Powers.

But I’m convinced I’ve woken up in the timeline that doesn’t know this story or ignores this story and – God help us – thinks that at the end of the day, Jesus HAD to die, Rome got it right, the Jewish leaders were doing the will of God and have so misread the story as to side with the very Powers and Principalities we are supposed to oppose and that martyred countless followers of Jesus throughout history – for saying, “No!” to their power and calling out their lies and hypocrisy.

We’re in the timeline, or so it feels like to me, when the Church wants to revisit the three temptations in the wilderness and see what kind of deal we can work out with the devil. We resonate with Jessup. We cheer for Boromir.

I still believe there are a few good women and men out there. A remnant. A faithful core who still hold to the message of Jesus and Galadriel and Dawson.

But I also believe this timeline sucks.