Posted on 03/25/2002 5:06:44 AM PST by Liz
I work with a minister who gets on his soap box every time Lord of the Rings is mentioned in conversation about movies. He tries to lump it into the same category as Harry Potter and calls it demonic and satanic. I do not think he has ever actually read the story. It is very difficult to discuss something with somebody who is already so certain they are right, particularly when they don't have all the facts. I guess he thinks that because the story contains magic and wizards and elves that it automatically follows that it glorifies the demonic. Using that line of reasoning would require demonizing most childrens' fairy tales.
I don't mean to paint this man as a pompous ass because he isn't. He is a good man and overall a very likable person. My own beliefs lead me to steer clear of Harry Potter and Dungeons and Dragons and that sort of thing, but it seems there is a very wide ranging use of fantasy in literature and movies and games. Some of these glamorize evil and others use the "magical" qualities and creatures as a type or symbol for greater evils and virtues and in the battles of good and evil within them there is always a deeper truth and goodness prevails and is preserved or restored as the case may be. The bottom line question is "who gets the glory?"
Éowyn - who slew the Lord of the Nazgûl at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
http://www.geocities.com/quicksilver8_99/Tiers/Tiers.html
especially bottom of page...
Here's a personal anecdote:
My eight-year-old son recently read C.S.Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" with his mother. After thinking about the story for a while he came up with the conclusion on his own: "Mom, Aslan's like Jesus!". No one explained to him that Aslan was a type of Christ but he was able to draw the parallel on his own.
Praise God for homeschooling.
I didn't know that. Interesting, considering the profoundly proto-fascist subtext of Parsifal. I'd have thought it would be Hitler's favorite.
Agree with you 100% about the music and the man. How such a miserable human being could produce such beauty in music is an endless source of fascination for me.
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