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 Tolkien, Star Wars and Jesus Christ

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
Jun 26, 2002
 Comments:
We live in heretical times. Gone are the peaceful biblical days when you could trust your neighbors and closest friends not to betray you. Today, in our time, a father is not even allowed to physically punish his daughter for sleeping with another man out of wedlock. Sin is allowed to go unpunished. These same daughters, allowed to run free without fear of their fathers clenched fist, move quickly into darker pursuits. To Hollywood, where they pose for revolting magazines that depict their most private parts for any pervert across America with $7.99 to spare, and ten minutes to sin. I think that America has lost its way. The youth of today have forgotten to look to the Good Book for answers, and refuse to embrace traditional family values of male dominated patriarchy. However, all of these personal problems aside, I am optimistic about the future of America's Christian spirituality. Both, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings have given me hope for the future re-embracement of Christianity in America.
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Star Wars, premiered in 1979, with sequels and prequels to follow, and is surely the basis for the recent movie and book, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. Both stories star Christ-like figures in Luke Skywalker and Frodo Baggins. Both are people who appear normal, who we soon discover are special, designed by a higher power to lead us along the right path.
In LOTR there is a ring of immense and dangerous power. This ring derives its power from the evil of mankind, and needs a great person to destroy it. Frodo Baggins is "the chosen one", forced to cast the ring into Mount Doom and save humanity. After being betrayed by all his friends, Frodo must carry the burden himself, and in the end against all odds, succeeds in his quest. However, his sacrifice eventually destroys him, and he dies for the ring's destruction. The Christian beliefs inherent in the story are obvious. Jesus was betrayed by his disciples, just as Frodo is. In a parallel with the burden of his ring, Jesus must carry his own cross for his crucifixion, with the "burden of mankind" upon his back. Once he has carried the cross long enough, Jesus is crucified upon it; like the journey to dispose of the ring, Frodo and Jesus both die for the "sins of man".

In Star Wars Luke Skywalker must fight the temptations from the "dark side" in order to save humanity from the clutches of the Emperor, Dark Vader, and evil monsters like Java the Hutt. Vader wants to turn Luke's power to the dark side, by tempting him to unleash his anger and hate. Luke almost fails, marked by his robotic hand that mirrors Dark Vader's own machine like, unnatural, and therefore un-Godly body. In the final showdown against evil, Luke rejects the dark side, prompting even the coldest of hearts in Vader to warm to the virtues of good and purity.

Again, the parallels with Christian teaching are apparent. Jesus too was tempted by evil, but rejected it, choosing the right path even though it meant for a difficult conclusion. The Christian belief that salvation is always possible is evident in the spiritual saving of Vader; a Hilterian character. Jesus, forgave the criminals being crucified beside him on the cross. They like Vader, were assured to be going to heaven, even though their lives had been spotted by evil ways. As long as you repent, you are saved, truths that the Bible and Star Wars both convey. Once Luke has become a Jedi, and is one with the "Force", or Christianity, his love for Leia, which is initially sexual, abates into a true brotherly love. If young people of today embraced the true path with Christian teaching, their sexual behavior would be correctly modified as Luke's was, and become pure in nature. They would surely listen to their father's orders to never have premarital sex or orgies.

In the Phantom Menace surely the best Star Wars movie of them all, a lesson in traditional family values is presented. A young Dark Vader:Anikan Skywalker, is brought up by a single mother. This innocent child, unable to develop adequate family values without a father, turns to the "dark side" to solve his problems. This rise and fall of Anikan mirrors the Biblical recording of Lucifer and his long fall from Grace to Hell. In today's world, children of single mothers, "fall from Grace", and move to the "dark side" by using drugs, cursing, making pornography in the garage, and engaging in interracial dating and sex.

But wait you say, didn't I say I was an optimist? Yes I am, because these values have survived to today, and are currently laying dormant in stories such as LOTR and Star Wars. Obviously these works of art have borrowed from Christian truths which Lucas has deftly rewritten into something the heritical mainstream can embrace without acknowledging them as religious in nature. The main demographic that enjoys these movies are often described as being "nerds", or "dorks" who run websites like Slashdot. These "nerds" are highly educated people, who have been brainwashed by a liberal arts education into thinking that Christianity is a farce. However, the fact that these people enjoy movies and books that obviously reinforce and uphold Christian values, means that their need for religious values still exist. They have been taught that religion is fake, but deep down they need to believe in something, and latch onto these works to placate the void in their hearts that a liberal arts education has created. I am convinced that if these values can still exist, Christianity will make a glorious comeback. As the current values of sexual freedom and female power turn back on their creators, as we have seen with AIDS and feminism, Christianity will be there for people to re-embrace. Since the values of Christianity have been preserved in popular culture, the transition will be smooth and peaceful. Any dissenters could be easily suppressed by new pro-Christian laws that a Republican controlled Congress could easily enact. Christian's must remember this come election time; we must vote for the future of America and the morally corrupt sons and daughters everywhere, especially for those somewhere in Hollywood.

The fact that in LOTR, Star Wars, and the Bible, good pervades over evil, lifts my heart in these personally dark times, and gives me a renewed hope for the future of Christianity of America. The current fever over Attack of the Clones proves my point; people are desperate for a morality lecture, eventually Christianity will be reinstated as the teacher, and no doubt help make the world a better place.


hmm... (1.00 / 1) (#3)
by imthesponge on Wed Jun 26th, 2002 at 08:32:47 PM PST
"interracial dating and sex"
Where did you get the idea that interracial dating was wrong?

"Any dissenters could be easily suppressed by new pro-Christian laws that a Republican controlled Congress could easily enact.
Wouldn't they have to change the Constitution to do that?

So you're saying that Christianity will automatically fix "morally corrupt sons and daughters everywhere"? I find that very hard to believe.


Open your eyes... (none / 0) (#25)
by Anonymous Reader on Sun Jun 30th, 2002 at 09:54:44 AM PST
The US is a Christian nation, that has a history of racial tension. A recent movie staring the "blanc belle", Julia Stiles, called Save the Last Dance, stirred up considerable controversy when the plot centered around an interracial rommance.
Only in the couple of years have the Ivy Leauge schools, such as Bob Jones University, removed bans on interracial dating.

Obviously the idea that "interracial dating is wrong," is shared by many more Americans that you might think.


Genetic purity. (none / 0) (#27)
by because it isnt on Sun Jun 30th, 2002 at 03:07:51 PM PST
"Interracial dating is wrong" for the same reason shagging your sister is OK, it prevents your family's genetic makeup from changing, which is a good thing. This explains why so may Americans marry members of their own family.
adequacy.org -- because it isn't

 
so... (none / 0) (#33)
by imthesponge on Tue Jul 2nd, 2002 at 03:25:44 PM PST
That still doesn't mean you have the right to stop people from doing it if they want to.


 
Pointing out innaccuracies (5.00 / 3) (#4)
by Anonymous Reader on Wed Jun 26th, 2002 at 09:37:47 PM PST
First of All Tolkien's work was published many many years before Star Wars was even conceived. Tolkiens work has come to form the basis for all modern fantasy, he is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, to say his books are recently written and based on Star Wars would be a great injustice.

In The Lord of the Ring Trilogy, Frodo does not die(he only loses a finger), but rather goes on to live a life back in the Shire. Gollum, however, does die.
LOTR was based on the Bible as JRR Tolkien was a very christian writer and was one of the 'Oxford Christians,' intellectual Christians of their day.

In Star Wars, the fact that Anakin was the son of a single mother has no relevance to your argument, it was not the fact that he only had a mother that caused a lack of morals to be instilled in him, his mother was always described as a hard-working, virtuous woman, whom many appreciated. The reason he turned to the dark side is because of his own power and arrogance. Lucas illustrates that Absolute power corrupts absolutely. He was not illustrating the pitfalls of being raised by a single parent.

You also continue on to point that a liberal arts education has caused the current value system in our country today. A liberal education, yes, a liberally dominated media yes, but a liberal arts education is simply an education that is not based along applied sciences or finding work, more based around learning(English, Physics, Political Science, all of these are Liberal Arts Degrees). Most Christian Colleges today are Liberal Arts schools, the other main kind of college deals with applied sciences and other degrees to prepare people for the business world, degrees that have an immediate correlation to the job world, Engineering majors become engineers, what obviously jumps out at you that a philosophy major do straight out of college.

As far as interracial marriages, isn't Jesus the only person to talk to the Samaritan woman, and she is the first person he witnesses too, in a town where Samaritans are viewed as people to be looked down upon. Christianity teaches tolerance and openness to all:the idea that as you said Anyone can be saved. There is nothing in the bible against interracial marriages. Remember the only reason we have separate races and languages(according to the Bible) is when they were attempting to build the tower of Babel, God made everyone speak separate languages in order to make it impossible for them to complete the tower. Messianic Christian teaching(ie the New Testament) seems to transcend this language barrier: during the Pentecost, Peter and the disciples were speaking in tongues so that all could be saved.
You also imply the cursing is a sin, this is something that I have wondered about often. The Bible never explicitly says cursing is wrong, the closest it comes is not doing things that could tarnish the reputation of Christ(whom Christians are meant to represent to the world) and the bible says not appear evil in any way. It would make sense that cursing is wrong in societies that view it strictly as something taboo, but if you are in a group of people who accept it as simply a stronger form of the word, where is the sin?
I agree our society is in desperate need of morality, and Christianity could fill the gap. Also the idea that Republican's could pass the necessary bills to return our nation to its Christian state isn't necessarily true. Al Gore was once a baptist preacher, and he is a democrat. Republican's believe in less central government, Democrat's believe in more central government. It just so happens that more Republicans are christian, but personally I feel that few politicians hold to any of their personal moral beliefs that closely, and most deify power. In voting, you should consider each candidate on a person by person basis voting for those who you agree with the most, both politically and ideologically, to just vote the party card and go all out for Republican's, assuming they will rush in a new Christian era is not necessarily the case. Vote for people, not for parties.


Fantastic (none / 0) (#14)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 09:12:16 AM PST
what you said and the way you said it was beautiful. i was going to try and something like that but i know i wouldnt have been able to do it like that. so i wont even try. anyways good rebuttal.... beautiful.. brings a tear to the eye seeing a moron be picked apart.


 
Wow... (none / 0) (#22)
by gohomeandshoveit on Fri Jun 28th, 2002 at 10:57:35 AM PST
That was probably the most logically persuasive argument I have heard in a long while. I salute this Anonymous Reader and admonish him to become a member of this site so he can continue blessing us with his rebuttals of utter morons.

However, there is an interesting parallel to Jesus that faustus didn't mention because he thought Frodo died, and you didn't mention because you said he lived happily ever after in the Shire. While Frodo did live, he also went across the ocean to the land of the Valar, who were analogous to angels in Tolkien's mythology, parallelling Jesus's ascension into heaven.

----- If ignorance is bliss, then knock the smile off my face.


 
WHAT (1.00 / 1) (#9)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 02:17:08 AM PST
Well you have no faith in the world today it seems! You think that religion is going to solve the problems of today BAAHHHH! look at what religion has done over the years nothing but fighting and killing. Women can do whatever they want with there body where is it written that you controll the universe! Shure i believe in God but not one that figures i owe him everything and i should become his slave he gave us freedom to do what we want, the freedome of speech which is what you are exercising right here! Think about your actions dude and relax enjoy life instead of critisizing others!


Religion doesn't kill, people do. (none / 0) (#23)
by KingAzzy on Fri Jun 28th, 2002 at 02:20:01 PM PST
Oh yes the old recycled whine about religion being the sole source of all that is evil and nasty about everyone worldwide throughout all time.

Sorry, but you are incorrect.

Christianity has always been a religion of peace. During the middle ages the church was a backbone of Western society and many wars were indeed fought over issues of concern to the church at the time.

However, history's worst genocides have invariably been carried out by monsters who are openly not religious. The Holocaust, Khmer Rouge, Rwanda, et al..

Christianity has had an extremely positive effect on the civilized world and the end result is that we live in countries now with laws respecting human life and liberty.




Really (none / 0) (#24)
by Anonymous Reader on Sat Jun 29th, 2002 at 09:53:41 AM PST
"Christianity has always been a religion of peace"

Ive heard other wise....

Indy^_^


if you have something to say (4.00 / 1) (#32)
by nathan on Tue Jul 2nd, 2002 at 08:59:51 AM PST
Do it like a mensh instead of a snide little weasel.

Nathan
--
Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

 
Really? (none / 0) (#36)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Jul 8th, 2002 at 04:13:51 AM PST
...history's worst genocides have invariably been carried out by monsters who are openly not religious...

To quote The Fisher King, "What were the Crusades? A publicity stunt by the Pope?"


the Crusades (none / 0) (#38)
by nathan on Sat Jul 13th, 2002 at 12:25:06 AM PST
Were a pretty pathetic drop in the bucket in comparison with the Napoleonic wars, to say nothing of the first World War, or for that matter the second. The siege of Jerusalem might have been bad, but it was no Stalingrad.

Nathan
--
Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

 
What are trying to do destory the world? (1.00 / 1) (#10)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 02:21:29 AM PST
Little do you know that if there was a unbalance between good and evil, it would destory us. One can't be with out the other, what is hell with out heaven? Not to mention, that star wars was more based on balance then anything. In the ep 1-2 the jedi's of that day where mostly good, so there was alot of good in the force. So the sith are there to create balance, between the good and evil, well when Darth Maul died it created unbalance. So vader took his place and destroyed most of the Good jedi. The force was unbalanced again, so they needed Luke (the names means bringer of light) to bring balance. Well if you read any eu or the books beyond movies, that a huge number of dark jedi came into the world, all the sith with destroy to keep them from making unbalance again and all the dark jedi where to maintain balance. Vader was more powerful then Luke, but since luke was less powerful he couldn't make unbalance like vader did. So you must learn that left is right and right is wrong. Think the world was going into a dump then jesus came into world to bring more good to try and bring balance from all the evil, the side affect was that it unbalanced so more evil was made it unbalanced again, its been doing this since the big boom if there really was one. Are exstance brings unbalance it self, only reason that anything is something is that in the start of everything it was a reaction of matter and anti-matter well, there was more matter then there was anti-matter, so thats why we have matter. And its not Sci-fi, anti-matter is real all you need to do is run atoms at high speed into each other and that makes anti-mater. Unbalance is good, yet bad, balance is not good or bad but can't go either way. "Your heaven is my hell hole." "Another mans trash is anothers treasure" "With out the death of the deer the wolf can't live, with out the decay of the wolf the grass can't grow."


what are you trying to do, destroy my brain??!! (none / 0) (#31)
by Mr Somebody on Tue Jul 2nd, 2002 at 06:40:30 AM PST
that paragraph was like wading through porridge!


 
anyone read this chap's musings? (none / 0) (#11)
by Mr Somebody on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 03:57:05 AM PST
check it out


 
I dont know... (0.00 / 1) (#12)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 05:46:57 AM PST
Either the writer of this article is an incredibly uninformed idiot or this is an incedibly bad parody.

The only thing skillful about it is that its hard to tell which one...


 
Come on guys! (0.00 / 1) (#15)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 01:05:36 PM PST
This is obviously just a piece of flamebait. Thank the non-existant god that there aren't actually any people like this out there!


 
Wow (1.00 / 2) (#16)
by absnak on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 04:02:22 PM PST
This story just valadates my diary.


 
Story is not for adequacy. (none / 0) (#17)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 05:10:13 PM PST
Adequacy is supposed to publish only original content.

This insightful article, however, was published on usenet several weeks ago.

I hope the editors will take appropiate action.




Yes... (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by faustus on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 06:20:25 PM PST
I summitted this story to to Adequacy ages ago, before it was posted on Usenet. I had assumed to story was rejected.


--You seem to be suffering from a liberal-arts education.

 
Rubbish (none / 0) (#20)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 10:08:16 PM PST
Aside from all the errors that were pointed out in the "Pointing out innaccuracies" post, I'd like to add a few of my own.

Star Wars was released in 1977, only 2 years out (pretty close huh, maybe next time).

Lucas based Star Wars on Ben Hur and several other epic tales including a Chinese tale who name escapes me. AND he freely admits to borrowing heavily from many outside sources, but has never once, not once, mentioned the word Bible or Christian as a source of reference (Please correct me if Im wrong about this, there is a lot of stuff on Star Wars I may have missed some of it, maybe.)

But it is so obvious that you are taking the piss and joking around and that your whole article is ment as a joke (what else could it be) when you mention that "In the Phantom Menace surely the best Star Wars movie of them all" I mean really!

And if Christianity makes the world a better place, tell that to the thousands of people that have been slaughtered (men woman and children) all in the name of Christianity, I'm so sure that they would be glad to know they have done their part to make the world safer and more christian.

Rubbish.




In point of fact (none / 0) (#21)
by NoahVale on Thu Jun 27th, 2002 at 11:44:18 PM PST
Mr Lucas is a very clever man. He wouldn't admit his film drew inspiration from divine sources, because cynics and sodomites like yourself would mock the film, refuse to see it or buy its hagiographic merchandise.
Its to be expected that he encourages these rumours of it being an adaptation of Ben Hur or The Hidden Fortress (which by the way is Japanese), in the hope that lost souls will be waylayed on to the true path when they're really seeking the nature trail of abomination.


Doubt It (none / 0) (#26)
by Anonymous Reader on Sun Jun 30th, 2002 at 02:03:58 PM PST
"cynics and sodomites like yourself would mock the film, refuse to see it or buy its hagiographic merchandise", oh I doubt that very much!
Star Wars is Star Wars, space cowboys and dogfights, nothing else. It was never meant to be anything else, it is fantasy and science fiction pure and simple.

Kinda like the initial arguement really.

"Its to be expected that he encourages these rumours" and what kind of arrogance does it take for someone to presume to know what someone else is thinking? You know no such thing, but the wet dream that it may be true does keep you company at night I guess.


 
Star Wars has little to do with Christianity ... (none / 0) (#28)
by cheetah on Sun Jun 30th, 2002 at 06:53:01 PM PST
... and everything to do with themes prevalent in Hinduism and the New Age movement.

An impersonal "life force." The dark side and the light side. Do you not see some parallels here?


 
fuck religion (5.00 / 1) (#29)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Jul 1st, 2002 at 09:22:05 PM PST
religion sucks


 
Oxymoron. (5.00 / 1) (#30)
by Anonymous Reader on Tue Jul 2nd, 2002 at 12:37:23 AM PST
...highly educated people, who have been brainwashed by a liberal arts education...

Let me never see you use "highley educated" and "liberal arts education" in the same sentence again, unless there's a negative somewhere betwixt.


why not? (none / 0) (#34)
by imthesponge on Tue Jul 2nd, 2002 at 03:28:31 PM PST
Why couldn't someone with a liberal arts degree be highly educated?


Hmm... (none / 0) (#35)
by Anonymous Reader on Tue Jul 2nd, 2002 at 11:30:51 PM PST
Why couldn't someone with no money be rich? Are you maybe educated stupid?


 
Your parallels are unparalleled... (none / 0) (#37)
by Vivi on Wed Jul 10th, 2002 at 01:59:19 PM PST
...in their inaccuracy.
To begin with, Frodo is not betrayed by his friends. The Fellowship is scattered by an unexpected attack insinuated by the Uruk-Hai orcs. Frodo, in fact, leaves with Sam on his own as the others in the Fellowship make an attempt to find him. Also, Frodo did not die in the trilogy. The last seen of him is when he makes a journey with Gandalf to the "undying lands".
Furthermore, it seems to me that Gandalf is more of a Christ-like figure in the Lord of the Rings, for he is resurrected from an obviously deadly battle with the Balrog. He is also accepted as the leader of the Fellowship, while Frodo was not.


 
poor misguided one (none / 0) (#39)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Aug 12th, 2002 at 11:30:09 PM PST
just FYI LOTR (Lord of the rings) is about WWII (or at least according to the author J.R.R. Tolkien, but according to Faustus he is wrong). The ring either represents the atomic bomb or the manhattan project, Frodo is einstein, and the fellowship are the other members of project. The land of the Lady Gladriel is sweeden as it remained neutral, etc. etc. All i have to say to the people on this board who spew propaganda from every orafance of their body is shame. Teach your children to live with an open mind, teach them to question, to think for themselves, so they dont wind up like you. This situation in the middle east, my own relatives say such horribly racist things as to make me shudder, yet, i know that they are set in their ways, so all i can hope is that we can teach the generation of tomorrow, teach those who will yet be, to ignore these prejudices, to ignore this ignorance, to look beyond it. I hope that one day there wont be the people as you have seen in the above posts, that speak in ignorance, with no heed to religous beliefs, skin color or nationality. This world exists, and if you people would stop for one second to look at that which you are oppressing in your children, you might be able to catch a glimpse of it. Though you will probubly loose all respect for this comment due to what i am about to say, i would suggest to you all, follow this like and read what it has to say http://www.penddraig.co.uk/pen/mentor.htm . All these ideals that you claim to support so blindly have robbed you of that which is human. you have become the sheep, the lemmings, the mindless automiton of the world today. look at yourselves, raising your kids the way others tell you too, and trusting those people who do such this wholly blind trust, this respect that you wouldn't even award to your own child. i say again, look at yourselves, look at what you have become. dont let that happen to your children. now that you have read through this comment, i would like to add one more thing, i myself am a child, in this world, at the age of only 15. you are now probably thinking, "oh dumb kid, what does he know, he is just a child." But you also probably think this after reading what i had to say. Now i ask you for one last thing, tell me, did you not for one second, respect what i had to say, not for one second, look at it and say, "Wow, he might be right," before shaking out of this moment of enlightenment to grasp once again you security within the many. While you may not like it, or realize it, the world is changing. When you see this new thing you cannot control, and you cannot prevent, it scares you, so you try to keep it away, you try to police it, but you cant. Your group is no longer the many, you are becomming the few, so you must now realize, that to restrain your kids, to tell them what to say and think, is doing them no good. Move out of the 1950s, move out of the paranoid age of Mcarthy, and move into today, the future. I ask you again, not looking at me as a child in this world, did you not see the truth in what i have said?


 

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