Citizen Ruth

I have been thinking a lot about a movie I watched a few weeks ago called Citizen Ruth. It is a self-labeled "pro-laugh comedy" from the mid 1990's, with exaggerated stereotypes of certain groups of people that were very humorous. Ruth is the main character and is an indigent woman who is addicted to inhalants and also pregnant. She has had her other four children removed from her care because she is unable to care for them. Many people interact with her and tell her they love her and they will help her, but there seems to be no authentic love extended to this woman. I felt sad after I saw the movie and I have been wondering, What would authentic love look like? If the State response, the religious response and the secular response to her dead-end situation are all lacking real helpfulness, who could help and heal a situation like this?

After I have been re-reading some Karl Barth commenting on Romans 1 and 2 this past weekend, I still don't have an answer but I feel better about Ruth's situation. Love will respond to Ruth and heal her because she did the only really right thing of any character in that movie: She curled up on the floor and cried, "Help me God, Help me God." She was much closer than any of her so-called helpers to the salvation they thought they were offering her.