Friday, March 16, 2018

Wrinkle In Time removes God, I Can Only Imagine focuses on God

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

One of my lines when I give speeches about America's Liberty that I give to crowds is that if we are not a Godly nation, we are not capable of the U.S. Constitution.  Our Natural Rights are God-given, and the principles of the U.S. Constitution are based on that premise.

The beginning of Aerosmith's "Living on the Edge", I believe, reveals that Christians like myself are not the only ones noticing that we've taken a route different than what God wants.

There's somethin' wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something's wrong with our eyes
We're seein' things in a different way
And God knows it ain't his
It sure ain't no surprise
The Founding Fathers warned against our society rejecting Godly values, and following the rule of man, rather than God's rule of law.

Benjamin Franklin emphasized that without virtue, free societies could not properly function.  He said, "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

With freedom comes responsibility.  A responsible society is one that is virtuous. A man with virtue is a man who possesses "sacred honor." It is for the sake of a free society that men must deny the evils of human nature, and implement the principles of being virtuous into their own lives. It is best for society, and for one's own existence, to strive for betterment, to strive to improve oneself each and every day. To be civilized, and be restrained from the temptation of mob rule, is among the cornerstones of a free society.  Morality must be at the center of any design of liberty.

When a society abandons its virtues, the people become corrupt, and unwilling to abide by the rule of law. A viciousness blankets the people, which leads to violence and lawlessness. In response, unable to restrain the mobs, the people in the position of power feel the need to crack down on the people who are partaking in violence and disorder in order to attempt to restore peace and safety. Laws become more strict, and the servants in place to govern become masters who rule over the populace. Then, the vicious debauchery that caused the society to become a violent mob in the first place infects the society throughout every portion of the culture, and throughout every hall of law enforcement and government, leading the society to no other way out than to commit suicide, and die a bloody death through societal collapse, a bloody revolution, and the chaos of transition into bondage. We are now beginning to see the early stages of that death in our world, and though the Constitution is the political solution, we are incapable of restoring the republic or abiding by the principles of the Constitution if we refuse to return to the moral standards that built his nation, and made it a virtuous society in the first place. Without having a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, the moral standards necessary to maintain an orderly and virtuous society are impossible. Without God, people are not capable of freedom, and therefore, if we do not restore our society as a virtuous one, liberty will be lost.

John Adams said, "The Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Frederick Douglass, a former slave who achieved freedom in 1838, escaping by boarding a train, agreed with the Founding Fathers regarding the necessity of being a virtuous people. He said, "The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous."

George Washington said, in his Farewell Address, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."


About 79 B.C., a young lawyer, Marcus Tullius Cicero, preached that it was time to return to honest government. He felt that Rome could still be saved. Cicero recognized that though they were tossing aside standards set by the early Romans, and the citizens were no longer worried about defending their rights, instead living on the gifts from the treasury the politicians had offered them for their votes, he believed that they had not passed the point of no return. They were fat, immoral, careless, and happy to live on the government's offerings, which had been taken by bureaucratic chicanery from the substantial men of business, but if the people would only realize their folly, and fight to restore the republic, Rome could be turned around.

In the book "Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician" by Anthony Everitt, the author states on page 182 that Cicero was concerned because "There had been a decline in moral standards and a corruption of old habits of responsibility in public life. All would be well if only there were a return to traditional values."

Rome refused to change its ways, and ended up under the rule of a string of dictators, beginning with Julius Caesar, which eventually led to the empire's collapse, largely initiated by the corruption and debauchery from within.

We, here in America, and worldwide, are once again rotting within.

Growing up, among my favorite books was "A Wrinkle in Time."

Disney has put out a film based on the novel, but the movie has been slammed by a long list of negative reviews and reactions from both critics and moviegoers.  The film opened earning only $32 million, a weak opening for a movie that needs to gross at least $250 million just to break even.

A part of the problem is that word got out that the movie has eliminated what it considered to be overt Christian content and themes which were originally included in the book written by Christian author Madeleine L’Engle. Even the secular website BusinessInsider published an article titled “’A Wrinkle in Time’ ditches the book’s explicit Christian references — and the movie really suffers because of it.

Without the Christian themes and devices, the reason behind the actions of the Mrs. W's, and even an explanation of who the mysterious beings are, becomes lost, and leaves the story both empty, and confusing.

The screenwriter, Jennifer Lee, defended her exclusion of the Christian elements, arguing, “What I looked at, one of the reasons Madeleine L’Engle’s [book] … had that strong Christian element to it wasn’t just because she was Christian, but because she was frustrated with things that needed to be said to her in the world, and she wasn’t finding a way to say it, and she wanted to stay true to her faith, and I respect that and I understand those feelings of things you want to say in the world that need to be said that are out there. In a good way, I think there are a lot of elements of what she wrote that we have progressed as a society, and we can move onto the other elements.”

Did she mean New Age elements?  Are we talking about the same kind of elements who hates God and Christianity, like we've seen throughout the entertainment industry?

The movie celebrates individuals like Gandhi and Buddha, but there is no mention of Jesus - as there is in the book.

Jennifer Lee alienated a large Christian audience that has proven time and time again to be a major factor in the success of a film.  Jennifer Lee’s christophobia reveals where we are headed, internally.  America is literally committing suicide by turning its back on God.

All is not lost, however.  There are projects with a different message than the anti-God one sadly portrayed in most Hollywood films.

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE is the story behind the most-played Christian contemporary song, “I Can Only Imagine” by the band MercyMe. Since he was a young boy, Bart Millard’s father, Arthur, was emotionally and physically abusive. When Bart isn’t able to fulfill his own father’s dream of being a football star, Bart enters the world of music. Eventually Bart becomes so fed up with his father, he leaves for good and joins a band. The band struggles to find success. Bart realizes he needs to return home and somehow find resolution with his father, who’s dying. What Bart doesn’t know is that his father has found Jesus.



I Can Only Imagine hits theaters today, March 16, 2018.


-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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