by mobo85
Judge not, lest ye be judged.-Matthew 7:1
Before we begin, let me say that I am a Roman Catholic. I believe there is a God and a Jesus. I go to church often, but not every week. I have nothing against persons of any other religion, and I am by no means anti-Catholic.
There appear to be at least three groups of Christians: the Roman Catholics, the Protestants, and the fundamentalists, or as I call them, the “others.”
The “others” include Jack Chick, the famous fundamentalist comic writer; the Alabaman priests against Channel One (obligation.org); and Thomas Carder, president of the ChildCare Action Project.
His website, www.capalert.com, has become one of the most famous “cult sites” on the Internet, with good reason: he attempts to review movies from a fundamentalist Christian point of view. Since motion pictures were not, of course, invented until Jesus was alive for 1,895 years or so, there is nothing in the Bible about movies, so we do not know what, if anything, Jesus thinks about movies.
I must concede that Catholic priests probably are not a large part of the moviegoing population. Most motion pictures are a reflection of everyday life. Carder says his foundation lies in the teachings of Jesus — specifically “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” For example, Carder states that Hollywood shows a lot of tension between children and their parents, what he calls the “up-yours attitude.” It may be against one of the Ten Commandments, but I must say that it happens. Children and parents argue a lot. Sometimes they make up, sometimes they don’t. It's a way of life-anti-Bible or not.
I consider movies to be a type of art, not the Sodom and Gomorrah Carder portrays them to be. I don't think most people would become Satanic just by viewing a film Carder says is “evil.” Let us look at some of Carder’s specific “attacks” (all are from his site at capalert.com).
Carder has a problem with Rugrats in Paris regarding its depiction of Sumo wrestlers. He states, “Though display of a little more skin more often and with longer visual contact to a younger audience each year has gotten to the point of general approval, [that] does NOT free such display of its accountability to God’s Word. Just because that style of ‘un’dress is a cultural feature of an entire population does not make display of nudity okay. Why would you suppose the Bible calls it ‘shameful nakedness?’ Just because Homer Simpson™ gets away with it does not excuse it. Wide acceptance of such does not equal God’s approval of it. If everyone who has ever drawn and will ever draw a breath committed theft, stealing would still be a sin. And to the adversaries of this ministry, we will not discuss a three-inch strap up the backside qualifying as ‘clothing.’”
I would enjoy going on a visit to Japan with Carder to see how he reacts to a sumo-wrestling match. Sure, nudity is wrong, but this is the traditional dress of the sumo wrestlers of Japan. It is not the “cultural feature of an entire population” — when I watch Iron Chef, for example, I don't see Takeshi Kaga eating a pepper wearing nothing but a sequined sumo “diaper.”
In his review of Go, he mentions a “Mary Sex-mas Shop,” stating, “If we had never used ‘X-mas’: if we had always kept Christ in Christmas, maybe this offense would have never been thought of.” It is well known that “Xmas” was not created to “take Christ off of Christmas.” Christ is “chi” in Greek, and “X” is similar to the symbol used for “chi.” Hence, Xmas.
One of the major problems I have with Carder is that he looks at all films as if they are all on the present-day world with Christ as Lord. He mentions that the Star Wars Trilogy Plus One “[present] separation and independence from God’s Sovereignty and Omnipotence and rightful Authority.” The four Star Wars films take place “a long time ago” — most likely before the birth of Christ —“in a galaxy far, far away” — most likely a galaxy where, after Christ was born, He was not worshipped as God. In Babe: Pig in the City, he mentions an “out-of-body experience and resurrection. A dog, both rear legs paralyzed, riding around in a special wheeled prosthetic, was seen quivering after a trauma with the next scene of the dog jumping around after butterflies in a colorful meadow. Then the other animals called to the dog and he recovered. Only Jesus can resurrect. And the only resurrections were those performed by Jesus, including His own.” I am quite sure that animals do not have organized religion and/or worship Jesus.
Out of reviews of over 500 movies, a Patton Oswalt comedy special, and the first episode of Dilbert, Carder has given only two films 100 on his “thermometers.” On one, Mary Poppins, he states “While there were several occurrences of ‘magic,’' there was nothing evil or sinister about any of the ‘magic.’ Mary could have been angelic.” He finds Harry Potter to be Satanic, although I personally find the magic of Harry as what Mary Poppins might use if she was enlisted in the military.
No one is hurt except for the bad guys. Pranks are played, but all in fun. Divine intervention is used by the good to fight evil. It’s similar to the Bible, but not so much as to be anti-Catholic, seeing as it takes place on a world similar to ours, but very different. (Yes, Harry lives in our world, but Wiccans and pagans are not capable of the magic of Harry.) He has the same problem with Lord of the Rings: FOTR, which Tolkien has stated to be a pre-Christ myth. Good fighting evil.
These are just a few of the problems I have with Mr. Thomas Carder. There are more, but they will come, either in a future article or in your own research of his work.
I once was told that there is no single way to worship Jesus. I hope so, because if Carder’s view of the One True Faith is the one true way of viewing it, I'm going to Hell. At least when I get there, I won’t have to put up with Mr. Carder.