- Feb 5, 2002
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In the 2007 horror film The Mist (which is based on a 1980 Stephen King novella), a group of small-town folk in Maine are trapped in a grocery store surrounded by a dense mist they later learn is full of monsters. But the most unnerving monsters of the story are some of the townsfolk in the store who become increasingly unhinged as the nightmare wears on.
One of them is a religious fanatic named Mrs. Carmody who believes the mist represents God’s wrath upon mankind’s sins. At one point she says the monsters were sent because man went against God’s “forbidden rules of old” by “walking on the moon” “splitting his atoms” “stem cells” and “abortions.”
When I first saw the film, I laughed out loud (in spite of the horror elements) because this was just such an insane caricature of Christians . . . at least in general. But given the sheer number of Christians in the world, I can’t say there aren’t any who think atomic fission and moonwalks violate God’s law. I mean, the 1984 film Footloose was based (in part) on the true story of a town in Oklahoma that didn’t permit dancing (because many residents considered it Satanic) until a group of high schoolers narrowly got the city council to vote for it in 1979.
I thought of these films when I read a post from Reddit whose author was grateful to leave Christianity since he was now “free” to have all kinds of sex his Church considered immoral. Now, that’s a pretty well-worn story of leaving the faith, but something else he wrote in his post caught my eye.
Continued below.
www.catholic.com
One of them is a religious fanatic named Mrs. Carmody who believes the mist represents God’s wrath upon mankind’s sins. At one point she says the monsters were sent because man went against God’s “forbidden rules of old” by “walking on the moon” “splitting his atoms” “stem cells” and “abortions.”
When I first saw the film, I laughed out loud (in spite of the horror elements) because this was just such an insane caricature of Christians . . . at least in general. But given the sheer number of Christians in the world, I can’t say there aren’t any who think atomic fission and moonwalks violate God’s law. I mean, the 1984 film Footloose was based (in part) on the true story of a town in Oklahoma that didn’t permit dancing (because many residents considered it Satanic) until a group of high schoolers narrowly got the city council to vote for it in 1979.
I thought of these films when I read a post from Reddit whose author was grateful to leave Christianity since he was now “free” to have all kinds of sex his Church considered immoral. Now, that’s a pretty well-worn story of leaving the faith, but something else he wrote in his post caught my eye.
Continued below.
The Heavy Burdens that Create Atheists
Some Christians accidentally create atheists by presenting a far more burdensome form of Christianity than Jesus wanted. Read here.
