The Joshua House
a missional community of worship following Jesus...

Scary Movies and the Christian
Around Halloween I had some good conversations with different friends on the whole watching horror movies issue.  In the days surrounding Halloween, as I channel surfed my TV by repeatedly pressing my already severely indented “channel-up” button (from the several quadrillions of times I have pressed it over the years), I couldn’t help but come across scary movie after scary movie being served up on my already over-priced, non-digital cable package.  I know I’m not alone on this.  Now I do have to admit that over the years I personally have enjoyed many a scary movie, everything from Jaws, Halloween and The Thing (the 80’s one with Kurt Russell) back when I was a teenager right through to more contemporary tales like Wes Craven’s Scream series, M. Knight Shyamalan’s The Village and a recent rental I got called Disturbia.

But as a Christian who should always be discerning about what aspects of the world around me I let into my heart and mind what should I think about all these scary movies that make their way into our TV’s, movie rental stores and theaters?

That being said I would like to pass on another good article on this issue that again relates to our recent discussions as a church on our value of discerning, missional cultural engagement.  This one again is by Pastor Harleman of Mars Hill Church (pastor of film and theology) and looks more closely at the issue of the horror, gore and fear movie genre and the Christian life.

For the article click here

As a disclaimer I would like to say that there are actually some movies that I choose not to watch because I think they will be more harmful than helpful to my life as a Christian.  I should also say this can often include really bad romantic comedies, etc.  This is something that I have chosen to do because I, like Mars Hill and other culturally engaging churches, understand that movies are the modern preaching pulpits of our day.  So the question is, how are we both discerning and engaging with this most important culture-forming media of our time in Jesus’ name (Colossians 3:17)?

Here is a very helpful short article written by Scott McKnight in response to this whole issue, enjoy:

Scott McKnight: A Boring Box of Bones

Well, we had a pretty interesting night on Sunday as we tackled this emerging Da Vinci Code-ish movie-documentary called The Lost Tomb of Jesus by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici (I’ve said that name so much lately that I think I’ve become an expert at pronouncing it). 

I would say our group was comprised of Christians, those seeking to possibly be Christians and those who would not consider themselves Christians.  A pretty interesting group of people when you throw a controversial thing like The Lost Tomb of Jesus into the mix.  The evening started with the usual yummy desserts, coffee and tea, moved into a time of singing and worship with the kids, followed by an exit of the kids to their JHKids time and an entrance of a clip of the epilogue from the movie-documentary in question.  After watching said 10 minute clip we adults entered into a good but at times feisty discussion about the issues raised by Jacobovici’s find.

People shared their general thoughts about the argument presented by Cameron and Jacobovici as well as their experiences with other people talking about the movie-documentary in other settings, i.e. work, school, friends, etc.  But the fun stuff didn’t happen until we began to enter into the question of, "what implications does such an archaeological find have for Christian theology and doctrine today?"  Some Christians felt that we should not hide our heads in the sand on such a find but rather with eyes wide open and biblical discernment in hand seek to find whatever truth could be uncovered in such a discovery, if there was any to begin with.  Other Christians, understandably, felt the whole idea of even talking about such an issue in a "church" setting could be tantamount to blasphemy.  Others (Christian and non alike) mentioned either their possible belief in or strong doubts about the assertions made by Jacobovici and company.

Overall, most everyone I hope (even the Christians who toyed with the idea that I might be blaspheming God by even discussing this movie-documentary, which by the way does clearly imply a complete denial of both the bodily resurrection and ascension of Jesus, a non-negotiable doctrine and truth held by The Joshua House and historical, orthodox Christianity…sorry had to get that out!), enjoyed the time together and the value that such a discussion brought to us all.

As I explained later to some of the attendees, this night was a prime example of The Joshua House’s value of "cultural engagement" in action.  We value engaging culture for the sake of transforming it into the likeness of God’s Kingdom.  We don’t just say this on our web site to sound cool, we are actually trying to work this out in our community’s life and learning more each day.

In conclusion, I thank God for this opportunity to begin this conversation with Christians and non alike on some of the core beliefs we hold to as followers of Jesus today.  Moreover, I pray for wisdom in learning to see and use things like The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, etc. not so much as a threat to be defeated (although there are times for that) but rather as means by which to listen to and interact with people on behalf of the gospel and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

More to come…

I recently sent out an e-mail to a bunch of friends about an article that I read on the subject of Christians and secular media (i.e. movies, music, books, tv…). The question the article ends up touching on quite well is this whole: What should be a Christian’s repsonse to secular (I use the word "secular" simply to mean that which doesn’t neatly fall into any Christian category) media? Do we hide from it or do we dive into it?  Perhaps there is another path. Should I watch Harry Potter as a Christian? Should I listen to Enya? Yes, ok, I listen to Enya, so what! I find it very calming even though in some songs it sounds like she’s speaking a form of Elvish from The Lord of the Rings.  I know, it’s probably Gaelic which is a cool sounding ancient language.  I digress…

The article I speak of, which is an interview with Pastor James Harleman the leader of Film & Theology at Mars Hill Church in Seattle WA, can be read by clicking "Here." It is bascially an article of VoxPop, the church’s monthly newsletter. No, James is not the lead pastor. And yes, that job belongs to the sometimes, ok often times, controversial Mark Driscoll.

In this public space I want to personally affirm what James Harleman echoes in his interview and would love to learn more with others in our community what this can mean for us in The Joshua House as we learn how to be salt and light in our ever lovly but needy city of Vancouver.  This like so much of the Christian faith should not be done alone but rather ought to be worked out with others in Kingdom community using the wisdom, discernment and freedom we have in Christ.

That being said, who’s up for watching The Village, CSI or CBC’s The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulis for Christ?  Can I really say that?

By the way, here is a web page I personally use in determining which movies I might or might not want to watch as a Christian, husband, father, friend, etc. It’s ChristianityToday’s movie webpage and is really well run. I guarantee a "no cheese" rating. Just click "Here" for it and hopefully you find it useful in your quest to glorify God in your movie viewing experiences.

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Well, I watched Peter Jackson’s King Kong this past weekend and I must say it was a pretty good movie.  It had all the elements of a worthy watch including drama, comedy, action and of course great computer animation.  In fact, it reminded me of watching Jurassic Park back in the day.  A decent story backed up by good special effects.

Of course there were many things one could take from the movie as a whole or from the unique and varied characters.  One especially noteworthy performance was given by the beautiful and virtuous Ann Darrow (played by Naomi Watts).  It was also good to see Adrien Brody (the guy who played the mute character in The Village - another one of my favourites) playing the role of Jack Driscoll (no relation to Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church).

Overall I found one main theme in the movie that I thought noteworthy:

Man (humankind) naturally seems to fear and act violently toward that which he does not understand. 

King Kong in this instance is truly analagous to so much of what is happening in our violent world today.  Perhaps much of the violence stems not simply from anger, which is more likely a secondary reaction, but rather from fear.  This makes sense in my Christian worldview as I realize that God has revealed himself to us in Jesus so that we do NOT FEAR but instead LOVE in his name.  He did this by revealing himself to us personally and dying for us so that we can know and experience the reality that he is in control.  That we need not fear for the whole world is literally in his hands, as the song says.  I understand that working this out in our lives is harder then it looks but this is still what God calls us to.  In fact the apostle John says that real love casts out fear! (1 John 4:18)

I pray that we could all come to see God more clearly in Jesus in the coming days and not be afraid of who he is calling us to become but rather rejoice in that the "KING" has come and actually cares about us and knows us better than we know ourselves.

Some thoughts…