LOVE MERCY, DO JUSTICE MOVIE NIGHT: “JUST MERCY”
February 10, 2023 6:00 - 9:00pm | Arvada Covenant Church
Please feel welcome to join us as we view the 2019 film, Just Mercy, followed by a short time of discussion. Our plan is to meet in the youth room. Feel free to bring a movie snack to share and/or a comfy lawn chair.
“The film Just Mercy provocatively beckons all—especially the US church—to confront the unjust nature of our nation’s criminal justice system. The film provides a sobering glimpse into how race, class, and systemic sin inform culpability and judicial verdicts. Revolving around the faith-rooted activism of Bryan Stevenson (played by Michael B. Jordan) and the creation of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), Just Mercy recounts the tragic story of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx). McMillian, or Johnny D., was an African American who owned a lumber company in a small Alabama town and was framed for the murder of Ronda Morrison— an 18-year-old white girl. The film chronicles Stevenson’s graduation from Harvard Law School and move to Montgomery, Alabama, where he opens a law firm that provides legal defense for those awaiting execution on death row. McMillian’s case was one of the first, and most difficult, cases of Stevenson’s career. Just Mercy illuminates Stevenson’s relentless pursuit of truth and justice, commitments that led Archbishop Desmond Tutu to knight Stevenson as “America’s Nelson Mandela” and enabled EJI to successfully challenge more than 125 death row convictions since 1989.” (Christianity Today: Bryan Stevenson Interview with Dominique Gilliard)