Theater Theology

Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of the 19th century, was known for his dislike of theatre. It is worthy to note that many of his era thought that London theatre was rather bawdy. In his time, he openly condemned the actions of fellow preacher Joseph Parker for attending so often and publicly. In our era we see that movies have not become any more decent than in the time of Spurgeon and Parker; however, we do have a unique (but often inconsistent) rating system for what is released today. So should we join Spurgeon in the open condemnation of both theater and its attendees? Or should we attend regardless, in the manner of J. Parker?

As it often does, the answer lies somewhere in the middle, I believe. There are many movies, plays, books, and songs that an obedient Christian aught to avoid. (May the Holy Spirit convict you personally in this and follow whatever conviction He may give you.) I believe this follows similar lines of thought to what Paul wrote about to the Church in Corinth about meat offered to idols. (see post Yoga: Evil Exercise? for more details) But some movies, plays, books, and songs that are most likely not written by Christians can contain a surprising amount of Biblical truth in them.

Its all well and good to say that we can learn from movies, but what examples can we give? Well, on a personal note, I very much enjoy the animated movies that have become more common in today's world. Some of them are a bit crass at times, (with Dreamworks having more likelihood of this than Pixar) but many are quite good and serve a purpose. For example, my favorite one of recent release is "The Lorax". In this flick that was made to promote environmentalism we find many truths that can cut  rather deeply. I wonder at times if some of the writing staff may indeed have a Christian worldview. Even if they did not, the truth in the movie is wonderful.

How Bad Can I Be, the song that the Once-ler sings in the middle of the movie, is one of the most simple examples of how looking out for number one, the theme of today, is actually a terrible idea. Greed is portrayed as wrong (shocking, I know) and we see that it can hurt others. The permanence of wrongdoing is shown as well. In the revival of the trees we see the revival of truth. I could not help but compare the Truffula tree seed to the seed Jesus talks about in the Gospels.

Yet another important detail the movie brings out rather well is when the Once-ler states, "That seed is no more just a seed than you are just a boy. Its about what it can become." This applies not only to seeds and boys, but to both righteousness and unrighteousness.

The final bit of Loraxian wisdom I want to touch base on is this. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothings going to get better. Its not. Not only does this mean we need to be good stewards of God's creation, (Gen 2:15) but it also applies to you and me. Unless we care about our own state before God, we will not change. God does not change our actions forcefully, He always waits for us to take initiative. We need to pick up the armor and start caring.