Fact or Fiction

I have seen, growing up in the Baptist church, quite a bit of book, or movie, “bashing”. For example, when the Harry Potter series hit America’s shores I began reading them. From our church, my mom was immediately given a pamphlet on the reasons these books were evil (the witchcraft, the author being an atheist, etc.). I personally have always been able to distinguish the fantasy of the novels. And then more recently, in the passing weeks that the new movie Avatar has been in theaters, I have begun to see some “bashing” of the story of this movie. I’ve heard it called “pure paganism”, and I personally was thrown by this statement. My first thought after hearing this was, “So is Batman and Transformers…,” and the point of that is the fact that anything we create that is not of scripture is pagan, or worldly. I could write a book, or make a movie, and no matter how clean or wholesome that story is, if it has no truth of scripture in it the story is as pagan as anything else you could think of. I often feel that we as Christians look too deeply into fiction. If you’re going into either a good read or a movie looking for any more than a good story, you should reevaluate why you’re picking up that book, or going the theater. We don’t go to the movies to learn thoughts on philosophy, we go to be entertained. To say that Avatar is pagan because it equates God to nature is completely looking too far into the plot of a science fiction movie. This movie is no more pagan than The Land Before Time movie series. We have been able to distinguish fact from fiction for a good couple hundred of years, so what’s changed? What about some of the classics like The Iliad, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Alice in Wonderland, or so many others. We must be able to discern what is truth in scripture, and what is made for enjoyment and entertainment.