Most Loaded Article EVER
shihtzu linked to a website called Concerned Women for America. Being an ardent lover of Crazy Christian Bullshit, I just had to check it out. This was my favorite article by far:
Two Films: World Views in Collision 1/10/2006
By Lee Duigon
"Narnia" and "Brokeback" reveal the true nature of the Culture War.
It's very rare that our popular culture produces, at the same time, two icons that clearly express diametrically opposed world views. But this winter, that's exactly what we have in the simultaneous release of two major movies. By watching who lines up behind each film, we can discern the order of battle in the Culture War.
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe expresses a Christian world view--never mind marketing efforts to disavow it. When it opened in December, it dominated the box office.
The homosexual "love" story, Brokeback Mountain, expresses the humanist world view. When it opened the same week as Narnia, it wowed the critics--who virtually anointed it for all the major film awards.
Point by point, we see these two films line up at totally opposite ends of the spectrum, showing the nature of the Culture War in high relief.
1.In Narnia the hero, Aslan, sacrifices himself for a traitor, even as Christ sacrificed Himself for sinners. In Brokeback,the two sods sacrifice others (in this case wives and children) for themselves. In humanism man is always god, and thus entitled to receive sacrifices.
2.In Narnia there is an ultimate authority, a deeper "magic" from "before Time dawned"--this is, God and the will of God. In Brokeback there is no ultimate authority. There is only each individual's personal desires.
3.You can hardly beat Narnia for "diversity." In Aslan's army we find fauns, centaurs, talking animals, and four human children. His enemy, the White Witch, rules an equally diverse mob of every kind of unsightly monster you can imagine. But all this diversity is only on the surface. Below the surface there is a coherent moral order. All of the creatures on Aslan's side have declared their loyalty to a vision of the good, and the Witch's followers have chosen evil. In Brokeback Mountain, the surface is all there is. There is no underlying moral order.
4.Redemption, in Narnia, comes through grace from above: It is the gift of God, unearned and undeserved. But for the characters in Brokeback, there is no higher power and therefore no redemption. The characters are stuck with who they are. There is no escape from it, no appeal to a higher authority, and no grace. One reminds us of hope, the other of despair.
5.We all serve a master, Narnia teaches us--either the Lion or the Witch, good or evil. Those who seek to occupy a safe middle ground are only kidding themselves, because there is no middle ground.
In Brokeback, there being no ultimate good or evil, the characters serve only their personal desires. "Do as thou wilt," was satanist Aleister Crowley's motto. He would have been perfectly at home with this screenplay.
We can be grateful to the movie industry for unintentionally posing this choice so clearly. The opposition of these two films cuts through the confusion and forces us to choose sides. They share no common ground: There's no fence between them that we can sit on. It's almost as if the two production companies colluded to make sure they made movies that are literally poles apart.
Brokeback Mountain reveals the humanist world view for what it is: no grace, no redemption, no higher truth or morality and, in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre, "no exit." We are dust that walks and talks for a little while and then returns to dust. If you don't get yours in the little hour in which you strut and fret your part upon the stage, you don't get it--period.
In the Christian world view, allegorized by Narnia's author, C.S. Lewis, we are created by the same Highest Power Who created the universe, Who redeems us by sacrificing Himself, willingly, in the person of His Son. And to the Son, as to the Lion, He has given all power in heaven and earth. We who belong to Him and believe in Him shall live. But we are free to choose the Witch, and to fall when she falls.
Which of these movies expresses your world view?
Which side are you on?
What's bullshit about this? To start with, the use of the phrase "Culture War" is a big fucking red flag. Second, the flagrant use of quotes by Sartre and Crowley (whom the author incorrectly calls a Satanist) show her blatant distain for the "secular" worldview. So according to the author, there is a Christian worldview and a secular one. That's it. No other religions, no philosophy, just Christian and secular. The irony of this is that Naria is a children's fantasy novel and Brokeback Mountain deals with the adult world in all its joy and sorrow. So according to the author, you can either live in the real world, where mankind is left to figure out things for itself, or a Christian fantasy world of Good and Evil, where the consequences of every action are so obvious that you really have no free will. Seriously, which one of these sounds more realistic? When it comes down to it, I'd rather be a gay cowboy than follow a Goddamn CG lion, thank you very much.
I think this article also explains my contempt for C.S. Lewis. Tolkien (who I don't care for either), at least had characters who were capable of both good and evil, Gollum being the most obvious. Lewis abandons that for a childish, simplistic fantasy where morality itself is never brought into question and other ways of looking at the world are non-existant. I say that if you want a real Christian writer, go read some Graham Greene.
I will leave you with one of my favorite Bill Hicks quotes on the subject of Christianity, "The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it? Believe or die! 'Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.'"
Two Films: World Views in Collision 1/10/2006
By Lee Duigon
"Narnia" and "Brokeback" reveal the true nature of the Culture War.
It's very rare that our popular culture produces, at the same time, two icons that clearly express diametrically opposed world views. But this winter, that's exactly what we have in the simultaneous release of two major movies. By watching who lines up behind each film, we can discern the order of battle in the Culture War.
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe expresses a Christian world view--never mind marketing efforts to disavow it. When it opened in December, it dominated the box office.
The homosexual "love" story, Brokeback Mountain, expresses the humanist world view. When it opened the same week as Narnia, it wowed the critics--who virtually anointed it for all the major film awards.
Point by point, we see these two films line up at totally opposite ends of the spectrum, showing the nature of the Culture War in high relief.
1.In Narnia the hero, Aslan, sacrifices himself for a traitor, even as Christ sacrificed Himself for sinners. In Brokeback,the two sods sacrifice others (in this case wives and children) for themselves. In humanism man is always god, and thus entitled to receive sacrifices.
2.In Narnia there is an ultimate authority, a deeper "magic" from "before Time dawned"--this is, God and the will of God. In Brokeback there is no ultimate authority. There is only each individual's personal desires.
3.You can hardly beat Narnia for "diversity." In Aslan's army we find fauns, centaurs, talking animals, and four human children. His enemy, the White Witch, rules an equally diverse mob of every kind of unsightly monster you can imagine. But all this diversity is only on the surface. Below the surface there is a coherent moral order. All of the creatures on Aslan's side have declared their loyalty to a vision of the good, and the Witch's followers have chosen evil. In Brokeback Mountain, the surface is all there is. There is no underlying moral order.
4.Redemption, in Narnia, comes through grace from above: It is the gift of God, unearned and undeserved. But for the characters in Brokeback, there is no higher power and therefore no redemption. The characters are stuck with who they are. There is no escape from it, no appeal to a higher authority, and no grace. One reminds us of hope, the other of despair.
5.We all serve a master, Narnia teaches us--either the Lion or the Witch, good or evil. Those who seek to occupy a safe middle ground are only kidding themselves, because there is no middle ground.
In Brokeback, there being no ultimate good or evil, the characters serve only their personal desires. "Do as thou wilt," was satanist Aleister Crowley's motto. He would have been perfectly at home with this screenplay.
We can be grateful to the movie industry for unintentionally posing this choice so clearly. The opposition of these two films cuts through the confusion and forces us to choose sides. They share no common ground: There's no fence between them that we can sit on. It's almost as if the two production companies colluded to make sure they made movies that are literally poles apart.
Brokeback Mountain reveals the humanist world view for what it is: no grace, no redemption, no higher truth or morality and, in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre, "no exit." We are dust that walks and talks for a little while and then returns to dust. If you don't get yours in the little hour in which you strut and fret your part upon the stage, you don't get it--period.
In the Christian world view, allegorized by Narnia's author, C.S. Lewis, we are created by the same Highest Power Who created the universe, Who redeems us by sacrificing Himself, willingly, in the person of His Son. And to the Son, as to the Lion, He has given all power in heaven and earth. We who belong to Him and believe in Him shall live. But we are free to choose the Witch, and to fall when she falls.
Which of these movies expresses your world view?
Which side are you on?
What's bullshit about this? To start with, the use of the phrase "Culture War" is a big fucking red flag. Second, the flagrant use of quotes by Sartre and Crowley (whom the author incorrectly calls a Satanist) show her blatant distain for the "secular" worldview. So according to the author, there is a Christian worldview and a secular one. That's it. No other religions, no philosophy, just Christian and secular. The irony of this is that Naria is a children's fantasy novel and Brokeback Mountain deals with the adult world in all its joy and sorrow. So according to the author, you can either live in the real world, where mankind is left to figure out things for itself, or a Christian fantasy world of Good and Evil, where the consequences of every action are so obvious that you really have no free will. Seriously, which one of these sounds more realistic? When it comes down to it, I'd rather be a gay cowboy than follow a Goddamn CG lion, thank you very much.
I think this article also explains my contempt for C.S. Lewis. Tolkien (who I don't care for either), at least had characters who were capable of both good and evil, Gollum being the most obvious. Lewis abandons that for a childish, simplistic fantasy where morality itself is never brought into question and other ways of looking at the world are non-existant. I say that if you want a real Christian writer, go read some Graham Greene.
I will leave you with one of my favorite Bill Hicks quotes on the subject of Christianity, "The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it? Believe or die! 'Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.'"