The (In)Tolerance of the Movie "2012"

The movie "2012" opens this week and goes to great lengths to show the end of the world. Based on the idea that the Mayan calendar supposedly predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012 (or December 23, depending on who you talk with), director Roland Emmerich and writer Harald Kloser bring Kennedy back to the White House (that would be the USS John F Kennedy aircraft carrier as it lands on top of the White House in a massive tsunami), crush people praying for salvation with the Vatican in Rome (irony anyone), and otherwise destroy the world as mankind fights for their survival. In terms of film making and carnage it appears to be a brilliant piece of work. In the preview, however, there is a curious theme that struck me (and was recently confirmed in an interview with director Roland Emmerich): it appears that Emmerich is not much of a fan of faith or religion, evidenced by the religious relics or institutions destroyed in the preview (most notably Christian ones).

One might argue "it's an end of the world movie - churches and statues and such are going to be destroyed." I agree and have no issue with that, however, I do have an issue with the fact that, once again, Christianity is the primary target and one faith group in particular is spared (on screen, at least) - Muslims. The Kaaba in Mecca (the most sacred site in Islam) is intentionally spared by the director (and his co-writer) so as to avoid any death threats similar to those received by the cartoonist in the Danish newspaper for portraying a caricature of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. It is not that he did not want to destroy the site, but fear for his life led him to consider otherwise. From his interview...

"We have to all...in the Western world... think about this," Emmerich says at one point, regarding his choice to destroy Catholic symbols rather than Muslim ones. "You can actually...let..Christian symbols fall apart"-- actually, the director destroys them, but that's a quibble -- "but if you would do this with [a Muslim] symbol, you would have...a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is. So it's just something which I kind of didn't [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out."

I'm sorry, but this is plain cowardice. If the director is so bold so as to mock God, His people, and their faith then it would only seem logical that he follow through and finish his product. It was important to destroy Christian symbols, Christian worshippers and mock them for praying, why not extend that same courtesy to our Muslim neighbors, too?

As I've said before - this is the new tolerance: tolerate all, but Christianity. Mock them, loathe them, and destroy them cinematically... there are no problems. Talk bad about a Muslim, mock a Buddhist, loathe a spiritualist and you are nothing but a bigot. See my blog post on the Playstation 3 game "Little Big Planet" and this topic of "tolerance": Offensively Offensive.

Note: Outside of one Tibetan Buddhist monk being annihilated by a giant wave in the preview, I have no idea if Emmerich demonstrates his disdain for religion with any other faiths other than Christianity. The interview does not shed any light on this either as it speaks extensively about Christianity and Islam. One thing is clear, though - he has no problem slamming Christianity and some level of worry or issue with misrepresenting Islam.

PARENTS: This is another example of a director wrapping his personal thoughts, philosophies and beliefs of the world into a nice, tidy blockbuster package. The message this time: "even your faith can't save you" (or "your God is a sham and a stupid crutch"). The major problem we face as parents, however, is not the message but the subtlety (or not so subtletly) in which it is portrayed. As I've said before, the world's loudest philosophers today are movie directors and musicians and they sell a pretty tempting message to the novice listener - namely our children and teens. Use this movie as a way of talking about the communication of worldview. Take your teen (if they're capable of handling the mature subject matter and content) and following the film ask: "What do you think the director thought about religion?" or "How do you think this movies' portrayal of the end of the world compares to the Biblical account?"

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When We "Christianize" Religion

EDITOR NOTE: Another long (and this time unexpected) absence. I apologize for the delay in posts, but we had a death in the family last week (my wife's grandmother) and so my wife and I traveled to Tennessee to help with arrangements and for the funeral.

I recently stumbled across an article (thanks to Pastor Mark Driscoll via his Twitter posts, @PastorMark) from the USA TODAY that describes an emerging church practice of Christians participating in Ramadan fasting with Muslims. During the fast Christians go through the same fasting rituals as their Muslim counterparts - including prayer, then break the fast after the sun goes down together. The only difference in the ritual is that Christians pray to God through Jesus Christ whereas the Muslims pray to Allah as instructed by the Koran.

This got me thinking: is it okay for Christians to adopt the religious practices of other faiths as long as they Christianize them (pray to the right God)?

There are several instances where Christians take regular worship practices of other faiths and Christianize them (these are but a few):

• YOGA (Hinduism - a form of prayer) is probably one of the biggest, especially since most Americans use it as a form of exercise
• Meditation/Centering Oneself (Buddhism and other eastern religions)
• Fasting for Ramadan (Muslim tradition that celebrates the giving of the Koran to the Prophet Mohammed)
• Karma ("someone does something bad to you, don't worry, it'll comeback to them in the end")... Christians instead say, "don't worry God will judge them" (or believe simply that "if you do good, good will happen to you in return - do bad, bad will happen to you in return")
  
• Superstition (that if we do something incorrectly, there will be immediate consequences - break a mirror, walk under a ladder, spill salt, knock on wood, etc.)
• Relativism (or Pluralism depending on the degree of the practice) - blending religious practices from multiple practices/backgrounds

It is one thing for Christians to sincerely approach other religions out of respect, love and humility (something we all ought to do), but it is a completely different venture if we begin to adopt their practices and incorporate them into our own. Three major reasons adoping other practices is dangerous:

1) God has given us all we need, for us to insert new practices or rituals minimizes His Word and role in our lives and completely ignores GRACE! Scripturally, we see such activity in Israel's history as insane or obscene. Over and over again their idolatrous practices (taking religious practices of neighboring countries/religions and blending them into their own) became major stumbling blocks for them. How many times did their doing so lead to their own demise? Every time. Why? Because they got so caught up in the ritual (and false gods associated with them) that they lost sight of God.

2) Christ died to free us from rituals and empty religious practices. Why would we intentionally subject ourselves to ritualistic practices that REQUIRE those rituals as a form of earning favor with their god (or gods)? I believe Pastor Mark Driscoll is absolutely correct (in the article) in saying that observing other religious rituals is completely dishonoring to Jesus Christ.

3) It confuses the world. They see us adopt other religious practices and think that what they are doing to earn favor with God (theirs or ours) must be correct. The Muslim man (Ahmed) confirms this in the article (about Christians participating in Ramadan fasting): "Here is a pastor who wants to understand us, who does not want to convert us, and who is even prepared to walk with us, to fast with us. That is a big gesture."

Anyone who truly knows me knows of my absolute fascination with and respect for truly religious people around the world. I am awed and humbled by their devotion to their faith and practice of faith (though equally brokenhearted by their lostness). As kind, romantic and wonderful a gesture it is for Christians to participate in other religious practices, it is also a dangerous step that is misleading at best and altogether self-centered (dishonoring to God) at worst.

And in closing, while I appreciate Christian's attempts to seek God and grow in their faith, I find that their pursuits that incorporate other religions are typically less about finding God and more about feeling better about themselves or their own spirituality. This, sadly, can have long-lasting and devastating affects to the end goal they had hoped to achieve.

PARENTS: Instead of teaching our children/teens to be hateful toward other religious practices we ought to embrace such knowledge and use what we learn to teach them about the sufficiency of God's love through His Son Jesus Christ. FAMILY ACTIVITY: Research online traditional religious practices, their origins and then compare them with your own practices (those found in Scripture). As a family discuss why we do/embrace certain traditions and reject others.

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