The Christian Imagination

The world has changed. We’re now more connected than ever, worldwide. I love Facebook. It fits me so well. My only regret is that it didn’t exist when I went to college, as I had to maintain all my email and phone lists manually, and it took a lot more effort to keep in touch, and for a long time, I made the effort. There is a realization, though, that I can only really stay connected to so many people. To be overly connected may mean not being connected to any, to not be truly known, and to know. And even if known, how many I am committed to?

I surfed the pre-Internet, other known as Bulletin Board Systems. Email has been my friend a long time. I’m a lover of information. You might say that I like the noise and information overload, at least when it’s in front of me. That makes it all the more significant for me to say that I’m going offline, at least partially. Though I have cable as part of my rent, I won’t be having a TV. Though I often work from home, I won’t be having Internet at home. I should add that I do love video games, but I burned so many hours on them in my youth, I have no desire to continue doing so.

The main reason? Distraction. TV and Internet are easy distractions. Some of my desired pursuits, such as teaching myself graphic design, take focus and disciplined effort. Further, imagination, by it’s nature, needs room to grow.

The secondary reason is that I need to be less connected to data and more connected to people. It’s too easy to be ‘always on’ to information but not fully present when with people. That doesn’t even take into account all the people I might be inclined to connect with if distraction wasn’t so readily available.

So, that’s the plan. I’ll let you know how it goes. I should add that my cell phone will still be always on and I’ll use the Internet almost daily…just not as much.

My friend just asked me if I was going to post about The Golden Compass. I told him that I thought about it, but had decided not to, but here it is anyway. There have been emails circulating in protest of the movie, loosely based on this quote from Bill Donahue of The Catholic League:

Look, the movie is based on the least offensive of the three books. And they have dumbed down the worst elements in the movie because they don’t want to make Christians angry and they want to make money. Our concern is this, unsuspecting Christian parents may want to take their kid to the movie, it opens up December 7th and say, this wasn’t troubling, then we’ll buy the books. So the movie is the bait for the books which are profoundly anti-Catholic and at the same time selling atheism.

Make no mistake, Philip Pullman dislikes religion, and his philosophy is expressed in the nature of the story. But as this review by James Berardinelli indicates, the protest is much ado about nothing, and the movie is of average quality. He also has some interesting commentary about the movie. New Line invested over $180 million in a movie that brought in $27 million in the US on opening weekend. It’s unlikely there will be any more produced.

Now, let’s discuss why a movie studio invests over $100 million in a movie. Hollywood, as a whole, is risk averse. They generally appeal to the lowest common denominator, and try to cater to the largest possible audience. Why? Because, the goal of Hollywood is to make money. That’s why most movies that are edgy or have an agenda are independent or low budget, because most of those movies don’t have mass appeal. New Line Cinema produced Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, and took a big risk in doing so, giving him a substantial amount of control. If LOTR had flopped, New Line might have went down with it. New Line chose Pullman’s The Dark Materials series as the fantasy heir to LOTR.

Thus, we have people protesting a movie they’ve never seen, based on books most of them have never read, worrying that a studio who’s investing a lot of money in a franchise so they can make lots of money will create a movie to indoctrinate the audience, and thus alienate a substantial part of their audience. It is, then, no surprise, that the movie largely plays it safe in terms of themes.

The lack of dialogue disturbs me. We, as Christians, talk about how sure we are of Christian truth, yet react defensively, as if God’s truth can’t win in an open arena, as if it is so frail, that it must be protected at all costs. Some Christians are worried that movies like The Golden Compass will indoctrinate their kids in atheism, but feel everyone needs to see The Chronicles of Narnia because it’s a Christian allegory. Huh? We want people to listen to what we have to say, but we boycott opposing viewpoints?? There are plenty of non-Christians who dislike the religious allegory of Narnia, and plenty who certainly don’t want THEIR kids indoctrinated with Christianity, yet many still went to see Narnia in spite of that. And in the end, no conversation takes place, and we stay as far away from each other as when we began.

I’ll start off by admitting that I have never read any of the Harry Potter books, nor have I seen the movies. I have nothing against the books or Rowling; I simply have have no interest in the story. J.K. Rowling is widely considered to be a master storyteller, one of the best of our time. And among Christians, her stories have been the source of controversy, whether because of the magical themes, or the recent declaration of Dumbledore being gay.

So, I found it interesting to read this post at Get Religion today, J.K. Rowling, minus her soul. Not only are there some Christian themes in the books (which is not to say the books are allegorical or Christian), but Rowling “is a very articulate, liberal mainline Protestant storyteller (Church of Scotland, in this case) whose academic background has baptized her in ancient Christian language and symbolism.”

The post and the posts linked to are an interesting read, as are the comments that accompany them.

Did you know? The world is changing. It always has, but the speed has dramatically increased. We are in an age of globalization and information. No longer do we talk about centuries or generations, not even decades. Now it’s years, even months, if not days.

We can’t plan out our future as if everything is going to be the same, it won’t be, and it isn’t. We have to adapt, and we have to anticipate.

A few videos have been released under the title of “Did you know?” They are, of course, from the perspective of their creators, but they are thought-provoking and enlightening, and well worth a view. They contain some of the same information, but the new one is a much better presentation.

Did you know? 2.0 (8:19)

Did you know? (6:06)