Social Justice

Social justice at Wheaton College came up on this blog a while back. Here's a recent rundown on the topic by a guy who knows a lot about it. Marvin Olasky writing for World magazine:

...This past month Beck advised listeners to "look for the word 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church website. If you can find it, run as fast as you can." Beck said those two terms are "code words" for giving government more power. Wallis again struck back: "Beck says Christians should leave their social justice churches, so I say Christians should leave Glenn Beck. Christians should no longer watch his show."

...Do those historical wrinkles mean that the term should not be used? No, but it should certainly be defined. We can study the 150 or so times that mishpat in Hebrew and kreesis in Greek—words commonly translated as "justice"—appear in the Bible. Biblically, justice—tied to righteousness—is what promotes faith in God, not faith in government. Prophets criticized not entrepreneurs but those who combined economic and political power to lord it over others, as today's bureaucrats and corporate/government partnerships tend to do.

I can understand Glenn Beck's frustration....

How to respond? I'd suggest four possible ways.... Fourth and best: Tutor a child. Visit a prisoner. Help the sick. Follow Christ.

[My mother got me World magazine for my birthday, and the first issue arrived today...]

John Piper's Upcoming Leave

Thanks to someone for pointing out this recent letter by John Piper modeling honesty and godly priorities:

"...But on the other hand, I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me. How do I apologize to you, not for a specific deed, but for ongoing character flaws, and their effects on everybody? I'll say it now, and no doubt will say it again, I’m sorry. Since I don’t have just one deed to point to, I simply ask for a spirit of forgiveness; and I give you as much assurance as I can that I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins.

"Noël and I are rock solid in our commitment to each other, and there is no whiff of unfaithfulness on either side. But, as I told the elders, 'rock solid' is not always an emotionally satisfying metaphor, especially to a woman. A rock is not the best image of a woman’s tender companion. In other words, the precious garden of my home needs tending. I want to say to Noël that she is precious to me in a way that, at this point in our 41-year pilgrimage, can be said best by stepping back for a season from virtually all public commitments."

A Poem on Patience and Peace

Today, the relationship between patience and humility was in my mind when I got this poem about the connection between patience and peace. The lines "he does leave Patience exquisite, / That plumes to Peace thereafter" makes me think of Hebrews 6:19. "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain."

In Luke 13:34, Christ speaks of Peace and God in just these terms. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" I'm just not all that comfortable sitting under God's broody wings.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

WHEN will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,
Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs?
When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I’ll not play hypocrite
To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but
That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows
Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu
Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,
That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace here does house
He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,
He comes to brood and sit.

Philip Yancey to speak at Messiah College

Philip Yancey will be delivering the final keynote lecture at Messiah College's Centennial celebration on April 7 at 7p.m. The event is free, but tickets must be reserved by calling the ticket office at 691-6036.

Judgment Day Care for Pets

Caring for Pets Left Behind by the Rapture

For a fee, this service will place your dog or cat in the home of a caring atheist on Judgment Day

By Mike Di Paola
Many people in the U.S.—perhaps 20 million to 40 million—believe there will be a Second Coming in their lifetimes, followed by the Rapture . In this event, they say, the righteous will be spirited away to a better place while the godless remain on Earth. But what will become of all the pets?

(full article here)

Scott Cairns: More Spirituality

While on the topic of Donald Miller, I thought that I should confess to having a soft spot or two for "spirituality" myself. I've long been a fan of Annie Dillard and recently got introduced to Scott Cairns who considers himself Dillard’s slowest student. Cairns has a harsh view of poetry in America:

"As for the place of poetry in America, or in the American church for that matter, I'm not so sure that it currently has a place. Until America and its church folk develop a greater hunger for the apophatic, the parabolic, the vertiginous mystery of the God in whom we live and move and have our being, I don’t suppose that those constituencies will ever have much of a taste for the poetic, which is, at its heart, a way of leaning into the apophatic, the parabolic, the mystery. I hope that sounds neither too glib nor too dismissive. There are, after all, lots of items that look like poems, earnest anecdotes and sentiments that make both the common culture and its Christians happy; I'm not, finally, interested in wrecking that pleasure for anyone, even if I can't consider it as approaching anything like a poetic pleasure. That said, I pray that the American church will one day—sooner than later—overcome its addiction to narrow certainties. Thereafter, its people might recover a taste for enormity." (From an interview at The Other Journal.)

I'm not versed enough in these matters to fully understand Cairn's assessment, but I'm pretty sure that I differ with him at several critical points. Nonetheless, something about his critique of America (and its church) rings true. I can certainly recognize, among some of my own favorite songs or poems, those "earnest anecdotes and sentiments that make both the common culture and its Christians happy."

As a sample of Cairn's poetry, here is one that works well with Easter coming up (because the poem is, in part, about Christ's dead body). It also happens to be the first poem by Cairns that I came to know. (It was published most recently in Philokalia.)

Finding the Broken Man

When I found the fallen climber caught
halfway down the slope of stunted pines,
he was already dead two days, and his body
stank; he was loose and careless as a boy.
I gave my jacket up for lost, and wrapped him
as I could, then shouted loud, hoping others,
in my group were near enough that together
we could lift him out. It's a common thing
near White Pass and, I suppose, any mountain town
to be called out in search of hikers
overdue at home. Having found one dead
is a sort of badge we wear, and one
I'd probably wear, if the others searching
had heard me call, of if I'd been
man enough to wait.

Read These Seven Books, and You’ll be a Better Writer

While learning more about Donald Miller (who will be speaking at Messiah College on April 26), I came across his list of favorite books on writing. Here are two samples.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield:
True, professional writers are not walking around looking at flowers waiting for inspiration, they are, rather, fighting the urge to distract themselves and sitting down at the computer to hammer out their days work. Pressfield instills in his readers a professional perspective. Being a writer, to Pressfield, is no more glamorous than being a plumber. A professional shows up every day and "fixes a toilet."

On Writing Well by William Zinsser:
From Zinsser I also learned to write for myself, not for an audience. This is one of the greatest lessons a writer can learn. Zinsser teaches us to write what we think is funny, or what we think is touching, and trust there are more people out there like you.

Although I enjoyed a lot about Donald Miller's blog, I'm still pretty sceptical of his thinking in several basic respects. (As he himself says: "psychology" and "personality types" are topics that "I geek out on." This list could also include "spirituality.") At least in places, however, he distances himself from the emergent "conversation" because, in part, he has a more serious view of human depravity (a healthy thing to take seriously).

Isaiah and a Libertarian Remnant

My brother in law, who is a wild-and-woolly secular libertarian (we talk like this to each other), recently sent me a link to "Isaiah's Job," an old essay by Albert J. Nock. Alought Nock's summary of Isaiah misses the prophet's point entirely, I suppose that remnants do exist at more than one level. Here are a couple excerpts:

In the year of Uzziah's death, the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come. "Tell them what a worthless lot they are," He said. "Tell them what is wrong, and why, and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten up. Don't mince matters. Make it clear that they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them good and strong and keep on giving it to them. I suppose perhaps I ought to tell you," He added, "that it won't do any good. The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you, and the masses will not even listen. They will all keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life."

Isaiah had been very willing to take on the job in fact, he had asked for it but the prospect put a new face on the situation. It raised the obvious question: Why, if all that were so if the enterprise was to be a failure from the start was there any sense in starting it?

"Ah," the Lord said, "you do not get the point. There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it."

...As things now stand, Isaiah's job seems rather to go begging. Everyone with a message nowadays is, like my venerable European friend, eager to take it to the masses. His first, last, and only thought is of mass-acceptance and mass-approval. His great care is to put his doctrine in such shape as will capture the masses' attention and interest.

Genesis, Evolution, and Inerrancy

With once-conservative scholars such as Bruce Waltke, Pete Enns and Tremper Longman delivering increasingly loose readings of Genesis and redefining or dismissing inerrancy, I'm wondering with one blogger below: What happened to "Scripture's role in interpreting general revelation"? Since when did science and evidence become the starting point or the driving factor behind our pursuit of truth? Despite the serious challenges, I'm increasingly convinced that high school graduates should have a decent handle on these issues.

Adam an historical figure (another here)
Bruce Waltke on Evolution

These two sample statements come from posts at The BioLogos Foundation:

Bruce Waltke: "If the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult…some odd group that is not really interacting with the world. And rightly so, because we are not using our gifts and trusting God’s Providence that brought us to this point of our awareness."

Pete Enns: "Maybe Israel's history happened first, and the Adam story was written to reflect that history. In other words, the Adam story is really an Israel story placed in primeval time. It is not a story of human origins but of Israel's origins. Everyone has to decide for themselves which of these readings of Genesis has more 'explanatory power.' I (and other biblical scholars) come down on the second option for a number of reasons, some having to do with Genesis itself while others concern other issues in the Bible."

The Gospel Coalition

I was introduced to The Gospel Coalition a few months back (in a series of emails that made me think a CCA blog might be a blessing) and finally got around to checking it out. It is a fantastic collection of theological resources and blogs by a remarkable group of godly leaders. Here are a couple highlights:

Kevin DeYoung
For the Love of God (D.A. Carson)

Family of Five Tandem

Here's a fun family story.


(Thanks to kk.)

Phillip Blond on Our Side of the Pond

From "The Broken Society" by David Brooks in the NYTimes:

The United States is becoming a broken society. The public has contempt for the political class. Public debt is piling up at an astonishing and unrelenting pace. Middle-class wages have lagged. Unemployment will remain high. It will take years to fully recover from the financial crisis.

This confluence of crises has produced a surge in vehement libertarianism. People are disgusted with Washington. The Tea Party movement rallies against big government, big business and the ruling class in general. Even beyond their ranks, there is a corrosive cynicism about public action.

But there is another way to respond to these problems that is more communitarian and less libertarian. This alternative has been explored most fully by the British writer Phillip Blond.

...To create a civil state, Blond would reduce the power of senior government officials and widen the discretion of front-line civil servants, the people actually working in neighborhoods. He would decentralize power, giving more budget authority to the smallest units of government. He would funnel more services through charities. He would increase investments in infrastructure, so that more places could be vibrant economic hubs. He would rebuild the "village college" so that universities would be more intertwined with the towns around them.

Essentially, Blond would take a political culture that has been oriented around individual choice and replace it with one oriented around relationships and associations. His ideas have made a big splash in Britain over the past year. His think tank, ResPublica, is influential with the Conservative Party. His book, "Red Tory," is coming out soon. He's on a small U.S. speaking tour, appearing at Georgetown's Tocqueville Forum ... and at Villanova....

[Thoughtful discussion of this topic at the Front Porch Republic.]

Virtual Choir

Eric Whitacre conducts 'Lux Aurumque' with a virtual choir of 185 voices (about 4:20 sans credits at end):



Learn more about how it was composed and read Kevin Kelly's gushing review of it here. I thought it was lovely as well (although rather hokey in its visual presentation).

Suggested Viewing

In light of our recent discussion with Kevin Kelly, I have an artistic recommendation to make: the movie Blade Runner. It's a classic piece of sci-fi, based on a Phillip K. Dick short story which is, as is usually the case with his material, superior to the originating work while remaining true to its core principles. It also happens to be one of my favorite films. A rather infamous piece of film for a variety of reasons, it deals primarily with the humanity of artificial people, who look and act like normal humans but who have serious emotional and physical deficiencies due to their source. This makes it an ideal film to watch in light of Mr. Kelly's interest in technology and some of the philosophical and ethical ramifications of advancements in bioengineering.

On a practical note, I would recommend the "Final Cut" of the film, as it is the director's preferred cut and is the best and most challenging overall. The other versions (there are at least four, total) are acceptable substitutes, though.

Disclaimer: Blade Runner is rated R for good reason, and is not recommended for a young audience.

White Board Thank You

Given an assignment to write a thank-you note for a grant with which CCA purchased all of our white boards, our creative senior class produced the following (click on the image for full size):

Blind Man Sees With His Tongue

This story from FoxNews (thanks to my bother):

A British soldier who lost his sight in Iraq is being taught to 'see' with his tongue, using a revolutionary new device.

Craig Lundberg, 24, who was blinded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack three years ago, is the first British soldier to test the BrainPort system. The device consists of a high-tech "lollipop" that rests on Craig's tongue. It converts images from a video camera, that he wears on a pair of glasses, into signals that stimulate electrodes on the lollipop.

The $15,000 device works on the principle of sensory substitution. The brain recognizes that the signals stimulating the tongue have nothing to do with taste, and re-routes them to the visual center of the brain for processing. The brain is able to interpret the image, giving Craig rudimentary vision.

[The product website gives this slightly less sensational description: "Users describe it as pictures drawn on their tongue with champagne bubbles. With training users may perceive shape, size, location and motion of objects in their environment."]

Some Children Must Be Left Behind

By Katherine Dalton at the Front Porch Republic (full articl here):

And for young people like Trey and Jessica, more of what has failed already is unlikely to be the fix. Trey didn't need more school. The best hope for Trey was something like an apprenticeship, where he might find work, finally, that he could do. He might have failed there too–very likely–but at least he'd be making a step towards adulthood, not locked in truant officer-enforced juvenility. He might have found some motivation to try education again. Unfortunately, at his age working rather than going to school was not legally possible, and soon, probably, it will be legally impossible longer.

Virtual Worlds, Actual Sin

Here is a sobering article for those of us interested in the philosophical implications of technology. Food for thought, given our upcoming discussion with Kevin Kelly.

Have you heard the one about the Archbishop at a Baptist University?

Two weeks ago, Archbishop Chaput of the Archdiocese of Denver spoke at Houston Baptist University. (Link to article.) The topic? The vocation of Christians in American public life. There is no smarmy can't-we-all-just-get-along ecumenism, rather, he recognizes the sharp doctrinal differences between groups of Christians while pointing the greater "familial bond in baptism and God's Word" between those who share a love of Jesus. It is apparent that the Bishop sees the Church as greater than our fabricated denominations, but that is another discussion.

Archbishop Chaput takes umbrage at John Kennedy's September of 1960 campaign statement that his Catholicism would not effect his loyalty to the country as President. In other words, Kennedy's religion only had effect on the areas of his life that he wanted it to, leaving other areas - significant areas - untouched. Unchanged by the gospel. Chaput explains his concerns by 1) looking at the problems in Kennedy's words, 2) reflecting on a proper Christian approach to politics and public service, and 3) examining where Kennedy's remarks have brought us to.

The article is thought provoking and timely as in recent years, research has found that the Christianity of todays teens and young adults is a "moralistic therapeutic deism".

The underlying question is, is Christianity a religion that we are to practice or is it a covenant between God and man encompassing the whole of life? Consider Genesis 15:17 (a good life verse if anybody needed one)...the rest of the chapter is good too.

The truth is that we all have areas of our lives that we do not want to have changed by the gospel. Is there anything for us to hear in the Archbishop's words?

The one about the Archbishop at a Baptist University...Probably would not have been much of an original joke anyway.

(Thanks to Michael Geer for the link to the news story posted at catholic.org.)

The Importance of Classical Christian Education By Chuck Colson

Intelligence Plus Character

The Importance of Classical Christian Education

By Chuck Colson as aired on BreakPoint

November 8, 2005

"Education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. . . . We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education."

You may remember that I quoted these lines, which come from Martin Luther King, Jr., when I was talking about a student’s convocation speech at Dartmouth College. But they are worth pondering, because they raise a very profound question: How, in today’s society, do we provide the kind of “true education” that King was talking about, that develops both character and intelligence?

Never have we needed more urgently to find an answer to this question. The modern secular university cannot cultivate character in a value-free environment, because if there is no truth, there is no standard of ethics by which we can measure character. So the university has simply given up on it.

And not only are our schools and colleges not teaching character, but they’re increasingly abandoning academics as well. The typical student at a great secular university will not learn much about the history of Western civilization. My alma mater, Brown University, an Ivy League school with a great reputation, no longer has a core curriculum. You can go through the school without ever knowing who Plato, Aristotle, Darwin, or Freud were. In fact, you could major in African drum-beating. So from my perspective, the modern secular university has abandoned both the pursuit of classical learning and the development of character. That’s why they’re particularly dangerous places today, and it’s why Christian students must be well grounded before they go there.

And this is also why I so strongly support the Christian classical education movement that is beginning to spread across the country. It combines, you see, the two historic goals of a liberal education: the cultivation of knowledge and the cultivation of character. It shows us the continuum in the intellectual history of the West that goes back to the Greco-Roman era and, therefore, enables us to better understand our own postmodern era. If we cut ourselves off from the past, we can’t understand the present. And it’s particularly critical, in my mind, for Christians to understand the philosophical and cultural currents that have shaped our society.

Let me give you just one good example. Galileo, as everyone knows, was thrown in jail for challenging Aristotle’s philosophical assumptions about an eternal universe. But, as I mentioned in an earlier broadcast, Francis Bacon, sometimes called “the father of modern science,” was influenced by the Protestant Reformation, and he embraced Luther’s idea about abandoning the constraints of tradition and going back to the root: the Bible. He applied this principle to freeing science from philosophical assumptions and instead looking at what God has made—go back to the root of things, as Luther did. This allowed modern science to pursue truth uninhibited by philosophy.

Why is this relevant today? Because we’re dealing with the same issue. Naturalism is the philosophical assumption that binds modern science. And this is at the heart of the intelligent design debate, but you only see this when you know your own history.

I believe that every serious Christian needs to be classically grounded, not only to understand the history of our own civilization, but also to contend for truth in the marketplace. So I hope that you will check for a classical Christian school in your area—as a place for your kids and as a cause to support.

Copyright (c) 2000 Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Building a Better Teacher

Today I am humbled and motivated by this article from the NY Times about the state of education in America today. According to the author, most schools in America are going down the tubes, and no one can really put their finger on what to look for in the search for new "good" teachers who can replace the "bad" ones they are in the midst of firing in the wake of low student test performance. I am so spoiled to be involved with a school with not only good academics, but a (muscular) Christian worldview that isn't afraid to name ills and strengths in both teachers and students. If a student is misbehaving, correcting that behavior seems to be an obvious solution. If a teacher needs help, dealing with the person directly through mentorship and direct instruction will get the job done. We don't wait for a standardized test score to judge performance. We are intentional about our school culture and constantly guard it, and are meticulous about how we manage even seemingly small details.

Apparently many teachers in our country have no idea what discipline really means, or how to enact it in the classroom. Of course classroom management takes time to learn, but public schools and politically correct Americans are overcomplicating life by shying away from discipline. Without admitting that certain behaviors are right and others are wrong, of course classroom management will be a hit-or-miss experiement. It doesn't take too much study into Korean, Indian, or Chinese education to see that discipline (of the self and others) has a lot to do with strong educational results.

I'm thankful to the Lord for the biblical examples of what discipline, boundaries, and love look like. I'm thankful to the CCA community for proof that the biblical model still works!

Donald Miller

A couple students today were debating the value of the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I've never read anything by him but have heard of his books as being soft. This review by Chris Brauns covers Miller’s latest book (A Million Miles in a Thousand Years) and sounded like an even-handed critique:

"Reading the strength with which I have expressed my concerns, you may question if I was sincere with the initial positive things I said about AMM. Was I only taking a preliminary swipe at being charitable before I unloaded? My response is that I truly do affirm those things about AMM. But, that is why this book is a dangerous combination. Many will read this book. It will resonate. But, I fear that it plays to the weakness of our day. We spend too much time looking at ourselves. We don't need a million more mirrors all pointed back at our small stories. Rather, we need to see how our individual episodes relate in a Christ-centered way to the story of creation, fall, and redemption."

Does anyone have other reviews of his books to recommend?

The Arts & Faith Top 100 Films

Showcasing top films and directors from around the world and spanning cinematic history from silent movies (F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise, 1927) to films currently in theaters (the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-nominated A Serious Man), the list is the culmination of years of discussion and debate within the Arts & Faith online community.

(See the list here. Thanks to Christine.)

Self-Esteem, Self-Destruction

George Will writing at TownHall:

But the theory that praise, self-esteem and accomplishment increase in tandem is false. Children incessantly praised for their intelligence (often by parents who are really praising themselves) often underrate the importance of effort. Children who open their lunchboxes and find mothers' handwritten notes telling them how amazingly bright they are tend to falter when they encounter academic difficulties. Also, Bronson and Merryman say that overpraised children are prone to cheating because they have not developed strategies for coping with failure.

(Full article here. Thanks to Alison.)

Government, Yes! God and Parents, No!

I appreciate Dennis Prager's perspective. Additionally, he supports CURE International!

Philadelphia Art Museum Trip

9th grade history field trip to Philadelphia Art Museum. Fun times-thank you, Jesse.

Where Satan Lurks: Avatar or the Plunder Pile?

Since I initiated this particular Avatar stuff, I'll try to clear it out of the way (despite the fact that I'm in danger of giving Satan a small reason to grin by indulging in a wee post).

Mark Driscoll is entirely right that Avatar makes a great tool in Satan's well-manicured hands. Only a slight knowledge of the film makes it easy to imagine several scrumptious ways in which Satan or his fellows have no doubt put this film to excellent use in millions of lives. (Not that we humans really need help from Satan every time we put something to a gross and destructive use; Sabotaging Avatar viewers might be too simple a task for even a junior tempter.) However, when Driscoll consigns the film to Satan's domain (by sloppy implication anyway), he's doing more harm than good. (And I have no doubt that Driscoll could happily and skillfully clarify this fact himself.) Everything delightful about the film (find several examples in the posts below) comes from the fact that all the materials and skills that James Cameron had to work with were designed by God and pronounced good by God because they display the Creator's glory in wonderful ways. Those who watch the film (or discuss it from the sidelines) combat sin most effectively when they enjoy the good for what it is at the same time as they talk honestly about godless ways to abuse the film (or godless conclusions to draw from it). I'm convinced that idols topple most thoroughly and promptly when we learn to enjoy them as God intended.

But all the same things can be said of this blog or any "God-honoring" effort. If I should be grading or doing dishes instead of trotting out theological fundamentals, I'm putting the Plunder Pile to a use that would (at the very least) warm the cockles of Satan's heart.

Thoughts on Avatar

I noticed a few posts before with references to Avatar. I saw it three times in theaters, and I have some thoughts.

First, the film is a triumph of artistic design. Every frame of the film is gorgeous, imaginative, realistic, and otherworldly. James Cameron, the film's director, did an amazing job creating an entire ecosystem, replete with coherent inter-species relationships that follow the classic "one broken rule" law of sci fi (i.e. in good sci fi, you change/break one aspect of they physical world but keep the rest consistent, which is a forms a solid basis for a "what if" scenario). I've never flown through a jungle on a pterodactyl, or been chased over a waterfall by a giant panther, but after seeing the movie I feel like I have. And it was great.

Second, the story and characters are actually what make the movie a triumph. Cameron is known for creating sympathetic characters that back up the crazy experiences he drums up (for those not familiar with his oeuvre, he created Terminator 2 and Aliens, both classic sci-fi releases that transcended their genres thanks to good writing), and Avatar is no different. It's a love story, combining a "noble savage" sensibility with touches of Pride and Prejudice, Braveheart, and Hook. A mash-up, yes, but a successful one in my view. Who wouldn't want to fly into the sunset with a warrior queen at his back, leading and protecting his people from the skies and sleeping in a gigantic tree?

But to respond to criticisms leveled at the movie, I'll go back to the "one broken rule" bit. The major change in the film is the literal interconnectedness of every living being on the planet, which lends it a bit of classic Asimovian "Gaia" geek cred. I've seen the film lambasted for this and for the politically liberal message it's seen to convey, but I have to admit I wasn't bothered by either. The politics are easily ignored, as the greedy corporation has long been a whipping post in these sorts of movies. If you don't like Avatar's faceless corporation, I'd have to ask how it's different from Weyland-Yutani (from Aliens and its brethren) or Cyberdine Systems (from the Terminator films), and thus why this film is more political than either of those.

As for the new-age bits, I wonder if this objection indicates a tendency in modern Christianity to react dogmatically rather than rationally. We believe our faith because we have good evidence to support it, no evidence to disprove it, and personal experiences on which to build a relationship with God. If, however, it was somehow proved that Jesus Christ was not divine (I don't know how this proof could be effected, but let's just say it could be, for argument's sake), I'd have to go back to my worldview and reconsider it from the ground up. I don't know that my morals would change, or that any visible differences would show up in my conduct, but I would be forced to consider that my faith was not based on fact, but on fiction. Now transpose this philosophy to a distant planet in which there's a scientific basis for a sort of planet-level pantheism, and realize that in this situation, to ignore the planet's spirit and the interconnectedness of everything would be to ignore the facts. To blow off the religion of the natives in that world would be the same thing as an atheist ignoring Christianity in this world; to do either within the scope of those respective environments would be ignoring the truth. Within the reality of the movie, this is the correct response, I think. Cameron is posing a "what if" scenario, and intellectual honesty requires me to side with the natives as long as I'm inside the scope of the work.

Driscoll's objection, if I've understood it, is partly that the film is a glorification of backwardness, and thus defies God's command to man that he go forth and subdue creation. Taken out of context, this makes sense, but within the scope of the film it's clear that the humans want to strip the planet of its resources and move on, as they've apparently done on other planets including their own. To me, this is off; ruling creation doesn't mean plundering it, it means helping it to grow to its fullest potential. To use a grotesque example, Driscoll's point seems akin to glorifying rape because God created sex and proclaimed it good. Technology has allowed us to produce more food than we could in past history, and to ship that food to areas of the world that would otherwise starve. It's allowed us to create beautiful buildings, to go to the moon and to the bottom of the ocean, to cure diseases, and these are good things. It's also given us new, horrible ways to kill each other, to kill ourselves, to waste time, to overindulge appetites without effort, and these are not good things. So to object that the movie stands against progress is facile; it's standing against the abuse of technology, the abuse of culture, not technology or culture itself.

So to sum up, I liked Avatar. As long as it's kept at a distance and not taken as gospel, it's a good time spent in a beautiful world with intriguing characters and a moving love story. To read it as a treatise on how we should live is taking it farther than it should, and is likely mean to be, taken.