Brave: A good movie with a horrible lesson

It seems like every Disney movie is like this: good character development meets a fantastic/magical plot, combined with at least one horrible life lesson learned.  Disney/Pixar’s new movie Brave certainly fits the bill. 

Don’t get me wrong: it’s an entertaining flick, and is about as family friendly as movies get these days (so long as you’re fine with seeing naked male backsides, both child and adult).  Like I said, about as family friendly as you can get these days. 

However, in addition to any gluteal concerns you may have, you may want to warn your kids that the fantasy of animated movies doesn’t stop with will o’ the wisps or witch’s spells.  Let them know that Disney princesses also teach horrible life lessons and that no one is well served by applying them into the real world. 

I hesitate to write this because there are a lot of good lessons accompanying the bad: Merida, the heroine, has an intact family with both a father and a mother who care for her (this is extremely rare for animated movies), she learns that other people can suffer for her mistakes, and she owns up to those mistakes and tries to set them right.  Finally, she reunites her family and expresses her love for them. 

But then there’s the rather nasty lesson that the title of the movie suggests and that the narrator overtly tells you: that you can be in charge of your own destiny as long as you’re brave enough to fight for it against any and all things that appear to be acting against it.  In Merida’s case, this meant flouting tradition, demanding that the society as a whole change its conventions, all while risking open warfare and demanding a spell from a witch that doesn’t really want to spell for her. 

Essentially, then, this movie is telling you that you can be in charge of your own fate only insofar as you’re brave enough to fight and rebel against tradition. 

Of course, I don’t know of any 8-year-olds who will walk out of the theater with that lesson clearly in mind.  Instead, they’ll just have a fun story about a Scottish teen who shoots arrows and doesn’t want to get married (because who would in her early teens?).

Nor do I think Disney (or Pixar, or anyone who makes animated movies) is setting out to deliberately poison our children’s minds with horrifically counter-effective life strategies.  Instead, they’re just trying to make money by making a cutesy film.  They don’t want to be seen as ground-breaking (except in a good way!), so they have to re-hash the same ground covered by Aladdin and The Little Mermaid.  Girl hates tradition, girl rebels, girl gets rewarded. 

This self-serving profit motive means that they won’t be taking any pains to create good (or bad) lessons; instead, they’ll be playing to the lowest common denominator.  If you happen to disagree with that, you need to make sure that your kids know it.

So am I proposing a boycott on Disney or Pixar?  Am I advancing a conspiracy theory where Pixar is trying to woo your children, pied-piper like, and make them Death Eaters?  No, far from it.  All I’m saying is this: Don’t rely on Disney, or Pixar, or Hollywood, or anything like unto it, to teach your child right from wrong.  Enjoy their products, if you’d like to: they are mildly entertaining.  But TALK with your children about what you see.  Explain what is fantasy, what is real, and how they should live their lives.  Because in the end, if the movies make you talk about things that have thus far remain unsaid, then no matter what horrible life lessons the heroines exhibit, seeing the movie might be a good thing. 

The Christianity of Mormonism

Mormons are Christian.  I write this because there have been a spate of pastors and so-called experts who claim that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a "cult".  While I understand the sectarian need to put down others in order to feel better about oneself, what really rankles me is when other Christians say that Mormons do not really believe in Jesus Christ (1).  Nothing could be further from the truth.
Of course, I admit that there are wide differences between Mormon doctrine and that of mainstream Christianity.  I wouldn't have it any other way--I believe firmly in the Mormon worldview and won't sell out by trying to claim that the philosophies of men are mingled with scripture, so they aren't all that bad after all. 

But these differences belie the one, important similarity between Mormonism (which is the doctrine preached by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and the rest of Christianity.  The one thing that unites us all is faith in Christ. 

After all, every single Christian denomination has doctrine that differs one from another.  The one constant throughout these differences is this faith in Jesus Christ: that He is the Son of God, that He physically came to the earth, that He was resurrected from the dead, and that He is the sole Author of our salvation, having suffered for our sins. 
There are those who say that Latter-day Saints don't believe these things.  I say PROVE IT.  Prove it by quoting authorities in the Church, prove it by quoting historical documents, prove it by quoting from LDS scripture--don't simply assert it and move on, as if it were self-evident.  Don't decontextualize single verses or hundred-year old sermons.  Don't create a 'straw-man' Mormonism to berate.

Following my own advice, I quote from LDS scripture, curriculum, and authorities:
From the Book of Mormon, when a righteous king was preaching to his people shortly before his death: "...I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means  whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent."(2)

Again from the Book of Mormon, when a prophet told the people of his duty as a prophet, as well as the duty of all who follow God: "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."(3)

Also, the culminating event of the Book of Mormon is when Christ appears to the people in ancient America after His resurrection and ascension.  During this supernal event,  Jesus explained His status as Savior: "...feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world." (4)

Other examples of our faith in Christ follow, though I won't quote them in whole:
Gospel Principles, a Church-published book used in weekly Sunday School meetings and approved as official Church curriculum, speaks extensively about Christ, especially in chapters 3, 11, and 12.  (5)

Jesus the Christ, a book in the Church's Missionary Library, is one of the few books other than scripture that missionaries are directed to use in their daily studies.  It was authored by James E. Talmage, an apostle of the Lord, in 1915.  (6)
General Conference is a biannual conference when the authorities of the Church speak to members about a variety of subjects.  Our Christo-centric soteriology fills these talks extensively. (7)

Finally, in order to be considered worthy to enter the holy temple, members of the Church must acquire a reccomend from their priesthood leaders.  These leaders conduct a pre-written interview, the first question of which asks if they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.  If the interviewee answers negatively, then they are not considered worthy to enter the temple.  In other words, those members of the Church who do not believe that Jesus is our Savior are not fully Mormon. 
There are hundreds more examples of this: indeed, Mormons are convinced we believe in Jesus as the Christ.  While we differ in the way this is interpreted (we do not accept the Nicene Creed, or the theological creations after it) we ABSOLUTELY believe in Jesus.  That is what makes us Christian.

Yet, others will still insist that we do not believe in Christ.  They typically do so in environments that do not call for much research or rigor ("counter-cult" workshops come to mind) and where mere assertions, without the bothersome requirement of citation and evidence, are assumed to be correct.  This hides the intelligent arguments that they may have; I've never actually heard a critique of Mormonism that is both based in fact and substantively relevant to the question of Mormonism's Christianity.

So I respectfully invite all to whom this post is received: if you believe you can prove that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not believe in Jesus Christ, or if you believe that in order to be Christian we must accept your creeds, please leave a comment.  I'd be happy to clarify any doctrinal points that you would like discussed.

1. Hunt, Kasie.  2011.  AP news article, accessed 08 OCT 2011: http://news.yahoo.com/perry-backer-romney-cult-not-christian-212937351.html
2.  Mosiah 3:17
3.  2 Nephi 25:26
4.  3 Nephi 11:14
5.  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  2009.  Gospel Principles.  Salt Lake City, UT: Intellectual Reserve.
6. Talmage, James E.  1915.  Jesus the Christ.  Salt Lake City, UT: Intellectual Reserve.
7. See General Conference archives and the Church's homepage at www.lds.org