Comments on: In Defense of AVATAR: Or Why Mark Driscoll Just Doesn’t Get It

By: Name

Name — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:50:18 +0000

avatar tells us that the world would be a better place if we pray to trees and embrace our own connectivity. it tells us that we don’t need Jesus and that just believing is enough. well it isn’t.
this movie is bringing the lie into your living rooms and you’re all graciously excepting it because it “looks nice” and the cg is “incredible” and then somewhere along the way you start wondering what the harm is in thinking of the planet as a person. and what is wrong with celebrating our humanity and interconnectedness. mark Driscoll is right. this movie is demonic, it preaches for a godless world, and for us to embrace our inner wildness so that we can run free in this godless world. it tells us that technology is bad and that progress is bad. that we are all just animals. and above all it just SUCKS.
the truth isn’t always easy to hear, maybe have a listen again.

By: Ike

Ike — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:13:36 +0000

I saw Avatar…demonic, satanic, tree worshiping, anti-American. I saw the exorcist and it is demonic, but they didn’t hide behind pretty colors and “profound” talking. Everyone knew the movie was ablut satan.

By: Richard Lindsay

Richard Lindsay — Fri, 07 May 2010 10:04:27 +0000

I worry anytime somebody uses “bullet” and “theology” in the same sentence.

By: shayne

shayne — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:43:21 +0000

who cares. i know the void of the internet is “endless”, but this website is seriously a waste of said space, and i cant believe you couldnt find something better to berate this guy for. Avatar sucks, and so does your shotty attempt at discrediting the bulletproof theology of a man way smarter than you, and way more inclined to do something of value for Jesus Christ..

By: Mike O'Dea

Mike O'Dea — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:31:31 +0000

I am wondering if anyone who has thus far posted has bothered to view the entire sermon in which Mark Driscoll made the comments about Avatar. It comes from the 17th Driscoll Sermon in the book of Luke and the text is from Luke 4:31-41 which talks about Jesus healing a demon possessed man. Driscoll has begun a 3 year series on the book of Luke. To get the context plese view and listen at the following:
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/luke/jesus-and-demons
Also, we can all learn a valuable lesson from the following clip from a Driscoll sermon from 1 Peter 3:8-17:
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/suffering-to-bless/dont-shoot-other-christians (humility required)

By: David

David — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:54:51 +0000

Here’s a sermon on Avatar that takes a much different approach from Driscoll. Rather than view Jake Sully as a “false Christ”, Albert Chu views Sully as a Christ figure. Big difference.

The Theology of AVATAR (Mar 7, 2010)
Sermon: Pastor Albert Chu
http://www.thetapestry.ca/tappodcasts/oscar_sunday_the_theology_of_avatar_mar_7_2010

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:33:56 +0000

We walk a fine line when we criticize other Christians for how the Lord speaks to them. Let us be careful not to emulate the world in this. Other believers are rightly anxious about living in a culture that in many ways wars against holiness, however it is expressed. Lets us acknowledge their anxiety, for if we are honest, we all feel it to some extent.

But you are quite right to identify the greater evil, materialism, and its motor, the capitalist system, which is far more pervasive and corrosive of Christianity that all other social evils combined. It is materialism that eats at the heart of the church of Christ. It is this evil that Christ preached against more than any other. How we are going to stand with the poor of Africa and Asia in eternity I don’t know. We have a lot to be ashamed of.

As for Avatar, I have never been so entranced by a movie since my childhood wonder at The Wizard of Oz – which incidentally is director James Cameron’s favourite movie. Like Oz, Pandora is a world of wonders, sparkling with creative beauty; a cinematic jewel, as aesthetically appealing as a painting by VanGogh. Should we not praise the God of Wonders for bestowing such creative fire is these His creatures, and appreciate the beauty they bring to this world? Or should we, like that Muslim fanatic in Amsterdam, murder their relatives, stabbing them forty times and leaving curses pinned to their dying bodies? Is this level of hatred the kind of God that we want to present to the world? Lord forgive us our excesses. If Christ is no longer the God of compassion and understanding, then we as Christian have lost our way and have nothing further to say to this world.

By: Richard Lindsay

Richard Lindsay — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:48:20 +0000

Oh wait, and did you notice the subtle dig at gay people? Romans 1:25, a prime “clobber passage”: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” Which is followed by the old classic: “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

So there you have it kids, Avatar will make you gay.

By: Richard Lindsay

Richard Lindsay — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:05:29 +0000

In my class, I use Mars Hill Church in Seattle as a prime example of people who don’t get it when it comes to pop culture. They exploit pop culture (if that’s possible) basically as an inducement to come in and hear their (sexist, homophobic) version of the gospel. There is no exchange of ideas, no concept that one’s theology or relationship with God might actually be affected by interaction with popular culture. Unfortunately, it works. They’re growing like a weed. It’s a fundamentalist church posing as a “hip church.” You should hear their views on women. I’ll give you a hint: they’re here to reproduce and generate more fundamentalist Christians. Paleolithic stuff.

This is why more moderate to liberal, even conservative but not fundamentalist Christians need to learn how to speak to culture.

By: John Morehead

John Morehead — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:24:30 +0000

One more thought on this related to your mention of The Exorcist. I know what you were trying to say, but even the popularity of The Exorcist can be viewed as an argument for Christianity, at least in terms of its folk piety in response to secularization. See http://www.theofantastique.com/2009/10/27/joseph-laycock-the-exorcist-secularization-and-folk-piety/.