Free Keeping the Faith Essay Sample
‘Keeping the Faith’ is a movie that revolves around friends. A rabbi and a priest fall in love with the same girl. Initially, Father Brian Finn (Catholic priest) and Rabbi Jake (Jew) are friends who are committed to updating their religion. They work together to draw more worshippers. In the process, Anna Reilly, an old friend from childhood of the two, arrives. At the presence of Anna, the two men shift their focus and commitment to her. Anna is such a stunning beauty having a lot of ambition and spunk that the two men cannot resist. The religion of the men however prevents them from pursuing Anna. Not any of them can succeed to have a relationship with Anna due to their strong religious predisposition. It is a tempting fate for the Catholic priest to break his celibacy vow and is a problem for the rabbi as well as Anna is not Jewish.
This film basically handles the issue of love and marriage as it is supposed to be in the Jewish religion. The believers must make sure that their ambitions and aspirations do not conflict the interests of the religion. All the same, it is a very tough process that these men have to undergo in order to demonstrate their commitment to the religion as faithful sons. According to the Jewish marriage rituals, they are not supposed to intermarry with non-Jewish people. Jake is headed for a big position in the synagogue and taking his life partner from the non-Jewish communities is unacceptable. His mother believes in the provisions made in the religion. She disowned his blood brother when he married a woman from the non-Jewish community. The situation therefore gets out of hand for both of them. It is indeed a time of making important decision on matters of religion.
There is a very important message about the religion that the film has for people. As the title suggests, faith must always be kept despite the challenges. It is evidently clearly that the provisions of a religion are already established. They may not be changed to suit the interests and ambitions of any person. All worshippers including the priests and the members are tied to the provisions of the religion. It is therefore important for modern worshippers to know that the right things to do in their religion may not always be fair but one must do them any way. Infatuations, personal dilemmas and rivalry cannot override the provisions made by religion.