[Jesus said,] "You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also (Matthew 5:38-39).

The Jackie Robinson story "42" tells how Robinson broke baseball's color barrier - a story I've loved as a baseball fan for as long as I can remember. But there is a glaring omission in the movie's account, one that doesn't surprise me.

I love the story of Jackie Robinson's courageous pushback against racism in baseball and American society. He changed the game forever, and he made millions of people who care nothing at all about baseball rethink some of their prejudices. In the movie version of his dramatic triumph, the account of how Robinson's Christian faith was central to all that happened is omitted.

Robinson frequently attributed his ability to deal with the physical and verbal abuse that came his way to his faith in God. Mallie, his mother, taught her five children that God loved them and would take care of them. "I never stopped believing that," said Robinson of his mother's message.

Then there was Karl Downs, pastor of Scott United Methodist Church in Pasadena, Calif. Growing up in Pasadena, young Robinson had not always been a model citizen. Some of the race-baiting he experienced led to fights. There were even a few scrapes with the police. But Downs noticed the angry youngster, reached out to him, and became the father figure he desperately needed. He introduced him to Jesus and brought him to faith. Robinson began the habit of praying beside his bed every night.

Finally, there was his signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers that was negotiated by General Manager Branch Rickey. Rickey, who called himself a "Bible-thumping Methodist," wanted to bring someone from the Negro Leagues who could both succeed at baseball and exhibit the sort of personal character that would not defeat his experiment at social engineering.

The two men made a covenant with each other about following the biblical ideal.
In the famous scene where Robinson signs his Dodgers contract, the movie slights history. According to Chris Lamb, a professor at Indiana University, the first meeting between Rickey and Robinson went this way: Rickey pulled out a book on his desk titled The Life of Christ, read Jesus' line from the Sermon on the Mount about turning the other cheek, and asked Robinson to read from a section from the book about "nonresistance" to evil provocations. The two men made a covenant with each other about following the biblical ideal.

We should be used to it by now, but Hollywood doesn't like to feature anything positive about Christian faith. I suppose we'll just have to turn the other cheek and try to find a way to return good for evil.

That his faith is omitted from the movie doesn't diminish the fact of its power.