Escape to the Movies: Heaven Is For Real - Doesn't Make Much Sense
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Ya'know taking a quote from you last week,Jasper van Heycop said:
So this movie must be right up your ally.Jasper van Heycop said:
As a Christian, at this point I've more or less decided to...not participate in stuff like this. It's not the first time I've encountered a huge media powerhouse generated from somebody's spiritual journey and I know it will not be the last, and I can honestly say I've never gotten swept up into it. My cynical side tells me this is a family who, for better or for worse, is milking the hell out of their child's story and is perhaps making way more money than they would have to in order to get the word out about this. However, my benefit of the doubt side says that I often hardly know the nature of my own spirituality and intentions, so to question the nature of other's spirituality and intentions isn't a good thing for me to do. I try to tell myself I'd rather be fooled and taken advantage of than lash out and refuse to let things in that are actually genuine.
A lot of my Christian friends have gotten all excited about this and that other Jesus movie that came out recently, and I've just quietly sat by the sidelines and let them be excited. The most snarky I'll get about it is say I don't want to see a Bible movie until the filmmakers figure out that Jesus wasn't white, and even then they'll generally laugh and shrug, and more or less concede, or at least won't pick it up and start something over it. I'm not particularly compelled by this sort of thing so I'm not going to pursue it, but I'm also not going to write all over Facebook about how it's a sham and these people should be ashamed of taking away their boy's childhood and adolescence so they could tour him around the US like a five-armed spider monkey. I'll just...let all of these people be. Let my friends be if they're inspired by it, let the family be if their story is genuine, just get on with my life as though I'd never heard of it. Because I simply don't know either way, and if I pretend I do know then that will only serve to decrease my happiness and cause drama where it isn't necessary.
A lot of my Christian friends have gotten all excited about this and that other Jesus movie that came out recently, and I've just quietly sat by the sidelines and let them be excited. The most snarky I'll get about it is say I don't want to see a Bible movie until the filmmakers figure out that Jesus wasn't white, and even then they'll generally laugh and shrug, and more or less concede, or at least won't pick it up and start something over it. I'm not particularly compelled by this sort of thing so I'm not going to pursue it, but I'm also not going to write all over Facebook about how it's a sham and these people should be ashamed of taking away their boy's childhood and adolescence so they could tour him around the US like a five-armed spider monkey. I'll just...let all of these people be. Let my friends be if they're inspired by it, let the family be if their story is genuine, just get on with my life as though I'd never heard of it. Because I simply don't know either way, and if I pretend I do know then that will only serve to decrease my happiness and cause drama where it isn't necessary.
It is a testament to the lower and still decreasing influence of Christianity over my country (the UK) that I have not read or heard anything about this movie anywhere, except via American media outlets.
As a Christian, I have to say I don't get the hype around this book (and now, apparently, movie - literally just found out it'd been made into one). MovieBob pretty much hit everything spot-on - the story is basically preaching to the choir. From an evangelical perspective, the mainstream exposure of the movie offers nothing that people can't already find in the Christian gospel. A non-Christian seeing this movie is just as likely to be moved by it as they are by the Bible itself - actually, probably less so.
There are a few, let's say, non-canonical addendums in the kid's story, but hardly anything that contradicts what Christians already believe. For example it's not known whether angels actually sing or not (despite the mainstream stereotype), but nor does it really matter either way.
And as MovieBob not-too-subtly hinted at, I'm skeptical of any such "revelatory" near-death experiences after which the person(s) involved become rich and/or famous for. Whatever the original truth was, many a story has been warped by greed by the time it hits mainstream.
There are a few, let's say, non-canonical addendums in the kid's story, but hardly anything that contradicts what Christians already believe. For example it's not known whether angels actually sing or not (despite the mainstream stereotype), but nor does it really matter either way.
And as MovieBob not-too-subtly hinted at, I'm skeptical of any such "revelatory" near-death experiences after which the person(s) involved become rich and/or famous for. Whatever the original truth was, many a story has been warped by greed by the time it hits mainstream.
Whatever your stance on religion or religious philosophy blaming current day christians, muslims, Hindu's, or whatever faith comes to mind for crimes of the past is thinking that belongs in the dark ages. In our society you do not punish innocent people for the crimes commited by another. We do not live in a society where the child inherits the crimes of their parents anymore. Neither should christians be held personally accountable for whats happened in the past. We can all learn from history but no one should be chained to it through guilt by inheritance or association.ExtraDebit said:
As for an "invisible product" what you should instead look at is the real visible "products" that churches across the World provide. Namely charity. There are literally thousands of charity programs run by a variety of religions that help people. Homeless shelters being the most common here in the US but there are also programs run by churches like the Roman catholic church that educate physicians and doctors or pay for education in medical fields with the understand that they will be deployed to third world countries to help people.
You just proved your own ignorance. You want to know who brought reading to everyone, and not a specific group? A priest. You know who made the printing press? A priest. You know who made the first planes? Christians. Enough with your bigoted views!ExtraDebit said:
also... god's not dead actually happened... I know that my brother(who is in high school)has to deal with similar things(obvious liberal bias, hard left/conservative for those in europe)and constant bashing on the christian faith. It isn't as unrealistic as some of you have claimed.