SOURCE: "The Virtuous Terrorist: Stanley Hauerwas and The Crying Game," in Cross Currents, Vol. 43, No. 2, Summer, 1993, pp. 230-35.

In the following essay, Gerber uses the work of Stanley Hauerwas to analyze the character of Fergus and his moral formation in Jordan's The Crying Game.

What startled me about The Crying Game was the way the film seemed to center on the very notions of character, virtue, and Christian moral formation that Stanley Hauerwas has been developing over the past two decades. Could this be? In a film devoid of any reference to the church? One about an IRA terrorist?

A friendship between enemies generates the film's movement. Fergus Hennessy is an Irish Republican Army "volunteer," determined to follow orders. Commanded to guard a tied-up hostage, Jody, he immediately exposes his own face, offers food, and initiates conversation. In a funny but oddly profound scene, Fergus must take the...