Harry Potter, Twilight, and Anne Rice

And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)

I have not fully developed a philosophy of how Christians should relate to culture. I am aware that this conversation is a heavy, multi-faceted one that can get heated quickly. Moreover, I am convinced that most of us never really have an honest dialogue about this, either within ourselves, with Scripture, or with those we trust. It is much easier to sort of stick our thumbs up in the air, measure the cultural wind (whether of society or of our chosen subset of society), and go with the flow.

I have not read or studied so much on this, though I have some initial thoughts that I believe will at least help to frame the tension a little bit more Biblically for us.
First, from the verse above, we are to do everything as unto the Lord. This is so relentlessly, thoroughly, inevitably, (annoyingly?), and rightly comprehensive. So I really get nothing for myself? But don't I deserve...? God is invading our space, in any possible way that we can conceive and define "our space". Even more invasive is Paul's statement in Romans 14:14 - "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." I don't think - though some probably do - that these verses call us to necessarily become monks or foreign missionaries. I do think they call us to hold back no part of our lives from God and to live every part of our lives in light of our faith in God. To intentionally keep some part back from him is to harbor a traitor; and even to harbor one that we think is harmless is to commit treason against a holy God, the Lover of our souls.

All of that to say, Jesus is your Lord. If Jesus is your Lord, he is also necessarily Lord of your culture and Lord of your free time. I do not presume to tell you how to use your time, only that its use ought to proceed from faith; it is a business that we each need to do with the Spirit, with his Word in hand.

Jesus' sharpest words were reserved for the Pharisees who knew we were called to be holy. They, of course, taught the command to be holy, only they spelled it out in minute detail, in man-made steps of how to get there, and they were proud before God because they could walk the steps they had fashioned for themselves. Holiness is ultimately a matter of the heart, not external actions (like those the Pharisees were so good at). Because of Jesus' anger at the self-righteousness of the Pharisees, we ought to extend much grace to others in their struggling through these issues, and we should instead direct our greatest attention and energy to a gaze upon our own hearts. That is my intention, to call you to a Spirit-led self-reflection with the goal of faith-directed obedience in all facets of your life, including your relationship to your culture.

Paul is quite the expert at this, I think. The sense I get when reading Paul's letters is that he holds on for dear life to his Savior, and he holds loosely to absolutely everything else. In that way, he can become all things to all people and still live a life of holiness. Please read Romans 14. That is an excellent passage to show this tension within Paul's ministry in relation to eating different kinds of foods, a question that might not seem too relevant to us but was explosive in Paul's context. He writes, I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean... Do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

Paul is free in Christ, but because Christ has his heart, he gives that freedom back to God, as we should. The building up of the Body of Christ far outweighs any freedoms that Paul would want to claim for some personal use. When God is glorified in Paul's eating of an "unclean animal", Paul takes joy in it; when God is glorified in Paul's abstaining, he takes joy in that as well. A sure mark of immaturity is this protest in the Christian's heart: But don't I have a right to such and such? What about my rights? What about what I deserve? (That is actually a mark of the rebellion of unbelief, and we make ourselves out as practical atheists when this is our cry.) Paul knows, as we should, that we deserve eternal punishment; we deserve wrath, but we have gotten grace. In our sin we forfeited any rights we might have, and if God showed up in his holy might and power, the last thing anyone will think to do is to begin demanding their rights before him. They dare not!

Nothing you have is your own. You are simply a steward of everything you think is yours. Your time, your money, your conversations, your relationships, your career, your faith - they are all lent to you for a period of time. Your life is the life God lent you. You don't have to worry about creating meaning and purpose for your life - that is to be found through humble submission to the Will of the Author of everything, including life's meaning and purpose. Letting go of ultimate control and receiving back a rightful submissive control as humble steward is a bittersweet thing. It is hard, but it is freeing, like the weight of the world lifting from your shoulders when you realize its not on you to make everything happen. Things don't have to go just right in order for you to be happy because your happiness is now in the Lord, not in any created thing, not in those things that cannot possibly bear the weight of your expectations.

So what about the things we choose to do with our free time? Television, books, sports, hanging out, and whatever else? Do we have such a thing as free time? No and yes. Our time is not our own, but God does give us freedom in how we use time. After we have done the work and other things we know we must do to live, how can God be glorified in the remainder? The appropriate question to ask is, how God might be glorified in my tv-watching, my reading, my exercising, my... whatever it is?

The answer in general terms, I believe is to be found in Romans 12:1-2. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The answer is to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. The answer is not in a list of rules and laws. The answer is having a heart like Christ that is able to respond well in any circumstance. Then we will be able to discern what is good and acceptable in each situation. For that reason, I ask you not to conform to some set of rules I have created for holiness, but to go, instead, to the Bible seeking to be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Well... I wrote all of that as background for some videos and links I want to give you. I am quite certain that some of you will be offended by what some of what these links say. My posting of these links is not necessarily a full endorsement of the messages delivered, but they are meant to cause you to think. They may not be relevant for you because you may never have come across the material they address, but if that is the case, I hope you have still obtained some benefit from what has gone before.

I have adopted a personal philosophy of "giving offense" that I take from Tim Keller, and I am sure he takes it from the Apostle Paul, who took it from Jesus. Jesus tells us that we will be hated by the world the way that he was. We will suffer in this life for righteousness sake. If we are not suffering any sort of persecution, God may be protecting us or we may be in a season of rest or, quite possibly, we may be wimps in the way we relate to the world. Friends, we have the Spirit of the living God in us, and we carry explosively good news that necessarily carries with it offense! Keller explained his preaching in a series I listened to on "preaching to the postmodern generation", and he said that he wants the only offense he gives people to be the offense of the Cross. He wants to consciously lessen every other type of offense that he gives, so that in his words and his deeds the Cross of Christ comes through loud and clear, giving only that offense that might lead to repentance. Some will accept us, and some will reject us, but let us make that as nearly as possible an acceptance or rejection of Christ. I don't want someone to prematurely reject Christ because they reject my personal views of how long the days are in Genesis or whether or not I think it's okay to drink. Oh, that I would know nothing among people but Christ and him crucified! May I not lean lazily against the cross and point fingers at sinners, but may I, as a beggar, bow my head before Jesus and beckon fellow beggars to know this kind of grace!

Nevertheless, having the Spirit within me, I want others to help me be discerning. I know there are still sinful tendencies in my heart, so any accurate diagnosis will necessarily involve some offense. Therefore, in a strange way, I need to seek out the offense of the Word toward my sinful habits, and it is sometimes good to seek out that offense in the teachings of others who are submitted to God's leading. And even if their own hearts are not fully right - who's is? - they may still be speaking truth. In Paul's time some preached Christ out of envy, but Paul rejoiced because Christ was still proclaimed! My flesh, I know, will seek to attack the bearer of bad news, but still I should prayerfully attend to that bad news, to see whether or not that is God speaking into my heart. Sometimes it will be, and sometimes it won't. The following links and videos are presented because I think it is boring to listen only to people I agree with and to people who are unlikely ever to offend me.

Agreeing on the edification of these works of fiction is not nearly as important as the Cross. But I have found these things interesting; you may find them offensive, but I hope you are helped.

First, here are some articles from Christianity Today on the Harry Potter books. I read the books, enjoyed them, and have certainly been part of subcultures that have been pro-, anti-, and neutral toward Harry. See what you think... also spoiler warning.

The Gospel According to JK Rowling
Harry Potter 7 is Matthew 6
A comparison of Tolkien and Rowling

I would also like to remark that though I don't read too much of it, I do very much enjoy reading fantasy-type stuff. By that I mean, Tolkien, Rowling, and CS Lewis as some notably good examples of that type of writing. I remember when I was younger having my pediatrician suggest to my parents that my reading a Star Wars book might not be good. All that science fiction stuff might make me lose my grip on reality. I love GK Chesterton's take on fairy tales, how fairy tales tell us often quite a bit more about real life than the story of pure naturalists and the people in charge of today's education.

Here, child, take that sense of wonder you feel at the world, that sense of mystery and bigness, and squash it down into practical, realistic bits. Forget all that about fairies and aliens and ghosts and the Other and magic. There is nothing magical about the world. Squash all that! The physical world is all there is. But come to find out, we then go to church and are expected to believe in a mysterious, miracle-working God after having been told constantly there is nothing really magical about the world. I, instead, propose that we should not necessarily be quick to keep out these stories of magic and mystery; we should instead point to Jesus in whom all the promises of God and all the deepest longings of our heart find their true fulfillment. And in light of Jesus' supremacy we then test the spirits with knowledge and discernment.

Certainly there are examples of this type of literature that may be inappropriate and not particularly edifying. However, I do not exactly have a quarrel with the genre because I generally find that big stories tend to get me out of myself and my constricted little world where I am the focus. Even if they get my head and heart out of myself into merely another fictional story, it may be good practice at getting me out of myself - a thing I must constantly be doing as I am abiding in Christ. I find that these stories serve to awaken longings for that other world, the New Creation, and for something bigger, God. Stories tend to awaken in me a kind of Homesickness for the real deal. I submit this merely as a consideration when deciding what to read.

My second pop culture target is Twilight, and this video by Mark Driscoll is of a decidedly polemic nature. He cracks me up. (He is also the main reason for the discussion of offense.) Enjoy...



Finally, I have not read anything by Anne Rice, and I don't know much about her other than what is in this video, but I hope you enjoy her testimony. While this doesn't say much about the edification of her writings, I felt you might get something from it, and it is not wholly irrelevant to a discussion of pop culture.



This has been quite a long entry, but also a fun one. May God's Spirit be with you, and may you walk well in his grace!