Friday, January 15, 2010

God and Violence...a perfect match?

Some would kill to have it...I will kill to protect it. -Eli

The Book of Eli...is out today...and the book ELi will kill to protect is the Bible...if you didn't know.

According to one Review the movie has a:
"Very Strong Christian worldview, including themes of sacrifice, where the protagonist constantly prays, shows others how to pray, quotes Scripture, and, though he is not perfect, constantly tries to live what he believes and consistently walks by faith in God, not by what he can see..."

The reviewer than lists some of the content in the movie:
Extreme, brutal violence depicted including man abuses his wife by pulling her hair,
Man is found after having hanged himself
Multiple scenes of blood spurting after people have been shot and limbs have been cut off with a samurai-like sword
Men fire guns and heavy artillery
Men get sliced with sword
Man is shot in private area with an arrow
Man gets shot in the neck with an arrow
Men get shot in the head and all of it is completely shown
Man gets beheaded by sword
Lots of punching, brawl fighting, lots of explosions with hand grenades and grenade launcher
Man uses a derogatory word to encourage his men to fornicate
Men rape a woman but cameras cut out before anything is shown
Young girl tries to seduce older man but he rejects her because it is wrong
One scene of attempted rape where girl is rescued before it actually happens

Carnegie, the protagonist in the film has something to say about that "book":"It's a weapon"


Indeed, I guess it appears to be.

I am being driven over the edge with this cultural fascination with killing and faith...will it never end?

3 comments:

bryan.moffatt said...

"The appeal to and use of violence in Christian action increase in exact proportion to the decrease in faith...Unbelief is the true root of the Christian championship of violence." Jacques Ellul

While Ellul may hold some debateable ideas, this statement resonates with my own struggles with unbelief in God's ability to protect me and my family from harm. This is certainly the primary reason that I have had such a hard time giving up the idea that to protect the innocent, I have to use violence.

I guess my answer is that until our unbelief stops, the violence can't.

fcb4 said...

Bryan...why you reading such dangerous literature man...you are going to make your head and heart explode.

bryan.moffatt said...

Yeah, I know, tell me about it. What are you going to do? You have to be careful what you pray for!