Comments on: Saying No to Narnia

By: Edmund

Edmund — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 06:36:49 +0000

What Jesus said is true that what people did to Him, people will do to his followers. There is so much hate for Christians, Christmas and Christ nowadays. We need to respect other people’s beliefs even if we disagree. And it’s basic decency without it society will crumble.

By: eclecticism

eclecticism — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:32:45 +0000

Narnia and Christianity — does it matter?

Sure, you can read all sorts of meaning into the stories and why they’re being brought to the screen now — religious indoctrination, right-wing propelled mass media conspiracy theories, whatever. You can also tell your inner Fox Mulder that every so …

By: janinsanfran

janinsanfran — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:41:29 +0000

Lewis has a nasty conventional old-style imperial British racist streak that comes out in some of the later books of the Narnia series. He also has a nasty homophobic streak that shows up in the last book of his space trilogy, That Hideous Strength. He is also not a very subtle writer of fiction.

But all that said, his writing helped make me a Christian (while not preventing me from being a Commie too) so I have a warm spot for the guy. And consequently, I am not going to see the Disney movie.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:59:27 +0000

While I am a devoted fan of The Lord of the Rings, I never quite carried Narnia out of childhood. Lewis and Tolkien were Oxford colleagues, and while they were both devout Catholics, Tolkien abhorred the mixing of religion into his work and didn’t like Lewis’ work because of his doing that very thing. In all fairness, I should reread Narnia, but to me the messages always seemed cheapened and not very subtle at all.

By: Lorin11

Lorin11 — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:52:35 +0000

Narnia was clearly intended by Lewis as a Christian allegory. However, having read a lot of Lewis, I find it hard to ascribe the kind of cynical motives and views of Christianity to Lewis which are clearly visible in the current so-called Christian "right" (talk about an oxymoron).
Having said that, Lewis is rather heavy-handed, which is probably why the right likes him. Nobody was upset with The Lord of the Rings movie series, the literary basis for which was chock-full of Christian symbolism, albeit much more subtly presented.
It is not surprising, when one considers that Lewis was a convert from agnosticism to Christianity. As Saul/Paul showed us, it is the converts who most often are the loudest, but have the least true understanding.

By: Scott's Place

Scott's Place — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 12:33:40 +0000

Narnia’s unholy alliances

If it’s just a children’s book series, why are Focus on the Family so involved?

By: Peregrinato

Peregrinato — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 17:36:14 +0000

Perhaps we are already living in Narnia, but not in the Narnia that Lewis intended. More like the Narnia at the beginning of the movie: always winter, never Christmas, with the White Witch in charge. My meaning? Always "Christian" (the term) but never really "Christ" (love they neighbor, anyone?) with GeeDub in charge.