The N word
Recently I had a chance to go to the movies. I ended up seeing “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” or, as it’s more commony known, “the Narnia movie.” The latter name is more accurate: it’s obvious that the movie’s creators spent a lot more thought and energy in recreating Narnia rather than reproducing the book.
The thing that really struck me about this movie, though, was the mild depression that settled on me as I left the theater. And only a moment’s consideration got me to see why.
The real world sucks.
We don’t live in a country with a leader who is well-respected and driven by noble purposes. We don’t live lives filled with magic, or even clean air and water. Instead, we live as though the Witch were carefully watching every move, making sure it’s always winter, emotionally, and never Christmas. Real life is all about taxes and health insurance and car payments.
Now, there’s any number of folks who run down the Chronicles of Narnia because they’re Christian stories. There’s no denying that C.S. Lewis really pulled out all the stops in making Aslan the lion resemble Jesus the Christ. But the Chronicles are just the kind of stories a lot of today’s “proper” Christians ought to be afraid of.
When you read C.S. Lewis’ books, it’s hard to avoid the fact that vicious hate-mongering, making war not love, and legislating religion over science are simply not on the Aslan Agenda. There’s no room for a Fred Phelps or a Pat Robertson to explain that hundreds of people died in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina because they favored abortion. There isn’t a line anywhere in the stories that reads, “And they all sat down and watched the 700 Club….” No wonder dissing Christianity is so fashionable these days. Some of the religion’s most prominent members are so busy promoting fear, ignorance and hatred that one really has to wonder whether they’ve read the Bible.
So my take on all this is that maybe it’s time to start throwing Christians to the lions again. Or maybe just one lion, in particular…
