Mommy Life

November 10, 2007 7:00 AM

The Golden Compass - Take 2

Because I forgot to highlight the email I received, it may have looked as though I wrote the warning about The Golden Compass and suggested boycotting it. I did not write it as I have neither seen the movie nor read the books.

I've gone back to fix the highlighting so readers know that is not my voice.

My position about how we relate to popular culture is found in my book Reaching the Left from the Right: Talking About Social Issues with People Who Don't Think Like You.

That books has seven chapters:

Increase Your Compassion
Study Your Culture
Serve Your Community
Find Common Ground
Improve Your Communication
Prepare for Confrontation
Trust Your Creator

In the second chapter, I wrote:

Study Your Culture Any missionary worth his salt will scrutinize the culture he wants to reach. In addition to knowledge of the language and currency, he needs a fix on the prevailing customs, mores, and attitudes. Often the native values are markedly at odds with his own. Sometimes they’re downright repugnant.

But a missionary would be pretty ineffective if he couldn’t get past his repugnance to understand what makes his chosen mission field tick.

Which of us isn’t on a mission field? And which of us couldn’t profit from a little less tch-tching at the sorry state of our culture and a little better grasp of the current trends in attitudes and ideas? What is my next-door neighbor thinking? What’s driving my plumber to midlife crisis? What’s wrong with my son’s college professors? What’s eating my coworker with the Darwin fish-bedecked minivan?

In his excellent book In, But Not Of, Hugh Hewitt makes the point that every Christian needs to develop and use whatever gifts God has given him in order to arrive at his maximum level of influence. Only in this way, Hewitt argues, can we continue to spread liberty and thus the Gospel.

I strongly believe that in order to maximize our influence, we need to speak in language people understand about things they understand.

From my own experience as a pagan – as well as my years as a Christian – I can tell you that many Christians come across as so culturally different it’s almost like an alien nation. In our pursuit of righteousness and sanctification we sometimes set up so many protective barriers that we no longer have anything at all to talk about with our next door neighbors. While some would argue that’s not a bad idea – that Christians shouldn’t have much in common with their neighbors – I disagree. Missionaries in foreign lands familiarize themselves with that native customs and try to immerse themselves – to the extent they can without compromise – into the daily lives of those they serve. Our spirituality must find application in daily life and shouldn’t come across as something that makes us exclusive or strange. Just as missionaries trust God to protect them, we can trust God to protect us.

Even if you’ve forbidden your children to get involved in Pokemon or similar trends that sweep through the younger generation, it’s helpful to have a passing knowledge of what they are about. It’s helpful to explain it to your children as well. And it’s helpful to explain in such a way that they don’t come across to their friends as uptight and judgmental, but just matter-of-fact about how such trendy fare just doesn’t align with our beliefs.

And what of adult fare? When The DaVinci Code was first published, like many Christians, after reading several reviews, I put it on my “Books I’ll Never Read” list. My mind was made up that Christians should avoid like the plague a book which denied the divinity of Jesus and portrayed his relationship with Mary Magdalene as sexual.

However, in the two years since its publication on March 18, 2003, The DaVinci Code has been translated into 40 languages and has sold 17 million copies. A major movie is in the works, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks – both well-loved movie icons. Clearly, the story has become a cultural touchstone, whether people actually believe its false premise or not.

As for me, I’ve finally ordered a copy and am plowing my way through it. Why? Because I realize that not having read it puts me at a distinct disadvantage should I ever have an opportunity to talk to someone who has. Because if I knew what I was talking about, I’d have a starting point to launch a discussion about the spiritual truth versus the spiritual counterfeit. I’d be ready to defend the divinity of Christ.

Familiarizing ourselves with the things of the world does not necessarily corrupt us, if we are looking at them from a Christian perspective. It’s simply doing our homework as missionaries of light in a dark world, using the current culture to spark conversations.

Compare our situation with that of Paul in Acts 17:16-34:

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

It’s frustrating today to see newspapers, magazines, movie marquees and best seller lists chock full of questionable “religious” ideas and current objects of pagan worship: sex, drugs, materialism.

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
We do our best to share with those who will listen, those with whom we share some common language.

A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

Sounds like what our children put up with when they go to public high school and secular universities.

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

Paul familiarized himself with their territory and used this knowledge to seize their attention before diving into what he really wanted to tell them about: the Truth. Imagine if he had said, “Don’t you know these idols are all false?” We have the same stultifying impact when we say, “Oh, The Da Vinci Code? I didn’t read it because it’s full of lies,” or “I didn’t let my kids read Harry Potter because wizards are demonic.” How much greater credibility would we have with nonbelievers if we could use the things that interest and influence them away from God as a springboard into the realm of Truth!

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

Now Paul contrasts the true God with the idols worshipped in the Athenian culture. Likewise, we can speak today of the distinctives which set God apart from the confusion of other objects of worship.

"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

Paul lets them know that now that Christ has died and risen, men no longer have any excuse to remain ignorant. Once they’ve been shown the truth, they must make a decision. Sounds a lot like the Four Spiritual Laws, which for 50 years Campus Crusade has been using to bring people to Christ. And an important part of the Good News we bring people today.

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed.

Some sneered. When we share the gospel, we take the risk of people’s contempt. But some became followers as well. And it’s clear that to maximize our chances of being heard and understood, we need to start from the familiar base of what people already know.

As a Christian, you have a certain relationship with the media. Hopefully, your faith is not compartmentalized from your entertainment choices. Hopefully, you bring a certain Christian perspective to what you find there.

But for those without a spiritual foundation, the media represent the closest thing they have to a religion. Since we were made to worship God, those who don’t know Him are all engaged in trying to fill the void one way or another – which explains the cults which grow around rock groups, tattoos and piercings, TV and movie series, and books like Harry Potter.

Earlier, I posed some representative questions: What is my next-door neighbor thinking? What’s driving my plumber to midlife crisis? What’s wrong with my son’s college professors? What’s eating my coworker with the Darwin fish-bedecked minivan?

The best place to find the answer to these and similar questions might be your local movie theater, where you’ll find the wide-open masses eagerly absorbing Hollywood’s eye-view of history, society, morality – and yes, spirituality.

Witness how one movie – Saving Private Ryan – awakened an almost-oblivious generation to the sacrifice of their fathers in World War II. Or the surge in belief in reincarnation following a slue of 90's films sentimentalizing loved ones returned from the dead.
Film makers like to claim – especially when they’re under the gun – that movies don’t influence, but simply reflect the culture. Actually they do both. And their power to change people’s lives both individually and en masse is enormous.

Paul Harvey has written:

Nobody could have persuaded a generation of Americans to produce a baby boom, but Shirley Temple movies made every couple want to have one. Military enlistments for our Air Force were lagging until almost overnight a movie called Top Gun had recruits standing in line.

Wholesome themes and wholesome dividends are not something we associate with Hollywood these days. While family fare like Sound of Music and Ben Hur once swept the Academy Awards, since the late ’60's, with Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate, each year movies have grown darker, edgier, more morally ambiguous. This year’s winner, Million Dollar Baby was an emotionally compelling film with an agenda about as subtle as a train wreck revealed only at the end: the romanization of euthanasia.

On other fronts, recently acclaimed films Cider House Rules (1999) and Vera Drake (2004) have gone to great lengths to portray abortion sympathetically, with the abortionist as a heroic and noble figure.

Some films, like Mystic River, rise to the top of the critical heap without much of an agenda other than pushing darkness and despair.

More and more, it seems, modern film makers have much more than entertainment on their minds. In spite of the fact that family-friendly movies make the best money at box office, the powers that be continue to push a “sophisticated,” amoral, and politically correct worldview – with various axes to grind and envelopes to push – in technically superb and seductive multi-sensory packages.

It may seem only reasonable for Christians to avoid their message altogether.

Then again, for some – especially those desiring to minister to those still walking in darkness – ignoring “bad” movies may be self-defeating. It’s fair to say that the more we turn away from our own culture, the less equipped we are to take it on, to join in the spiritual battle for those whose souls are still in play. After all, God never censored wickedness and evil from Scripture, but used it to show us the weakness of man and the wages of sin.

Those weaknesses and wages remain with us today.

I believe Paul, speaking on Mars Hill, truly cared about those he was going to witness to. Rather than carrying a sign saying, “God Hates Idolaters,” he showed respect for them by demonstrating his understanding of where they were coming from.

I believe that if we truly love our neighbors, our knowledge of what’s going on in the secular arena of ideas gives us a place to start: “Yes, Million Dollar Baby was a powerful movie, but I’m not sure I can go along with the ending.” Nor must we fear contamination from familiarizing ourselves with the things of this world in order to speak to others of the next.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about willy-nilly consumption of stupid Austin Powers or Dumb and Dumber movies, but making shrewd and selective choices, through reading reviews, about what popular books and movies might be great discussion starters.

This is why I study movies. Even though most movies aren’t acceptable for me to see, I pore over reviews, and see a selected few (with the help of the fast forward button on remote). I analyze for worldviews and themes, propaganda tactics (as in Cider House Rules, Vera Drake and Million Dollar Baby’s treatment of abortion and euthanasia as noble) and trends (one season’s manifold portrayals of Satan, another’s emphasis on reincarnation).

I study movies because Hollywood is one of the most important agents in the spiritual warfare for the soul of our country. Films – with their unmatched visual impact – have proven themselves a powerful instrument in lowering standards and persuading people to accept practices once taboo – premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality, and abortion.

I study movies because I need to understand what makes my neighbor tick. I study movies because if I want to reach beyond the choir, if I want to compete in the realm of ideas, if I want to be salt and light, I must understand the postmodern mind in America.

For the above reasons, I'm not one to advocate boycotting. However, I strongly believe that if parents are going to let their children read these books, they should read them first. I just found out my daughter Sophia read them and she says she doesn't remember them being offensive, but then she barely remembers them at all. She reads a lot - has read all Jane Austen's books at least twice, so I can see why they wouldn't rise to the top.

If Sophia read them, then Zachary probably did too - the two of them are my most voracious readers - so I will ask him if he has time to comment on this - look for The Golden Compass-Take 3.

In the meantime, like it or not, I guess this will be my next reading material.

Love,

Posted in Culture, Entertainment, Movies | Permalink

Comments

Barbara - I read most of your posts. I don't always agree with you, but you do make me think about why I believe what I believe, or do what I do, and that's a GOOD thing! This post had me nodding in agreement. Thanks.

Posted by: Cheryl (Copper's Wife) | November 10, 2007 1:55 PM

I read the first 2 books of this series, oh, about a decade ago. I can't remember if it was before I became a Christian or very soon thereafter. I also can't recall alot of detail. I remember that as a former sci-fi, horror and fantasy fan, I enjoyed them. I also remember that they were quite dark.

I respect what you're saying that as adults we should have an understanding of the culture we live in. But I would strongly discourage young people from reading these books.

Posted by: beth | November 10, 2007 10:10 PM

I have read all three books. Recently, in fact. My mother gave them to me, telling me that I should read them since the movie was coming out and people would probably ask my opinion. :)

My feeling is that they are completely harmless to an adult or an older child who is solid in his or her faith. I would not allow a young child to read them and certainly not without discussion (just for the record, I'm a Harry Potter fan, but I don't think those should be read by young children without discussion either). I found the whole "killing God" part stupid. In all honesty, although Phillip Pullman would be horrified, God is all over the books in the background. It's clear that Pullman does not know God. The Church he describes is obviously not any church in existence.

My favorite book was the second. The first was hard to get into and I didn't like the main character, although there are many other characters who are likable, even endearing. My absolute favorite character is Iorek the bear. The third is pretty good, although the end drags on and on. I kept thinking that killing "God" ought to have mattered more. Maybe part of what Pullman was trying to show was how irrelevant God was to the world, but it didn't work. At least not for me. And in the third book, the main characters do something that made me think, "Huh. I thought Jesus already did that," which made what the characters did impossible and uneccesary. By the way, Jesus hardly figures in the books at all.

They're worth your time, if only because they're fun. I'd be interested in reading your opinion about the books. :)

Posted by: Lucy | November 10, 2007 11:00 PM

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6324179.html

Thought some of you might find this informative.

Posted by: Heather | November 16, 2007 1:40 PM

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