This is an easy one we all should know but probably haven’t stopped to consider…myself included until just now. Recently, articles came out about Christians getting upset with an upcoming movie portraying a Gay Jesus that would be aired on Netflix.
The Reason Why Christians Get So Upset by Disrespectful Movies and TV Shows
By Rock Kitaro
Date December 22, 2019
Click if You Just Want to Listen to Me Reading the Essay
Leftists and even some Conservatives have hit back at the Christian community telling them, “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” And “Oh, I thought you guys were okay with freedom of speech!”
For a while, this had me stumped. Because, as an artist, I’m all for free speech. And I too follow the logic of if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. But at the same time, the portrayal of Jesus Christ as gay does upset me. Why? Well, let me illustrate.
How would you feel if you were going to die, your death warrant was signed and sealed, your life was scheduled to come to an end forever? And then, your brother or your sister, your mother or your father stepped up and offered to sacrifice themselves so that you might have a chance to live in everlasting life.
And then, when it came time for them to sacrifice their lives for you…it wasn’t clean. It wasn’t quick or painless. They spit on your mother. A mob of people beat your sister. Your father was chained to a rock and scourged with a whip that struck flesh from his back with each strike. They dragged your brother out, forcing him to carry his own cross and drove nails into the palm of his hand. For hours, he languished in pain and agony with the weight of his body tearing into his impaled ankles and hands until his life expired.
How would you feel if a loved one did all of this for you, only for someone to disrespect and belittle their sacrifice? To joke about it. To joke about the person who saved your life and gave you the chance to live forever, to see our loved ones again.
“Hey, it’s just a comedy! They’re not trying to offend anyone.”
You sure about that? As an author, I know. There’s always something we’re trying to get across to our audience, whether we ourselves are consciously aware of it or not. These aren’t just random trivial jokes about the way he chewed his food or the clothes he wore…they’re joking about the very essence of what he did to save our lives by preaching that we turn away from sinful practices and love God with our whole heart, mind, and soul. The idea that Jesus Christ could be gay or even entertained the idea is offensive because we already know how God feels about homosexuality. There’s a whole list of scriptures, if you want to read for yourself.
Thus, it’s truly difficult to believe someone when they say “they’re not trying to offend anyone.” I think they are trying to offend or provoke us. Even if they’re trying to cater to an anti-Christian audience, the best way to appease that audience is to demean and degrade those who they dislike or disagree with.
When it comes to this concept of “well, you don’t have to watch…” This becomes a problem when we learn of its existence. The same way it becomes disturbing when we’re at a table minding our own business and suddenly a couple starts arguing. What they’re arguing about has nothing to do with us, but because we hear it, we see it, it’s now in our world. They’re affecting us, whether it’s positive or negative. And there…I believe we all have the right to react. Even if our reaction is to exercise discipline and ignore it.
Recently, I started watching the Amazon Prime series, “The Boys.” It has an interesting concept and I became immersed in it until about the 5th episode. Here, the superheroes attend a Christian convention of some sort. And right away, I put myself on guard because this show is already unscrupulous to begin with.
But towards the end of the episode, the female protagonist, “the good guy,” a young woman with a seemingly good heart who claims to be raised with Christian values, speaks to a crowd on stage and talks about how no one really knows what’s going to happen to us when we die.
Now, the audience isn’t exactly with her in her little speech. Which, I suppose is a good thing if they’re truly Christians because it’s called faith that allows us to believe when we “really don’t know”. But I’m not worried about the fictional audience. I’m concerned about the real audience watching from their living room or laptop.
When they say, “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it…” The concern we have is not for ourselves but how it will stumble others.
And spare me, with the whole “well, people aren’t so stupid and easily influenced by what they see” spiel. The word “influence” exists for a reason. It’s real. We’re influenced by the people around us. We’re influenced by the music we listen to and the programs we watch.
From a Christians perspective, we believe that all who accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior, who seek forgiveness and repent from their ways will be saved. We believe that one day, a day of God’s choosing, Jesus will return and destroy all wickedness. Those who don’t repent will be destroyed. Thus, Christians who believe in the Gospels strive to help others by encouraging their fellow neighbors to repent before it’s too late. We’re trying to help. We’re trying to save their life.
It concerns us because we care. Well…I care.
When I saw the Boys and that character give her speech about how “we don’t really know what will happen to us,” I worried that it would strengthen non-believers to continue not believing, and it would stumble Christians with a shaky faith to begin straying away from it. Already, I hear Christians who say, “Oh, I’m not religious really. I believe in Jesus and God and all that. But whatev…”
It’s like, can you imagine what it’ll be like on the Day of Judgment? Mark Chapter 13 tells us what’s going to happen. How do you think Jesus will react when returns in his glory to wipe out all wickedness only to hear you say, “Oh, I’m not that religious…whatevs, bro…”
People who talk like that, I suspect, have no idea what they’re talking about. I fear that a lot of their knowledge of Jesus Christ and Christianity was passed down and inherited. They’ve never taken the time to read the Gospels in its entirety for themselves, to think and really absorb it in. Thus…its easy to persuade them when they already possess an indifferent attitude. Especially if you’re enticing them with a lie.
It’s not just Christians, in this regard, but it seems a lot of people possess this indifferent attitude when it comes things like morality, convictions, and principles. It’s the problem with the concept of tolerance and acceptance. You can choose to refrain from picking a side, from ignoring the principles that would pit you against another. But you’ll find that those who claim to be tolerant and accepting, won’t accept or tolerant those who they disagree with if their stance goes against their agenda.
“But Christians are like that too!”
You sure about that? This ain’t the 1800s. This isn’t even the Spanish Inquisition, in fact, I’m willing to bet the reason why there’s such a wide perception of religious intolerance on the part of Christians is that’s what Satan wants us to think. Like if you’re a foreigner who saw news coverage of 2018, you’d think that there was a mass shooting going off all across the United States everyday. Or if you believed in the hype promulgated by the MeToo Movement then, yeah, clearly rape is just around the corner.
Even before I started reading the Bible, I knew there would be conflicts if everyone is supposed to “accept and tolerate” everyone. If I like wearing dragon shirts but you consider it to be magic and don’t want to see it, who’s going to accept and tolerate who? One of us has to give. If I don’t wear the dragon shirt, I’ll feel like you’re not accepting me for who I am. If I do wear the dragon shirt, you’ll feel like I’m not accepting you and your beliefs. So what do we do?
Even recently, in Seattle a feminist group called WoLF wanted to hold an event at the library. But the library received backlash from the Gender Justice League because of their stance on gender identity. The Library is caught in the middle. Who do they side with? Who are they going to offend? This is what happens when you don’t have a strong core of principles to begin with.
At least with Christians, we have principles where if we were truly intolerant, we’d have God to answer to. Murderers, drunkards, thieves, gamblers, kidnappers, pedophiles who all claim to be Christian will have to answer to God. We will be judged for what we’ve done.
For some of us, that fear of God, coupled with our love and respect for him is what really helps us to tolerate and get along with you even if we disagree with your lifestyle choices or even blasphemous remarks you may make against our Heavenly Father. But still…if we’re forced to pick a side, we’ll always side with how God feels. We know how God feels about the subject because we read the Bible. The answers are there.
Stage In The Sky 