There Are No New Bullies Under the Sun

ECCLESIASTES 1:9 TELLS us “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” I used to read that verse with a sense of existential fatigue, but as I’ve grown older, it reminds me that the struggles we face now are different forms of struggles as old as time itself. As hard as things might get, we’re never without hope that good will come back around, because it has before.

Examples of this exist in art as well as scripture. Take, for example, the 1955 film The Night of the Hunter, which addresses religious extremism, hypocrisy, and spiritual abuse. Director Charles Laughton’s dark and impressively modern approach to those ideas didn’t sit well with audiences at the time, but 70 years later, the film has only grown in influence.

Laughton’s film follows Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), a Depression-era preacher who funds his “ministry” by marrying widows and killing them for their money. We watch Powell court, manipulate, and murder a guilt-stricken woman, Willa (Shelley Winters). Willa’s children, John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) escape Harry’s clutches and find refuge with Rachel (Lillian Gish), a kind woman who helps them recover from their trauma.

Laughton depicts Harry as almost supernaturally evil, appearing in John and Pearl’s lives as a long shadow cast against a wall. When he murders Willa, Harry makes a Dracula-like sweep over her body with a switchblade as she lies in bed. Harry’s warped theology targets women and sexuality. He preaches about sins of the flesh to Willa and talks to God about the evils of “perfume-smelling things, lacy things, things with curly hair.”

Harry and Rachel represent two extremes of Christian faith. Harry’s faith is sexist, greedy, and violent. Rachel’s is defined by inclusivity and sympathy. Rachel tells the kids Bible stories about baby Moses, and the holy family’s flight from Egypt, stories about vulnerable children with caring protectors. She can also spot a false prophet. When Harry stands outside Rachel’s window, threateningly singing the hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” Rachel responds with the descant; this is her faith, too, and she won’t let him claim it. It’s Rachel who ultimately triumphs, with Harry sentenced for his crimes.

Harry is frightening, but Rachel knows he’s just a bully and a liar. Bullies are rampant right now, and many of them wear the guise of Christian faith. But, as The Night of the Hunter (and Ecclesiastes) reminds us, there are no new bullies under the sun. They’ve been beaten before, and if we draw from a belief in love and community, we can beat them again.