Is The Hunger Games Wrong for You? A Movie Review from a Christian Perspective

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For my blog this week I am reviewing The Hunger Games movie. I realize that many people will have already watched the film by the time this review is out, but if you're up in the air about whether or not you or your children should see the movie I hope this review will help. I have read the books and watched the movie. Hopefully that perspective can help you make an informed decision. Maybe this review is for the parent in limbo whose kids are begging them to see it this weekend, and hopefully it will start some interesting discussions.

Is The Hunger Games A Particularly Christian or Anti-Christian movie?
No. In the books and the movie spirituality is almost completely absent. The most spiritual the film gets is a use of God's name by way of the expletive, "Oh my God." The lack of spirituality is good and bad. The good thing is that you don't have to worry about the director or writer trying to shove their theology down your pie hole. You can avoid awkward conversations about the theology of Katniss Everdeen (The protagonists of the film). There will be no need to combat the evils of witchcraft or the demonic nature of vampires.

I Can Judge You Because I'm a Christian

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"Don't judge me," Is a phrase said around the U.S. (if not the world) by Christians and non-Christians alike. No one wants to be judged without being known. Yet we do it every time we meet someone new. We look at their clothes and car to determine their socioeconomic status. We look at their skin color and make decisions on where they probably live. We check their style and calculate their cool factor. We do all this in about three seconds. Before a word is said we've pidgin holed a person.

Is that wrong or just human nature? What does it mean to judge someone? Should Christians have a special exception on the no judging rule? Some would say yes. They may argue Christians have an advantage over the average person... They have the Bible.

How to Face Opposition Part 2: When Things Turn Violent

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Debates are the Presidents best forum because he is well prepared

PART 2
You can read part one about dealing with insults here. It is a fact of life that we run into opposition. Seemingly no matter the size of the project there will be people that argue, disagree, or even sabotage what we're doing. Therefore if we know it's coming, we must prepare. Let's look back about 2500 years to see how Nehemiah stood against opposition.

You can read the remarkable story of Nehemiah here
Quick background on Nehemiah:

• Cup Barer to the most powerful man in the world, King Artaxerxes.
• One day while doing his courtly duties the king noticed how sad Nehemiah was.
• The King asked how he could fix Nehemiah's sadness.
• Nehemiah said that if he could go rebuild the walls of his home town Jerusalem he'll feel better.
• The Persian King makes the Jewish Nehemiah governor of Jerusalem
• Nehemiah travels 1000 miles to build a 12 mile of walls around Jerusalem.
• During the 52 days it took the Israelites to rebuild their city's walls they faced much opposition.
• Eventually the walls were built!

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The Fight:
When insults weren't enough to deter the Israelites Nehemiah's enemies decided violence was the next step. This is the point where Sanballat and Tobiah stop just hurling insults, organized, and pick up their swords. Nehemiah and his work crew were moving way too fast for Sanballat and Tobiah's tastes. Their wealth depended on Jerusalem's walls remaining in rubble.

How to Face Opposition Part 1: Dealing With Insults

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Leonidas faced some crazy opposition in 300

My Sermon on Knowing the Will of God that leads up to this blogpost.

PART 1
It is a fact of life that we run into opposition. Seemingly no matter the size of the project there will be people that argue, disagree, or even sabotage what we're doing. Therefore if we know it's coming, we must prepare. Let's look back about 2500 years to see how Nehemiah stood against opposition.

You can read the remarkable story of Nehemiah here
Quick background on Nehemiah:

• Cup Barer to the most powerful man in the world, King Artaxerxes.
• One day while doing his courtly duties the king noticed how sad Nehemiah was.
• The King asked how he could fix Nehemiah's sadness.
• Nehemiah said that if he could go rebuild the walls of his home town Jerusalem he'll feel better.
• The Persian King makes the Jewish Nehemiah governor of Jerusalem
• Nehemiah travels 1000 miles to build a 12 mile of walls around Jerusalem.
• During the 52 days it took the Israelites to rebuild their city's walls they faced much opposition.
• Eventually the walls were built!

Insults:

This is the lowest form of criticism. When people are just shouting insults at you and your cause take this as encouragement. Typically that means they can't think of any real way to oppose you. Those people are stooping to that level because they want to devalue your work.

Where's Waldo, Geo Caching, and Lost and Found

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Almost every week Oceanside provides me with Monday as a day off. It's a family day where we can recover from the weekend's ruckus and relax. The funny thing about having kids is relaxation rarely comes by sitting around. A day inside leads to parents driven to insanity. So we try to bring the kids to a park, Chuck E. Cheese's, or something fun outside the house. This week we went geocaching!

You may wonder what geocaching is. Here is a video that will explain it better than I can.

Allie has acutely trained eyes (It must be all those years of playing Where's Waldo). She can spot almost anything. While walking down an oak shaded path on the edge of Daniel Island Allie honed in on a small black book bag under some thorns and fallen branches leaning up against a young oak. She screamed, "Ivey, I found the geocache!" I sauntered over disbelieving she could have found it that quickly. I was right, she hadn't found the geocache, but she had found a bag belonging to a woman named Amy.

We eventually found the geocache under a walking bridge. It was filled with old Burger King toys and halves of discarded Family Circle Cup tennis balls. Searching for the geocache was the fun part, but the real find of the day was that little black backpack.

When we got home I quickly examined the contents of the bag. I found a check book, a wallet filled with everything except a phone number, a biography, and a spiral bound college rule notebook. I was glad the box hadn't fallen into the wrong hands. Because I didn't find a phone number I went to Google for help. I entered the name on the license into the search bar and within minutes I had her phone number. By 8:15 PM that night she had her six month lost bag in her hands. She told me she had given up hope. She gave us a small gift to say thanks, but the most rewarding thing was seeing the joy on her face when she got her bag back.