On Narnia...
I have not yet seen The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe despite the not so subtle hint from my wife that “this is my Lord of the Rings”. For those of you who where not around me during the release of the LOTR series, let’s just say that my geek was on… So the seriousness of her commitment to Narnia was not lost on me. I too enjoyed a bit of the Aslan from time to time, but still preferred my Hobbits. One thing I do know though is that when the pregnant lady speaks, you make it happen.
However, when Narnia (No, I’m not going to write out the full title) released on Friday I began to hear the first rumblings of controversy regarding the Christian allegory in the movie. To be sure, the rumblings were there for a while, but I'm usually late to the party. Actually, it is apparently two different controversies. The first is whether the Narnia series is actually a Christian allegory at all, and the second is what I call the Bizarro Harry Potter affect.
I want to apologize in advance though…you know, before I get into it. I did something in this post that I do not condone and certainly hope doesn’t become a mainstay here at the Halls of Mental Midgetry. I did research… Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike research as I do, say, planning…but it’s just that research is tiring. It cuts into my “staring aimlessly” time that I so cherish here at work.
I’ll admit, the controversy over whether Narnia is supposed to represent a Christian allegory had me scratching my head. I get that there are many non-religious or other-religious folks who have read the entire Chronicles of Narnia and weren’t strangely drawn to give their lives to Christ. There is certainly more in the stories than just a dressed up Gospel. There is adventure and grand story telling to name two. There are also many other characters and ideas drawn from the world of myth that he (and his pal J.R.R Tolkien) loved. But when Lewis states in other writings to his fans that Narnia represents how Christ would act in a world of talking animals, what more is there to debate? I know this is going to require additional research, but I swore that in The Last Battle (the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia) that Aslan himself states that his name is Jesus in the world of the humans. I could be on crack though…it wouldn’t be the first time. Regardless, there is significant documentation stating pretty clearly Lewis’s intentions.
The more interesting controversy to me though, is that there are those that fully get the Christian allegory in the movie and are most unhappy about it. I think this has more to do with the marketing than anything. Apparently Disney spent a portion of their marketing budget on specifically targeting churches and other Christian organizations. That portion was something like 5%, but of course this means that Disney is foisting an inherently Christian film on the unsuspecting masses. It all reminds me too much of the Harry Potter idiocy that Christians hyperventilate about annually before each movie release. The critics of Narnia are as predictable as the critics of Harry Potter. The Guardian, a U.K. newspaper, was pretty merciless as was the New York Times Magazine just to name two. The ACLU is taking on Gov. Bush over a reading contest on the Chronicles of Narnia, stating in violates the separation of church and state. And the band plays on…
Seriously folks. It’s is just because that now I’m an adult…loosely defined mind you, but adult nonetheless…that I now see that everything has to not only be debated, but fought over? Is it so terrible that an evangelical Christian go to see Harry Potter films, or that a child reads The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in school? Are our beliefs that narrow that we need to treat each other like pariah? It's all just so...tiring...
However, when Narnia (No, I’m not going to write out the full title) released on Friday I began to hear the first rumblings of controversy regarding the Christian allegory in the movie. To be sure, the rumblings were there for a while, but I'm usually late to the party. Actually, it is apparently two different controversies. The first is whether the Narnia series is actually a Christian allegory at all, and the second is what I call the Bizarro Harry Potter affect.
I want to apologize in advance though…you know, before I get into it. I did something in this post that I do not condone and certainly hope doesn’t become a mainstay here at the Halls of Mental Midgetry. I did research… Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike research as I do, say, planning…but it’s just that research is tiring. It cuts into my “staring aimlessly” time that I so cherish here at work.
I’ll admit, the controversy over whether Narnia is supposed to represent a Christian allegory had me scratching my head. I get that there are many non-religious or other-religious folks who have read the entire Chronicles of Narnia and weren’t strangely drawn to give their lives to Christ. There is certainly more in the stories than just a dressed up Gospel. There is adventure and grand story telling to name two. There are also many other characters and ideas drawn from the world of myth that he (and his pal J.R.R Tolkien) loved. But when Lewis states in other writings to his fans that Narnia represents how Christ would act in a world of talking animals, what more is there to debate? I know this is going to require additional research, but I swore that in The Last Battle (the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia) that Aslan himself states that his name is Jesus in the world of the humans. I could be on crack though…it wouldn’t be the first time. Regardless, there is significant documentation stating pretty clearly Lewis’s intentions.
The more interesting controversy to me though, is that there are those that fully get the Christian allegory in the movie and are most unhappy about it. I think this has more to do with the marketing than anything. Apparently Disney spent a portion of their marketing budget on specifically targeting churches and other Christian organizations. That portion was something like 5%, but of course this means that Disney is foisting an inherently Christian film on the unsuspecting masses. It all reminds me too much of the Harry Potter idiocy that Christians hyperventilate about annually before each movie release. The critics of Narnia are as predictable as the critics of Harry Potter. The Guardian, a U.K. newspaper, was pretty merciless as was the New York Times Magazine just to name two. The ACLU is taking on Gov. Bush over a reading contest on the Chronicles of Narnia, stating in violates the separation of church and state. And the band plays on…
Seriously folks. It’s is just because that now I’m an adult…loosely defined mind you, but adult nonetheless…that I now see that everything has to not only be debated, but fought over? Is it so terrible that an evangelical Christian go to see Harry Potter films, or that a child reads The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in school? Are our beliefs that narrow that we need to treat each other like pariah? It's all just so...tiring...
posted by Beeley at 2:12 PM
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