by Caleb Moore | Mar 23, 2017
How many blogs or articles have you seen, telling you the dangers of seeing the movie The Shack or even Beauty and the Beast? For weeks now, I have seen articles shared on social media as a way to warn parents and others that these Hollywood movies don’t accurately represent the teachings of Scripture.
While I appreciate these efforts, part of me thinks, “while they are at it they might also want to remind me that water is wet and peanut butter is good on celery.” What I mean is, this should be so obvious, it doesn’t require explanation.
Yes, it is a shame that Disney feels the need to push modern morality onto us. But don’t be overly alarmed. We try (and often fail) to impact our Christian morals onto pop culture, so we don’t need to be too worried about their reversal working on us.
The great danger, to me, is in movies like The Shack. What is so dangerous about that movie? It’s dangerous because it is marketed as a Christian movie, and many consider it a Christian movie, which of course it isn’t.
Setting aside theological issues, I want to underscore that a movie cannot be any more Christian than the chair in which I sit. You see, the term “Christian” is an adjective that we have turned into a noun.
It is supposed to describe what a person believes and how they behave, but we have made it a label that we can slap on books, movies and music to let everyone know that these things are safe. We have been doing this for so long that a person can avoid the outside world altogether by buying only “Christian” stuff. We have Christian t-shirts, wear Christian jewelry. We even can freshen our breath with Christian mints (no, I’m not making that up; they are called “Testa-mints”). It’s almost as if we believe God gives the American church our very own Wal-Mart.
The reason this can be so problematic is we now use these labels to tell people that certain things are safe and palatable that it turns off the discerning part of our brains. We haven’t taught people how to think critically in a lost world; we have just taught them how to avoid the lost world. And when the label gets used on something unacceptable, we send it to “the Christian movie police.”
When I was growing up, the number one rule when it came to movies was don’t see anything rated “R.” But that all changed when The Passion of the Christ came out, and we loaded up people in buses by the thousands to go watch it. Dare I be the one to say that, personally, I believe there are even things in that movie that are not necessarily Biblical?
Perhaps I’m naïve, but I would be more worried about the people whom I shepherd buying a Joel Osteen book than I would about them going to watch Beauty and the Beast.
They can more easily recognize that one is a fairy tale, presented by a non-religious company, while the other can be found in the best-selling section of a Christian book store.
I want us to be more careful as to what we label as “Christian.” I won’t see The Shack, primarily because it looks too sappy for my taste.
Meanwhile, I’m totally into superhero movies, and if my son watches Thor, when he is older, I don’t fear he is going to believe that there are other gods besides Yahweh.
My real fear is that he would settle for a brand of Christianity that is worried more about safety, comfort and cultural isolation then about engaging with the culture in an attempt to reach a lost world.
If you think I am outside of the box on this, I would remind you that in Athens, the Apostle Paul quotes a Roman poet in order to help people see the Gospel. This suggests that he had read and engaged in the culture of his day in order to show them the beauty of the Gospel and the beastliness of sin.
by Caleb Moore | Feb 28, 2017
I recently had a Christian friend mention that the Bible doesn’t say anything about being transgender. I was baffled by such a statement and asserted that Scripture has tons to say on such a subject.
The Bible doesn’t mention abortion or even the word Trinity, but we can still know God’s thoughts on such subjects. Of course they asked me to show them where the Bible speaks against transgender people. The problem with such a question is that the term “transgender” is a made-up word.
In 1941, a new category was invented to describe a social phenomena. It was the word “teenager.” This word was needed because, traditionally throughout every culture in history, we had only children or adults. There was no step in-between. The Bible says nothing about being a teenager, because it presupposes that you are either a child or you’re an adult.
The Bible gives guidelines for how a child should act and how an adult should act, but it also gives a lot of freedom by not creating any stereotypes for children or adults. For example, the Bible doesn’t say women should play with dolls as a kid. It is the world that creates these stereotypes and then tries to force people into them. The Bible gives so much more freedom.
David played the flute and wrote poetry, and Lydia was a successful entrepreneur long before any women’s liberation movement. So when someone asks me, “How do we reach teenagers?” I have to first point out that a good exegesis of Scripture in dealing with teenagers is to understand that it is a category error, first and foremost.
I won’t call a transgender male by a pronoun that differs from their biology, and I won’t call a 16-year-old a teenager. To do so is only to support terms invented by the world to give freedom but only creates yet another categorical cage for people to live in.
I say all this to prime the pump on the transgender issue. Just as the word “teenager” was invented because we failed to give a good Biblical understanding on the differences between children and adults, the same goes for the term “transgender” (though, of course, the use of “teenager” and “transgender” are not morally equal).
The world is always more than willing to create new labels for whenever we abandon Biblical principles. And these labels are always more burdensome and imprisoning than the alternative.
Scripture clearly teaches that healthy and Godly relationships are between a man and a woman, joined in a covenant marital relationship. It gives guidelines on how a man is to treat his wife and a wife is to treat her husband. Since we have now removed the fences from around the moral playground, children are playing in traffic. All sorts of things have become normative, and we have created new terms to justify them.
The Bible leaves it open for men to be effeminate-acting, but the world likes to shove people into categories. So an effeminate-acting man, oh he must be gay. A tough girl who likes softball and muscle cars, oh she must be a lesbian. The better option, by far, is to not add to adolescent confusion by inventing these terms to try to make them decide, but to show them that Scripture clearly teaches there are two genders – man and woman. And within those two terms, there is great freedom to be who you are, whether you are a muscled-up football player or a sensitive poet, you are a man. This is a biological reality.
Genesis 5:2 says, He created them male and female; when they were created, He blessed them and named them “humankind.” I have heard the response that this is not relevant because it is only speaking of Adam and Eve. This is true; however, the proof of its relevance to current issues is, from that moment on, through all of Scripture those are the only two categories used. God never refers to a man as a woman, so to now suggest that we should call some women men is to insult their true biology and only creates more confusion.
The world fails when a father tries to push his artsy emotional son into football in order to make him a “man” (usually because of the father’s own insecurities), and it also fails when it tries to say, “Well, you might be a woman on the inside.” Both of these create more chains for a child to wear.
The Bible gives so much more freedom by not defining a man by his hobbies or muscle mass, and by not defining a woman by her looks or high heels. These worldly labels are just a prison, and the whole idea of transgender is just another cage to lock someone in.
We should be sympathetic and loving to all people. This should go without saying. We should stand up against bullying and hate; we should also be willing to lovingly help people escape the cages the world has built.
by Caleb Moore | Jan 24, 2017
There is a lot of discussion in the culture as to what rights a woman has and to what extent those rights are being oppressed. Christians should always be at the front of social justice movements regarding racism and sexism when real injustices are being done. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Legally, there is not a single right that a man has that a woman does not have. There may be instances of discrimination, but those instances are already illegal. So we want to encourage fairness in pay equality and opportunity, but inequality is not the expected norm; it is the exception.
What I wanted to address is the fact that woman have one extra right that men do not have. Women in the United States have the legal right to kill their child. This can be done in many states by a minor with no parental consent. According to information I have seen, a woman does not even need the permission of the man who helped create the child; she can legally, of her own accord, kill her unborn child.
If the father decided to kill the child while in the womb without the permission of the mother it is a federal crime, and he would most likely be charged with murder. However if the role is reversed, the mother can end the life of her child with no ramifications, even if the father were morally against it.
This is a right that women have fought for. It was the real purpose of the March on Washington. We know this because the organization that created the event declared their right to abort their child as one of the main reasons for marching, according to news reports. Pro-life sponsors were removed from the event as soon as Planned Parenthood began to donate large amounts of money to the cause. Many pro-life women were booed, bullied and even reportedly spat upon while trying to march with the other women in unity. Apparently unity means a woman must conform to terrible ideologies that have no logical or moral justifications. A worldview that claims unity yet bullies opposing views has no foundation that can survive criticism.
Not all the women who marched did so in support of abortion. Many were expressing their disgust at our current president, regarding comments he expressed in the past towards other woman. I could stand with them in that. However, if I am to stand for social injustice, it begins with removing the extra right that women have that men don’t. Nobody should have the right to legally kill innocent life. If women’s rights matter, then women in the womb matter as well.
“Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy” (Prov. 31:9).
by Caleb Moore | Dec 21, 2016
Since the highly-anticipated release of Star Wars Episode One in 1999, I have seen every Star Wars movie on opening night. I would have seen the original trilogy in the theaters, but I had the terrible scheduling conflict of not being born yet. Nonetheless, Star Wars was a constant presence in my home as a kid. What began with excitement turned to agony with the release of each prequel. I had hoped that with each subsequent movie that the series would improve, only to be greatly disappointed. We can now wipe away all those tears and rejoice because Rogue One is the prequel you have always wanted!
Rogue One takes place just days, sometimes minutes, before Star Wars Episode Four begins. The first act is a bit shaky as it rushes to introduce us to new planets and characters. Do not attempt to remember all the names and places; it will only give you a headache, and most of it doesn’t matter in the long run. It is the second and third act that makes this film so much fun to watch. The constant action isn’t just for the sake of action but manages to move the story along while defining the motivation of our main characters. Jyn Erso, played by Felicity Jones, is the story’s main focus, however Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna, shines as the Han Solo to Felicity’s “Luke.”
It’s very possible to watch this whole movie, care about all the characters, yet not even remember their names by the time it is over. Instead of easy names like Luke, Han or Leia, we get names like Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus (or the guy with the stick and the guy with the gun, respectfully, as I tend to call them.) It’s not only the names that are more complicated; it’s the characters themselves.
This is the only Star Wars movie that does not have a single Jedi in it. And without the presence of the spiritual leaders of the galaxy, moral relativism is the new norm. Luke Skywalker was a simple country boy who just wanted to help, and he seemed to have a very strong moral compass. That compass became even more defined as he trained as a Jedi, who live by a very strict moral code. Our new lead characters are both deeply flawed. Jyn is a career criminal, and Cassian isn’t afraid to murder as long as he thinks the ends justify the means. This reminded me of the quote by Fyodor Dostoyevsky who once said, “Without God, all things are permissible.”
The movie is very reflective of our current culture. As society tries to distance itself from Christianity’s belief in absolute morality, the lines between right and wrong have all but faded into a dark grey. It has been said by other reviewers that there is more war in this movie than any other Star Wars movie, and that is true. However the internal war within the characters themselves is even greater. Absent the guiding light of the Jedi, our characters are left to wander as they search for good and meaning in this very dark universe. For Christians this should remind us of how important it is to be a source of peace and light in a world full of darkness and war.
If you haven’t seen any other Star Wars movie’s this is a great place to get started. And if you love Star Wars then this is a must see. The last 30 minutes will have you holding onto your chair and remind you why Darth Vader is the most fearsome villain in the Galaxy!
by Caleb Moore | Dec 15, 2016
Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard once said, “A saint is someone who can will the one thing.” To “will the one thing” means to focus your entire being in one direction. It’s an endless obsession over a single goal or object.
When I was young, I thought being a good Christian meant adding lots of Christian attitudes and actions to my personal list. I needed to read my Bible more, pray more, listen to more Christian music, go to church more, share Jesus more, and the list never seemed to end. I find what Kierkegaard said interesting because it is not about adding more, it’s about narrowing down the list to the bare essentials, knowing that, as long as you are focused on the right thing, all the other essentials tend to fall into place.
We always admire people who have this very specific kind of focus. Olympic athletes don’t get to where they are without having their entire hearts and minds set on their sport. They let so many other things in life fall to the side, and I believe it is getting harder and harder to have that kind of focus.
We can’t even focus on simple tasks anymore like driving without being preoccupied with our phone. Every day on my way to work I see people with one hand on the wheel and one hand on their phone. Besides being illegal and dangerous, texting and driving is a sign that we have become so preoccupied with the little things that we rarely focus on the important things, like not crashing our car.
As I have been trying to study the story of the birth of Christ, it is hard to get past the familiarity of the story and let it humble me way it truly should. This is where the story of the Magi is helpful. We know very little about them. We don’t know if there was three or more, we don’t know exactly where they came from, and we don’t even know their names. But what we do know is they had a single focus.
They followed the star they saw in the sky for days. The star was in the sky for everyone to see, but only those who were paying attention knew of its meaning. Herod showed fake interest in the birth of Jesus, but he couldn’t be bothered enough to make the short journey to Bethlehem while the Magi were willing to travel great distances to welcome the King.
I want that kind of focus. Scripture tells us that the path is narrow and in order to stay on the narrow path we have to have a narrow focus. My prayer for us all is that we desire to “will the one thing” and that Jesus is always the object of our desires.