This is a great question! It has a lot of bearing on our lives as we try to navigate and engage the culture we find ourselves in as Jesus followers. This came up in a conversation elsewhere on Facebook but the original post was deleted so I wanted to repost it here.
Someone asked the question, "Can't entertainment just be entertainment? can't Harry Potter just be a wizard and fly around on a broomstick? Does everything have to have a message?" He then went on to say that C.S. Lewis would call that nonsense or something like that (the original post was deleted so I can't quote it exactly).
CS Lewis most definitely would not say that about stories communicating messages whether we want them to or not. Not only Lewis, but such great Christian authors and thinkers as George MacDonald, J.R.R. Tolkein, Dorothy Sayer, and Madeleine L'Engle all believed there was a powerful connection between Story and the communication of Truth.
Understand that I am not not only talking about artists, authors, composers, and filmmakers who intentionally try to communicate theology. EVERY work of art communicates some worldview, even if the creator of that piece doesn't realize it. The best filmmakers know that, it's one of the reasons they get into filmmaking. They know they have a shot at shaping what people believe, at shaping our culture, our values, our THEOLOGY. But it doesn't require the creator's conscious participation. It happens because it is impossible for it NOT to happen.
Hollywood screenwriting teacher Robert McKee says, "Stories are equipment for living. We go to the movies because we hope to find in someone else's story something that will help us understand our own. We go to live in a fictional reality that illuminates our daily reality." (Quoted in Epic by John Eldredge).
That is the work that art does. That's why it's awesome. If you want to know what any given culture belives about God, about life, about itself, look at the art that culture produces.
A few examples, if you will indulge me, of some popular films and the message they communicate...
* Slumdog Millionaire: Everything happens for a reason. Love is stronger than anything.
* Avatar: All is God and God is all. (Pantheism, by the way, not fiction but an actual religion) Jack into the life force with your magic ponytail and get connected to the universe. To be fair, it also has some good things to say about engaging other cultures and accepting people's differences.
* Twilight: Romantic love is to be exalted above all else, even at the cost of your own soul. (Sorry, I calls 'em like I sees 'em.)
NOW... Having said that let me point out that I do not believe that just because you watch a movie you are buying into what it is selling. I don't think you are all zombies blindly accepting and acting out whatever a movie or story tells you. I confess, I like to listen to the occasional KISS tune but I don't really want to "rock and roll all night and party every day." But I would be foolish not to be aware that they are encouraging other people to do exactly that, to abandon their moral compass, to indulge in hedonistic behavior, and lose a lot of sleep. We cannot afford to be naive about this. We must practice discernment actively and diligently. As Proverbs says, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life."
Listen, I'm not trying to be a party pooper here. I love entertainment as much as the next guy. But it is naive and foolish to simply open your mind to whatever a film or book or story in whatever medium is dishing out. That's what makes story-telling so significant and powerful. That is why film has risen to be arguably the single most powerful way to communicate truth -- as well as deception. Why do you think Jesus told parables that were fictional? Because He knew it would connect on a deeper level and have more of an impact than mere doctrinal statements. Our Enemy knows this too and we would do well to remember that.
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