A participant in this forum has complained that the Narnia movie departs from “the essence of Christianity,” and that it glorifies war. This person goes further by claiming that the “deification of war” is particularly associated with “right-wingers.”
Let me dismiss first the most easily dismissed contention. In the entire history of the world, no political, religious or cultural force has EVER been responsible for so many murders as the LEFT-wing Communism of China and Russia. And millions of those deaths didn’t even rise to the dignity of war; they were killings of defenseless civilians by THEIR OWN governments, in “peacetime.” And even as I write, it is the LEFT-wing Communist government of North Korea which is showing that it refuses to abide by its own agreements on arms restrictions. That same government has squandered huge amounts of humanitarian aid to build up military forces it does not need, leaving its people in crushing poverty. This fact, by the way, has been observed by Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian organization which is not at all “right wing.”
As for “the essence of Christianity”: efforts to get only “the essence” of something often result only in getting an incomplete and misleading picture. Yes, Jesus in His earthly ministry was gentle and loving, and so He will be to all who share in His Kingdom eternally. But when He comes in clouds of glory to overthrow all evil, Revelation 19 makes it very clear that He Himself will SLAY His enemies. There is a limit on God’s grace–not because His gracious nature can ever be exhausted, but because He does not owe it to stubborn evildoers to let them continue unchecked in their unrepentant evil forever. To get a better understanding of why this is so, you can go to Mr. Lewis and read “The Great Divorce.”
Looking back at “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Aslan for His own part actually did MORE killing in the book than in the movie. In the movie, at least the theatrical-release cut, Jadis was the only person Aslan slew. But in the book it says that Aslan charged in along with His followers from the castle, and that together they immediately killed the majority of the Witch’s forces. No body count is given, but it is plain that Aslan was killing evil creatures with His very own teeth and claws; nor are we led to feel that there was any unfairness in the fact that those monsters no longer had any chance of being able to hurt Him. It was fair for Aslan to kill them because they brought it on themselves by siding with Jadis.
The partial pacifist did admit that some wars are unavoidable. But since this is true, why should we NOT hold up as role models those who fight by necessity on the right side of an unavoidable war? What’s wrong with some shining-sword imagery for Peter Pevensie? If we can’t admire a hero who fights for the sake of love rather than hatred or greed–a hero who would NEVER kill from wanton bloodlust, and whose desired end result is justice and peace–when can we EVER admire any mortal?
As someone has said, it is the soldier, not the poet, who gives us freedom of speech; it is the soldier, not the journalist, who gives us freedom of the press; and it is the soldier, not the clergyperson, who gives us freedom of religion. The honorable warrior–like Tolkien’s character Faramir–faces war so that others may be protected from its horrors. I spent twenty years in the United States Navy, though not in combat as things turned out. I can tell you that American military servicemembers who salute the flag, enjoy war movies, and in some cases have killed enemies with their own hands, are the SAME ones I have seen throwing themselves into compassionate charitable activities in their off-duty time: tutoring schoolchildren, fixing houses for poor families, joining hospice groups to comfort the terminally ill, and so forth. Why, just look at Mr. Lewis: he was a combat soldier, and his life was full of deeds of charity and generosity which he never bragged about.
In “The Screwtape Letters,” Lewis warned us against “crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under.” Western civilization has for decades had all the pacifists, diplomats, excuse-makers and appeasers it can possibly use, and more besides; yet we still see writers insisting that what we have too much of is ferocious, gung-ho “right wing” militarism. The fact is that the free world has bloodthirsty enemies who were NOT “provoked” by anything we did…who hate us merely because we do not conform to them…and who would still hate us if we were as sinless as the unfallen Adam. Some of them can be led to salvation by the love of Jesus; but since Jesus Himself said that those who take the narrow way are a minority, there will never be enough of our enemies converted that their threat can be bloodlessly neutralized. They are in the wrong; they would like to kill every one of us participating in this forum; and I am not ashamed of admiring those who bravely fight against them in literal armed combat.
The Narnia movie did not forget about forgiveness; unless the character of Edmund was eliminated from the story, I don’t see how anyone can think that the issue of forgiveness was discarded. Follow-on films will have plenty of opportunity to develop the subject of forgiveness further. But they can only do this if the country the films are produced in DOESN’T get overrun by the enemies of civilization. And it won’t be movie actors, movie directors or movie commentators who prevent this calamity from happening; it will be fighters for justice, who are not at all “deifying” war, but who do value a victory over evil and realize that it must be earned the hard way.
