Christianity and Star Wars

[Mor-El Kesav]

First off, I am a Christian. That is a far a distinction as I am willing to make. When Lucas created the philosophy behind the Jedi and the Sith, he pulled from nearly every society and religeon on earth, to include Christianity. I really doubt the intentions and sincerity of someone who bases an entire sermon on the "Evil of Star Wars" when there is so much true evil to expose and clean up. Do they now plan to start burning Star Wars books as they burned Harry Potter books.

Those kinds of actions smack of Fanaticism. Fanaticism in ANY religeon is a dangerous thing. Christians are not free of fanaticism in their churches. Look back to the struggle between the Protestants and the Catholics. Horrors committed by both sides are nearly unspeakable. Catholics torturing Protestants to admit to "crimes" they didn't commit (the Inquisition). Protestants burning Catholics in front of the church after they crucified them.

Try to keep an open, non judgmental mind when listening to "sermons" about this kind of stuff. If the best your church can do is attack something like Star Wars, then perhaps you need to question if they are really meeting your religious needs.

[Nightwing]

(Jetsi: No, I wasn't offended by Nova's comment; I suppose you could say my reaction is comes from experience. In EVERY online forum thread, if at some point Christianity is taken into account, people begin to take sides, and it becomes a war. This nearly always happens when non-Christians spout random anti-Christian nonsense, hence why I said we should be respectful)


Now on to my point...

I am both a Christian and a literature major, and I can say with certainty that you can't create your own literary parallels to support any theory of heresy, since literature can be interpreted virtually any way (it's all perspective). Especially once you take into account the varying descriptions of the Force from the OT, the Prequels, and the EU... eek... :P

Now see, you can technically call Star Wars anti-Christian just by taking into account the fact that the SW universe directly contradicts Christianity. However, different believers have very different views on whether or not this kind of thing is "okay".

The Bible states not to "consult books of witchcraft" (or something to that basic effect), and that "any supernatural power which is not of God is if Satan". Some Christians take this to mean that books which promote any supernatural power (not including sci-fi superheroes and whatnot) other than God are essentially promoting evil (or, at the very least, promoting the idea of a non-God power as a positive thing).

Of course, the real question is "does it matter if it's fiction?"
The Bible never talks about this, but does state that what you expose yourself to will affect you and change you. Therefore, some parents believe that allowing their children to watch Star Wars is, in effect, "opening the door for corruption."
Now, please, resist the urge to lash out and voice your anger towards these people for rejecting something we are all very passionate about. They are only looking out for their kids by doing what they think is right.

Now, do you want my opinion?
I believe that the Bible is intentionally vague about fiction, because different people have different reactions to it. I'm not promoting moral relativism by any means, but I am saying that one's ability to separate reality and fantasy depends on many factors. Now, before you start yelling "anyone can tell reality from fantasy!!", think about this:
If you had the chance to go on some Star Wars-style adventure, would you? Have the films actually had an effect on your desires? Obviously they have, since you're on a forum dedicated to building lightsabers.
When I was eight, my parents had to take away nearly all my SW toys because I was becoming too obsessed with the saga. I lived and breathed it to the point where I was seriously replacing my own reality with Lucas's fantasy. Now that I'm older, I don't have that problem. (though I am on these forums. :P)

So my point is that it all comes down to discretion; it's the same as deciding whether or not it's acceptable to watch films with a certain type of content.

[Madcow]

Great conversation all,
I am an ordained minister and a SW fan. I think of myself as a "Jesus-Jedi".
Ti-el, I admire your committment to your friends at church - even if the preacher is a little off. I'm sure he means well.
But if you do want to check out something else - I know a pastor in your area - he was my roomate at Bible College!
http://www.ngate.ca/

I find it so interesting how the word "christianity" means so many different things - good and bad. It makes me want to ditch the word in favor of something less religious and more true to the Cause. I prefer "disciple of Jesus" when refering to myself.

I personally love the way that star wars captures the value of the "mentor" relationship. It is really a lost art in western church and culture that I am trying to re-discover. It's all through the bible.

This book was surprisingly interesting:
http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Wisd.../dp/0787978949

Nova - check out James 1:22 in the bible:
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. "
It appears God agrees with you.

For the Cause,
MC

[Novastar]

Nova - check out James 1:22 in the bible:
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. "
It appears God agrees with you.

Or perhaps vice-versa.

I did not make up the rules to this world... I really do WISH that "good intentions" made the world a better place. But alas--they do not.

Only through action is anything gained--although it must first be THOUGHT of to actually TAKE action, hehehh.

For the record, I've nothing against any particular religion (nor do I have any favored alignment). I think they are all one in the same... Buddha, Jesus, Allah... they are all aspirations of ours in order to better ourselves and our world.

[Jedi Ranger]

I was not going to post in here, but oh well. No personal thoughts/comments, just a quick story.

On my group's way to LA for C4, several people got cornered (on the plane) by a religious 'extremist', trying to convince them that Star Wars was evil, etc, etc, etc. For the 2.5 hour flight, she kept turning around in her seat to chat at the row behind her, and go on and on. She became known as "the crazy lady." Thankfully, I managed to avoid her, barely.

[DACOTA]

WOW.I too fail to see how sw is religiuous the only thing you can say of star wars is that you can use it as an analogy of the Bible.
Pretend analogy not intended to be taken literally.
Bible=Lightsaber,some people say that the bible is you figurative sword.
Jedi=Gods servants
Force=holy spirit
Anakin=Jesus,exept Jesus did not go to the dark side.
Sidiuos=Satan the Devil.

Thats all I can think of and its simply for kicks,do not take it literally.

[Barmic Rin]

Here's where the real controversy enters the arena.......

Ready.....

Sure......

Okay, no one shoot me down on this.....

Whilst I respect everyone elses beliefs, and I was Christened as a child, I am not Christian.
I have yet to find a word that fits my religious belief.
I never disputed the fact whether God does or does not exist, whether the Bible is a work of fiction rather than an exact history book or anything like that.
As far as I know, there IS a force in the universe that guides us & helps us see through the bad times, and gives us a warm feeling inside when something good happens.
I don't know if this is God, Buddha, Zeus, the Force, Gaea or what.
All I know is that it is there, I believe in something, though I don't feel inclined to give it a name.
In naming something, it makes it yours, and when it's yours, you feel you have to keep & defend it in deed or action.
That is, as we all know the main reason for War. The in-ability to accept that someone else holds a different religious opinion to you.

I accept other peoples beliefs aslong as they don't try to force them upon me. i wouldn't do it to them, so I expect the same courtesy.

As for the whole Star wars/christianity dispute, this has been done to death by many, many people.
Every story is just a re-write of other stories from the past.
Just take a place from here, a character from there & voila!
Your story is complete.

There are references to christianity in the movies, as well as references to Greek myths, Norse Legends etc.

Check out Star wars: The magic of Myth.
Those of you that have it will be able to verify this.



..........Annnnnnnndddddddd, Breathe out............

[Darth Tollo]

I do not see how Star Wars is sacrilegious but apparently if you look hard enough, you can find evil in anything. My mother-in-law is one of those people. My wife and I were going through and watching the original trilogy and she kept saying “I don’t remember this part.” I could not figure out why until we were throwing out some old VHS and she had a tape that said “Star Wars 1, 2 &3.” I popped it in and found the original trilogy but something was missing…THE FORCE. Every scene where the Force was used was removed from the movie. She did this because it was evil. Tell me that isn’t screwed up.

On an interesting note, she recently told me that I am inviting the devil into my home when I saw Harry Potter, because wizards are evil. Then a week later was making a huge fuss about how the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the best and most Godly movies she has seen in a long time. WHAT?!

[james3]

I have a bad feeling about this.

[vortextwist]

I do not see how Star Wars is sacrilegious but apparently if you look hard enough, you can find evil in anything. My mother-in-law is one of those people. My wife and I were going through and watching the original trilogy and she kept saying “I don’t remember this part.” I could not figure out why until we were throwing out some old VHS and she had a tape that said “Star Wars 1, 2 &3.” I popped it in and found the original trilogy but something was missing…THE FORCE. Every scene where the Force was used was removed from the movie. She did this because it was evil. Tell me that isn’t screwed up.

On an interesting note, she recently told me that I am inviting the devil into my home when I saw Harry Potter, because wizards are evil. Then a week later was making a huge fuss about how the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the best and most Godly movies she has seen in a long time. WHAT?!

LOL. that's funny.