Monday, October 29, 2007
Decide For Yourself
If you read my blog much, you know that I don't recommend many movies. I'm a strange kind of guy. I'm not very big on movies that entertain or have lots of action/adventure. Don't get me wrong, they're OK. You're just not going to find me writing about them. What I really like is a movie that makes me think or that touches my heart. That's why I write about movies like We Are Marshall and Amazing Grace.
And that's why I'm encouraging you to see Bella. Bella was released on October 26 but hasn't yet come to Cedar Rapids. You can watch the trailer above or read what Roger Ebert has to say. Bella won the Peoples Choice Award at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. I haven't yet seen the movie but I plan to as soon as I can. Bella is a movie that tells a compelling story from a Christian worldview. It's a movie that will touch your heart.
Read the reviews, talk to your friends and then form your own opinion.
While I'm on movies, let me tell you about one movie that I won't be viewing. I won't be casting my vote at the ticket counter for The Golden Compass. You won't hear me calling for a boycott or a ban. I just won't be supporting it. Here's why.
The Golden Compass is based on the first book of Philip Pullman's trilogy titled, His Dark Materials. In 2003 Pullman set off a controversy when he called The Chronicles of Narnia “one of the most ugly and poisonous things I have ever read.”
This is how Chuck Colson describes Pullman and his worldview.
Pullman’s chief problem with Narnia is the Christian faith that informs and inspires Lewis’s work—he calls it “propaganda.” But as Lewis himself said, the faults we see, or think we see, in others are often a reflection of our own faults. The truth is that Pullman writes more blatant propaganda than Lewis ever dreamed of writing.
Pullman deliberately takes Christian themes and turns them upside-down—for example, maneuvering his characters into a retelling of the Garden of Eden story in which eating the fruit and losing innocence is portrayed as the right thing to do. And the fact that the series culminates in the death of “God”—a weak, pathetic figure—drives home the point with a sledgehammer. Pullman is one “angry atheist” who is not interested in cooperating, even tacitly, with the religious preconceptions of his readers.
On the other hand, I may view The Golden Compass just so I can be more conversant with a worldview that seeks to eliminate God. Read the reviews of Bella and The Golden Compass. Talk to your friends who have seen the two movies. Learn how both stories end. Which world would you rather live in? Which worldview presents the best answers for a world in pain? Decide your yourself.
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. Revelation 22:7
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2 comments:
As a Christian, former pastor and one who tries to expose myself (dare I say commune?) to the Spirit of God and one who has committed my life to seeking Truth, freedom, human rights and love, I find your blog sadly lacking in these. While not as rabid as some, I encourage you to seriously look at some of Phillip Pullman's other rightings. Particularly "The War on Words" http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1343733,00.html.
Thankfully, God's reality doesn't depend on our "outlawing" anything that doesn't promote our view. God is. God's creation is not beautiful because we see God's hand in it. We see God's hand in it because it's beautiful. Literature isn't worth reading because it promotes our theology. It is worth reading because it is human ("God saw all that he had made, and it was very good"), and it's beauty reveals the hand of God.
As Phillip Pullman says, "the theocratic cast of mind has low expectations of literature. It thinks that the function of novels and poetry is to present a clear ideological viewpoint, and nothing else."
While I may disagree with both Chuck Colsen on Pullman and Pullman (if Chuck's assessment is accurate) on Lewis, (I find Lewis thought provoking, engaging, not to mention usually entertaining, if occasionally sentimental) it is not those who seem to dismiss God that truly worry me, but those that would dismiss others as unworthy unless they patently espouse a worldview that agrees with mine. Is there room for art, idea, imagination, disagreement, fantasy, and more in God's world? or does it all have to be like you or me?
I'm happy to hear that you are a seeker of Truth. I'm curious why you would make the statement that my blog is lacking in truth, freedom, human rights and love. As I noted in the title, Decide For Yourself, I'm not calling on anything being "outlawed" as you would say.
I'm familiar with and have read some of The War on Words. I respect people's freedom to speak their mind. I would hope that you wouldn't feel that I'm dismissing you or others because our world views are different. I'm all for art, beauty, ideas (I have an ideation strength), imagination, disagreeement, and fantasy. God forbid that everyone be like me. I absolutely love diversity!
Thank you for taking the time to post on my blog. And I encourage you to take a look at what Pullman has to say about CS Lewis and his world view. Pullman told the Washington Post that he sees Lewis’s magical world as “a peevish blend of racist, misogynistic and reactionary prejudice.”
Pullman responded when asked by the Washington Post what Christian author C.S. Lewis would think of his books?
"I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief," says Pullman. "Mr. Lewis would think I was doing the Devil's work."
I'm not sure what Mr. Lewis would think about Pullman. I think he would have a chuckle and invite him to have a beer.
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