Praise be Christian Piatt! One of my fellow contributors on Huffington Post is the very liberal Christian, Christian Piatt. In the past, his articles almost seem to be atheistic. His newest article takes on the same article I took on yesterday. But more than that, his article gave me an interesting thought that I want to share today.
Christians often complain that shows like Game of Thrones and movies like Harry Potter are un-Christian. The label of “un-Christian” is used on anything they wish to censor and/or demonize. The standards they use for this label are strict. They don’t approve of nudity, sexuality, violence, and complex character. Characters have to be very clearly either good or evil in order to win their approval. There are other “values” that entertainment must have and other sins that must be avoided to win their approval too, but you get the idea.
Here is the thing, the values that these Christians claim to champion are not really found in the Bible. In fact, many of the sins that these Christians label as un-Christian are found in the Bible. Under the strict guidelines of Christian fundamentalism, the Bible would be un-Christian.
Checklist:
Nudity – Check (Garden of Eden)
Sexuality – Check (Song of Solomon & Lot and his daughters – among others)
Violence – Extreme Super Check!
Complex Character – Okay, they got me on that one… unless you count God!
Mr. All-powerful is sort of a complex character who drowns the entire world except for one family. He makes Job a living Hell to win a bet. He turns a woman to salt for turning around. But he also is considered the good guy of the story. That’s complexity. Little Finger has nothing on God.
The Bible preaches against the evils of homosexuality, but is obsessed with penises (particularly the foreskins). And the family values… Jesus tells his followers that they have to hate their entire family in order to follow him. He also blows off his parents to go preach in a temple. God kills his only begotten son as a sacrifice! Compare that to the dysfunction of the Lannisters and it isn’t even a contest which is more family friendly. Tywin would never sacrifice any of his kids, not even Tyrion who he doesn’t even like.
The point here is that if Christians are going to continue to play the “moral police” on entertainment, then they should really stop throwing stones because the Lannisters send their regards.
Related articles
- Christian Piatt: Stop Telling Me What Is Anti-Christian (huffingtonpost.com)
- The Fear of Fiction (skepticink.com)
- Review: ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About God’ by Rob Bell (examiner.com)
- Christphobia? (skepticink.com)
- ‘What Is Wrong With The World?’ (skepticink.com)
