Last week I did a post called "God is on our Side?" which gave an outline of the speeches on the defeated Marriage (Minority Discrimination and Exclusion) Bill. The post described the scene of the debate, including the number of Exclusive Brethren in the audience.
The subsequent comments threat turned into a very interesting debate/discussion about the role of God/Religion in politics.
Continuing with that line of debate, SMACA's (a forum for progressive Christianity produced by St Matthew-in-the-City Anglican Church Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand) newsletter this week has two very interesting articles on the Narnia film. The newsletter starts off by talking about the huge effort that evangelism churches are putting into promoting the film, and their interpretation of its Christian message. The articles in SMACA offer an alternative view. Well worth a read. Here are a few snippets:
After seeing the movie I wished the poster was of Lucy. She is the young girl who first finds her way into the strangeness of Narnia and follows her heart to make friends with a faun. Lucy epitomises the spiritual discipline of following the heart, with all the risks that that entails.
Aslan on the other hand is the personification of majestic might. He alone knows the deep magic that brings life out of death. Yet he must kill his enemies in order to triumph. There is little that is exemplary about him....
After seeing the movie on Friday, I retired to a nearby café with my 'focus group'. Two intelligent children, who had never read the book, shared their insights. 'Great.' 'Exciting.' 'More girls than in Lord of the Rings.' 'The battle scene with those creatures was excellent.' 'Cool centaur.' 'I liked Lucy.'
"What is Christian about the movie?" I ask. They ponder. They've had some 21 years of Church and Sunday School between them. "Well, they honoured the dead lion by staying with him after he died." "The good guys didn't play dirty." "There was Santa, reindeer, and presents."...
I continue to probe my young 'focus group'. "What is the moral of the story?"
"Well, sometimes as a kid you have to give up things in order to do what is right." "Those kids risked their lives for what they believed in and creatures they hardly knew."
"What about Aslan," I ask, "didn't he risk the most, dying and all?"
"No," they unanimously respond. "He knew the deep magic. He knew he was coming back to life again."
"Why was he looking so sad then?" I counter.
"It was a strategy to fool the bad guys."
These hot chocolate-sipping children have just refuted the logic of the "Jesus as Aslan" argument. Indeed these children don't recognise Christ in Aslan. They see the Pevensie kids in their courageous risk-taking as the Christic figures....
It is Lucy who provides the magic. The young actress Georgie Henley conveys that sense of wonder and magic that Narnia is all about. Lucy ventures into the depths of her hiding place. In this new and strange land Lucy meets a faun (an English-speaking one!). She befriends him and believes in him, even when he doesn't. Her spirit of goodness is her guide.
The real power in the movie, the Christic power, is the innate goodness that flows through Lucy. She trusts, she believes, and she is courageous. And, unlike the lion, she doesn't have to kill anyone.
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