Confession time...my family and I (not the youngest) have watched the Lord of the Rings movies, Narnia, and *gasp* Harry Potter. A couple of them have even read some of the Harry Potter books. I just don't get why certain fantasy movies are accepted in Christian circles and some are considered anathema. Yes, I've read the Christian books explaining why one is acceptable and the other not, but I just don't totally buy it.
The latest movie starting to generate some Christian anti-buzz is The Golden Compass, and although I haven't really researched it yet, I stumbled on this blog post from the "Confessions of a Bad Christian" blog that captures my feelings on the subject pretty well:
Paul was aware of the opposition to his faith and to the God he believed in. He was informed about the philosophies of those who opposed his faith. He engaged them in intelligent and probably spirited debate. The book of Acts honestly records the results.Give this post a read and see if you agree that God can use even this movie for His purpose if we will just let Him. If you think I'm totally off base here, let me know...
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Maybe that is why we are often more comfortable decrying the culture instead of engaging it. Most of us don’t like being labeled as airheads (The Message) or as a babbler (NIV).
1 comment:
I want to clarify something about this post:
Where I was going with the post is not so much the careful consideration each family has to make about what they watch/read, but the (to my mind) general over-zealousness with which the Christian community attacks whatever the latest cultural buzz movie/book/celebrity is.
However, you can't dismiss the message just because you don't like the messenger's delivery. I appreciate that several have taken the time to explain who wrote the book and why he wrote it...and to be honest, I won't be letting my kids see it, now that I'm informed.
I guess the intensity/urgency that is used sometimes puts me off because it becomes alarmist rather than informative. When non-Christians see that alarmist tone, I think it re-enforces negative stereo-types they have (at least in my experience).
Dave
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