{"id":3595,"date":"2005-12-06T13:28:49","date_gmt":"2005-12-06T21:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/12\/06\/narnia-and-christianity-does-it-matter\/"},"modified":"2022-03-07T09:50:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T17:50:11","slug":"narnia-and-christianity-does-it-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/12\/06\/narnia-and-christianity-does-it-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Narnia and Christianity &#8212; does it matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' 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08:52:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:7344,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.cesnur.org\\\/tolkien\\\/033.htm&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260309204153\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.cesnur.org\\\/tolkien\\\/033.htm&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.cesnur.org\\\/tolkien\\\/033.htm&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 06:24:51&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 06:24:51&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:7345,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/movies\\\/commentaries\\\/starwarspart1.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20090211202755\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/movies\\\/commentaries\\\/starwarspart1.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 20:36:58&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 06:24:53&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-15 08:52:11&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-15 08:52:11&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:7294,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/us.imdb.com\\\/title\\\/tt0363771&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20091208025351\\\/http:\\\/\\\/us.imdb.com:80\\\/title\\\/tt0363771\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 20:10:42&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-26 20:12:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-03 16:54:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-07 10:48:42&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 06:24:54&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-15 08:52:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-15 08:52:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>After reading Terrence&#8217;s &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.republicoft.com\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/12\/05\/saying-no-to-narnia\/\" title=\"The Republic of T: Saying No to Narnia\">Saying No to Narnia<\/a>&#8216; and Pharyngula&#8217;s &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/pharyngula.org\/index\/weblog\/comments\/narnia_as_an_inoculation\/\" title=\"Pharyngula: Narnia as inoculation\">Narnia as an inoculation<\/a>&#8216;, both of which pointed to a Guardian UK article titled &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/Columnists\/Column\/0,5673,1657942,00.html\" title=\"Guardian UK: Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion\">Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion<\/a>&#8216;, I was somewhat annoyed. As an open-minded, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, anti-Bush liberal who was brought up in a Christian household and counts Christianity as a major part of who I am and <em>why<\/em> I&#8217;m an open-minded, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, anti-Bush liberal, it occasionally gets under my skin when I&#8217;m reminded yet again that &#8216;Christian&#8217; has become a dirty word synonymous with the worst of the bigoted bible-thumping set, tainting anything that it touches.<\/p>\n<p>It was quite nice to see <a href=\"http:\/\/arcterex.net\/blog\/archives\/2005\/12\/05\/narnia_offensive.html\" title=\"The ArcterJournal: Narnia Offensive?\">Arcterex&#8217;s take on the same article<\/a>, then:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  I read the Narnia books as a child, and absolutely <em>loved them<\/em>. They had a similar draw as modern day Harry Potter. The downtrodden who think they aren&#8217;t anybody in the world finding out that they are a heros in a magical world.<\/p>\n<p>  Of course, then I found out later on in live about the religious overtones in the books&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>  And couldn&#8217;t care less. A good story is a good story, and personally I find this sort of ignorant reporting as bad as the Christian groups who go around saying how Harry Potter is promoting kids to become satanists and how it&#8217;s an evil book. It&#8217;s a friggin&#8217; book and a good story. Geez.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Damn skippy. Sure, there are <a href=\"http:\/\/arcterex.net\/blog\/archives\/2005\/12\/05\/narnia_offensive.html\" title=\"Wikipedia: the Chronicles of Narnia: Christian parallels\">Christian overtones<\/a> to the Narnia stories. There are Christian overtones to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.decentfilms.com\/sections\/articles\/2554\" title=\"Decent Films Guide: The Matrix: Gnostic or Christian?\">the Matrix stories<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cesnur.org\/tolkien\/033.htm\" title=\"Finding the Lord in 'Lord of the Rings'\">Lord of the Rings stories<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/movies\/commentaries\/starwarspart1.html\" title=\"Christianity Today: Star Wars Spirituality\">Star Wars stories<\/a>, and countless other stories (both printed and filmed), too. Why all the rancor? Just because the religious right (who all too often seem to embody the antithesis to the Christianity <em>I<\/em> grew up with) has jumped all over <a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/title\/tt0363771\/\" title=\"IMDB: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe\">The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe<\/a>, is it suddenly impossible to go out and enjoy a fun fantasy movie?<\/p>\n<p>Sure, you can read all sorts of meaning into the stories and why they&#8217;re being brought to the screen now &#8212; religious indoctrination, right-wing propelled mass media conspiracy theories, whatever. You can also tell your inner Fox Mulder that every so often <em>it doesn&#8217;t matter<\/em> and go watch a movie.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m planning on doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sure, you can read all sorts of meaning into the stories and why they&#8217;re being brought to the screen now &#8212; religious indoctrination, right-wing propelled mass media conspiracy theories, whatever. You can also tell your inner Fox Mulder that every so often _it doesn&#8217;t matter_ and go watch a movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2036,2043,2042,2037],"tags":[2094,23,103,2093,2751],"class_list":["post-3595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-personal","category-politics","category-tv-and-films","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-film","tag-religion","tag-the-chronicles-of-narnia","tag-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}