I just cried at a science fiction movie.

Justin and I saw District 9 tonight. I didn’t know much about it ahead of time. I knew it featured aliens, and I suspected lots of effects and violence. I did not expect to cry.

But I did. Often I found myself covering my eyes to avoid the horror or pain or heartbreak. Other times I couldn’t look away. In that movie I saw everything that is wrong with humankind and only a little of what’s right. I saw hate and anger and injustice—in graphic detail.

I am devastated by the reality that people actually act like that—that we debase others and elevate ourselves; that we pillage people groups, taking all that’s good and leaving behind the depressing, humiliating wreckage; that we kill frequently and sometimes indiscriminently, ignoring the beauty and worth of any life.

If you haven’t seen it, you should think carefully about it. This movie is explicit. The language is filthy, and the violence is vomit-inducing. It’s dark and overwhelmingly heavy.

I don’t know that I’d see it again knowing what I know now, but I am deeply affected by the experience. I see merit in examining what lies in the world’s shadows, if only to remind us of how far we’ve fallen since Eden and how far God’s willing to go to redeem us.