Narnia? Is it a crazy fundie thing or not?

[Bleacher Creature]

It's been a LONG time since I read the books -- 25 years maybe?? I've always known that C.S. Lewis was a religious nut, but I always thought that his books were more fantasy than anything.

In any event, I fully planned to see the movie, until I saw this on IMDB:

Churches To Preview 'Chronicles of Narnia'
As part of Disney's church outreach in marketing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, it has arranged for the 20,000 members of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA to see the movie on Dec. 8, one day before its official opening, the Orange County Register reported today (Wednesday). The church, which has booked 13 theaters for the special screening, has asked its regular members to bring their "unchurched" friends. The Register said that plans for similar screenings are being implemented in other parts of the country, following a recent series of previews for more than 1,400 religious leaders.

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2005-11-30/#3

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to let any fundies dictate what I do or don't see. However, I also didn't go out and see "Battlefield Earth" either. Anyone know more about this whole thing.

(Sorry -- getting very sleepy tonight)

[mykpart]

1. The fundies I know don't like C.S. Lewis by & large.

He's much too subtle for them. I've read his non-fiction, Mere Christianty, and he allows all versions of Christianity into heaven, so fundies don't like that. Re: Narnia, I heard one fundie say, "If it's about Jesus, then why don't he just say it's about Jesus instead of making up some story?"

[drhilarius]

2. I'd like to be at the test screening...

Fundie: Um, you said this'd be 'bout Jesus, but there ain't no Jesus there.

Studio exec: Well, it's a religious allegory.

Fundie: Allegory? Allegory?! More like Hell-egory. Ma, set up the pile, we gots some all-e-gory t'burn.

[Beware the Beast Man]

3. Here's something I really don't understand:

If a film, book or the like has some sort of Judeo-Christian or biblical symbolism, then people automatically assume it's a "crazy fundie thing." It works both ways, though, as said "crazy fundies" try their hardest to coopt anything they can get their hands on.

[REP]

4. Crazy Xian Allegory

Lewis's view of Xianity was bleak. His books suck. He sucks, even though he is now safely dead.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

8. I'm the last guy on earth who would cut a fundie any slack

but your take on C.S. Lewis is, IMHO, a bit overblown.

"Mere Christianity" was a fairly thoughtful tome within the framework of mainstream "Christianity." Granted, mainstream Christianity mandates a belief in a whole bunch of magic, more, in fact, than one may find in the daily astrological predictions in the newspaper. But "sucking" is a sliding scale in this era of Nonologies by the likes of Tim LaHaye and "Christian" books by Dobson that encourage parents to beat their children "until they cry real tears."

Or, of course, not.

[REP]

12. Gotta Disagree With You There

But I was raised by wolves on GB Shaw, so you can see why I think Lewis is a fool.

[LostinVA]

16. Agreed, as is "The Screwtape Letters"

[Omphaloskepsis]

14. What about the Space Trilogy?

-- Out of the Silent Planet
-- Perelandra
-- That Hideous Strength

I loved all of those..

[GrpCaptMandrake]

5. C.S. Lewis wasn't a fundie by any stretch of the imagination

Although, given the fact that the fundies tried to co-opt "March of the Penguins," there's certainly no guarantee they won't try to ruin this. The most essential question remains whether the film is true to the book. If it is, the fundies will be hard-pressed to make it their own. If it isn't the slant will be obvious.

OnEdit: don't drink and type.

[LostinVA]

17. He was very Anglo-Catholic

[robbedvoter]

6. Waaay overly advertised. That alone turns me off. Violence is the 2nd

[bliss_eternal]

7. Holy crap--why don't they just drink the Kool Aid

and make their own movies? The Scientologists did.

I'm sick to death of them trying to shanghai movies for their cause, or damning us to hell and ruining movies and films for the rest of us (i.e. Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc.)

Just make a big steaming mug of kool aid and shut the fuck up and leave the rest of us alone already!

:grr:

[TreasonousBastard]

9. A religious nut? Then what would you call Tolkien, whose...

Catholicism converted him?

Anyway, I can't imagine why this silly marketing campaign should influence whether you want to see this flick or not. It's a fantasy, and while it has religious symbolism in it, it's still just a fantasy.

[XemaSab]

10. No way!

The allegory is subtle.

In most of the books, the symbolism is not very heavily laid on.

Lewis was a hardcore christian, but certainly not a modern American fundie.

[khashka]

11. Narnia was a Xtian allegory

You know, Aslan = Jesus, etc.

But calling C.S. Lewis a crazy fundie hardly fits. Devout Christian is more reasonable. The lesson he tries to portray is Christ's message of love, forgiveness and doing the best you can. Nothing to argue with there.

Also it's not obvious, he doesn't ram it down your throat. It' s there if you see it and not there if you don't.

Haven't seen the movie, so I can't speak of it. My initial assumption is that they have royally fucked it up. But we'll see.

Khash.

[Beware the Beast Man]

25. Well said.

Thanks. :thumbsup:

[radfringe]

13. fundies are latching on to it

as an "anti-Harry Potter"

I've read the narnia books many times over and enjoyed them each time. The same goes for the Harry Potter books.

yeah, Narnia, does have it's christian overtones - but like Harry Potter and many many many other books - it's a timeless tale of good triumphs over evil

don't let the fundies hype and blather stop you from seeing the movie or from reading the books

aside comment: one of the "objections" many fundies have with Harry Potter is the 'magic' - the sanitized argument is kids will read harry potter and because impressionable - they will try to do magic

:eyes:

ok - so now the fundies are hopping on a narnia bandwagon - or should I say popping into a narnia wardrobe -- if kids are so impressionable - won't they try to hide in a wardrobe or closet in hopes of being whisked to narnia?

there's also magic in Narnia - and talking animals, trolls, goblins, and other "bad critters" -- won't this give kids nightmares?

[NMMNG]

15. On "impressionable" children

I'm so tired of the wingnuts trying to get everything banned because "impressionable children" will try to emulate it. For crying out loud, are kids really that mindless that they cannot realize the difference between reality and fantasy? I grew up on Bugs Bunny and Road Runner, yet never once did I walk off a cliff expecting I could keep going--I knew darn well I'd plummet to the ground. :eyes:

[philosophie_en_rose]

18. Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!

If people start showing movies about lions, kids will be climbing over zoo walls and will be eaten.

:sarcasm:

[NMMNG]

29. OMFSM! We'll have to close all the zoos!

We especially wouldn't want any little Fundie children getting eaten by the lions--they already have a bad enough persecution complex. :rofl:

[Loonman]

19. I fail to see what the big deal is

This is America, after all.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

20. First of all...

No true fundie approves of fantasy in any form. They think anything occult, no matter what the allegory is actually about, is straight from Satan and is thusly banned.

[Coventina]

21. Sheesh! Lewis became a devout Christian, and so he's viewed as a fundie

nutcase?

I've read quite a bit of his non-fiction, and from what I've seen, he believed that all people of good faith & intentions, no matter what religion or atheist, were "saved". According to his cosmology, the "damned" were only those who wanted it that way.

He came to his faith rather late in life, after being an avowed atheist for many years. That means that his beliefs were carefully examined and not just blindly swallowed from his family, or church or whatever.

In my opinion, his "Mere Christianity" is a bluebook for how Christians ought to be, and it's a far cry from Fundamentalism.

I was raised Fundamentalist Christian, so I know the difference.

I consider myself Christo-Pagan now.

[GirlinContempt]

22. Is everything Christian automatically a crazy fundy thing?

"In any event, I fully planned to see the movie, until I saw this on IMDB"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to let any fundies dictate what I do or don't see"
:shrug:

[ghostsofgiants]

28. How dare you insinuate that Christian influence might not lead to...

Crazy fundamentalism. What are you, some kind of Freeper? :eyes: :P

[freestyle]

23. The Church of England does not allow religious nuts. mild sarcasm.

C.S. Lewis was not a religious nut at all. People who want to make him into one now are stretching and have not read much of his work. The Chronicles of Narnia is all allegory and symbolism and any religious message is quite likely to be lost on young readers.

Unfortunately, the wider Anglican Communion has plenty of religious nuts who are causing all sorts of problems right now. They aren't quoting C.S. Lewis.

[asthmaticeog]

24. Lewis wasn't a "nut."

He was a devout believer whose background informed his writing, that's all, and he's far from current USA Fundamentalism. Put it this way - I.B. Singer was a Jew whose background informed his writing. Was he a "religious nut?"

[GirlinContempt]

27. snap

[Bill McBlueState]

26. they're trying to make it one

The Narnia books are classic allegory in that you can get a Christian message if you want to, but you certainly don't have to. I read them as a kid and only later realized they were allegory.

As others have said, the theology does not at all align with fundamentalism. While fundamentalism claims that only those who hold particular fundamental beliefs will be saved, the claim in Narnia is that all "good" people go to heaven regardless of their particular religious belief.

Still, some Christians are trying to make it a "crazy fundie thing" and I'm hoping they don't ruin it for the rest of us.

[radfringe]

30. wonder what they will think if a movie is made out this book....

http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/V04/Screwtape.htm

The Screwtape Letters
C.S. Lewis

My dear Wormwood,..." So begins this product of C.S. Lewis's wickedly funny imagination, a correspondence between two devils, Screwtape and his young nephew, Wormwood. As the senior fiend advises his young apprentice in leading humanity astray, Lewis delves into questions about good and evil, temptation, repentance, and grace, offering knowledge and guidance to all who are trying to live good Christian lives.
http://www.bookstore-cool.com/P0684831171.html#Synopsis

This ingenious little book consists of a series of letters written by one devil (Screwtape, an official in Satan’s "Lowerarchy") to another (Wormwood, Screwtape’s nephew, a junior devil on earth). Screwtape’s epistles are instructions in temptation aimed at the corruption of Wormwood’s human "patient." Speaking through his devils, Lewis creates a comic masterpiece of malicious wit and moral wisdom.
http://www.commonreader.com/cgi-bin/rbox/ido.cgi?4128

A masterpiece of satire, this classic has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles, seen from the vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to "Our Father Below".
http://www.netstoreusa.com/abbooks/157/1574532618.shtml