My $ex-boss gilgamesh has a good thought or three on an article about how offensive the movie Narnia – The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is to non-christians, and how they will need a ‘sickbag’ handy at the religious undertones.
First of all I believe that this woman, Polly Toynbee has written this article mostly for shock value. In parts of it she’s pretty much blatently offensive to Christians.
Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls.
I’m not a Christian by any stretch of the imagination, and I don’t think I would have taken it that far. However, based on her previous articles (from a quick glance anyway) seem to lean to towards shock value as well.
I read the Narnia books as a child, and absolutely loved them. They had a similar draw as modern day Harry Potter. The downtrodden who think they aren’t anybody in the world finding out that they are a heros in a magical world.
Of course, then I found out later on in live about the religious overtones in the books…
And couldn’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’s an evil book. It’s a friggin’ book and a good story. Geez. Anyway, Disney seems well aware of the issues around promoting a quasi-religious movie and is doing it’s best to walk a fine line in promoting the movie to everyone.