Stretched Illustrations?
(**Spoilers below**)
Some times I wonder how people arrive at certain interpretations of “art”. Strangely enough, I came across this article which sets about using Avatar as a metaphor for “emergent evangelism”. The main thrust of the article is that we “don’t bring God to the other,” rather, that “we find God in the other”–Jake Sully is the perfect example of this sort of mindset, or so it’s claimed. I don’t want to examine the entire article, only one paragraph.
Evangelism is a two-way street
This is where the Avatar movie is a great metaphor for what evangelism could and should become. Although Jake Sully entered the Na’vi world (Pandora) initially with an agenda in mind, he got to appreciate their way of life, its beauty so much so that he wanted to become part of it. Eventually his presence there really helped to save them. But it was something organic. … (Read more)
Avatar, Pagan Advertisement?
It’s surprising the things you’ll find on YouTube, and I mean that in a good way. (**Spoiler if you haven’t seen Avatar**)
I came across an excerpt from one of Mark Driscoll’s sermons (his most recent series on Luke) in which he gives a brief analysis of the ‘wildly popular’ movie Avatar. This is Driscoll at his most candid: Avatar is “the most demonic, Satanic film I’ve ever seen. How any Christian could watch that without seeing the overt demonism is beyond me”. Ouch. I have to say, though, that I agree with him. I ended up seeing Avatar a few weeks after release (the only time I could get tickets), and the one thing that really bothered me about the movie was the amount of religious animism. I wonder how many (Christians) will completely miss the world view being presented–that everything is interconnected, divine, and that the … (Read more)
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