Leap of Faith

In this clip from the movie Leap of Faith, Steve Martin embodies Jonas a traveling minister who takes his church to rural United States. In this scene, Jonas is confronted by a police officer that questions his ability to bring God or truth to people. Jonas is the typical Sophist who is eccentric hence his silver jacket, who gives speeches for donations. The police officer is like Plato who urges his town to stop giving Jonas power for lies. According to him, Jonas is feeding them stories, which aren’t true or have no value. He like Plato say that man do not want to be lied, “no one chooses and wants to be deceived in the most important part of himself and about the most important things” (Plato 51). He tells his people how Jonas is not the man they thought he was. But as the scene goes, the people do not know what to do. They want to believe Jonas. He makes them have faith. He looks like he knows what he is saying. Jonas knows that and agrees with the police officer. He has lied but for the purpose of showing them “truth.” He is like then and has fund the light. Truth to Jonas or any sophist depends on the situation. When Gorgias was defending Helen he said that Helen was a victim of her circumstances, “Either she did what she did because of the will of fortune and the plan of the gods and the decree of necessity, or she was seized by force, or persuaded by words, <or capture by love>”  (Gorgias 39). Jonas was able to keep his crowd by manipulating his way trough fancy music and speech. He acknowledges his bad behavior but excuse himself by saying that thanks to God he found his way. Plato warns his people regarding this type of behavior “that if the young men in our community hear this kind of thing and take it seriously, rather than regarding it as despicable and absurd, they’re hardly going to regard such behaviour as despicable in human beings like themselves and feel remorse when they also find themselves saying or doing these or similar things.” (Plato 54) but the people feel that they too have sin like he has.  He used that as an excuse to say that he knew more regarding the world of sin because he has sin. He claimed he had no choice due to his circumstances but that he found God and his salvation. That was enough proof for the people. They all came back and to further proof his redemption he offered the money back for everyone to take. Jonas like Gorgias knew their art and how to control their audience “the power of an incantation enchants, persuades, and alters it through bewitchment” (Gorgias 40). The clip ends proving two points. One is that Plato understood the importance of truth and how lies and manipulation are dangerous. The other point is that even though Jonas or a sophist like Gorgia used rhetoric to his advantage persuasion is a powerful tool for people. 

P.S I apologize for the low quality :(