Safe Online File Sharing & Storage. Store/Share/Access For Only $7.95/m (Not Yet an eBay User? Register Now -- It's Easy and FREE!)

Kudos to these parents who raised this young man of faith who knows how to think

Our local newspaper today ran an opinion column written by a 14-year-old who lives in a small town near here. The writer, Dylan Wyatt, did such a great job of presenting an extremely mature, well thought out expression of his Christian faith that I had to share it with you.

Young Wyatt was speaking about the hysteria among so many American conservative Christians concerning the so-called "satanic" or "demonic" influences of some recent books and films, specifically the "Harry Potter" books and films and the film "The Golden Compass" and the book series related to it. In Wyatt's opinion, the whole approach is wrong. In his words:

I was 10 years old when I first read "The Golden Compass." It is filled with child abductions, violence and plots to kill others, but also scenes of great compassion and selflessness. "Satanism" was not apparent to me. Truthfully, the first time I even thought about Satanism and "The Golden Compass" was very recently when I read an article that suggested how satanic the movie was. While the author's anti-spiritualism is very real, I do not believe that Satanism is present in "The Golden Compass." Was "The Lord of the Rings" filled with Satan? "Harry Potter?" "The Chronicles of Narnia?" All were tales of good vs. evil. But Satan?

Elsewhere, Wyatt expresses his concern that many who accuse these and other books and films of satanic or demonic influence have never read the books or seen the films, but are forming their opinions on what others have told them.

But the beauty of Wyatt's opinion, I think, is his view of the whole issue:

I have heard from my pastors time and time again that, "God puts obstacles in your way to strengthen your faith." If this book is truly satanic, we should be able to read it, think about it and deepen our faith as a result through discussion and debate. But to criticize without reading the book and watching the movie (which was a poor adaptation of the book, in my opinion) is intellectually lazy and dishonest.

If you want to debate, you need to know your facts. Do your research. Read the book! See the movie! Then take a closer step toward God.

I congratulate Dylan Wyatt's parents. I applaud his pastors, his teachers, and his friends. They appear to have raised a young man of faith who has a quality mind and isn't afraid to think with it. Hooray for them and hooray for us all. Teenagers like him renew my confidence in the future of our nation (and our Christian faith).

Ah, well, what do I know? I'm just a guy who reads the papers.
[tags]faith and reason, satanism, film, literature, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]