Children’s Ministry and Culture

Just read an interview in Christianity Today with Steve Taylor and Don Miller about bringing the book Blue Like Jazz to the big screen. While a book of essays seems an odd screenplay both think it would work! Read the interview here (http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/bluelikejazz.html)

I just LOVE Ben Stein, ever since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986, finishing my first MA as a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Communication at University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA)! If you’ve not heard the buzz about this really thought provoking movie detailing the divide among darwinism and intelligent design or creationism, check out the trailer at http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php

I saw the Golden Compass Movie on Sunday with my children’s church leader, Bill Mason. My impressions of the movie was that it was average at best. The lackluster reciepts this weekend reflect this. Contrary to movie reviewer Jeffrey Overstreet (whom I respect deeply), I thought that much of the anti-religious themes had been successfully scrubbed away.

Yes, the terms like “heretic” and “Magestarium” were used. Yes, they have theological meaning. However, the Golden Compass book made references to the Vacitan, directly referenced Genesis 3 in a negative light, and attempted to debunk the doctrine of original sin. None of those references made the movie. A child would need to have an unusually detailed knowledge of Catholic theology to pick up on Pullman’s antagonism toward religion. 

I will say that I have no idea how New Line Cinema will be able to edit out the anti-religious plot twists that await in the next two books. I do believe that New Line Cinema’s bottom line is making money and not making truth claims. I suspect that the necessary edits have already been worked out for the next two film installments. A movie studio is not driven by ideologues, but by capitalists.

I say it again, I’m not defending these books. The books don’t require a rocket scientist to decode their meaning. Neitchze, anyone?

My beef is that the church’s reponse validates Pullman’s critique that the church supresses critical thought.  Here’s a story for you. A parent told me that his daughter’s Christian school teacher told the children that the movie was bad, so bad that if you watched it that you would be bad also.

A child asked the teacher why this was. The teacher’s response was that the movie was simply too bad to talk about.

Which is exactly one of the points that Pullman is making: Christians are afraid of critical thought.

I blogged on the Willowcreek Conspiracy Conference blog to talk about why we need to care about taking the time to understand our culture.

Here’s a Golden Compass FAQ that I wrote for my own congregation. The content is below. Feel free to download and distribute the pdf though.

Here’s an FAQ that I wrote for families in my congregation. I prefer Keith’s suggestion of a dicussion board. Unfortunately our family message board isn’t scheduled to go online for a few months.

Is the Golden Compass Movie anti-God?

Not anymore. Philip Pullman’s Trilogy, His Dark Materials, takes a decidedly negative tone toward organized religion. However, New Line Cinema, became aware of the books’ plotline and demanded a re-write. The studio invested $180 Million into making The Golden Compass and couldn’t risk a boycott. The antagonist in the movie is not longer “the Church” or a senile God, but a totalitarian government.

 So the author of the books, Phillip Pullman, is anti-God?

That’s not a fair statement. If you kick around his website, Pullman seems to place value in religious experience. I can’t tell from his writing if he believes that there is a supernatural power on the other side of our religious experiences or not. What is obvious is that Pullman believes that there is a great limit to what we can know about God. So it is fairer to categorize Pullman as an agnostic– an agnostic who has a strong dislike for the Christian faith.

A quick read through Pullman’s website reveals his strong disdain for how religions, such as Christianity, are configured. His convictions about how little we can know about God cause him to view Christian theology and moral judgments as arbitrary and man-made. He views the clergy as agents of control and opponents of human freedom. He seems to rail against Christianity the most, but probably because it’s the dominant religion in Western Cultures.

 Do the books have demonic themes? Didn’t he write these books as a response to the The Chronicles of Narnia?  

No. There are fictional creatures in the books called daemons. The “daemon” is a character out of Greek mythology and shouldn’t be confused with the demons of the Bible. In Greek mythology a daemon can be good or bad. In Pullman’s world, a daemon is a creature that bonds with a human and serves as their assistant or guide.

Pullman is open about his dislike for the Narnia books. He’s repeatedly called them “poison.” He claims the books are misogynistic. I suspect his biggest objection is that C.S. Lewis communicated the Christian story so well in these books. Regardless, is not a sin to dislike C.S. Lewis.

Milton’s Paradise Lost is actually the work that inspired His Dark Materials (“His dark materials” is a phrase from Milton’s poem). In Paradise Lost sin enters the world when Adam and Eve give into temptation and bite the apple. Pullman turns the story on its head and casts the eating of forbidden fruit as a good thing—the key to gaining more wisdom.

The Christian reader will turn his or her mind to Genesis 3 and see that Pullman is echoing same logic offered by the serpent.   

Shouldn’t our church organize itself to boycott the movie?

I’m sure you’ve noticed that Grace hasn’t boycotted anything. That’s because boycotts tend to shutdown meaningful conversations between parties. Grace’s bias is toward starting conversations with unchurched people. (Not to shill my books, but I do have a chapter on this topic in my latest book Divine Intention: How God’s Work in the Early Church Empowers Us Today.)

Boycotting the “Golden Compass” would be particularly confusing to bystanders since all the anti-religion themes have been purged the movie.

 Should I let my child see the movie or read the books?

Grace doesn’t intend to make that decision for you. My hunch is that reworked movie will be harmless fun. As a dad, I wouldn’t let my elementary aged son read the book. I personally wonder if elementary school aged children are able to tell the difference between an attack on God and a critique of organized religion.

Now I might actually recommend that a parent read the books with his or her middle- or high-school aged children. This could be a positive and fun way for a teenager to explore beliefs that run counter to Christianity. As a parent, you’d have a new opportunity to answer your child’s questions about faith.

 Have you read the books, Larry?

I’m nearly finished with “The Golden Compass.” I’ve already shared my concerns about the books. Here’s what I appreciate. Lyra, the protagonist, is a strong female character. There aren’t enough of these in children’s literature, I think. And even though I believe Pullman goes too far in his opposition to organized religion, I like his hostility toward religion as a form of control. Some of the Old Testament Prophets, such as Samuel and Malachi, made similar attacks when the clergy used their power to exploit people.  

Larry has written about the upcoming New Line Cinema release “The Golden Compass” by the author Phillip Pullman. But in the December, 2007 issue of The Atlantic (www.theatlantic.com) there is an excellent article deconstructing where he should be placed in the pantheon of children’s literature.

In the past, Pullman has expressed mainly contempt for the books on which the other movies were based. He once dismissed the Lord of the Rings trilogy as an “infantile work” primarily concerned with “maps and plans and languages and codes.” Narnia got it even worse: “Morally loathsome,” he called it. “One of the most ugly and poisonous things I’ve ever read.” He described his own series as Narnia’s moral opposite. “That’s the Christian one,” he told me. “And mine is the non-Christian.”

As he told The Sydney Morning Herald, he was “saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God.”

BUT, there is $180 million at stake in this movie, so the studio reworked the book!

“In the end,” According to Hanna Rosen, “the religious meaning of the book was obscured so thoroughly as to be essentially indecipherable. The studio settled on villains that, as Emmerich put it, “feel vaguely kind of like a fascistic, totalitarian dictatorship, Russian/KGB/SS” stew. The movie’s main theme became, in one producer’s summary, “One small child can save the world.” With $180 million at stake, the studio opted to kidnap the book’s body and leave behind its soul.

Jerry Seinfeld is making a movie that will be coming out this FALL (November, 2007) that, at least by the initial BUZZ, pardon the pun, makes a healthy entry into both child and adult genres. http://www.beemovie.com/

In the film, a college-educated bee voiced by Mr. Seinfeld becomes disillusioned with his sole career option: making honey. He takes an adventure outside the hive and finds himself adopted by a New York florist. When he discovers that people eat honey, he launches a campaign to get justice for bees. Mr. Seinfeld’s co-stars include Renée Zellweger as the florist, Matthew Broderick as his best bee friend and Mr. Rock as a mosquito.

I’ve seen the interviews and have read the reviews but I still don’t get it. Dakota Fanning is a wonderfully able actress and as a child has been in some very good movies. The late film critic of the New Yorker (Pauline Kael) said once that children cannot act at the depth required for us to suspend belief or for character development to show nuance and complexity. I have tended to agree. Check out the review here in one paper (http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/bal-artslife-sundance0124,0,5480090.story?coll=bal-entertainment-headlines). This is really tragic and, while the story plot does develop it is too bad the creativity of the writer and director didn’t extend to referencing (like the character Jenny in Forest Gump) instead of revealing.

Rev. Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs (and president of the NAE), has disowned it on the eve of its limited release, saying the filmmakers cast their subjects in a sinister light and misrepresented evangelicalism. What did he say? Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said he “can learn as much about the Catholic Church from ‘Nacho Libre”‘ - a campy wrestling comedy starring Jack Black - as a nonevangelical can learn about evangelicalism from “Jesus Camp.”

 See the story at http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4340346  Again, my point is that by highlighting a fringe sect of evangelicalism, “Jesus Camp” makes fun of ALL children’s pastors! I realize that this last remark of mine might be construed as fundamentally flawed, but I encourage anyone to say this film (which I saw last Sunday) is REPRESENTATIVE of what we should be doing as shepherds of the lives of children! For Ted Haggard, who himself is an avowed Pentecostal (4 Square–think, “Angelus Temple“, “Amy Semple McPherson” and “Jack Hayford), should say it all! Also check out Robert Butler’s great review in the Kansas City Star at http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/15518891.htm.  

UPDATE (9/20): Check out “Brainwashed In The Blood” By Rich Tatum (former webmaster for the Assemblies of God denom) at http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/commentaries/brainwashed.html where he points out a few more of the problems with the film, I especially like his evaluation of the theological perspective of this offshoot of pentacostalism.

There is a new documentary coming from Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady that portrays Charismatic Children’s Pastor Becky Fisher and her Kids on Fire summer camp. I’ve not seen the film but there is a great interview with the Directors and the editorial team at Christianity Today (“Jesus Camp Documentary Review”). There are children in the midst of a very emotional and spiritual environment that, for the un-initiated will appear bizarre. Listen to this dialogue:

Did anything that happened on camera catch you by surprise, for example, the speaking in tongues?

Grady: It’s one of those things that is sort of surprising initially, and you get used to it very quickly. Heidi and I have both filmed spiritual ceremonies of all different kinds of religions. Heidi made a film where they do body piercing and things that are much more shocking, really. But I guess it became a little more exotic because we had never seen Americans being so devout and so charismatic in their worship. But it’s one of those things. It wears away very quickly, and I think both of us feel that everyone is entitled to worship however they want. I don’t judge anyone for how they want to express their faith.

Ewing: We had a lot more scenes like that, that focused more on the practice of the charismatic faith. And we started to shy away from including a lot of details and explanation of all of these things, because we didn’t want to marginalize charismatic. But again, it’s just a practice. In the end, they all believe in the same Bible and they all listen to the same radio and read the same publications as evangelicals who don’t speak in tongues, so we felt like they had a lot more in common with the greater evangelical movement than they didn’t. That’s why we didn’t start focusing on a lot of their differences.

9 Year old Tory Binger.

I found the questioning by CT surprisingly political. It seems CT is most concerned about how the commentary should have been between CHRISTIANS instead of pitting non-evangelicals with a more extreme example of evangelical sub-culture. I can’t wait to see it for myself. But I’m a little afraid that kids in the film are being used as pawns in the cultural battles of extreme evangelicalism and loud Bush-haters. It opens this week in select cities (see Jesus Camp Opens Sept. 15 for theatres). 

Larry’s Edit (Sept 13):

Here’s a statement from the directors, submitted at the Tribeca Film Festival.

During the 2004 presidential election. John Edwards’ “Two Americas” speech seemed like a rather unoriginal way to describe the growing divide in this country. But now, after having spent almost a year shuttling back and forth between the religious heartland of Missouri and home in New York City, the “Two Americas” concept has taken on an entirely new meaning. There is truly a flourishing parallel America: a conservative counterculture comprised of tens of millions of evangelical Christians who feel engaged in a culture war with what they perceive as immorality and godless liberalism. They consume their own news and popular culture via Christian television, radio, and publications, and carefully expose their children both to a literal interpretation of the Bible and a call to political activism. On the surface, these kids experience the same things as most middle-class kids: trips to Wal-Mart, homework, sports, dancing to their favorite music, summer camp. But it quickly becomes clear that they are living a version of childhood in which devout Christianity is at the center of everything. The music coming out of their stereos may be heavy metal, but it’s the Christian take, celebrating the “blood of Jesus.” Their homework derives from a strict creation-based curriculum, and boys on the soccer team proudly wear red bracelets imprinted with “HWJC,” which is short for “How Would Jesus Compete?” And when it comes to summer camp, go-karting excursions and the water balloon toss are intermingled with raucous anti-abortion revival meetings. The camp is a riveting example of a world many Americans either do not understand or dismiss as “fringe” and irrelevant to our their own lives. But perhaps they should take a closer look. The people portrayed in this film-white, middle-class citizens-are part of an enormous and forceful voting block; an increasingly loud voice in American culture and politics. Together with their children, they are preparing not only for Jesus to come back, but also to “take back America for Christ.” What does all of this mean for Americans who call themselves secular humanists? Or those who believe in God but feel that our democracy depends on a clear delineation between church and state? What is the significance of a generation of kids being infused with a rigid worldview, and how will it affect the country when these children come of age? These questions informed our own journey to Jesus Camp, and we hope audiences leave the theater discussing where we are as a nation…or as two separate nations at war with each other.
 - Nancy Schafer
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Related Post: Do We Really Want to Raise Another Generation of Culture Warrriors?

I’ve posted a few times about teaching points for the Superman Returns movie. I watched the movie Monday night and now have some reservations about using the movie to teach children. Superman is still gentle, noble, polite… a high character guy in many regards. But without dropping too many spoilers into this post, Superman had some sexual and relational needs, and met them outside of marriage. I’ll come back to this in a month or so and be more detailed, when I don’t need to worry about ruining the film for anyone.

It’s a great movie, and the Messiah imagery is all over the film. However, I’d consider holding off on using movie clips from this movie unless you are prepared for the class discussion to take an ackward twist.  

EDIT: My review of “The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero” is now online at www.nappaland.com.