My girlfriend, my kids and I have been looking forward for some time to seeing Disney's new film adaptation of "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe." The trailers look like a lot of fun and my girlfriend and I both loved the Narnia books when we were kids.
But now my atheist girlfriend is having second thoughts, not because she thinks she won't like the movie, but because Disney is marketing it to Evangelical Christians.
More on the flip.
My response to her concern is, "Well, no duh." It's a Christian book by a Christian writer. That's never been a secret. Same with Lord of the Rings (though the Christian allegories in Middle Earth are a bit more subtle). Lewis and Tolkein are taught in seminaries. As a church youth leader, I've taught Narnia.
And she knows all that. But her objection is to this:
More than 1,400 pastors and religious leaders were invited to "Narnia" preview events in New York, Denver and other places, where they viewed exclusive clips, received free gift bags full of outreach material and met Doug Gresham, C.S. Lewis' stepson and co-producer of the film. A small group of pastors was invited by Disney to preview a rough-cut of the film in October.
Disney is issuing three different versions of the film's music, including an "inspirational" soundtrack featuring Christian artists.
Disney also hired Motive Marketing, the public relations firm that helped usher millions of Christians into movie theaters and generate more than $600 million for "The Passion of the Christ" in 2004.
Yeah, "The Passion of the Christ." And Disney is giving away thousands of tickets and stuff to churches. Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily, but it feels to me like Disney is doing what Republicans have been doing for ages -- exploiting the loyalty and sheep-like behavior of Christians for profit. Anyone who goes to the movie will now - it seems anyway - be surrounded not by fans of fantasy, but by a flock of people who think they're in church. And that alienates the non-Christians who just want to see a good adventure movie, just like a screaming "Merry Christmas" banner that alienates non-Christians who just want to go shopping.
I mean, one can hardly blame Disney for seeing a market and trying to tap it. But it kinda misses the point of Christian evangelism ... shouldn't the Christian in them want non-Christians to come to the movie and learn the Good News?
But no. They have no interest in real evangelism. They want to preach to the choir and make a buck. Or a lot of bucks.