Myths, monsters and magic

For those Christians who had the great privilege of being raised by parents who love the Lord, such as this author, it is something of a rite of passage to not be allowed to watch Harry Potter. The justification for it is understandable: ‘we don’t want them getting ideas in their heads about witchcraft, it’s not a good thing for them to become invested in, especially at such a young age and before they can exercise proper discernment’.

Let’s grant, for the sake of argument, that this is actually a wise ruling. What is in, and what is out? If the standard is that witchcraft is not permissible, is Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe also out? What about Tolkien? Are the great tales of Middle Earth and the shire unprofitable for young children because of the mere presence of scary monsters and magic spells?

One aspect of this comes down to connotations in terminology. Until about three years ago, this author had never heard the idea that monsters were essentially demonic. Growing up with such games as ‘Moshi Monsters’, in which you choose a silly, fun, goofy little monster to be your persona, this author always thought ‘monster’ more or less meant ‘a fictional creature that looks odd and usually scary’. To be perfectly honest, this author would probably include a good few real life creatures into that category. Come on, tell me that Diavlo from Moshi Monsters is more terrifying than bird-eating spiders or the frilled shark.

On a strictly technical level, one can understand how you could categorically call monsters demonic. If monsters are all fictional and grotesque creatures, or real creatures that have become deformed past recognition, then that kind of desecration of God’s good creation can easily be identified with the plans of the Adversary. He comes to kill, steal and destroy, amongst other things, and it’s no small leap to see how grotesque creatures would be his passion project. If you want further evidence of this, see the transgender movement. Now there’s something monstrous.

Ok, so where are we going with this? This author argues that the presence of magic and divination alone, though these are wicked and prohibited practices, is not enough to categorically ban a certain book title or movie. Narnia and Lord of the Rings are probably two of the finest pieces of Christian art in our era. Yes, Narnia is a Christian story. Narnia, like real life, happens to feature wicked characters who use evil means to pursue their grotesque ends. Scripture also contains wicked characters and gives detail of wicked actions committed in rebellion against God. The Bible is certainly not a PG book. In fact, you could not put the Bible to TV or movies faithfully without it incurring the most stringent R18 rating available.

We also argue, and set forth for consideration, that it should not be the mere presence of wickedness that invalidates a show or book, but that it should be the function and frequency of those things to the story. Let’s try some examples.

Game of Thrones: Unlike Lewis and Tolkien, Martin is not writing Christ-figures in this story. It is not a great allegory like those other works. Furthermore, the TV adaption contains frequent and graphic sex scenes. One might try to argue that this is essential to the plot, and indeed it is present in the books, but only a fool wouldn’t realise that many viewers have chosen to watch GoT because it contains sex and nudity.

Star Wars: We can consider ‘the force’ to be a soft-magic system built within an Eastern worldview. George Lucas was explicitly influenced by Joseph Campbell, so the ‘hero with a thousand faces / hero’s journey’ tropes are abundant and clear. Across all six of the original films, the force is used, and viewers see how being motivated by hate can be powerful, but ultimately leads to corruption, loss of what is truly important, and bondage to powers of darkness.

Avatar (The Last Airbender): In terms of teaching children lessons about cooperation, friendship, love and forgiveness, it has a lot going for it. However, the presence of Eastern Religion is even clearer in Avatar than in Star Wars. Certain episodes function as more or less an instructional series on how to use Hindu/Buddhist techniques to access Chi power. This leaves the realm of mere fiction, and (in our opinion) crosses the line into tempting an impressionable young person towards ‘unlocking their chakras’ and so on. Thankfully, the conscientious parent could easily skip this with little impact on the greater story.

These are only a small handful of examples, and many more could easily be produced. This author hasn’t made any sweeping conclusions for you, the reader, about which of those you should or shouldn’t watch. However, consider our rubric of function and frequency.

Function: what does the magic/monster/immorality/false religion/sexual references do for the story? In Les Misérables, the character Fantine turns in desperation to prostitution, and in the recent musical film adaption we see her singing I Dreamed a Dream while some man is on top of her. That shot lasts for maybe a couple of seconds, and doesn’t contain any nudity, and doesn’t in any way present the scene as something erotic, arousing or laudable. This scene functions to show the depths of despair that Fantine is driven to, thanks to the wicked extortion of the Thénardiers, and the tough economic conditions of France at the time. Even still, that is pushing it.

In most shows and movies today, sex scenes are altogether unecessary, and primarily exist to increase the clicks that the show will get. That’s just the reality of it. In decades past, sex scenes would be merely implied, or only the scenes before or after would be shown. There are ways of explaining to an audience that two people had sex without showing it.

Asking the question of function can easily disqualify many shows, and it probably should. It doesn’t necessarily follow that just because one of these things functions in an artistic or important way in the plot that it can, however, be excused.

Frequency is another important one. The reality is that there are some great movies that just have one scene in them that you wouldn’t want a young person (or perhaps any person) seeing. In matters like this, one can often google a content review for a program beforehand, identify when in the story the objectionable content will come (whether sex scene, Séance, idol worship, gratuitous violence etc) and simply click past it. However, since this brings the viewer closer to the chance of accidentally seeing something, it is a decision that requires wisdom.

Let’s bring this back to myths, monsters and magic. This author is not trying to rag on conscientious Christian parents who want their children to come to love stories of righteousness triumphing over evil, and not become obsessed with dark and occult characters. That is a good and laudable desire. However, wisdom is needed when deciding what’s in and what’s out. If you throw out any trace of a monster, then do not be surprised when many babies fall out of the window along with the bathwater. What’s more, if you want to avoid all stories of witchcraft, you’ll have to tear chapters out of your Bible also.

As a wise woman once said, “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.” Let the reader understand.