I’m
looking at a pamphlet entitled “Worldly Amusements in the Light of the
Scripture: Theatre Going, Dancing, Card Playing, Etc.” It was
published for the annual Synod of my denomination (the Christian Reformed
Church in North America) in 1928, and presents a case against Christians
engaging in any kind of popular culture or entertainment. Anticipating
a possible “baby-with-the-bathwater” rebuttal, the authors argue the following
regarding plays and movies:
“…some
of the so-called good plays are more dangerous than the bad, because of the
false conceptions of religion and morality which they set forth. [Also],
by attending the theater occasionally one incurs the risk of developing a taste
for theater-going. The whetted appetite will cry for More!
More! Who knows how many inveterate theater-goers have started in
their sinful course by viewing the occasional good play! We believe
that the safest course is the way of total abstinence.”
This
was the default position regarding film and television in many corners of the
CRCNA as late as the 1970s. What turned the tide for many households
was television broadcasts of Sunday afternoon football and the release of films
that were explicitly biblical or evangelistic. Since then the CRCNA
has adopted a far more affirmative stance regarding Christian engagement in
culture and the arts, recognizing the redemptive potential in them along with many other human
endeavors and disciplines.
That
said, there continues to be healthy debate about how cautious, discerning, and
discriminating Christians should be in both their consumption of popular
culture and their production thereof. One of the captions in the
aforementioned pamphlet provides a guiding principle we are well-advised to
revisit: “Even when our amusements are not spiritually and morally harmful,
they should not be allowed to occupy more than a secondary, subordinate place
in our life.” We go the way of our culture when the primary
informative voice in our lives is popular culture; when news media,
television and film comprise more of our diet than the Bible and the faith
formation of the church. This should go without saying. But
it is neither a foregone conclusion nor guiding principal for many
self-professed Christians.
And it
becomes problematic when we encounter any cultural form that makes a statement
about God. There’s an easy way to evaluate the god-statements of
popular authors and filmmakers. You compare them with what God says
about himself in the Bible. You can’t do that if you aren’t familiar
with the Bible – not a short list of your favorite verses, but the whole thing,
the entire chronicle of God’s redemptive action throughout human history. It
has always been human instinct to create our own versions of God. Because
of this, we either avoid the Bible entirely, or read it very selectively. We
want to cut and paste the parts that present God in our image. To
some extent we all do this – even the most orthodox and well-read preachers and
theologians. No one person’s interpretation of God and God’s word is
wholly reliable. Which is why it is dangerous to base one’s theology solely on
the books of Rob Bell, CS Lewis, Joel Osteen or NT Wright; or the TV shows of
Mark Burnett; or the films of Darren Aronofsky. None is God’s word;
and each is processed through the fallible filter of one person’s
experience.
So when
am I going to get to Noah? I’m not. At least not personally. A lot of Christians have condemned the movie (some without having seen it). Some have seen fit to defend it. Of all the reviews I've read, the following, in three parts, has been the most helpful. The author is Seventh-Day Adventist, so his theology on certain issues diverges from mine; however, his evaluation of the film is thorough. In addition, his conclusions about the film's theology, and what it says about the church's responsibility in shaping our culture's understanding about God, is invaluable. If you've seen the movie or plan to do so, take the time to read all three parts of this review.
No comments:
Post a Comment