A few weeks back I was sitting in a movie theater, watching the long awaited Spiderman 3. Director Sam Raimi is attempting to turn a comic book adventure into a sordid soap opera worthy only of Day time TV. Around me are obviously regular moviegoers. They had eyes glistening with the expectation of being both entertained and filled with one liners to live by. This is the case at most theaters any day of the week. It’s not a fact easily admitted. However people generally gravitate toward movies to expand or to justify the current way they live their lives. Movies have the undeniable power to shape our culture and society in the same way The Coliseum did Rome.
The entertainment of the movie was quite effective, action, romance, conflict, resolution. A cinematic journey, that for the sake of pure cinema was quite good. However I was distracted by the moral undertones that were coming through in the movie. The general themes were; Loyalty, Forgiveness, and Righteousness. Godly themes that Jesus, Paul, John, and the other writers of the Word would have agreed with. Only one caveat; Righteousness, Forgiveness and Loyalty are meaningless outside of Christ. This sad truth hit me as I was watching the message of forgiveness flash across screen. At first I was excited for the people in the theater, excited that they were going to actually get something from the movie of use to their lives. Forgiveness is great, and can even be an avenue to Christ, but outside of faith in Christ it’s null and void, it counts for nothing.
Morality is often looked at in our culture as a sign of ones eternal life. We see an unbeliever with good morals and we think, “Well they aren’t that bad off” when in fact they are. The most foolish way to live life is to waste time on striving for morality while rejecting Jesus. It’s actually an entirely wicked way to live. It’s exalting one’s self above the righteousness of Christ. It’s saying that Jesus wasted his time, and that He needs to learn righteousness from them. Morality outside of Christ is an absolute abomination.
My point is very simple, only in Jesus do we have life. Everything else is vain.
Gal 2:20-21 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
7 Comments
Jam6000000amFri, 15 Jun 2007 04:39:28 +000007 5, 2007 at Friday, June 15, 2007
So true. It makes me think of a quote by Ravi Zacharias:
“Satan was perilously and painfully close to a truth. But it was a half-truth, and a half-truth gets so interwoven with a lie that it becomes deadlier by the mix.”
Entertainment often presents a half truth — usually the struggle between good versus evil — but then the lie is that we somehow overcome that evil through our own strength, selflessness, or general nobility.
Great post.
Jam6000000amFri, 15 Jun 2007 05:44:23 +000007 5, 2007 at Friday, June 15, 2007
[...] Forever Nocturnal: Morality is not Christianity [...]
Jam6000000amSat, 16 Jun 2007 02:32:44 +000007 5, 2007 at Saturday, June 16, 2007
I think this is spot on. So often the teachings of Jesus get emphasized in a way that distorts the totality of His message: the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus ministers to the poor, but his message is not activism; Jesus teaches on forgiveness, but his message is not morality; Jesus touches on social issues, but his message is not social reform. As John so concisely summarizes at the end of His gospel, the life and sayings of Jesus are not written so that we would become philosophers and activists, but so that we would believe that He is the Son of God and have life by believing.
When we have a Christo-centric world view we will find that we have little common ground for dialogue with secular ideologies, particularly those that emphasize a human morality.
Jam6000000amSat, 16 Jun 2007 07:57:06 +000007 5, 2007 at Saturday, June 16, 2007
So true Bret.
Personally I beleive that the basis of human morality is the doctrine that will be used by the Anit-Christ, “peace and safty” to deceive the world to fall under his rule. It’s the 1 Tim. 6 forms of godliness that will come to decieve the body. These messages that look like godliness and are actually evil scare me as a shepard in the body of Christ.
Jpm6000000pmWed, 20 Jun 2007 17:23:35 +000007 5, 2007 at Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Wow. It amazes me to no end the lengths at which some will go to pick apart and analyze something to find its purpose, when, in fact, it was never created for a purpose other than to entertain and make lots of dollars.
How’s about concentrating on something real instead of a Hollywood adventure that was made solely for entertainment.
Wow. People never cease to amaze me.
Jpm6000000pmThu, 21 Jun 2007 23:39:34 +000007 5, 2007 at Thursday, June 21, 2007
Alejandro,
thank you for your opinion. This really wasn’t about Hollywood as much as it was about the messages being sent throughout our culture. I think you have to agree that whether or not they intend to, Movies and TV shape our culture. Yes they entertain, but no one doubts their power to change and shape our society.
however, my point is that the messages in our culture as a whole, is to be a good person. I used the example of a movie to make my point understandable to the reading audience.
Thank you for never ceasing your amazement concerning people like myself.
Jam8000000amWed, 08 Aug 2007 09:58:52 +000007 5, 2007 at Wednesday, August 8, 2007
[...] Morality is not Christianity [...]