In the latter
half of Disney’s new movie, “Beauty and the Beast,” there is a scene in
which the townspeople storm the castle. During their raid, three men run up the
stairs with swords drawn and are met by the Wardrobe who then combats the men
by dressing them as women in dresses, wigs, jewelry, and so on. Two of the men
run off screaming but the third smiles broadly and skips joyfully away to the
encouragement of the Wardrobe to be free. In
other words, be who you want to be. Dress how you want to dress. Live how you
want to live. I am sure you are familiar with this scene as it was a source of much debate in the church earlier this spring.
When Caitlin and
I saw this movie in the theater the whole room burst out in laughter during
this scene. It is not necessarily sin for someone to watch a movie tainted with
perversion, but it is a sin to laugh at sin and especially when those around
you may be struggling with that very thing. One of the main problems with
finding obscenity humorous is that it reveals an approval and it is approval of
sin that is sin. The things a person laughs at reveals what is in their heart
(Matt. 15:18).
Many Christians
are very vocal regarding their distaste in the transgender movement. I’m sure
my Facebook newsfeed is not the only one that is daily filled with the
transgender debate and labeling it sin, unhealthy and illogical. However, a few
months ago I saw another side of Christianity. One that is being defined and
driven by our culture.
With the lack of
Biblical literacy and the rise of immoral behavior, Christians today are being pressed
more than ever to conform into the image of the world rather than that of
Christ. Their method? Compartmentalize and fragment the Christian life so that
God only impacts some of the
believer’s life and not the whole. Social
media is a perfect demonstration of this with Christians condemning specific
sins of others while, at the same time, laughing about them on the big screen.
Maybe a contributing
factor to the reason why the world doesn’t take Christianity seriously is
because we don’t take our own faith seriously. We have changed the fear of God into merely the respect of Him. We have taken His Word
and cut from it the passages that cause discomfort or that we disagree with
entirely. Rather than functioning as the locker room to regroup, encourage,
strengthen, and prepare believers for another week in the world, churches today
are often no more than a social gathering where crowds gather to hear a
motivational speech teaching them how to feel better about themselves.
Paul writes in
Romans 2:24 that the world blasphemes God because we blaspheme God. That is a
heavy statement but a sobering one that should cause us to pause and evaluate
our own lives. The Mosaic Law calls transgenderism an abomination to the Lord
(Deut. 22:5). As Christians, we must strive to be consistent in our beliefs
regarding sin and holiness. Do you believe transgenderism is sin or do you find
it humorous to watch men and women destroying themselves and defacing the glory
of God?
As we watch movies
such as “Beauty and the Beast” we should pay attention to what we and even kids
think is funny. We all experience at times moments when we laugh at things that
insults the Lord – that’s called being human with an old sin nature. But our
aim should be holiness. As stated earlier, Caitlin and I did see this movie in
theaters and now even own the DVD so I’m not saying that you should never go to
the theater or watch anything other than black and white movies. I just wish to
encourage my fellow believers in Christ to watch movies with an awareness of
how our culture works to undermine the Lord and our own reactions to their
advances.
This guy really wrote a whole article about a goofy moment in a movie. It was just meant to be a quick laugh, you really think comedy is making people think "man, the more I laugh at this the more evil I feel and I love it", it´s meant to make you forget about your problems, let loose a little, I swear you extreme religious people do some amazing mental gymnastics just to try and worry people
ReplyDeleteIf we wouldn’t dare make jokes about something as serious as “9/11”, why would we make jokes & laugh at people committing sin (that the Lord hates and leads to death)…sin that Christ died to make atonement for ?
ReplyDeleteAdd: I love the article!
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