The Only Real Christians?

I started watching a documentary last night -- "Into Great Silence." It's the story of life in a Carthusian monastery in the French Alps. Filmed with virtually no crew and only available light, the movie is the result of director Philip Groning's six-month stay with the brothers of Grand Chartreuse.

The order is one of the most ascetic to be found anywhere. The brothers spend almost every hour in silence (on certain feast days they go for a walk, during which they are allowed conversation). They pray almost continuously (silently), except when they are working or chanting. They wear simple habits (that are sewn in the monastery) and live in cells with no modern conveniences.

I say "started watching" because at two hours and 40 minutes, with no narration, no music and only a few hundred spoken words, it's an anti-ADD movie. It moves incredibly slowly.

But there was one bit of title graphics that got me. It was a quote from the New Testament, along the lines of "unless a person gives up all they have, they cannot be my disciple." Perhaps these men, therefore, are the only true Christians out there.