OK, let me continue. At the expense of upsetting friends and families let me continue on "The Hunger Games" musings. Please remember this is not a review of the movie or the books but a commentary highlighting one young person's experience of the books and the impact they had on her heart and life.
My response to my friend
Wow! That says a lot to me. You've read the books. You have seen and felt the sinister nature of evil as it gradually sucks you in to the beauty and romance of an evil thing.
It's like the frog being heated in the kettle that doesn't perceive the gradual rise in temperature until its too late, you didn't perceive the preponderance of evil until the last book.
How true that is to the nature of evil. Evil is beautiful or we would never be attracted to it. It entices us, that's how it gets its hooks into us. Who would have thought that believers seeing children killing children would applaud or even stay in the theater?
Call me old fashioned, or call me a prude, but give me Jesus. I agree with the Apostle Paul when considering what I can and can't allow myself to do. "All things are lawful for me, but I won't be brought under the power of any." (1Cor. 6:12) Sure, as a Christian I can go to see any movie. I can, but I shouldn't. I need to always remember that I must give an account of myself to God for things done in the flesh, both words and actions.
I don't think these books or the movie The Hunger Games is on God's reading list or favorite things to do in our spare time. I can't imagine my Savior who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for such is the kingdom of heaven." would sit through an enactment wanton children killing children.
I don't think that movie will be showing in heaven any time soon.
Thanks for the heads up. I read several reviews, secular and Christian: the Christian Science Monitor, Christianity Today, USA Today and several others. Interestingly only one questioned the sinister nature of children killing other children, and it wasn't a Christian review!
Her Second Response
And it's so true that evil is beautiful...before I really found Christ, I'd read and seen so many evil things, but they were so attractive to me...glittering, even, and I know that that is the danger in paranormal things being thrown at us in this culture.
I understand that a lot of people (most people, even) are not as bothered by those things as I am now, as they have the mindset that the paranormal things in this world aren't really all that dangerous, and that vampires and werewolves don't actually exist, and so the book they're reading or the movie they're watching is merely fantasy.
Well, maybe vampires and werewolves aren't real, but demonic influences certainly are, and it would seem that that's been a forgotten thing.
But honestly? I've come to expect believers being lenient on the subject of paranormal entertainment. That's not how it should be, but it seems to be that that's just how it is anymore. But with this book, for me, there is no gray between the black and white...no "Is this really wrong?" which is why I've been so frustrated...
A few weeks ago, I had gotten into a bit of a (healthy) debate online over Twilight, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games with someone, and I went back and listened to the sermon you gave on God in the home, the sermon that started it all for me with changing what I viewed as entertainment, titled "His Presence in Your Home", I believe.
I discussed it with a friend, and she then listened to it as well (again), and we both agreed with the thought, "How is it that we were some of the only ones who felt convicted by this?"
What was said about demonic influences being in our homes was *so* straightforward to the point where you can't just run away from it, without confronting it...but that's what so many people did, and do now when you discuss the same thing with them, including The Hunger Games.
So many people (or in this case with this particular book, *every person*) I have encountered who have read the book choose to look at the glittering, glamorous side and ignore the inexcusable, horrific side.
Pastor, I saw what you posted earlier, and I fully expect a lot of excuses to be flying your way...because the books *are* incredibly well written, and that's just part of what pulls you in.
This might sound a bit drastic...and I can't think of any other way to put it, other than to say that it's almost as if the series puts a spell on you. I get an eerie feeling thinking of it that way now, but...Once you're in, you're in. It's as if there's a supernatural pull with these books...
By the grace of God, I crawled my way back out, but so far, I seem to be one of the only ones.
* * * * * *
Hopefully we have only couple more commentaries on this, then let us put this to rest. Coming soon… Oh, I'll look for a link to the sermon she mentioned and notes from the same.
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