Last night on David Letterman, Joaquin Phoenix came on to do an interview about his new movie, Two Lovers.
This is probably the most hilarious interview on Letterman or any talk show for that matter. In the day-after, people are saying that he was on “something” therefore could not be coherent or functional.
When I watched it on YouTube, I could not stop laughing… it was hilarious.
But in the midst of the laughter, I was thinking about how this is a good example of bad community building and fellowship within the church. There are a lot of times when we have been engaged in dialogue with a person that was either socially awkward or they were not “fully there.” It is in these awkward moments when the question is: “Do we really love this person enough to continue to talk with them and even try to graciously bring out the best in them?”
As you watch the video, you will realize that once Letterman came to the conclusion that this interview was going to go south, he relentlessly became more sarcastic and even “attacking” or degrading of Phoenix’s character. What can we expect? It is his show and maybe he was feeling some regret of inviting Phoenix on his show caused him to respond this way. But as a Christ-follower, how would you have responded?
Loving people is not an easy thing to do… maybe that is why Jesus made it a command rather than a suggestion based on how we felt about a person.